 French Tribune |
Bedbugs found at second library branch
Vancouver Sun About a month after bedbugs were discovered at the public library at Metrotown, the pests were found lurking in another branch of the Burnaby Public Library. Library staff at Cameron Street branch found … Bedbugs' Terror Continues at Library BranchFrench Tribune Cameron library treated for bedbugsBCLocalNews |
Pests in the NewsOctober 22, 2011
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Oriental fruit fly detected in Anaheim, Calif.
Western Farm Press “The key is to respond quickly and take action before the pests can cause widespread damage.” Twelve Oriental fruit flies have been detected in the Anaheim area since Oct. 12. The treatment program will be carried out over approximately 10 square miles … |
Pests in the NewsOctober 22, 2011
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New Oregon Law Targets Imported Firewood
KTVZ “You don't want to bring in firewood from outside the Pacific Northwest because there are many pest problems out there that we don't have and don't want in Oregon, and firewood is an excellent vector for these invasive insects and diseases,” says Dan … |
Pests in the NewsOctober 22, 2011
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Even in a world where parasites routinely turn insects into zombies, altering their bodies and behavior to serve the parasites’ demands, the radical transformation of European paper wasps is exceptional in its weirdness.
Pests in the NewsOctober 22, 2011
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QUESTION:
People are talking about fogging for Bed Bugs and applying a residual application to exterior surfaces around baseboards and wood work. My opinion is that there is no substitute for thoroughness and that fogging would probably not reach harboring bed bugs hidden deep inside voids, and that the majority of chemical treatment needs to be applied in areas that the bugs harbor, providing longer exposure time to the products. What is your recommended treatment for bed bug infestation?
ANSWER:
I agree with you completely Stephen, and suspect that a lot of technicians are going to shake their heads and say that I am out of my mind. But, given what we currently know about bed bugs and their susceptibility to our current insecticides we recognize the need to ensure the longest possible exposure to the active ingredients. Applying the products to open, exposed surfaces either by fogging or by “baseboard” spraying and expecting the bed bugs to linger on those exposed surfaces long enough to absorb a lethal dose of the active ingredient is, in my opinion, danged optimistic. We learned this a LONG time ago with German cockroach control, that these fast moving insects just ran over the narrow swath of active ingredient sprayed along baseboards and had no chance of picking up enough a.i. to kill them. Applying the insecticide directly into their harborage points was the best method of control. Ironically, this also placed that active ingredient out of reach of humans and pets that might live or work in that area, and this still needs to be a consideration with bed bug control too.
The Common Bed Bug is primarily a nocturnal creature, and therefore spends all of those daylight (or artificial light) hours hidden in some crevice, hole, or void. It just makes good sense that this is where we should apply our poisons (yes, I know, I said that word) to have the best and longest contact with them. Some studies by one of our most respected bed bug researchers recently concluded that for many of our commonly used insecticides it took many hours of contact with the active ingredient to kill bed bugs, often not even killing 100% of them. You might enhance this with the use of dusts or microencapsulated formulations, where the particles containing the active ingredient are more likely to cling to the exoskeleton of the passing bug, but even with these the best application is to place the product directly into the harborage points where the bugs will spend perhaps 20+ hours of the day. Since a bed bug feeds for no more than 10 minutes it seems logical that it comes out of hiding, locates the blood source, feeds, and then goes back into hiding. These are fairly fast-moving insects, so they do not linger on exposed surfaces any longer than they have to.
Perhaps the fogging / surface spraying concept is related to a desire to keep the price down by doing the work as fast as possible. Perhaps there is a misunderstanding about the capability of a fog to penetrate into voids of any kind, which it will not. Perhaps there is still a belief out there that The Common Bed Bug can be attacked in the same manner you might treat for earwigs or crickets, which you cannot. As our experts have told us many times, the bed bug cannot be successfully treated in the same manner as ANY other structural pest, and to do so is to be doomed to failure. I personally think that fogging has no place in bed bug control (again, I recognize that there will be serious disagreement). The pyrethrum DOES seem to enhance the effectiveness of the insecticides used, but it should be mixed with the residual active ingredient and applied as the crack and crevice treatment. Granted, it takes longer to properly treat every crack, crevice, and void in an infested room, but this is going to be the best way of knowing that all the bed bugs are going to be exposed to the active ingredient for the longest period of time, which currently seems to be needed.
