Archive for the ‘Pest Questions’ Category

Apr 30, 2012 – Ant Exclusion

QUESTION:

Greetings. Is caulk is a good method for ants?


ANSWER:

I would say yes and no Jodi. Certainly anything we can do to close entry points for any pest, including ants, is helpful in keeping them out of a structure. Even though we know that tiny ants are still going to find some equally tiny openings to move through, we at least can concentrate on fewer entry points if we have permanently closed many of them. And, every opening we fill to exclude ants also excludes all those other crawling invaders too. 

Some of these may be obvious and important, such as gaps around pipes or cables that move through exterior walls. Filling these is easy and addresses what may be a large gap on a side wall. Gaps around doors and windows also could be filled in, and all of this also leads to better containment of heat or cooling to maintain the indoor temperature where wanted. There may be some very difficult ant pests, such as the white footed ant, where insecticides are not going to be the total answer, and sealing outside openings helps a great deal. This might include running a line of caulk along the underside of siding to close off those major gaps – once sealed properly the ants have to look somewhere else for entry. 
Trying to seal up gaps on the interior is going to be less likely to succeed, as there are just so many potential places ants could move into the home from wall voids or under floors or down from attics. But, the combination of cleanup and sanitation outdoors to remove ant harborage, keeping shrubs and trees from touching the structure and creating ant highways, moisture management outdoors, removal of food resources indoors, exclusion to eliminate entry points, and the use of contact insecticides and baits gives the best chance to win the battle. 

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Pest QuestionsApril 30, 2012

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Apr 27, 2012 – New Door, Old Problem?

QUESTION:

I had an inspection of an apartment that had new wood doors installed. The client has complained that the doors have some type of wood termite, and we detected that the doors have holes the size of a pen tip. The manufacturer indicated that the inside of the doors might have an infestation of a wood boring insect. If you can send me information as to the type of termite we might be dealing with and the the treatment to solve the situation.

ANSWER:

Since this is a new door, although you don’t indicate how old the door might be, it is very possible that it was built with infested wood. This is not an uncommon problem for lumber to become infested while in storage, although it IS unusual for a wood products manufacturer to actually suggest that they may be at fault. With holes the size of the tip of a pen it could be True Powderpost Beetles if this is a hardwood door, such as oak, or deathwatch / furniture beetles if it is pine. Either of these beetles has the potential to continue to infest the wood with future generations of offspring. I would discount the idea that it is termites, although you do have drywood termites in your area, because the evidence of these termites is not the holes in the wood so much as the appearance of their fecal pellets that are pushed out of their galleries and which fall to the surfaces below. 

It would be important to determine whether or not this is currently an active infestation, and one reason is that successfully treating the doors could be difficult. I assume the doors have some kind of finish on them – paint or a clear finish – and therefore applying an insecticide to the doors could be ineffective. A product like Bora-Care, which has the potential to move into the wood to kill beetle larvae within, can only be applied to bare wood. Other topically-applied insecticides either also need to go onto bare wood or they have the potential only to kill emerging adult beetles, as they do not penetrate deeply enough to get to larvae feeding inside. Another option would be to remove the potentially infested doors and have them fumigated or heat-treated by someone licensed to do this, and removing the doors to apartments for a couple of days is probably not realistic. 
It also is possible that the doors had the holes when they were purchased and installed, and that this infestation long ago ran its course. Since the cost of treating all of them could be quite high it might make more sense to get the manufacturer of the doors to replace them at his expense, particularly since he has indicated his suspicion that he may had sold them doors that were infested. You might also try filling all the current holes in the doors and waiting to see if any new holes appear. This would indicate an ongoing infestation. Some wood products will often have old holes from bark beetles or ambrosia beetles, and the holes are simply exposed when the wood is milled into lumber, the saw cutting through the old galleries. These could be identified by the angle at which the holes meet the wood surface – at an angle instead of perpendicular to the surface. 
So, my suggested course of action would be to first ensure the holes are appearing now after the doors were installed. Second would be to work with the manufacturer of the doors to replace them, and third would be to treat in whatever manner is possible with these doors if you determine the infestation is live and ongoing. 

