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Dayton, OH 45405

QUESTION:

What is a pharmacy bug and how do you treat for them?

ANSWER:

I thought you might have me stumped on that name, but the little light managed to come on. I suspect “pharmacy” bug is just an unusual common name for Drugstore Beetles – Stegobium paniceum. While we most commonly associate these beetles with food products they also will infest and feed on some unusual materials that perhaps were sold in pharmacies decades ago. These include strychnine, belladonna, and other toxic substances, as well as many kinds of spices, and we often find them within containers of spices today such as peppers, paprika, and others. Other than these odd items they would most often be found within any kind of grain-based foods in storage. Commonly these are dry pet foods, crackers and other baked goods, dried breads, and dry pasta. They also may infest some whole grains, particularly if those grains are broken in any way, and I once saw a major infestation actually burrowing into a wooden cutting board that was saturated with oils and grease.

These are extremely adaptive to many kinds of foods. We also may find them in many kinds of decorative items that could be around a home, such as dried flower arrangements. A few years ago a fad was to make shadow boxes and fill them with various colored pastas, seeds, and beans. Another fad was to make decorative items out of bread dough, baking it and coating it with a clear finish that the beetles easily chewed through. We also may find them infesting rodent baits that have sat too long in storage or when used for rodent control.

I mention all of these possible sources because control of these and other stored food pest insects MUST begin with an inspection to determine what is infested. You should NOT begin with insecticides nor believe that chemical applications alone are going to resolve the problem. Fogging and surface treatments with insecticides are incapable of getting to the source of the problem, which is the larvae feeding comfortably and protected within some closed container or cupboard………or wall. I once investigated a massive Drugstore beetle infestation in a home, where the source was large accumulations of dog food that had been stored in the walls by rats a few years earlier.

You “treat” for drugstore beetles with a very careful inspection of every possible place within the home or business where foods could be present. Once you discover the source or multiple sources you need to cleanup and dispose of the infested materials, vacuum the area thoroughly to remove all residues and exposed beetles, and at this point perhaps apply a residual insecticide to intercept any remaining beetles that could be wandering the area. But, until you find the source and deal with it at that point I would encourage you to avoid the temptation to spray or fog, and in fact fogging is not going to accomplish much anyhow. There is no easy way out for stored food pest problems, and the grunt work of careful inspection and discovery is needed. You may consider the use of the appropriate Pheromone Monitor to help narrow the search if you are having problems finding the source.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

We are having a discussion regarding aerosol “foggers” like CB-80. When we treat for roaches we fog the cabinets and other voids to flush the roaches. Some people say that all of the windows in the house have to be closed to contain the “fog”. I don’t believe it makes any difference whether windows are open or closed. What is your opinion?

ANSWER:

Well, I am pleased that you asked for my opinion, because that is pretty much what I will offer. I have never heard of any studies or sat through any classes where someone definitively stated the answer to this question. We have to recognize that the mist that comes out aerosols like a CB-80 consists of droplets, and droplets will tend to go as far as air turbulence takes them. Since pyrethrum has such a very short residual what you are most relying on with this use of the aerosol is to contact the roaches directly with the spray. Certainly there is going to be some level of pyrethrum vapors left in the air once the diluents from the aerosol evaporate, but this has never seemed to be part of the flushing effect of pyrethrum. Flies hovering in air where pyrethrum vapors are present will be repelled from the area, and if captive in that air space long enough could be killed. Roaches, not so much.

I think that the only reason you would need to close all the windows would be if there is such a wind flow through the house that it might be carrying the mist out quickly. However, even then your treatment within cabinets and other voids should be contained well enough to do whatever it is going to do. A better approach might be to use a crack and crevice tube on a pyrethrum aerosol that allows you to treat directly INTO the crevices around the kitchen area. This not only offers a much better chance of the pyrethrum hitting the hidden roaches, but also prevents the pyrethrum (it is, after all, a pesticide) from landing all over the exposed surfaces inside the cabinets.

Now, after saying all of that I will refer to the most important opinion, and that is the Product label, and on the Label for CB-80 it very specifically says “close doors and windows before spraying”. Since this wording is on the Label it becomes mandatory, and you have no choice but to follow these instructions. It goes on to say that following the application you should keep the area closed for at least 15 minutes and then open it up again and ventilate before allowing occupants back in. For cockroaches it suggests that “for best results spray directly on cockroaches”, essentially the advice I offered above.

