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Myth Busting from Pest Mgmt Professional October issue

Myth Busting
by Peter J. Stieglmayr from Pest Management Professional Magazine October 2012 Issue



Protect your Family and Home from Invading Mice and Rats

Protect your Family and Home from Invading Mice and Rats

	Fall is upon us once again and with the cooler weather female mice and rats will be seeking warm places to rear their young. Your heated home or business is their most likely destination.    Mice and rats can transmit 35 diseases to humans including: Salmonella Food Poisoning Rickettsial pox Meningitis Lymphocytic choriomeningitis Leptospirosis (Weil’s Disease) Rat-Bite Fever, Ray Fungus, and Ringworm Dermatitis Rodents are three dimensional. They can climb trees, pipes, walls and wires and gnaw their way through wood easily. A mouse can fit through a hole the size of a dime and a rat can squeeze through a quarter size hole. Prevention is imperative, having a good Pest Control Program in place is one of the components but there are many things you can do to stop mice and from invading your home. Homes overrun by trees and shrubs are susceptible to all type of pests. They provide a home and easy access for invading pests. Tree limbs need to be cut back nine (9) feet from the home. Shrubs need to be pruned back six (6) inches. Properly installed Door Sweeps on all entrances including your garage stop pest and also will save you a few dollars on heating costs. Cracks and holes around dryer vents and water spigots need to be sealed with cement. Dryer vents should have a flue that closes when not in use. Windows should be caulked both inside and outside. Chimneys should be capped to prevent not only rodents but birds, squirrels and raccoons from entering the home. Magic Exterminating can assist with these problems. Please contact us for a free, no obligation inspection.

Which Moth is Eating my Stuff

Clothes Moths come in two verities the Casemaking & Webbing moth. The caterpillar (larval stage) of these insects does the actual damage. Adult moths are yellowish-tan to buff-colored with a wingspread of about 1/2 inch. The larvae are white with brown to black heads, and are also about 1/2 inch long. Female may lay 100 to 300 eggs. In the summer or in a heated room the eggs will hatch in one to two weeks. The tiny larvae begin feeding and it can take up to 200 days for them to mature. They the pupa stages lasts between 1 and 4 weeks at which time the adults hatch and begin the cycle again.

Clothes moths feed on animal products including wool, mohair, hair, bristles, fur, feathers and dead insects. Household items that may be attacked include clothing, blankets, comforters, rugs, carpets, drapes, pillows, hair mattresses, brushes, upholstery, furs, piano felts or other natural or synthetic fabrics mixed with wool.

Clothes moths dislike sunshine and are not attracted to artificial light. They are often found in dark places but can be seen fluttering in dark corners. Infestations often start when wool items are improperly stored in dark places and left undisturbed for long periods of time. Silken feeding tubes or hard protective cases are often found on infested fabrics.

There are several steps one can take to protect clothing and furnishings against damage by clothes moths.
a) Establish a regular inspection program of all susceptible items at least once a year.
b) Consider discarding infested item, especially if unimportant.
c) Vacuum regularly cleaning of rugs, carpets, drapes, upholstered furniture, pet bedding, closets, cracks and crevices in floors, and areas inside and behind heaters, furnace air ducts and vents is important.
d) Clean garments regularly.
e) Store articles in a clean air-tight storage container.
f) Place garments in cold storage where temperatures remain below 40° F.
g) If you have a widespread infestation, it is advisable to enlist the services of a pest management professional.

Indian Meal Moths infest stored grains and grain products. The larval stage feeds on flour and meal products, dried fruits, nuts, bird food, and dried pet foods. As the larva feeds it spins a web, leaving behind a silken thread wherever it crawls. Small particles of food often adhere loosely to the thread, making it conspicuous. Many times an infestation is noticed when moths are seen flying around the home in the evening. They are attracted to lights and often appear in front of the television screen.

The Indian meal moth has a wingspan of about 3/4 inch (18-20mm). The color of the outer two-thirds of the wings is bronze to reddish brown, while the part of the wings closer to the body is grayish white. The larvae (caterpillars) are about 1/2 inch (12-13mm) long when mature. They are a dirty white color, sometimes exhibiting pink or green hues. The pupa (resting stage) is in a loose silken cocoon spun by the larva, and is a light brown color.

A female Indian meal moth can lay from 100 to 300 eggs during her lifetime. Within a few days the tiny whitish caterpillars emerge. These larvae feed for a few weeks, and when they are mature they often crawl up the walls to where wall and ceiling meet, or crawl to the top of the cupboard, to spin the silken cocoon in which they pupate and from which the adult moth emerges. Mating occurs and the life cycle repeats itself. In warm weather the cycle may take only 6 to 8 weeks.

The following suggestions may be useful in bringing an infestation quickly under control.

1. Carefully examine all susceptible foods that may have been exposed to infested material.
a) Do not forget bird seed, dog, cat and fish foods.
b) Insects may even be found in paper wrapped products that have not yet been opened in the home.
c) All infested packages should be discarded. There is no satisfactory way of separating the insects from the food products, flour, or meal.