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Pest QuestionsApril 29, 2012

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Apr 28, 2012 – Bugs And Yachts

QUESTION:

What is the best way to treat common pests (mostly roaches) on a boat? The potential client’s current pest control company uses the fumigation technique. Is this best?

ANSWER:

Fumigation seems a bit drastic if we are talking about an actual use of a fumigant, which would be Vikane. However, this certainly would ensure the kill of all insects and their eggs on that boat if done properly, and my understanding is that the vessel is tarped with the lower edges of the tarp simply draped onto the water, which serves as an excellent barrier to prevent loss of the fumigant. If there is one major drawback to fumigation it is that there is no future protection to prevent new pests from coming onto the boat immediately, assuming that nothing else is done in an overall IPM effort. 

Otherwise, there are many products labeled for use on “ships, boats, vessels” that you could legally use on this site, and to see the entire list of products labeled for them look on PestWeb under “Products / Product Documents / Products by Approved Site / Structures / Commercial Structures / Boats, Ships”, and you will see that the list is quite extensive. 
A boat represents an interesting challenge, as you would think that it is a closed site where roaches and other crawling pests could only access it if they are brought on within infested materials. However, it also is very possible for the bugs to wander on by themselves by crawling up the various ropes that tie the boat to a dock, and this is one aspect that should be addressed. Finding a way to exclude the insects from the boat would be an important step in long-term management. Preventing them from getting onto the boat in the first place is probably a lot simpler than continuously trying to remove them once they are on and in hiding. One possibility would be the use of metal rings around the rope similar to what might be used to prevent rodents. Roaches would not be able to climb over the smooth metal sides, although the fit around the rope would have to be very tight so they could not get under. Possibly a layer of sticky glue on the end of each rope also would be a deterrent. 
Within the boat itself the roach control would be as it would in any other home. The focus would be on complete removal of all food resources, and the customer would need to cooperate with you in keeping all foods within sealed containers. You then could treat using a crack and crevice technique with residuals, use cockroach baits as directed, and perhaps dust within wall voids where you can access them. 

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Pest QuestionsApril 28, 2012

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Apr 25, 2012 – SQF Inspection

QUESTION:

We are getting ready for our 1st SQF 2000 audit and they require all our doors be fly-proof. So, we have self closing doors that have a tight seal. Do you think we will be required to have air curtains on all our external doors? Thank you for your time.

ANSWER:

That is a good question Duane, and hopefully one that the inspectors will handle realistically and without some punishment for not having it done in advance. I was not familiar with the Safe Quality Food 2000 process, but thank goodness for the internet, where I found quite a bit of information available. However, in roaming through the various websites and documents I did not come across anything that got specific on any kind of pest or specific steps to be taken for any pests. This will likely boil down to the perceptions of the auditors and whether or not they are satisfied that you have taken appropriate steps to prevent flies from entering. 

I don’t know if you are a food manufacturer, distributor, or retail center, and this could be a factor in whether air doors are appropriate for your facility. Obviously a grocery store with air doors over each entry way would tend to annoy their customers each time a hairdo got blown around. But, for distribution warehouses or manufacturing where the end customers are not entering and leaving all the time you could take more dramatic steps in fly prevention. The words “fly proof” also are subject to interpretation, and if the auditors for some reason believe you should be able to exclude every last fly it would not be realistic. Instead, installing plastic curtains where vehicles may enter or leave (forklifts), pyrethrum misting aerosols within entryways, and air doors in some other low doorways may be useful. At a national seminar on fly management some years ago it was suggested that filth flies like The House Fly tend to enter buildings at a very low level, even below 3 or 4 feet off the ground or floor. Thus, placing air doors at that level and directed correctly to blow the flies OUT, not in, was more successful than having the devices overhead, where the air flow was diminished substantially by the time it got down to the level of the flies. 
Hopefully your fly control program also moves to the exterior of your buildings, where you can mitigate the fly problems with good waste disposal, good sanitation around the property, and the use of fly traps and fly baits where needed. The use of UV light traps on the interior, particularly near entryways, may also help to capture the rogue fly that does manage to get through the door. But, I suppose I would suggest holding off on the installation of air doors over all doors until the auditors offer their opinions. They may believe you already are doing what is necessary to prevent flies from getting in, and with any luck they will actually be knowledgeable on the topic of pests and pest management, since the SQF addresses far more than just this small part of food safety. 