In this case then it appears that closing those windows is a requirement in order to follow the directions on the product Label.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

My company is working out of my house. I have just started it and am wondering what kinds of labels are required if I am storing extra chemical in my garage for my technicians to use.

ANSWER:

It would be important to discuss this with your local regulatory agency and inspectors, as each state may have its own interpretations of exactly what THEY want to see in place in any office. However, it would be expected that whether it is a home office and “warehouse” or a dedicated office and warehouse in a commercial building, the requirements should be the same. Generally speaking, anyplace you store pesticides for your business uses you must have the product Labels and MSDS’s for every product kept on hand. This could include even glue traps, as these have an MSDS and therefore important information on their safe handling.

The needs for these product documents are these. First, if the unexpected emergency occurs, such as a spill or fire involving your pest control materials, both you and any emergency agency that handles the problem needs to be able to read the information regarding how to handle that product in that specific emergency. For example, in a fire will there be toxic fumes produced, or is there a chance of an explosion? What is the appropriate extinguishing medium? Is there a chance of runoff to nearby storm drains or creeks? This information is on the MSDS for each and every pesticide and miscellaneous materials such as glue boards, and without having it available the emergency response could be done incorrectly. In fact, one of the requirements for training is called Hazard Communication, an OSHA requirement and possibly also a requirement from your local regulatory agency. Haz Com training involves the Label and MSDS information on exactly this, and every employee who is in any way exposed to any pesticide product must have this training. It must be documented in writing and done annually. See our newest Master Technician course, #208 on Hazard Communication, for an in depth look at the topic.

The Labels also have some Emergency information, as well as details on Environmental or Personal hazards that could occur, and these should be part of that Haz Com training. The MSDS and Label also outline what course of action must be taken if someone or some other animal is exposed to the pesticide – got it on their skin, swallowed it, inhaled it, etc. This might be a call from a veterinarian telling you that a customer just brought their dog in because the dog ate some rodent bait placed there by your employee, and now wants to know exactly what kind of bait it was and what emergency steps he needs to take for that pet. The label and MSDS need to be on hand and available to provide to the vet. In addition to the technicians who are out applying the products, EVERY person in the office also needs to be familiar with the product documents so they know where to find them and how to access the important information.

If you store pesticides in your garage this space is now considered to be an official Pesticide Storage Area, and again it is important for you to talk with your local regulators to see what they want done here with respect to posting and signage. It is likely they will require you to place Pesticide Storage Warning Signs on the exterior of the garage to warn others of the contents within. Again, this becomes important in that emergency when emergency personnel respond and can see before they rush into the area that toxins are stored there. You may even need to talk with the local fire department on this to see if they insist on signage of their own, which might be coded letters indicating the kinds of toxins stored there.

Depending on what your local regulatory folks tell you is needed, you may need to store all the pesticides in a physically separated area within the garage, and certainly behind locked doors. You may need to have them stored over a containment setup of some sort, such as a large pan that would capture any spilled material or contain the water used to put out a fire. The goal here is to minimize the problem by keeping liquids from flowing out of the garage and into the gutter, where the next stop is the local creek, and now your liability is tremendously increased. You may need to install some venting or fans to ensure no buildup of fumes could occur in the storage area.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

Recently on a bed bug job the most heavily infested bedroom housed 2 human adults and a dog (that routinely sleeps with them at night). On my second trip I found a large number of dead bedbugs, along with dog hair, at the foot of the bed in Climb-up interceptors I previously installed. If the dog is treated for fleas with a fipronil product (it is not currently being treated with anything), will some of the bed bugs be killed when they bite the dog? Are any products approved for human use (pills or topical cream) that affect bedbugs?

ANSWER:

I just returned from the NPMA Conference in New Orleans, and I will tell you that THE hot topic was bed bugs. I attended about 8 separate sessions on bed bugs that included research and product updates, and also visited many vendor booths that offered their products and solutions for this awful pest. In addition to coming home just a tad more paranoid myself, I can say with confidence that there are NO medicines of any kind that a human can take or even use on themselves that will kill, repel, annoy, bother, or amuse a bed bug. In addition I sincerely doubt that the flea products used on pets would affect bed bugs either, or these would have been discussed or presented somewhere in the NPMA programs.

