These birds are extremely clever at finding their way into buildings through air-vents.” Since January 2010, parakeets have been classified as pests by Natural England which means pest controllers can now legally respond in certain circumstances.
Pests in the NewsMay 24, 2011
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“The hemlock woolly adelgid is a tiny insect that produces a lot of wax,” said Dr. Pat Parkman, an entomologist with the University of Tennessee’s Lindsay Young Beneficial Insects Laboratory . “Inside that wax ball will be a female insect laying eggs.
Pests in the NewsMay 24, 2011
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 ABC12.com |
The fight against mosquitoes begins
ABC12.com "We're looking at a pretty good mosquito season," Mark Lucero from Rose Pest Control said. Rose Pest Control has a mosquito abatement contract with Grand Blanc Township. They have set up 14 live traps to measure the size of the mosquito population. … |
Pests in the NewsMay 24, 2011
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Pest control chief warns of West Midlands wasp plague
Birmingham Mail HOUSEHOLDERS are being warned to watch out for plagues of wasps if there is an exceptionally warm summer. Balmy April temperatures have produced a perfect setting for wasp colonies, said Dave Nash, … |
Pests in the NewsMay 24, 2011
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It might be too early to grab those grubs
Kennebec Journal Jim Dill, pest management specialist with the Maine Cooperative Extension Pest Management Office, said grubs have been plaguing lawns for the past few years. Homeowners notice the problem when brown patches start appearing on lawns. … |
Pests in the NewsMay 24, 2011
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USA Today |
New study: What US city is No. 1 for bed bug infestations?
USA Today Terminix reports an increase in bed bug infestations in most states during the past year, in part because consumers are more aware and on the lookout for the tiny pests, Terminix entymologist Paul Curtis told me. This is the second year Terminix has … |
Pests in the NewsMay 24, 2011
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Connection Found Between Bed Bugs and Drug Resistant Super Bug
PR Newswire (press release) Research has found that bed bugs are becoming immune to sprays and chemicals that were once thought to be an effective method to rid the pests.(2) Gail Getty, a noted Entomologist at the University of California Berkeley, believes that a critical tool … |
Pests in the NewsMay 24, 2011
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QUESTION:
I am looking at a bee that appears to be a small bumblebee that bores holes in the ground the size of a pencil. What type of bee is this and what is the best control measure?
ANSWER:
The good news is that there probably is no reason whatsoever to kill these industrious little bees, because they are highly beneficial with their pollinating and pose virtually no stinging threat to anyone around them. The bad news is it may be difficult to educate your customers such that they accept this. Not all bugs need to be killed, and the garden is generally better off with many bugs than with none.
There are a number of solitary bees and wasps that burrow in the soil, and by solitary we mean they are not social wasps, have no “colony” of other workers and queen, and have no aggressive instincts toward people or pets that get near them or that opening in the soil. The only way they would sting would be in direct self defense if they were trapped in a hand or clothing. Bees that do this excavating in soil include Mining Bees (Andrenidae), Digger and Cuckoo Bees (Anthophoridae), Sweat or Alkali Bees (Halictidae), and Leafcutting and Mason Bees (Megachilidae). The female digs a vertical tunnel down in the soil and then small side tunnels off the main one. At the end of each side tunnel she creates a small cavity that she supplies with pollen and an egg, so she is providing food for her offspring but at that point she is done, and she no longer tends them. The larvae develop independently and will emerge in the summer as adult bees that go about their business of gathering pollen for the next generation.
Several kinds of wasps behave in a similar manner except they provide a cache of a paralyzed insect for their larvae instead of pollen, so these are also highly beneficial and highly unlikely to sting. The most fearsome of these is the huge Cicada Killer, which terrifies people but for very little reason. The benefits of these bees and wasps greatly outweighs any health concerns and they really should not be killed.
If the customer absolutely, positively DEMANDS that you do something your only pesticide recourse would be to treat each hole directly, and a contact dust product might be best. Dust into it carefully and then plug the hole to keep the bee in long enough to contact the dust, and late afternoon might ensure the bee is down there. You can also keep the soil so dry that the bee cannot dig a tunnel without the walls collapsing, and in sandy soils this works well. You could cover the selected soil area with something such as plastic sheeting for a temporary and seasonal fix, or bark or gravel or crushed rock for a permanent fix.
But to be really honest, if these bees were working in my own backyard I’d be thrilled, and would just sit and enjoy the show. They benefit the garden and really need to be preserved if at all possible. Hopefully some education and enlightenment will convince the customer of this as well.
Pest QuestionsMay 24, 2011
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QUESTION:
I have a question regarding a weekly column in my local paper, where the local resource used by this paper dispenses pest control advice which is ill advised. dangerous and incorrect. Last year they wrote about controlling rodents on the exterior of your home with snap traps on fences and along foundations. I wrote them and explained that all traps must be in a tamper resistant boxes to prevent animals other than rodents from being injured. They also wrote about using rodenticides but no mention of bait boxes.
Today they wrote about using Onslaught mixed in cat food or tuna for yellow jacket control. They gave the name of a chemical supplier where Onslaught can be purchased locally and recommended sharing it with neighbors “because it’s expensive and will last for years.” The label states “for Professional use only” and their advice is inconsistent with the label for this use.
