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QUESTION:

Has it been shown that roaches are attracted to ant gel baits and vice versa that ants are attracted to roach gel baits? As we have seperate products (bait gels) for ants and roaches perhaps this question seems illogical, however I wonder.

ANSWER:

I suspect that a bait product is formulated with food ingredients that are considered most tempting to the targeted pest. But, cockroaches in particular are such general feeders that I have no doubt they would happily munch on any of the ant baits as well. And, ants too feed on a variety of carbohydrate (sugar) or protein based materials, and roach baits probably provide these nutrient needs for them. Since both ant and roach baits come in gel formulations it certainly is not the consistency of the bait that would be a turn off for either pest.

It may be that marketing a bait product through the maze of legal requirements and registrations is easiest if you don’t try to cram too much onto the label. Marketing a bait for ants only could be easier than getting it approved for both ants and roaches. It also may simply be a “marketing” effort on the part of the manufacturer to present more product lines to customers by designating more specific uses of them. For all I know it could be the exact same material in both the ant and the roach bait from a manufacturer, and not intended to fool anyone so much as intended to target distinct pests. I also would believe that different active ingredients may be more effective on one or the other of these insects, so there could be a gel bait base used for either pest but with different actives in them.

Ants would be much more likely to go for sugar baits since this is one major attraction to them, so many of the gel baits are sugar based and perhaps these would be less attractive to roaches than protein baits are.

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QUESTION:

I wanted to know if it’s legal to anchor and use
RTUs for mice outside of a building? I’ve seen this practice a couple of times now.

ANSWER:

I think we should compare what is legal versus what is advisable. The RTU (Protecta RTU) is legally a “tamper resistant” rodent station, and it meets the criteria for being tamper resistant – sturdy, lockable, with baffles inside, and capable of being secured to the surface. So, since rodent bait labels state only that for exterior use the bait must be within a tamper resistant station the RTU could legally be placed outside. However, for practical purposes it might be better to use one of the larger stations, and I’m not just saying that because Univar makes more profit on larger stations. These small stations could just that much more easily be kicked and dislodged or kicked and have the bait spill out or be stomped on and opened.

Of course, no rodent station is 100% tamper PROOF, and that is why they are called “resistant”, and it becomes a judgment call on the part of the PMP to choose the station appropriate for his situation. In fact, a look at a rodenticide label finds the advice that “stronger bait stations” may be necessary where the potential for larger or more destructive animals is there, and where a more aggressive effort might be made to access the bait inside. If this is an area inside a fence line where no children could possibly be and no feral dogs or coyotes are going to roam, then the RTU might be perfectly acceptable.

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QUESTION:

My question pertains to a new law. With an unfortunate situation with the death of two children a new law has been passed about the use of bait stations around any location not considered real property. It states that the law pertains to new bait that is bought after the date the law was enforced. Does this mean that I can still use the bait I currently have in locations such as softball fields, open range, or even fencelines? I would appreciate it if you could clarify! The bait I am using is to control the Vole population!

ANSWER:

I think you may be combining two different issues here, so let me work in that direction. The terrible and avoidable deaths of the two children I assume pertains to the little girls in Utah who were killed by phosphine vapors from an extraordinary mis-use of aluminum phosphide pellets around their home. The immediate result of this incident was that aluminum phosphide had new guidelines imposed on its use. These include extending the distance from structures from 15 feet to 100 feet, prohibiting its use around residential structures, hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and day care centers. It can still be used on school athletic fields but specific posting requirements now are in effect and the company that uses aluminum phosphide for any reason must have its own written Fumigation Management Plan in place.

Second, in June of this year (2011) new Rodenticide Mitigation Decision regulations took effect with respect to the use of rodent baits. One of these new regulations is with respect to the minimum size of the product you can purchase. For “second generation” anticoagulants like bromodialone and brodifacoum the minimum size you can buy will be 16 pounds, and for first generation and acutes like diphacinone the minimum size is 4 pounds. As suppliers we can phase out old stock as it is labeled. As the END USER you can continue to use old stock as it is labeled, but new material coming from all manufacturers of rodenticides, as of June 4, 2011, will have new wording on the product labels, and you are required to adhere to the instructions on the package that you have in your possession.

