Archive for March, 2012

Giant fleas that fed on dinosaurs unearthed

FOSSIL hunters have uncovered the remains of giant Jurassic fleas that sucked the blood of ancient beasts more than 100 million years ago.

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Mar 2, 2012 – Anxious For Spring

QUESTION:

Why would honey bees swarm inside a school in February in Georgia?

ANSWER:

This has been, perhaps, an oddball weather year in many areas of the U.S. In California we have had very, very little rain and spring-like weather in January. This last weekend it went over 70 degrees, which triggers a lot of insects to emerge from winter dormancy. We have seen the spring butterflies already out, and every tree that will blossom seems to be doing it already. Since honeybees do not die off in the winter their colonies continue to be active, even though the foraging bees themselves may not emerge from their hives. I believe I once read that the minimum air temperature needs to be about 58 degrees Fahrenheit for honeybees to be active and foraging, so if you have also been having springtime weather that is warm this could be the stimulus that is bringing the bees out. 

Now, there are swarms outdoors, where a new Queen leaves an established colony to fly to someplace else to start a new colony, taking a large number of workers with her. These are the swarms that end up lingering on fences and tree limbs for a few days and then moving on. A “swarm” on the inside of a structure sounds to me more like a problem where a honeybee colony has been living in the walls or some other void in that school building and warm weather triggered the workers to start moving around. They then could have found their way down into the rooms below or nearby rather than going to the outside. Do you think this may be the case? If these are just a lot of bees flying around in there rather than some concentration of them in one location it suggests this confusion rather than the possibility that a moving queen ended up inside. 
If we accept that the bees may have come from some established hive within this structure then a very careful inspection needs to be done to determine exactly where that hive is located. The bees and the hive need to be extracted from the building or it could put children at risk. Having stinging social bees this close to human activity is not a good thing, and having a hive full of honey inside a wall is asking for troubles as well. Whether the school administration likes it or not, if the hive is determined to be within a hidden void, such as a wall void, that void needs to be physically opened once the bees are killed or removed, and the hive and honey need to be removed and the surfaces there cleaned thoroughly. You also need to determine where on the outside the bees were entering and permanently close off the opening(s). 

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Mar 3, 2012 – Reduced Risk Pesticides?

QUESTION:

Do you have a list of reduced risk pesticides?

ANSWER:

No Mike, this is not something we have put together so far. We do offer a couple of other resources that might be helpful in this regard, and you can find both of them on PestWeb in the tab “Industry” and then PestWeb Features. The resource is the “Going Green and Organic” highlight, with articles on these two topics and long listings of all of the Organic and Natural pesticides carried by Univar. 

Now, just because it is on either the Organic or the Natural list does not necessarily mean it is also classified as “Reduced Risk”, and this is a confusing issue. The EPA has a listing of “Minimum Risk” active ingredients in their FIFRA Section 25(b), and this includes many of the “natural” active ingredients. Products using only these minimum risk active ingredients may be exempt from registration by EPA. 
However, “reduced” risk is another topic altogether, and you can go to the EPA Reduced Risk page at http://www.epa.gov/opprd001/workplan/reducedrisk.html or Google “EPA Reduced Risk Pesticide” to find the same website. On this page you will find a link to their listing of all products that have been granted Reduced Risk status for one reason or another, and there are at least two reasons for being called reduced risk. One is called “Organophosphate Replacement” where the EPA believes a product would be a reasonable replacement for existing uses of OP pesticides, which they hope to phase out completely over time. The other criteria is that a “reduced” risk product and its proposed uses would pose a lower risk than the current alternative products used for that pest management program. 
Because of this a pesticide product may be reduced risk for SOME of the uses on its label but not necessarily all of them. Our best approach if we were to build such a list for the benefit of our customers would be to have each of the product manufacturers provide us with the list of their products that qualify, along with the reasons why that product is considered reduced risk. Because of its nebulous nature it is hard to make this determination without their input. But, begin by going to that EPA page and reviewing the list they offer there. 
What you will find is not easy to interpret. First of all, the list only goes up through 2010. Second, in one column called “Site” you will find the uses and sites for which that product is considered reduced risk, again a reminder that any product is not reduced risk for every use on its label. 

