Archive for the ‘Pest Questions’ Category

Mar 11, 2012 – Label Confusion

QUESTION:

I recently purchased a quart of Demand CS to do basic household pest control at a few of my accounts. The label does not come right out to say how much I should use for a given situation. It has a rate table with three different application rates. Could you please explain what these three rates mean and when I should use them? Also I heard from a friend in the pest industry that as a “rule of thumb” you use 2 ounces per gallon for initial perimeter sprays and 1 ounce per gallon for maintenance perimeter sprays. Please let me know if this would be a good rule to follow as it seems more than the recommended label application.
Thank you so much!!

ANSWER:

Well, I will agree with you that pesticide labels can, at times, be a little confusing. And, just to keep in mind, all of the product labels of synthetic pyrethroids (like the lambda-cyhalothrin in Demand) will be adding new wording and restrictions on their uses this year, as manufacturers package new batches and ship them to suppliers like Univar. You can use the product according to the label on the container that you purchase, but please read the Label carefully each time you buy more material so you know when the new wording shows up and must be followed. 

I have long preached that it is important to read the full label of every product you use, and that means every single word on the label. You may not do this every time you use it, but now and then refresh your understanding of just what THAT label requires. Each product label may be slightly different and require slightly different procedures, and you must follow what that label tells you to do. These differences may be with respect to how the product can be used, how it must be mixed, what PPE you must wear, laundering instructions, etc. For example, on the Demand label it allows you to mix Demand with other insecticides, but you MUST add the Demand last, and if a regulatory inspector were watching you and reading the Label himself he would cite you if you did not follow this procedure. 
Many or most insecticide labels offer several use rates, such as the three choices on Demand CS of 0.015%, 0.03%, and 0.06%. If you scroll down the page a little you find some *** that explain these things, and here one asterisk tells us that the lowest concentration would be for “maintenance” uses for roaches, the 0.03% for “cleanout” uses, and the highest rate for “severe” infestations. What it is allowing you to do is to place higher levels of the active ingredient when roach populations are very high, leading perhaps to faster kill of those many roaches. This sort of leaves it up to you to decide which scenario you are facing. There are little numbers following some of the pests in the list, and these numbers are further explained below the rate table. For example, the number “4” following “Mosquitoes” tells you to use the high rate (0.06%) for outdoor use if you hope to leave a residual for barrier treatments for adult mosquitoes. 
So, the Demand CS label seems to do a pretty good job of explaining when and why to use any of those listed rates. However, I believe that your friend’s suggestion of a cookie cutter approach to mixing is dangerous, and please do not do what he suggests. Even on the Demand CS label that “2 ounces per gallon” would be nearly 3 TIMES HIGHER than the label allows even at the highest rate of 0.06%. If he is doing that he is badly in violation of the label and would be cited if caught. For maintenance perimeter sprays the Demand CS label offers dilution rates for exterior use, and again they provide various scenarios that you can choose from – if you are using a 1 gallon sprayer it is assumed you might use that 1 gallon over about 1000 square feet of surface, and again the HIGHEST rate allowed is only 0.8 ounces of Demand CS in 1 gallon of water, or nearly 3X less than your friend suggests. 
I won’t look at any other product labels because I think this already serves as a good example of why you need to read each label and recognize that every product may need to be mixed in a different manner. Another thing that is important for you to do is to “Calibrate” your application, and this means that you need to know approximately how much surface YOU spray with one gallon of liquid when you apply it in your normal manner. Some technicians might move more slowly and that gallon could only cover 500 square feet of surface, whereas others might move more quickly and cover 2000 square feet. There is nothing wrong with this, except the desire is to place the proper amount of the active ingredient over each square foot, and this will determine how much concentrate to add to your gallon of water. 
Take a clean 1 gallon sprayer with the tips and nozzles in good, clean condition and add exactly 1 gallon of water only. Then, mark off an area of maybe 250 square feet on a hard surface like a patio or driveway – 250 square feet would be 10 x 25 feet. At the speed you normally walk and spray you then evenly spray that 250 square feet and then empty your sprayer into a container to measure how much water remains. You then know exactly how much liquid you used to cover 250 square feet of surface. This might be a huge surprise for you. Since a “normal” rate of 1 gallon per 1000 square feet means you would use 1 quart of spray solution over 250 square feet, if you managed to empty your whole gallon on that 250 square feet, or perhaps used only a pint, you now can determine how much YOU would use over 1000 square feet. This is going to keep your applications within the allowable rates on the product label. 