The new label statements for rodenticides will include these. Labels for rodent baits labeled for peridomestic rats and mice will state “ONLY for Norway Rat, Roof Rat, and House Mouse”. They will state on the label that the minimum package size must be sold. For outdoor use you cannot place the bait more than 50 feet away from a building and the bait must be used within a tamper-resistant station or directly within a burrow.

So to answer your question you may use rodent bait in your possession AS it is labeled, and if that bait is labeled for use in open fields or along fence lines then that is how you are legally allowed to use it. You may still be able to purchase some older stock from suppliers that still has this older labeling on the package, and that is how it can be used. However, as of June 4 only NEW label product can leave the manufacturers’ warehouses, and in a short time this will be the only product available from vendors. I strongly encourage our industry not to try sneaking new product into old boxes and using it by old label uses. This is only a good way to get us all in trouble, so better to toe the line and accept that things will always change in our industry.

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QUESTION:

What attracts flies to the lawn? What is the best way to get rid of them?

ANSWER:

This will depend a great deal on what kinds of flies these are. There are a few kinds whose larvae feed on decaying thatch, such as March flies and Crane flies, and if there is a buildup of thatch on the lawn it will draw the adult flies to deposit their eggs there. The crane fly is really only a problem in the upper Northwest states of WA and OR where the European Crane Fly exists and causes damage to turf. It may feed primarily on thatch, but it also manages to munch on turf roots and stems. March flies, which are called “love bugs” when their populations explode along eastern states, are another whose larvae normally stick to decaying plant materials such as the thatch, but also will feed on roots of turf. The march flies are very slow fliers, fairly small flies, and usually black in the western states. The infamous love bugs of the east are black with a bright red-orange thorax.

Control of march flies may have to involve an insecticide application, but can also benefit from de-thatching of the turf. The buildup of thatch is caused primarily by an accumulation of the cut stems of the turf, as the blades are so easily decomposed that some universities even recommend leaving cut blades on the lawn to recycle the moisture in them. Stems, however, do not decompose as easily, so proper mowing intervals can reduce the thatch buildup. Thatch forms a thick layer over the soil that encourages many kinds of insects as well as fungus problems, so removing thatch benefits the lawn overall.

Other kinds of flies may simply be attracted to other things on the lawn, such as pet urine or feces which attracts blow flies and other filth flies. The use of organic fertilizers which could contain manure will also be attractive to these flies, and the only way to resolve this would be to change the kind of fertilizer if the flies are intolerable, and to get pets to poop somewhere else or to remove the waste materials immediately. Some kinds of fungi also become attractive to flies, such as the “stink horn” fungi that may startle a homeowner who finds them growing in their lawn. These odd fungi have a rather…….well……phallic appearance, and some of the Latin names for them even refer to this appearance. Their manner of spore dispersal is to produce a slime that smells remarkably like rotting feces, and this draws blow flies that land on the slime and then carry it to other places. Removal of the fungi is the control measure here.

Gather some of the flies and have them identified, and this will then give you hints on their biology and kinds of food resources. Control will normally be more cultural than chemical for flies.

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QUESTION:

A hotel has a German cockroach problem in one of their restaurants and the customer would like to fumigate this restaurant. The hotel has guests occupying one side of the property and no guests on the other side. Do you think it is a smart idea to fumigate the restaurant even though the hotel has some amount of guest and staff on property?

ANSWER:

Without knowing exactly how this restaurant is situated with respect to the rest of the hotel makes it difficult to know whether fumigation is feasible or not. By “fumigation” I assume you are referring to actually tenting or otherwise sealing this restaurant so that a fumigant can be injected that penetrates throughout the restaurant. Sometimes people outside our industry refer to ANY use of insecticides as “fumigating”, which the use of directed contact insecticides is not. If this restaurant is completely separate from all of the other hotel buildings then fumigation could be done legally and without risk to guests there, although I would be certain that many guests would be very nervous about being around a tented structure that they knew was under fumigation. If this restaurant is within or attached to the hotel buildings then fumigation sounds like a very unlikely choice while the hotel still is conducting business.

