Archive for the ‘Pest Questions’ Category

Aug 22, 2012 – Refining A Word

QUESTION:

When the newly revised labels on pyrethroid products state that a PMP cannot service a “gutter”, are they refering to a curbside gutter alone, or the gutter attached to the roof of a house also?

ANSWER:

That is a good question Frank, and it’s an answer I cannot give with any confidence. However, in reading the specific wording from EPA my opinion is that it is referring to curbside gutters since it references, in the same sentence, “where drainage to sewers, storm drains, water bodies, or aquatic habitat could occur”. 

However, in a separate part of that paragraph the new wording also states that “application is prohibited directly into sewers or drains”, so it could easily be argued that the rain gutter around a roof line is easily defined as a “drain”. This shows the problem with the use of vague terms like “gutter” or “drain”. Is it referring only to floor or sink drains or anything else that captures water and directs it someplace else? 
We also have to ask if the roof rain gutter would be considered an “impervious” surface on the exterior, which would prohibit applications to it. Since the use of pyrethroids on exterior structural “surfaces” is now restricted to crack and crevice or spot application, and in general horizontal surfaces cannot be treated at all since rainfall could wash off the pyrethroid, I would suggest that we err on the side of both caution and the spirit of these new restrictions and not spray into rain gutters. 
This is a good example of a question that should be directed to your local regulatory inspectors. They would be the ones to enforce these new label statements and should be the ones to give you their interpretation of the gray areas. 

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Pest QuestionsAugust 22, 2012

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Aug 19, 2012 – Leaving It Up To The Untrained

QUESTION:

Last week I saw a large furniture rental company delivery van across the street. The 2 delivery people had a wooden twin size bed in the driveway and they were spraying it down with one of the ready to use products sold in the big box stores. Then they took the furniture into the home. I get aggravated with companies like this that don’t have a clue. If they were treating for bed bugs and told the home owner that they had no worries, we all know that it is not that simple. I believe that anyone who even thinks they know anything about bed bugs should be attending as many seminars as possible on this pest.

ANSWER:

I absolutely agree with you that you cannot learn too much about the Common Bed Bug. The knowledge on this pest is changing constantly as more and more research is done. And, the products available to combat the bed bug successfully are increasing dramatically as well. We were told from the beginning of the resurgence of this serious pest that effective management is going to be difficult and that insecticides probably are not the entire answer. A simple spray over the exterior surfaces of furniture that may be infested would be unlikely to kill all of the bugs or their eggs that might be on and in that furniture. If these folks were treating for bed bugs in this manner then I would say that it was “for show”. 

Every business that could in any way be responsible for transporting bed bugs had better get on the wagon. Furniture delivery vans and moving vans and rental vans definitely are a strong potential source of infestation and movement. I recently asked the technician for my own cable company if they had a protocol for ensuring that cable boxes they remove from a home are not infested with bed bugs, and the answer, as expected, was “NO”. In fact, this company had no awareness of the bed bug problem, and obviously a cable box in an infested bedroom could very likely have bugs hiding in it or eggs deposited within it, and taking that box to another customer is spreading the infestation. If this were to happen and the customer figured it out, the local media would hear about it and the publicity could kill that cable company’s business. No one can turn a blind eye to this problem. 
Furniture rental companies probably are aware that they could be a major source of transport for bed bugs, but I really don’t know how much effort they are putting into education of their employees and appropriate efforts to ensure no bugs are able to survive from one customer to another. This is another of those frightening moments where you know the problem is likely just to get worse. 

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Pest QuestionsAugust 21, 2012

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Aug 20, 2012 – A Matter of Ethics?

QUESTION:

I have been wondered whether pesticides applied in one might redirect bugs to another yard. For example, if ants are trailing along the lower part of a home and they are simply sprayed, but their home is in a nearby bush or a fence line, would you feel it is irresponsible to spray and cause the ants to move next door or elsewhere? I think it’s an ethical issue and that the cost of pest control is based on protecting a structure from invasion, not killing all bugs on the property that then have the potential to spread to the neighborhood. But, would you consider this repel-them-away example unethical? I have had quite a few customers who seem to have bugs coming from an area I am not legally permitted to spray, sometimes only from a few feet away. I strongly believe in treating people respectfully and I am curious about whether or not the repel-em-and-leave-them approach is something I would want done to myself if I was that client’s neighbor.

Would you propose that the most simple thing is to try to eliminate the ants through trail-following? This would take more time and thus would need to cost more.

