Yes. I am more freaked out than ever. I’ll admit mild concern. I’m not worried. Researchers in Canada have found bedbugs carrying antibiotic-resistant superbugs, a surprise finding because scientists had thought the pests were not capable of spreading …
Pests in the NewsMay 15, 2011
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Venus Fly Traps are well known for being carnivorous, catching live insects which they then digest with acids and enzymes. The insects are attracted to the Venus Fly Trap by the plant’s sweet smell and are trapped when they come into contact with small …
Pests in the NewsMay 15, 2011
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The recent wet weather along the Front Range will likely mean there will be more bugs and insects in Colorado when temperatures go back up. Because insects are cold blooded, they slow down when it is cooler. That means the temperature outside is the same …
Pests in the NewsMay 15, 2011
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 980 CJME News Talk Radio |
Mosquitoes could be bad in Regina this year
Regina Leader-Post And cuts to provincial funding for mosquito control means the city's ability to battle the pests is reduced, too. "The total budget in 2009 was $500000," Ray Morgan, the city's manager of forestry, horticulture and pest control, said Thursday. … Regina has smaller mosquito prevention budget650 CKOM News Talk Radio |
Pests in the NewsMay 15, 2011
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Chew on This: Bedbugs on rise in Silicon Valley
NBC Bay Area Theories as to why include increased domestic and international travel, increased pesticide resistance among the bugs, and a decline in effective state and local pest-control programs. The hardy pests hide in the tiniest of surfaces and can live for … South Bay sees a dramatic increase in bedbugsSan Jose Mercury News |
Pests in the NewsMay 15, 2011
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NEWS.com.au |
Super Bedbugs — Canadian Researchers Discover MRSA and VRE in the Pests
eMaxHealth Currently, it is not known if the pests are capable of transmitting the superbugs to humans similar to mosquitoes that can carry and transmit malaria. The researchers discovered the link when three patients were discovered with both bedbugs and MRSA at … Bed bugs infected with MRSA discovered; Pests carrying antibiotic resistant …New York Daily News Bedbugs and Superbugs Unite: Pest Carries Drug-Resistant BacteriaFairWarning NPMA Responds to Canadian Study Suggesting Bed Bugs Can Transmit DiseasePCT Magazine Reuters –ConsumerReports.org –Washington Post all 649 news articles » |
Pests in the NewsMay 15, 2011
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QUESTION:
What is going on with bed bugs and MRSA? Is it just another media sensational story or a real threat?
ANSWER:
My oh my the power of the news media. This morning when I reviewed the daily batch of internet news articles pertaining to pests I saw at least a dozen separate media proclaiming this terrible new “possible” threat to our health. For those who may not know what MRSA is, it stands for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, which is the so-called “flesh eating” bacteria. It also is a very real and very serious health threat, as it is a virulent bacteria that is resistent to antibiotics and which has the capability of causing major damage to human bodies and organs.
The gist of this latest news is that a single study done in Canada focused on bed bugs taken from impoverished locations, and on 3 of the 5 bed bug samples they found MRSA on the bugs. The study made NO conclusions and made NO statements that this, therefore, meant bed bugs could vector MRSA to humans, but only that the bugs are clearly able to carry the bacteria on their bodies. The news media, however, printed rather sensational headlines about it, and I posted a couple of the daily articles on PestWeb in our Pests In The News on 5/12. Heaven only knows how many will be available tomorrow. It is VERY important that our industry NOT use this current panic to drum up business. We need to stick to the facts, which are only that this bacteria has been found ON bed bugs, but no evidence exists that the bugs have or are capable of transmitting it to humans.
I recall very well back in the early 1980’s when AIDS was the major health news, and headlines in this country were blaring that bed bugs had been “found” carrying the AIDS virus, and therefore, obviously, must be capable of spreading it. Last year we heard the same things about Swine Flu. The fact is that MANY different pathogenic microorganisms have been found on and within bed bugs, but the Common Bed Bug still has NEVER been shown to be capable of vectoring them to humans. I think this is important enough to copy below the response that the NPMA produced today – 5/12/11 – on this issue. Thanks for asking about it Bill.
From the NPMA – Background:
Yesterday the Center for Disease Control and Prevention published the results of a peer-reviewed study that suggests bed bugs may be involved in disease transmission. The study, conducted in an impoverished community in Vancouver, British Columbia, tested a small sampling of bed bugs (5) collected from several patients (3) who were hospitalized for unstated causes. Hypothesizing the bugs were vectors for “the transmission of antimicrobial drug-resistant pathogens” researchers performed tests which found the bacteria Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) present in the collected pests. Marc Romney, one of the study’s authors, noted “even though this is a small study, it suggests that bed bugs may be playing a role in the transmission of MRSA in inner city populations where bed bug infestations are a problem.”
Since the release of yesterday’s report, as of last night, more than 450 news articles had been published about the study. We expect this study to reignite the bed bug fever within the national and local press.
The National Pest Management Association has reviewed the report and found that it leaves many questions unanswered. We do not plan to fuel this conversation and public fear by promoting news coverage of the survey. Comments from NPMA will cite the study as one of the many examples of why additional, scientific research on bed bugs must be conducted. We encourage members to refrain from comments suggesting that bed bugs may contribute to the spread of MRSA or other diseases.
Statement for Member Use:
Since the resurgence of bed bugs in the 1990s, the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) has been advocating for funding for research on bed bugs, including most recently at the EPA’s Bed Bug Summit, the Congressional Bed Bug Forum and through direct visits with Members of Congress. With the dramatic resurgence of this pest and the lack of basic biological data available consistent with today’s scientific standards and practices, it is imperative we better understand more about the biology and habits of the pest. According to a study conducted by NPMA, one in five Americans has now come into contact with bed bugs directly or indirectly through friends or family members. Scientific research on the pest will better equip pest management professionals to control bed bugs efficiently and effectively.
