 RFD-TV |
EPA General Permit Scrutinized
RFD-TV EPA's general permit covers operators who apply pesticides that result in discharges into waters of the US from mosquito and other flying insect pest control, weed and algae control, animal pest control and forest canopy pest control. … |
Pests in the NewsNovember 09, 2011
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Wall Street Journal |
Flies, and Their Lawyers, Keep Rare Trout From Going Home
Wall Street Journal State officials say it would hurt individual insects, but not the population at large. Bug people say it could massacre caddis and stone flies and other invertebrates. "There's a lot of evidence of the Sierra Nevada being one of the world's great … |
Pests in the NewsNovember 09, 2011
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Dealing with a superhuman race of insects
The Daily Progress Clearly we were dealing with a superhuman race of insects: terrorists who wouldn't crack under harsh interrogation. But we were undeterred. My husband researched fruit fly trap recipes, fixing concoctions of cider vinegar and dish soap, guaranteed to … |
Pests in the NewsNovember 09, 2011
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More pesticides prohibited
Jamaica Gleaner Michael Ramsay, registrar of the Pesticides Control Authority (PCA), told The Sunday Gleaner that the decision has also been taken to phase out DDVP (dichlorvos) and chlorpyrifos, two very popular insecticides used by pest–control operators for termite … |
Pests in the NewsNovember 09, 2011
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As global climate change gradually warms Connecticut, experts in insects and health worry that mosquitoes and the potentially deadly viruses they carry are likely to jump.
Pests in the NewsNovember 09, 2011
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QUESTION:
How do NUVAN Prostrips control gnats in a residential home if the strips are limited to closets and cupboards? What exactly do they emit to affect the adult and fly larvae/egg stages?
ANSWER:
Nuvan contains the fumigant dichlorvos, which we have known so well in the past as “vapona”, and these Prostrips have really breathed new life into this active ingredient. In particular, Nuvan Prostrips and Prostrips Plus are THE answer, at this time, for eliminating bed bugs and their eggs from within electronic equipment. Other than heating there may be no other useful method for ensuring that bugs and their eggs are killed within computers, TV’s, and other items where spraying or dusting is not an option. Dichlorvos vapors are released from the resin strips to fill an enclosed space with the active ingredient, and technically it is a fumigant, but one with very low volatility and little hazard to people or pets who are only briefly or casually exposed to it. We are not talking methyl bromide or sulfuryl fluoride here. Because of this, it requires a much longer exposure period to kill insects as well, so keeping the treated area closed is necessary to keep the level of vapors in it high enough to be effective.
Dichlorvos is effective on any stage of an insect, but obviously the insect (or egg or larva) must come into contact with the vapors, and with “gnats” this might be a tad iffy. The word “gnats” is probably a catch-all name for just about any small fly, so it could include fungus gnats, drain flies, phorid flies, or even fruit flies in the minds of people bothered by these small flies. However, as professionals we should take the extra step to actually capture some of the offending flies and make the actual identification. We know that each of these flies may be breeding in a very different micro-environment than the others do, so just accepting that we have small flying insects and using a shot gun approach in the hopes of eliminating them is not the best course of action. For all kinds of fly management we must focus on the source, not on the adult flies, and clearly you recognize this from your question.
We may have fungus gnats flying around anywhere inside a home, but the source may be larvae living within potted plants or coming from the crawl space or breeding within walls where excessive moisture is present. Putting some dichlorvos strips in a small enclosed space to kill the adult gnats may not be much more than a flyswatter approach. The vapors may never actually reach the larvae to control the problem at its source, and this is what is needed. Identification, inspection to determine where the origin of these flies is, and making corrections to that origin to eliminate the ability for the flies to continue breeding there are the best steps to take for long term satisfaction. The use of Nuvan strips for fly management would only be for the temporary relief from the adult flies. Of course, if you had the strips placed where the vapors could move into that breeding site it could kill the eggs too, but we would have to be honest and admit that the problem (the conducive conditions) probably continue to exist, and this could lead to more flies in the future.
Nuvan strips are GREAT tools for some difficult pest problems, so we should consider their use where they are effective.
Pest QuestionsNovember 09, 2011
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Possum Control on Napier Hill has worked.