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Pest QuestionsMarch 11, 2012

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Mar 8, 2012 – Common Sense and Good Science?

QUESTION:

It is easily arguable that millions of people have died from malaria because DDT was outlawed. There is a continual and fanatical attack that will not end until no pesticides are used and our industry is ruined and pestilence and disease are out of control. Common
sense even says that if you can treat soil around a deck or patio, but not the patio itself because it might get washed off onto that area, there’s an incoherent reasoning. Don’t get me wrong. I’m extremely careful with how I treat a structure to protect where the pesticides go. But is anyone in this industry fighting back against the ridiculous attacks against pesticide use? Or have we just rolled over and accepted the bad legislation and poor science that backs the attacks?

ANSWER:

You pose some good thoughts Roy, and this is a topic that I am also passionate about, so I will have to abbreviate some of my thoughts in this answer to keep it manageable. You also touch on several separate issues, so let’s address them one at a time. First, I agree with you that there are large numbers of people in our society, many of them members of highly organized and well-financed groups, who would love to see all of our chemical tools eliminated immediately. Their desire for this may be well intended but it is also hypocritical and short sighted. Many of them advocate the use of “natural” pesticides to replace “synthetic” pesticides in the belief that there is something magical about natural substances that makes them safe for use. The fact is that toxic is toxic, and our bodies cannot tell the difference between natural and synthetic molecules. I personally believe that many of these people also place humans well below other living creatures on the Earth, and our health and welfare are secondary to environmental purity. This belief is unlikely to change, so we just have to accept it and fight their efforts to create unreasonable legislation. 

With a little luck there still are enough legislators to stop short of allowing humans to die unnecessarily, although it often does not seem that way. DDT unarguably saved hundreds of millions of human lives by killing the mosquitoes that spread malaria and killing other blood sucking insects that spread so many other diseases. In 1972 the head of the EPA personally signed the paperwork to ban DDT, even though his own Congressional Hearings concluded that it should not happen. However, William Ruckelshaus’s statement when he banned DDT was that he was doing it “for political reasons”, and this is not going to change. Many politicians are far too susceptible to what environmental activist groups want, and believe that pushing their causes may be politically correct. This is why we need our strong industry associations, and here is how we can effectively fight back and ensure that horrible decisions are avoided. 
I don’t think anyone in our industry really loves the idea of spraying toxic substances into the environment or into homes, hospitals, and restaurants. It would be negligence on our part to pretend that these are not toxic. But, it also would be negligent to ignore the pest problems and the health risks those pests pose and just hope the pests go away on their own. I think we all would love to see efficient, effective, economically reasonable pest management done without the need to spray toxins. In the same thinking I suspect most doctors would love to see the day when all diseases are cured without the need to prescribe toxic medications, but until that day comes when we have the technology to cure the problems without the toxins we do what has to be done with the best tools possible. It is called Risk versus Benefit. 
One big concern that I have is that too many licensed, certified pest control professionals still believe that their job is “to spray”, and that they are not going to get paid unless they spray something. This is incorrect, and our industry leaders have been educating for decades that much of the pest management process should rely on non-chemical techniques and tools, and this is the basis of IPM. We cannot continue to look at pesticides as the magic wand that takes care of everything. Instead, they are the stop-gap tool to quickly bring down the pest population while we then work to repair the contributing conditions. 
Along these same lines I hope that no one in pest management wants to see pesticide residues flowing into creeks and lakes and the ocean. First of all, they don’t do anything to control the white grubs or ants on a property if they have flowed off that property, and this is the thinking behind these new pyrethroid restrictions. It is an effort to ensure that as little of the active ingredient as possible leaves the site where you want it to be. I suspect this new label wording comes into being because of continued sloppy applications, and of course much of this well could be from unlicensed and unregulated people using these materials – homeowners for example. The new wording on labels prohibiting the use of pyrethroids on “impervious” surfaces such as patios could, perhaps, be modified to address the patio that is surrounded by soil, but now we are leaving the interpretation up to too many people, and a simple, blanket statement probably was easier. 
I am confident that most people in our industry share your and my environmental stewardship feelings, but you and I have also seen the misuse – people spraying over fences into neighbors’ yards, technicians literally washing off the sidewalk with the spray, over-applications that leave puddles of pesticide on the ground, treatments to surfaces or plants where no pests are present just because they want the customer to think something is being done. These are the things we need to correct within our own industry, and by doing so we demonstrate to those who would take away our chemicals that we can use them properly and for a good reason, and that we provide benefit to people from this use. 
I have seen some strong industry associations, the NPMA perhaps the top model, have tremendous impact on the regulations that are placed upon our industry. Belonging to your regional association as well as the NPMA makes them stronger, and with more members they have the financial ability to be effective lobbyists when it comes to fighting bad laws. The anti-pesticide groups are heavily financed by very wealthy people, but  our industry seems to have to do with relatively little funding for the political effort. So, my answer to you is that YES, our industry fights back constantly to make certain that our point of view is heard and believed by those who make the laws. In California, where you are, the PCOC is a very well organized and streamlined and effective organization. Over the past 30 years I have seen a great many issues modified because of PCOC’s involvement with the state’s politicians, and proposed laws that would have been devastating to us were toned down to reasonable and livable regulations. 
We cannot stop what other people think, but we CAN change their minds with education. The general public sees far more anti-pesticide rhetoric than they do pro-pesticide, and for a couple of reasons. First, bad news is really cool, and people just love to read bad things and believe them, and the news media make a lot of money headlining negative issues. Second, people with an ax to grind are more likely to spend time publicizing their anger, and the internet now gives them that unlimited (and uncontrolled) forum. So, you help to counter this with positive information you can provide with press releases locally, with company newsletters, with a presence at local home shows, etc. People generally want the truth, but just have a hard time getting our side of the story. 

