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QUESTION:

I am hiring on my first tech and writing my SOP’s, which have led me to ask some questions of how I do things. Is there a difference between dormancy and hibernation, and if so would it be a waste of time to exterior bait C/C during winter quarterlys?

ANSWER:

We tend to use some terms that may be interchangeable, but in this case we really have 3 terms to look at – dormancy, hibernation, and aestivation (sometimes spelled estivation). Hibernation refers to a period of inactivity in the winter (bears hibernate), aestivation refers to that inactivity in the summer (gophers often aestivate), and dormant refers more to an extended period of time when the animal (or plant) is inactive, but activity may resume at any time due to circumstances. For example, seeds of weeds may lay dormant for years in dry conditions, and then be activated when rains fall and begin to sprout. Bed bugs may be dormant in a structure when no food is available, but then spring to activity when people return and the triggers of carbon dioxide and heat bring them back to feeding. So, yes, hibernation and aestivation are regular cycles in the biology of living things, while dormancy may be more of a forced period of inactivity.

Since you are in Utah you likely enjoy pretty cold winters, and very, very few arthropods will be active outdoors for these months. Nearly all of them go into some level of hibernation, with their ability to move severely restricted by the cold temperatures. Warm winter days might be sufficient to activate some of them, so we could find ants suddenly wandering around if you had some extended spring-like days in January, but this would be the exception I think. Using bait products during the cold months probably would be mostly ineffective, since there would be so few bugs around to take advantage of this food resource. By the time you get a general re-emergence of those hibernating bugs the bait may no longer be effective or palatable to the pest. Rain or snow could have washed it away or turned it to mush, or the active ingredient may have degraded sufficiently to not kill the bug even if it did feed on it.

Winter is a great time to do other projects that are good pest management. This could be the time to focus on things like exclusion – sealing openings and gaps around the exterior that would admit rodents, bats, or crawling bugs later in the year. Exclusion is every bit a part of pest “management” as is the spraying of pesticides. It may be a good time to re-evaluate the exterior and landscaping, and point out those circumstances in a yard that encourage the presence of many pests. Maybe firewood should be moved away from the structure, piles of landscape debris or discarded household items could be disposed of to eliminate pest harborage, dense shrubbery could be trimmed properly to expose the soil, branches too near to or touching the structure can be trimmed away. All of this is habitat modification, and it is also important in reducing pest problems.

Winter is also a great time for Horticultural controls, such as the applications of dormant sprays (there’s that darned word “dormant” again), such as horticultural oils or fungicides. These are critical products to use during late winter months to control many plant diseases as well as to kill over-wintering (hibernating) arthropod pests such as aphids, scales, mites, and many other plant-feeding pests that leave eggs or pupae or early stages of nymphs on the bark of trees and shrubs. Winter is also a good time to do soil injections of systemic insecticides such as imidacloprid, which then will move up the dormant tree and be present in the foliage when it begins to sprout, killing aphids and beetles and other plant feeders before their populations get damaging.

Pesticide applications can be dramatically reduced in the winter in cold regions, and your experience will tell you whether or not many active pests are there in Dec. thru February, or later in the northern states. You can focus instead on preventing pests from entering, including Fall applications around the exterior to kill over-winter guests like stinkbugs, cluster flies, ladybird beetles, etc. You also can concentrate on rodents, as these often are more actively attempting to get inside during harsh weather.

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QUESTION:

Is the California Harvester ant a docile, retiring sort of ant?

ANSWER:

I would say that Harvester Ants in general – black and red and including the huge kinds found in the Southwest – are inclined to mind their own business until you mess with them. They feed almost exclusively on seeds, and only very rarely enter structures since their food resources are not normally found there. However, they are 2-node ants equipped with a very capable stinger, and if they were angry enough at a person they will inflict a very painful sting. This could happen if someone stood on their nest opening or got some of them trapped in clothing, in which case they will defend themselves or their colony. They are large and fast moving, and definitely will cause some pain.

For this reason I would not characterize them as docile, but only that they keep to themselves if possible. But, it is very common for these ants to nest around structures and in landscape, where encounters with people or pets would be very likely to happen. If it happened to be a child care facility or school, I believe it would be inappropriate to leave these ants there, and killing them in the name of child safety would be proper. Since their food preference is pretty restricted to natural materials they are not as likely to accept baits as are scavenger ants, but you still could try granular bait products. Otherwise, directly treating into the nest opening with a dust or some other formulation would be effective. They often are active during the daytime, and red harvester ants in particular have very obvious nest openings, with large, circular areas around the opening as they bring out soil and dump it at the outer ring.

