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Pest Control Specialists Contact Us

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Dayton, OH 45405

QUESTION:

I have a client that has an infested tree with around 50,000 wasps in it – it’s incredible. Can I spray it with my gas sprayer with Dragnet?


ANSWER:

This answer depends a bit on what your regulatory agency allows. Dragnet is labeled for use on ornamental trees for a wide variety of pest insects, but essentially for those pests that are feeding on and damaging the tree. It is not labeled for treatment of wasps found IN trees, although it is labeled for wasps on and around structures. So, here’s the question. Does your regulatory agency allow you to use a product for any pest that occurs on a labeled site? Most states in the U.S. do but a few do not, and those few require that you only treat for pests that are listed on the sites you hope to treat, meaning you would have to use a product labeled for wasps found in trees. This is probably going to be much more difficult to find a product labeled in that manner.

To me it is logical that if you can safely treat for all those listed pests on a listed site that it would be just as “safe” to treat for some other kind of pest on that same site, even though it is not named on the product Label. Manufacturers usually have various kinds of general terms and vague statements that allow this judgment call on your part, such as “treat for pests such as but not limited to” or “for the following and similar kinds of pests”, etc. However, the Dragnet label does state that it may be used to control “insect pests on ornamentals, so this could be construed as allowing its use for any pest insects found in an ornamental tree. The list of insects that follows may not, in the eyes of this manufacturer, necessarily be limiting the use of the product only to those pests.

But, since your local regulatory agency would be the one to say yes or no to this question it always is best to consult with them if you are uncertain. Better to know ahead of time that you should not than to go ahead and do it and get cited for it later.

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QUESTION:

What is the best product for roaches for kitchen areas, and one that is safe for use around children?

ANSWER:

I am going to be purposely vague here Martin, because there are SO many different products for cockroach control that I would hate to see you focus in on the use of only one of them. First, we have to recognize that the best roach control is going to come from the use of IPM methods, meaning you address the important issues of sanitation and exclusion, perhaps even before you start applying pesticides. You should begin with a very careful inspection of the facility (home or commercial kitchen) to determine exactly where the roaches are hiding and what contributing conditions exist in this place that are providing the food, water, and harborage that these roaches need to be there and to thrive. You write all of these findings down on your Sanitation Inspection Report form and present them to the customer, and together the two of you put together a game plan on how those contributing conditions will be resolved. Quite honestly, if the sanitation aspects are not dealt with no amount of insecticide is going to permanently eliminate the roaches. The customer has to accept that changes are needed.

With the IPM steps taking place you then choose the other products you will use to remove the roaches, and these may be both chemical and non-chemical. Certainly insect glue traps are very useful for monitoring initially as well as for a follow up to check your results. Vacuums are available that will instantly remove a great many cockroaches, reducing the number you then need to kill with insecticides. You should discuss the insecticide choices with your customer to see if he or she has any concerns before you start applying the materials. You may find out that they absolutely will not tolerate synthetic active ingredients, and thus you could offer the use of some of the many “natural” products. They may not want sprays used in which case you may stick with baits and wall injections of dusts or bait. Involving the customer in these choices can be helpful in the long run, and it also give you the opportunity to educate them on the limitations of relying only on insecticides.

With respect to the question of “safe” for use around children, we, as an industry, are told to avoid the word SAFE at all costs. You should never suggest to your customers that any kind of pesticide is safe for children, as this understates the fact that any and all pesticides potentially are harmful when not used properly. At the same time, it is all about HOW you apply the chosen products whether or not children or pets or anyone else will be exposed to them. For cockroach control you achieve the safest and the most effective application by placing all products directly into hidden places, where the roaches will contact the material but people are not going to be. Since the German roach spends 80% of its time tucked away inside voids and crevices, these are the places you should apply your insecticide products, including bait products. Bait gels should never be left exposed on counters and walls, but only placed into crevices where the roaches prefer to feed.

