Have you been trying to fight rodents on your own?  If so, you may have noticed some changes in what you can buy over the counter. The EPA recently launched several new rules to reduce the risk to non-target organisms from rodenticides.  Their main concerns were dangers to children, pets, and wildlife from homeowner misapplication, naturally.

• Bait stations - All rodenticide bait products marketed over the counter must now be sold as a block or paste bait, and be packaged with an EPA-approved bait station.  The biggest change here is bait stations are now required.  That means no more little bags of pellets...this is a very big deal!  Most homeowners don’t use bait stations at all or use pellets that end up spilling out of the stations, which could be very dangerous to non-target organisms.  Rats and mice are known hoarders and could stockpile these pellets in undesirable places where children, pets, and other wildlife might find them.  Venus Pest Company always has, and always will, use child and pet resistant bait stations.

• Bait size limitation - Products marketed to residential consumers may now contain no more than 1 pound of rodenticide bait.  On the flip side of this, professional pest control companies now have to buy in quantities of 16 pounds or more.  They are making a bigger separation between home use and professional use, so homeowners will not be able to store mass quantities or overuse rodenticides.

• Active ingredients used - While several rodenticides will still be available to the homeowner market, products marketed to residential consumers will no longer contain the most toxic and persistent active ingredients.  Those are the second generation anticoagulants (prevents clotting of blood) brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum, and difethialone.  Products containing these active ingredients will only be available for commercial use and for residential use only by professional pest control operators.  We believe the goal is such that if the homeowner still manages to misapply, the consequences are less catastrophic.

A check on Medscape for the most current data about rodenticide poisonings presents a shocking number of incidents.  In 2009, the AAPCC reported a total of 13,922 incidents of rodenticide exposure to US poison control centers.  Of these, 97% of these were of the second generation anticoagulants as mentioned above.  The outcome of these exposures was generally benign, however 11 of the exposures resulted in major illness, and one death occurred.  Approximately 85% of the rodenticide exposures occurred in children younger than 6 years, thus you can definitely see why these new regulations are warranted.

We could not find any of the reports on wildlife exposure, but the EPA specifically mentioned that there were some poisonings involving protected species.  In particular, the San Joaquin kit fox and Northern spotted owl were listed in addition to the Bald eagle, which is protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Act.

Ultimately, these are good and necessary regulations as they should not affect people’s ability to control rodents at all.  They will simply force them to do it correctly, using an integrated approach.  Such an approach should include exclusion (most important), traps, rodenticide (only outside in tamper proof containers), and habitat modification (removal of bird feeder, heavy foliage, compost piles, etc).  If you don’t think bird feeders attract unwanted critters, look at this photo.

Why yes, they are.  Hairy rasberry crazy ants to be more specific.  Just as the imported fire ant invaded the United States in the early 1900s and snuffed out other native species of insects, the rasberry crazy ant has found its way in and is beginning to do the same. Before you ask, I did not spell raspberry wrong, they are named after Tom Rasberry, the pest control operator that discovered them in Houston.

Believed to have come from South America, these ants are now spreading throughout the southern states. When I say spread, I do mean spread, as a colony can number in the millions, or possibly even billions if they combine to form a “super colony.”  They are considered semitropical, so the the cooler temperatures up north should eventually stop their progress.  

In this video, you can see how their sheer numbers are mind boggling as he flips over pieces of siding that are all completely covered. There appear to be millions of them. Notice their movements as well, it’s obvious why they’re called “crazy!”

So What’s the Problem?

The biggest problem is the potential damage they can cause to your property.  Like fire ants, rasberry crazy ants are attracted to electricity.  They haven’t figured out the reason yet, suffice to say it’s not a good thing.  Due to their large numbers, an ant bridge can be formed easily between circuits in a circuit box shorting out the entire system.  I also saw a video of thousands of crazy ants pouring out of a person’s computer mouse sitting on their desk...inside their home.  You certainly don’t want that kind of computer bug!  They don’t sting, but they do bite, so they can definitely be a hazard when people come in contact.

Another problem is these ants are either snuffing out, or displacing other native species of ants and insects that our ecosystem relies on.  Even the imported fire ant, which displaced other species itself in the 1900s, is being overrun by rasberry crazy ants.  

If you encounter these ants, it’s best to call a professional pest management company as they are extremely difficult to control.  Their population numbers alone make them a very tough pest to eradicate, posing a new challenge for us that live in the southern United States, as well as us pest control folks trying to curb these infestations. 

If you’ve lived in a home long enough, shoot if you’ve lived long enough period, chances are you’ve had to deal with a rodent invading your space at some point.  Rats can enter your home through any opening the size of a quarter while mice only need an opening the size of a dime, so you can see how easy it can be for them to gain entry.  If you only trap rodents once they are inside, you are treating the symptom and ignoring the disease.  We always say it could be like trying to empty the sea of fish, they’ll keep coming. Exterior entry points also need to be repaired to completely solve rodent problems.  Once inside, rodents present a variety of problems that could effect your health and your property negatively.   