The fipronil on-animal products are supposed to kill fleas or ticks by spreading over the dog after application by the movement of oils in the product. According to the manufacturers this could leave as much as 3 months of effective protection on the pet. Now, I will say that I really do not know whether or not this slight amount of fipronil on a dog could then kill a bed bug that crawls on it to feed, nor whether that bed bug could carry some of the active ingredient back to its harborage and pass it on to other bed bugs there. But, because bed bugs feed only for a few minutes and then leave the blood host they would be exposed to FAR less active ingredient than the flea or tick that is permanently on a dog, and thus exposed to a much greater amount of the a.i. over a much longer period of time. And, since these topical products are not labeled for use against bed bugs it would be important for us not to suggest their use to a pet owner.

Would that it were that easy, but it still remains that eliminating The Common Bed Bug is going to involve a lot of time and hard work. One interesting comment that I heard several times is that Laundering clothing and other washable materials to kill bed bugs is not necessary if those items can also be placed in the dryer. The dryer alone, at a HOT setting for at least 30 minutes, is enough to kill all bed bugs and their eggs, and it is not necessary to do both a hot wash and hot dry. This makes it a lot simpler for the homeowner, and some apartment managers are even making the complex’s dryers available for FREE to encourage tenants to use them. They make up for it by increasing the cost to use the washers, but having free dryers adds at least a bit more certainty that people will use this heat technique on their clothing and other items when they return from vacations or visits to other homes.

There also is at least one interesting new “Active” bed bug monitor coming onto the market that shows high effectiveness at attracting and trapping bed bugs. It still in ONLY a monitor, but may be a bit more reliable at showing you whether or not bed bugs are in a room. This will be available sometime early in 2012 and without a doubt you will hear about it.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

I have a client who, along with his wife and child, have been feeling they were being bitten, causing severe itching for about a week now. They have no visible signs of bites and the itching is not localized to any particular portion of their bodies. On inspection of the apartment I found no fleas or bed bugs. They have recently started using the heat so I wondered about this. I’m leaning toward scabies mites or an over-sensitive client. What else could cause this? Any ideas would be appreciated.

ANSWER:

Well, if I use my handy fingers I can list the possibilities here. First, there could be nothing present that is related to bugs that could “bite” them or cause some other skin annoyance, and this might well be their imagination (also known as Delusory Parasitosis). Second, there could be some small arthopod such as mites that could be either biting them or causing skin sensitization. Third, there could be some non-arthropod cause to all of this, such as an allergic response to something in the home. However, your role in this needs to remain confined to #2, and your license for pest management permits you only to identify the presence (or lack of presence) of some arthropod pest that you then can deal with as needed. While Scabies is a skin condition caused by mites, YOU have nothing to do with either verifying the presence of scabies or even treating the home in any way if a doctor has properly identified scabies. (Unfortunately I personally believe doctors too often mis-diagnose scabies on people).

You should continue to place monitoring traps throughout the home to capture any arthropods that could possibly be present – rat or bird mites, springtails, psocids, fleas, dust mites, etc. – and have those monitors inspected under high magnification by someone who can properly identify any arthropods captured. You might be surprised and find that there are some tiny mites capable of biting wandering in the home. You might find other non-biting mites or insects that could simply be causing allergic responses, perhaps on one person and the others start “feeling” the crawling and prickling too. However, try to avoid becoming a psychologist by suggesting that it may be their imagination, and definitely don’t tell them they are crazy. If your best efforts at capturing any kind of arthropod that might be causing skin problems fails to turn up anything you could suggest to them they hire an industrial hygienist to sample the air. Certainly a change in the environment around them, such as suddenly beginning to use heaters again, could discharge materials into the air that might cause skin sensitivities.

The process is to begin with the easiest solutions and work through the list, and the easiest and probably least expensive for them is for you to rule out (or confirm) the presence of any kinds of “bugs”. Perhaps it is only allergic responses due to the presence of dust mites, lady bugs, or other insects and arthropods that are within the home, and now that the home is more closed and confined with cold weather these allergens could be causing the problems. However, you should not assume there might be bugs and just go ahead and “spray something” and hope for the best. Instead, avoid applying any kinds of pesticides if you have not confirmed a reason to do so.