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Pest QuestionsMarch 10, 2012

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Mar 9, 2012 – Pyrethroids And Interpretations

QUESTION:

I wonder if you can shed a little more light on the Pyrethroid issue. I am still somewhat confused when it says we can treat a foundation up to 3 feet. That means to me that we can go around the outside of a structure from the soil upwards to 3 feet – correct? And, we can spot treat around windows and doors correct? The EPA offers the interpretations that we are permitted to spray a 1-inch band around doors and windows, but our standard spray tips will go well over that 1 inch band. How does the EPA expect us to adhere to only 1 inch? Also, is there a database of some kind that lists non-pyrethroid products for us to use? I really don’t know how somebody can work this trade in California with all the restrictions they have!


ANSWER:

You pose some good thoughts here Steve, and I suspect a lot of people will need some time to become comfortable with these new statements on the labels of all pyrethroid products. One thing we need to accept is that these restrictions on pyrethroids are now in place (as your new material purchased is labeled in this manner) and they are not going away. If anything, this success in getting EPA to restrict pyrethroid uses will probably encourage the anti-pesticide groups to now work on other kinds of pesticides as well. 

The EPA sent manufacturers and formulators a canned set of statements that needed to be added to the labels or all pyrethroid products, so no matter what the trade name of the product these new statements should be consistent. For outdoor liquid applications to surfaces of a structure you now must apply only spot or crack and crevice treatments, EXCEPT FOR applications to the building foundation up to a maximum height of 3 feet above the soil.  If you are using a product where this application already is not permitted then it still is not permitted, but if you previously could wash down the entire exterior wall you no longer can. You now must keep the application at or below 3 feet above the soil, and make this application continuous around the structure. 
I also strongly encourage everyone to discuss these new label statements with your own local regulatory inspectors. Since some of this obviously is open to interpretation it is they who would interpret it in the manner that they expect you to adhere to. It’s really important to have this line of communication with the local regulatory agencies, and in California the County Agricultural Commissioners field inspectors are well known for working positively with our industry. 
With respect to that 1-inch band around windows, keep in mind that a “spot” application is defined very briefly by EPA as an application that covers “no more than 2 square feet” of that surface. Two square feet is 288 square inches, so my belief is that the EPA does not state what the dimensions of that spot must be – perhaps it is 1 foot by 2 feet, or perhaps it is 4 inches wide by 6 feet (72 inches) long. EPA also does not state how far apart “spots” must be placed, so these are questions to ask your local regulator, because they well may have their own interpretations on how large the spot can be or how far apart you must place them. Some product Labels DO state what these are, so please carefully read every label before using the products. 
I think that the concession on allowing that 1 inch band probably has more to do with the “crack and crevice” statement than the spot treatment. A true C&C application means the liquid goes INTO a crevice and none of it appears on the exposed surface. Treating around exterior doorways and windows is likely to produce some level of runoff on the surface, so this allows this slight runoff to occur if you used a crack and crevice straw to inject the material into the framing. 
All of the Univar sales representatives have received a listing of ALL insecticides, categorized by their chemical families, so please contact your local Univar office and sales reps to get this information. There are a great many excellent NON-pyrethroid insecticides available now, and in fact most of the new products that have come to our industry in the past 10 years or so are not pyrethroids. I will say that my own review of the labels of these products does not show many perfect alternatives if you are looking for a residual material that allows the same overall surface treatment that some pyrethroid labels allowed in the past. 