Further, if we listen to our industry’s best experts in this area, total reliance on insecticides to eliminate bed bugs is also not the best policy. These are tenacious animals, and defeating them down to the very last nymph and egg is best done with many non-chemical tools and techniques as well. These include the installation of mattress / boxspring / pillow / sofa encasements, steam along mattress seams or carpet edges, heat with laundering, dryers, or heat chambers, monitors and traps to determine the succes of the program.
And, I really have to include the vital need for PROPER IDENTIFICATION. I have seen many other kinds of bugs identified improperly as The Common Bed Bug, including carpet beetles and crab lice. I also recently identified for a PMP some BAT bugs that were in a home, and these would be treated very differently from The Common Bed Bug. Without proper ID we are likely to go off on the wrong path, and this is not helping our customers or our reputations.
Pest QuestionsOctober 22, 2011
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QUESTION:
I would like to know what is the best way to eliminate carpenter ants inside in the winter, or can you? Thank you.
ANSWER:
Ants are tough adversaries no matter what kind and when and where they occur. Pity poor Florida, as this state seems to be the testing ground for every new pest that enters North America, and they are still dealing with the recently introduced Crazy Ants. Carpenter ants come into structures for a couple of reasons – in warm weather they look for drier places to be for their late stage larvae and their pupae, so they may relocate to voids within structures and bring these offspring with them. They also may relocate to drier places once winter weather hits. Since the ant colony does not really go dormant, although in cold climates the activity really slows down, they need to survive harsh weather. One of our top industry experts on carpenter ants states that nearly all of the time you find these structural colonies they will be “satellite” or secondary colonies that still are part of a primary or parent colony that is most likely outdoors within some wood. This commonly will be old root systems or buried wood in the soil, but could be a rotting log or tree trunk, landscape timbers, etc.
Now, once the really nasty weather hits there probably is not going to be much travel between the structural colony and the parent colony, and there also is always that chance that the colony in the home is NOT part of another colony. But, the adult insects are still active inside and probably getting pretty darned hungry, since they tend to live off fat stores in their bodies through the winter months. Outside there is not going to be anything for them to eat – honeydew, other insects – but inside they may continue to forage. So, baits could be one excellent option for indoor winter ants. Carpenter ants seem to readily take granular baits, and these could be placed within wall voids or other places where the ants will find them but occupants won’t.
Carpenter ants are nocturnal, so if they do come out inside to forage it probably is at night, limiting the times the homeowners may see them, but knowing where they are trailing will be useful in control. You could use a non-repellent that has a good transfer effect along trail routes indoors, and sometimes even a microencapsulated product works well because the particles stick to the ants. Locating the exact location of the indoor nest is ideal, because this allows you to find a way to inject insecticide directly into that nest, whether it be an existing void like a wall void or a space under some attic insulation, or a cavity the ants themselves have created. If they are excavating the wood they should be pushing out the debris, so ask the homeowners if and where they are finding any little accumulations of sawdust or bits of insects or other debris of unknown origin. Directly above that point should be where the ants are located. You may have to drill through a wall, but could do so discreetly, and then inject dust or aerosol into that cavity inside, or use a void injector fogger to fog a residual insecticide into the nest.
Pest QuestionsOctober 21, 2011
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 Quality Assurance & Food Safety |
From the Experts: Sanitation Is Essential to Pest Management
Quality Assurance & Food Safety Sanitation used to be called “housekeeping,” a term many experienced pest management professionals (PMPs) still prefer because it implies reducing clutter; picking up messes; sweeping, cleaning, and polishing surfaces; and keeping everything in good … |
Pests in the NewsOctober 20, 2011
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Vector-borne diseases are spreading says scientist
Zee News Mosquitoes and other insects were changing their habitat with new system of irrigation and cropping patterns and a new variety of vector species was emerging, and hence there was a long way to go in finding solution to control vector borne diseases, … |
Pests in the NewsOctober 20, 2011
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Officials Doing Best To Combat Bed Bugs
Wheeling News Register But Executive Director Jody Geese said Mascetti is incorrect and added the housing authority is doing everything it can to battle the bloodsucking insects. Mascetti believes because the authority isn't trying to get rid of the bugs all at once, … Reasons Why Bed Bugs Can Harm Your FamilyEva-News (press release) |
Pests in the NewsOctober 20, 2011
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'Kudzu Bug' Threatens To Eat US Farmers' Lunch
NPR "That's just shy of a standard sample that we use to evaluate soybean insects … and we're looking at a couple of thousand bugs, easy." The bugs secrete a caustic substance that smells like a cross between a commercial cleanser and an industrial … |
Pests in the NewsOctober 20, 2011
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