Fogging the air inside a home is not going to give you any successful cockroach control, so avoid setting off aerosols or mechanical foggers for German roaches. The use of a crack and crevice tip, whether on an aerosol or a hand sprayer, allows you to place your insecticide spray directly into crevices and openings leading to voids. Aerosols may be more likely to KEEP that material inside the crevice, whereas water-based sprays often drip or run out and would need to be cleaned off the surface. Granular bait products can be “puffed” into wall voids where you suspect the roaches are hiding, as can dust products like diatomaceous earth or silica gel. These inorganic dusts last for many years in a dry void, and also have extremely low hazard to humans.

I believe that just about any of the active ingredients labeled for cockroaches will kill the roach. The key is to put the roach and the active ingredient into contact with each other long enough to allow that roach to absorb enough of the a.i. to kill it. This is why putting the insecticides into the roach’s hiding places is the best technique, rather than spraying baseboards and exposed surfaces. This is also how you keep your application the “safest” possible for children or anyone else who then enters and uses that kitchen. So, I hesitate to name names of specific products, but if you contact your local Univar office at 1-800-888-4897 you can talk with your local Customer Service Representative and they can let you know what others in your area seem to be trying successfully.

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QUESTION:

We service a large bank building in a downtown area where they are having crickets on the second floor of the facility. We are proposing a power spray with permethrin around the perimeter followed with permethrin-bifen granules. Is there a better treatment and how in the world are they getting to the second floor? The building has a LOT of shrubs, azaleas, holly and ground cover around the outside, as well as a lot of lighting at night.

ANSWER:

Your awful weather in Texas this year – extended drought – has played havoc with the “normal” behavior of many kinds of insects, and has driven a lot of them to end up indoors looking for cooler, damper conditions. This could explain why you are finding so many crickets indoors when you have not in the past, and as the season progresses their populations outdoors may have increased normally too, bringing a lot of pressure now on these large numbers to find places to be that are more comfortable. Some kinds of crickets are able to fly, so they easily could end up on upper floors of buildings, but they also should easily climb rough exterior walls, so having them end up on the second floor would not be an act of magic. If you are finding none on the first floor that would be odd, but perhaps they are just able to get into the walls at ground level and the first available openings they find inside happen to be at second floor level. Perhaps the building is well sealed at ground level and yet provides some entry opportunities at the second floor level. I suppose it’s also possible the crickets are flying onto the roof and heading DOWN from there, becoming visible to people on the second floor.

It does sound like you have identified at least some of the contributing conditions though, with the extensive and dense plantings around the exterior. You don’t indicate if you are finding large numbers of crickets outside and in this landscape, but that sounds logical and would be worth poking around to see. If this is a source of the crickets then your application of a pyrethroid around the perimeter would be an excellent way to intercept crickets that wander to the base of the structure and then along the structure looking for openings. The granules would be a good choice in the dense plantings to ensure it gets down to the soil level and does not stick to the foliage. Sometimes a formulation such as a wettable powder or microencapsulated material may offer an advantage for perimeter sprays. The particles left behind after the water dries may more easily adhere to an insect that moves quickly over the surface, giving better contact time with the bug.

I would also carefully inspect all the obvious openings at ground level to ensure they are as bug-tight as possible – exterior doors being the most suspicious possible entry points, windows, cable and plumbing access openings, etc. If you find any gaps that can be sealed properly this will help exclude insects, and treating around these areas with the residual material also is helpful. I don’t know if the lighting is necessarily a detriment here. Crickets in general are not drawn to lights at night in any numbers, so unless you are observing them crawling around the lights perhaps this can be ignored. Just normal insect exclusion practice does call for exterior lights NOT to be located directly over doors though, since so many other kinds of bugs do come to lights and enter easily when the doors are opened and closed. But, having them move exterior lights at this time would probably not be acceptable to the customer.