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QUESTION:

What is the main difference between all household fabric pests? What are the control measures?

ANSWER:

If we consider only the “true” fabric pests, meaning those insects that actually are able to consume and digest fabrics, then we have a fairly small crowd. This includes carpet beetles of various kinds, including the typical Dermestes, which are the black, white, and tan kinds, as well as Trogoderma, which are the brown and black ones called “warehouse” beetles. It also includes the Black Carpet Beetle. All of these beetles may also feed readily on grain-based food materials, so their presence in a home does not necessarily indicate that animal-based fibers are under attack. Animal products such as hair, feathers, or skin will contain a chemical called keratin, and very few insects are able to digest keratin. But, Mother Nature needed all of these materials decomposed and recycled when animals died, so the carpet beetles (Dermestidae) and clothes moths stepped in to fill that role.

The other group of true fabric pests is the moths, and these “clothes” moths include the webbing clothes moth, whose larva creates a tunnel or covering of silk over itself on the material it is feeding on, and the case-making species, which create a small tube or “case” of silk that they then live in and drag everywhere with them. There actually are 3 kinds of case-making moths found in homes, with the Casemaking Clothes Moth probably the most common. Its case is camouflaged with bits of material from the fabric it feeds on incorporated into its silk case. There also are the Household Casebearer Moth and the Plaster Bagworm, which make similar cases around themselves as larvae, but which may be more inclined to feed on other things, such as spider webs or fungus. But, they also may feed on fabrics, so their presence is cause for suspicion. When you compare the cases of these 3 species you see some obvious differences. The Household Casebearer often has a very dark case, perhaps due to the incorporation of dark wood or molds into its silk. The Plaster Bagworm case has a grainy look due to the use of sand imbedded in its case.

All of these case making moths will stay within their case for the duration of their larval stage, pupate within it, and then emerge as the adult moth. They drag the case everywhere with them. All of the adult moths are very small and pretty nondescript, although again you can find some basic characters that may identify each of them, including spots on the wings or patches of hair on top of their head. The carpet beetles are pretty obvious, and the larvae of all of them are distinctive as small, brown, very hairy and active larvae. The differences are in the lengths of the hairs sticking out their posterior end, the body shape, and the pattern of darker rings around the body. Without going into all the details here I’d invite you to check out our Pest ID resource on PestWeb, where all of these kinds and images of them are available.

Control of fabric pests is much the same principle as control of food pests – it is imperative that you search until you find the source, meaning the material that is infested. This will nearly always be in some hidden location, and spraying pesticides around the general area is just not going to get to the larvae that are feeding and doing the damage. You may kill adult insects that are out and about, but they will quickly be replaced by new adults emerging from the infested product. If it is infested fabrics you may well not even want to spray, since it could be sweaters or blankets where a pesticide is not appropriate. In that case laundering or dry cleaning will kill the insects, vacuuming will remove others in the general area, and at that point perhaps a directed application of insecticide to kill wandering larvae that are not easily observed.

There are pheromone traps for the beetles and the moths, and these can be used as monitors to determine if these insects are present in a sensitive situation, such as a museum, or they can help narrow the search for the source, by placing many of them and then determining which ones have the insects in them, or the most adult insects indicating those may be closest to the problem area.

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QUESTION:

I have a house that has carpenter bees that we have treated. However, now the customer is saying that woodpeckers are digging into the wood of the house to get the larvae. What can I do to, and is there anything that will help?

ANSWER:

I thought about this a few minutes, and it suddenly dawned on me that there should not be any bee larvae in the wood at this time, if you have normal-acting carpenter bees. The typical biology of carpenter bees is for the adult bees to be the stage that over-winters in the chambers in the wood, and if you feel you have already dealt with the adult bees then no living insects would be in those old channels to pique the interest of the woodpeckers. However, perhaps your control did not manage to get deep enough into the chambers to kill all the overwintering bees, or they managed to hole up in there before you recognized their presence in these chambers, and avoided your control measures. You don’t indicate when it was you treated the problem, but given how early in the year it currently is I assume it was last fall (??).