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Pest QuestionsApril 27, 2012

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Apr 26, 2012 – Bees – Friend or Foe?

QUESTION:

What treatment is there for bees?

ANSWER:

My answer is going to ramble a bit, as there are many kinds of “bees” and even many situations with honeybees that must be taken into consideration. To be honest, if at all possible any kind of bee should be preserved rather than killed. Obviously when carpenter bees are damaging a structure or honeybees are nesting in a wall it may be necessary to kill them to protect people and the home. But, when the bees are just doing their thing outdoors the benefit we derive from them far outweighs any problems. So, let’s address a few of the bee events going on right now. 

First is honeybee swarms. Annually, as in right at this moment, honeybee colonies split off small groups of workers and new queens, and these swarms leave the parent colony to locate a new nest site. Quite often homeowners are terrified by a volleyball-size blob of bees in a shrub in their yard, and they want them killed. Given the plight of honeybees at this time with Colony Collapse Disorder, it would be negligent of us to kill all these honeybees. Instead, try to educate the customer to understand why the bees are there, the extremely low potential for them to sting at this time, and that they will leave on their own within a day or two. They simply are resting there while scouts go looking for a new home. However, if the bees are seen entering and leaving the structure itself, particularly if they are carrying pollen in, it suggests there now is an established hive within the structure, and if a local beekeeper will not remove them they need to be killed. This can be done with an insecticide injected into the entry hole or directly into the void they are occupying. 
Another call that is coming in commonly right now is for “burrowing” bees of several kinds. These will nearly always be solitary bees that pose no threat of stinging except for that odd circumstance when someone grabs a bee and holds it in their hand. Solitary bees are not protecting a hive or colony and have no instinct to sting except in self defense. And, nearly all of those little bees people see hovering and swirling around over the ground are male bees that cannot sting. The females are too busy digging the tunnels and chambers in the soil, laying eggs, and gathering food supplies for their offspring. These bees should definitely be left alone and enjoyed for the benefit they provide in pollination. 
Honeybees in the landscape that are gathering pollen or nectar from flowers also pose nearly no stinging threat. They often gather at muddy and other wet areas to gather moisture, and the control there could be to allow that area to dry up, removing the attraction. But, foraging bees are not interested in people nearby, and would not sting unless directly provoked. I know you will have plenty of customers who will listen to all of this and still say “I don’t care. I want them killed. I’m allergic to bee stings. Etc.” However, trying to kill all of the bees flying around in a yard would be tough to do, and instead suggest to the customer that they make some changes in their landscape, such as removing shrubs and flowers that are highly attractive to bees and replacing them with equally attractive plants that do not offer the nectar or pollen that bees want. 

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Pest QuestionsApril 26, 2012

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Apr 23, 2012 – Ladybugs – Good, Bad, Indifferent?

QUESTION:

What do you use on a vegetable garden for yellow ladybugs?

ANSWER:

If these truly are ladybugs (ladybird beetles) then killing them would be unnecessary and would, in fact, do more damage to that vegetable garden than leaving them alive to do their thing. Their thing, of course, is to eat many other insects that are the damaging kinds on plants – aphids in particular, but also other small sucking pests such as mealybugs, psyllids, whitefly, scale, etc. The many species of ladybugs in North America are the consummate “beneficial” insect, and they should be preserved. 

There are many different forms of ladybugs, from solid black to solid yellow or orange, from those with no spots on their wings to those with a couple dozen black spots, from very small species to some nearly 1/2 inch long. The larvae are often misunderstood and misidentified by people who believe they must be a plant feeding bug, but the larvae too are voracious predators that can clear a patch of aphids very quickly. They are usually a patchwork of red and gray spots and are described as “those tiny alligators”. When they pupate they attach to the trunk of the tree, side of a building, or any other convenient hard surface. 
There is one species that is a concern to plant health, and that is a yellowish species called the Mexican Bean Beetle. It is widespread in the eastern U.S. and in Mexico, generally occurring east of the Rocky Mountains, so it’s possible this could occur in your area in Oklahoma. True to its name it feeds almost exclusively on legumes of many kinds, so if this vegetable garden is growing beans or peas then this beetle might be a problem. If so, a contact insecticide labeled for use on vegetables would be effective in killing them when the larvae first appear. 
But, given that this family of hundreds of species has only a couple of plant damaging species in it, and the rest are highly beneficial as predators, the likelihood is that the ones you are seeing are some of the good guys and should be encouraged rather than killed. 

