Archive for January, 2012

Poisoning cases show dangers of pesticide misuse

Pesticide-laced globs of meat are strategically located to get rid of animals that people view as , but the concoctions have proven to be deadly to animals that weren’t intended targets. Four hunting dogs died a year ago this week after …

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Pests in the NewsJanuary 03, 2012

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Bugs turned into ‘tasty’ lollipops, bread and biscuits in Oz

Skye Blackburn is an entomologist – one who studies . She breeds edible at an insect farm near Sydney, Sky News reported. Blackburn sells the bugs as novelty gifts. She puts crickets and worms into lollipops or covers them with …

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Pests in the NewsJanuary 03, 2012

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Jan 3, 2012 – Blood Exposure

QUESTION:

A question on blood borne pathogens and disease in engorged bed bugs. It has not been shown that bed bugs transmit disease through routine feeding, but
what about when a pest control operator is exposed to the blood the bug has consumed, such as when or if engorged bugs are inadvertently “popped”? Also, is exposure to large quantities of bed bug fecal accumulations dangerous to the p.c.o.’s health?

ANSWER:

Interesting question Richard, and my answer will probably weigh heavily on my own speculation or thoughts, but we can start with the current standard opinion of our most respected researchers on bed bugs, and this is that The Common Bed Bug – Cimex lectularius – continues to NEVER be shown to be capable of vectoring any blood borne pathogens from one human to another. Now, this generally is with respect to a pathogen being ingested by a bed bug and then passed along to the next blood host in a second feeding in the same manner that fleas or mosquitoes vector diseases. There appears to be no mechanism within a bed bug for this to happen. Two years ago, when Swine Flu became a health threat and the media overwhelmed us with horror stories about it, the internet came alive with opinions, blogs, and chat rooms stating that bed bugs could spread swine flu. This simply was inaccurate and unfortunate. Gee, gotta love the internet. 

But, what about fresh blood in a bed bug suddenly ending up on your skin? Let me tell a story from a vector control class I attended years ago, when the topic of mosquitoes and AIDS was addressed, since so many people firmly believe that mosquitoes could be vectors of AIDS. This too has been soundly refuted with a great many studies, but the instructors of this course suggested that (purely hypothetical, I might add) if any insect is capable of transmitting AIDS from one human to another perhaps it could be deer or horse flies. Again, I stress that this was purely hypothetical and these insects have never been shown to be vectors of this disease. But, what they were suggesting was that these flies are “messy” feeders, slashing the skin open with their scissors-like mandibles and allowing the blood to flow. If they began feeding on infected blood and were interrupted before getting a full meal perhaps…….purely “perhaps” …… they could fly to a second human host, open the skin, and perhaps allow some of the fresh blood from the first host to enter the blood stream of that second host. 
May I stress once again this was purely hypothetical. I don’t want anyone saying Mr. Pest Control says horse flies spread AIDS. But, in order for this even to work it would require that the infected blood somehow find its way into the second host via an opening in the skin and into the blood vessels. Simply popping an engorged bed bug or any other insect and getting that blood on unbroken skin to be washed off immediately should pose no potential for transmission. Pathogens in the blood would not be capable of burrowing through the barrier our skin provides. So, as long as you do not eat the bed bugs or have open sores available for that blood to get into I don’t believe this is an issue for pest control technicians. 
With respect to exposure to the fecal material, which of course is just dried blood, this also has not been discussed at any of the many bed bug seminars I have attended. I do believe that the fecal matter of any living organism should be considered “filth”, and filth has a potential to have undesirable things growing on it, so I personally would protect myself from exposure to it and recommend that the feces be removed and the surface sanitized. Just as with rodent and bird droppings, it is less the dropping itself and more the pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and fungi that grown on this material that we do not want to inhale or ingest. Blood probably provides a great growth medium for pathogenic micro-organisms. Therefore it would be good policy to wear an appropriate respiratory device and gloves when working around these materials. It’s also possible that the greater concern could be an allergic reaction due to foreign proteins in the fecal material, and our immune systems generally are not fond of foreign proteins that get into our bodies. 

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Pest QuestionsJanuary 03, 2012

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Dec 31, 2011 – Do You Hear A Ticking?

