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Pest Control Specialists Contact Us

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Dayton, OH 45405

QUESTION:

I’ve got one for you. Today I was checking my rat bait stations and found a baby opossum inside one of them. I have been putting Fastrac rat bait in the stations regularly for the past few weeks and the baits have been disappearing at a record rate. Instead of the regular gnaw marks that are normally found when rats are feeding, I have seen big chunks of baits bitten off both inside and outside of the bait box. Should I continue to bait the box or would you recommend the use of a live cat trap. The area where my stations are located is in a false ceiling in a government office full of professional women. What do I do?

ANSWER:

Several things come to mind that may factor in your decision here. First is that these rodent baits are labeled to be used where they are “inaccessible” to children, pets, and wildlife. Normally we could consider the false ceiling in a large office to be such an inaccessible area, but since the opossum obviously have found their way into it this cannot apply, and to continue placing bait meant for rats and mice in this area could be inappropriate. There also are no poisons labeled for opossum, so allowing them to continue feeding on it would be off-label. And, if these opossum have been feeding on the bait, as you indicate, for the past few weeks, I would expect some of them to be dying from the bait. If this does occur with a large animal like this you could end up with a VERY serious problem with odors and flies.

You also say that you are finding chunks of the bait bitten off both inside the station and outside, and you probably mean that the chunks are being found outside after being carried out by the animal. If instead you are placing the bait outside the station this probably should stop, and all baits be only within the TP station. Somehow I have a hard time picturing a full grown opossum getting into a bait station meant for rats. If the mother is foraging with her young then perhaps only the smallest of the young made it into the station, as you have found. The mother might be making some effort to work at that station to get to the bait if she smells it, but you should see evidence of this by the station being tipped over or moved. I would think it a little odd for the young to be out foraging on their own if they are still small enough to fit into the station, but this is an unknown to me.

I definitely would discontinue the baiting for now and go to an intensive trapping program to live trap these animals. Along with this you need to perform a very careful inspection of the exterior of this building to see where these animals are gaining access. While they are good climbers I would not consider them capable of climbing vertical walls, so it is most likely they either are finding access near ground level or making their way to the roof. If there are any trees adjacent to the building ensure all branches are cut back at least 6 feet from the roof line. Other openings, it would seem, should be pretty large to admit a full grown opossum. These are opportunistic feeders that eat almost anything, so bait the traps with something with a nice, tempting odor, such as bacon, fish, fruit, etc.

Another concern is the disposal of the animals when you trap them. I do not believe there are any constraints against killing them, but you may want to check with your local wildlife agency on this. Some U.S. states consider them to be “fur-bearing” animals and require a permit to trap or kill them. Releasing them can be tricky legally, as some regions do not allow them to be released just any old place. You may be required to release them “on site”, which emphasizes the need to perform good exclusion, or to get a permit to take them off site to release them in a natural area.

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QUESTION:

With the intense heat of Las Vegas what would be the best outdoor perimeter preventive chemical for treatment of homes? Which would last longer? I use products such as Suspend, Demand, Cy-Kick, and Cynoff. Should I be switching to wettable powders in the summer months?

ANSWER:

Heat definitely is one of the enemies of pesticide active ingredients, and hot surfaces or ambient temperatures can be expected to severely shorten the effective residual length of our insecticides. All of the products you list are Synthetic Pyrethroids, which may be more stable under environmental stresses than were the old Organophosphates and Carbamates, but still would be sensitive to extremes.

I personally believe that microencapsulated formulations such as the Demand and Cy-Kick would last longer than other formulations. The microscopic and porous capsules keep the active ingredient in them for a more controlled “release”, and to some extent protect it from degradation. These and the wettable powders also may tend to attach to passing arthropods far more easily than do the suspended or emulsifiable concentrates, where a thin film of the active ingredient remains on the treated surface after the water dries away. In Las Vegas in July that probably takes about 3 seconds for the water to evaporate. I’m not convinced that any one active ingredient necessarily works better overall on occasional invaders than any other, so you often can find a product name brand in a WP that may currently be in a different formulation.

