Archive for May, 2012

Roach In McDonald’s Hash Browns: Man Finds Deep-Fried Bug In Breakfast … – Huffington Post

Roach In McDonald's Hash Browns: Man Finds Deep-Fried Bug In Breakfast …
Huffington Post
After ordering a McDonald's hash brown and eating most of it, the user was startled to find what appeared to be a deep-fried insect stuck to the bottom half. The text accompanying the image — which is pretty gross, by the way — reads "I was eating a …

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Pests in the NewsMay 16, 2012

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May 16, 2012 – Finding Food Pests

QUESTION:

I would like to know more about the chemical control methods and IPM measures necessary to control a really bad case of Sitophilus oryzae – the Rice weevil. Can you help me?


ANSWER:

You don’t indicate whether this infestation is in a home or in a commercial food warehouse, and the difference can be huge. Perhaps it even is in a restaurant, although this could be treated more like a residential infestation. Control of insects that infest food always relies on finding the food that is infested. Since this will nearly always be some food product within a bag or some other container, pesticide applications are not going to have any effect on the larvae developing within that food. You may want to use a residual contact insecticide around the general area AFTER you have disposed of the infested foods and cleaned the area, but not until then. 

The Rice Weevil is nearly always going to infest whole grains of some kind – corn, wheat, rice, beans, and other whole, unbroken grains and seeds. It could be bird seed in a home or pet store. It could even be hard dry pet foods, as these hard chunks simulate the hard seeds that the rice weevil female looks for to deposit her eggs. It is highly unlikely that they will infest processed foods, ground meals, and other grain-based products that have gone through some processing. In a home it is possible for wild animals to have brought seeds and grains and other materials into the home, and the beetles could have found these stashed away in a wall or the attic. Decorative items are even subject to infestation, such as dry flower arrangements that have stalks of wheat or other decorative seeds in them. It was a fad a few decades ago to have shadow boxes on the wall, with numerous compartments that held colorful seeds, popcorn, grains of wheat or rice, and these were often infested. It is, after all, the “job” of these weevils to seek out old, dry grains and infest them. 
So, I would avoid any pesticide applications until after you have made a thorough inspection, discovered the infested materials, disposed of them, and thoroughly vacuumed the general area to remove as many wandering adult beetles as you can. The larvae live wholly within the food product. As far as non-chemical steps to manage these weevils, it begins with making the susceptible foods unavailable and using product quickly, rather than leaving bags of rice or dry beans stuck away in the back of a storage area. This is simply called “good stock rotation”, whether it is a home, restaurant, or commercial warehouse. For small quantities the food products could be placed within sealed, hard containers to prevent the adult beetles from getting to the food. 
There also are pheromone traps for these weevils, and since the Rice Weevil can fly the hanging traps can be useful. The related Granary Weevil cannot fly, so floor traps are more appropriate for it. These may best be used in commercial warehouses as your “early warning” monitor to detect when beetles first enter the warehouse, or perhaps when infested product gets brought into the warehouse. In a home or smaller account the traps could help you to find what is infested, by narrowing the search when you find many of the beetles in traps in certain areas of the structure. 

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Pest QuestionsMay 16, 2012

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Inspectors target in shipments of flowers

The last thing any mom wants next weekend is a pest. To keep that from happening, federal authorities are preparing for Mother’s Day by scrutinizing an estimated 40 million flowers for bugs, eggs and larvae hiding in shipments coming from South …

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Pests in the NewsMay 15, 2012

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Warm weather means more active ticks, mosquitoes

Less easy to see are the ticks and other that came with them — unless you’re swatting them away. Tick season got an early start this year by as much as three to four weeks, said Michael Raupp, a professor of entomology at the …

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Pests in the NewsMay 15, 2012

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Fight back against invaders – Poughkeepsie Journal

Fight back against invaders
Poughkeepsie Journal
Associated Press file Craig Thomas of Craig Thomas Pest Control in Hyde Park said in the Hudson Valley ants are the No. 1 household pest, particularly carpenter ants. / Karl Rabe/Journal file Now that the weather is getting warmer, can the influx of …

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Pests in the NewsMay 15, 2012

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Common lawn insect pests – The Northwest Florida Daily News

Common lawn insect pests
The Northwest Florida Daily News
Part grass at the margin of the yellowed areas and closely examine the soil surface for tiny insects. Immature chinch bugs are pink to bright red and are about the size of a pinhead. Adults are black with white wings and about one-fifth inch long.