ANSWER:

Well, this is an interesting question, and obviously my response is going to be entirely an opinion, but hopefully I can base that opinion on some worthwhile reasons. Lets compare your concern with the ants with some other pests, and even bring up the topic of low-impact or Green pest management. We are offered many kinds of animal repellents, whether it is for birds, rodents, snakes, etc., and in fact the world is full of the totally ineffective ultrasonic repelling devices that are touted as so environmentally friendly because all they do is cause pests to leave the home and stay outside. Now, even if this did work in that manner, which they do not, the result for the pest would be to lose its home and its food resources and to have to find new ones someplace outside that residence. If we repel gophers from a yard where do we think they go? Next door of course. When we repel birds from a roof they simply find another structure to infest. If we use repellent insecticides that cause ants to avoid entering one home it stands to reason that they may forage in some other place, and a neighbor’s yard could be one of those places. 

So, does all of this mean that your goal as an ethical PMP should be either to kill all of the bugs on a property or to do nothing at all? No, of course not. I believe that we should NOT have the goal of killing all living creatures on a property, but only the goal of keeping them out of the structures, or in the case of plant pests to kill them as needed to protect those plants. Part of successful management of ants and other highly active pests is to attack them at their source, and this does mean seeking out that nest so that it can be treated directly. For ants we may be enjoying the ability to kill the entire colony with the use of one of the highly effective non-repellent products that has a transfer effect from ant to ant, so that helps us to eliminate the colony without actually locating it. 
But, should you feel responsible if a neighbor believes that the bugs on their property are coming from your customer’s property for one reason or another. Absolutely not. It is not your fault if the ants nesting on one property decide to forage to the west instead of the east, or if the gopher that leaves your customer’s yard wanders underground and into the neighboring yard. You are not responsible for the behavior of insects. Of course, this is not going to stop all neighborhood squabbles about this, as people who are annoyed by something will always look around to see who they can blame. If that neighbor suddenly has ants invading, regardless of who is “to blame”, they have every right to undertake control measures themselves or to just ignore it. 
Now, I say all this but we have to recognize the difference between the simple problem of pests like ants choosing to forage in the yard next door versus a pest problem CREATED on your customer’s property that is also bothering the neighbors. For example, if your customer has 4 big dogs and a big flea problem outside, those fleas might well find their way next door to bother the neighbor who has no dogs. Or, if all the poop is not picked up there is going to be a fly problem, and the neighbors will be affected by this as well as a matter not of their doing. In these cases your customer should have an obligation to fix the contributing conditions that are leading to this unnecessary pest problem. 

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Pest QuestionsAugust 20, 2012

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Aug 17, 2012 – A Bed Bug Primer

QUESTION:

What chemical should be used to kill bed bugs?

ANSWER:

It is important to begin with the thought that The Common Bed Bug can NOT be managed like any other insect pest. This is a tenacious, difficult pest where insecticides cannot be the only tool you use. Unlike nearly any other structural pest you have to accept that you must eliminate 100% of the bugs and their EGGS if you are to be successful. You also have to accept that there is liability involved with bed bug control simply because of the wide publicity these pests have received and the frustration the customer has knowing they brought them home from somewhere else. 

Effective management must involve the customer, and you must explain to them exactly what their role is – laundering, dryer cycles, bagging, etc. It is possible that the female bugs may have glued eggs to any surface in the infested rooms, including within electronic equipment, on curtains, anyplace on, in, or around furniture and beds, on the walls, behind floor molding and carpet edges, etc., and you need to treat in some manner every possible place where the bugs or their eggs could be found. If the customer is going to move out for a few days it is imperative that they not take bed bugs with them, meaning they must where clothing they have already run through the dryer and then saved in a sealed bag, they should not take other clothing or their luggage, etc. 
It may be less about the specific insecticide you choose than it is about the thoroughness of the application. Many different products are being used by our industry, but what I will offer is the list given by a speaker at the recent NPMA conference, of most used products. These are, in order of choice, Phantom, Temprid, Bedlam, Gentrol, Alpine, Transport, DeltaDust, Suspend, Tempo, Drione. This does not mean that other products may work well too if you place them where the bugs will rest on them for days at a time, and there also have been other new products on the market since this list was formulated. Also keep in mind the use of Nuvan strips for fumigating electronic equipment and other items that cannot be treated with heat or other insecticides. Many technicians also include some synergized pyrethrum liquid with their residual product, and this seems to help with the overall effectiveness of the material. 
For the past 8 or more years there have been tremendous numbers of articles and educational events on this pest, and if you have not taken advantage of these up to now it is imperative that you start. You must learn everything you can about the Common Bed Bug if you hope to be successful, and not expect to treat them as you might an ant or cricket or cockroach infestation. They are unlike any other pest we face. You need to be familiar with the various bed bug monitors that can be used to assist the overall effort. You need to recommend mattress and box spring encasements, and some of the most successful companies mandate their use by the customer. 

