(PhysOrg.com) — CSIRO research has revealed that the tremendous diversity of ladybird beetle species is linked to their ability to produce larvae which, with impunity, poach members of ‘herds’ of tiny, soft-bodied scale insects from under the noses of the …
Pests in the NewsJune 26, 2011
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 ABC30.com |
Melon fruit fly found in Sanger area trap
ABC30.com Hafner said, "Unfortunately this is one of the dangerous, crop damaging pests that we have." But Hafner found it odd the pest was stuck inside a European Grapevine Moth trap. The pest isn't known to feed on grapes. "The trap would not be attractive to … |
Pests in the NewsJune 26, 2011
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|
Dragon of the insect kingdom
Channel News Asia And the presence of these winged insects are significant. Robin Ngiam, Senior Biodiversity Officer with NParks, said: "Because dragonflies are top predators in the insect world. So if you imagine lions and tigers in the animal kingdom, in the insect … |
Pests in the NewsJune 26, 2011
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Flies, rotten food, and a few other violations were sprinkled in the health inspection reports of Knox County’s lowest scoring restaurants.
Pests in the NewsJune 26, 2011
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QUESTION:
You mix an IGR with a contact residual product, and for that matter say you also use something like Exiter to get a quick knock down when doing a clean out for, let’s say, German cockroaches. So you have three products mixed in your B&G. If the cockroaches come into contact with the finished product how can the IGR be effective if the other products are killing the cockroaches within minutes. I know the IGR’s work, I just don’t understand in this situation how the insects can live long enough for it to work. Can the female pass the IGR to the embryo and if so woudn’t the other products pass as well ect…
ANSWER:
This may be a little hypothetical on my part, but let’s see where it goes. First, IGR’s tend to last MUCH longer than contact insecticides do. Where you may get a few weeks of effective residual from contact insecticides you could expect many months of effectiveness from the IGR. So, even when the “residual” contact active ingredient is no longer doing anything the IGR continues to be present and affecting the roaches. The Exciter or any other pyrethrum is there for a rapid knockdown or for flushing only, and it probably disappears within a day.
Another factor is the nature of a couple of the IGR’s, specifically methoprene (Precor) and hydroprene (Gentrol) whereby the active ingredient has some odd ability to move over the surface. This is why you can place a Gentrol Point Source under a counter and have it treat that wide radius around that point. The vapors of the hydroprene flow over the surface to redeposit, and thus can get into hidden places where you may not have actually applied the material. We might also consider the possibility that the roaches are sitting on too little of the contact insecticide to kill them, and the addition of the IGR adds one more tool to throw at them. We might use the same logic when we apply baits as well as sprays. By not relying on a single technique or product we increase the odds that what we expose the roaches to will ultimately kill them. These are tough adversaries, which is why we still are fighting them despite 100 years or more of trying, and despite the great many kinds of products available to us. Good German roach control could also involve vacuums, steamers, dusts inside wall voids, granular baits, etc.
The effect of the IGR on the roaches is to sterilize them, but I know with fleas it also can affect the eggs so that they do not develop properly. So, it may very well manage to get into the eggs and embyroes of roachs and work in that way too. This may occur more via contact with the eggs themselves, but perhaps could be from passing into the developing eggs from the mother. This may be more likely to happen with the active ingredients in some bait products where the a. i. is within the female’s system. But, young roach nymphs that are exposed to the IGR do not develop properly. They still become adult cockroaches but now are physically deformed and hopefully unable to breed. The IGR does not kill the roach, but prevents it from creating more roaches and thus depletes the population.
Bottom line is that we might be too optimistic thinking that we are going to be able to kill all the roaches within minutes using just the contact insecticides alone. They are much too stealthy and evolved for this to happen or we would have wiped them out long ago. Because of issues like repellency, resistance, breeding potential, and their varied hiding places we need to throw the entire line of choices at them when possible, and putting it all together we kill more roaches than any one product could do on its own.
Pest QuestionsJune 26, 2011
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QUESTION:
How can we control mice and roaches in a bakery
without dusting or using bait? The owner thinks it is not permitted in Pennsylvania. Can you clarify for me? The place is in a dire situation. Thank you.
ANSWER:
Let’s begin with whether or not baits and dust insecticides are legal for use in bakeries in PA. Yes they are. I really doubt that any state in the U.S. generally disallows the use of these formulations in any kind of food manufacturing facility, but this is always something you can take up with your local regulatory inspectors if you have any question. Baits in particular are such low-impact formulations that they should be preferred over other kinds of more general applications, such as spraying or fogging. If we look for products specifically labeled for use in bakeries we find dusts such as DeltaDust, Drione, Pyganic Dust, Tempo Dust, and Tri-Die. Most roach baits are very generally labeled for use in food handling facilities, but some specifically mentioning bakeries on their labels include Maxforce FC Magnum and MRF-2000, but I certainly would not limit my use to just these two when others would legally be allowed as well.
Baiting continues to be an excellent option in German roach control, but other formulations (sprays and dusts) would also be good for the overall control effort if you are allowed to use them. Dusts, of course, should be strictly confined to enclosed voids to keep them from having any opportunity to get out and onto exposed surfaces. If you still are concerned then you might restrict your dusts to inorganic materials such as diatomaceous earth or silica gel. Placed properly these active ingredients will last for as long as they stay dry. Baits such as gel baits also can be applied so there is no chance for contamination of foods or food surfaces, and for best results on German roaches the gel should be applied as Pea-sized spots directly within crevices and gaps that the roaches may hide in. Apparently they prefer to feed in seclusion rather than out and exposed.