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Pests in the NewsMay 15, 2012

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Meet the beetle: Asian pest a threat to California’s avocado crop

But other imported have arrived on shipping crates or in plants smuggled in by travelers. California’s commercial avocado groves so far have been spared. But the state’s growers are concerned enough that the California Avocado Commission …

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Pests in the NewsMay 15, 2012

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Aster Leafhoppers Seen In Fields, Gardens

“Aster leafhoppers (Macrosteles quadrilineatus) are popping up, literally, in large numbers in the eastern part of the state,” Szczepaniec said, of the small , about an eighth of an inch in size. “We’ve seen uncommonly high …

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Pests in the NewsMay 15, 2012

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May 13, 2012 – Termiticides And Aquatic Sites

QUESTION:

What distance is safe from a body of water to foam a tree with an active formosan termite infestation?

ANSWER:

When treating with any pesticide where any aquatic site is nearby you are bound by the Label instructions, if there are any, and if there are no specific label statements then you need to go with good reasoning and observation. In the case of a termite treatment such as you mention I looked only at one termiticide label, but it serves as a good example. The Dragnet SFR label states that you may “not apply  by ground equipment within 25 feet of lakes, reservoirs, rivers, permanent streams, marshes or natural ponds, estuaries, and commercial fish farm ponds”. This, therefore, becomes the minimum distance you must stay from any kind of aquatic site. 

Other considerations come into play, such as the possible presence of a high water table, a treatment to soil that may be lower than the nearby water site, etc. Since you desperately want to keep any termiticide out of surface as well as ground waters you might consider treating in the manner the label states when treating with a well or cistern under a structure, and that is with the treated backfill method. You remove soil, place it on a plastic tarp, treat the soil with the appropriate volume of the termiticide and ensure it is evenly mixed in the soil, and once it is absorbed properly in that soil you replace the treated soil into the trench it came from. Once termiticides are absorbed into soil particles, and particularly when they are dry, they bind (adsorb) tightly to the soil and will not move. Our termiticides in general have a very low water solubility, meaning they do not dissolve in water at any appreciable level and therefore will not be carried through the soil with subsequent rainfall. 
If you are foaming directly into a tree, where hollow areas exist, then it would be advisable to use a very “dry” foam that will prevent it from running. This will allow the foam to fill the cavity and then dissipate as the bubbles break, leaving the active ingredient only on the surfaces you treated instead of flowing downhill and into the soil below. However, you still would need to adhere to that 25 feet distance from nearby aquatic sites as stated on the Dragnet label. 
Other considerations to look for when treating outdoors would be soil type and degree of the slope. If you have a steep slope it would encourage runoff rather quickly. If you have a very porous soil, such as a sandy texture, this could allow liquid applications to move much deeper, since there is less actual clay or organic matter for the active ingredient to adhere to. If you have a soil that is already saturated, perhaps by recent heavy rains, then you would want to avoid getting termiticide onto it as the liquid you apply may not soak in and could more easily run off the area. 

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Pest QuestionsMay 15, 2012

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Keep Your Garden Looking Healthy By Getting Rid Of

Noticing that holes have been chewed into your plants since you last saw them is quite a nasty surprize. The devastation has typically been attributable to . The many usual ones are slugs, worms and birds, but you can also find caterpillars …

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Pests in the NewsMay 14, 2012

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