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Pest QuestionsMarch 09, 2012

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Mar 6, 2012 – Ninety Nine Thump

QUESTION:

Is there a difference between a centipede and a millipede?


ANSWER:

Sorry Jodi, but I had to toss in some fun, and the question is what goes “99 thump, 99 thump” and the answer is a centipede with a wooden leg. Yes, there is a very big difference between centipedes and millipedes and it pays to be able to tell them apart before you pick one up. As it turns out, many centipedes are quite capable of inflicting a painful sting, using the venom glands located in their front pair of legs. These two legs may be mistaken for mandibles, as they are enlarged and curved and pointed at the end, and generally extend across the actual mouthparts. While the venom of a centipede is considered NOT to be life threatening to people, it can cause serious pain and in some sensitive people even a possible allergic response. 

Centipedes are predators that feed on any other small insects, earthworms, and even small rodents, lizards, or birds if the centipede is large enough. Millipedes, on the other hand, will generally feed on decaying plant materials, sometimes on green plants, and a few may be predatory. They cannot bite or sting, but this does not mean they are defenseless. Many millipedes exude a foul liquid from glands along their body when they are disturbed, and this liquid consists of a mixture of benzoquinones that serve as a very effective insect repellent, helping to keep other predatory insects away from them. This does not work against all enemies though, as the larva of one beetle in the family Phengodidae (lightning beetles) is immune to the repellent and easily burrows right into the millipede to consume it. 
To go one step further, large tropical millipedes in the family Polydesmidae actually exude hydrogen cyanide from glands along their body in quantities designed to keep from being eaten, but even potentially enough to kill a bird or rodent. 
The difference visually between millipedes and centipedes is the number of legs they have on each body segment – centipedes have 1 pair and millipedes have 2 pairs. The legs of millipedes also are generally much shorter and the result is the animal moves along more slowly and methodically. Many millipedes will roll into a coil when disturbed. Centipedes have much longer legs and can move very rapidly, helpful for a predator that needs to chase down and capture its food. In North America we have the odd “House Centipede”, and the legs on this creature, which may be 2 inches in length, are extremely long and thin. When it runs across the floor or wall in a home it looks for all the world like a feather moving along, and this is guaranteed to scare the daylights out of the homeowner. 
Some of the largest millipedes are African species that grow to 12 inches in length. Some of the largest centipedes also may be 1 foot long, and in the U.S. the Arizona Giant Centipede is probably our largest species at about 8 inches long and very wide. Despite the name “centi pede”, meaning 100 legs, the number of legs on adult centipedes ranges from 30 to over 300. 

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Pest QuestionsMarch 08, 2012

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Mar 7, 2012 – Removing Their Clutter

QUESTION:

How long do wings stay on carpenter ants?

ANSWER:

We know that both termites and carpenter ants do shed their wings at some point in time, and there are a couple of reasons for this. In fact, it appears that the loss of their wings is consistent for all species of ants once they have mated. Queen ants and termites resign themselves to a life indoors after they have mated, and once they are sequestered within the chambers in wood or the soil those long wings would just be in the way. So, according to E. O. Wilson in his extraordinary book “The Ants”, “as soon as the queens are inseminated they shed their membranous wings by raking their middle and hind legs forward and snapping the wings free at the basal dehiscent sutures”. 

He goes on to add that (and again I quote from his book), “Over the coming weeks the alary muscles and fat bodies are metabolized and converted into eggs, as well as food to rear the first batch of larvae”. So, there is the primary reason the wings are lost – they are no longer needed for the “Queen” and the large muscles that operated the wings now are used as food reserves for the development of eggs and to feed the first brood of larvae. It appears that this “dealation” occurs almost immediately after the new Queen is inseminated by the male, as this causes the production of pheromones that trigger the instinct to remove the wings and for the muscles to convert to other needs. 
While winged reproductives, those males and females still loitering in the colony, are still inside the colony the Queen of that colony produces chemicals that prevent these new reproductives from mating or beginning to lay eggs, and this is why they may hang around in the colony for a whole year with their wings intact. Once they finally swarm and mate they now are free of the influence of the colony’s Queen, and their chemical changes take place. Apparently this occurs in the termites as well, so when porch lights draw thousands of swarming termites to a structure some evening the porch may be littered with thousands of wings the next morning. It seems that an orgy took place on the porch that night. 

