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Pest Control Specialists Contact Us

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Dayton, OH 45405

QUESTION:

with the summer heat wave going on one question comes to mind as I bait attics for mice. How hot is too hot for a mouse? At what temp does a mouse find it too hot to inhabit an area?

ANSWER:

Well this is interesting. I looked in a number of our most authoritative references on mice and it seems that all the discusssions on the house mouse and temperatures are with respect to how LOW of a temperature the mice can tolerate. So, lacking an answer from one of our experts I turned to that magical reference library in the sky – the Internet. This also gives me the freedom to speculate at will with my answer. What is interesting is that the only (and therefore the best) information I could find was on websites pertaining to the care, feeding, and passionate loving of mice as opposed to anything on managing the little vermin.

Two items came up. One suggested that the ideal temperature for your little companions is between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit, and that above 85 the mice begin to get lethargic, sick, and could die. A second website stated that mice will die if kept at a temperature of 104 degrees. Obviously the air temperature in an attic in the summer in many states is going to get well above 104 degrees, so if the mouse were confined in that airspace this could prove lethal to it. But, perhaps as the mice do in freezers, where they have been found living just fine, they seek out a place that is a lower temperature. In freezers they cozy up inside things to conserve body heat. In an attic perhaps they would nestle down under the insulation, where the temperature against the sheetrock of the ceiling below would likely be much cooler than the air above the insulation.

I would expect that a very hot attic is going to limit their activity but not necessarily exclude the mice completely if they can find these little micro-environments that remain suitable. A really hot attic might become a concern for paraffin baits that might be placed up there, so this could be one side effect for their control.

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QUESTION:

I was wondering how you would approach treating for earwigs which are entering a home. There is a moisture issue in the cellar.

ANSWER:

I’m glad you mentioned the moisture issue as this tells me you are tuned into Contributing Conditions. If everyone hasn’t figured it out by now I am very much into looking at the overall picture so we can minimize our reliance on insecticides. Chemical tools are a great way to give immediate relief from a pest problem while we work to correct the reasons that the pest is there, where possible, and I recognize that this is not always the perfect answer. But, if we do nothing to correct issues such as outside harborage opportunities, entry opportunities, food and water resources, then we can kill all the bugs but should expect more of them to find their way back in a short period of time. Maybe this is good job security, but probably not what the customer is hoping for.

Earwigs and many other nocturnal insects do seek moist conditions, and this may not be what is drawing them into the cellar, but it could be helping these insects to survive there for a longer period of time. That moisture is also a situation that could cause other problems, such as decay fungus on wood or mold on other surfaces, and obviously moisture problems should be dealt with on the interior. This may not be an area of expertise for you, but you should recommend to the customer that they hire someone who can determine why this moisture exists and  what corrective actions could be taken to eliminate it. This will at least help with the issue of earwigs, not to mention all those other moisture lovers like springtails, psocids, fungus gnats, etc.

I think you could easily spray a residual material and kill a lot of earwigs, inside and out, but a slow walk with a critical eye around the exterior should help point out some other things. Ideally we leave a bare area around the perimeter of the foundation, at least bare with respect to turf, weeds, or groundcovers. This 2-foot perimeter could be covered with crushed rock or gravel, but not with mulch or bark, as these provide hiding places for earwigs and other bugs. It also should be as dry as possible, and if there is irrigation or poor drainage these could be corrected so that water does not settle or land next to the structure. Are there other things piled against the foundation, such as old boxes, firewood, etc. – things that provide hiding places for the earwigs directly against the foundation? Are there trees or shrubs whose branches contact the structure and could be trimmed away. Are there openings that can be permanently filled in to prevent entry by bugs? These you yourself could seal up with appropriate building materials, many of which Univar sells as exclusion products for rodents, bats, bugs, and other crawling pests.

As much as you can make life uncomfortable for the earwigs both inside and outside the less likely you will be to have many of them around the home. If the moisture problem inside can be repaired then those few earwigs that do make it in, and it is always going to happen, are more likely to die from desiccation sooner than they do now. For chemical treating I would suggest one of the microencapsulated products, as these offer perhaps the longest residual due to the microencapsulation of the active ingredient, they hold up better on damp surfaces, and it is easier for a passing crawling bug to pick up some of the capsules as they pass by. Some of these products have good and broad labeling for both inside and exterior uses, making it easy for you to stay within the Label and even to treat areas around the property where you suspect the bugs to be hiding.

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QUESTION:

I’m having difficulty controlling spider mites. What do you recommend for treating these pests? I have tried Bifen IT and Sevin. I have not used a systemic yet.

