Archive for July, 2012

Jul 31, 2012 – A Pattern Not So Unique

QUESTION:

What type of spider has an hourglass shape on its back? I have tried to look up information on the internet and it either says it’s the black widow, which I know has the hourglass on the belly, but other information that pops up is The Redback Spider. Is this the spider that we are seeing? I have had people tell me they have them in the Fayetteville, NC area and we have seen them in the Salisbury, NC area. I would like to know what this is exactly. Many customers only know the hourglass and if they see it on the back they call in a panic about the widow spider. I want to make sure I am knowledgable for my customers as well as myself. How are we able to control these spiders as well. Is there a website that I can get more information from?

ANSWER:

This is the problem with customers having just a little bit of knowledge on a topic. First, black widows are so common in California that I suspect nearly every home has a few of them hanging around, and I have been into warehouses (empty, fortunately) where a PMP killed hundreds of them. Frankly, while I will not live with widow spiders in close company their presence does not send me screaming from the home. Our phobia here in California is the Violin Spider which, interestingly enough, does NOT LIVE in California. I guess we most worry about the things that do not exist. 

First, the Redback Spider is a black widow species – Latrodectus hasseltii – in Australia, and as far as I know it has never been found in the U.S. But, the female is the same shiny black of our widow spiders and the difference is that red marking on the dorsal side of the abdomen instead of underneath. The basic description of an “hourglass” marking from your customers probably reflects the basic knowledge they have of spiders, knowing that the widow spiders have this hourglass shape and thus they refer to that shape anytime they see something that resembles it. In fact, there are a lot of very different spiders that have patterns on top of their abdomen or thorax that could be described as kind of like an hourglass, including many of the ground spiders, some jumping spiders, wolf and crab spiders, and probably even some of the Orb Weaver spiders if the person seeing it is not familiar with these different kinds. 
There also now is the Brown Widow spider – Latrodectus geometricus – that is common in Florida and becoming widespread in California. It is a mottled gray-brown instead of shiny black but otherwise has the same basic body shape and long legs of the black widows, and a reddish-orange hourglass on the ventral side of the abdomen. Perhaps your customers are even seeing their spiders from the underside, but mistaking it for the top. 
There are so many different kinds of spiders that making a guess as to the ID of yours could easily be wrong and lead you astray. Better would be to take some examples to your local department of agriculture or university entomology museum and get a positive ID. That will enable you to get specific information on the proper spider and to be able to reassure your customers that the only really dangerous spiders in North America are the widow spiders. Even the Brown Recluse hazard is terribly overblown, although its bite can be serious to sensitive people. 

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Jul 28, 2012 – Going Crazy In Florida And Texas

QUESTION:

The ground is moving with Caribbean crazy ants. I have never seen anything like this. After identifying, monitoring and scouting I need control action guidelines. Do you have any suggestions on what to do next?

ANSWER:

Thisinvading ant species has proven to be a challenge, in part because of theoverwhelming numbers that it provides to us. It is given the scientific name ofNylanderia pubens, and is similar to other “crazy” ants we have in the U.S. with its single node, long antennae, and extremely rapid movements. It isnative to islands in the West Indies, but has been in southern Florida since at least1953. A more recent invader appeared in the Houston area of Texas around 2002,and is dubbed the Rasberry Crazy Ant, and this species is also giving humansfits with it massive numbers and highly active behavior. The exactidentification of the Rasberry Crazy Ant is still not determined, but it is aclose relative of the Caribbean Crazy Ant if not the same species. Currentresearch suggests that the Caribbean and Rasberry Crazy Ants are the samespecies, but slightly different geographic races.

Theproblem is not any immunity the ants have to current insecticides, but insteadis the sheer numbers that they occur in. They so overwhelm an area that eventhough millions may die there are millions more to take their place. One PMPreports he commonly finds them inside oak trees that have hollow interiors fromrot, and treating within this void causes major numbers of the ants to emergequickly, but hours later they are still emerging. The pesticides easily killthe ants on contact, but there are too many ants to affect them quickly. So farthe Rasberry Ant is still confined to southeastern Texas and the Caribbeanspecies still confined to the south half of Florida, but living things have away of expanding their range. Not a lot is known about their specific biology,but it appears they have colonies with multiple queens, increasing theirpotential to replace lost workers. They nest in almost any available place,feed on both proteins and carbohydrates, and forage in wide trails of thousandsof workers.