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Pest QuestionsMarch 07, 2012

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Mar 4, 2012 – Shelf Life

QUESTION:

How long can you keep chemicals on the shelf? How many months will they last?


ANSWER:

This is going to vary a great deal and it depends on several factors. One of these is the formulation itself. Dry products such as dusts and granules tend to change faster than liquid formulations, so take a look on the packages and note any dates or restrictions placed there by the manufacturer. Because synthetic active ingredients are subject to degradation over time, as opposed to the inorganic mineral actives such as boric acid, borates, or diatomaceous earth, you would be best off using the dry products within the first couple of years. This will also depend a lot on the conditions of that storage area, particularly dampness. If dry products are exposed to water they are going to degrade and become unusable very quickly. High humidity may even be a factor if the bags are not kept sealed properly. 

Temperature is another important factor, and virtually every pesticide label is going to state that it should be stored in a cool, dry environment. The higher the temperature the faster the molecules break apart and change and become something other than the original active ingredient. This may take years to happen for liquid products, but bit by bit they are changing and if you don’t get around to using a product for 5 or 6 years after you bought it there may be a lot less active ingredient in it than you think is there. 
Another concern is physical changes in a liquid formulation. The active ingredients are often manufactured as a solid material, a crystalline material for example. This solid is then put into liquid form using solvents, and then it may further be diluted with water or other diluents to become the end use concentrate that you buy. Over time the original crystalline active ingredient is likely to re-crystallize and begin to settle out of the formulation, and getting it back into that homogenized and usable state may be impossible. If this occurs you now have toxic waste on your hands, and the legal disposal of toxic waste becomes very expensive. 
Aerosols are also not forever. If they sit on a shelf for years they can lose propellent, they may develop rust around the seams and ridges that eventually eat through the can, and contents also may separate inside the can and be impossible to get back into an even solution. I once visited a pest control company warehouse where several cases of methyl bromide in 1 lb. cans had been stored for many years – about 50 cans in all. ALL of these cans of fumigant had long since rusted through, releasing all of that methyl bromide into the warehouse and the nearby offices. 
It is important to have good control over your inventory and stocking procedures and to not buy more product than you know you will use in a reasonable time period. Use the FIFO concept of “first in, first out” so that products never sit at the back of the shelf and get forgotten. Another interesting incident was with an old pentachlorphenol product in large caulking tubes. Long after penta had been banned from use one company still had dozens of these tubes in their warehouse, and by that time the problem was that there was no way to legally use it, legally store it, or even legally dispose of it. 
So, it’s hard to put firm numbers on this, but do check the containers themselves for “expiration” dates, keep your storage areas in good condition and cool, and use up product in a reasonable time  period. 

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Pest QuestionsMarch 06, 2012

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Mar 5, 2012 – Put The Heat On Clothes Moths?

QUESTION:

My question concerns clothes moths. I was talking with a prospective customer where another company said they would use heat mitigation to kill the clothes moths. I have heard of heat for bed bugs, but not clothes moths. The home builder said due to the quality of the wood he doesn’t recommend it. What have you heard about this approach? What about an IGR?

ANSWER:

Well, my mind is swirling right now with these various issues, but let’s begin with the home builder’s thoughts. My first question is why would the builder of the home be involved with this pest problem now? Is he a family friend of this customer or is he somehow involved with the pest problem? I can see bringing a builder back in for a wood infesting beetle problem, but clothes moths…….? However, I don’t know quite what he means by the “quality” of the wood except he may be concerned that a high heat could affect some of the wood products, such as plywoods or particle board or other construction materials. But, as we have seen now from the use of heat for bed bugs, it is not necessary to take the heat so high that it is going to ruin wood products or finishes. All it takes is about 130 degrees for a few hours and all stages of insects are likely to be killed, as long as they were exposed to that heat. 

