Sep 20, 2011 – Book Louse ‘Em Danno
QUESTION:
A tenant on the 2nd floor of an apartment bldg has what appears to be psocids in their kitchen - on the counter top, floor, under the sink. I treated once with Cy-Kick inside and Temprid on exterior foundation and windows. Ten days later I treated with Temprid inside. A week later they called the manager and still see them. Any suggestions?
ANSWER:
I can't help but suggest that your first step might be to verify that the Psocids are actually still present in this apartment, and do this visually as well as with the use of glue traps. My cynicism occasionally (often?) rears its ugly head, and it is possible this particular tenant is imagining their presence still, is seeing something else other than psocids, or just likes getting his unit treated as often as possible. It would be worth a personal visit to ensure that the problem still exists, and if it does then an approach other than just applying insecticides is needed. The materials you used would certainly kill psocids if the bug and the active ingredient manage to come together, and in fact either one of them should be sufficient. Since psocids so often are associated with damp conditions a microencapsulated formulation might be more appropriate, but in most kitchens really excessive dampness would be unusual.
Psocids are one of those annoying little bugs that gets INTO things, and in one respect they may be a stored foods pest. Everything you read about them tells us that moisture control is the key. They rarely cause actual damage to food themselves, but their presence in food is a contamination that is undesirable. The primary foods of book lice, which of course are not actually "lice", is MOLDS, and it doesn't take much mold to fill up a psocid. Thus, any slight amount of dampness that can initiate the growth of mildew, mold, fungus, or whatever you want to call it, can attract and sustain book lice. These tiny insects also are very mobile, so they wander out fo the infested materials and onto the counters and floors and walls and into other things. The key is to find the infested packaging or any other material and eliminate it first, then you can achieve success with the use of insecticides applied around the general area. Your applications of Cy-Kick and Temprid probably did a fine job of killing the exposed psocids, but it was incapable of getting inside voids or packaging to attack the main problem.
Psocids feed on a great variety of materials too, so your focus in your inspection needs to look beyond just food containers. They are nasty little pests in insect collections, so dead insects in window sills or old insect nests (wasps, bees) could be fed upon. There might be a mildew problem under the kitchen sink or under the refrigerator that provides the perfect conditions to support large numbers of them. In some respects the presence of insects like psocids, fungus gnats, phorid flies, and other moisture lovers tells us of an unsanitary condition that should be found and corrected. The presence of excessive moisture could eventually lead to a decay fungus problem on structural wood.
So, I suggest you return to this apartment to verify the actual presence of these insects and if they are still there in some numbers that you take a flashlight, get the complete cooperation of the tenant, and perform a very detailed inspection of this apartment and all of the cupboards where food items are stored. It could be some very old package of baking mix that is just out of condition now, but finding the source is necessary.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
A tenant on the 2nd floor of an apartment bldg has what appears to be psocids in their kitchen - on the counter top, floor, under the sink. I treated once with Cy-Kick inside and Temprid on exterior foundation and windows. Ten days later I treated with Temprid inside. A week later they called the manager and still see them. Any suggestions?
ANSWER:
I can't help but suggest that your first step might be to verify that the Psocids are actually still present in this apartment, and do this visually as well as with the use of glue traps. My cynicism occasionally (often?) rears its ugly head, and it is possible this particular tenant is imagining their presence still, is seeing something else other than psocids, or just likes getting his unit treated as often as possible. It would be worth a personal visit to ensure that the problem still exists, and if it does then an approach other than just applying insecticides is needed. The materials you used would certainly kill psocids if the bug and the active ingredient manage to come together, and in fact either one of them should be sufficient. Since psocids so often are associated with damp conditions a microencapsulated formulation might be more appropriate, but in most kitchens really excessive dampness would be unusual.
Psocids are one of those annoying little bugs that gets INTO things, and in one respect they may be a stored foods pest. Everything you read about them tells us that moisture control is the key. They rarely cause actual damage to food themselves, but their presence in food is a contamination that is undesirable. The primary foods of book lice, which of course are not actually "lice", is MOLDS, and it doesn't take much mold to fill up a psocid. Thus, any slight amount of dampness that can initiate the growth of mildew, mold, fungus, or whatever you want to call it, can attract and sustain book lice. These tiny insects also are very mobile, so they wander out fo the infested materials and onto the counters and floors and walls and into other things. The key is to find the infested packaging or any other material and eliminate it first, then you can achieve success with the use of insecticides applied around the general area. Your applications of Cy-Kick and Temprid probably did a fine job of killing the exposed psocids, but it was incapable of getting inside voids or packaging to attack the main problem.
Psocids feed on a great variety of materials too, so your focus in your inspection needs to look beyond just food containers. They are nasty little pests in insect collections, so dead insects in window sills or old insect nests (wasps, bees) could be fed upon. There might be a mildew problem under the kitchen sink or under the refrigerator that provides the perfect conditions to support large numbers of them. In some respects the presence of insects like psocids, fungus gnats, phorid flies, and other moisture lovers tells us of an unsanitary condition that should be found and corrected. The presence of excessive moisture could eventually lead to a decay fungus problem on structural wood.
So, I suggest you return to this apartment to verify the actual presence of these insects and if they are still there in some numbers that you take a flashlight, get the complete cooperation of the tenant, and perform a very detailed inspection of this apartment and all of the cupboards where food items are stored. It could be some very old package of baking mix that is just out of condition now, but finding the source is necessary.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