The mind can do amazing things. Since all family members seem to be experiencing the same sensations it would suggest that something is present that is affecting them all. But, it’s not unusual for one person in a home or an office to feel that something is biting them or crawling on them and pretty soon everyone else is itching and scratching too, purely because they think something must be there. On the other hand, maybe they all are exposed to some new household product or cosmetic or soap, and are feeling the effects of it. So, stick with your role, which is pest management and the identification of any pests that are truly there. If there are none suggest other options for sampling the home environment or visiting a dermatologist to see if non-arthropod causes can be found.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

I have a log home that has some sort of reinfesting beetle. The exit holes are 1/16th inch in diameter and round, and appear for the most part on the exterior in various places on all sides of the home. This problem has gone on for several years. The house has a stain finish on the outside and a urethane finish on the inside. It seems that with both sides of the wood having a finish the beetles would emerge but not reinfest becuase of the finish on the wood. Am I wrong in thinking this? If I need to use a product such as Bora-Care to prevent reinfestaion, according to the label the wood needs to have no finish on it. What do you think I can do for this customer?

ANSWER:

There may not be an easy answer to this one. First, surface coverings such as paint, varnish, or stain could be “deterrents” to wood infesting insects, but they are not perfect barriers. This is particularly true of some of the small beetles that reinfest structural wood, as the female deposits her eggs either by inserting her ovipositor into tiny cracks and gaps in the wood or by crawling down into old exit holes. In either case that surface covering is bypassed. Your description of the size of these holes suggests it could be one of the “false” powderpost beetles such as deathwatch or furniture beetle in the family Anobiidae, or even perhaps a small species in the Bostrichidae. Since the holes continue to appear now, years after the home was constructed, it should rule out something that was built in with the construction, so we could assume this is a potential re-infesting species.

I happened to have the opportunity just now to speak directly with an excellent representative of Nisus, and asked him about the use of BoraCare over even just a stain. He said that a stain alone is a barrier to the borate penetration, so either stain or clear finish prevents the use of the borate. What would have to be done to use BoraCare, which probably is the best product for getting penetration deeply into the wood, is to sand the wood on the outside down to bare wood. Then the BoraCare can be applied and by label directions a new finish applied over it at the appropriate time.

As far as I know, the only other treatment that would provide penetration into the wood deeply enough to kill larvae on the inside would be a fumigation using Vikane, and the cost to the homeowner can be quite high for this. Another consideration with fumigation is that it leaves ZERO protection for the future, so if there is a presence of these beetles in this area it would be possible that they could begin a new problem even if all the current infestation is eliminated. That is the benefit of using borates – they last for many years to prevent future problems.

It may be possible to use other insecticides that are labeled for these kinds of wood infesting beetles, but they would be surface applications only, and would affect only the adult insects as they exit the wood, or perhaps as the females attempt to oviposit back on the wood. Since these would be synthetic active ingredients it could mean multiple applications over the season that the adult beetles are active, and for several years to ensure you affect any emerging later. This might be one of those awful decisions that paying the price to do it right the first time (sand, BoraCare, reapply the finish) would be the better thing in the long run.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

How we can provide a stink bug treatment on exterior and interior areas?

ANSWER:

I’m assuming you are referring to our newest stinkbug nemesis, the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB), since this has become such huge news not only for homeowners and the presence of these nasty bugs inside their homes in the winter, but now increasing evidence that it is a serious agricultural pest as well. Many of the insects in the “true” bugs, the Hemipterans, are well known for entering structures in the fall in their search for a cozy place to survive the winter. Out here in California is often is False Chinch Bugs and Grass Bugs, and other places have Conifer Seed Bugs, chinch bugs, other kinds of stink bugs, and even some of the assassin bugs.

If we look at the many university fact sheets on the BMSB we consistently find the message that Exclusion is absolutely vital. Stinkbugs are fairly tough critters, and complete reliance on insecticides is not recommended. There may be some evidence of resistance to insecticides, according to one university site, and just getting the active ingredients and the stink bugs onto the same place at the same time can be difficult. For that reason, for those customers willing to make the effort and perhaps pay for your time, a thorough inspection of the exterior of a home is needed. This will reveal a great many openings that these bugs may use to get inside, including gaps around doors and windows, chimneys, flashing on roofing, gaps under the eaves, openings where pipes or cables go through exterior walls, etc. Most of these can be permanently closed with some suitable material (caulking for example) and with a diligent effort the large percentage of entry opportunities can be closed to the bugs. Anything that can be done to prevent a reliance on pesticides is really what we should strive for as an industry. A/C units propped in windows should be removed as soon as possible, as gaps always exist around these temporary setups.