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QUESTION:

Do you feel the following company protocol for bed bug inspection and treatment is appropriate?
Rooms have to be treated 3 times (our standard requirement) on the First day, Second day and after a week. If our specialists do not find out any evidence of bed bugs after this period the room may be rented and occupied again. From our experience, over 90% of infested rooms can be occupied after 7 days. If bed bugs and evidence of their presence are still found a fourth treatment will be required, with no extra charge as we have a 3 months onward guarantee. We suggest the rooms be held empty for another 3 days for the fourth treatment in this case.

ANSWER:

It is difficult to say that any single protocol is the proper one for bed bug management. I would say that if this procedure is working for your company then it probably is a good protocol to have in place. The only way to ensure that ALL bed bugs and their eggs are dead after a single treatment would be to perform a full-structure fumigation or heat treatment, and these would have to be done properly as well. Heat treatments done incorrectly may even spread the bed bugs to other areas of a structure. Even the use of freezing is done spot by spot and needs to be extremely thorough, so even that technique lends itself to bugs or eggs being missed on the first visit and treatment.

With “standard” treatments using insecticides and perhaps steam and other tools it should be accepted that some number of bed bugs and their eggs will survive the first treatment. Most companies do seem to plan at least a second treatment, and at the very least MONITOR the treated rooms and return a third time to evaluate the success. I don’t know that automatically treating a third time with insecticides is always warranted, if no evidence of bed bugs can be found on that third visit, but definitely a look at the infested rooms after one week is important. Some of the best companies in business with tremendous experience in bed bug removal will not declare a room “free and clear” of bed bugs until at least 60 days have gone by with no evidence of bed bug activity. This means no more bites and no more sightings of bed bugs or new evidence of them. This relies somewhat on the occupants of those rooms being aware of their own symptoms and doing visual checks themselves, but after 60 days in a room where there is human activity it would be assumed that all eggs would have hatched and any bed bugs present would have resumed feeding.

I know this is a HUGE burden on hotels and motels, to remove a room or even 6 or 7 rooms (those rooms next to the infested one and above and below it) from service, as this costs them a great deal of money. However, the cost of lawsuits from hotel guests who claim they brought home bed bugs from that hotel or were fed upon while in the hotel far outweighs the lost revenue from rooms not being rented for a few days. Most hotel management people know the implications of having bed bugs in their hotels, and have their own protocols in place for their housekeeping staff.

The process you have outlined for your own company seems reasonable to me. Certainly a second treatment is proper, and a third treatment if you find any evidence that bed bug activity is continuing. The use of some of the inexpensive bed bug monitors placed in the rooms would be very helpful in alerting you to continued bed bug activity.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

If a cat or a dog chews on a dead rodent poisoned by bait blocks is the pet in danger from the poison?

ANSWER:

Here’s the reality of a situation like this. You may be between that rock and a hard place. While a dog or cat simply “chewing on” or licking a rodent that has died from rodent poison really is not going to ingest an amount of the active ingredient that could possibly be dangerous to it, the pet’s owner is likely to be paranoid, and demand that you pay for a vet bill for some treatment. If the dog or cat did not completely consume the rodent, stomach, intestines, and all, then it’s probably that the dog did not even consume any rodent bait, although if it managed to swallow some of that rodent’s blood I suppose technically it also swallowed whatever amount of active ingredient already was in the blood of that rodent.

But, it is all based on weight – the weight of the animal compared with the amount of rodent bait consumed, and a rat or mouse requires many times less bait to kill it than a dog or cat would. For example, Lipha Tech has an excellent “Veterinarians Guide” available on their website that EVERY pest control company should have on site, and probably should consider providing to all the veterinarians in their area. This guide lists the “probable” quantities of bait product for each of the active ingredients of the anticoagulants that would be considered a lethal dose for dogs (22 lb) or cats (4.4 lb). For example, a 22 lb dog would have to CONSUME from 6.2 to 105 ounces of diphacinone bait, 77 to 141 ounces of bromadiolone bait, or 1.8 to 25 ounces of brodifacoum bait. Even the lowest amounts listed here would be tremendous amounts to expect to find in a single rat, much less a mouse. And, the entire rodent would have to be swallowed to get all the remaining bait in that rodent into the system of the dog or cat. This is a very unlikely scenario.