ANSWER:

Spider mites can be challenging, and from back when I worked in horticultural pest management I was taught that carbaryl (Sevin) may not be a good choice for plant mites. This product is a weak miticide but very good at killing all other arthropods, including those that prey on spider mites. In fact, it is possible that using the wrong insecticide could even encourage the production of the mites by removing these other natural controls that were keeping their population down a bit.

Bifenthrin (Talstar, Bifen, MasterLine Bifenthrin) is supposed to be an excellent mite control material, so I would suspect that it is less the active ingredient that is causing you problems and more other factors. One is that these mites breed quickly, and repeat applications are necessary every week or so until the problem is resolved. The mite eggs are not likely to be killed by pesticides, other than horticultural oils that would smother the eggs if the application is very thorough, and even molting nymphs may be protected from typical insecticides within their old exoskeleton.

Another important factor is that spider mites will normally live and feed on the undersides of the leaves, making it much more difficult to contact them with standard contact insecticides such as bifenthrin. The spray application must be made so that the lower surfaces of all foliage are contacted evenly. This may be the advantage of systemics such as acephate (Orthene) where the active ingredient gets into the foliage and can be ingested by the feeding mites. Spider mites do feed in a similar manner as do aphids, by inserting their needle-like mouths into the cells of the plants to remove fluids, so a systemic material that is within these plant cells should be ingested. Even with systemics a thorough coverage is essential, and again, bifenthrin should be an effective material if the entire leaf surface is covered and repeat applications made as needed.

Spider mites also create a lot of fine webbing over the leaves, and this could become a physical barrier to your sprays. The use of a surfactant wetting agent will really help in breaking this barrier down and getting penetration to the leaf surface where it is needed. Also keep in mind the possible “soft” pesticides such as horticultural oils and soaps. These materials will be a greener, more natural approach to the problem if the customer prefers this, but they require very thorough coverage and would not be expected to leave any residual behind. They affect only what they land on during the application.

If the problem you are dealing with is on trees or larger shrubs you also can consider dormant oil applications during the late winter, treating the bark of the trunk and branches with the oil. Many horticultural pests overwinter in crevices on the bark or deposit eggs on the bark to overwinter, and the oil on top of them smothers them to prevent that new generation from coming out in such force the next spring.

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QUESTION:

Is there a pesticide that works against deer flies? The cabin, which is 70 or more yards from the lake, is where I need control.
Thanks.

ANSWER:

If it helps at all I can empathize with you. My wife is from Wisconsin, and while I dearly love the state and the beautiful hardwood forests in the northern half, I dearly hate the deer flies. Frankly, I don’t know how people can stand it outdoors during deer fly season without carrying the mandatory net that I do to catch and kill these nasty blood feeders. I swear I’ve killed over a thousand on any 1-week vacation back there, and one time caught over 20 in the net at one time when I walked out of the woods and they spotted me and decided I looked like I taste good. Only females feed on blood, and one of their main stimuli is motion, attracting their attention to a potential blood host.

The consensus of opinions from University resources continues to be that insecticide control of deer flies and horse flies is not a good option. You may be able to spray small areas around a home, such as foliage of trees and shrubs, and with a residual insecticide may kill some of the resting adult flies as they perch on this foliage. But, given the extended season when these flies are active and the wide areas of woods they occupy, these kinds of applications would have to be too extensive and too frequent to make good economical (and environmental) sense. The larvae develop in just about any wet situation, including in the mud at the bottom of ponds, lakes, and streams, but also in wet soils and wet buildup of organic materials, such as the thick layers of leaves on the ground in your forests. This makes it virtually impossible to control The Source of the problem, which is essential for effective fly management. If you cannot control the source then you are stuck with dealing with the adult flies.

Since pesticides are of little value what else is left? Well, repellents may have some effect, although my experience is that deer flies are not nearly as respectful of DEET repellents as are mosquitoes. But since deer flies attack primarily around the head and neck and upper arms the repellents could be applied there and reapplied frequently to keep them in place, and this will at least help. A person active outdoors can wear a net over the head, dropped down from a wide-brimmed hat to keep it off the skin, and this is very effective, along with long sleeves and long pants. There are some interesting deer fly traps that are patches that can be worn on the back of the hat, and these seem to attract the deer fly which then is stuck on the trap. There also are area traps of shiny sticky surfaces that seem to fool the flies into flying into them and getting stuck, and these will reduce the overall numbers of the flies.

