Sep 30, 2011 – Singing On The Second Floor
QUESTION:
We service a large bank building in a downtown area where they are having crickets on the second floor of the facility. We are proposing a power spray with permethrin around the perimeter followed with permethrin-bifen granules. Is there a better treatment and how in the world are they getting to the second floor? The building has a LOT of shrubs, azaleas, holly and ground cover around the outside, as well as a lot of lighting at night.
ANSWER:
Your awful weather in Texas this year - extended drought - has played havoc with the "normal" behavior of many kinds of insects, and has driven a lot of them to end up indoors looking for cooler, damper conditions. This could explain why you are finding so many crickets indoors when you have not in the past, and as the season progresses their populations outdoors may have increased normally too, bringing a lot of pressure now on these large numbers to find places to be that are more comfortable. Some kinds of crickets are able to fly, so they easily could end up on upper floors of buildings, but they also should easily climb rough exterior walls, so having them end up on the second floor would not be an act of magic. If you are finding none on the first floor that would be odd, but perhaps they are just able to get into the walls at ground level and the first available openings they find inside happen to be at second floor level. Perhaps the building is well sealed at ground level and yet provides some entry opportunities at the second floor level. I suppose it's also possible the crickets are flying onto the roof and heading DOWN from there, becoming visible to people on the second floor.
It does sound like you have identified at least some of the contributing conditions though, with the extensive and dense plantings around the exterior. You don't indicate if you are finding large numbers of crickets outside and in this landscape, but that sounds logical and would be worth poking around to see. If this is a source of the crickets then your application of a pyrethroid around the perimeter would be an excellent way to intercept crickets that wander to the base of the structure and then along the structure looking for openings. The granules would be a good choice in the dense plantings to ensure it gets down to the soil level and does not stick to the foliage. Sometimes a formulation such as a wettable powder or microencapsulated material may offer an advantage for perimeter sprays. The particles left behind after the water dries may more easily adhere to an insect that moves quickly over the surface, giving better contact time with the bug.
I would also carefully inspect all the obvious openings at ground level to ensure they are as bug-tight as possible - exterior doors being the most suspicious possible entry points, windows, cable and plumbing access openings, etc. If you find any gaps that can be sealed properly this will help exclude insects, and treating around these areas with the residual material also is helpful. I don't know if the lighting is necessarily a detriment here. Crickets in general are not drawn to lights at night in any numbers, so unless you are observing them crawling around the lights perhaps this can be ignored. Just normal insect exclusion practice does call for exterior lights NOT to be located directly over doors though, since so many other kinds of bugs do come to lights and enter easily when the doors are opened and closed. But, having them move exterior lights at this time would probably not be acceptable to the customer.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
We service a large bank building in a downtown area where they are having crickets on the second floor of the facility. We are proposing a power spray with permethrin around the perimeter followed with permethrin-bifen granules. Is there a better treatment and how in the world are they getting to the second floor? The building has a LOT of shrubs, azaleas, holly and ground cover around the outside, as well as a lot of lighting at night.
ANSWER:
Your awful weather in Texas this year - extended drought - has played havoc with the "normal" behavior of many kinds of insects, and has driven a lot of them to end up indoors looking for cooler, damper conditions. This could explain why you are finding so many crickets indoors when you have not in the past, and as the season progresses their populations outdoors may have increased normally too, bringing a lot of pressure now on these large numbers to find places to be that are more comfortable. Some kinds of crickets are able to fly, so they easily could end up on upper floors of buildings, but they also should easily climb rough exterior walls, so having them end up on the second floor would not be an act of magic. If you are finding none on the first floor that would be odd, but perhaps they are just able to get into the walls at ground level and the first available openings they find inside happen to be at second floor level. Perhaps the building is well sealed at ground level and yet provides some entry opportunities at the second floor level. I suppose it's also possible the crickets are flying onto the roof and heading DOWN from there, becoming visible to people on the second floor.
It does sound like you have identified at least some of the contributing conditions though, with the extensive and dense plantings around the exterior. You don't indicate if you are finding large numbers of crickets outside and in this landscape, but that sounds logical and would be worth poking around to see. If this is a source of the crickets then your application of a pyrethroid around the perimeter would be an excellent way to intercept crickets that wander to the base of the structure and then along the structure looking for openings. The granules would be a good choice in the dense plantings to ensure it gets down to the soil level and does not stick to the foliage. Sometimes a formulation such as a wettable powder or microencapsulated material may offer an advantage for perimeter sprays. The particles left behind after the water dries may more easily adhere to an insect that moves quickly over the surface, giving better contact time with the bug.
I would also carefully inspect all the obvious openings at ground level to ensure they are as bug-tight as possible - exterior doors being the most suspicious possible entry points, windows, cable and plumbing access openings, etc. If you find any gaps that can be sealed properly this will help exclude insects, and treating around these areas with the residual material also is helpful. I don't know if the lighting is necessarily a detriment here. Crickets in general are not drawn to lights at night in any numbers, so unless you are observing them crawling around the lights perhaps this can be ignored. Just normal insect exclusion practice does call for exterior lights NOT to be located directly over doors though, since so many other kinds of bugs do come to lights and enter easily when the doors are opened and closed. But, having them move exterior lights at this time would probably not be acceptable to the customer.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