TheUniversity of Florida continues to work on developing an effective controlstrategy for this ant, as Texas A&M is also doing with the Rasberry Crazy Antin their state, but some of the standard IPM practices can be offered to atleast reduce the problems in landscapes and homes. Trimming vegetation awayfrom the exterior walls of structures reduces pathways into the home, creatingbare strips around the immediate perimeter of the foundation helps keep theants further away and maximizes the efficiency of any pesticides applied, andremoval of unnecessary clutter on the soil reduces nesting sites. Keepinglandscape plants free of pests such as aphids or scale insects reduces thehoneydew that these ants crave.

Atthis time even the university suggests that pesticides are necessary, althoughnot the perfect answer. In some feedback from PMPs in south Florida there issome promise using synthetic pyrethroids for their repellent action, and pyrethroidsof most kinds have given some relief from the ants for several weeks. The useof these as a perimeter treatment around structures may provide a “buffer zone”that lasts for a month or longer. There also has been good kill of the antsusing the non-repellents such as Termidor or I Maxx Pro, although completeelimination of nests and colonies does not seem to be happening yet. Baitinghas met with limited success so far, even though the ants do seem to feed oncarbohydrate baits. One suggestion that was offered was the use of the newerproduct Transport GHP, which received great label expansion in early 2008, withgood uses now for ant control around the exterior of structures. This isanother of the non-repellents and may be worth giving a try. The newerTransport Mikron has also given some PMP’s good results on these ants, alongwith the use of Talstar granules where labeled.

Themost up-to-date information from Texas A&M and from University of Floridatell us that the magic wand for this ant still does not exist. They suggest theuse of contact insecticides sprayed as a perimeter application aroundstructures and along trails the ants are using. This can be followed byplacement of sugar baits that are replaced regularly to keep them fresh andacceptable. Removal of all potential harborage sites on a property will help tolimit the presence of the ants, and this will be anything on the soil,including piles of landscape debris, boxes, lumber, etc. 

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Jul 29, 2012 – Bugs And The Weather

QUESTION:

How does humidity affect ants?

ANSWER:

This is an interesting question and one that I initially felt I would only be able to speculate on. But, thanks to my copy of the extraordinary book by E.O. Wilson and Holldobler – “The Ants” – I actually found some authoritative information. It may boil down to the fact that every species of animal has the “ideal” circumstances for their activity periods – foraging, nest building, etc. Those adapted to any particular habitat are going to do best at a certain range of temperatures and moisture conditions. Honeybees may not emerge for food gathering until temperatures reach a certain minimum and may halt their outside activity when the temperature reaches a certain maximum acceptable for them. 

Likewise, ants react to temperature and humidity, and in particular the exposed workers outside of the nest. A colony in the soil can somewhat moderate their own living conditions by maintaining the temperature and humidity levels by clustering together or moving deeper in the soil. But, if the ideal conditions do not exist above soil level or within the first few inches of the surface the colony may forego swarming flights or workers may not emerge to forage. For ant species that have evolved in a desert environment, such as red harvester ants, the ideal humidity may be much lower than that of the Red Imported Fire Ant, which evolved in tropical rainforests. Ants evolved to live in the Upper Midwest or in Canada would prefer outside conditions to be at temperatures lower than ants native to Florida or Arizona, so a heat wave in Wisconsin could cause the ants to hole up in their colony until things return to the ideal state. 
This can be said of many other insects as well – they are affected in some way by the weather. A particularly mild and dry winter is going to cause some insects to have population surges in the spring and others to not do as well. It often depends on what their food sources are, and a warm and rainy early spring could lead to more vegetation early in the year and thus more plant-feeding bugs to take advantage of this. This in turn might lead to more predatory insects that now have a greater food supply of the plant feeding bugs. 
Ants may be at the top of the list when it comes to the affect of weather, as they all are social insects and thus work as a group for the benefit of the entire colony. When something outside the colony, such as the weather, is not conducive to their success they will withdraw and wait for things to return to normal. 

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Local homeowners turn to professionals for pesky problems

FARGO – Karen Severtsen of Fargo has used Midwest to remove spiders and other creepy, crawly critters from her home for years. It started after she noticed spiders in a corner of her basement following flooding in 1997, and she?s …

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Jul 26, 2012 – Bed Bugs And Hotels

QUESTION:

Can you treat bed bugs by fumigation or fogging hotel guest rooms? What is the best treatment?