Is this kind of secondary poisoning “possible”. Well, certainly it is possible. The rat might have been a glutten that ate every scrap of rodenticide it could find, or the dog might have found a couple dozen rats that all had been gluttens and the dog ate every last one of them. But, these things are highly unlikely. It could be more likely with a rat, where an adult rat can consume up to 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of bait per day, whereas a mouse tops out at about 4 grams. As Dr. Robert Corrigan states it in his book “Rodent Control” – secondary poisoning in which a dog or cat consumes a dead rodent is “theoretically possible but is highly unlikely”.

So, if this cat or dog only found a single rodent and chewed on it awhile without swallowing all of it, particularly its internal organs, it would be very, very unlikely that the pet ingested even any of the toxicant, much less a hazardous amount. If that pet is in the habit of finding and consuming multiple dead rodents then a trip to the vet definitely is warranted, and the veterinarian can take blood samples and treat for anticoagulant poisoning as he sees warranted.

The other consideration is that dead rodents should never be left lying around, whether in traps or killed by bait. In fact, rodenticide labels universally state that we are to “collect and dispose of all dead, exposed animals and leftover bait”. If we are contracting with a customer to do the rodent control for them this mandates that the dead rodents must be found and removed, and once we are finished with that job all remaining bait also must be removed. It would be illegal for us to do a one-shot for rodent control using bait in or around a home.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

Can you give me a proposal or protocol to get rid of carpenter ants?

ANSWER:

Yes, even in the hot, dry environments of our Southwest states there are carpenter ants. Wherever there is wood there will exist the insects needed to recycle that wood when it is dead. In the Pacific Northwest the carpenter ants are the principal wood infesting pest in structures, and much of what I have learned over the years has come from fantastic seminars presented by Dr. Laurel Hansen, who has spent many years studying these insects in Washington state.

One of the important things to keep in mind about their biology is that the carpenter ants that may be seen within a structure, even if there is an actual nest in the structure, are almost always still part of a primary nest that is outside somewhere, often underground and within some buried wood such as an old root system. This is where the primary queen will reside along with the majority of the workers, but later stage larvae and pupae may need a drier location, so when the time is right some of the workers will relocate these nest mates to a nearby structure and either hole up in an existing void or create their own by hollowing out structural wood. But, these workers still may make a daily trek back to the primary colony. Since these ants are primarily nocturnal you may not see this activity unless you visit the account at night, at which time their movements along well defined trails could be much easier.

Fortunately, a lot of PMP’s have found that carpenter ants readily accept granular insect baits, so this can be one great tool in your arsenal. The bait should be placed as close to the active ants as possible to ensure they find it, meaning directly in their path on those well used trails outside, and therefore you need to know where the trails are by visiting when the ants are active. You also need to know where the ants may be creating their nests indoors, and once you do you can treat directly into the nest using pressurized dusts or aerosols or fogging with a void injector that pushes the mist deeply into voids. As you likely know, the evidence of carpenter ants working indoors will be the debris they push out of their nests, composed most often of tiny bits of wood and sawdust but also dead ants, body parts of other insects they eat, and the white silk pupa cases left over after the pupae have hatched. Under magnification you can tell what that dust on the kitchen counter or the hardwood floor is composed of.

Baiting can also be done indoors using granules within wall voids or gel baits placed where the homeowners are not going to have to watch a lot of ants feeding. Carpenter ants love to travel along trails already provided for them, so within the wall they move along wires or pipes that move from void to void. A dust insecticide used within interior walls should coat all of these surfaces and contact the ants as they pass along, and inorganic dusts such as diatomaecous earth or silica gel work well and last forever. One like Drione incorporates the pyrethrum as well to achieve some knockdown.