Either way fumigation is generally unnecessary for cockroach control, although not completely out of the question. A very serious roach problem can be resolved instantly with the use of a fumigant, but this still brings up some questions, particularly the fact that eliminating every cockroach does not change the conditions that created the problem in the first place. The customer could be lured into the false sense of security that getting rid of the roaches somehow keeps them away for the future, but he would still need to correct the structural and sanitation problems that began the roach invasion initially. Your role here should begin with a very thorough inspection of the restaurant, inside and outside, to determine exactly what contributing conditions exist, and all of your findings must be presented to the customer in WRITING on an inspection report form. This makes it easier to refer back to your findings to check on the progress, and easier to assign tasks to specific people for correcting the problems.

The roaches exist in this restaurant because they have found a route of entry, and this needs to be determined and closed off. For German roaches it usually will be importation in infested packaging, and how this occurs must be determined. If the restaurant is connected to the other hotel buildings then the roaches also could have migrated into these other areas, and that should be inspected for. The roaches lived and thrived in this restaurant because there are sanitation issues providing them with food and water, and these can be identified and corrective actions implemented. They thrive because they find abundant harborage, and your inspection identifies where these are and how they can be eliminated. IPM is extremely important in cockroach control, and the customer needs (gently) to understand that insecticides do not resolve these peripheral issues. If nothing changes then nothing changes, and even if you kill all the roaches you will have them back if the contributing conditions continue to exist there.

Your inspection will also determine the true extent of the roach problem there, and whether or not “standard” insecticide applications would be adequate to eliminate the roaches so that fumigation can be avoided. You can integrate the use of vacuums, perhaps steam, caulking to close access to harborage, glue traps to monitor the problem, baits and directed treatments into cracks, crevices, and voids.

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QUESTION:

A client of mine has a relative in California who says she has Bird Lice in their house and it is driving them crazy. She said it started with a bird nest outside a window and they are constantly being bitten and / or having itching on skin. Any recommendations?

ANSWER:

As always with claims of “mites” biting people inside homes or businesses this should begin with an inspection to verify whether or not these mites really are there. We should NEVER take the word of the untrained homeowner on what pest they have. Far too often they may have perceptions based on someone else telling them they have mites or just a previous mite presence that now has their imagination fired up. If you were to assume they were correct and begin a treatment for mites it could well be that there are now no mites there at all, or perhaps it is springtails or some other arthropod that is small, crawls on their skin, and makes them think it is mites. Use insect glue traps liberally around the home to capture anything that may be present and crawling there and examine those traps after a week using HIGH magnification to verify what may be on them.

IF it turns out to be bird mites then control begin with eliminating the source, and this means the birds that brought the mites here initially. Unfortunately this often will be swallows that are nesting in their mud nests around the eaves and roofline of the home, and if it is swallows they can NOT be harmed or molested once the nest is completed. You would have to wait until they and their young have abandoned the nest on their own, and then the nest can be removed and the areas around it and inside the home treated to kill any remaining mites. These mud nests can be removed during the process of construction next year, but once completed must be left alone.

Bird mites cannot survive for very long without their bird hosts, and cannot reproduce and continue their presence. They will bite humans, but only as a temporary alternative when a blood meal is needed. So, eventually the problem will resolve itself once the birds are eliminated and good exclusion is done to prevent more birds from entering, but it could take a few weeks for this to finally happen. Again, if these mites were there weeks or months ago it is possible they are not even present anymore and the resident simply is feeling a continued biting and itching due to their imagination working overtime. This is perfectly normal, so using glue traps to verify the presence of the mites, and which kind of mites they may be, is needed first.

If there are mites then a very, very thorough vacuuming of all floors, walls, and furnishings can begin the removal of them. You can use a pyrethroid insecticide directed to likely pathways such as wall to floor junctions, edges of walls, etc. as well as a dust directed into wall voids. Attics and other enclosed voids can be treated with a dust, and the best dust may be an inorganic material such as silica gel or diatomaceous earth in voids that people may later get into. The use of a “deep void injector” would allow you to fog within voids as well, possibly with a pyrethroid labeled for use in these devices.

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QUESTION:

I have reviewed most of the questions and answers submitted to you on scorpions and I am on board with all the chemical and non-chemical solutions you suggest. My question is how do scorpions get into homes? I would like to attack our ever-growing problem in Las Vegas by concentrating on entry areas.

