BED BUGS ON THE OFFICE

It is funny to see how bed bugs have made it back into pop culture. It was only 10 years ago when you would mention bed bugs and almost get laughed at, it was 6 years ago when you had to scramble to find product labeled for these pests and get your facility management and apartment and hotel managers to take the problem seriously, and here we are in 2012 and we are watching bed bug references on the popular television show, The Office.

I say the more media coverage the better, let's get the EPA to tune in and see the hysterics and maybe they will lessen their stance on reviving older chemistry or approving some new products a bit more fast tracked. The Bed Bug epidemic is spreading like wildfire and costing folks their savings and sanity.

Don't let the bed bugs bite..

Click on the fastest way to kill bedbugs for more info.

Termite Season

Once upon a time, there was a couple two, three weeks that was know in the industry as the "swarm season". We are not too far away from this time of year. It was a time of year that would make or break many pest control companies, a time of year when new hires were brought on board and overtime was the norm. The lovely sound of phones ringing off the hook and panic stricken customers wanted someone to come out to inspect "with in the hour"!
Then a product called Termidor was introduced to the market, a termiticide unlike any other. You could treat the termites over here, and get a great kill over there. In fact, entire colonies of termites were eliminated. The swarm season started to become more and more quiet. Soon, the swarm season disappeared. Don't get me wrong, there was still plenty of termite work out there, you just had to look for them in a different way.
Was this lull in swarm activity due to a product or just a glitch in the biological spectrum? Termites have been around for millions of years. Maybe over the centuries there is time when they go into a dormancy for a short time, and then bang, they are back.
We shall see in a month or two...termite season here we come!

Giant Roaches

Aren't roaches supposed to be small and brown? Why all of a sudden am I seeing large, super large, roaches around the house? Then, the unimaginable happens. One of these roaches fly at me.
That's the story I used to get from families as they call in a panic looking for help. Sounds like these families  are experiencing a problem with American Roaches. Aside from treating the home, I would ask if they have done any plumbing work inside or outside the home. Usually these roaches are introduced into a home via a broken sewer pipe or if there is any excavation work close to the home. The other possibility is if a neighbor in a row home or condo has a problem like the one described above, and the bugs are overflowing into your home.
So if you suddenly start to see these large roaches in the home, call your pest professional and check your plumbing.

Seal those holes for Mice

Walking the perimeter of your home can bring many things to your attention to add to your "to do" list. One thing that should be on that list is sealing of any holes around the home. Cables, pipes, and wires entering the home can all be super highways that allow mice to enter if there is the slightest of a gap around them. Also areas like under the entrance and garage doors are areas of concern. If there is too big a gap then your doors might as well be wide open as mice can get under and enter the home at will. Weather stips at the bottom of doors can help. Don't forget to look up as well. Siding or flashing pulling away from the home can be entrance points for rodents and should be closed up if possible. So to sum it all up. Tighten the home up and keep the mice out.

Bed Bugs in Hotels

Bed bugs are prevalent in hotels. They travel just like us, in fact, they travel with us. So what's an unsuspecting vacationer or business travel person to do when checking into their home away from home? First thing is first. Put your bags right into the bathtub, and if you are able to live out of your suit cases for the trip I would recommend just leaving your suit cases in the bathroom. Keep as much as you can in there. What is the reasoning behind this? Bed bugs are opportunistic. They usually hang out on the mattress, or on the foot and head boards in the hotel room . This is the area you want to inspect upon check in before you do anything. Pull the headboard carefully off the wall and look behind it. Any bugs? Pull the covers off and the sheets down to the bare mattress, look for bugs. If nothing is found, you are most likely safe. Now at bedtime, check your body to make sure you have no bite marks, do the same when you wake up. If there is anything new on your body then it is possible that you were bitten by bed bugs. Usually the bites will leave blood marks on your sheets. If you find this you should let the hotel know and get another room. Part two of this series will deal with packing up and going home without taking these creepy crawlers with you.

If You Give A Mouse A ...

The popular children's book, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, demonstrates the popularity of mice. Mice are famous, pop icons like Jerry from Tom and Jerry and the top of the list, Mickey Mouse, dominate our culture and is a clear sign that people take kindly to the character of a mouse. But just how great are mice in the real world? Not so great. Mice are deadly. Major disease, gnawing on wires, and destruction of millions of dollars worth of food, are all examples of the darker side of the pop icons mentioned above. It is important to keep these rodents under control so that the darker side is kept under wraps and we can be allowed to enjoy the more popular figures like Mikey.

