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Pest Control Specialists Contact Us

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Dayton, OH 45405

QUESTION:

Regarding mosquito dunks and mosquito bits, can those be used commercially as well as residentially?

ANSWER:

This is going to depend a bit on how you are allowed to interpret the product Labels, and by this I mean that some states may be much more stringent and require that each and every site specifically be listed on the Label. So many of our professional products will purposely have very general wording with regard to the pests and the sites, and this is done by the manufacturer expressly for the purpose of allowing a broad use. In the case of the mosquito “dunks” ( B.T.I. Briquests that Univar carries) the label states that the product can be used “in all types of mosquito breeding areas”. To many this could be a statement allowing the use of this product without restrictions on the site – pond, creek, stagnant water, abandoned pool, tree hole, etc., and either residential or commercial should seem to be okay.

However, on this particular Label it also then gives specific instructions on uses around “households” as well as waste water treatment plants. To some this may suggest that these are the only sites allowed. I personally suggest that you consult with the local regulatory agency that oversees your work and who would be the ones to inspect you or enforce compliance with Labels. Since they are the regulating body they would be the ones to say yay or nay regarding the use of a product, and they may look at this and its active ingredient of bacteria and tell you that in their opinion you could use it any danged place you want where mosquitoes are breeding. It may also be with the packaging of “dunks” that this is meant more to be a retail product for home use, but it also is a very convenient package for the professional for small uses as well.

The Mosquito Bits I am not certain on, and am not sure it even exists anymore. Univar has virtually no inventory left on this particular product and the alternative would be Altosid granules which are not available in that small 1 lb shaker bottle. But, the Altosid granules are labeled for virtually any kind of site, commercial or residential, so if you do mosquito management this might be the product of choice where granules are the preferred formulation. It is labeled for everything from small containers holding water to marshes, pools, treeholes, septic tanks and even crypts.

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QUESTION:

What are some outside ant bait stations that hold liquid ant bait as well as granular ant bait?

ANSWER:

This can be confusing, can’t it, with so many products coming and going in our industry. One of the largest stations that can be considered is the Multiplex from Syngenta, which is primarily considered a rodent station but which also has a compartment where you can place insect baits. This would be an awfully large station to dedicate to just ant baiting, but if rodent control also is being done then the insect option is there. Another fairly large one is the Pest Sentry PPS-20 from B&G, although this one may be getting harder to find and it also would be fairly large for only ant baiting.

For insect control only some options are the Ant Cafe from Innovative, Ants-no-More from Kness, and the PFT Inground from Rockwell. The Ant Cafe is just a little plastic capsule that would need to be secured to something such as a stem of a bush or a pipe, etc. However, it probably is by far the least expensive. Better might be the larger stations that can be buried in the soil (PFT Inground) or pushed into the soil as an above-ground station (Ants No More). These are reasonably priced and hold a lot of bait for continuous ant baiting needs.

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QUESTION:

I pride myself in being good at pest ID’s. Several days ago however, I was baffled by what appeared to be a hybrid bug/beetle creature crawling on the wall about 5 feet down UNDERWATER in my swimming pool. It has an oval-shaped back that looks like half an egg shell, maybe 1/2 inch long, and shiny, dark emerald green color with black spots. The closest thing in appearance would be a tick or cockroach, but my dogs do not have ticks, and I’ve never seen a tick with such a perfect shiny oval shape. After three days, it STILL is underwater, so unless it is sneaking out between 9-5 while I am at work, it seems to have no problem living underwater for long periods of time.

ANSWER:

Hi Tino. There is a nice variety of bugs that are happy to swim around in our pools for awhile, although generally after a few days of finding nothing to eat they will move on to more productive pastures. These insects normally live in nearby aquatic habitats, such as a local creek or lake or pond, but many of them can fly, and during the course of this excursion they may see a swimming pool and ……….well, water is water, and in they go. The group includes backswimmers and water boatmen (both true bugs that could bite if handled) and predaceous diving beetles and water scavenger beetles. I suspect you are looking at one of these, based on the shiny back and dark color. Take a look at this fabulous website – http://bugguide.net/node/view/195/bgimage and compare with some images there. This is Bug Guide and this page is the Dytiscidae, or predaceous diving beetles, and if you don’t see the bug you have then put “Hydrophilidae” as a search word in the search field and compare with images of beetles in that family.

