Archive for August, 2012

3780 Miles Later, Cooper Reflects on Bike Ride Across U.S. – Patch.com

3780 Miles Later, Cooper Reflects on Bike Ride Across U.S.
Patch.com
Last week, Phil Cooper, president and CEO of ?Cooper Pest Control?, finished a 62-day bicycle ride across the United States to help raise money for Multiple Sclerosis research?. By Jacquelyn Pillsbury; Email the author; 5:45 am. Tweet. Email. Print …

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Pests in the NewsAugust 09, 2012

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Bring your bee game: Stinging pests more aggressive in long summer – Grand Forks Herald

Bring your bee game: Stinging pests more aggressive in long summer
Grand Forks Herald
Bring your bee game: Stinging pests more aggressive in long summer. Bees, hornets and yellow jackets don't seem to be in short supply this summer in the Grand Forks area, but the sprays to keep them away are. By: Brandi Jewett, Grand Forks Herald …

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Pests in the NewsAugust 09, 2012

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Black widow spider booms, spreads in Kansas on the persistent warmth, heat – Examiner.com


Examiner.com

Black widow spider booms, spreads in Kansas on the persistent warmth, heat
Examiner.com
The persistent warmth over this past winter season combined with the excessive summer heat have been the main factors in the expanding and exploding population of the spiders, according to pest control officials. "In the dead of winter, we would have a …

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Pests in the NewsAugust 09, 2012

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Insect ravaging alfalfa crops – Ottawa Sun

Insect ravaging alfalfa crops
Ottawa Sun
An adult potato leafhopper is shown with a nymph. The insect's toxic saliva is devastating Ontario alfalfa crops. The hot, dry weather has provided ideal breeding conditions and the illusion that drought ? not the insect ? is to blame for stunted crops.

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Pests in the NewsAugust 09, 2012

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British councils nix rat removal services

LONDON, Aug. 6 (UPI) — British pest control experts said recent cuts to public rat removal services could put low-income households at risk for vermin-spread diseases.

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Pests in the NewsAugust 09, 2012

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Spiriling white fly wreaks havoc on South Florida trees

In these hot summer months, the Rugose spiraling white fly is spreading to palm trees, gumbo limbos, even black olive trees.  And the pesky pests are making a mess. "This gooey stuff was on the windshield and we couldn't get it off," said Pam Jibb.  Jibb likes to spend lots of time outside her Wilton Manors home, underneath the shade of her large Gumbo Limbo tree, but these days it's really no …

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Pests in the NewsAugust 09, 2012

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Aug 7, 2012 – Clothes Moth Capabilities

QUESTION:

Two questions on clothes moths. How far can they fly? Can they live in heating / cooling ducts?


ANSWER:

In the Mallis Handbook of Pest Control there are comments about the ability of the Webbing Cloths Moth to fly, and I suspect that the Casemaking clothes moth may be similar. They state that it normally will be males that you see flying around, as the female may be so bulked up with her eggs that she is too heavy to fly comfortably, although it is possible she will and once she has deposited all of her eggs she then will more readily fly. And, of course, these moths generally avoid light, so they would not be the culprits if your customer finds moths flying around lamps inside or porch lights outside. 

They go on to talk about the distance the moths may fly, and while these are not really strong fliers they have been found to move over 300 feet from a warehouse that was infested to nearby homes, and to find their way inside these homes. Obviously these moths occur outside of structures and find their own way inside to infest susceptible materials, so even with a weak flight they manage to get around on their own. 
The clothes moths, like the carpet beetles, are scavengers and decomposers. Their “role” in nature is to feed on leftover animal materials, such as hair, feathers, dead insects, and to reduce them to powder that would then move back into the soil as nutrients for plants to use as food. They are very, very efficient at finding these kinds of food resources within a home. If there were any of these foods within those heating or cooling ducts I suppose the adult moths would detect them and could find a way into the ducts to deposit their eggs. The question, of course, is what could possibly be within the ducts that the moth larvae would eat, and for most systems it would seem that these ducts shouldn’t have much in them in the way of hair or feathers or dead bugs. But, it is “possible” – maybe there is a break in the duct-work somewhere that allowed a bird or rodent to get in. Perhaps the filters are not in place and things are getting sucked in. 
I would say that it is possible for the moths to GET into ducts if they detect a food source, but not to LIVE within the ducts just as a place to hang out. 

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

Pest QuestionsAugust 09, 2012

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Aug 8, 2012 – Best for Spiders

QUESTION:

Spiders have been REALLY BAD here this year and I have been getting a whole lot of complaints about them. I have switched products to Temprid and Tempo Ultra and have been dusting weepholes, under decks/patios, and any other place I can see spider webs. What, in your opinion, is the best product for controlling these SOB’s? If you have any other suggestions, I’m all ears.

ANSWER:

I’ll be honest with you Jeremy and say that pyrethroids like Tempo and Temprid have always been the superior materials for spiders. This would also include other pyrethroid active ingredients such as permethrin, cypermethrin, deltamethrin, etc. They have, since Demon TC first started its use on spiders about 25 years ago, just knocked these difficult pests down quickly and with some lengthy residual effect. Some of the new chemistries other than pyrethroids will likely show great spider control as well, but the pyrethroids should continue to be good choices. 

You should talk about spiders and their biology with your customers, and perhaps suggest managing exterior lights as well as possible. Where the lights can simply be shut off at night this will really help keep night-flying bugs away from porches, and spiders have figured out that if they too hang around the lights there will be plenty of other bugs to eat, so one manages the other. You also, if you are not already, could be using a Webster duster each visit for a quick walk around the home to remove spider webs. This could possibly be an add-on service for a few dollars more, but with the persistent webs gone the customer no longer perceives the spiders to still be there. 
But, living things go in cycles too, and more spiders this year suggests that there must be more of their own food available. The heat this summer, nationwide, seems to be higher than usual, and from all the news reports this has translated to more bugs in general. It may have nothing to do with what you are using and how as much as it does to just more spider pressures. There also are a few spider web materials, like Web Away or Cobweb Eliminator, that are advertised to not only remove the existing webs when you spray them but to discourage spiders from building new webs on that treated surface. Supposedly it somehow makes it difficult for the web-spinning spiders to attach the webs to the surface. 

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

Pest QuestionsAugust 08, 2012

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Thwart summer with long pants outdoors, nets indoors

JAPAN – The mosquito is one of summer’s . Although there are various ways to prevent mosquito bites, special care should be given to young children, who are more likely to be targeted than adults. It’s not just the itching. Children sometimes suffer a …

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Pests in the NewsAugust 07, 2012

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Lawn thrive in hot weather

August heat drives many of us inside to our air-conditioned environment, ignoring yardwork. However, it would be wise to occasionally venture out to inspect lawns because lawn don?t take a break from the heat. On the contrary, hot and …

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Pests in the NewsAugust 07, 2012

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