The Pest Guy

Rodent Proofing Your Home

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:54:00 +0000

I spoke a while back about pest proofing your home for winter. With cooler weather on it’s way it’s best to prepare now in order to keep them out.

Rats and mice can cause serious damage to homes and structures. The damage often includes broken insulation in walls and/or ceiling, electrical wiring gets chewed, holes in drywalls and other areas of the home.

Globally rodents spread over 35 diseases. These diseases can be passed on to humans through handling, contact with their feces, urine, saliva or rodent bites. Potential diseases include listeria, leptospirosis, lymphocytic chorio-meningitis and salmonellosis. Diseases carried by rodents can also be spread indirectly, through fleas, mites or ticks that have fed on an infected rodent.

The primary strategy for preventing exposure to rodent diseases is effective rodent control in and around the home and office. The following tips can help deter and stop mice and rats from invading your home and looking for a warm cozy place to spend the winter;

Remove any access to food

Ensure your garbage is kept in a tight fitted lidded container.
Store any foods, including pet food in tightly sealed metal or glass container. Avoiding plastic or paper as rodents can easily gnaw into them.
In outbuildings such as barns, seal rooms where feed is kept or put feed in metal containers with tight-fitting lids.
Remove outside bird and wildlife feeders. These encourage rats and mice.
Do not leave any pet food outside for more than an hour. Besides attracting rodents, you are sure to attract other insects.

Removing harborages

Prune shrubs and keeps weeds trimmed back from the foundation.
Store firewood away from the ground and away from the house.
Any abandoned furniture you may have in your yard that you've been meaning to take to the dump, make a point of going. This is a potential nesting site.

Deterring inside your home

Make sure all areas are clean, including out of sight, quiet areas.
Mop up any spills and crumbs.

General maintenance

Inspect the exterior of your house for any cracks or openings larger than ¼”. Seal off any areas you find, including cable and piped areas.
Screen vents and doors, replacing any damage ones in the process.

What about ultrasonic devices – do they work?

Research has been compiled over the years on different ultrasonic devices and if they can deter rodents. Pest professionals on a global scale have failed to embrace ultra sonic devices as they are not cost effective either to use on their own or as a supplement to the management of rodent control. For the do-it-yourself enthusiast we wouldn't recommend wasting your money, and would suggest you use your money to get a professional pest control company in instead.

Can't I just use a mouse bait myself?

There has been so much in the news recently about pesticides not being correctly administered that we would not recommend this course of treatment. Not just for mice or rats but any other pest in the home. This is even more so if you have children and pets. Finding and tracking rat and mouse trails is what a pest professional is trained to do and knows what to look out for, as well as administer the treatment in a safe way.

Cold Weather Brings.....

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:05:00 +0000

It’s getting later in the year, it’s cooler out of doors and we’re hiding inside for comfort. And we’re not necessarily the only ones. Insects and pests are generally more readily associated with the hotter weather of summer and spring, but it’s when it gets cold that many of the troubles start. Mice, rats and even some insects want to stay warm and your nice, cosy, centrally heated flat is just the sort of place to find it.

Rodent infestations increase dramatically over the autumn and winter months, and contrary to popular belief they can occur in both towns and the countryside. Rats and mice are drawn to sources of food just as much as heat and the substantial quantities of garbage found in towns and cities such as London mean there’s plenty on offer for them there. So, a simple technique to decrease the likelihood of infestation is to be sure your junk isn’t left out for days or else is kept in a secure bin. Otherwise, the mice will discover it, start mating and you might quickly find an infestation on your hands.

Rats and mice have a sense of smell many times as strong as a human being’s. Like many mammals, scents are essential to their survival, as they use their pee to mark out territory, objects and tracks. You can therefore deter rodents by laying down strong smells. Mothballs are a commonplace and effective method, though the potent aroma can also become unpleasant for we human beings as well.As a result it’s a solution most appropriate to out-of-the way spots that are prone to infestation, such as attics, cellars and sheds or perhaps caravans and campers which may be left uninhabited during the winter.