My initial thought was that you had one of the huge Predaceous Diving Beetles that are so common in California, and which frequently end up on the pavement at car dealerships, where they were attracted to the mercury vapor lights overhead. These fit your description except for the fact that the big ones I so often see are over an inch long and are a solid dark olive green color with no spots on them. However, you could just have a different species. All of these beetles are harmless to people and frankly should be enjoyed as a curiosity and cute visitor to the pool. Occasionally I am asked how to eliminate the various bugs that get into pools and there really is no chemical answer. You either have to wait for them to leave on their own or take the leaf-remover and yank it out and toss it in the garden, and then hope it does not crawl back in. For most of these bugs they can just be ignored and in a few days they leave. A clean pool is not going to have the food resources needed by these predatory bugs to keep them interested for long.

All the beetles and the bugs do have to breathe oxygen and must come to the surface for it on some regular basis. But, they manage to “hold” their breath for quite awhile, and it could be that the beetle simply sees you and is avoiding coming up while you are there. After all, you could be some bird trying to eat it, so when it sees movement above it stays underwater. So that’s my bet on the ID – either Dytiscidae or Hydrophilidae, and the Bug Guide website will probably have images of exactly your creature.

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QUESTION:

What are the pros and cons for heat treatments for bed bugs? I have a property management owner who has been reading the internet and wants me to try it for their apartments.

ANSWER:

In a recent trade magazine some good updates and experiences were given on bed bug treatments, and the use of heat was discussed briefly. One thing we do know is that heat is a serious enemy of bed bugs. According to studies presented by the Univ. of Kentucky a few years ago we can kill all stages (eggs, nymphs, adults) of bed bugs by getting their environment to just 115 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour. We use this already when we have the customer launder everything they can in hot water and hot dryer, and the clothes dryer gets to over 175 degrees which should kill all stages of the bugs in just 5 minutes. Heat is an excellent way to kill bed bugs, and obviously it is 100% non-toxic (although the heat is created using some sort of toxic fuel).

However, heat is not a magic bullet, and what your customer likely is referring to would be “whole structure” heating. According to some of our most qualified experts this can be a highly expensive thing to do, and it is the possible cost to the customer that may deter them from going with this method. The use of heat is attractive because of its non-toxicity and the fact that properly done it eliminates all stages of the bugs with 1 treatment. Fumigation with Vikane does this as well, perhaps without the pitfalls that heating may present, and one of those pitfalls occurred just a week or so ago. Seems the fuel tank used to create the heat exploded and an entire apartment building burned down. Now, this is not blaming the process so much as it blames the faulty equipment, and only shows that every method for doing pest management can have its problems.

Another concern that was pointed out several years ago at a national conference is that bed bugs are not going to roll over and accept dying. These insects move fairly quickly, and when their environment begins to get uncomfortable they are going to move, seeking a new place that is comfortable for them. This is one possible drawback to the idea of heating only single units in an apartment of hotel – the bugs in the walls quickly move further away to escape the increasing heat, and this could even spread the bugs. Sealing an entire structure to heat it should prevent this from happening, but if there is a crawl space with soil beneath perhaps the bugs could make their way to this cooler area, or if the structure is not tented and enclose perhaps the exterior walls could remain cooler inside. I am not sure of all the information on this, but I suspect that companies that do use heat for bed bug control must monitor all of these spaces to ensure the heat reaches that lethal level and stays there long enough to ensure the kill of all bugs.

So, there are my thoughts. The pros – no use of toxic materials and death of all stages of the bugs. The cons – the high cost and possible missed bugs or eggs in voids that do not heat up sufficiently. The con of explosions or fire is likely preventable by using good equipment and inspecting it prior to each use. I will be attending the NPMA national conference in October and a major part of the educational conference will be on bed bugs, so I expect to learn a great deal more while there.

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QUESTION:

I have a customer who had bees invading her house. They were coming in through the outside wall area near her master bath. I told her that I could not do the construction to remove the bee hive since it was inside the wall. She had me treat it and seal the crack from the outside. Approximately three months later she is experiencing an infestation in the master bath of what looks to be cigarette beetles. I inspected the interior of the infested area and could not spot any areas of infestation. Could the cigarette beetles be going after the bee hive in the wall that never got cleaned out? I have never experienced this before. Thank you in advance for your help.

ANSWER:

Ah yes, one of my favorite issues (soap boxes?). Let’s start with the problem of what to do following eradication of honeybees that have been nesting in a structure. If the bees have been active there for any length of time it should be assumed that they have constructed a hive, and in this hive they have stored honey and pollen. Once those bees are removed the leftover food stores are still there, and two things are going to happen – the wax cells holding the honey will begin to melt and the honey will flow wherever gravity takes it, and something is going to find that pollen and feed on it. Since you are in Arizona I suspect you have had plenty of hot weather capable of melting the wax hive, so if there is honey in that hive and it has not yet made its appearance in or on the walls, it soon will.

The customer needs to be politely but strongly advised that removing an established honeybee hive is a MUST, and you should always put this recommendation in writing and have the customer sign the form indicating they were TOLD. I have witnessed lawsuits where the honey caused serious messes in a home and the pest control company was sued, with the claim that, golly, they just never told the homeowner this could happen. Even though the PMP did advise the customer of this, without that advice in writing it could not be proven, and the judge sided with the victim (the homeowner). Unfortunately, too many homeowners do not want to face the cost of opening the wall, removing the hive and thoroughly cleaning the area to remove all residues of honey, and sealing it back up and finishing it. They prefer to wait and hope for the best.

So, that’s my soap box. On the issue of the beetles, it could well be cigarette or, more likely, drugstore beetles that have discovered this food resource. These beetles will feed on just about anything that is plant-based, so pollen could be a food for them. This may be some other kinds of beetles that are feeding on other things there, such as molds that may be growing on leftover materials or dead larvae and pupae. There also are a couple of moths that feed on the wax, honey, pollen, and even on bee larvae and pupae, and these can be serious pests in active bee hives as well as nuisance pests in leftover hives inside structures. These are the Greater and Lesser wax moths. Given the coincidence that the beetles are now appearing where the bee hive probably was (is) would suggest a connection.

Ideally the work should still be done to open up the wall and remove the hive. If the bee activity was only beginning prior to your eradication then there may not be much of a hive developed, and some other problem could be creating the beetles. But if it was going on for awhile it’s likely a large hive is there that needs to be removed. It would be important to get a firm ID on these beetles so that you know exactly what you have, and then can learn more about the habits and possible reasons for these insects to be there. If it turns out NOT to be food infesting beetles you don’t want to be the reason this customer spends a lot of money removing a hive that is not there or is not causing the problems.

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QUESTION:

What is the most effective way to get rid of
German roaches?

ANSWER:

I really like a message from Dr. Robert Corrigan a few years ago at a national pest conference, where he said “everything changes when resources are limited”. Now, he was speaking on rodent control, but this message is absolutely as pertinent to cockroach control as it is to rodents, and it is the essence of IPM. We must recognize that these cockroaches are present in a structure for one reason – they are finding everything they need to survive, and in general those “things” should not be available to them. These are food, water, and harborage. What is the difference between an apartment with a huge roach problem and the apartment with no roaches? Probably sanitation.