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Pest QuestionsApril 25, 2012

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Apr 24, 2012 – A Flea For All

QUESTION:

I have a CPA firm under contract. Every year about this time we get called out for a huge outbreak of flea adults. Of course they have no pets. Every time we inspect the crawl space it has no evidence of stray animals. The fleas always come up in the bath tub. I recently put a fresh glueboard in the tub and it had over 50 cat fleas. The woman that works close is complaining of getting bit. We have treated with IGR and adulticides with not much success. The owner says they had other companies in years past not able to get rid of them. I am running out of ideas. PLEASE help.

ANSWER:

I too have seen several instances where massive numbers of fleas were appearing a a bathroom of a home. In one case they appeared to be entering through a floor heating vent and in another the entry point was unknown, but I suspect it may have been at the floor / wall junction under the floor molding. In that first case the source turned out to be the crawl space below where some feral animals were spending time, and closing off that access and treating the crawl space resolved the problem. In the second the source was less obvious, but since the crawl space was sealed and no evidence of animals found there, the next possibility was under the deck immediately outside that bathroom. Sealing the bathroom by using caulking around that floor / wall junction probably would have helped keep the fleas outside, and at least would have given the homeowners their bathroom back. 

The undeniable fact is that the fleas MUST be coming, initially, from some kind of animal, and that animal or animals needs to have been present in the recent past. The fact that you are finding the fleas in a bathtub is interesting, and if they really are entering the tub from the drain it suggests that there is a serious plumbing problem below that point. Even then the plumbing would normally be buried in the soil, but if there is an open break in the pipes in the crawl space then perhaps the fleas somehow are making their way into it. More likely, I would think, is that the fleas are actually falling into the tub from above and getting stuck there. The check on this would be to tape over the drain and overflow openings and put another glue trap in the tub, and if there still are fleas on the glue then the problem is entering from someplace else. They just cannot jump high enough to get out of the tub, nor climb the slick sides of it. 
I suggest a very close inspection of the crawl space once again to ensure no wild animals or feral cats are present there, and ensure that the entire perimeter is sealed properly so none can enter. Then inspect the exterior outside of that bathroom to see what may be present that could attract animals to rest or den up. Fleas in this kind of concentration, year after year, tell us that an animal source is nearby and repeatedly using some area for its resting quarters. Even thick shrubbery could attract cats that will breed large numbers of fleas, and perhaps something changes seasonally that causes the host animals to leave and the fleas to seek new hosts, causing their migration indoors. 
If you simply need to give some immediate relief from the biting adults a mist of pyrethrum will kill them, but focusing the application on the bathroom, which clearly is not where the fleas are originating, is not going to resolve the problem. You need to take the hunt outdoors and back to the crawl space to find out where and why the host animals are spending time. Once found change the setting to discourage or exclude them permanently. 

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Pest QuestionsApril 24, 2012

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Apr 21, 2012 – Tired of the Same Old Bait?

QUESTION:

Two years ago I was called to control a severe rat infestation in a 7000 square feet hardware store. I strategically placed EZ-Klean boxes baited with Fastrac bait and within three weeks the rodents were under control. The establishment has another infestation but the problem is tougher. The rodents enter the bait boxes but refuse to feed on the Fastrac bait. What can I do? (I don’t want to lose my contract)

ANSWER:

Perhaps something has changed between that previous rodent problem and the current one. The previous rats showed their willingness to eat the bait you provided, and if you feel that you achieved great success at that time there could be a couple of things going on now. It might be rats that survived the previous baiting program and are now bait shy, and the new problem might just be descendants of these leftovers from before. If we take the position that this is a problem of all new rats then either they just don’t like the taste of the bait you are offering or, and more likely, there are better things to eat in this store. Hardware stores typically sell seeds, pet foods, and other delicious opportunities for rodents, and if this is the case these rats could be ignoring your bait because they already are full. 