Pest Control Info in the USA

I was reflecting on the early days when I first got into the pest control industry and how the pest control information was limited to books like the Purdue correspondence book or of course Mallis. It was important back then to subscribe to pest control magazine to stay on top of the trends and to have a good relationship with your supply vendor to stay on top of the latest and greatest chemicals.
All of that is still important today, it is just funny how the pest information is delivered. Websites, blogs, and even facebook is all the rage. You can get images of pests at will on the Internet and have a web conference with an entomologist in real time. It is just amazing to see how the industry has grown and developed into the cutting edge industry is it today. Proud to be a part of it all.

MICE. NO!

Mice are sneaky little fellows who like to munch in your food pantry and spoil your food at night. The problem is, they don't just nibble on your food, they can also nibble on your furniture, and worse yet, your wires. Mice and rodents in general are the cause of most unsolved fires which makes it worth going after these little guys early and often when you notice their signs.
Start with the clean up. Make sure all your vulnerable items are in plastic jars or other sealed containers. Clean up the crumbs, drain and clean the sink at night as they like a good drink like the rest of us. Take away all their treats and then place out some treats of your own. Mouse bait can be very effective if done properly. Also, some good snap traps baited with peanut butter, cheese, chocolate, and even string or cotton ball pieces work well. Give them a variety, is you start catching mice with a particular bait, then start using more of it. So go catch those mice, be generous with your "treats" and Don't be stingy.

Bed Bug Traps

For the longest time the top bed bug trap out there has been the Climb Up Insect Monitor. This trap I have used for a long time and they work very effectively. Now, FMC has a new product coming out called the VERIFI. This is a trap that lasts up to 90 days and uses a variety of attraction methods. I think this is going to become the new go to device int he future. I've tried to get a hold of one from my distributor and they are still not available as of today, but very soon they should be there. Looking forward to try these out.

Do sonic electronic mouse repellers work?

Sonic mouse repellers have been around for quite a while, and becasue of this fact they must have some repelling effects or else they would have gone curb side years ago. One thing I can say about these rodent repellers is that is you are going to spend money on these, be sure to gett he kind that allows you to change the frequesncy manually from time to time. Mice and rats can get used to the frequency over time, so changing the frequency will help give you the success you are looking for when trying to evict those nasty rodents.

Mice in my sofa?

I get many questions about mice living in furniture. Can they live in my chair or sofa? The short answer is of course. It is like a high class condo for mice. Think about it, all that cushion material for nesting, the yummy crumbs that fall between the seat cushions as you snack and watch television. Having said that, how spooky is that to think that you are relaxing at night with Micky and Minnie inches away!
So what to do if mice moved into your couch? Catch them of course. Build a fortress of glue boards under and in back of the sofa and see what you catch. Remember, if they are in fact nesting in the furniture, you may have to deal with several mice families so the battle may be waged for weeks until all is clear. Happy Hunting!

Snow Bugs

We got an early snow storm this year int he Northeast and it got me thinking about snow bugs. Is there such a thing? I looked around and it looks as if there is a snow flea that you can see hopping about on melting snow. These "snow bugs" are not really true flea, but a member of the spring tail family. Although I have never been called out in the past to exterminate snow fleas, I thought it would be interested to see if there were any bugs out there that might cause an Eskimo to pick up the phone.

Are Roaches Coming From My Neighbor's House?

Are the roaches I am seeing possibly coming from my neighbor's house? This is a question you hear often, and the answer is yes, it is possible. Roach problems like this between neighbors often happen more in row home or apartment and condo situations. With the close proximity of a row home and sometimes with the common joist set up, or in the case of apartments where pipes and wires are all common, it is the perfect highway set up for roaches to travel back and forth.
If you are faced with this problem it is best to team up with your neighbor, swallow your pride, and set up pest control services for all the homes affected.
Once thing you don't want to do is set off "bug foggers" in your home. This will only spread roaches back and forth for sure.

Bed Bugs-Fastest Way To Kill Them.

If you are unlucky enough to have bed bugs, lucky enough to live in a single home, and wealthy enough to afford it, then fumigation is the fasted way to kill bed bugs 100 percent!
You can always fumigate the contents of your home if you live in a row home or apartment complex, but you still need to deal with the bugs that are embedded in home itself. tenting the entire home and having a bed bug expert pump gas into that tent, now you are talking.

