Archive for October, 2012

Agricultural pest is targeted in Santa Clarita Valley – Los Angeles Times

Agricultural pest is targeted in Santa Clarita Valley
Los Angeles Times
The flies are among a dozen pests featured on California's "Most Wanted Insect Pests" list, including Mediterranean fruit flies and Japanese beetles. To report incidents, consult the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner/Weights and Measures …

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Pests in the NewsOctober 04, 2012

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REGION: Insect forces local farmer out of the raspberry business for good – Dearborn Press and Guide

REGION: Insect forces local farmer out of the raspberry business for good
Dearborn Press and Guide
Moreover, from what Girard has been able to determine, this pest is proving too expensive to fight, so Rowe's is abandoning its raspberry business altogether. Girard, who has been operating Rowe's since 1988, says spraying to keep the spotted wing …

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Pests in the NewsOctober 04, 2012

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New insect pests converging on Virginia soybeans – Southeast Farm Press

New insect pests converging on Virginia soybeans
Southeast Farm Press
This year there were several first-time-ever's with insect pests in the Virginia soybean crop. For the first time ever, we found brown marmorated stink bugs (BMSB) in soybean fields in 41 counties, over half of the major soybean growing counties …

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Pests in the NewsOctober 04, 2012

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Fla. gets $9 million to study citrus disease – Sacramento Bee


Local 10

Fla. gets $9 million to study citrus disease
Sacramento Bee
The Lake Alfred research project is working to halt greening by stopping the ability of insects to spread the disease from infected trees to healthy ones. Citrus greening is a bacterial disease that can weaken a tree's productivity. By some estimates …
Citrus Industry: Feds Gives Fla. $9 Mil. For Greening FightThe Ledger
Florida awarded millions to study greening diseaseLocal 10

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Pests in the NewsOctober 04, 2012

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Oct 2, 2012 – On Gossamer Wings

QUESTION:

How do young Black Widow spiders leave the nest and go out on their own?

ANSWER:

Black widows are one of many kinds of spiders that disperse by “ballooning”, whereby the new born spiderling releases some silk into a breeze and then allows the wind to carry the strand of silk, with the spider on it, to wherever the wind shall go. This was nicely depicted years ago in a cartoon movie called “Charlotte’s Web”, where at the end of the movie the new baby spiders took off on their flight and the momma spider, as I recall, passed away – a bit morose for a Disney movie but pretty accurate, although the females do not necessarily die after producing their next generation. 

Within a black widow egg sac there may be 300-400 eggs, and once these all hatch that would end up to be far too many spiders competing for food resources in one place. Since black widows are really lousy walkers they prefer to fly to new locations rather than walk across the ground to get there. Another suggested reason for this dispersal habit is that it prevents “inbreeding”, which is always a bad idea in Nature. A species maintains its strength by mixing its genetic material among unrelated members of that species, so if 300 black widows all grew up and mated with one another, perhaps over several generations, it could begin to weaken that group’s ability to evolve and survive. 
The eggs hatch within the egg sac and the first instar spiders remain there until they have molted once, at which point these second instar spiders force their way out of the egg sac and commence the ballooning. This is normal in natural settings, but for black widows that may be living within a warehouse there may not be the necessary breezes to move them away. Now they may very well be relegated to setting up their own webs in the immediate vicinity of their parent or finding a way to walk away from that point to reduce the competitiveness. Black widows, once the maternal instinct of protecting the egg sac is over with, are just as happy eating each other as they are dining on flies, and if too many other spiders are nearby they may simply be fed upon. 

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Pest QuestionsOctober 04, 2012

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Oct 1, 2012 – American Roach Options

QUESTION:

How effective is Cy-Kick CS on American roaches and what other chemicals are good to use for them?

ANSWER:

Cy-Kick, which is microencapsulated cyfluthrin, should have no problem killing any American roaches that it gets onto, and microencapsulated formulations offer the advantage of attaching those microscopic capsules to the cuticle of a passing arthropod. Thus, many other insecticides would also be very effective, including many other pyrethroids as well as the newer families of chemistry. 

But, I continue to pound on the idea that we should avoid total reliance on insecticides as the solution for cockroach control. Obviously, for German roaches living within a structure there are sanitation problems that should be addressed and eliminated. The roaches cannot survive if they cannot find food, and when filth exists the roaches get comfortable and can produce lots of babies to enjoy it too. They also need to hide all day long, so the presence of many holes and gaps that allow them to get into dark voids and crevices will also encourage them to be there. These can be found and permanently filled to dramatically reduce the “harborage” opportunities. It has been demonstrated pretty nicely that without spraying a drop of insecticide you can greatly reduce the number of roaches in an account simply with these sanitation and physical steps. This also puts the population of roaches under stress, and a stressed-out cockroach is not as healthy. It becomes more susceptible to the toxic products that you do use, it reduces its breeding, it may choose to eat other roaches, and in general just does not do well. 
We can use these same concepts for American Roaches, and for these larger roaches it may be most common for them to be inside structures because they walked in on their own. In some areas of the country these larger roaches can be very common in the landscape outside, hiding under yard debris or other materials on the soil, within dense vegetation, or commonly in subterranean hideaways such as man-hole covers, sewer vents, water meter boxes in the ground, etc. Excessive moisture encourages their presence as well, so all of these unnecessary conditions may be addressed. Litter and yard debris should be removed and disposed of, leaving the soil as cleared and dry as possible. Thick groundcovers and dense shrubbery should be pruned so that the soil is exposed. Lumber piles and other materials that will remain should be stacked OFF the soil and away from the side of the structure. In general, take a close look at the exterior and see for yourself what exists there that you, if you were an American Cockroach, would be delighted to find. This includes removal of pet foods and bowls at night, cleanup of dropped fruits and vegetables, and other kinds of elimination of potential food resources. 
Outdoors you can use granular insect baits, which the large roaches seem to be very fond of. These may just be sprinkled around harborage sites, if the label allows it, or placed within insect bait stations to retain the bait and protect it from rain, irrigation, or the nosy dog. If you do find likely harborage such as nearby openings to sewers and storm drains they can be treated with a product labeled for that site. Try to create a cleared area around the immediate foundation so that you can more easily apply a “barrier” treatment that will help to intercept roaches that move to the foundation and along it as they look for an entry point. And, on that note, strongly consider “exclusion” as an important part of keeping these roaches and all other crawling pests out of the structure itself. 

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Pest QuestionsOctober 04, 2012

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Oct 3, 2012 – Correcting Some Misunderstandings?

QUESTION:

I have just started to service a restaurant with relatively minor pest issues, but they will not allow me to service when there is any food present, giving me only a small window of opportunity for when I can perform the service. I wanted to get some expert advice on this before pleading my case. I feel that I am experienced and trained enough to know how to
treat a restaurant without contaminating any food. My company’s standard is to stick mostly to IPM procedures, including inspection, small amounts of boric acid dust, and monitors in most cases. We typically do not use liquids or aerosols and definitely do not fog.

ANSWER:

Ultimately the customer is going to get their way, but I wonder if there are some issues here that you can dig out and discuss with this customer. Perhaps they have had some bad experiences with previous pest control companies and that feeling is carrying over to you and what you will provide. It may simply be a misunderstanding on their part of what you actually do for your program. People can pick up impressions of service industries and have a hard time letting them go. In this case perhaps this customer has just heard or read horror stories about bad pest control services and now expects that this is the normal way our industry operates. It sounds like you, however, are on the right track, and a heart to heart discussion with the customer should bring out what the issues are and help him to understand why you are a step above the previous companies. 

However, it may very well be that they do not want pest control being performed while their customers are present in this restaurant or while the kitchen is busy and in operation. Since their pest issues are minor so far they may prefer that their clientele don’t have to watch someone doing pest control operations while they dine, suggesting to these customers that some awful bugs must be present or they wouldn’t need to have you there. It may just be that having you working there while the restaurant is open for business would be perceived as an inconvenience for either the customers or the employees. If so, perhaps you can work out a compromise that allows you to do certain operations out of sight of the customers in the dining areas, and other procedures when the restaurant is closed for business. I can understand why they would not want you doing even careful inspections, which would include the dining areas, while patrons are sitting at the tables watching. It could be bad for the ambience. 
Now, by “food present” how far are they carrying it? If that means that the only time you would be permitted to do your work is when the restaurant is actually shut down or shutting down, that is more of a problem. Are they requiring that you stay out until after dining hours are over with and the employees have finished all of the final washing and cleanup that they do? This may be something that you can work on to come to that compromise that works for both of you. Perhaps there is some misunderstanding about the nature of the products that you may use. When they think of a “dust” they may perceive it being blown all over the place, perhaps, once again, due to some bad previous experience. Perhaps they think our liquid and aerosol products are “fumigants” or “highly volatile”, and explaining the nature of the materials could clear that up. Perhaps they believe that exposed food is absolutely going to be contaminated because insecticide vapors will be drifting all over the facility as you apply them. Perhaps they do not understand insect bait products and how they can be applied with zero exposure to anyone or anything outside the crevice or void you apply them into. 
Hopefully I am on track here and a more detailed discussion with the customer will reveal what his concerns really are and allow you to clear them up. But, again, the customer has the right to dictate the terms, and if it simply does not work for you then this may be a client that would lose you money in the long run and should not be taken on. 

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Pest QuestionsOctober 03, 2012

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Unlike you, pests don’t take the winter off

We’ve all been guilty of the should-have-would-have could-have syndrome in our gardens. It goes something like this: I should have put a wrap around the trunk of my new apple tree in the fall and that would have prevented those pesky rabbits …

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Pests in the NewsOctober 02, 2012

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Eco-friendly tips to protect homes from pesky bugs – Gilroy Dispatch


Cinema Blend

Eco-friendly tips to protect homes from pesky bugs
Gilroy Dispatch
To protect your home from unwanted pests, industry experts share these simple eco-friendly tips to keep pesky insects at bay. 1. Clean up brush and keep mulch and firewood piles away from the house to avoid creating habitats for critters and insects. 2.
Goodbye Summer, Hello Brown Marmorated Stink BugsCBS Local
Biology and Management of the Green Stink BugScience Daily (press release)

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Pests in the NewsOctober 02, 2012

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NJ’s most-hated insects: scary stink bugs, deadly bees, misunderstood mosquitoes – Hunterdon County Democrat – NJ.com


Hunterdon County Democrat – NJ.com

NJ's most-hated insects: scary stink bugs, deadly bees, misunderstood mosquitoes
Hunterdon County Democrat – NJ.com
Insects can be scary, like stink bugs, even deadly, like mosquitoes. There have been 33 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne West Nile Virus in New Jersey residents this year, and one elderly Burlington County man died this month. But mosquitoes aren …

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Pests in the NewsOctober 02, 2012

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