ANSWER:

I will say first that “fogging” is going to be fairly ineffective for resolving a bed bug problem. Fogging the air with pyrethrum may be able to kill some exposed adult bugs, but it will have no effect on bugs that are hidden within the many, many hiding places they are likely to be. This includes seams of mattresses, within dressers and all the crevices on dressers, behind head boards and items hanging on the walls, along the seams of carpets at the wall junction and behind wall baseboards, and even inside TV’s or bedside clocks. All of the bugs hiding within these places need to be killed or extracted in some other way, so don’t waste time and product fogging the air. 

Dealing with The Common Bed Bug – Cimex lectularius – is now known to be a very difficult and complex process. In a hotel it is an even larger challenge because of the ability of these bugs to move from room to room and floor to floor. I encourage anyone who plans to become involved in bed bug control to attend every training event possible and to read every resource available on them. This is an evolving process and new technologies are coming along each year. One of these is advancements in monitoring devices, such as the new “Verifi” detectors from FMC. These incorporate new attractants that seem to greatly enhance the performance, better enabling you to determine if the bugs are present in a room. There still are pitfall traps and other monitors that also effectively capture bed bugs, and these should be part of any program. 
Fumigation using Vikane is an option, but not a great one for a hotel due to the size of the building. The entire structure would have to be enclosed in a sealed tarp for the fumigant to be used effectively. If this hotel has a runaway problem on multiple floors and many rooms then fumigation might be an appropriate choice. Properly done you can guarantee that immediately after the fumigation all bugs and their eggs will be dead and the property free and clear of the problem……..for awhile at least. But, the cost would be very high, so it has to be compared with the cost of treating rooms one at a time, repeating treatments in most cases, and waiting for weeks to months to be certain the problem is gone. The cost of a fumigation also needs to be balanced with the liability aspect for the hotel, which may be losing business because of the infestation or be unable to rent many rooms because they are under treatment. A fumigation could quickly put all those rooms back into service. 
So, the “best” treatment for bed bugs is going to have to depend on the situation. If it is just one or two rooms then these MUST be taken out of service and treated very carefully and thoroughly using a combination of dusts within voids, residual contact products within cracks and crevices, installation of mattress encasements, and vacuuming. Many companies now also routinely use heating of individual rooms with good success, but this takes training and a lot of equipment. While any rooms are being treated all surrounding rooms, above, below, and to the sides, must be inspected and monitored to ensure they are not infested as well. 
Hotels, by now, had BETTER have a bed bug policy and protocol in place for all hotel employees. All of the housekeeping staff must be made aware of what to check for after each guest leaves a room. They also need to be taught how to prevent taking home bed bugs on their own clothing or in their own belongings. The hotel that still turns a blind eye to this problem is going to suffer some serious consequences. 

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At least 40 poisonous brown recluse spiders invade Nebraska man’s apartmentĀ to get out of the heat

It?s enough to make your skin crawl. A Nebraska man?s apartment has been infested with poisonous spiders,brought indoors in droves by the summer?s relentlessly hot temperatures. Dylan Baumann said he began finding the brown recluse spiders in his …

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Pet Owners Beware: Are Poised for Attack

(NewsUSA) – Pets, like humans, have been anxiously waiting for warm weather to play outdoors and enjoy nature. However, pet owners should prepare for a pest battle unlike in previous years as hungry ticks, fleas and mosquitoes await their prey — of the …

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Scared of spiders? Well, you haven’t seen anything yet

The exhibit SpidersAlive! is scheduled to run through Dec. 2 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Many provide humans with unheralded services such as pollination, sustenance, and pest control, but some of them gross us …

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Drought driving annoying insect infestations

In Iowa, Mike O’Toole, of AAA Pest Control, is a busy bee. “The are being driven inside because they’re looking for coolness, dampness — some place to get out of the sun and out of the heat,” he explains. Oklahoma has a particularly creepy problem.

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Look Out For Pests In Ash Trees, Ridgefield – The Daily Voice


Kansas City Star

Look Out For Pests In Ash Trees, Ridgefield
The Daily Voice
RIDGEFIELD, Conn. ? Check your ash trees, Ridgefield, for the signature D-shaped exit holes that mean the emerald ash borer has made its home in your trees. After the July 16 discovery of the borers in Prospect and Naugatuck, state environmental
Unwanted Guest: Emerald Ash Borer is Here to StayPatch.com
Area officials scramble to save ash treesGuelph Mercury

all 29 news articles »

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