All About Hawke’s Bay Bait stations were installed, with the agreement of residents, on various properties across Napier Hill in 2010 to help keep possum numbers down, after the main control was completed by pest control contractors. The top up has been a courtesy visit to … |
Pests in the NewsNovember 08, 2011
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Locally Cut Firewood Can Prevent the Spread of Invasive Pests and Create …
PR Newswire (press release) A recent study, "Economic Impacts of Non-Native Forest Insects in the Continental United States" by Aukema et al. estimates that the costs of damages associated with these pest infestations in both urban and rural areas are nearly $1.7 billion in local … |
Pests in the NewsNovember 08, 2011
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QUESTION:
How can I tell the difference between bed bugs and fleas?
ANSWER:
I can answer this question in 2 different ways, depending on how I interpret what you are asking. The more obvious would be that you are asking for actual differences to distinguish a flea from a bed bug, and the answer to this would be to direct you to the Pest ID resource on PestWeb to view some images of each of these blood feeding pests. They really look nothing alike. Fleas are smaller and are compressed from side to side, while bed bugs are larger and flattened from top to bottom. If you have the actual specimens on hand there should be no mistake. Fleas also hop to move while bed bugs only walk. Fleas tend to have a black coloration while bed bugs are white as the early nymph and reddish brown as the later nymphs or adults.
What you may be asking instead is how to distinguish an infestation of some biting pest as either bed bugs or fleas, or how to tell which pest is present based upon the “bite” marks on people in that infested place. For that second possibility I can only say that we, in the professional pest control industries, should NEVER identify a pest problem based only upon the presence of red marks on someone’s skin, nor take the customer’s word for it that they are actually being bitten by something. It is our responsibility to sample until we confirm the presence of some arthropod that could be biting, or on the other hand to confirm that nothing is present and therefore there is no reason to spray a single drop of insecticide. I have a collection of wonderful letters sent to the local university or to local pest management companies, from people who truly believed they were being bitten or otherwise by some pest, but who clearly were suffering from Delusions of Parasitosis. A couple of those letters would make Steven Spielberg’s skin crawl, and to get involved in the mental issues of these kinds of people by spraying toxins in their home would be a terrible mistake.
So, avoid making a diagnosis based only upon symptoms claimed by the customer. Instead, go to a monitoring program initially to determine just what is actually present. The customer may actually be getting bitten by some arthropod, but they may decide in their mind that it is rat mites or some other specific pest, and your monitoring and sampling might turn up something entirely different. If you go ahead and treat for mites when the problem is fleas, or treat for fleas when the problem is bed bugs, you are doomed to failure. Proper identification means capturing some of the bugs present, examining them with the proper magnification and ID keys, and then going ahead with the proper method for eliminating them.
Pest QuestionsNovember 08, 2011
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QUESTION:
You recently answered a question for me regarding the best method of eliminating carpenter ants from a residence during the winter. Thank you for the answer. However, how do you know the nest has been eliminated?
ANSWER:
Good morning Judith, and good question. I suppose it would be like many other pest insects in that you judge the success by the lack of the insects in the future. This would mean placing insect monitoring traps in places where they might be likely to capture wandering ants over the next few weeks, but not where they will bother the residents or be accessed by the family dog. If you believe you know where the nest was located you could also listen to see if any “rustling” sounds could be heard within that void, pehaps using a stethoscope to enhance your ability to hear things within some hidden space. Perhaps a sharp bang on that wall would stir up any ants still inside that space, and if so you might be able to hear them running around.
But, with just about any kind of pest, from termites to roaches to bed bugs, we have to measure success by the fact that no more activity is being seen from the pest. This may take awhile, and for pests like carpenter ants there even is the possibility that pupae that were in that satellite colony in the structure could hatch to new adult ants, and these ants could then become active. This would be particularly so if only bait was used to eliminate the colony, as that bait might not be present in the nest any longer. Another good reason to dust within the nest itself if you possibly can locate it, using a residual dust or an inorganic dust that will last for a long time. This way any emerging adult ants would immediately be exposed to the dust and be affected by it.
Pest QuestionsNovember 07, 2011
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