I know that the business can’t or shouldn’t sell to individuals without a license, but can these folks give advice in the paper without a license? I would like to know what you think. I would like to contact the paper and the Agricultural Department to report them.
ANSWER:
I have one word on this, and that word is “LIABILITY”. My answer here is probably going to be heavy with personal opinion, but one thing is certain, and that is if you give written advice on the use of pesticides or other pest control techniques you are subject to the liability when people take your advice and something goes wrong. In our current society where lawyers fill the TV ads drumming up business for themselves by advocating lawsuits anytime you feel you were a “victim”, no one is going to assume responsibility for their own actions. If they put that snap trap on the fence to catch a roof rat and their own cat gets its foot broken by stepping on the trap, well someone has to pay, because common sense is no longer expected.
I have seen this problem many times over the years, where news media find a local expert to provide a weekly column or to answer readers’ questions, and too often that advice slips into a folksy style filled with home remedies. Even throwing in a disclaimer about “be sure to read the Label” isn’t going to save them when the lawsuit hits. Homeowners are not trained in using pest control products, and will take shortcuts routinely. This is one reason that WE, as suppliers to the professional industries, will NEVER sell a pesticide to an unlicensed person or business if licensing or certification is required. Unfortunately that statement on so many pesticide labels that it must not be sold to anyone not licensed or certified seems to hold no water. A few years back the EPA was asked to address this, given the widespread sales of these professional-use products on the internet, and the EPA backed out of it saying those Label statements are not legally binding, and they would not enforce them.
But, definitely making recommendations that are inconsistent with the Label is illegal. Onslaught is labeled for use as a yellowjacket bait, and legally can be mixed with these meat products to draw the YJ’s. “Sharing” it with neighbors walks that thin line of legality, but since EPA chooses not to enforce the label statement then I suppose it can be done. It is probably not the brightest thing to do – have one untrained homeowner give some poison to his untrained neighbords and hope everything goes well – and this is going to result in a problem somewhere.
Your best recourse may be to work with the newspaper management itself. Point out where this advice they are printing is illegal or dangerous, and the paper owners had better recognize that they too would be drawn into the lawsuit if someone’s dog or cat died or child was injured. It could even be a song bird hopping along the fence that gets killed in that exposed rat trap, and the neighbor next door is a rabid bird lover who sees this protected bird mercilessly slaughtered in the trap. Of course you, as a licensed pest management professional, would get cited by the local Dept. of Agriculture for doing some of the things these columnists are publicly advocating, but you are licensed and easier to prosecute.
So, work with the paper and maybe even try contacting the column writers, and I edited out their name here, to see if they are receptive to advice from you on where their recommendations could be problems. In California, perhaps more than many states, we had better be thinking in terms of environmental sensitivity all the time, or we will lose more of the tools we have for pest management.
Pest QuestionsMay 23, 2011
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QUESTION:
How do sodium channel inhibitors have an
effect on insects and how do they endanger
people?
ANSWER:
I suppose we could say that insecticides have the ability to affect humans in the same way they do insects, since in general the nervous systems of mammals and bugs work in pretty much the same way. We all have neurons that carry nerve signals to and from the brain and the chemistry involved is the same. There are some insecticides that may have very little effect on a human nervous system but be highly effective on that of an insect, such as many of the natural tree oils. These interfere with the neurotransmitter Octopamine, which regulates much of the metabolism in insects but is an enzyme that is not present in mammals.
But, for most nerve functions a nerve cell (neuron) is activated by some stimulus and the impulse moves from neuron to neuron to finally reach the brain for some interpretation and action. Of course this normally happens instantly. That signal is transformed to an electrical impulse of ions in order to pass along each neuron, and it moves through various “channels, one of which is the Sodium Channel. There also are “gates” that open or close to allow these ions to pass through or to block their movement. More specifically we might have certain pesticides that will interfere with this gate in the sodium channel by inhibiting a protein called GABA (gamma amino butyric acid). This protein is there to stop nerve impulses from continuing to fire by closing the gate, and if the pesticide has “inhibited” that protein the gates cannot close properly and the neuron continues to fire the signal along, well after it should have stopped doing so. The gates in the channel stay open and the ions just keep passing on through.
This results in tremors and eventually a loss of control of metabolic functions as they are overworked. In other words, it screws up the nervous system by interfering with the proper function of the neurons. The Synthetic Pyrethroids and Natural Pyrethrum are some of these GABA-gated Sodium Channel blockers. Similarly there are GABA-gated Chloride Channel blockers such as some chlorinated hydrocarbons and fipronil, and they would act in a similar manner except on this different channel (chloride instead of sodium).
How do they endanger humans? Well, these active ingredients work in the same way on humans as they do on bugs, but it is DOSE RELATED. The amount of an active ingredient that affects an ant or cockroach so seriously that it endangers that bug’s health is so infinitesimal compared to the amount that would be needed to affect a human that we have this huge safety factor. A safety factor, that is, if we use the products correctly and according to the Label and good common sense. We mix them at the proper concentration, apply them to the proper places where we minimize human contact, and we keep people off treated surfaces until the treatment is dry.
Pest QuestionsMay 22, 2011
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