Even on the interior the customer can have some role in the problem, and a vacuum cleaner is a great tool for removing the occasional stink bug. It’s unfortunate, but your customers likely believe that you have some magic in your truck that can eliminate every last stinking bug and keep them out, and that they should not have to see a single one in their home all winter long. This is not realistic, and the combined effort of exclusion, physical removal, and chemicals will be the best effort. The work should begin in the late summer to fall, when temperatures at night start getting cold. This triggers the bugs to begin searching for that over-winter site, and now is when they will begin to gather on outside walls of homes, often picking on the same home year after year. The moment this gathering begins, and the customers should help keep an eye on it, you can apply residual insecticides to the walls the bugs gather on. Applying things too soon may allow the active ingredient to degrade enough before the bugs arrive that it no longer will kill them. Apply too late and you risk having many of them already making their way inside.

Applications should be made under the eaves, under edges of siding where the bugs may already have crawled, and along and under any other edges available. The sunny side of the structure will often be the chosen one as the bugs seek the warmth. If you have an extended warm fall a second application may be necessary, but if the period between the first cold nights and the first freezing nights and frost is short one application “may” be sufficient. Formulations that leave particles on the surface may be the best choice, such as wettable powders or microencapsulated products. These particles more easily adhere to the insect as it walks over the surface, and microencapsulation protects the active ingredient to extend its residual life. Be certain to use a product that is properly labeled for this use on the exterior walls of a home.

Once the bugs find their way inside the job gets tougher. Finding exactly where they are holed up can be difficult, but if you can determine which voids they are in you can dust or fog into that void to kill them. A deep-void injector like the Patriot, Actisol, or B&G P.A.D.S. works great for fogging into hidden voids, and several residual insecticides are labeled for this use. Some of the newer active ingredients on the market may be showing good effectiveness on stink bugs, so talk with your local Univar sales reps and find out what feedback they have been getting.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

Is Cy-Kick labeled for use on bed bugs on exteriors of structures? Is there anything that you might suggest that works well? Thanks for all the help.

ANSWER:

Interesting question, and since it would be really odd to find or need to treat for The Common Bed Bug (our principal human parasite species) on the exterior of a structure, I will assume you may be talking about bed bugs associated with either birds or bats. These two other species do still exist and occur in structures, and that is something we need to keep in mind when we identify the bugs found in a home. The most recent time someone showed me bed bugs to identify they did turn out to be Bat Bugs (Cimex pilosellus or C. adjunctus), and in this case this home had recently performed bat removal and exclusion, so the parasites were now wandering around. The distinctive difference, seen under high magnification, is the length of the hairs along the sides of the prothorax, which are longer than the width of the eye on bat bugs, and much shorter on The Common Bed Bug.

Bat bugs also tend to be more active during daylight hours, and if bats or swallows or other birds have been nesting or roosting on the structure they could have seeded the area with the bugs, which may be walking on the exterior surfaces. But, the Common Bed Bug just prefers to be inside and as close to food resources as possible, so treating the exterior surfaces of structures for this human parasite would be unusual. I’m not sure which species you may be dealing with in this situation, but it would be important to gather some specimens and have a positive identification made. That way if it turns out to be bed bugs more likely to be associated with birds or bats you know you need to deal with those host animals before you do anything else, since they would be the source of the problem. In fact, is there a chance that what you are seeing may not even be bed bugs at all?

Down to your basic question though. Cy-Kick is labeled for bed bugs and for use on the exterior of a structure, but with limitations. Except for applications along the foundation you can treat only as a spot or crack and crevice application, meaning you would not be allowed to treat broad surfaces of the structure outside. The specific instructions for bed bugs on this particular label speak only to indoor treatments, so if your state does not allow you to treat in any manner not specifically stated on the product label then you could not use it outdoors for bed bugs.

Another comparable product (also a microencapsulated pyrethroid) is Demand CS, and it DOES have labeling allowing broader uses to exterior surfaces. In answer to the question of what “works well” I will fall back on the current industry position that there is not yet that perfect insecticide for bed bugs, and we should not place total reliance on pesticides to eliminate them. It is going to be more successful if we incorporate the IPM steps that also include various non-chemical materials.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

You suggested fogging a wall void to kill BMSBs in a structure. Won’t this cause a problem with dermestid beetles feeding on the carcasses, and wouldn’t that be an even bigger problem than the stink bugs?

ANSWER:

Well, now there is our dilemma, and in case any of you don’t know the reference to “the lady or the tiger” it refers to a story where a man was given 2 choices, both of them bad. This is correct what you say Brian. Anytime we kill any bugs or rodents inside a home and cannot remove all the little bodies and carcasses it is an open invitation to Mother Nature’s cleanup crew to find them and do what they are programmed to do – recycle the dead bodies. This is true also of wasp and bee nests, roaches or bed bugs inside walls, and flies and any other bugs we kill and leave behind. Carpet beetles (dermestids) WILL find them, and now these alternate pests also are in the home.

Perhaps one solution to this could be to follow up that fogging (which would give a fairly rapid kill) with an application of an inorganic dust, such as silica gel (Drione for example) or diatomaceous earth (MotherEarth D for example), leaving a coating of this material behind to intercept any dermestids that find their way in later. These active ingredients simply do not degrade, and their hazard to humans is so low that having them in the walls or other voids for years to come does not present a health risk.

Your question also points out, much to my delight, the benefit of keeping the bugs outside in the first place, and this means exclusion. The homeowner can be made aware that allowing the bugs to find their way in can lead to other problems such as the carpet beetles. Even if we do not kill them with insecticides there likely will be a great many that do not survive the winter, and these dead bugs will remain. If we can be diligent about involving the homeowner in an honest effort at sealing all possible openings on the outside where the bugs could enter, and supplement that with applications of residual products to the exterior surfaces they gather on in the fall, we can greatly minimize the number that make it inside.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

I have a client who owns a hotel in the Caribbean. She follows Buddhism and abhors the idea that I have to kill living creatures. For years I was not allowed to put out any rodent baits or traps. Due to a recent increase in rat sightings I’ve convinced her to let me use traps (glue and snap), but no baits as she feels that they will suffer too much. Is there a humane way that I can quickly kill the rodents that are still alive in the traps?

ANSWER:

Well this is an interesting one. I have no problem whatsoever with people feeling sympathy for other living creatures, but sometimes wonder if there is just a mild hypocrisy there. I myself have taken criticism for killing butterflies, and those who are angry that I do this appear to be angry because I have killed something “pretty”. Those same people don’t seem to have the same moral outrage over killing mosquitoes or ticks, so is it only pretty things that deserve to live? When a U.S.-based animal-rights group loudly criticized the President for killing a fly, advocating a catch and release policy instead, do they hold the same catch and release policy for bed bugs and head lice? It is important for people to recognize that there often are times when living things become intolerable, and begin to compete with humans for health and livelihoods, and at that point they may need to be killed.

Fortunately, your customer does seem to recognize that there is a point where these peridomestic rodents must be eliminated. To leave them in and around this hotel in any numbers could jeopardize her business and the health of her customers. As much as you can provide good exclusion on the structures at this hotel the better the situation, but there will still be someplace the rodents manage to enter. Hopefully no one in our professional industry enjoys watching any animal suffer, so we all should make the effort to kill pest animals quickly and in the most humane manner possible. Traps should be checked regularly after setting so that dead animals can be removed as quickly as possible to prevent odors, flies, and the possibility of their parasites (fleas and mites) wandering away into the structure. Animals that are captured but still alive should be dispatched quickly, so there is your question. How do you do this in some manner that other people will consider to be “humane”?

First of all, even the most active animal rights group in the U.S. will at least concede that rodents will, at times, need to be killed, and they appear to recommend the use of snap traps as the most efficient and humane method. Properly caught a rat or mouse will have its neck broken and will die instantly in a snap trap. Obviously this does not always happen. Glue traps are not favored by these groups, and in fact they campaign strongly against their use. However, we who do this for a living recognize the challenge posed by domestic rats and mice and the fact that we need to use all the tools possible to capture and remove them. To allow rats to roam freely inside a structure is to risk serious contamination of food, destruction of wires and other structural elements, and even possible attacks on people. The use of glue traps may not look pretty to some people, but it may be the more effective method in some circumstances.

So, again, how to quickly kill the rodent captured but still alive in a snap or glue trap, and to do so in a manner that pleases everyone. This may not be possible, so you should do so where other people do not have to watch. I love a good steak, but personally don’t want to watch the cow being slaughtered. Drowning is one option and is quick. The trap with rodent can be dumped into a bucket of water and held immersed. A more painless method might be to gas it with car exhaust, but this takes time and the trapped rodent continues to be caught on the trap for awhile. Clubbing it on the head could be very rapid, but clubbing a rat on a glue trap could be messy, and if you don’t hit the right spot the first time the rodent may just be stunned and not killed. You are not going to be allowed to carry anything yourself that you could inject the rodent with, so perhaps drowning would be the fastest and most successful method of killing the rodents.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.