ANSWER:

I’m really pleased that you are taking this necessary IPM approach to scorpion control, with the recognition that reliance on chemicals alone simply is not the best long term solution. Bugs of all kinds exist around our structures and a great many of them provide some benefit to our landscapes and the general environment. This may be due to their feeding on other insects, as scorpions do. While we can acknowledge that these are beneficial creatures we still don’t want them wandering around on our bedroom floor at night, so keeping them OUT of the home is the most important aspect. Attempting to kill all arthropods that live in our yards is inappropriate and would require a terrible over-use of insecticides. Whether all of your customers like it or not they really do need to accept some tolerance and understanding of the living things around us.

If we “think” like a scorpion we recognize that we like to hunt at night and hide during the daytime, and we’d prefer to hide under something that provides darkness and some level of moisture. We hunt for other arthropods as our food, so we rely on having that prey available to us relatively near to where we hide. We are opportunists that investigate places where we may get lucky and find some food, and will crawl into and under other things in the hope of finding some insect hiding there. In this activity we often end up crawling along the base of the outside wall of a home, and if some gap presents itself we may crawl into it to look for food. If we are Bark Scorpions such as the Centruroides species found in the Southwest states we may also climb trees to look for insects, and if that tree or shrub happens to be touching the roof of a home we may end up on the roof and now find other gaps to move through. The inside of a home really is a foreign environment for us, and if we are trapped inside we likely will die, since proper food and harborage may not be available.

So, as the PMP we look at these activities of the scorpion and try to put up roadblocks. We eliminate other arthropods on a property so that scorpions have no reason to hang around there. We remove, where we can, outside harborage opportunities to limit the number of scorpions that can live on a property. We create barriers of open ground around the structure to discourage these secretive animals from spending time out in the open, for even a scorpion will have its own enemies that want to eat it. We carefully examine the trees and bushes around a structure to be certain that no branches or foliage touch the structures, and use a pair of pruning shears as one of our pest management tools. We carefully inspect the outside of the structure from soil to roof line, knowing that scorpions could possibly climb a rough wall too, and identify all gaps wide enough to allow these flattened critters to squeeze through.

Common entry points are exterior doors that are not well fitted, such as garage doors and side doors of garages. These gaps can be close with weather stripping and brush or plastic strips under the doors, and can be installed by the PMP as another valuable and legitimate service in the overall pest “management” effort. Even windows may have gaps, and in areas like Las Vegas people may be inclined to leave windows open at night and rely on screens to keep critters out. Screens are notoriously poor fitting or damaged to allow scorpions in, and these can be repaired or replaced as needed to seal the area around that screen framing. There are always wide gaps under the eaves of the roof line, and while it may take time to accomplish these can be fllled with caulking and then painted, or filled with some other appropriate material. These gaps admit a lot more than just scorpions, and “pest proofing” a home accomplishes a great deal for a very long time, and greatly reduces the need to use pesticides to kill bugs.

You can also monitor the interior using glue traps placed fairly liberally, but along likely travel paths such as edges of walls. Finding scorpions in the traps could help you to identify possible entry points near that location that you had not found earlier. Make sure all vent screens to attic or crawl space are in good condition with a mesh small enough to keep scorpions from crawling through, and repair those with holes or where the screen has pulled away from the edge. The customer needs to be educated on the wisdom of this approach, and I hope that most homeowners, when they recognize the long term benefit of keeping scorpions out with minimal use of toxic tools, will buy into it and help as well.

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QUESTION:

How do you effectively control mosquitoes at schools? I am having a problem applying pesticides due to children being in close proximity. Thank you.

ANSWER:

Rightfully so you are concerned about the use of insecticides on school properties, for nearly every state has regulations in place regarding school pesticide use, and your state of Arizona is no exception. Like most states with respect to K-12 schools as well as day care centers there are notification requirements, posting requirements, record keeping requirments, and a requirement that these schools and day care centers have in place a specific IPM program. I suggest you begin by working with these schools to ensure they are complying with all of these requirements, and for Arizona and all other states you can go to PestWeb for help. Look in the “Business Tools” tab and then IPM in Schools, and you will find your state and links to the specific regulations in place.