2. The contents from opened packages that appear to be uninfected should be transferred to glass jars with tight fitting tops. It is possible that eggs were laid in these products and they may hatch later and lead to a new infestation if not contained.

3. Remove all food containers and utensils from the infested area (shelf paper may also need to be removed) and clean thoroughly, first with a vacuum cleaner and then with soap and water. Special attention should be paid to cracks and corners where bits of flour, meal or other products may have accumulated. Remove and destroy cocoons that may be found on ceiling of cupboards, or where room walls and ceiling meet.

4. In many cases thorough clean-up will control these insects.

5. If moths reappear, it may be advisable to enlist the services of a pest management professional.

http://www.entomology.cornell.edu/cals/entomology/extension/idl/idlfactsheetlist.cfm

Fed up with rodent infestation, New York man hangs 'Rat Crossing' signs original story nbcnews.com

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Residents on Manhattan's Upper West Side are fighting a rat problem and posting signs to warn pedestrians. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

By Andrew Mach, NBC News

It’s a common sight in New York: rats scurrying across subway tracks, onto dimly-lit streets, and into sewers. And while New Yorkers aren't happy about sharing their city with rodents, it's something that, with experience, they learn to shrug off.

One Manhattan resident, however, is fed up with it.


Joseph Bolanos, president of the West 76th Street Block Association, decided to call attention to the problem by installing eye-catching signs on Wednesday: fake traffic-crossing signs just for the rats.

The diamond-shaped plastic signs prominently feature the words “RAT XING” with a big black rat at the center. Bolanos hung the signs with double-sided tape around his Upper West Side neighborhood.

The move may be a bit flippant, but Bolanos said he thinks the signs could bring attention to the issue plaguing his streets.

“A woman in the building next door said she could hear the rats outside screaming and screeching,” Bolanos told NBC News on Thursday. “I’ve heard neighbors thinking someone got attacked outside because they would hear shrieks, but it was just people who were passing by running with the fear of God in them from all of the rats frolicking like it’s Cirque du Soleil.”

The rat problem, residents said, stems from a construction site where workers have reportedly been leaving trash from their lunch out, underneath a tarp overnight, NBCNewYork.com reported.

“You’re putting a buffet out for them for 12 hours,” Bolanos said, adding that the rats are “really destroying [residents’] quality of life.”

Bolanos said so far, he has put up three signs on posts along a 50-foot radius from the construction site. But he plans to post more.

“I designed them. I laminated them. And they’re going to be bigger next week,” Bolanos said. “Believe it or not, they’ve already started working because when people see them, they cross the ‘rat zone’ altogether.”

But ultimately, Bolanos said, the rat infestation remains the city’s responsibility.

“I’d like to see if the city is going to do anything. Let’s see in the next 10 days if the city has an answer.”

Bolanos suggested adjusting the city’s trash pick-up guidelines as a means of cutting down on the amount of time that rats have to feed on the trash laying around. He also said he wants residents to wait until two hours before pick-up to put garbage outside.

Bolanos even helped organize a mid-August training session for supers, building owners, tenants and others on the Upper West Side concerned with how to better fight the critters. The “Rat Academy” was instructed by a city health department official, Caroline Bragdon, who told attendees where to look for rats’ nests and how to plug holes that might let the vermin into buildings.

New York City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who also helped organize the rat management training, had reportedly secured $50,000 to pay for trash cans with built-in compactors that would be placed around the 76th Street block.

It was during the Rat Academy that Bolanos first mentioned he would hang up the rat-crossing signs, which he said will serve as a warning to pedestrians that they may encounter dozens of rats scurrying by.

Rats aren't a new concern for residents of the West 76th Street area. A report from an association meeting in late May said a professional exterminator was coming to the neighborhood twice a month to help control the rodent population.

Subterranean Termites: Nature's Recyclers

Termites play a vital role in our ecosystem. They are nature’s recyclers. Termites have the ability to consume wood and plant material. In doing so, they remove the dead matter and release the stored nutrients back into the soil for use by plants and animals.

Termites only became a pest when people moved out of caves and began to make homes from wood and straw. Termites do not differentiate between a dead tree in the forest and wood harvested to make homes, schools, and churches.

Billions of dollars are spent annually on termite damage remediation and control. With proper treatment and inspection, much of the destruction can be avoided.

Please visit the Termites section of the LSU AgCenter website for additional information.

Parasitic Wasps Friend or Foe?

We sometimes run across Parasitic Wasp swarms in and around homes. These Wasps can be the size of a pin head to 1/2 inch depending on the species.

Of course in large numbers within a home they must be dealt with but in the garden and our larger Eco-system they are indeed our friends.

Their name is derived from the fact that they lay there eggs within a host. Many of these hosts are Aphids or Caterpillars that destroy our crops.

Below are some videos that show and explain this process.

THESE VIDEOS ARE GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF NATURE PLEASE TAKE THIS INTO CONSIDERATION BEFORE VIEWING THEM