The keys to control will be to FIND that primary nest outdoors and treat it in some manner so that the source of the problem is eliminated, to find the secondary nest indoors and treat it as well to eliminate the entity that is damaging the structure, and to find the pathways outdoors that the ants are using. Once these paths are determined you can treat more directly where you know the ants will encounter what you place. A non-repellent spray insecticide with a good transfer effect also can be very helpful, as using this where you know the traveling ants will contact it will improve the chances for the foraging workers themselves to carry the material directly into the colonies.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

When is the right time of year to start applying larvicide for mosquitoes? I am located in Alabama.

ANSWER:

Good question, and given that larvicides can have a significant cost factor it is important not to place them when they are not doing the most good. There are essentially 4 different basic kinds of larvicides. Surface oils and films are designed to coat the water surface and prevent the larvae and pupae from accessing oxygen, smothering them. This will not work on all species of mosquitoes as a few kinds use their syphon to penetrate aquatic plants to access oxygen. IGR’s (insect growth regulators) such as methoprene act to inhibit proper development of the larvae to the adult stage, causing their death in the pupa or earlier. The bacteria such as B.T.I. (bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) is ingested by the larvae and causes a toxic reaction in their own gut, causing death in this manner. The 4th group would be normal contact insecticides that may be labeled for use in these aquatic sites, but for this answer we’ll stick with the first 3 choices.

It is very important to know which species of mosquitoes you are dealing with in your area. Some kinds are much more likely to breed within small, temporary containers of water such as tree holes, tires, buckets, etc., and if you do not find these and treat them in some manner you miss killing them. If you assume that all the mosquitoes must be coming from the local marsh or pond or irrigation ditch it may not be correct, so capture some adult mosquitoes and get that positive ID so you know what kinds of breeding sites to look for. You also need to know some quirky habits of even the larvae, such as the tendency of some species larvae to gather in masses when feeding at certain stages of their development. For this you might need to use the highest Label rate possible when treating in that location.

Whenever possible and legal you should consider simply eliminating the breeding source. Why treat the tree hole if you can drain it or fill it with sand? Why treat the old tires if you can drill holes in them and drain the water, or empty the bucket, or drain the tarp, or fill in the low areas in the soil? Source reduction is by far the best mosquito control that reduces the need for any pesticides. With today’s environmental movement many breeding sites cannot be manipulated, so these may need to be treated in some manner.

Once you determine the potential breeding sites it is important to sample them when the weather becomes warm enough for the larvae to begin development. In some cases the eggs may already be present in that site, and they hatch when the water warms sufficiently. The presence of adult mosquitoes does not signal the need to begin larviciding, but the presence of larvae does. Again, it depends heavily on the species of mosquito in your area as to when this may begin. Some species are well adapted to developing in much colder water than other kinds can tolerate. Using a dipper to sample the water and count the mosquito larvae will tell you when the activity is beginning.

The most susceptible stage of the larva is when it is close to pupation, and for most species of mosquitoes the larva might be between 5 and 10 mm in length when you decide to treat. Too early and you may miss later emerging larvae and too late and many of them may already have pupated. Fortunately, some of the larvicides such as the BTI have formulations that last at least 30 days and as much as 60 or more, so you have a pretty wide window. But, begin your sampling in early spring with the first warmish days and treat once you determine larvae are present at the proper stage of development. In many regions mosquito presence and breeding continues all summer long and into early fall, so repeat treatments may be necessary once you feel the active ingredient has run its course in the sites you have treated.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

I know you mentioned Kicker and Exciter for helping with the knockdown phase of treating bed bugs, but what about Exponent. What purpose does this serve and does it help with bed bug treatment as well?