Another question is on exclusion. Did you concentrate on exclusion on the previous infestation to do whatever was possible to keep future rats out? This would be a problem if the only effort was to kill the rats within the store, but to leave the entry opportunities in place for the next batch of rats to come along and investigate this structure. Hopefully you can perform a careful inspection of the exterior, identify all of the entry points for rats, and work with the customer to get these permanently closed. Even if you cannot close them all you can at least reduce the entry opportunities and allow your focus on the inside to be on those entry points that still exist. 
Have you inspected the interior to identify the alternative foods available to the rats? Are you noticing damaged packages that show the rats are eating materials within the store? Are there water resources available inside that can be eliminated? It is a fact of life that rats do need to eat, so if they are not eating your bait then something else is available, and perhaps it can be isolated and taken away from the rodents. You might try changing the bait to a different product name, different formulation, etc., just to help overcome any bait shyness that might exist. You can put bait enhancers and attractants with the bait to encourage feeding. 
It also would be good policy to try trapping the rats rather than killing them with bait indoors, and a barrage of MANY snap traps should be placed around the likely pathways of these rodents. Since they seem to be entering your stations you could use a station that accepts the snap traps, and this will certainly cull the herd of any bait-shy rats. If you set traps they should be inspected within the next day or two so you can quickly remove dead rodents before they start to draw flies or to stink, and to reset traps that did not catch the rat. 

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Pest QuestionsApril 23, 2012

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Apr 22, 2012 – Plenty of Flies, No Cooperation

QUESTION:

What product will be the best to use to eliminate fruit flies in a commercial kitchen? The owner will not clean up.

ANSWER:

Well, that is certainly putting the burden on you. If you have identified that the poor sanitation in this kitchen is the reason there are fruit flies, then clearly cleaning up the source must be key to eliminating the pest problem. If the owner simply refuses to do his part in this necessary program, but expects you to somehow eliminate the flies, it is important for him to recognize the limitations of what you can do. If he is led to believe that you and your chemicals can get rid of the last fly it is a mistake, and he is likely to be complaining to you that you are not doing what he is paying you to do. Fruit flies can breed in so many possible places in a commercial kitchen that for you to deal with all of them would be difficult. 

If, on the other hand, he is just saying “do what you can” and only hopes for a reduction of the problem, then perhaps there are some possibilities. The first could be the placement of a lot of fruit fly traps, and Univar carries several different kinds. These are baited with some attractant to draw the adult flies. You could also install some UV light traps, and again these are only going to attract and kill adult flies. But, concentrating your efforts on only the adult flies is a poor way to control flies of any kind, as they quickly are replaced by new ones developing in the filth that may be present. On a side note, the kinds of micro-habitats that fruit flies breed in are also wonderful media for the growth of bacteria, and these simply should not exist in a commercial food service facility. The owner is acting in a negligent way if he is telling you he plans to ignore the poor sanitation. 
If there are surfaces with a buildup of scum and other food resources for the flies you could treat them with one of the surface cleaners that we offer, such as the Invade products from Rockwell Labs. Perhaps it is poorly maintained grease traps, and these can be treated as well. Perhaps these are even Phorid flies along with vinegar flies, as the two are very similar in appearance. If drains are not clean they can produce phorids, black-eyed fruit flies, or drain flies, and you can offer the service of treating the drains to remove the organic buildup. 
It may even be possible to treat surfaces with a residual contact insecticide to kill adult flies, but I hate this suggestion because it is so short lived and is an unnecessary use of pesticide. Even worse would be to attempt to resolve the problem with fogging, which quickly kills adult flies present at that moment but gives no relief from new flies. 
I suggest doing a very thorough inspection of the entire kitchen, and in writing note all of those contributing conditions that you find that could be leading to these flies. You might be pleasantly surprised and find something simple that can be cleaned up or removed quickly and painlessly for the owner. But, at least then you know what the sanitation problems are and perhaps can work with the owner to create a timetable for fixing them. The long term control relies on eliminating breeding sources. 

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Pest QuestionsApril 22, 2012

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Apr 19, 2012 – If Not Pyrethroids, Then What?