What I am suggesting here is that YOUR role in deer fly management if probably more advisory than anything else. Using insecticides is going to be disappointing and probably result in an over-use of materials with little to show for it. Controlling the larvae is out of the question. It gets down to options that the customer needs to do for himself, with physical barriers, repellents, and traps to capture as many flies as possible.

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QUESTION:

I’ve recently moved from California to Texas and am now hearing about sugar ants. Never dealt with these in California. Can’t find any info as to what a sugar ant’s actual name is – carpenter, argentine, fire ant, etc? Can you please help with this? Also what are the best treatment methods for these ants in a residential kitchen?
Thank You

ANSWER:

I’ve always heard of and talked about “sugar” ants too, but always in general terms to mean ants that are fond of sweet substances. So, I went to that vast library in the sky – the Internet – to see what sense it could make of this and it pretty much confirmed my opinion. Sugar Ant seems to be simply a colloqualism for any ant that is attracted to sugary or sweet foods. On Wikipedia it even depicts a carpenter ant and calls it a sugar ant, another website refers to Argentine ants and other small black ants as sugar ants. While I am always open to being corrected, my opinion is that this is just a general name for many different species of ants that are drawn to carbohydrates (sugar), but in different geographic regions you may find the term more entrenched in the language.

With this in mind the proper control is exactly what you used to do for Argentine, Odorous House, Honey, and even carpenter ants back in California. Evaluate the account to determine what food resources the ants are finding inside and where possible eliminate these opportunities, determine where the ants may be entering the home and if possible permanently seal up the openings, trace the ants back to the nest opening itself and if possible treat directly into the nest with dust, aerosol, or mist. Since the ants are so fond of sugars we also can have excellent results using bait products containing carbohydrates, and for the small ants the liquid baits may be particularly attractive to them. If it turns out to be carpenter ants you can also have great success using granular baits applied near their foraging trails outside, although you may have to inspect at night to find them.

If these ants are in a residential kitchen then nearby wall voids could be dusted with a desiccant dust and a non-repellent residual material sprayed to selected areas where the ants are trailing. If you use baits encourage the customers to avoid spraying the ants they see for a few days to allow them to work at the bait. You could also apply the baits to locations that are a bit out of sight so the customer does not have to watch the little buggers feeding and trailing in what seems to be a happy event for them, but which hopefully is actually their last stand. Outside you can use a non-repellent that provides a good Transfer Effect, and we have several great products for this now. Since most colonies will be located outdoors, and the ants are only foraging inside, treating outside where you know the workers are traveling can be very effective.

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QUESTION:

Are ground squirrels considered to be rodents? I have squirrels burrowing on a football field. What is recommended for their eradication? Thanks

ANSWER:

Yes, ground squirrels and all other squirrels are rodents, along with chipmunks, prairie dogs, marmots, and even beaver and muskrats. One difference in all of these is that ground squirrels generally are afforded no legal protections when it comes to controlling them, and you can usually control them at any time and in any manner according to wildlife regulations. However, please do check with your local department of agriculture or wildlife agency to be certain on this, as different states may have differing points of view with respect to animals.

My personal favorite for ground squirrels has always been fumigation with aluminum phosphide – Fumitoxin. However, this use took a serious hit a couple of years ago after a terrible incident and horrid mis-use of the product outside a home in Utah. Two children were killed because the product was used completely off-label, and immediately our uses of the product were scaled back. However, if Fumitoxin is used PROPERLY it offers fantastic control of ground squirrels and some great benefits over other control options, such as baiting or trapping. Properly done you could expect 100% control of ground squirrels with the first application and within 24 hours. The rodents tend to die in their burrows, not above ground where people may see them and object. Any parasites (fleas, ticks) on the rodents are also killed, reducing the chances of those parasites migrating to and feeding on people. The active ingredient dissipates and is 100% gone within a few days, leaving zero opportunity for secondary poisoning of other animals and leaving no toxicant on site.

Fumitoxin can no longer be used around residential settings, but it still can be used on athletic fields as long as it is 100 feet away from structures that may be occupied by people or animals, including in any burrows that may tunnel within that 100 foot range. Since ground squirrel burrows generally do not meander the way gopher burrows do this is more manageable for an athletic field. We need to keep in mind too that the presence of burrowing rodents on an athletic field poses a serious health issue for people using that field. Someone running along could step into a burrow and snap an ankle, and this becomes a liability issue for the school or other management of that property. Whatever control technique you use you also should present this fact to the managment, and suggest that all burrows be collapsed and properly filled with soil to eliminate hollow areas below the surface.