ANSWER:

I like to play it shy and wait for the official information from our excellent researchers at some of our major universities, such as the Univ. of Kentucky, before going too far out on that limb with my own conclusions. But, so many PMP’s are using pyrethrum with their other bed bug treatment products, and telling us that it seems to improve the control effort, that there must be something to it. Just what this is I can only guess at for the moment. Perhaps it is the pyrethrum itself that adds to the overall chemical load on that bed bug to help cause its death. Perhaps it is the immediate effect that pyrethrum has on insects that stuns the insect long enough to keep it in contact with your residual products longer, or to help absorb more of the residual into the system of the bed bug, or to weaken the bed bug initially and allow the other molecules to work better. What is well known is that there is HIGH resistance by bed bugs to many of our commonly used products, so overcoming this resistance somehow is needed.

Way back in the Olden Days of organophosphates and Carbamates we had a product called Ficam, a carbamate with the active ingredient of bendiocarb. Initially the manufacturer touted the fantastic results Ficam would give killing German roaches, but the industry found otherwise, and eventually it was realized that the German Roach could somehow metabolize the bendiocarb molecule and excrete it efficiently enough to survive that exposure to this molecule. So, they came out with Ficam Plus, which added synergized pyrethrum to the bendiocarb, and this worked better. Note the word “synergized”, because there are two primary synergists used in pyrethrum products – piperonyl butoxide and MGK 264. These synergists are there for one reason – to BLOCK the ability of insects to metabolize pyrethrum and survive its effects. Pyrethrum knocks things down quickly, but does not easily kill roaches on its own. Flies yes, roaches no. Exponent is piperonyl butoxide (PBO).

Later we also got aerosols that combined residuals like propoxur (Baygon) with PBO with the realization that the PBO somehow enhanced the effect even of an excellent residual like propoxur. So, maybe it is the PBO in Kicker and Exciter that is doing the additional work when we add these pyrethrum products to our residual materials. Hard to say, but that is why our researchers are madly working on the answers to these concerns in the effort to improve our ability to kill bed bugs with insecticides.

I suspect that Exponent would also have a very positive effect when added properly to your mixture of the residuals that you use. If PBO somehow blocks the resistance to active ingredients of other kinds in other insects maybe it also would help to overcome the resistance bed bugs are showing to so many pyrethroids. Just my unofficial conclusion, and not based on anything I have read to date.

View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.

QUESTION:

Pack rats are living in a Century Plant. How do I rid rodents that are dwelling in cacti?

ANSWER:

Actually, pack rats commonly choose cactus of various kinds for their living places in regions where these prickly, dangerous plants are available. Living amongst all those spines and needles provides them with excellent protection from their own enemies, and once they create their huge jumble of sticks and other nesting materials they themselves are comfortably protected from the hazards of the cactus itself. Out in a really rural area these native rodents, also called wood rats, could be left alone. But, around homes they can be pretty damaging to many things, including getting into vehicles and chewing on hoses, wires, or cushions. They do like any other rodent does and they GNAW on anything and everything, damaging plants and equipment. Their feces may accumulate and create an unhealthy condition and like all rodents they do carry parasites that could move onto human hosts.

Control cries out for some overall IPM program that changes the environment in that area. The rats have chosen this plant not only for its protection, but also because it is central to their other needs of food and water. Eliminating as much of their food resources as possible will at least help to discourage them, and around a home this may be more possible than in more natural areas. Around a home it might be pet foods, garbage, or fallen fruits or vegetables in the yard. It could be seeds, so eliminating all weed growth is helpful. Removing or draining water sources where possible would help. The rats do have to leave their nest to find food, so they will be exposing themselves on a nightly basis.

The customer has to accept a lot of the work here, but if all you were to do is to physically remove that nest in the plant and even kill the current rodent residing there, the conditions on the property would remain the same, and invite another pack rat in to fill the void just created. This could go on forever, but if you are able to reduce the resources of the rat you help to discourage them for the longer period of time.