The next best technique out there is heat treatments or thermal remediation for bed bugs. This is where a bed bug control company will come in and heat up your home, apartment, or dorm to about 130 degrees for hours and hours.

Then there are all the others. Chemicals, traps, monitors, mechanical means, are all options for the control of bed bugs. Did I just say control? Not elimination? Yes I did and unless you find a thorough pest control technician to do the proper job with the proper follow ups, then you will only get control at best. Chemical treatments are tough because of bed bug resistance and the fact that the bugs can be living in just about any crack or crevice, any pants pocket, and match book, any school bag, any hollow curtain rod, any screw head, any where.

So one two three would follow the above recommendations for the fastest way to kill bed bugs.

Repel mice and rats

Want to repel mice and rats? Stop them from running along pipes, duct work or other runways? Well now there is a new product out by a company called Bird Barrier of all people. It is called Rat Out Gel. This product comes in a tube of caulk and smells like Sunday dinner. A strong garlic smell comes with the rodent repellent, so a little goes a lot. This product is yet to have field results from what I hear. I sat in on a seminar given by one of their sales reps and it sounds like it can be used in an integrated program. Something to consider.

College and Bed Bugs Visit Home

In the old days when it was time to go home for Thanksgiving you'd toss some cloths in a bag and off you'd go. Maybe you were that student who saved all the dirty cloths for mom to wash at home and came back with bags and bags of cloths.
These days things are different. Bed bugs are out there. You have to think and act differently. If you want to limit the risk of bringing bed bugs home with you on a visit you have to limit what you bring home. Try to make things fit in one bag. A large duffel bag is the best. Take that bag and all the cloths you are taking home and throw them all in a large laundry mat style dryer on high heat for about 45 minutes. Be sure to put a pair of sneakers in as well. Bed Bugs love to hid in sneakers. Once this is done then you have a better chance of not bringing any bed bugs home. This is about the only way to hopefully not infest your mom and dad's house in these days and times.

Slow Big Flies

This is the time of year moving forward that you start to notice a fly that is big and slow. These flies are so slow you can almost go up and pick them off the wall. These flies are called cluster flies. They linger on the sunny side of your home or building and when the weather gets cold they find whatever crack or crevice they can find and come inside.
So what do you do when they are inside. These ugly flies are best controlled with a vacuum hose. This is more environmentally friendly than sprays.

Simple Bed Bug Monitor

College can be exciting and fun, but it can also be an opportunity to get bed bugs. Holiday breaks like Thanksgiving and Christmas when college students return home can be a time when these bed bugs can transport home with you and infest your mom and dad's home. So how can you tell if you have bed bugs in your dorm or apartment complex?

One simple and cheap monitor to use is a called a Climb Up Interceptor. It looks like a cup that you place under your bed legs and furniture legs. Bed Bugs will gravitate towards your bed and get trapped in the cups. If you are unfortunate enough to see bed bugs trapped in these traps, then you know for sure you have a problem. Bring this problem to the attention of your school and let your parents know. The next post will deal with how to travel to a fro without exposing others to bed bugs.

What's working for bed bugs

To wipe bed bugs off the face of the earth is the dream of most folks whose lives have been touched by the scourge. A dream more than a reality unfortunately. One thing that seems to be working is heat. There are good and bad reviews and good and bad companies. The best thing to do is research sites like Angie's List for pest control companies that use thermal remediation or even google will have reviews to look at. Heat is expensive, but effective if used in conjunction with some other treatments like dusting. So research and do yourself another favor...listen to and cooperate with the pest control company you do hire.

Get Rid Of Mice

Getting rid of mice can be easier said than done. Yes they are curious creatures, but they also multiply like crazy, so the odds are against you. Mice can live almost anywhere, nesting in your sofa or other furniture, behind walls, under sinks, anywhere they can gather some soft material to nest. Hmm...soft material. Yes, , mice like to gather material to nest with. Hint number one. Get some cotton balls and attach it to the trigger of a snap trap, maybe drip some peanut oil on the cotton ball to make it even more interesting to our curious friends, and let them snoop their way to their doom.
Baits can also be effective, though in some situation dangerous, and you also have to deal with the dead mouse smell and possibly flies.
Lastly, whatever method you decide to go with, be sure to use lots and lots of them. Don't skim and don't be cheap. Happy hunting.