QUESTION:

I am in Arizona and found a few ticks on my two dogs. One was gray and fat and the other three were clustered together and were small with a brown/blackish color. My other dog had a cluster of something (either a scab or maybe eggs) by its ear with red skin irritation. My question is can ticks lay eggs somewhere on the dog’s body too? I know they can lay them in the house, but I want to be sure. This is a new problem. My dogs have never had ticks and I want to get a good jump on them early in the game. I’m about to spray inside and out. Do you have any suggestions for treatment /eradication of dog ticks. Thank you in advance.

ANSWER:

I never say never when it comes to bugs, but it would seem to be highly unusual for the female tick to remain on the dog to deposit her eggs. I looked at a lot of references and scanned the internet and did not come up with any reliable sources that mentioned this possibility. Typically the female engorges during her final stage as the adult, drops off the host animal, and finds some other sheltered place to dump her mass of up to several thousand eggs. The fat gray one you saw was the engorged female and the others could have been males that may have clustered around the female looking for the opportunity to mate. They also could have been nymphs that all just found a good spot to feed, and sometimes ticks do cluster in certain places. 

Pyrethroids should be effective against ticks, but the problem is getting the active ingredient into the possible places where the female has deposited those eggs. Certainly the best course of action is to inspect pets regularly and remove and kill the ticks immediately when found, crushing them thoroughly or cutting them in half. Their leathery bodies just don’t want to die easily. This will prevent the full development of that female which then can wander into some hidden place where you may not find her during the application. She may go behind baseboards or some other obvious place, or she may crawl up into furniture, draperies, clothing, or any other hidden place where an insecticide treatment would not typically be done. This could leave those thousands of eggs available to hatch and the new (hungry) nymphs not exposed to any insecticide material. The eggs may not even hatch for a couple of months, possibly long after any active ingredient you applied has degraded and is ineffective anyhow. Prevention by early detection definitely is the best protocol. 
But, if you do feel the need to treat it may need to be repeated a few times to ensure some residual material is still there when those new “seed” ticks, called the larvae, come out of hiding. Using a microencapsulated formulation could extend the residual considerably as well as place those thousands of microscopic capsules where the wandering ticks can gather them up on their bodies as they move about. Thoroughness will be the key for placing active ingredient anywhere the female may end up. It might be useful to place a lot of insect glue traps along the edges of walls to, and inspect these daily when you feel tick activity may begin. 

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Pest QuestionsJanuary 02, 2012

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Jan 1, 2012 – Ozone and Bed Bugs

QUESTION:

Does ozone kill bed bugs, and if so who makes an ozone generator that will do the job?

ANSWER:

At the last NPMA Conference there appeared to be a single vendor showing his ozone generating system for bed bug control, and I spent awhile listening to his talk about how it is used. Interestingly he also sells electric foggers and liquid pyrethrum for treating after the ozone application is completed to, in his words, “kill any bed bugs that are still alive”. This alone gave me less confidence in his approach with ozone. I also do not believe that fogging the air in an infested room is going to have much effect on bed bugs that are secluded within mattresses, furniture, or equipment and walls, so that also seemed to be a sign of uncertainty about his knowledge of bed bugs. 

There were a great many presentations and talks on bed bugs by our respected university researchers, and not a single session even mentioned ozone as a practical approach. However, I did ask one of the most involved researchers directly, while speaking with him, and when I mentioned ozone he just sort of rolled his eyes as a sign that he himself did not have much faith in this method. Perhaps this is because it is a very new idea that simply has not yet been independently tested, and perhaps ozone truly does kill bed bugs effectively, but until our university researchers study and embrace it I tend to be skeptical. 
In a recent post on Bed Bug Central, which offers very up to date information on bed bug control, Cooper Pest Solutions stated that they have found current ozone treatments to be ineffective as a treatment of structures such as homes or apartments. The theory behind the use of ozone is that it seems to effectively kill many other kinds of living things, such as bacteria or even foul odors, and therefore it should also kill any insects. This may eventually turn out to be an effective technique, but for now the people I rely on for good information are not optimistic about the current technology. 

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Pest QuestionsJanuary 01, 2012

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