The Bug Doctor Minute; Heavy Doses Kill Less Bugs

Posted on May 13, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

I must have a million pictures on my computer and each one has it’s own story. The problem is I can only use so many in an article. To utilize theses pics I’ve decided to do one minute short video casts and explain some aspects of pest control or what have you that these photographs depict. The Bug Doctor Minute is for quick hits of information with a little point and click action and I hope you enjoy them. My first was “Catching spiders with water” and it seemed that people liked this short but informative format.

If you have any pictures that you would like to share you can upload them through the Ask The Bug Doctor area or simply e-mail me at thebugdoctor@pestcemetery.com. I’m sure some of you have some great pictures of termite damage, trapped rodents or something crazy you have seen and captured on film. As always I appreciate your readership and I look forward to hearing from you a time or two if you ever have a question or comment. Make sure to look me up on Facebook and join us at our group pestcemetery.com, we’d love to have your input. Enjoy the clip!
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My time behind bars and what I learned about pest control

Posted on May 12, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

Looking up over the 16 foot wall with the razor wire glimmering in the sun you see the clouds floating by and the birds who freely go back and forth. Taunting you they flit with ease right over your rampart that holds you in and chirp with a gleeful refrain. It’s different inside these walls, much different. You can go nowhere without eyes upon you and a pat down. Locking doors make an unmistakable sound but you have no control of any, whether it opens or shuts. Inside those walls time has a different meaning, you accomplish a task great, you don’t oh well. You’ve always got time to talk and so you do a lot of it and you’re never quite sure if the lines you’re fed are true or just made up out of the endless hours you have to just think and dream, hoping for the time you get to hear those locking doors for the last time.
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Who will step up when termites tear it down?

Posted on May 11, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

84 year old Elizabeth Reid has spent all her life helping others and now she could use just a little help herself. Mrs. Reid lives in Charleston South Carolina in a modest home where she had just finished paying off the mortgage last year. Unfortunately for Mrs. Reid, the termite infestation in her home has been eating away her life’s investment right out from under her feet. Living on social security and with no savings the estimated termite repair is in the tens of thousands if not more and she has no ability to pay. For Mrs. Reid this could be devastating and the news gets worse. The damage is so bad that Mr. Ledford of Ledford Termite & Pest Control Inc. who discovered the massive infestation say’s.” that no decision on treatment has been made until they asses whether or not the home is salvageable.” In either case the lovely Mrs. Reid is facing an uphill battle and she sure could use our help.
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Multiple Layers Of Useless Pest Control

Posted on May 10, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

I’m constantly amazed by the amount of pesticides I find in peoples homes and I don’t mean what’s still in the bottle. Most insecticides aren’t suppose to be seen after they are applied so for someone to see what you’ve done means the chances are you used to much. The other problem I find is the over lapping of these products. I often see roach bait stations with dried insecticide on them, sitting in a pile of insecticidal dust or some other goo that’s obviously meant for a bugs demise. Moth balls and Raid are often used together while a gallon jug of Rid a Bug sits in the corner still dripping from its latest use. While on the surface one would think that using all these chemicals together is a good thing providing a barrier that no bug will survive. It usually comes with bitter disappointment however when after all this a roach goes scurrying across the counter top seemingly no worse for the wear.
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Bug Doctor Minute; Catching spiders with water

Posted on May 8, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

Ok I know I’ve written on this subject once before but it seems that some folks don’t believe this tip actually works. Catching spiders with water is an old trick that I’ve used for years and actually have pretty good success. I’ve gotten several e-mails and some have said it worked while others had no luck at all.

Spiders are one of the most difficult things to treat for and there are many different theories on what to do. In my service I use dusts, liquid barriers and exterior treatments in all the places I know spiders tend to frequent and still we’ll have occasional spiders. Setting up a residual barrier for a creature that frequently runs across the ceiling, has no problem clinging to the back of a dresser or will hide under the couch for hours on end makes for a big treatment challenge to say the least.
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Being Sued For Termite Damage-Have You Reached A Verdict?

Posted on May 7, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

The sun was lowering in the sky and I could see it through the window but that meant looking just passed my accuser and I refused to let her think I was afraid to look her in the eyes. With my month long preparation I became more and more convinced she was running a con game and was suing me for spend money and not termite damage at all. She is perhaps the most difficult woman I’ve ever had to deal with fresh from New York and getting a word in edge wise at anytime was a huge task. She was belligerent from the moment I met her and was actually the first person ever to ‘kick’ me out of a home. Our mediation was no different and even the court appointed mediator could only chime in a time or two but mostly just shook her head in agreement with this loon. Now however, I knew I would get my say and this stately looking judge would have to listen to me and the lovely indicter would be silenced.
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Posted in In my opinion, The Business Of Pest Control | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Being Sued For Termite Damage-The Gavel Drops