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

Grapevine lifts some CA quarantines

FRESNO, Calif. — California grape growers are celebrating a partial victory over the European grapevine moth as state and federal officials lift quarantines for 661,000 acres of vines. Meanwhile, the U.S. secretary of agriculture has released $ …

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Feb 29, 2012 – Sometimes They All Just Get Along

QUESTION:

How can an Insect Growth Regulator be mixed with a general pesticide and still be effective? Can you help me understand this? To me it seems sort of like mixing a repellent and non-repellent insecticide and rendering one or both of them useless.


ANSWER:

I think several factors are at work here, if I mix what I have heard over the years with what my perceptions are. First is the question of just how repellent the contact insecticides are, and I think most of these products can be repellent to some degree without being so repellent that insects refuse to rest on the dry deposits. The repellency also likely varies from insect to insect. Ants, for example, seem to have extremely sensitive little systems, and some of the early pyrethroid active ingredients appeared to be repellent enough that foraging ants just would not cross a treated surface. This has become less so with later “generations” of pyrethroids so that we now do get reasonably good success against ants. We also can mask the repellency of pyrethroids by encapsulating them, so microencapsulated formulations keep most of the active ingredient inside that microscopic capsule, releasing it slowly and allowing insects to contact it without being repelled. 

Other insects, probably most of the larger ones like roaches or crickets or earwigs, may have much less sensitivity to repellent products, so we can use them in crevices or other harborage of these insects and still expect the insect to happily rest in contact with the active ingredient. Much of the repellency is also going to be there at the start, particularly if the surface is still damp or very fresh, and perhaps it diminishes over time even while an effective residual still exists. This thought we can classify as my best guess. 
Another factor, though, might be the stability of the IGR’s compared with the more traditional active ingredients. Typically we might expect an effective residual from pyrethroids of a couple to a few weeks. Immediately upon being exposed to environmental factors of heat, light (UV), water, or alkaline surfaces many insecticide active ingredients begin to self destruct. The molecule that defines that active ingredient begins to break apart, and eventually there is little to no more of it left on that surface. This may be much faster outdoors than indoors, but in either case there will be a “half life” expectancy for any chemical molecule, and at some point in the near future there will no longer be enough of the original material left to effectively kill the insects. Without a doubt much of that repellency also disappears as the molecules change. 
IGR’s, however, are pretty darned stable. When methoprene first came into our market the manufacturer told us to expect a minimum of 6 MONTHS of effective residual indoors, and in some of their lab tests they even got a full year of effective residual. So, the IGR is going to be around long after the other non-IGR has gone away. Other IGR’s like nylar will also probably have good, long residuals. 
Methoprene (Precor) and Hydroprene (Gentrol) also have another interesting characteristic, if we are being told the truth by the manufacturers, and that is for the molecules to “flow” away from the point where they are applied and to redeposit onto other nearby surfaces. This is the reason the Gentrol Point Source tabs work – the hydroprene in the tab flows out of it and over surfaces around it to cover something like 9 square feet with the active ingredient. So, these IGRs will end up on surfaces where the repellent insecticides are not. I know the jury is still out on Gentrol for The Common Bed Bug, but if it works (and industry use tells us it does) this may be one of the reasons. Bed bugs may hide where they do not detect the repellent products but have no way to avoid a non-repellent IGR that flows into their hiding places. 

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

Grapevine lifts some quarantines

FRESNO (AP) — California grape growers are celebrating a partial victory over the European grapevine moth as state and federal officials lift quarantines for 661,000 acres of vines. Meanwhile, the U.S. secretary of agriculture has released $8 …

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Inspect for while pruning

Now is a good time to inspect landscape plants and fruit trees for cankers and signs of overwintering . After plants leaf out, signs of overwintering are more difficult to see. March is the best time to prune fruit trees. While inspecting trees …

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Fleas could be a big problem this spring & summer

Get ready for a plague of . Right now, fleas are already finding your pets. They found a South Tulsa Maltese named Sasha. Her owner, Ronda Johnson, spotted a teeny black flea on her white fluffy fur. “It was right on top of her ear,” she said.

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FDA cites contaminated vials, in APP warning letter

The FDA has posted its warning letter about APP Pharmaceuticals’ New York plant, and the citations aren’t pretty: Agency inspectors cited found in the drug production area, not to mention in several drug vials, including one that made …

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Scientists learn how ‘remodel’ their bodies between life stages

It’s one of life’s special moments: a child finds a fat caterpillar, puts it in a jar with a twig and a few leaves, and awakens one day to find the caterpillar has disappeared and an elegant but apparently lifeless case now hangs from the twig.

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