My second thought is that the proliferation of bed bugs has led to a proliferation of companies and products using heat to control them, so now the ability to do whole house or whole room heating is mainstream, and costs have probably come down as well. There will be those faction of customers who prefer to use something “non-toxic” for pest management, and heating done properly kills the bugs without any chemical use. Having said this, for bed bugs some companies using heat still use residual dusts and other standard insecticides within voids and other difficult hiding places, given the  nature of bed bugs to be hard to control. 
My third thought is that heating the entire structure seems like serious overkill for controlling clothes moths. These insects are feeding on something that should be relatively easy to find and dispose of, although taking the time to go through everything and deal with the infested materials may not be an attractive way to spend a day. Perhaps this is why the customer is entertaining the idea of avoiding all of that searching and just having the whole darned place heated. But, I myself would prefer to remove all the clothing from the closet and inspect susceptible items carefully. Then, when you do find the infested wool blanket or sweater or lined gloves or slippers you can decide how badly it is damaged and what you will need to do with it. It may be that only a few items are infested and these can be laundered or dry cleaned or even just tossed into the hot dryer for a cycle at a fraction of the cost of whole house heating. 
It may be other items that are infested, such as animal hair, feathers, and even some stored food products. Some clothes moths also will feed on fungus, and perhaps there is a moisture problem the moths are telling this homeowner about, and this would need to be discovered and corrected. Heating and killing all the bugs might overlook some other serious problems. I would prefer to see a careful inspection done, the source determined and dealt with at that level, and if you have a lot of wandering moth larvae or adult moths those can be vacuumed or killed with applications of residual insecticides in the proper places. You then can also advise the customer about the proper storage of susceptible fabrics so that the problem does not reoccur. 

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Pest QuestionsMarch 05, 2012

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Mar 2, 2012 – Anxious For Spring

QUESTION:

Why would honey bees swarm inside a school in February in Georgia?

ANSWER:

This has been, perhaps, an oddball weather year in many areas of the U.S. In California we have had very, very little rain and spring-like weather in January. This last weekend it went over 70 degrees, which triggers a lot of insects to emerge from winter dormancy. We have seen the spring butterflies already out, and every tree that will blossom seems to be doing it already. Since honeybees do not die off in the winter their colonies continue to be active, even though the foraging bees themselves may not emerge from their hives. I believe I once read that the minimum air temperature needs to be about 58 degrees Fahrenheit for honeybees to be active and foraging, so if you have also been having springtime weather that is warm this could be the stimulus that is bringing the bees out. 

Now, there are swarms outdoors, where a new Queen leaves an established colony to fly to someplace else to start a new colony, taking a large number of workers with her. These are the swarms that end up lingering on fences and tree limbs for a few days and then moving on. A “swarm” on the inside of a structure sounds to me more like a problem where a honeybee colony has been living in the walls or some other void in that school building and warm weather triggered the workers to start moving around. They then could have found their way down into the rooms below or nearby rather than going to the outside. Do you think this may be the case? If these are just a lot of bees flying around in there rather than some concentration of them in one location it suggests this confusion rather than the possibility that a moving queen ended up inside. 
If we accept that the bees may have come from some established hive within this structure then a very careful inspection needs to be done to determine exactly where that hive is located. The bees and the hive need to be extracted from the building or it could put children at risk. Having stinging social bees this close to human activity is not a good thing, and having a hive full of honey inside a wall is asking for troubles as well. Whether the school administration likes it or not, if the hive is determined to be within a hidden void, such as a wall void, that void needs to be physically opened once the bees are killed or removed, and the hive and honey need to be removed and the surfaces there cleaned thoroughly. You also need to determine where on the outside the bees were entering and permanently close off the opening(s). 

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Pest QuestionsMarch 04, 2012

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Mar 3, 2012 – Reduced Risk Pesticides?

QUESTION:

Do you have a list of reduced risk pesticides?

ANSWER:

No Mike, this is not something we have put together so far. We do offer a couple of other resources that might be helpful in this regard, and you can find both of them on PestWeb in the tab “Industry” and then PestWeb Features. The resource is the “Going Green and Organic” highlight, with articles on these two topics and long listings of all of the Organic and Natural pesticides carried by Univar. 