There also are “exemptions” to these regulations depending on what kind of pesticide you use, and for mosquito control in Arizona one exemption is for Public Health uses with “non-residual” insecticides. You still need to ensure the school does the notification to parents and employees, but it can be done “post” application if necessary. Refer to your state’s specific laws on this to determine what is needed. For mosquito control we could divide it into either larval control or adulticiding, and this makes a lot of difference in what you may be required to do. Adult mosquito control is the least effective, meaning what you kill is a temporary relief. Fogging for the mosquitoes using pyrethrum will put you into this “exempt” status but give relief only for a day or so. The use of residual insecticides for “barrier” treatments will give much longer adult mosquito control, but it also puts you into the full regulatory requirement of pre-notification, posting, etc.

Control of the sources of the mosquitoes, meaning control of the larvae directly in the places where they are breeding, is by far the best form of mosquito management. Since you are in Arizona these sources ought to be somewhat limited, and I suggest carefully determining just where these mosquitoes are coming from. It may be that there are some temporary water sources that could be eliminated entirely. It could be small water sources such as catch basins or local ponds that could easily be treated with biological larvicides, and these products should be exempt from much of the School Pesticide use requirements. Eliminating the larvae obviously also prevents adult mosquitoes, and if you can prevent the biting adults you no longer have to take the fly-swatter approach of trying to kill the flying adults before they bite people.

If you choose to go with fogging with pyrethrum your best timing would be just prior to events where people are going to be outdoors during adult mosquito activity times. Again, this gives only temporary relief, and more adult mosquitoes could quickly replace those you kill. Barrier treatments involve the application of residuals such as pyrethroids to adult mosquito resting sites – trees, shrubs, under eaves and other shaded locations where the adults rest during the daytime. These can be very effective if you manage to apply the products to the proper places, but since they are residual materials they would require the notification and posting, and this might be a stumbling block at some schools.

Along with all of this, of course, is the recommendation that you ensure these actually are mosquitoes. Many times people will be seeing similar gnats, such as crane flies or midges, and believe that they have mosquito problems.

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QUESTION:

I work on a military installation and one of our program requirements is to inspect our facilities for termites and wood decay infestations annually. My question is since this is an annual requirement what is the ideal time to perform our inspections? In my experience the best time of year to perform these inspections would be from April to around November. We have had a few active problems in the past but nothing major because this program allows us to pinpoint problems early. Your thoughts on this will be highly appreaciated, thanks.

ANSWER:

I would agree with the concept that the warmer months of the year would be the best time for termite activity, and thus the most likely time when you might find visible evidence of their presence. Since subterranean termites of various kinds would be the most common problems they would be more likely to curtail their activities during cold months, and once the weather warms again in the spring there should be renewed activity of foraging and mud-tube building. Certainly within warm structures their activity could continue throughout the year, and in Texas it could be warm enough for their exterior activity earlier or later than those months, but more likely once the ground gets cold they are not going to be as visible. In Texas you also may have drywood termites, and even with these I would suspect that the majority of their activity will be during warmer months, and thus the evidence of fecal pellets being ejected from their colonies more likely to occur. However, for drywood termites it would be useful to inspect attics and other interior areas at any time of the year, as these pellets do accumulate over time.

If your primary duties are in the area of termites and other WDO then an inspection at any time of the year would be useful. This would allow you to look for the contributing conditions (conditions “conducive to” infestation) that might exist in and around buildings. This could include earth to wood contact, excessive moisture problems inside or outside, improper drainage issues, etc. In fact, during wet weather you may be more likely to see where drainage issues exist around structures, and since wet soils encourage the presence of subterranean termites this would be a good time to note these problems and correct them in advance of the termites.

Since you mention wood decay, this could be a problem at any time of the year on the inside, so inspecting for this could be done at any time of the year. If you are only inspecting any structure on the base once a year then including this with your termite inspection would seem to be most logical, and here you look for moisture problems, improper ventilation, leaking plumbing, etc. But, sticking with your current timetable and perhaps emphasizing it on the earlier side rather than later in the year would seem to be appropriate.

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