Other than fumigation your most obvious options are trapping and baiting, and both of these have their limitations. If this is a large population of the squirrels trapping can be very time consuming, expensive, and pose the problem of disposing of the trapped animals, whether you release them alive or euthanize them. You also must tend the traps regularly to ensure trapped animals are not in harms way while in the traps. Baiting relies on the squirrels accepting the bait, and this can be dicey. You properly should either put the bait directly into their burrows, which often is unacceptable to ground squirrels, or in above-ground tamper resistant stations, which is a very obvious technique that just begs for someone to come and mess with the stations. Control can be spotty, and you also need to consider the possibility of rodents with bait in their bellies being eaten by predatory birds or animals.

With all of this also keep in mind School Pesticide use laws in your state, just in case this football field is on a school property. Nearly all states have laws on this, and this then would also involve notification, posting, limitations on the products you can use, etc.

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QUESTION:

I’ve recently sold and installed Sentricon HD systems at two houses. One of the houses had no activity on the stations, but termites were still active in mud tubes in the crawlspace. I moved a couple of the AG stations to the active tubes. Should I be worried that the termites haven’t started feeding on the bait or is it too early to tell?

ANSWER:

I suspect that what you have done so far with the stations is just fine. As far as I know there still is no true “attractant” to termite bait stations other than the piece of cellulose/wood within the station that the termites will be happy to eat IF they find it. Termites encountering bait stations is still a bit of a game of luck. You install the stations in what you feel are the most likely places foraging termites will go, and then hope that in their random search through the soil for food they will encounter the station and enter it. In theory you could put stations in a solid line around a home and the termites could pass between them in the inch of clear soil available and make their way to the structure. It is a guessing game as to where that colony is located in the ground, so these termites tubing in the crawlspace could have come up from someplace below the structure rather than from the outside, where they at least would pass by the stations.

This is not meant to cast a bad light on termite baiting. It is an excellent tool within the overall arsenal, and if you are able to get subterranean termites feeding on the bait within the stations you have a good chance of eliminating the colony, rather than just keeping it away from the structure as we have with some of the liquid termiticide applications. The best termite prevention or control could be the combination of soil treatments, wood treatments with borates, and bait stations to monitor for the termites long term. If it is possible to place a couple of the in-ground stations next to the point where these termites seem to be coming up from the soil this could provide them with a better opportunity to stumble upon that station and begin using it for food.

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QUESTION:

When using Nuvan pest strips it is recommended that the windows and doors be covered with 6 mil plastic and sealed with tape. We have done this and yet the tape we use continues to not work properly. We have tried three different types of tape and no good. Keep in mind we are applying it to painted cinder block and we do not wish to repaint. Would you have any suggestions other than contacting 3-M?

ANSWER:

I guess I remain a little mystified here, and wonder if one of two things has happened. Either there are some additional use instructions for Nuvan Prostrips that I have overlooked, or you may be interpreting the Label in a way it does not actually read. For use in residences the Label is pretty specific, stating several times that Nuvan strips are to be used “Only within closets, wardrobes, and cupboards”, although it also goes on to say their use is allowed in “attics, garages, and enclosed spaces” including crawl spaces and pantries. I really am not fond of labels that give a clear mandate about the product’s use and then immediately contradict themselves with further uses.

However, the Nuvan labels clearly state that the strips are NOT to be used in locations where “people will be present for an extended period of time”, meaning living and sleeping areas, and since the strips would need to be in place for a minimum of 7 days if this is for bed bugs (specifically for their eggs), and according to some of our university experts that probably should be more like 2 weeks. Your question sort of implies you may be using the strips for either whole house treatments of at least for living areas, and unless the residents are leaving for a full week this could be off-label.

I also do not see the recommendations on the Nuvan labels that you mention – covering doors and windows with plastic and sealing with tape. The only mention I see for plastic and tape refers to the use within plastic bags where you could place things like electronic equipment or other items that could not be treated in some other way. This use is a fantastic benefit for us, and saves us from having to recommend to customers with bed bug infested homes that electronic items be disposed of. If there are bed bugs it should be assumed that they could be harboring within computers, bedside clocks, TV’s, etc., and therefore depositing eggs within these items. Since missing a couple of eggs means the infestation lives on these sensitive items must be treated, and vapona offers us that opportunity. We just need to ensure we carefully stay within the allowances and uses on the Labels of these two products (Prostrips and Prostrips Plus) so we can continue to have them available.

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QUESTION:

I recently went to Arkansas and while there I picked up a c-tick (that’s what they call it). I seem to have brought it home and it was embedded in my side. I used tweezers to remove it but now there’s a hard lump there. Should I have that looked at? I feel fine, but it does annoy me.