In a past blog post, Don’t Do It Yourself: 8 Jobs You Should Leave to the Pros, we highlighted an article discussing some jobs around your home that were suggested you leave to the professionals.  On the list were things like electrical work, tree removal, and most importantly for our purposes here...pest control.

Many of you have noticed, or at least brought to our attention, that mosquito pressure has not been as bad this year as it typically is during the summer.  Most folks blame the drought and lack of rainfall for that.  However, if you look outside, you will notice your yard is probably still nice and green.  What about your neighbors’ yards?  Hmm, how did that happen?  Must be plenty of water around to keep all those lawns green!?  To put it simply, through irrigation alone, there is plenty of water for mosquitoes to thrive around your house, despite a lack of rainfall.

Occasionally, we receive requests to treat people’s pantry for pests.  The requests are usually for “weevils” or “those little moths”.  In the pantry, they are typically stored product pests, the most common of which are the drugstore beetle, cigarette beetle, weevils (granary, rice, maize), flour beetles (red and confused), sawtoothed grain beetle, and Indianmeal moth.  Believe it or not these guys are all pretty easy to tell apart under magnification.

For the most part, all these pests live and reproduce in your stored food.  So the question is how do we spray for them?  The answer is we don’t. Sanitation is the proper method for control in a home pantry (i.e. You have to locate the infested food items and throw them away).  You may also vacuum up any spilled food in the pantry.

How did you get the infestation to begin with?  You’re clean and organized right?  Well there are three things that can put you at greater risk for an infestation.

1. Pet food

Pet food is often stored for long periods of time in stores, which leaves them open for infestation.  Also, pet food can get spilled behind racks at the stores and cause a recurring infestation.  We have noticed that the problem is especially bad with bird seed.  The best way to avoid this problem is to store all pet food in sealed plastic containers away from where you store your human food. This is good advice to keep rodents away too, please don't keep an open bag of dog food in your garage!

2. Buying Bulk

The same rule for pet food applies to bulk purchases.  There is a chance for infestation at the store level, and if you buy way more than you need, your own storage can become infested over time.  Again, store any bulk stuff in sealed plastic containers.  Another option is to store it in the freezer as this will stop any infestations from developing.

3. Buying unique items from International Stores

Generally this is along the same lines as the first two, but definitely worth mentioning.  International stores may keep all their rarely purchased items for a long time, leaving them susceptible to infestation. We see folks with large canvass sacks full of grains or rice that is often the problem.  The solution is the same, use sealed plastic containers and/or keep these purchases in the freezer.

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Remember, it’s not always just this short list of items that you need to look out for.  If you have a pantry infestation, you must check everything and throw it out if found to be a problem.  We’ve seen issues arise from tea bags, cereal, grains, rice, flour, sugar, almost anything in bags, and even some sealed up better than that.

News Flash!  The Indianmeal moth is one pantry pest we will soon be able to treat.  There have been recent advances in control using mating disruption, or MD.  MD has been used for years in agriculture against codling moth - a.k.a. the worm in the apple.  Using MD, Indianmeal moth pheromone dispensers are used to permeate the air with their pheromone.  With so much “love” in the air, it is impossible for the moths to find each other, putting a stop to reproduction. Don’t worry, it has no effect on humans or even other insects. Right now, this method is gaining popularity in Industrial areas, and will soon be launched in residential applications.  My uncle, Bill Lingren, owns the company that is developing it, Trece, Inc.!  Is that insider trading?

You know that you have heard many, and probably believe(d) some of these myths!  If you have, don’t feel alone...we hear them all the time.  If you’ve heard any other ones that you know or suspect to be false and would like to know more, post them in the comments.

1. There is a special rodent poison that makes rodents go outside to find water so they won’t die inside.

For starters, it is a terrible idea to use rodent poison indoors.  Not only do you run the chance of a child or pet getting into it, the rodents might move it anyway.  Mice are notorious for hoarding food, so where will they hoard the poison?  There is no evidence that rodents go looking for water after ingesting any type of bait.  They most often die in their nests or near the bait, another reason to never use poison indoors.  You’ll just end up with a stinky carcass on top of an infestation.  Rodenticide should ONLY be used in tamper proof containers outside.

2. Bags of water hung near doors keep flies and mosquitoes away.

The theory says they they can see their reflection and get scared and thus will stay away.  Some people recommend putting pennies or tin foil in the bags as well.  We’ve covered this one before in an earlier post and it is absolutely not true. Actually tests have shown it could attract more flies instead of scaring them off.  Snopes agrees...http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/flies.asp

3. The average person swallows 8 spiders while sleeping during their lifetime.  

This is another one that Snopes has covered.  It was totally made up just as a example what kinds of ridiculous things people would believe if they read it.  http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/spiders.asp   Have you ever read articles from the Onion?  Same sort of deal here, I read one once that they found a chemical that would make male bed bugs “murder” other bed bugs by using their spiky reproductive parts.  Then why do we have such a bad bed bug epidemic going around?