QUESTION:

Some of the recent changes to pyrethroid labels have encouraged me to want to check into changing a main liquid spray. I am pretty sure pyrethroids are the most popular chemical class among many GHP professional applicators, and maybe even over-the-counter residential premade products.
Do you think this is going to sway many PMPs away from pyrethroids, and if so, can you offer some suggestions as to what might be some good alternative chemical classes and products?
Are there replacements available that come close to pyrethroids in effectiveness, use of ease, and safety?
This is a label change that I think is going to really affect me in terms of time spent and practical effectiveness. I think the 3 feet above foundation restriction is too stringent and, in my opinion, should be paired with a statement such as “if within 75 feet of to-bay drain or lake/pond/etc” because, in my opinion, if the product residual adheres to the surfaces the label states they do, then the notion of so much washing away doesn’t seem as credible.

ANSWER:

I think we need to accept that the use of “pesticides” will always be a politically charged issue, and that there are always going to be vocal, well financed groups that demand the elimination of all use of pesticides. It would be a mistake on our part to believe that each of their major offensives (DDT, Chlordane, Methyl Bromide, Alar, Pyrethroids) is all that they are after once they gain a victory. Instead, they will simply move onto the next most popular group of products in use and resume the attack. The pyrethroids are just the latest, and it all has to do (on the surface at least) with the potential effects on aquatic organisms when pyrethroids find their way into streams and ponds. This is what generated the latest restrictions on where we are permitted to apply pyrethroids, and any impervious surface that could possibly be exposed to rainfall now will have limited application allowances.

Personally, with these latest restrictions I wonder if we should be pleased that we still are permitted to apply pyrethroids up to 3 feet above grade in a continuous band around a structure. I suspect that allowance is causing the anti-pyrethroid folks to grind their teeth pretty badly. California, where this issue was generated, might very well add further restrictions on the use of pyrethroids, and ultimately all other pesticides, within certain distances of aquatic habitats or even on habitats where water may “drain to” aquatic habitats or habitats of endangered and threatened species. This is not a battle that is going to end, so it is imperative that our industry stay involved to accomplish the best compromise possible. It would be negligent of our government to eliminate our ability to control public health pests in the search for environmental purity. Unfortunately, politicians and the media are generally sympathetic with any group claiming to have an “environmental” cause. 
So, I think we can call these first 2 paragraphs “my opinion”. With respect to alternatives to pyrethroids, I believe we are having a great many new chemical families introduced with many excellent active ingredients. The pyrethroids offered some highly attractive features, one of which was their very broad labels that often allowed applications over entire surfaces of structures. This, coupled with their excellent action on crawling pests, made them good choices for perimeter invaders and for over-wintering pests such as cluster flies, stink bugs, lady bugs, etc. We could make broad applications to the sides of the structures to help kill these insects as they arrived. 
We are not entirely without this ability today. We still can apply large “spot” applications to sides of structures and the eaves are “exempted” from the limitation of spot treatments, so we still may apply the pyrethroids as needed in many cases. We still can treat crack and crevice, so effective treatments under siding and around windows or doors can be done, and this probably is more effective than the outside surface application. However, obviously it will be much more time consuming to do, so our residential customers need to be made aware of these label changes and to accept that how we do our business is going to change.
I won’t say that I have carefully examined EVERY label of non-pyrethroid alternatives, but those I have looked at do not seem to offer the same allowance for a broadcast treatment of exterior surfaces. Yes, I suspect that many PMP’s are going to look desperately for an alternative to the pyrethroids that would allow them to continue their applications in the same manner. But, it may be that these do not exist, at least not with the residual and other features of the pyrethroids. Some of the possible alternatives include thiamethoxam (Optigard Flex) that has interesting exterior labeling, acetamiprid (Transport GHP), and indoxacarb (Arilon). Of course we have the increasing trade names with fipronil as well, and these labels may expand their uses. I apologize to those vendors whose products did not get mentioned, but this is just a short list. 
Add to this the many botanical insecticides that use plant-derived active ingredients, and some of these are going to have very broad labels and may begin to compete with the synthetic actives for residual and contact effectiveness. 

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Pest QuestionsApril 21, 2012

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