So, here is how I would start a discussion on successful elimination of German roaches. We know they likely are living entirely indoors, and therefore they are finding all the food they need, plenty of moisture since this species does need moisture, and plenty of tight, enclosed hiding places to sneak back into every morning. Your management program must begin with an inspection to locate all of these resources used by the roaches, and then develop a plan for eliminating all of them. This may take quite awhile to achieve, but bit by bit you should be able to work with the customer to clean up food residues on surfaces, to store food so that roaches cannot get to it, to repair all moisture sources, and to fill in cracks, crevices, and holes leading to voids so that the roaches can no longer get into or out of them. Every step you make in this direction means that many less roaches that can survive in an account, so even if you cannot be successful in eliminating 100% of these things you at least can take care of a large chunk of it, and every success you make means less roaches.

Another great quote is that “pesticides cannot overcome bad sanitation”, and expecting insecticides to be the cure-all is fairly optimistic. You must combine the use of insecticides with these other necessary steps in your IPM program, and whether you think of it as IPM or just plain old “Sanitation” doesn’t really matter. Cleaning up the roach’s resources is IPM. It would be valuable to discuss the options with the customer as well, as you will get a wide disparity in attitudes about what they want done. Some are going to cooperate very well once you enlighten them on the contributing conditions that led to the roach invasion, others will think the whole solution should be left up to you. Thus, you do what you can and keep in your mind that you must be profitable on the job. But, if the customer’s expectation is that they will do nothing and you will eliminate every roach, then perhaps walking away from the account is the best thing for you.

So, sanitation, exclusion and repairs are important. Consider the use of a high powered vacuum initially, as this removes large numbers of roaches and egg capsules. Consider the use of a steamer in certain places, as this quickly kills exposed roaches in crevices and perhaps sanitizes things a bit too. Use bait products, and gel baits are excellent for German roaches but need to be placed as small “pea-sized” spots directly in crevices or voids. This roach prefers to feed in seclusion where it is safer, rather than out in the open on counters. Use “crack and crevice” treatments of residual insecticides, meaning you inject the product directly into those hiding places you know or suspect are harboring roaches. This not only keeps the product away from human contact, prevents it from being removed by cleaning, but also puts the roach and the active ingredient into contact for the longest period of time.

Use insect glue traps throughout the whole process, as this can tell you where the roaches may be coming from as well as monitor your success. Consider the use of a deep void injector such as the Patriot, Actisol, or B&G P.A.D.S., as these allow you to “fog” within wall voids with a residual insecticide, again bringing the active ingredient right to the hidden roaches. Do NOT rely completely on insecticides unless this is all you have left, but strongly seek the cooperation of the customer in eliminating the contributing conditions.

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QUESTION:

We have an unknown infestation in a creamer machine in one of the donut stores that we service. They can be seen moving but only in clusters. We have tried cleaning the machine but have been unsucessful in eradicating them. Under the microscope they appear like tiny ticks in shape but microscopic in size, yellowish in color and almost tranparent, possibly 6 legs. They seem to be in clusters that are all stuck together. Any help or suggestion would be appreciated.

ANSWER:

I nearly always cringe when attempting to make an identification based on only a description, so please do not take this as gospel. However, you are describing a habit that I have seen with mites such as mold, grain, or cheese mites. These are extremely tiny, sort of creamy tan in color, look like microscopic ticks (but with 8 legs), and they often will be found milling around in a large mass. I’m not sure why they do this, but some instinct draws them into these clusters of hundreds or thousands of them. They have fairly short legs and many very long hairs on them, so this may separate them from other possibilities such as booklice or other kinds of mites.

These mites are nearly always encouraged by moisture, and often they may be in a home where there is a moisture problem in the kitchen. They may live and breed in bags of stored food products that are in damp or poor condition, feeding on grains and other grain-based foods or on the molds that grow on them. While feeding they can impart an off-taste to the grain or the packaging, spoiling more product than they actually damage by feeding.

Control centers around moisture management, so it would be worthwhile to do a very thorough inspection of the areas around this equipment to see if there is some other source that could be feeding the mites into the creamer. Insecticide applications should kill the mites, but obviously you should not treat this food equipment directly. Pyrethroids labeled for use in this kind of food area could be applied around the equipment and onto other surfaces where you suspect the mites to be, but the equipment itself is best treated by dismantling and thoroughly cleaning it. It’s possible there has been spillage into voids and surfaces that are not easily accessed for cleaning, and it may need to involve someone who can completely open up the machine and completely and thoroughly clean out any residues. Sometimes there just is not an easy and quick fix for pest problems, so the customer is liable to grumble and balk at the inconvenience. Too often they may believe that some quick shot of some pesticide can be the cure-all.

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QUESTION:

What happens when a person comes in contact with a pesticide after it has dried?

ANSWER:

This speaks to a couple of issues Dominick, and these include the affinity pesticide molecules have for a surface and the relative toxicity of that dried residue. As we know, nearly all pesticide Labels for products that are mixed with water and applied wet as a spray or fog will recommend keeping people and pets off of the treated surface “until the spray has dried”. This is an important consideration for treatments such as fleas or bed bugs where large areas of carpets or other interior surfaces may be treated. It often is a standard recommendation from PMP’s that the occupants stay out for 2 hours, or 4 hours, but the proper protocol would be to stay out until the floor or walls or beds are DRY, and this could very well be much longer than 4 hours depending on the weather and time of year.

From what I have learned over many years, pesticide molecules (the actual active ingredient) tends to cling or bind to the surface it is applied to. This may not be quite the case with particles like microencapsulated insecticides, but for other kinds fo sprays once the water has evaporated and the surface is dry it is very difficult to remove any significant amount of the active ingredient by casually contacting that surface. If someone were to lick the surface then sure, he could be re-dissolving it and removing it, but let’s hope that is not a common practice to lick carpets. Still, whenever we are able to apply an insecticide directly into cracks, crevices, and voids for the ideal control of the pest (bed bugs, roaches, etc.) that not only enhances the control effort but also hides the active ingredient from any human or animal contact.

My comparison, which hopefully is relatively accurate, would be like using a can of spray paint. While you are spraying the paint it is airborne and can be inhaled, and immediately after spraying it on a surface it is wet and could be touched and easily taken onto the skin. Once the paint dries you cannot remove it by touching the surface. This could be similar to spraying a pesticide – airborne mists could be inhaled and while still wet it easily gets onto the skin, but once dried it adheres to the surface quite tightly.

The second consideration is that of LD-50 and how much of that diluted spray material would have to be ingested or absorbed to realistically cause a health concern, and this would be a very high amount. I did the math once and hope it was accurate, but based on an LD-50 of 4000 mg/kg for permethrin insecticide, and this should be the LD-50 for the pure active ingredient, the amount of diluted permethrin at a 1% concentration (termite control) that would have to be swallowed by a 175 pound human to (presumably) cause his death would be a whopping 10 gallons. Even if he drank the concentrate liquid of 37% active ingredient it would take a full quart of that concentrate to reach the presumed LD-50 for that 175 lb human. Clearly this would be a deliberate effort on the part of that idiot to poison himself.

I believe that the vast majority of the pesticide products in use by our industry today have a tremendous safety factor once they are applied in diluted form and then dry. This is even a misconception that the internet spreads wildly with respect to “nontoxic” (their words, not mine) substances like boric acid. Boric acid dust is often a 98% concentrate, and even though the LD-50 of the pure boric acid is about equal to that of the pyrethroids the dust is not diluted for use, making the end use material far more hazardous than the end use water diluted insecticides like permethrin.

Bottom line – be sure to use the product as the Label requires, keep people and pets off the treated surface until it is dry, and there should be no health concerns or risk to the people.

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QUESTION:

Is there any Mole Cricket bait or insecticide that could be used on a lawn without poisoning my dog that uses that lawn for his bathroom?

ANSWER:

I believe you could feel comfortable with the use of many of the mole cricket products, including both baits and contact insecticides. Let’s do the bait products first. These are granular formulations and the intent is for the crickets to find and eat the granules that are spread on the soil surface. Many of these contain boric acid as the active ingredient, such as Niban baits and MotherEarth bait, and the boric acid is present in the bait at only 5%, meaning a dog would have to consume a tremendous amount of that bait even to feel ill. Properly used by scattering the bait over the surface the possibility of the dog licking up that large quantity would seem highly unlikely. The Label recommendation for the use of baits is to water the turf first, apply the bait late in the afternoon or early evening, and then not water for awhile afterward. This helps to draw the mole crickets out and keeps the bait available to them.

There are a great many contact insecticide products labeled for mole crickets, and you can see the entire list of all labeled products on PestWeb in our Product Documents resource. Select the tab on the right “Products by Target Pest”, then crickets, then mole crickets. Here you see that most of the products are synthetic pyrethroids, and these also have a very low toxicity to mammals such as dogs and cats, particularly when they are diluted with water to their extremely low use strength. Among the choices are many permethrin products, such as MasterLine Permethrin and Dragnet, and we can recognize that permethrin is also used in dog flea shampoos and even for head louse shampoos for children, a testament to the very low hazard this active ingredient poses to warm blooded animals.

The Label instructions for permethrin and probably all other contact insecticides suggests applying the diluted spray late in the afternoon or early evening and then “watering” it in with a 1/2 inch of water to get the active ingredient into the top layer of soil. This encourages contact by the mole crickets as they move to the surface to feed at night. It also moves the active ingredient away from potential contact by pets or children. However, given the LD-50 (relative toxicity) of permethrin to mammals, the amount of diluted material that would have to be contacted by the skin would be so huge that it is impractical to think someone could be poisoned by casual and momentary contact by walking on that treated turf.

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QUESTION:

How do I eliminate springtails coming up from a tub drain that is connected to the main drain in a four unit complex? They are coming up in two
other units as well.

ANSWER:

I have been corrected on the ability for American cockroaches to find their way up from sewers below, to swim or crawl through the water in the P-trap, and to emerge into a structure in this manner. My standard response was always that this should not be possible for any insect to do, but several people have offered their first-hand accounts of watching American roaches make their way through water-filled P-traps without much effort. So, for these large insects apparently it is possible, but for tiny springtails I am going to stubbornly continue my stance that they should not be able to move past the water-trap and into a structure from sewers below. That is, as long as that water trap is in proper operating condition, so this is something that might be checked out if you are certain the springtails are entering from these drains.

More likely could simply be that springtails are attracted to moisture and they feed on various kinds of organic matter found in damp places. Floor and sink drains offer both of what they need, as drains typically begin to accumulate that buildup of sludge and slime that the springtails can eat, and a rental unit may be less likely to have these drains cleaned on a regular basis than a private home might. I know this is profiling, but I just can’t help it. This suggests a wonderful “add-on” service you should offer for this 4-plex, and that is the regular use of a drain cleaning material in all drains to help remove any buildup. This slime and sludge that develops is also great feeding and harborage for drain and phorid flies, so you are helping to prevent numerous problems by keeping drains clean.

Univar carries many different brand names of drain cleaners, most of which now use either bacteria or enzymes to eat away the buildup, and these active ingredients are considered non-hazardous to humans. They should be used according to directions for each of them, but usually every couple of weeks initially if possible. They come in a variety of formulations, including liquids and foam, and the foam types may be more likely to coat the entire inner surface of the drain and remain there for awhile. This is what I would suggest for resolving the springtail problem – take away their reason for entering these drains and hopefully they will disappear. Also inspect other possible moisture sources in these units though, and potted plants with constantly moist soils are another great place for springtails and fungus gnats to develop.

One issue I will mention here is the recent reinforcement by EPA of their belief that NO claims for pest control in any way, shape, or form can be made on a product’s labeling if that product is not properly registered as a pesticide. For this reason Rockwell Labs, for one, removed all mention of “fly management” from their cleaning products, and now label them as sanitation materials only. Technically a PMP should also not promote that he is doing fly or insect management when using drain cleaners if that material is not EPA registered, but hopefully it would be unlikely that regulatory folks would come down that hard on this issue. Just be aware of this and dance around it as needed.

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