Since your quest is for products effective as a perimeter treatment to intercept bugs before they manage to get inside a WP or ME sounds like the more logical choices. Since they end up as tiny particles resting on the treated surface the passing bug will acquire some of the particles as it walks over them, and now with the a.i. attached to them they can acquire the lethal dose in a leisurely manner. With the other formulations the insect needs to actually rest on that treated surface long enough to absorb the lethal dose, and this may take awhile. For the old OP’s it often was 30 to 60 MINUTES, meaning a quick walk over the treated band was not sufficient. For pyrethroids it is much shorter, but still could be longer than the time they actually spend on the surface.

So, I think that Demand, Cy-Kick, and Cynoff WP would be perfect choices, and now I expect to hear anger from those who successfully use Suspend, which also is an excellent product but which may have a different nature. Treating insects or spiders directly with any of these insecticides will give a very different result, and now the suspended concentrates like Suspend may work more quickly, as the a.i. may be more readily available and move quickly into the insect. Wherever possible you also can evaluate the exterior of your accounts to see what physical changes can be made to discourage these invading bugs. This helps take away some of the pressure to rely totally on pesticides. If you can remove obvious pathways such as branches that forces the bugs down onto your treated perimeter. Closing any openings you can forces the wandering bugs to spend more time on your treated surfaces looking for the next entry point. Creating a cleared area around the foundation helps discourage bugs from moving across it, and removing piles of wood or debris against the foundation also keeps bugs at bay.

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QUESTION:

Do subterranean termites have a typical depth they prefer? I’m sure moisture somewhat dictates their behavior, but are they mostly within five feet from the surface or something like that? I ask because products for defined treatments work so well, I hear, they must assume that the material has leached to a depth to ensure contact with termites coming from ouside a structure going underneath a slab or crawlspace ect.

ANSWER:

Well, I am going to give that lovely and worthless answer – “it all depends”. Looking through some resources on termites we can find a lot of variance in the answer to how deep their nest may go in the soil. In the Mallis Handbook of Pest Control it states that Reticulitermes flavipes (Easter Subterranean) may be found underground to depths of 5 feet. However, another reference in this book states that they will move up and down in the soil as needed to maintain contact with very wet soil, and possibly to stay near the water table below them. One internet reference states that they very much need wet soil for building their tubes, and for this reason may go as deep as necessary to reach the top of the water table. In some places this may be just a few feet below the surface and in other perhaps a hundred feet or more.

Other internet references use numbers such as 20 feet deep, or 10-20 feet deep, but I always wonder if many of these websites could simply be repeating the same accurate or false information, so that may not be definitive. One thing that does seem to be consistent is that the underground colony is not restricted to one place, but may move up and down in the soil as the environmental conditions dictate. As the soil above dries the colony moves deeper, and as it moistens or the water table rises the colony moves upward. Moisture is the key.

When we chemically treat the soil our goal is to place an unbroken layer of the chemical in the soil around or under the structure, ensuring that any termite attempting to get to the wood of the structure must pass through that chemical layer, and be exposed to it long enough to take in a lethal dose. It is NOT our goal to use termiticides that leach down into the soil to penetrate the nest itself, and in fact this would be a dangerous situation if our products did that. The chemical that leaches down through the soil also poses a high potential for ending up in the underground water tables, and from there into drinking water. Nearly all of our termiticides have very LOW water solubility, meaning they do not dissolve in water and thus will not flow where water flows. Instead, we apply them using water as the diluent and once the water dries the active ingredient ties up tightly in the soil particles and (hopefully) does not move from that location. For surface applied materials such as a pretreat this may be no more than a half inch deep in the soil. For trenching we place it deeper around the foundation so that any way the termite moves to the foundation it must pass through the termiticide.

This is the success of the non-repellent products that also have a good Transfer Effect. Any termites that find their way into treated soil could pick up enough of the active ingredient to pass it around to other members of the colony. Since foraging workers are constantly making this trip out of the colony and to a structure there is going to be constant contact with the termiticide as they close in on the treated soils above the nest. We rely on the termites themselves to make the contact rather than hoping our application breaks into the colony. The different families of chemistry offer different methodology for protecting the home. The old organophosphates relied on killing the termites that entered the treated soil. The pyrethroids rely a great deal on repelling the termites away from treated areas, but not necessarily killing them all. Newer chemistries are looking for the non-repellency and a slow acting kill to allow for the transfer of the active ingredient to termites that stay in the colony.

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QUESTION:

How long of a residual does Talstar have when used to control ticks? Are ticks affected by the chemical if they are questing in tall grass?

ANSWER:

Talstar should be an excellent tick control product and it is labeled for this use. Pyrethroids in general are good against Arachnids, such as spiders and scorpions, and ticks are closely related and should be susceptible to them as well. The question is always whether or not you can achieve the contact between the tick and the active ingredient. Since ticks cannot fly to those upper locations on grasses and other low plants to “quest” for a host animal, they must begin at the bottom and work their way up. This should put them in contact with your treatment for at least some period of time. What would be a preferred addition to this mix would be to mow that tall grass so that it is much lower to the ground, perhaps within a couple of inches. This would make your application much more effective by ensuring you can actually treat all of the grass stems and limit where the ticks can get to, as well as making the best use of your spray material.

Just how long any pesticide active ingredient will last is tough to pin down, and more often we might speak in terms of comparisons – how much longer could it last in sunshine versus shade, in cool areas versus hot, under dampness versus dry locations. The manufacturer of Talstar has stated in the past that their granular formulation might last for several months, and if this is accurate then adding granules to your application would be very helpful, particularly if the grassy area is mowed to force the ticks down to ground level. I have heard university researchers state that expecting more than 2 weeks of residual from any insecticide spray could be a little optimistic, but this would depend heavily on where it is applied. Certainly the bifenthrin placed under the shaded eaves of a home should degrade more slowly than the bifenthrin applied to grasses in direct sunshine. The Talstar P label recommends retreatment for ticks outdoors IF you see direct evidence that ticks are still present, and no more than once in any 7 day period is permitted. Perhaps this 7 days recommendation is a hint that they feel you may have substantial loss of the active ingredient after that length of time.

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QUESTION:

I was recently called to inspect a medical office
for black beetles. I ID’d the beetles as Polycaon
stoutii. They are frequently found in various parts of the building on walls, ceilings, etc. I did inspect the very old Oak furniture and could not find any bore holes. Upon checking the attic I did find one attempting to exit through a vent screen. On the exterior there are some areas of overlapping eaves that would allow penetration of fliers to get in as well as some roof vents not properly sealed. There are also about 10 large, mature Redwood/Cedar trees on the property.
The only resolution until harborages are found is
to fog the structure to kill existing adults and
make certain the structure is sealed.


ANSWER:

The Black Polycaon – Polycaon stoutii – is an anomaly. It is one of our larger wood infesting beetles, with adults about an inch long. It currently resides in the family Bostrichidae with the “false” powderpost beetles such as Lead Cable Borer and Bamboo borer, but looks very different from them. Instead of having its head tucked under the overhanging prothorax the head of the polycaon is very large and sticks straight out in front. The legs are long and obvious and it has an overall elongated, cylindrical shape.

Apparently this beetle, which is found only in the western states, has the potential to cause some damage to indoor wood materials, and plywoods (oddly) seem to be the most often attacked. However, I have also seen adult beetles emerging from hardwood furniture such as oak arms of couches, and this suggests that it is likely the furniture was infested by a female beetle depositing eggs on it after it was built. There also have been two occasions where large numbers of the adult beetles were found on or in buildings where it did not appear that anything made of wood was infested, but only that the adult beetles were drawn to the location for some reason. My suspicion was that they were attracted to odors in the area – on on top of a hospital roof and another in a chemical warehouse.