Carpenter bees of all species are pretty consistent with their life cycles. The adults emerge from winter hibernation, mate, and then they begin the excavation of the wood to create living quarters for their larvae. They may begin a brand new chamber in new wood or commonly will return to their previous home and continue the digging further into the wood. Once this is completed the female gathers pollen and nectar to create a ball of food, places it in the channel and lays an egg near it, and then seals off that chamber for that larva. She continues this to create around 8 or so chambers and then she is done and dies shortly after. The larvae develop and pupate during the late spring and summer, and usually in late summer the new adult bees emerge. You can see the delay in this time following the emergence of the over-wintering bees, particularly on a year when cold weather may have delayed their emergence and mating activity. These new adult bees then become the ones that will spend the next winter in hibernation. 

So, long story just to say that larvae probably are not currently in the wood, but perhaps adult bees are. Woodpeckers are well known for poking into infested wood to get to the helpless larvae, but would be less inclined to try for adult bees that might sting them. Either way it looks like these birds are causing damage, and woodpeckers may drill into wood for various reasons. During mating season males may pound on surfaces to make noise only as a territorial display. They may poke holes to create a cavity to nest in, and this is a common springtime ritual for woodpeckers, and I wonder if this is the actual reason the birds are now drilling holes in this house – nesting, not food. Your best bet is to install some physical barrier over the places they are drilling to prevent them from having access to that wood. This often is under the eaves, and bird netting from the ends of the rafters down onto the siding may accomplish this. Woodpeckers are, in general, protected birds that cannot be harmed, so exclusion is a much better route to take.

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QUESTION:

What is the best way to control mosquitoes around a home?

ANSWER:

It is very important to educate the homeowner on their role in managing mosquito problems around their own home, including the need to simply wear long sleeved shirt and pants during evening activities outdoors when mosquitoes are most likely to be present. They still may be able to bite through material, but not nearly as easily as if bare skin is presented to them. In addition, people active outdoors during mosquito times of the day should wear a repellent that is effective, and reapply it as needed during the day if they are outside for long periods. This sounds elementary, but people often just don’t consider these basic steps. Finally, to keep the interior of the home as mosquito-free as possible they need to make a real effort to keep windows screened properly and keep doors closed whenever possible. All of this helps to minimize the need for pesticide applications.

You should make a visual inspection of the customer’s property as well, noting IN WRITING on your inspection form just where you are finding conditions that contribute to the breeding of mosquitoes on their property. After all the rain we have had in California this could be many possible aquatic sites, and mosquito larvae must live in standing water – wet foliage will not be sufficient. So, inspect rain gutters to make sure they are draining properly, empty all containers of water, empty water off tarps and other covers over boats or firewood, empty buckets and other containers, empty the catch pans under potted plants, fill in depressions in the soil. If there are large trees on the property examine them for tree-holes that may be full of water, as these breed many mosquitoes. These can be filled with sand or a hole drilled into them to drain them. If there are permanent aquatic sites such as ponds, these may be treated with a larvicide, but you may only have the authority to treat sites actually on your customer’s property, and anything substantial you find off their property will need to be dealt with in another way, including notifying the local Mosquito Abatement district.

Effective suppression of adult mosquitoes can be done with Barrier Treatments, and evidence indicates a really good drop in the numbers of biting adult mosquitoes from treating their resting areas on the property with a residual insecticide. A number of the synthetic pyrethroids have been used with success, so contact your local Univar sales rep for some suggestions. Active ingredients include permethrin, bifenthrin, and lambda-cyhalothrin. You really should get the mosquitoes in your area identified so you know what the enemy is. Different kinds of mosquitoes choose different breeding and resting sites. Some may choose to be higher up in trees, such as Culex, and others may choose shaded alcoves such as the eaves or outbuildings on the property. Some may prefer  to rest in shrubbery closer to the ground. If you focus on places to treat and miss the ones of importance it is going to be a setback to the effectiveness. Barrier treatments may be used immediately prior to some outdoor event for the best results, but some university testing did show that several weeks of dramatically lower populations of adult mosquitoes might be expected.

Fogging is also used to kill adult mosquitoes, and this is nearly always with pyrethrum, which continues to be in short supply in 2011, so it should be used judiciously. If you have some pending outdoor event, such as a wedding reception or a party, you could fog the area that morning or the day before to kill most adult mosquitoes present. The problem with fogging is that you cannot control where the wind takes the fog, and in a neighborhood you could have nearby neighbors who do not want the pesticide on their property, and could raise an issue about it. California’s mosquito problems tend to be very seasonal, usually in the spring, and once the annual summer drought hits the problems go away. This is not the case for homes around permanent bodies of water of course. Where mosquitoes are present year-round the use of installed misting systems is also popular. Be careful on these, and check with your local regulatory agencies on their use, as some states are not fond of the misting systems and may restrict their use. These use a timer to release a short fog of pyrethrum on a regular interval, and like any other fogging that mist may drift onto adjacent properties.

