“There’s definitely been quite a substantial increase just in the past year,” said Don Street, the president of D&J Pest Control in Campbell. “Our cases have more than quadrupled. A lot of apartment complexes used to have problems only with cockroaches …
Pests in the NewsMay 12, 2011
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The Sunshine State’s largest citrus growers group is lauding the state legislature for funding research to help growers combat pests and disease. Lakeland-based Florida Citrus Mutual commended state lawmakers for including $2 million in the 2011-12 state budget.
Pests in the NewsMay 12, 2011
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But a peer-reviewed study published Wednesday in a journal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that the pests could play a role in disease transmission. In a tiny sample of bedbugs, collected from patients living in crowded …
Pests in the NewsMay 12, 2011
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,0 The two state foresters marked a diseased pitch pine tree in in the Pinelands of Burlington County with paint so it would fall in a specific direction when cut. Then they dropped it with a chain saw and left it in Wharton State Forest. Their purpose was …
Pests in the NewsMay 12, 2011
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In light of this, many ask the question: instead of April showers bringing May flowers, do May rains invite more mosquitoes, black flies and other pests? Bob Osbourne of Cornhill Nurseries quashes this notion. “Rainfalls don’t necessarily translate into …
Pests in the NewsMay 12, 2011
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Researchers in Canada have found bedbugs carrying antibiotic-resistant superbugs, a surprise finding because scientists had thought the pests were not capable of spreading infections. The study was done by a team in a poor corner of Vancouver, where both …
Pests in the NewsMay 12, 2011
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While burrowing can lead to root damage and mowing or safety issue, moles rarely eat plants. They eat earthworms, ants and other insects. However, burrows created by moles are often used by voles to travel and live in. By creating habitat for voles …
Pests in the NewsMay 12, 2011
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Bedbug season heats up for landlords, retailers
Crain’s New York Business Property owners, pest control experts and entomologists gathered Wednesday morning at the Real Estate Board of New York for an informal seminar on bedbug regulation and detection. “Bedbugs are not new, but complaints are rising,” said Dan Margulies, … REBNY holds precautionary bedbug seminarThe Real Deal New York (blog) |
Pests in the NewsMay 12, 2011
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 Baltimore Sun |
State battles tiny woolly insect to save towering evergreens
Baltimore Sun A tiny insect from Japan no bigger than a pencil point, it coats hemlock twigs with a snowy waxy substance and slowly sucks the life out of the tree. Determined to save the largest stand of virgin forest left in Maryland, a small army of state workers … |
Pests in the NewsMay 12, 2011
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QUESTION:
Realizing that maxforce bait or any other ant bait is not registered for the control of flying insects, I wonder about these baits killing yellow jackets or ground hornets that come in contact with it? In the old days “baits” used for hornets, yellow jackets, etc, were compounded with a sweet attractant. I am a PCO from Massachusetts. Thank you for your time and consideration.
ANSWER:
I think the answer needs to be that most ant baits are labeled such that wasps should have no opportunity to come into contact with them, and I don’t mean this as a lecture. But taking Terro liquid ant bait as an example, since it would be one that yellowjackets would definitely be interested in if they found it, the Label requires that it be placed within “bait stations designed to hold liquid bait”. Advance liquid bait has similar wording, although they refer to “feeder trays”, but it seems to me that most, if not all, of the bait stations in our industry used for ant baiting are enclosed, allowing access for ants but keeping out other insects, childrens’ fingers, and dogs’ tongues. So, used properly for ants the bait would not be exposed so that larger hornets or yellowjackets could access it.
We probably will not see baits come out for things like the large cicada killers, mud daubers, and other large predatory wasps. These solitary wasps pose so little stinging hazard but provide such benefit with their predatory habits that they are far more beneficial than pesty. Most of the ground nesting wasps are going to be these solitary wasps, although yellowjackets definitely may nest in the ground as well. It is only a few of the species of yellowjackets that even come to artificial baits, and these scavenger species are the biggest problems. They are drawn to picnics and outdoor activities where they relentlessly try to get into canned drinks, onto hot dogs and hamburgers, or gather around spills of food materials, and now they represent a serious stinging problem. Fortunately we do have 2 products now labeled for use to mix as a bait for yellowjackets – Onslaught and CyKick. These can be added to chopped meat or sweet syrups, placed in a proper station, and very effectively elminate local nests of scavenger yellowjackets.
But, just supposing these various wasps DID manage to access ant baits. I think most wasps would only be interested in liquid sugar baits as food for themselves, and not to protein ant baits which might be a food source for scavenger yellowjacket larvae. Nearly all those other wasps and hornets stick to natural food supplies, meaning other insects, so granular insect baits (hopefully) would not attract them. Most ant baits use boric acid as the active ingredient, and boric acid must be ingested by the insect to be toxic, so casual physical contact would not harm them. However, some of the baits are now using contact insecticides such as fipronil, so even contacting these baits without eating them could, conceivably, affect a wasp.
Obviously we need to pay close attention to the product labels and how they require the bait to be applied, as well as to the pests listed on the labels. I know we can get frustrated with trying to control ground nesting bees and wasps when the customer demands they be eliminated, but hopefully our desire to throw everything possible at the bugs won’t tempt us into using things that should not be used. Scattering granular baits around the area where ground hornets or burrowing bees are active probably won’t accomplish anything, but it could expose other wildlife to the bait and result in problems. For yellowjackets we do have bait products that work well. For the others hopefully educating the customers to understand more about the benefits of burrowing wasps and bees will reduce the demands that they be killed.
Pest QuestionsMay 12, 2011
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