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Pest QuestionsAugust 19, 2012

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Aug 18, 2012 – Baits versus Sprays

QUESTION:

With roach baiting using gel baits I understand you can’t liquid/aerosol treat in the same room where you place the bait. BUT, can you treat a basement with liquid AND gel bait in the kitchen? Can you liquid treat a living room on 1st floor and Gel bait a bathroom on the 2nd floor? Please define the word “area” when I read statements that say “you should not bait and spray the same AREA”. Thanks for your help.

ANSWER:

I think that a better word than “area” would probably be “surface”. You would not want to apply a bait in a crevice and then apply an insecticide spray over the top of the bait, and that is probably the only conflict that exists. Our “spray” type insecticides are not volatile materials. You will not have vapors carrying the active ingredient out of cracks and crevices where you applied spray products, and have them floating around and re-depositing on bait materials in other crevices. They simply do not do that. I believe that you could place a bait in a crevice for German Roaches, since this is the preferred technique with gel baits for these roaches, and a few feet away treat other crevices with spray residual products and not contaminate the bait. 

Insect baits are food, and the goal is to offer the roaches a bait that is so tempting they cannot resist eating it. You can enhance this attraction to the bait by ensuring that all other food resources are removed first, so this is where Sanitation is so important. If the filth remains the roaches may not even notice the bait provided for them. Other insecticides could impart a repellency or off-taste to the bait if they were applied over the bait, so keeping them physically separated is important. 
I don’t think you need to go to the extreme of separating bait use and spray applications as widely as you suggest. Absolutely you could treat the kitchen with both baits and sprays. If you dribbled or puffed a granular bait into a wall void you would not want to apply a residual dust product in there too, as this is going to coat the bait and deter feeding. Just be sure to apply your residual materials in separate locations / surfaces / crevices to keep the bait as tasty as possible. 

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Pest QuestionsAugust 18, 2012

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Aug 15, 2012 – Pyrethroid Interpretations

QUESTION:

With respect to the new Synthetic Pyrethroid labeling, is a wooden deck an impervious surface? What about landscape stones, rocks, bricks with gaps of soil between, or rock with soil under it? Are these considered impervious surfaces?

ANSWER:

You probably are not going to be thrilled with my response Frank, because I really cannot give you a firm answer on these very specific options. This falls into the realm of “interpreting” the new label restrictions beyond the exact wording provided by EPA, and in your case by CDPR. This would best be answered by your own local regulatory agency, since they are the ones who would be allowed to say yes it falls within the label allowances or no it does not. 

The only authority I really have is to present exactly what the EPA now requires on all labels of all pyrethroids, and for liquid applications it now states this – “Other than applications to building foundations, all outdoor applications to impervious surfaces such as sidewalks, driveways, patios, porches and structural surfaces (such as windows, doors, and eaves) are limited to spot and crack-and-crevice applications, only.”
What you are asking is that gray area between some solid expanse such as a patio and an expanse covered by something like coarse gravel, where an application would seem still to be allowed since the spray will quickly move through that gravel and to the soil, where it is able to soak in rather than run off with rain or irrigation. So, would it still be okay to spray over, let’s say, river rocks 1 inch in diameter? How about river rocks 6 inches in diameter, or flagstone 2 feet wide. Obviously any liquid that runs off those rocks goes immediately to the soil below even though the rocks themselves clearly are “impervious”. How about a patio of 1 foot wide paving blocks with 1/4 inch gap of sand or soil between them? Now we could be getting to the point where there might not be enough gap to allow all the liquid to flow in before some of it flows off and heads to the gutter. 
It is this gradation that worries me enough to avoid making a firm statement on this, and it is important for your regulatory agency to be given the opportunity to address it instead. If it is left up to every technician to make his own judgment call we likely would have some technicians deciding that ANY covering that has at least some gaps round edges would be sufficient to allow the spray, when soaked by a heavy rain, to flow down to the soil, and this doesn’t seem reasonable. 

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Pest QuestionsAugust 17, 2012

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Aug 16, 2012 – Once You Are In, You Are Involved

QUESTION:

I do work with a property management company for general pest control. A new job looks like bed bugs from my inspection looking at the mattress and around for the traces of bed bugs. I give the tenant glue boards and give advice on what to do (mattress encasements, everything in the room washed in hot water and bagged before I treat, and the other steps needed.) I want to help as much as possible without get stuck with liability. Any suggestions on how to handle liability?

ANSWER:

Liability just comes with the job, and not just with bed bugs. If you are contracted to eliminate roaches from a restaurant and a customer finds a roach in their salad, and just happens to feel like suing someone, they will sue everyone involved who should have prevented that roach from existing in that restaurant. If you contract with a hospital to eliminate ants and someone finds ants crawling on their elderly mother who is hospitalized there, the liability exists because YOU were supposed to keep that from happening. This is Life In America today. 

Bed bugs may be even worse because the legal industry has discovered how lucrative it can be. Since bed bugs had to be in a home because they hitchhiked from someplace recently visited, that place (the source) can be sued. Attorneys refer to people who have bed bugs as “victims”, and off we go. So, if you choose to do bed bug management for this company or for private clients, you accept liability. This can be minimized somewhat by preparing the customer ahead of time to know what to expect, to be given the options for control, and to ensure they do their part in this extensive process. And, of course, you reduce the problems if you have the experience and know-how to eliminate the bed bugs right down to the very last egg and nymph. 
A few thoughts on what you wrote. First, laundering is not necessarily mandatory as long as everything that can go through a hot dryer cycle is put through that heat chamber for 30 minutes or more. If things need laundering first then all the better, but a dryer may be sufficient. Keep in mind the use of Nuvan ProStrips (vapona) for fumigating all electronic equipment and other items that cannot be laundered or dealt with in any other way. Placing these items in a thick, sealed plastic bag for 2 weeks (1 week if the temperature can be elevated) will kill any bugs or eggs hidden inside them. Keep in mind that around 70% of the bugs will hide close to their food, meaning on or very near to the mattress. So, inspect carefully all holes and crevices in all furniture, behind curtains, under lamps, behind items on the walls, behind floor molding and edges of carpets, etc., because 30% of the bugs will be hiding and depositing eggs in those places. 
Be aware of the growing arsenal of really good bed bug monitors, such as the new Verifi from FMC, which incorporates multiple attractants and seems to really draw the bugs to it. There are so many new products for these pests that you now have more to offer the customer. On PestWeb you can download forms and fact sheets that you could use to help with your inspection as well as a prep sheet for the customer. Be aware that if one unit of an apartment has the bugs you really need to inspect all surrounding (up, down, and to the sides) units, because the bugs do travel easily. 

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Pest QuestionsAugust 16, 2012

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Aug 13, 2012 – Reason And Regulations

QUESTION:

According to Cornell, Michigan State, Oregon State and our own U.C. Davis under info quoted in their “Environmental Fate” paragraph on Pyrethroids they state that “Bifenthrin does NOT move in soils with large amounts of organic matter, clay and silt. It has low mobility in sandy soils that are low in organic matter. Bifenthrin is relatively insoluble in water, so there are no concerns about ground water contamination through leaching.” From the Calif. Dept. of Pesticide Regulation we are told “Since water is polar, Bifenthrin has a low solubility and correspondingly strong tendency to bind to soil”.
I’m a bit puzzled then, as to why the dramatic label issues regarding pyrethroids.

ANSWER:

I agree that it is frustrating each time we have tools or some of their uses taken from us in pest management. But, I have to recognize that this is inevitable and will always happen as our government and our country make the effort to move to lower use of toxic substances. I think overall this is a good thing to try to accomplish, and if we can provide the same quality of needed pest management with less use of toxic substances that should be our goal and our role. In the case of the new restrictive wording on synthetic pyrethroids most of the statements seem to be fairly reasonable, and if they were based on good science and accurate conclusions then perhaps it is a good thing that we now must use them in a manner that reduces the chances for these active ingredients to move off site. 