4. Mosquito hawks eat mosquitoes.  

You know the big flying insects that most folks call mosquito hawks?  Well, despite their resemblance to a large mosquito, they are actually crane flies. As larvae, they are predators in damp soil so there is a slight chance they could encounter and eat mosquito larvae in a puddle if they were lucky.  But really crane fly larvae would not be a significant cause of death for mosquito larvae.   Adult crane flies may feed on nectar, but they generally do not feed at all.  In some areas of the United States, the larvae actually cause turf damage and are considered pests, but they will certainly not help reduce the mosquito population around your home. You just need to make a quick call to Venus Pest Company for that!

There are always lots of new home remedies popping up claiming to help cure diseases or rid your home of pests.  Remember, everything on the internet is TRUE!!!

Everybody knows mosquitoes bite, and that can be an annoying problem by itself, what with the itching and the welts and such. However, that problem pales in comparison to the real issue with biting mosquitoes, and that’s the spread of disease.  The mosquito's ability to spread disease has earned it the title of the most deadly animal in the world http://listverse.com/2007/07/13/top-10-most-deadly-animals/.  

Because of the mobile nature of our now global society, we are increasing the chance of introducing diseases not typically found in the US.  Mosquito borne diseases can end up in the United States if a mosquito, person, or animal carrying the disease infects local mosquito populations.  That scenario is only a plane ride away.  If you’ve ever had a mosquito inside your car that bites you four times on the face, you know what we’re talking about.

In addition to our native mosquito species that can carry diseases, exotic mosquitoes like the Asian Tiger Mosquito and the African bush mosquito have become established in the United States.  They are known transmitters of 22 different viruses that impact human health.  

The three scariest mosquito-borne diseases are:

Malaria

Caused by a microorganism and spread by mosquitoes, malaria is the 5th leading cause of death from infections diseases world-wide. There about 300 million cases annually around the world and nearly 1 million of those cases result in death.  Malaria was largely eradicated from the U.S. in the 1950’s through a spraying campaign using DDT.  Since then, there have been around 60 outbreaks caused, probably, by local mosquitoes biting a person that was infected elsewhere in the world.  Symptoms include chills, fever, sweats, headache, and nausea.  There is no vaccine, although the Gates foundation is donating millions of dollars to researchers to find one.

Dengue fever

This disease is caused by a virus and spread by mosquitoes.  It had been absent in the U.S. for 65 years, but re-emerged during 2009 in the Florida Keys.  Around 28 cases have since been reported.  The disease causes severe fever along with a rash.  Dengue fever is also known as break bone fever because of the severe pain and aches accompanied by the fever.  Fortunately, there is a 99% survival rate.   There is no vaccine.

West Nile Fever

Found originally in Africa, West Nile Virus was detected in the U.S. In 1999.  It is thought to have been introduced by migrating birds. West Nile Virus is transmitted when a mosquito bites an infected bird, then bites a human.  Mosquitoes may also transfer the virus to their offspring.  Incidence usually peaks in August.  Most infected people develop West Nile fever, which is similar to the flu.  About 1 in 100 infections result in West Nile encephalitis which can cause paralysis or death.  People over 50 are much more likely to develop encephalitis.  In Texas, there were 89 reported human cases of West Nile Virus during 2010.  Seven of those cases resulted in death. There is a vaccine that is used for horses, who can also be infected.

It's been a long break from our countdown of the most disturbing things that we come across as pest management professionals, but we return today for our final installment with bed bugs!  Bed bugs are truly the #1 most disturbing pest that we encounter and the problem only seems to be getting worse.  We've written extensively about bed bugs before, so I won't reiterate everything here, but bed bugs are gross people!

Read our earlier blog on 6 Exciting Bed Bug Facts & Tips where there is more detail on how to check for bed bugs and how to keep them out of your home.  Here are a few of the most important things to remember.

1.  Bed bugs travel on people, so always check your beds at hotel rooms and don't sit any of your stuff on the bed before thoroughly checking it.  Here are some tips on checking your hotel room for bed bugs.

2.  Bed bugs do not transmit disease (at least it hasn't been proven yet), but they do a tremendous amount of pshycological damage to say the least.  Ask anybody who's had an infestation of bed bugs how well they slept during their ordeal.  Trust me, it wasn't very much.  People will go as far as sleeping in a plastic chair in the middle of the room to avoid being bitten...unfortunately that doesn't always work either!  Then comes the investment of getting rid of them.

3.  Nobody is impervious!  It doesn't matter how much money you make or how clean your house is (although that helps for a lot of other reasons, see our blog on German cockroaches and hoarders).  They've been found in hospitals, retirement homes, apartments, offices, airports, hotels of course, buses,subways...everywhere!  Even Jay-Z and Rihanna were forced to shut down their recording studio due to bed bugs!

4.  They can hide anywhere...and they will!  We've found bed bugs and eggs

 on the bottom of trophies, in books, lamps, picture frames, blinds, curtains, bedframes, cabinets, night stands, cracks in floorboards, outlet covers, lightswitch covers...anywhere and everywhere!

The most important thing to remember is it's up to you to keep your home free of this horrible pest.  Read our information or call us with further questions, but please make sure you're always checking the rooms you stay in, no matter where you go, because if you come visit my house afterwards and bring some home with you, we might not be friends for too long after that!  :-)

Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!