Now, just because it is on either the Organic or the Natural list does not necessarily mean it is also classified as “Reduced Risk”, and this is a confusing issue. The EPA has a listing of “Minimum Risk” active ingredients in their FIFRA Section 25(b), and this includes many of the “natural” active ingredients. Products using only these minimum risk active ingredients may be exempt from registration by EPA. 
However, “reduced” risk is another topic altogether, and you can go to the EPA Reduced Risk page at http://www.epa.gov/opprd001/workplan/reducedrisk.html or Google “EPA Reduced Risk Pesticide” to find the same website. On this page you will find a link to their listing of all products that have been granted Reduced Risk status for one reason or another, and there are at least two reasons for being called reduced risk. One is called “Organophosphate Replacement” where the EPA believes a product would be a reasonable replacement for existing uses of OP pesticides, which they hope to phase out completely over time. The other criteria is that a “reduced” risk product and its proposed uses would pose a lower risk than the current alternative products used for that pest management program. 
Because of this a pesticide product may be reduced risk for SOME of the uses on its label but not necessarily all of them. Our best approach if we were to build such a list for the benefit of our customers would be to have each of the product manufacturers provide us with the list of their products that qualify, along with the reasons why that product is considered reduced risk. Because of its nebulous nature it is hard to make this determination without their input. But, begin by going to that EPA page and reviewing the list they offer there. 
What you will find is not easy to interpret. First of all, the list only goes up through 2010. Second, in one column called “Site” you will find the uses and sites for which that product is considered reduced risk, again a reminder that any product is not reduced risk for every use on its label. 

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Pest QuestionsMarch 03, 2012

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Feb 29, 2012 – Sometimes They All Just Get Along

QUESTION:

How can an Insect Growth Regulator be mixed with a general pesticide and still be effective? Can you help me understand this? To me it seems sort of like mixing a repellent and non-repellent insecticide and rendering one or both of them useless.


ANSWER:

I think several factors are at work here, if I mix what I have heard over the years with what my perceptions are. First is the question of just how repellent the contact insecticides are, and I think most of these products can be repellent to some degree without being so repellent that insects refuse to rest on the dry deposits. The repellency also likely varies from insect to insect. Ants, for example, seem to have extremely sensitive little systems, and some of the early pyrethroid active ingredients appeared to be repellent enough that foraging ants just would not cross a treated surface. This has become less so with later “generations” of pyrethroids so that we now do get reasonably good success against ants. We also can mask the repellency of pyrethroids by encapsulating them, so microencapsulated formulations keep most of the active ingredient inside that microscopic capsule, releasing it slowly and allowing insects to contact it without being repelled. 

Other insects, probably most of the larger ones like roaches or crickets or earwigs, may have much less sensitivity to repellent products, so we can use them in crevices or other harborage of these insects and still expect the insect to happily rest in contact with the active ingredient. Much of the repellency is also going to be there at the start, particularly if the surface is still damp or very fresh, and perhaps it diminishes over time even while an effective residual still exists. This thought we can classify as my best guess. 
Another factor, though, might be the stability of the IGR’s compared with the more traditional active ingredients. Typically we might expect an effective residual from pyrethroids of a couple to a few weeks. Immediately upon being exposed to environmental factors of heat, light (UV), water, or alkaline surfaces many insecticide active ingredients begin to self destruct. The molecule that defines that active ingredient begins to break apart, and eventually there is little to no more of it left on that surface. This may be much faster outdoors than indoors, but in either case there will be a “half life” expectancy for any chemical molecule, and at some point in the near future there will no longer be enough of the original material left to effectively kill the insects. Without a doubt much of that repellency also disappears as the molecules change. 
IGR’s, however, are pretty darned stable. When methoprene first came into our market the manufacturer told us to expect a minimum of 6 MONTHS of effective residual indoors, and in some of their lab tests they even got a full year of effective residual. So, the IGR is going to be around long after the other non-IGR has gone away. Other IGR’s like nylar will also probably have good, long residuals. 
Methoprene (Precor) and Hydroprene (Gentrol) also have another interesting characteristic, if we are being told the truth by the manufacturers, and that is for the molecules to “flow” away from the point where they are applied and to redeposit onto other nearby surfaces. This is the reason the Gentrol Point Source tabs work – the hydroprene in the tab flows out of it and over surfaces around it to cover something like 9 square feet with the active ingredient. So, these IGRs will end up on surfaces where the repellent insecticides are not. I know the jury is still out on Gentrol for The Common Bed Bug, but if it works (and industry use tells us it does) this may be one of the reasons. Bed bugs may hide where they do not detect the repellent products but have no way to avoid a non-repellent IGR that flows into their hiding places. 

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Pest QuestionsMarch 02, 2012

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