I agree that pyrethroids have very low ability to move once they are in the soil, and this is probably why our uses of them on turf and soils around landscape as well as on trees and shrubs is not changing. It is recognized that applying them to dirt or foliage will not be likely to result in movement off site, unless, as the new Label statements now tell us, that soil is already saturated or frozen, in which case the material applied on top of that soil would not have the opportunity to soak in and bind to the soil particles. So, with the new labeling our uses on bare soils and turf have not changed.
What HAS changed is our applications to “impervious” surfaces where the active ingredient does NOT have the opportunity to bind to soil particles, and now may sit there on that concrete or wood deck until rainfall or excessive irrigation removes it and allows the pyrethroid to flow with the water down the driveway, into the gutter, and to the local creek. The same goes for applications to wide expanses of exterior walls – the pyrethroid active ingredient is likely to be sitting there for rainfall against that wall to move it off site. Perhaps we should feel fortunate that we still are permitted to apply “spot”  and C&C applications to exterior, exposed surfaces, as this allows us to continue to treat for most pests in an effective manner. 
We could probably make an argument that pyrethroids applied to most impervious surfaces around homes would most likely end up on the nearby turf or soils even if they were washed off that sidewalk or patio by rain or sprinklers. But, that would always be an unknown with too many variables, and leaving it up to the discretion of the applicator could very well result in too many bad decisions made for the purpose of expediency and “getting the job done” quickly. 
So, I think your statements are all quite accurate and that this information was taken into consideration when the new Pyrethroid label restrictions were written, and this is why we did not have additional restrictions on uses on turf and ornamentals or on bare soils. The only place this is addressed, perhaps, is with respect to granular applications on turf or in landscape, where the applicator is required to sweep all material back onto the turf or soil if it lands outside that intended target site, perhaps on the sidewalk. I think you and I have both seen some really sloppy applications of insecticide granules over the years, with granules ending up (as I have seen) on cars, sidewalks, and once in the food bowl of household pets where that bowl was on the wood deck near the back door. 

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Pest QuestionsAugust 15, 2012

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Aug 14, 2012 – Earwigs Got Wings?

QUESTION:

I have an insect that I believe is a female earwig except she has long wings that extend all the way to the end of her cerci. She has the long antenna coming from just below her eyes and the cerci and the obvious segments on her ventral side. She is a classic earwig except for the long wings? Is there another insect I am overlooking for identification?


ANSWER:

Without an image to help with the ID I won’t be absolutely positive on this, but it still could be an earwig. Especially if there are earwig-like pincers at the back, which no other common insects have, this may just be an earwig with her flight wings extended. We don’t often see earwigs fly, but several species are quite capable of it and have very large hind wings for flight that they normally fold up nicely and stuff under the first pair of wings to protect them while not flying. Those forewings are simply short covers (elytra) used only as this protective cover, leaving most of the abdomen exposed on top. In your case, take a close look and see if there is that pair of short, dark elytra just in front of the large wings. 

A bit of trivia we may not remember is that much of the diet of earwigs will be other insects. While the European Earwig will also munch on plant materials much or most of its diet is other bugs, so it serves us a benefit in that regard. Some earwig species are almost 100% predatory in their food gathering, so if these creatures are staying outside in the garden where they can do some good that garden may be better off with them than without them. 

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Pest QuestionsAugust 14, 2012

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Aug 11, 2012 – Preemptive Strike?

QUESTION:

I have a hotel that wants to be proactive with daily inspections of guest rooms for bed bugs. Do you think this is necessary?


ANSWER:

I absolutely DO think that hotels and motels had better be proactive about the bed bug problem, and have a clear and enforced policy in place. The liability and bad publicity for hotels and motels that are found to have bed bugs, particularly when guests decide their home became infested because of the place they recently stayed, is too high for hotels to ignore. They could be sued for millions of dollars and their name displayed on the local news papers if they are found to have bed bugs. Plus, this bad publicity could easily result in the loss of income when people decide not to stay there. 

The housekeeping staff should be educated / trained on exactly what to look for each time they make up a room. This would include at least a minimal inspection of the bedding, the mattress and box spring, and other obvious places in the immediate vicinity of the bed. They can look for blood spots, shed skins, and of course bugs themselves in hiding. If they find anything suspicious they can call in a professional like yourself to do a much more thorough inspection to verify or discount what they found. If bugs are found in a room the inspection needs to expand to all adjacent rooms above, below, and to the sides. Bed bugs can spread so rapidly in commercial structures that you just cannot let them get established. 
Now, by “daily” inspections are you suggesting the hotel management wants YOU to perform these inspections, and do they want you to inspect ALL rooms daily? I think that is probably more than is warranted, and you would need to charge a hefty price for all this work. Essentially that would amount to this hotel having a dedicated, full time employee doing nothing but bed bug inspections to be able to do the thorough inspection needed for each and every room. A better start may be to train the staff now so they know what to look for and be sure it is done on a regular basis. The housekeeping staff also should be trained on how to avoid taking bed bugs home themselves! This might include changing out of any clothing they wore while working in the guest rooms and wearing home clothing that was kept in sealed bags in a changing area. They may want to wear disposable shoe covers while in guest rooms. But in some way they deserve to be protected from carrying bed bugs into their own homes, and this could be part of the service you offer to this customer. 

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Pest QuestionsAugust 13, 2012

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