Don’t ignore the habitat modification and removal of breeding sites, as this is critical for success, along with the customer understanding that they should change their habits if necessary and wear long sleeves and repellents to prevent bites.

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QUESTION:

How would you control a rat in a car?

ANSWER:

Rodent damage is common when these animals decide to get into vehicles, either inside the car itself or up into the engine compartment. They do what they do best, and gnaw on anything available, including wires and hoses. I have a friend who recently has a couple thousand dollars of damage done to their car by rats, although squirrels and other rodents are also well known for doing this. I will assume that in your case you are not dealing with a single rat that is entrenched in this car, and needs to be removed, but as is most common you have the rodent(s) coming and going and need to prevent this from happening. This is really tough, because it is almost impossible to seal the vehicle up such that the rodents cannot get into it. If the car is kept within a garage that could be sealed to exclude the rodents, that is the effort that should be made. But, cars kept outside remain vulnerable.

There is one repellent that you might try, and this is called DeTour For Rodents. I combines white pepper and garlic oil to create what the manufacturer calles a contact repellent, meaning the rodents have to come into contact with the material, so it has to be applied where you can be sure they will get onto it. It comes in a caulking tube and is applied as a paste. It is supposed to last up to 30 days if it remains in place, and hopefully will also leave some lasting reminder to the rodents that this location is undesirable. Because of its ingredients it is a Minimum Risk pesticide.

Other than this one possible repellent, you may be looking at attempting to kill the rat or rats with traps, and these can be placed in strategic places and baited with something tempting. Since the rat is unlikely to be finding things to eat within this car, it should be leaving it nightly to forage for food, and placing the traps where you suspect the rat to travel will increase the odds of capturing it. If this is a car used daily then obviously the traps would need to be removed each day, and this is going to be a real bother.

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QUESTION:

What would be considered the best insecticide
prevention for bark scorpions? Thanks.

ANSWER:

Arizona is blessed with a few nasty critters, and bark scorpions are one of them. This state has 60 or more different species of scorpions, including the dangerous Centruroides exilicauda, known as the Bark Scorpion for its unusual ability to climb trees very easily. For this reason it can easily enter homes, and is the most common scorpion found inside structures. Adult scorpions over-winter, and the bark scorpions may do so in large aggregations of several dozen individuals. The sting of this scorpion can result in severe pain, difficulty breathing, and even convulsions or death, although since the introduction of antivenin for this scorpion no one in Arizona has been killed by one for the past 20 years at least.

Prevention has to take into consideration more than just pesticides, because these will be relatively short term solutions and would require constant reapplication, especially in the heat of Arizona where active ingredients outdoors would be expected to have a pretty short life. Exclusion to keep them out of structures is so important, and this begins with ensuring that no tree or shrub branches are touching the structure. These can be pruned away to eliminate this common pathway. You also can carefully examine the entire exterior, including up to the roofline since the scorpions may crawl up rough surfaces, and permanently fill in any openings found and ensure all vent screens are in place and in good condition. On the property itself you can eliminate many potential harborage sites for scorpions, and the bark scorpions hide under all the typical places – rocks, boards, and other objects resting on the soil. They also hide under bark on trees, so these can be treated with an insecticide where loose bark is found.

Firewood should be stacked on racks off the soil and kept outside until immediately ready to burn. Garbage cans should be on racks to elevate them. Dense grassy areas need to be mowed and dense groundcovers should be eliminated and shrubs pruned up off the soil. Anything that can be done to expose the soil helps discourage scorpions, as well as the other bugs that the scorpions seek for their food.

Synthetic pyrethroids should still be excellent arachnicides, and wettable powder or microencapsulated formulations might be best. The fast moving scorpion does not spend much time in one place once out and about, so it has a greater chance to pick up particles of pesticide from these formulations as it passes over a treated surface. Products with cypermethrin, cyfluthrin, deltamethrin, and others should be considered. Treatment can be around the base of the foundation, which helps to intercept the scorpions that do make it to the structure, and especially should be made to potential harborage sites. If you can get the active ingredient into the places the scorpions hide they have the highest exposure time and best chance to absorb a dose that will kill them.

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