Talking Points
Pest QuestionsMay 15, 2011
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QUESTION:
How to detect and trap a gopher?
ANSWER:
Detecting the gopher is usually pretty simple, meaning the gopher is going to make its presence known by creating those unsightly piles of dirt. The clue that it is a gopher is that the fresh dirt pile is sort of “U” shaped, and on the inner side of that semi-circle there often is a smaller pile, looking a little more moist than the rest of the dirt, that is the “plug” the gopher pushed into place to close the hole it shoved all that dirt out through. A single gopher may occupy a range of up to an acre of ground, with meandering tunnels in various directions. Even though these are fiercely solitary animals there also could be multiple gophers in one area, but whose tunnels do not join with those of other gophers. To determine where the tunnels themselves are you start with that mound of dirt, locate the plug, and then go on a line from the plug. Use a steel rod (an old ski pole is good) to poke down into the soil here and there until you feel the rod break into some cavity.
Once you locate the tunnel you can place your bait or traps in the tunnel a few feet away from the dirt mound you started from. The gopher may continue to push dirt out that hole or it may create new ones periodically. Somewhere down in all of this, usually much deeper than these surface runways, will be the gopher’s living chamber, but finding it is not necessary. You can place traps or bait in the shallow runways or in “pop holes” you may find that actually are open above. Traps are either “strangle” style or “impale” style and either will work, but trapping is time consuming and you need to ensure your customer understands that a high cost may be involved.
Begin by digging to expose the surface runway, and then place traps either down along your hole or in the runway itself, and if in the runway place traps on either side of the hole you dug. The traps need to be tied securely to a stake on the surface. Most often the hole is then filled carefully with soil to prevent spooking the gopher and to allow it to continue to move through the runway. Gophers do not like light, and may be suspicious if they suddenly see their runway exposed. Some people also prefer to leave the hole open to encourage the gopher to go there and try to close it with soil, perhaps then getting into the trap. Make sure your customer understands that trapping a gopher does not prevent new ones from moving in, and this could be an ongoing problem. But, trapping is a sure way of knowing you eliminated the gopher at that time.
Recognize too that traps may seem pretty gruesome to some people, so discretion is called for, and checking the traps frequently to remove dead gophers or reset traps that were sprung by the gopher is necessary.
Pest QuestionsMay 14, 2011
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QUESTION:
I am dealing with stink bugs in the second floor office of a home. The home has all new windows and seems to be recently remodeled. Any suggestions on where they may be entering?
ANSWER:
These insects, and essentially the Brown Marmorated Stinkbug these days, are small enough that a great many opportunities to get inside a structure exist, other than just gaps around windows. Normally this problem occurs in the fall, although it may be that you are now seeing the results of these bugs having been in this home all winter long, and now just getting active and looking for ways to exit the building. It could be that they were cozied away up in the attic or in the wall voids for the past 6 months without anyone knowing they were there, and now they have warmed up and are moving down through ceiling fixtures and vents and any other openings they might find, to become visible to the occupants. May be they moved down into wall voids and out through switch plates, but moving toward “light” would be a more normal habit, and ceiling lights could offer that little lighted area that draws them.
As far as how they enter initially, it could be almost any gap more than about 1/8 inch wide. Susceptible places on a structure run from ground level up to the roof and the chimney, so flashing on the roof, shingles and other roofing covers offer gaps, chimneys offer gaps, there are notoriously gaps under the eaves around attic vents and soffits, gaps where plumbing and other services enter the home, gaps around crawl space vents or holes in the vent screens, under siding, etc. It can seem like a monumental task to address every possible entry point to plug them and prevent these bugs from entering, but if taken one “bite” at a time and done over a long period of the year, suddenly you find 90% or more of the entry points permanently sealed. Every gap or hole you manage to close presents one less opportunity for the stinkbugs, and coincidentally any other bugs that like to overwinter in homes, to enter. This includes ladybird beetles, cluster flies, other true bugs including a few kinds common in the western states, and even rodents and bats.
Why the emphasis on Exclusion? Well, this is the long term answer if we are really trying to use insecticides properly. We can definitely cut down the numbers of stinkbugs that get into a home by spraying the exterior walls in the fall and fogging or dusting the voids inside after they get in. But, this will then be an endless process that needs repeating annually, perhaps more than once each year, and what is more satisfying to the customer and is a more responsible IPM approach is to permanently exclude them so pesticides are no longer needed. It also relieves the customer of having to see the bugs in their home at all.
This kind of exclusion effort will take a tremendous cooperation from the customer. They may choose not to do this kind of exclusion themselves and actually pay YOU to do it for them, and if so you could make good income charging by the hour to seal off all those gaps. Option 2 is that they choose not to do it themselves and don’t want to pay to have it done either, and instead just ask you to go ahead and “spray something” every year to knock down the problem the best you can. I think there still is that belief amongst the public that pesticides are magic potions that somehow make all bugs fall over dead instantly and with a little luck even disappear as they die. Good stewardship of the chemical tools we have available means using them only as needed, and addressing non-chemical pest management whenever possible.
So, grap the flashlight, some binocular, a ladder, and a written inspection form and diagram of the home, and wall by wall inspect to determine where all of these entry opportunities are. Then you can suggest how these can be closed permanently, a little at a time, so that the bugs no longer can get inside where they are a much bigger concern.
Pest QuestionsMay 13, 2011
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In central Ohio, bedbugs are no match for Kit, a miniature schnauzer that works with the local Orkin Pest Control office. The year-old pup, clad in a little red cape, is put into action about three times a day, scouring movie theaters, nursing homes …
Pests in the NewsMay 12, 2011
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