ANSWER:

I tried Googling “c-tick” to see if I could find this local name for what you acquired, and it did not offer anything. So, the nearest I can suggest is that perhaps you heard them call it a “seed” tick, which is a normal name given for the first instar stage of ticks. This stage is also referred to as the Larva stage of the tick, and in this stage it is only 6-legged and extremely small, but a blood feeder nonetheless. It just becomes much harder to spot when you examine yourself for ticks.

As with the other stages of most hard ticks this larva stage finds a blood host, crawls to a place on the body that seems like a good feeding site, inserts its mouthparts, and settles in for a few days of ingesting your blood. And, like nearly all blood-sucking arthropods, it uses its saliva to numb the area before inserting its mouthparts and to keep the blood flowing. This saliva has two properties that can be a concern. The first is that it often contains a venom that can cause Tick Paralysis in some people, which is a condition that can actually cause severe weakening in the legs and arms and even more serious problems. However, this normally begins within just a few days after the tick attaches, and if you have not experienced this yet then it would seem your body did not react in this manner.

The other property of tick saliva is that it is protein in nature, and our bodies do not like “foreign” proteins in our body. Our immune systems react to reject or isolate foreign substances, and this is one reason we get that itchy bump from a mosquito bite. The area around the bite of a tick or flea or bed bug or mosquito swells up, and it all likelihood this is all you are feeling now. Since it does not appear to be causing you any pain or inflammation it sounds like just a normal reaction, but you definitely should keep a close eye on it, and if it continues to stay there over the next couple of weeks or begins to get larger then you should see a doctor right away. Once the tick is removed the flow of saliva is ended and the area should return to normal.

Another possibility is that when you removed the tick you may have left some small part of the tick behind, and if the head of the tick were still in the skin it could be much like a sliver, where the body isolates that foreign material and eventually rejects it. If the tick had been settled in and feeding for a few days then the skin may have swelled around its head, and this could be broken off if you quickly yanked the tick off with the tweezers. A recommended way to remove it is with sharp-pointed tweezers and a slow, steady pull to cause it to detach. So for now just keep an eye on the area and hopefully the lump will gradually disappear. It is a good idea to keep the tick itself in a jar with rubbing alcohol so that if your symptoms do worsen you can take the tick along with you and it can be examined as well. If it turns out to be one of the Ixodes (deer tick) species that would be a greater concern for a problem like Lyme Disease.

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QUESTION:

We are servicing a bank on an every-other-month service. The bank is only about 4 years old, and the only problem is silverfish. The only place I find them is at the drive-up window, in the drawers under the counter. One of our techs put a glue board in one of the drawers and I trapped different stages of silverfish. Can you help on this?

ANSWER:

My first thought is about why they may be appearing only at this one location so far, although it’s possible they are hiding other places as well and just not seen so far. Banks can have lots of cubby holes. Perhaps the drive-up window offers some gaps or other openings that are serving as entry points for the silverfish, whereas the rest of this relatively new bank could be pretty well sealed. This might be one thing to carefully evaluate, and if you can find entry opportunities they can be permanently sealed to keep future bugs from getting in. Then you only have to deal with the ones still inside at this time.

Silverfish are common outdoor bugs, so looking around the exterior of the building could reveal other places where the silverfish hide, and these can be removed if they are just piled debris or treated if they must remain in place. You also could treat along the base of the exterior walls, particularly around the area of the drive-up window. I am not fond of recommending insecticide applications as the ONLY procedure, as this then would require you to repeat the application every time you service the account for every year to come. Insecticide active ingredients are not going to last for 60 days outside, so not only would you have to constantly apply, but also would have those long intervals between services when no effective residual is in place to stop wandering bugs. Much better would be the habitat modification and exclusion when possible, as these then address contributing conditions.

Stopping the silverfish on the outside is better than fighting them on the inside where it’s more sensitive, but inside at this time you might consider very localized treatments along edges and corners in the vicinity of this window. You also could place some bait insecticide, and a granular bait such as Niban or Dekko Silverfish Packets. The Dekko already is in a station and the Niban granular could be placed within an insect bait station. If the bait could be puffed into a wall void in that area that might be useful, but if used where it is exposed it should be contained.

There shouldn’t be much for the silverfish to eat in this area, but what the heck do I know? I’d hate to say that and then start having holes chewed in hundred dollar bills. But, the combination of exclusion to end the entry, residual sprays to intercept the wandering insects, and bait to attract them to a better food source should be helpful.

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