Posted on May 6, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

Back in the over sized room and still feeling like I got rail roaded in mediation my accuser and I waited our turn to appear before the judge. While sitting there I took notice of all the different kinds of people in the courtroom and wondered about each one. Some were in suits and ties while others had cut off t-shirts and looked like they just rolled out of bed. What did these people do to be here? How could so many people be in trouble I thought, are they criminals, rip offs or worse? I couldn’t help but feel like everyone was looking at me and thinking the same thing and I wanted nothing more than to get outside and get away. Calling our case the judge barely looked up and mumbled a date as he dug through a mountain of papers and told us to pick up our information at the clerks office. Walking out it suddenly dawned on me that what I hoped would be the end was just beginning and I really wasn’t looking forward to coming back.
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Posted in In my opinion, The Business Of Pest Control | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Subterranean termite extreme

Posted on May 5, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

Recently I’ve done a lot of termite work and I’ve come across some major damage. I actually found a crack that backs up the claim of the subterranean termite being able to fit through one only 1/64th of an inch wide. Tubes in attics, swarmers covering the entire surface of a pool and three bath trap areas just riddled with subterranean termites. Emotions ran the gambit with each find as well. One lady almost cried while others were simply flabbergasted. Most of the homes had been treated at one time and in every case the owners were completely unaware that this unseen insect was wreaking havoc and causing them thousands of dollars in treatment and repair costs. At the same time my in box @ Ask The Bug Doctor has also had many unfortunate writers who have experienced the same thing from all over the country. It would seem this is not such a rare event.
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Being Sued For Termite Damage-The Mediation Debacle

Posted on May 4, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

What does a fatal electric shock and a law suit against a termite company for a real estate inspection have in common? The answer, both are #1 killers. Electric shock kills more technicians than any chemical and termites and termite damage is the #1 reason for most litigation for the company. Coincidentally neither one involves chemicals that cause deadly disease or contamination of property. Not to say this doesn’t happen but if you listen to some people you’d swear the evil bug man causes untold death wherever his little truck takes him… but I digress.
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Posted in In my opinion, The Business Of Pest Control | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Difficult termite problems and difficult bath traps

Posted on May 3, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

Termite tunnel in corner coming up the bath trap

There is on area that should at least be looked at if not treated with every subterranean termite job, the bath trap. This is a vulnerable spot in almost every home. In the the northern states access doors to the plumbing areas are very common. They are usually quite large and framed in as part of the construction. These same plumbing areas in the southern states are almost always dry-walled over and the access or ‘bath trap’ needs to be cut in. Insects of all kinds follow plumbing lines but termites are especially keen at searching out this area and will exploit it to the fullest.
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Posted in Termites | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The ‘web’ of lies

Posted on April 30, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

The world wide web is an amazing thing. Type in cucumber recipes and you may get 2,230,000 choices of things to look at, literally! Now type in termite facts and the results were 305,000. Boy people love cucumbers but still that’s a lot of termite facts. Unfortunately you can’t always believe what you read either in life or on the net. I perused the first 3 pages of these supposed termite truths and found many, shall we say, inaccuracies. I wonder if you can spot them too. Below you’ll find screen shots of some of what I found and the a quiz or two to see if you saw the errors too. I’ll list the answers at the bottom.
Good luck
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Posted in Termites | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Sticky Trap-Trap

Posted on April 29, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

I have a saying that I’ve said for years and it’s true for many services but especially pest control because we routinely visit a home many times over the years. “Do a favor for a customer just once and it becomes expected.” It starts with them asking you to treat the shed in the yard just this time for mice or roaches. Maybe they get a new motor home and want you to go over it it just this once. Then the next time you come by for a regular visit and you’re just about to wrap it up you get that quizzical look, followed by the remark in a somewhat puppy dog tone, “did you get the shed?” That’s when you know you’ve fell for it again.
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Ask The Bug Doctor about fire ants

Posted on April 28, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

One feature of my blog that is growing in popularity is the Ask The Bug Doctor tab. Hardly a day goes by where I don’t get at least a few questions or comments. I enjoy trying to solve peoples problems and it definitely keeps me on my toes. A lot of the questions I get are related to fire ants and home remedies or general knowledge. I thought I’d list a few of the most common here and answer them as I did for the readers.
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Posted in Ants | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Sin Of Treating Baseboards

Posted on April 27, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

Not all professionals treat baseboards these days, it comes with a stigma that connotes unprofessionalism. I’m not sure who started that train of thought but I think it’s due to knee jerk reaction more than anything else. My first recollection of this becoming taboo was along the time that baits in syringes came to be. The push was for IPM and less chemical and somehow this morphed into sprays becoming evil and baseboard treatments being the root of it. The term ‘baseboard jockeys‘ was bandied about and anyone admitting to this perceived transgression at a CEU’s or other meeting were marked as an evil doers and despised.
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Posted in In my opinion | Tagged , , , , , | 26 Comments

The perfect patch (tips on patching termite drill holes)

Posted on April 24, 2010 by The Bug Doctor

One of the first things I always notice on any home or structure are patches from termite work. My boys like to be the first to spot them if we go out to eat or are at the mall, they think they’ve one upped me. I just smile and say “what chemical was used?” and their faces go blank while I proceed to say it was a Dursban mix from the summer of 85. Of course I can’t tell what was used but they don’t know that, shhh, our little secret!
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Posted in Termites | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments