Fly control on a shoestring

Did you know that a house fly beats it’s wings 200 times per second and that they jump backwards when taking off? They taste food through there feet and are 10 million times more sensitive to the taste of sugar than the human tongue. They have 40,000 lenses in each eye but in reality their eyesight is considered poor. Also flies are the only insect with two wings (all others have four) but are far superior fliers than any other insect or animal in the world. Flies prefer to land on hanging wires or ropes but can even land on a ceiling using a back flip motion while their front legs grip the surface first. The average life span of a house fly is only 21 days and their favorite colors in order are red, orange, black, violet, green, blue, white and yellow. Flies can carry typhoid, cholera, diarrhoea, amoebic dysentery, T.B, anthrax, gangrene, bubonic plague, leprosy, scarlet and yellow fever. It is estimated that the average house fly has over 2 million bacteria on it’s body. In fact if it weren’t for their disgusting health hazards and many diseases they spread they could easily be considered the most amazing insect in history.

Mankind has been at war with flies since time began and in some periods it seemed as if we were winning and other times it seemed hopeless. Even today there can be serious outbreaks in the ‘developed nations’ while third world countries suffer a chronic state of inept fly control and the consequences of their infestations.

Ok what can I do for my home?

Well let’s start by using some key characteristics of the fly against him. Since we know their favorite colors and some preferred landing situations and that they love sugar. We can simply put these things together in combination with a fantastic new fly bait and construct a very effective tool against flies.

The most important ingredient we need is the fly bait and Bayer has come out with the perfect solution. Max Force Fly Spot is an incredible bait that will kill a fly within 60 seconds of the insect landing on it. (usually much quicker) It’s a pheromone and sugar bait that you mix with water in a pint sized sprits bottle. This highly effective bait works only on the house fly and lesser flies and for residential use it should not be used indoors. A quick Bing or Google search will get you to many on line retailers or you should be able to get it at your local DIY.

Next we want to create a place where flies will readily land. Simply by using a string of yarn, shoestring or small thin rope and hanging it near your trash cans or where you are having problems with flies you’ll create a perfect landing spot. Remember the colors mentioned above and it will be even better.

Using your sprits bottle, simply apply it to the hanging string. You could also dip or soak the string before hanging just wear some rubber gloves in handling the wet string.

As flies land on the string you’ll notice an instant reaction. For lack of a better description they seem instantly addicted and almost held to the bait as if by a magnet or glue. Then in about 20 seconds or so their wings start beating furiously but they can’t let go.(another fact is that a fly never beats it’s wings when it’s feet are attached to any surface so by this point they are doomed) Quickly after this starts their feet give way and they corkscrew through the air and dive bomb to the ground dead.

The residual of this bait can be up to 6 weeks if not out in the weather so even though a 2 ounce package will run you about $12.00 it is in the end quite cost effective. The bait is also treated with Bitrex which is a bitter additive to keep non target animals from chewing on the string. All in all it is a very effective tool that will eliminate pesky flies even if you are living on a shoestring.

Posted in Flies and Gnats | 3 Comments

Dried fruit beetle

Dried fruit beetles are easy to spot for a couple of reasons; #1 is the tip of each wing has an amber colored spot on the tip and #2 is when they are found in food packaging you’ll see dead ones, molted skins and loads of fecal matter. Yummy! This beetle also will introduce yeast into drying fruit which will cause it to sour. Years ago in my hitch hiking days my sister gave me a bag of dried bananas for my excursion and they were the worst tasting sour things I’d ever had. I gagged so bad trying to eat one of those things, I’m sure I missed a ride or 2 retching on the side of the road. Could I have tasted the infected fruit? I shudder even now some 30 years later.

Although this is not the most common pantry pest, probably because not a lot of people have dried fruit in their cabinets, they can still be quite bothersome. The female will lay up to 1000 eggs in her lifetime on ripening or or fermenting fruit sometimes while still on the tree. Eggs hatch in 1 to 7 days and the larvae develop in the fruit from 6 to 14 days. From there they will pupate up to 11 days but the entire life cycle may take several months depending on the temperature.

Dried fruit beetles are common in figs, plums, apricots, peaches, nuts, bread, biscuits, grain and dare I say it, bananas. They are small about 1/8 of an inch long and dull to shiny black. Their antenna and legs are light red or brown and they have the distinguishing spot mentioned above. Larvae are about a 1/4 inch long, amber brown in color, covered with spine like hairs and have 2 relatively large projections from the hind end.

To control these occasional insects it’s best to just remove the infested foods like you would for any other pantry pest. You rarely need to spray but if you do just use pyrethrins for the remaining adults and call it a day.

Well if this tip doesn’t provide you with any pertinent pest control information that’s Ok, at least you’ve learned never to go hitch hiking with dried bananas as a snack.

Posted in Pantry Pests/Grain Moths and Beetles | Leave a comment

I hereby resign from whatsthatbug.com

Well officially I was never hired and the restraining order is probably just a typo but I’m going out on a high note and it’s definitely going on my resume regardless.

Recently I was asked to identify a bug by a reader named Vicky. The pic was very fuzzy and the description was not the greatest but she did the best she could. It wasn’t her bug to boot but one found at her sisters house in Canada of all places. I put the call out on professional pest control forums and even wrote a short article hoping someone might be able to help. The few who did contact me said they had no clue even though I had narrowed it down to just one bug.

I promised my reader that I would keep trying and that was several weeks ago. Today I decided to submit her photo and the description to www.whatsthatbug.com. I visit their site quite a bit and find it very informative and with just a few minutes of reading you can tell these people have the patients of a saint. Besides working full time jobs they run this incredibly busy site identifying bugs from all around the world. I believe they got about 200,000 hits in June alone and if even just 10 % of the people sent in questions with pics it may be time for a vacation. Not for these folks however, they are now writing a book; how do they do it?. Their information is always credible and they try to be as nice as they can be. One person with a question was so angry that they did not respond quick enough that he sent them a nasty comment which would infuriate most people. The response from them was priceless.

It went something like;

Dear reader,
We are quite busy with full time work and do the web site in what little spare time we have. We receive approximately 5000 emails per day and cannot possibly answer every single one, we apologize. Since you seem to have some free time on your hands we have forwarded all of today’s e-mails to your address for you to sort through.
Thank You

Today must have been a slow day however, maybe they only got 4,500 requests including mine. Within 10 minutes of my request I received a reply that confirmed my bug and yes I was right which is great but this whole experience has really opened my eyes. I run a company and have a family and can barely get through my 40 e-mails a day and still research and write articles.

So with that I officially resign from my lofty post as bug identifier and will clean out my desk in the morning. I’ll still be here for your daily dose of all things pest control but I’ll leave the ID part up to the pros. 😉

If you get a chance drop by www.whatsthatbug.com and peruse all the wonderful information they have. You will be fascinated by the 1000’s of bugs and the quick descriptions. They also could use your help in keeping the site running so maybe consider their donation request or you could volunteer to take a days worth of e-mails. I for one think it’s worth it and I bet you will too.

Posted in In my opinion | 4 Comments

Do yellow light bulbs really keep bugs away?

For years I’ve given the advice to customers who have bad insect problems to change the outdoor lights to yellow bug lights. Some have done this and the results were pretty apparent while others did not heed it and so the on going battle of fighting through cobwebs and bugs at the front door would rage on.

Have you ever seen a porch light on a dark night that is just swarming with tens of thousands of flying bugs? That light is like a shining beacon which attracts insects from great distances who are in search of food for the most part. This will attract spiders who set up their webs all around it and scavengers like roaches, ants and earwigs will take the opportunity to hunt the ground below for dead bugs that have fallen. Larger bugs will eat the smaller and frogs will show up to share in this bountiful feast while bats may swoop in for an easy grab and the party just gets larger until you switch the lights of for the night. (that is, if you turn them off) So what happens to the bugs when the lights go out? They simply go on looking for food but now they are so much closer to your front door and perhaps a light inside is now attracting them so they look for a way in.

So why the yellow light?

I’ve heard a lot of explanations for this; it burns their eyes, they get confused, the yellow light reminds them of the sun so they think it’s day time but the truth is not quite as exciting. The fact is that they just can’t see certain colors and yellow is one of them. Now this does not include all bugs but enough of them to make a huge difference in the numbers you would normally see with a white light. The reason a yellow light works at keeping insects away is because they simply are not attracted to it in the first place. Insects see lights that radiate ultraviolet and blue light best which include black lights, florescent, and metal halide. The lower the ultra violet and blue the less they see them and these include incandescent, high pressure sodium and the yellow incandescent.

If changing to yellow bulbs is not feasible then consider lighting the area from a short distance away or altering it’s glow. For example often times you can light a back yard for a night time pool party with lighting from the perimeter which may keep the bugs far enough away that your luau is not ruined. You may also be able to shield your front porch light so it only shines down and not out into the darkness looking like a bright vacancy hotel sign on a deserted road. Bugs love that.

The best option is a yellow bug light and now they are even available with energy saving CFL. So the next time you go out in the morning to get the paper and get a face full of cobweb, be sure to check your bulbs before you call your bugman, you may just save everybody a little time and money.

Posted in Pest proofing series | 63 Comments

Preemptive termite strike

A preemptive strike is actually an attack to prevent or disable the enemy and when you are dealing with the possibility of termites it can be your best strategy. For our topic today I want to put a different twist on it however and it may be something you haven’t thought about.

It seems that a new trend for home owners these days is to redecorate their exterior with pavers, stucco, veneers and fine artwork on the driveway and sidewalks. I’ve seen some really nice work and it it really sets the tone for an elegant look. That look becomes one of horror when a client is told they have termites and part of the treatment is to take a hammer drill to their beautiful facade.

Sometimes with little choice the owners watch with a tear in their eye as the big burly termite technician drills the permanent scar holes every 12 inches through their river rock or one of a kind art work on the slab at the front door. Most techs are very good at what they do but the hammer drill shows no mercy as it sends hairline cracks through the newly installed tiles. We all want our castles to look magnificent and this can be avoided if we give it just a little fore thought.

Whether or not you have a current termite contract on your home the need to treat for termites before any alterations is always something to consider. Of course one reason is to prevent any messy work on your new exterior but also there are times that the new remodeling will make it much more difficult to reach key control points. Large stone veneer over the foundation may limit drilling that may one day be needed. Buried pvc water or electrical lines will definitely make a termite tech think twice before treating. If your termite company has access before or even during the construction they can probably place the best barrier into places that might not be available or desirable later. Then as the remodel continues, the termite scars are covered up and all that remains is your brand new look.

It’s always a shame when I go out to a persons home and see that they have spent literally $10,000 dollars or more on pool pavers only to see drill marks. Sure you can paint or buy colored grouts to try and match but it is seldom the same and the comment I hear most often says it all.

“I wish I would have had the termite work done before I did all this.”

If you’ve got some sprucing up plans in the near future there are so many awesome things you can do to make your home look like a million dollars. Just make sure that a ‘preemptive termite strike’ is on your list.

Posted in Termites | Leave a comment

Albino Earwigs

The other day while doing what I normally do, which is crawling under and around houses in search of bugs I found a completely ‘white’ earwig. I’ve seen many white roaches in my time but I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen a white earwig. Of course I had forgotten my camera and scooping him up with big leather gloves was out of the question. (I didn’t want to hurt the little guy)

Earwigs grow via gradual or incomplete metamorphosis which is a fancy way of saying the young look like the adults. From birth they molt 4 to 6 times over a 10 week span which consists of shedding their now to small exoskeleton. The new outer shell is larger and allows them to keep growing until they get to big for it as well and they need to molt again. Normally earwigs are brown in color but right after molting they are white for a short period of time while the color is manifested as the body fluids flow and their new skeleton hardens.

Since earwigs are nocturnal and spend the day light hours hidden it is not often that you would get to see this stage in their growth process. It’s usually when you unearth a plant or moist hiding place that you may see a white earwig. Molting is not an easy task as it takes a lot of energy for an insect and they are almost completely defenseless at this time. For this reason they tend to hide deeper in seclusion during this time for protection so it’s not likely you would find one just by chance. But fear not, if you don’t catch him this time you have 4 or 5 more chances till the end of summer or you can always wait until spring.

Posted in Earwigs | 11 Comments

If only the dinosaurs had deet

I’m always amazed by scientists who can figure out things that happened a bazillion years ago. With a bone here and a fossilized dung particle there they are able to piece together complete life cycles and characteristics of things that roamed the earth even before Twitter came along.

(cheap plug and link for you to follow me)

 

Recently George Poinar, a courtesy professor of zoology at Oregon State University and his wife have come up with a new theory of how the dinosaurs may have become extinct. They believe that it is possible that insects killed them and perhaps not a meteor or volcanic eruptions.

Most believe (as I did) that the extinction of the dinosaur was a quick process from a cataclysmic event. The truth is that it took many, perhaps millions of years for them to fully die off.

Poniar is quoted;

An impact scenario should have led to an abrupt extinction, and volcanism-induced climate change would probably also have wiped them out in a relatively short time.
On the other hand, emerging new diseases spread by biting insects, combined with the spread of flowering plants, and competition with insects for plant resources, was “perfectly compatible” with a lengthy process of extinction.

Biting insects, nematodes and other disease carrying bugs could have dealt a direct blow to the dinosaurs while large populations of plant eating insects may have wiped out huge supplies of plants. The herbivores then would be reduced and in turn the meat eaters would have less to eat as well.

The evidence to back up these claims are found in fossils of dinosaur dung and amber. Although we might think it impossible for a prehistoric mosquito to penetrate the thick skin of a Triceratops, the skin in between the scales may have been vulnerable and soft. Any disease the insect carried could have been transmitted and the prehistoric animals had no built up immunities to this new threat.

Nature is filled with checks and balances but perhaps this is an example of things getting out of whack. Insects can proliferate with amazing speed and if nothing is there to hinder them they’ll devour everything in their path regardless of size and even to their own detriment.

Maybe now would be a good time to ‘thank’ your friendly pest control technician and give him a pat on the back. Who knows, if we had been around back then you might have a couple of Raptors in the back yard right now and flea dipping might have a whole other meaning.

Posted in Pests in the news | Leave a comment

Turn your aerosol into a 4 way fogger

The pro’s have some really neat tools for applying pesticide products into some of the most impossible spots. Their sprayers can shoot a fine pin stream for the smallest crack or crevice and with one turn of the head they can cover a whole carpet area for fleas in just a few short minutes. They have void and sub slab injectors, fog and dusting machines, tubes in the wall injection and can even generate large volumes of foam in almost any consistency.

For the average do it yourself pest control person your stuck with what you can buy at a big box or U kill it store. There is one tool you can enjoy the benefits of however without breaking the bank and it will enhance your void treatments tremendously.

The 4 way fogger is a straw attachment for aerosols that enables the spray to go in 4 different directions at the same time. It is not meant for ‘open air’ treatment but rather it’s used to treat voids in the wall. The reason it is so valuable is because instead of shooting only straight it sends the lethal insecticide 4 ways to fill the void and gives insects like roaches no place to hide. Until today only a pro could treat a void like this, now you can too.

How to make a 4 way fogger

To make a 4 way fogger you’ll need an aerosol product of course but you’ll need one that comes with a straw tip. It’s important to note that once you have altered the straw tip and are satisfied with your spray pattern you might want to buy another can with a straw tip for any ‘straight’ shooting. Also if the tip doesn’t come out quite perfect you can simply cut the altered end off with a razor knife and you’ll have your original straw back, just a 1/8 of an or so shorter. Try to create your new 4 way as close to the end as possible so if you do need to cut it back, you won’t drastically shorten it.

First you must remove the straw from the cap. Never try this with it still attached to the can.

To start you need to cap the end of the straw and the easiest way is to use a lighter and melt the end shut. It doesn’t take but a few seconds and while it’s hot tap the melting end on a flat surface to ensure it completely blocks the end hole.

Next, with a pair of pliers grasp the straw close to the capped end and so it’s laying long ways and place it on a hard surface. (not one you care about getting scratched) Using a razor knife or sharp razor blade push the corner of the blade into the straw until you poke through to the other side. Take your time and use a rocking motion and the sharp blade should go through pretty easily. Now you may need to turn the straw over and slightly push through the small pin point hole on that side. There you’ve now created a 2 way fogger.

To get the other slits you simply repeat the process 1/4 way around from the first holes but you’ll need to go just above or below them. The reason is that yes you are cutting but there is plastic slivers being pushed inward and that may block or alter your pattern. Also too many slits in one spot may weaken the straw and it could break on your final cut.

The end result may vary somewhat and perhaps not every stream will be as good but if all you manage is 3 healthy holes you can just rotate the can when you are injecting the voids to make up the difference.

Where to use your fogger

As stated this is a void injecting tool and works great in places like plumbing voids under the sink, cable wire outlets, hollow doors, motor housing, small enclosed areas, bath traps and the list goes on. Never use any aerosol near open flames or pilot lights and I’d be careful with electrical outlets.

Oh and make sure that when your spray can is empty you save the straw so you can use it again and again. I mean if you threw it away, how would you treat the voids in your life?

Posted in Tools of the trade | Leave a comment

West Side Rats

Most of us are familiar with the classic musical “West side story”, a tale of two rival gangs set in the big city of New York. The gangs had their own territories and knew them like the back of their hands. If one group crossed the line trouble usually followed and the advantage went to the ‘home team.’

City rats it’s been discovered are a lot like this. Well minus the knife fighting to the sound of a 50 piece orchestra. The city of Baltimore has been the site of recent studies and the conclusions surprised some researchers.

On any given day in the city of Baltimore it’s not unusual to see a rat in broad day light. They seem to run free and have no boundaries. The scientists from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health have determined however that rats have established territories that rarely go more than a city block. These rats are part of a larger community which may cover more area but is made up of similar sized factions that may only inhabit an alley, empty lot or building. Other communities with their sub families form in other parts of town and are usually divided by a physical barrier such as a river.

Baltimore like many big cities has spent large amounts of money to eradicate these rodents and there is no shortage of work for the many pest control companies but the number of rats has stayed the same for the last 50 years. Perhaps the rat has divided this way as a means of survival. It may be smaller areas mean that the rats in that area have every advantage mapped out. They know where all of food and water is as well as hiding and escape spots are.

Only in times of trouble, according to the study do rats venture away from home base. They can go as far as 7 miles to find a vacant area where they can establish a new ‘turf’. When I worked in Baltimore we would always get calls from neighborhoods that had major construction or demolition nearby. The rats would be everywhere and as a tech it was always pretty easy to trap and kill the first wave. Perhaps they were not so familiar with the new surroundings but it wouldn’t take them long and things were not so easy.

Probably the absolute worst rat job I’ve ever done even still to this day was in the heart of downtown. It was a very large open market and every kind of food imaginable was there. The first night we sent a team of 10 to 12 technicians in to do a sort of ‘shock and awe’ treatment. I’m not sure if the rats were in shock or we were. I had never seen so many rats in my life and they seemed oblivious that we were there. Our traps caught 43 rats as I remember but it didn’t even make a dent. For the next year or so I was the lucky tech who serviced the account every Tuesday morning beginning at 4 am. I felt pretty hopeless at times as even my best attempts didn’t seem to make a difference. As a side note I worked on commission and my pay for that stop was about $18.37 for the 3 hours it took to service it.

In light of this new study I wonder if this was some mega territory or the draw of so much food brought other nearby rats into the mix and they disregarded their tendencies of staying in their home areas. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out as I took the first open sales territory that came up. I guess I was a rat in trouble and just had to move on for my own survival.

mice control

Posted in Rats and Mice | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The little known Citronella ant

It’s not every day I get to see a citronella ant which is odd since I do pest control service for a living. They are more abundant in the north east United States but can be found almost everywhere. Today was a good day however because I found one as I was crawling out from under a home.

At first I thought it may be a wayward honey pot ant because of it’s golden almost translucent color but engorged honey pots never leave the nest and since he was rather large I ruled that out. The best way for you (not the ant) to distinguish if an ant is a citronella ant is by crushing it. Do this and you’ll know what I mean. Within seconds you’ll smell the sweet aroma of citronella.

Citronella ants are basically harmless and only occasionally come inside, usually when swarming. Their colony at it’s peak may only have a few thousand individuals and the most damage they do is a mound of dirt near their nest.

Once while I was being ‘trained’ for a new company, the salesman I was riding with responded to an ant call. When we got there we found many swarming ants in the home and the lady of the house was quite upset. Our sales guy who I’m sure meant no harm identified the ants as carpenter ants and proceeded to sell her a job. I picked up one of the ants and waited for a chance to politely interrupt his pitch. Seeing me holding one of the ants the salesman asked me “why I had one in my hand” while the customer was also nodding inquisitively. I explained about the ant and then crushed it between my fingers and let them both smell. The two looks I got were, relief from the potential client knowing she didn’t have to spend $700.00 on a carpenter ant job and a cold angry stare from the salesman who just lost 15% commission.

We don’t know a whole lot about the day to day workings of this ant because they feed almost exclusively on the secretions of other subterranean bugs so you don’t see them much. These ants will actually bring aphids and mealy bugs below the surface of the soil and ‘farm’ them much like cattle. The aphids suck on the roots for food and in turn the citronella ant eats the secretions. In warmer weather they may take them up into the foliage. They do eat other things such as sugar and occasionally you may find them inside trailing to the pantry or up on a counter. Before you break out the sprays consider removing the food source as this often cures the problem. It’s also believed that the ‘lemony’ smell is a defense mechanism but I could find nothing to say for sure.

Only about 3/8 of an inch and yellowish to golden in color you can find their nests usually under logs on the ground or under pavement. The excavated dirt makes them easy to spot. Should treatment be necessary you’ll need to drench or fan spray the mound area or you can use Terro ant bait which they’ll take almost all the time.

Sitting at my computer perhaps thousands of miles from where you are I can feel those same two stares I felt early in my career. The look from the many of you who are relieved and will go out to buy a $ 1.98 Terro jar or simply brush away the few ants on your counter and the many stares of angry salesmen who hope you never read this.

Posted in Ants | 17 Comments

Removing Ticks

There are a lot of myths out there about tick removal and some have been around for a long time. The one I remember as a kid was if you yanked the body off of a tick and left the head embedded in your skin it would grow a new body. Let me tell you, for a 10 year old that’s pretty scary.

While it’s true if you yank or twist a tick while trying to remove it you could leave it’s head and mouth parts in your skin but the only real danger in that is this is where the saliva is and that’s how tick borne disease is transmitted. Removing a tick this way could actually make it secrete even more with this action or regurgitate it’s stomach contents into your body.

Other ways I’ve heard of are using a hot needle or pin, liquid soap, whiskey, rubbing alcohol, hot tweezers or pliers, finger nail polish or petroleum jelly. While there may be some anecdotal evidence of these techniques working they are really not recommended by anybody in the know. Again the reason is you will probably cause more secretions to be pumped into your body and no amount of these substances are going to convince the tick to let go.

The plain and simple truth about removing ticks is boring, you don’t have to trick it or cause the tick to become dizzy to release it’s specially shaped blood sucking mouth parts. You simply use tweezers and get as close to the skin as you can and pull it straight out. An anchored tick might take a slight tug but don’t squeeze really hard, it’ll come.

With the tick removed you should put it in a plastic bag and date it in case you develop any problems and it needs to be identified and scrub the bite area with antiseptic.

Also, it takes a tick about 12 hours or so to dig it’s hypostome (that’s the jagged little sucking mouth parts) in deep enough for it to begin to feed. During this time it is less likely that it will have transmitted any secretions and thus very little chance you’ve been infected with any disease. That should make you feel better.

There are some specialty tick removal devices on line but I’ve never used them so I can’t say if they are any good or not. You can click the link above and decide for yourself. In the mean time just remember there are many old wives tales about tick removal but the tick isn’t listening.

Posted in Ticks | 1 Comment

Planes, trains and bug infested automobiles

Just when I thought I had seen everything something new comes along. Now I haven’t been around as long as some but 26 years has got to put me closer to the top of the list doesn’t it?

In my career I have treated underground homes, tree houses, sky scrapers, sewer systems, semi trucks, boats and yachts, campers, planes, vans, cars, tunnels under churches,(scary) as well as horse radish factories, bottling and meat packing plants, hospitals, jails, science labs and even other pest control company offices. (I should write about that one) But the one glaring thing that’s not on my list at least until today was a train.

Ok it wasn’t a 90 car CSX that was infested with larder beetles, in fact it hadn’t moved in years and it was really just the caboose that is now serving as a guest house in a customers back yard. Truth be told I didn’t even treat it but it was a listed structure for the sale of a rather large home so I was paid to inspect it for termites and other wood destroying insects. Being the stat guy I am this one still counts and will now forever be scratched off my list.

I couldn’t get a lot of history behind the caboose and find out how and why it ended up in this mans yard but it was quite interesting to look inside none the less. Not only did he have the train but it was sitting on real tracks with authentic creosote railroad ties. A little cramped inside but all the comforts of home were there. It was a bit surreal to view underneath and see a/c ducts and plumbing pipes but other than that it was as if I was boarding a real train bound for some great adventure in the mountains or out west.

So as I embark on my next 26 years of service in the pest control industry I have fewer unseen things to look forward to but if I end up scratching another one out, I’ll be sure to let you know. Some hopeful things would be the space shuttle or perhaps some bird work in the Statue of Liberty.

If you’re in pest control tell me what you have seen or anybody who may have an interesting job where they have worked on unique or out of the ordinary things. I’d love to hear about them.

click on image to enlarge
Posted in In my opinion | Leave a comment

pseudoscorpion needs more than a pseudo identification

Recently I received a request to identify a bug and a fuzzy picture. Normally I’m pretty good at this but I think this time I may need some help. I also have added the reasons as to why I have come up with my answer but I’d love to hear from some other experts in the field. So below is the comment and the picture. If you have any ideas and would like to comment please feel free to help me out.

Vicky says on July 27th, 2009
Hi,
My sister is in Quebec in a secluded area basically living in a dorm and she saw a bug she’d never seen before sticking it’s pincers out of a crack in the wall. Her first thought was bed bugs, but the pincers are much longer than the images we’ve found online. Is there any other bug it could be? I have a fuzzy image of it I could email to you. Thank you in advance for your help!

Vicky

It took awhile of looking but the ‘pincers’ are what lead me to believe this is a pseudo scorpion. They are somewhat curved like one and although the pic is fuzzy it seems they might be segmented. I checked and indeed Canada does have them and although they are rare inside it does happen.

Some info on the pseudoscorpion

The pseudoscorpion is not really a scorpion at all, it is in the arachnid (spider) family. They are very small, only about 3 mm or so. There are around 2000 different species found worldwide but only 6 in Alberta. Quebec seems a little far but who knows. Of those one in particular is most commonly found indoors. Totally harmless this beneficial insect eats mites and other insects smaller than itself.

Well that’s my guess but I’m only one set of eyes and perhaps you have another idea or something in Vicky’s comment spurred a whole other train of thought. Please let us know what you’re thinking and add any information you have.

Thanks.

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Do people really want ‘green pest control?’

In today’s climate this seems like an absolutely absurd question. It’s plastered all over the place that ‘green is the way to go.’ Hardly anyone you ask would be hard pressed for an answer, the quid pro quo, stock reply is “sure I do.”. And yes I am aware of the definition and use this term because todays advertising is getting exactly what what it has paid for. Derived from the Latin it means ‘something for something.’ Groups interested in a clean environment and reduction in pesticides have successfully lobbied public opinion to accept this as the normal expectation and in return the public has said yes, or at least one would think.
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Posted in Choosing a pest control company | 7 Comments

Wasps and above ground pools

Summer time and the water is finally warm enough to dive in and enjoy. You’ve got your beach ball, your old retro snorkel and the ever popular floating drink tray. Unfortunately what you can also have is angry wasps.

Paper wasps are famous for building their nests just underneath the metal ledge that encircles almost every above ground pool. It offers excellent protection from the rain, warmth from the sun heating up the aluminum and hardly anyone ever bothers them mainly because they are below eye level. The water offers them a ready supply of construction material and something to drink as well. They usually begin building their home in the spring and are relatively no problem. By the time you throw your first pool party however the nest can be quite large and the sudden activity can cause your two paths to cross.

Normally paper wasps are rather docile and really won’t attack unless threatened or provoked. When water is spilling up over the sides and the bottom of the finished edge that’s when they may fly out and become agitated. I know many kids who like to play ‘squirt gun wars’ with them and that can get a little dicey too.

It’s best to check the underside of the metal edge and any decking every spring for small nests and then again throughout the warm weather. Catching a nest when it’s small is much easier to deal with. To do this safely I simply put my hand pump sprayer on fan or cone spray and low pressure. At arms length (plus the length of the wand) I simply walk around the pool and spray up under the edge. When you hit a nest one or two will fly out and usually just circle and go back under. You may ask;

“Why don’t you just look under the edge?” and to that I would reply, “Because you’re liable to get your nose stung.”

The low pressure fan spray almost never sends the wasps flying out in defense mode but it should at least get one or two who’ve been hit in the face to fly out and reveal their nesting site. Once you’ve located it you can either grab a can of wasp spray for the instant knockdown or simply spray with the fan pattern a time or two and that will be more than enough to kill them in most cases.

It may take a few minutes for the pesticide from the pump sprayer to work but soon they simply start dropping to the ground. Again, the fan pattern is what you want so that you hit all of them simultaneously and this technique usually keeps them on the nest rather than buzzing out looking to defend by stinging. It’s important also to realize that even though the insects are dead their stingers may still be capable of penetrating bare feet or hands even hours later. I’d stay away from that side of the pool for awhile.

The fan spray trick will work on paper wasps just about anywhere but just make sure that is what you’re dealing with. Yellow Jackets or bees won’t be so accommodating and you could get hurt. So break out the sun tan lotion and have some fun. Oh and maybe get a new snorkel, your embarrassing the kids.

Posted in Bees and wasps | Leave a comment