However, if you are continually finding these indoors that really is suggesting that there is an indoor source. The adults are attracted to lights, but a medical office would not be likely to be leaving doors open. Adult emergence holes are about the diameter of a pencil and very round, so they are obvious if located in an exposed place and your inspection should find them. Perhaps the adult beetles emerged from some hidden location and the adults worked their way out so that you cannot easily see these holes. It would seem less likely that the adult beetles are going to some trouble to find access points around the structure to work their way inside, and more likely that they are emerging from something inside the structure. I don’t think they infest living trees, so those conifers outside should not be the source. The presence of that one in the attic is interesting, and I would consider it more likely the adult beetles would find their way down FROM the attic to the lighted areas below than it would for them to move from below up into the dark attic. Their instinct as the adult beetle is to move to light and to escape the structure.

The beetles do attack hardwoods or softwoods, including plywoods, when the wood is in storage. Perhaps in this case they infested stored lumber that was then used to construct furniture or cabinets in the building, so your inspection should have some focus on what NEW wood products have come into this office. It may be that you will find something that can be removed and either treated independently or disposed of. If the infestation is within materials built in that becomes a different decision, and it would not be common for them to continue to reinfest in the manner that powderpost beetles do. This infestation could be self-limiting.

I’d be careful of fogging the building very often, since this is a sensitive location as a medical office. Fogging with pyrethrum also may not be very effective on these large and sturdy beetles. The best option, and easy for me to say and harder for you to do, would be to continue the intensive inspection to try to find the source, and once found then determine if there are any more beetles to emerge or how that wood may be treated to prevent the problem from continuing.

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QUESTION:

You mix an IGR with a contact residual product, and for that matter say you also use something like Exiter to get a quick knock down when doing a clean out for, let’s say, German cockroaches. So you have three products mixed in your B&G. If the cockroaches come into contact with the finished product how can the IGR be effective if the other products are killing the cockroaches within minutes. I know the IGR’s work, I just don’t understand in this situation how the insects can live long enough for it to work. Can the female pass the IGR to the embryo and if so woudn’t the other products pass as well ect…

ANSWER:

This may be a little hypothetical on my part, but let’s see where it goes. First, IGR’s tend to last MUCH longer than contact insecticides do. Where you may get a few weeks of effective residual from contact insecticides you could expect many months of effectiveness from the IGR. So, even when the “residual” contact active ingredient is no longer doing anything the IGR continues to be present and affecting the roaches. The Exciter or any other pyrethrum is there for a rapid knockdown or for flushing only, and it probably disappears within a day.

Another factor is the nature of a couple of the IGR’s, specifically methoprene (Precor) and hydroprene (Gentrol) whereby the active ingredient has some odd ability to move over the surface. This is why you can place a Gentrol Point Source under a counter and have it treat that wide radius around that point. The vapors of the hydroprene flow over the surface to redeposit, and thus can get into hidden places where you may not have actually applied the material. We might also consider the possibility that the roaches are sitting on too little of the contact insecticide to kill them, and the addition of the IGR adds one more tool to throw at them. We might use the same logic when we apply baits as well as sprays. By not relying on a single technique or product we increase the odds that what we expose the roaches to will ultimately kill them. These are tough adversaries, which is why we still are fighting them despite 100 years or more of trying, and despite the great many kinds of products available to us. Good German roach control could also involve vacuums, steamers, dusts inside wall voids, granular baits, etc.

The effect of the IGR on the roaches is to sterilize them, but I know with fleas it also can affect the eggs so that they do not develop properly. So, it may very well manage to get into the eggs and embyroes of roachs and work in that way too. This may occur more via contact with the eggs themselves, but perhaps could be from passing into the developing eggs from the mother. This may be more likely to happen with the active ingredients in some bait products where the a. i. is within the female’s system. But, young roach nymphs that are exposed to the IGR do not develop properly. They still become adult cockroaches but now are physically deformed and hopefully unable to breed. The IGR does not kill the roach,  but prevents it from creating more roaches and thus depletes the population.

Bottom line is that we might be too optimistic thinking that we are going to be able to kill all the roaches within minutes using just the contact insecticides alone. They are much too stealthy and evolved for this to happen or we would have wiped them out long ago. Because of issues like repellency, resistance, breeding potential, and their varied hiding places we need to throw the entire line of choices at them when possible, and putting it all together we kill more roaches than any one product could do on its own.

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QUESTION:

How can we control mice and roaches in a bakery
without dusting or using bait? The owner thinks it is not permitted in Pennsylvania. Can you clarify for me? The place is in a dire situation. Thank you.

ANSWER:

Let’s begin with whether or not baits and dust insecticides are legal for use in bakeries in PA. Yes they are. I really doubt that any state in the U.S. generally disallows the use of these formulations in any kind of food manufacturing facility, but this is always something you can take up with your local regulatory inspectors if you have any question. Baits in particular are such low-impact formulations that they should be preferred over other kinds of more general applications, such as spraying or fogging. If we look for products specifically labeled for use in bakeries we find dusts such as DeltaDust, Drione, Pyganic Dust, Tempo Dust, and Tri-Die. Most roach baits are very generally labeled for use in food handling facilities, but some specifically mentioning bakeries on their labels include Maxforce FC Magnum and MRF-2000, but I certainly would not limit my use to just these two when others would legally be allowed as well.

Baiting continues to be an excellent option in German roach control, but other formulations (sprays and dusts) would also be good for the overall control effort if you are allowed to use them. Dusts, of course, should be strictly confined to enclosed voids to keep them from having any opportunity to get out and onto exposed surfaces. If you still are concerned then you might restrict your dusts to inorganic materials such as diatomaceous earth or silica gel. Placed properly these active ingredients will last for as long as they stay dry. Baits such as gel baits also can be applied so there is no chance for contamination of foods or food surfaces, and for best results on German roaches the gel should be applied as Pea-sized spots directly within crevices and gaps that the roaches may hide in. Apparently they prefer to feed in seclusion rather than out and exposed.

There also are a great many contact insecticides specifically labeled for bakeries, in either aerosol or liquid concentrate formulations, and these have their place in the overall program. “Spraying” for roaches provides you with the ability to get that quick knockdown of much of the population as well as leaving an effective residual in the roach harborage points for a few more weeks. Also consider non-chemical options such as steam or vacuuming, and if the situation is as dire as you suggest the vacuum could be a fabulous tool for instant removal of a large part of the roach population.

Very important too, and I hope your customer will cooperate in this effort, would be the evaluation of this account to see just why they have this bad of a cockroach problem. Sanitation and harborage removal are extremely important parts of this overall IPM effort, and if we rely totally on insecticides tor resolve the problem we will be dependent upon them forever. If this is large commercial bakery there may be a lot of food dust around that is nearly impossible to eliminate. In a smaller bakery you may be able to identify many food resources that simply do not need to be there. I suggest you make a thorough Sanitation Inspection and provide your findings in writing to your customer. On this form you list the “contributing conditions” that you find – food, water, and harborage resources that the roaches are using for their survival in this building. Without a doubt many of these can be eliminated, and each one you fix means the environment there can support less roaches. It is imperative that our industry lead the way in promoting the non-chemical aspects of pest management.

With respect to the use of rodent baits in a bakery, it is likely that they could “legally” be used, but the use of rodent baits indoors will always pose the potential for problems. You cannot control where the dying rodent chooses to go to die, and if this is in an inaccessible location you will quickly get foul odors and blow flies breeding, and this becomes another problem to control. I suggest a better option is to throw a major number of traps at these mice – snap traps and glue traps within stations where necessary – and check the traps frequently to remove captured rodents. At the same time it is imperative that you determine how the mice are entering the structure and close these openings permanently. If you do nothing to stop the inflow of mice then you will fight an endless battle on the inside where the problem is more critical.

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QUESTION:

I have a racoon in an attic with several young she just gave birth to. This part of the attic is very tight to get into and set a trap. Is there any way to get them out of the area without harming them? I’ve heard suggestions with using ammonia, moth balls, and even loud music was suggested. Are there any ultrasonic devices I can use? The babies are about the size of a small cat. Once the mother is caught how do I trap or remove the young racoons?

ANSWER:

If the babies are already as big as you say then at least they are mobile, and possibly could be lured into a live trap set at close to them as possible. The best hope might be to try to make life so uncomfortable in that attic that the mother herself removes all her babies. I remember an episode on TV not long ago where a similar situation existed, except that in that case the babies could be accessed. Ultimately the trapper waited until the mother left the attic and then he gathered all the babies and put them into a box that he set outside (on the roof actually). This allowed the mother to return and take her babies one at a time to a different location. Killing all of the babies was out of the question for them, and in your case also not acceptable since you cannot currently access them.

Ultrasonic devices are unlikely to bother them sufficiently to make them move out. I suppose it is possible that these animals could detect “ultrasonic sound” and be annoyed by it, but the claims made by manufacturers or ultrasonic repellers of ALL kinds simply do not hold up to unbiased testing by universities. The unanimous conclusion by universities continues to be that ultrasonic boxes are scams. Moth balls probably would work if you could use so much that the concentration of vapors built up high enough, but there are two problems with this. First, many states tell us flat out that the use of moth balls for repelling vertebrate animals is illegal. They are not labeled for that use. Second, you probably would have to use so much that it would be a health hazard to occupants of the house as well.

Loud music, especially if it is of the proper genre (and I won’t anger anyone by naming some that I don’t care for) could make things unsettling for the raccoons, but I have never heard of anyone doing this so I couldn’t offer suggestions on how. It most likely also would keep humans awake or going batty for however long it took to get the raccoons to relocate. You might try locating the entry point of the female and closing it, and then for a day or two trying to trap the young by enticing them into a trap with various foods. Since you would want this to be done quickly to avoid harm to the babies it could require a number of traps and a lot of your time monitoring them. Fish, bacon, fruits – there are a lot of food items that are very attractive to raccoons that could draw the young into the trap quickly.

At this time obviously the mother is coming and going at will, and bringing food back to the babies daily. Breaking that cycle is needed. There is another possible device that could repel her into taking the babies out, and that is strobe lights. Univar may still have a couple of these “Evictor” devices, but look on line for “squirrel evictor” and see if you can find them. They were a little pricey, so did not sell quickly, but for this kind of situation it might work. Placing the strobe light where it fires off that annoying, flashing bright light directly into their nesting area could make it so uncomfortable that they will move out, and it would not be detectable to human occupants below.

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QUESTION:

We have a house that seems to get Indian
Meal Moths every year for the last 3 years from March through fall and quits in winter. The attic seems to be the major area and they trickle into the inside of the house. Insulation in the attic prevents access to the entire attic because it is too low to crawl. There may have been squirrels in the attic soffit several years ago. I have dusted and fogged and no success. I have screened all roof vents with tight window screen and they still are present. No larvae or webbing are ever found anywhere except maybe 4 times in odd places with no food areas. The customer understands we are doing everything for him but is still upset that it continues.
What advice do you have?