There also are a great many contact insecticides specifically labeled for bakeries, in either aerosol or liquid concentrate formulations, and these have their place in the overall program. “Spraying” for roaches provides you with the ability to get that quick knockdown of much of the population as well as leaving an effective residual in the roach harborage points for a few more weeks. Also consider non-chemical options such as steam or vacuuming, and if the situation is as dire as you suggest the vacuum could be a fabulous tool for instant removal of a large part of the roach population.
Very important too, and I hope your customer will cooperate in this effort, would be the evaluation of this account to see just why they have this bad of a cockroach problem. Sanitation and harborage removal are extremely important parts of this overall IPM effort, and if we rely totally on insecticides tor resolve the problem we will be dependent upon them forever. If this is large commercial bakery there may be a lot of food dust around that is nearly impossible to eliminate. In a smaller bakery you may be able to identify many food resources that simply do not need to be there. I suggest you make a thorough Sanitation Inspection and provide your findings in writing to your customer. On this form you list the “contributing conditions” that you find – food, water, and harborage resources that the roaches are using for their survival in this building. Without a doubt many of these can be eliminated, and each one you fix means the environment there can support less roaches. It is imperative that our industry lead the way in promoting the non-chemical aspects of pest management.
With respect to the use of rodent baits in a bakery, it is likely that they could “legally” be used, but the use of rodent baits indoors will always pose the potential for problems. You cannot control where the dying rodent chooses to go to die, and if this is in an inaccessible location you will quickly get foul odors and blow flies breeding, and this becomes another problem to control. I suggest a better option is to throw a major number of traps at these mice – snap traps and glue traps within stations where necessary – and check the traps frequently to remove captured rodents. At the same time it is imperative that you determine how the mice are entering the structure and close these openings permanently. If you do nothing to stop the inflow of mice then you will fight an endless battle on the inside where the problem is more critical.
Pest QuestionsJune 25, 2011
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Dubai: Illegal pest control measures could be fatal, officials have warned, advising residents to stay away from them. Residents must make sure they only seek the services of pest control companies registered with the Dubai Municipality and no one else …
Pests in the NewsJune 24, 2011
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QUESTION:
I have a racoon in an attic with several young she just gave birth to. This part of the attic is very tight to get into and set a trap. Is there any way to get them out of the area without harming them? I’ve heard suggestions with using ammonia, moth balls, and even loud music was suggested. Are there any ultrasonic devices I can use? The babies are about the size of a small cat. Once the mother is caught how do I trap or remove the young racoons?
ANSWER:
If the babies are already as big as you say then at least they are mobile, and possibly could be lured into a live trap set at close to them as possible. The best hope might be to try to make life so uncomfortable in that attic that the mother herself removes all her babies. I remember an episode on TV not long ago where a similar situation existed, except that in that case the babies could be accessed. Ultimately the trapper waited until the mother left the attic and then he gathered all the babies and put them into a box that he set outside (on the roof actually). This allowed the mother to return and take her babies one at a time to a different location. Killing all of the babies was out of the question for them, and in your case also not acceptable since you cannot currently access them.
Ultrasonic devices are unlikely to bother them sufficiently to make them move out. I suppose it is possible that these animals could detect “ultrasonic sound” and be annoyed by it, but the claims made by manufacturers or ultrasonic repellers of ALL kinds simply do not hold up to unbiased testing by universities. The unanimous conclusion by universities continues to be that ultrasonic boxes are scams. Moth balls probably would work if you could use so much that the concentration of vapors built up high enough, but there are two problems with this. First, many states tell us flat out that the use of moth balls for repelling vertebrate animals is illegal. They are not labeled for that use. Second, you probably would have to use so much that it would be a health hazard to occupants of the house as well.
Loud music, especially if it is of the proper genre (and I won’t anger anyone by naming some that I don’t care for) could make things unsettling for the raccoons, but I have never heard of anyone doing this so I couldn’t offer suggestions on how. It most likely also would keep humans awake or going batty for however long it took to get the raccoons to relocate. You might try locating the entry point of the female and closing it, and then for a day or two trying to trap the young by enticing them into a trap with various foods. Since you would want this to be done quickly to avoid harm to the babies it could require a number of traps and a lot of your time monitoring them. Fish, bacon, fruits – there are a lot of food items that are very attractive to raccoons that could draw the young into the trap quickly.
At this time obviously the mother is coming and going at will, and bringing food back to the babies daily. Breaking that cycle is needed. There is another possible device that could repel her into taking the babies out, and that is strobe lights. Univar may still have a couple of these “Evictor” devices, but look on line for “squirrel evictor” and see if you can find them. They were a little pricey, so did not sell quickly, but for this kind of situation it might work. Placing the strobe light where it fires off that annoying, flashing bright light directly into their nesting area could make it so uncomfortable that they will move out, and it would not be detectable to human occupants below.
Pest QuestionsJune 24, 2011
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Dennis Gaddy of the Community Success Initiative suggests that former convicted felons should be allowed to obtain pest control licenses because we simply spray bugs. Gaddy fails to take into account how our industry operates, the level of training …
Pests in the NewsJune 23, 2011
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YORK COUNTY — Bed bugs, those pests from the old bedtime rhyme, are making a comeback. The York District Public Health Council will present a free community forum from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 23, at York County Community College, 112 College Drive …
Pests in the NewsJune 23, 2011
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