You also can work with toxic baits and traps, and of course either of these should be placed within a tamper resistant rodent station to keep them from contact by non-targeted animals. The wood rats can easily be attracted to baits using the same lures you do for domestic rats – peanut butter, nuts, dried fruit, bacon, etc. They generally have no fear of human objects and are happy to enter stations to investigate the odors. These stations can be placed close to the nest area to make it easier for the rats to find them. Since you generally have just a few pack rats on a property trapping would be the preferable method. In addition, with the new labeling on almost all of our rodenticides – for ONLY the House Mouse and Roof and Norway Rats –  it is difficult to find baits labeled for other rodents such as the pack rat. And, with this rat’s tendency to carry things back to its nest and store them there you run the risk of having a lot of the bait stored in the nest and not eaten, but now potentially avialable to other non-targeted animals.

I would suggest doing what is possible to alter the environment around this property to discourage the rats, and then trapping to remove the ones residing there.

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QUESTION:

I have been told that heat treatment for bed bugs is the best way to go. My concern is that while the room is heating up the bed bugs will run deeper into the walls, even into another room to get away from the heat. Some experts are telling me that the bugs are attracted to heat. So, when they are climbing the wall as the room is heating up are they coming to the heat or running from it? I currently use the steam method and your answer will help me determine if I will start using heat.
Thanks

ANSWER:

There appears to be a little confusion in the midst of the folks who are advising you. Definitely one of the stimuli that attracts bed bugs to a food source is the BODY heat of that warm blooded animal, but we are talking about a moderate level of heat, and the bed bug is not forced to live in that 98.6 degree temperature, but only to stand on it for 10 minutes to get a drink. However, heat is the absolute ENEMY of bed bugs, and once the temperature gets above about 103 degrees Fahrenheit they are at risk of dying. According to some university studies 104 degrees of dry heat will kill bed bugs within 24 hours, 113 degrees takes only 1 hour, and a clothes dryer at 175 degrees does them in within 5 minutes. We take advantage of this susceptibility to heat with heat chambers, steam, washer and dryer, and now whole-house heating. In fact, Dr. Mike Potter suggests that a good quality steamer will push 180 degree steam (wet heat) 6 inches into crevices and will kill all bugs and their eggs instantly at that temperature. So, please do not stop using a steamer. It has some excellent uses and advantages.

So, onto whether the bug is coming or going, and I will say that very definitely it is RUNNING FOR ITS LIFE when it begins to detect the environmental temperature around it getting uncomfortable. In fact, once again our university experts have advised us that this can be one drawback to heat. If the bugs have the ability to move quickly (and they do run pretty darned fast) to a cooler place they will do so. Putting things in a black plastic bag and placing it in the sun may not work if the bugs can move to the bottom and under things where the temperature may stay cool enough for their survival. If a single room in a hotel is sealed and heated the bugs within the walls might move further away and begin to infest surrounding units. Heat works beautifully, but only if the bugs are trapped in the space that is being heated to above the lethal temperatures. Any bugs seen running around during the heat-up process are definitely not thinking that food must be nearby. They have been forced out of their hiding places due to this increasing heat and they are only looking for survival now and a cooler place to be.

Is a heat treatment the best way to go? Well, it has advantages and disadvantages, and we discussed some of the “cons” already. Bugs may find a way to survive by moving to a cooler place and in a large structure this could spread the problem. Heating is done using propane tanks for the fuel, and as one recent explosion shows there can be a problem with faulty equipment. There may also be some kinds of equipment or materials in a room or home that are sensitive to heat, and might be damaged if the temperature gets too high.

On the “pro” side, heat is non-toxic. It also is efficient at killing bugs and eggs quickly, so properly done a heat treatment should completely, 100% rid an infested place of the bugs. Items that can be moved out of a home are easily treated in mobile heat chambers, and there are smaller units that can accommodate small items for heating directly when insecticides would not be appropriate. Bottom line though, the bugs are not going on a feeding frenzy during the initial buildup of heat in whole-structure heat treatments. They are recognizing that their survival is at stake and they are trying to escape.

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