ANSWER:

It sounds like you do have a moth infestation within the home, perhaps the attic, and that it is just providing continuing generations of the moths from some food source they have found. Over time this would finally disappear on its own as that food source is finally depleted, but this could take awhile depending on how much food their is. Since the attic would cool down tremendously through the winter this also would slow down the rate of development of the larvae/pupae, and this could account for the seeming lack of activity those months. But, since these moths are capable of having many generations in a single food resource you may not be getting new adult moths coming in, but just adults from one generation mating and depositing eggs back on that food material.

The larvae of the IMM typically does leave the food resource and go wandering great distances from it looking for the perfect place to create their little cocoon and then pupate. This could account for finding them in areas of the home where they should not be, and long distances from whatever it is they are infesting. In an attic it may be rodent bait tossed there by the homeowner, and often people will “toss” bait blocks or packets to the far reaches of the attic without considering the future consequences of not being able to retrieve that bait. Rodent baits are not toxic to insects. It also may be food caches placed there by squirrels or other rodents, and if so these could be large quantities. Rats often steal pet foods and store them in inaccessible places – inaccessible to people but easily available to insects, and these could take many years to finally be consumed by the bugs.

So, there are all my explanations as to why you may be seeing this lingering infestation. Eliminating it is another question, but it boils down to a need to find the actual source of the problem and removing it permanently. Fogging and dusting would be superficial applications that are going to contact and kill some adult moths and some wandering larvae, but normally are ineffective at controlling the problem at its source. Even if you somehow killed all of the larvae on that food material, the material is still there and eventually will be discovered by new insects that are determined to recycle it. The best I can suggest is to make an even more thorough and detailed search of the attic to try to isolate the location of the food material.

Another possibility might be the use of one of the “mating disrupter” pheromones such as the Cidetrak IMM. These use large amounts of pheromones that cause the male moths not to be able to locate the females, and therefore be unable to mate. This can help to break up the continuing life cycles and stop the production of new moths. However, this does not stop the ultimate problem which is the presence of some food source in that area.

Another consideration is that the IMM will feed on a great many different kinds of foods, and I have seen them in homes feeding on dried-flower arrangements. They also get into pet foods, dried fruits, nuts stored in the garage, decorative arrangements in  boxes, etc. Anything that is grain or fruit based is subject to their activity, so you may do another inspection and look for other possible sources.

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QUESTION:

In the past two weeks I’ve had three different customers ask what products they could use to treat for “Scabies”. I always thought that was a medical condition that needs to be treated with ointment to affected people, but on the other hand are they not considered mites?

ANSWER:

You are correct on both counts Chris – they are mites and they are treated only by medications prescribed or suggested by a physician, and there is absolutely no role for the pest control technician to be involved with. I personally believe that “scabies” may also be highly over-diagnosed by physicians. On too many cases where people were diagnosed with this problem they told me that the doctor made his diagnosis based solely on his visual examination of the skin, and took no skin scrapings to examine under a microscope. These mites are microscopic, and from what I have learned the verification that it is mites causing the skin problems relies on a microscope and skin samples from the affected places.

Scabies mites (Sarcoptes scabiei) also cause this condition that may be called mange or itch mites. They are passed from person to person ONLY by direct contact with another person with the problem or by wearing clothing worn by an infected person, and this would have to be immediately after that other person had it on. The mites also could transfer onto other fabrics such as bed linens or backs of couches, etc., and get onto another person who shares that furniture. As the CDC puts it “the scabies mite usually is spread by direct, prolonged, skin to skin contact with a person who has scabies”. The mites do not get off people and crawl around the floor or on furniture. They cannot survive more than 48-72 hours off a person or infected animal. Treatment, in addition to the medications applied to the skin, should include laundering of all clothing and fabrics worn or touched by an infected person, but the CDC also states that pesticide applications to the home are unnecessary and accomplish nothing. This is a good website (CDC) that these customers of yours should read and perhaps would believe, since it is an unbiased and responsible source of information. You can access it at http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/scabies/gen_info/faqs.html#life

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