Wasps are usually a summer problem, but the recent warm weather means that a large number of wasps are remaining active much later than is normal. Those nests that remain out in the open will be unlikely to survive the first frost, but those inside – hidden away in attics, sheds or barns – may survive into late October and early November. The new queen will generally have left the nest after the summer, but those wasps left behind will continue to look for food. Like a lot of us, they can end up getting a bit tipsy as Christmas draws near, as often the only food available is fruit which has fallen from a tree and has begun to ferment. Unfortunately, many wasps can be at their most dangerous at this time of the year; since the hunt for food becomes more and more difficult, the insects will become ever more aggressive. As with mice and rats you can reduce your chances of attracting wasps by not leaving food out for longer than is necessary. If there are just a few wasps about, a trap can be sufficient to deal with them, but the best approach is to simply wait for them to fly away.

Winter brings its own problems in terms of pest infestations, but to be informed is to be prepared. One can find a variety of small, preventative steps you can take to prevent pest infestations, but remember that treating an established colony directly is a problem best left to the professionals. And remember, it might not just be you who’s keeping warm in your home this winter.

If you have any question or need advice, please feel free to contact me. I have been a licensed Pest Controller for 20 years, and specialize in Rodent Behavior and Rodent Exclusion.

Installing Gopher or Mole Wire and Baskets

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:06:00 +0000

Gophers:

They are the scourge of nurseries, gardens, lawns, athletic fields, orchards, golf courses and other open public areas. Anyone who lives in an area infested with gophers knows the signs - the mounds of fresh soil dotting the ground's surface.

One gopher can create several mounds in a day. Mounds can interfere with lawn mowers and severely impact the appearance of lawns.

Conditions for digging are ideal in irrigated areas: flower beds, lawns and gardens. Gophers love to eat vines, shrubs, trees, ornamental plants and vegetables.

Their tunnels can cause soil erosion by diverting irrigation water. During a gopher's digging activity, lawn sprinkler systems and plastic water lines can be gnawed on and damaged.

A burrow system can cover an area of 200 to 2,000 square feet. Food storage and nesting areas can be as deep as six feet. Feeding burrows with a 3" diameter are most often 6" to 12" below ground.

Gopher Wire:

Perhaps the most effective way to combat the destructive and very costly impact of gophers on gardens, lawns, athletic fields, nurseries and plantings is to bury wire mesh below the ground's surface. Though costly and labor intensive, such a barrier will prevent gophers from burrowing to the surface.
I get a lot of questions about the proper way to install a wire barrier to prevent gophers and moles from damaging lawns. This can be one of the most costly mistakes one can make when installing a new lawn. The cost of the installation is high as it is and then the extra cost of the installation of the wire is daunting. However, in areas of mole and gopher populations this step is worthwhile if done right.

I have seen many installations where the wire used was aviary wire, like chicken wire but with half inch diagonal mesh instead of one inch. This kind of wire was not meant to be buried and will fail in a short period of time. My choice of wire is to use either galvanized hardware cloth with one half by one inch openings or "gopher wire" wire made specifically for burying underground. One brand to consider is "Diggers" gopher wire which is a three quarter inch galvanized mesh and soon there will be available a stainless steel mesh.

Welded wire - A good mesh to use as gopher wire is 1/2"x1/2" welded wire. This is available in both 19 gauge, hardware cloth, and heavier 16 gauge wire. It comes in both a galvanized after weld and PVC vinyl coated finish. The galvanized finish protects the wire from rust and corrosion. The vinyl coating gives the mesh even longer protection. Widths up to 72" makes it easier to cover large areas with fewer joints.

Woven wire - Hex netting also makes an excellent gopher wire barrier. Vinyl coated 19 gauge, 3/4" and 20 gauge, 1" meshes are available. As with the welded wire, the PVC coating assures years of use. Lighter weight than the welded mesh products, the hex products are easier to work with. Rolls of 1" hex are available in widths up to 90".
Proper way to Install:

First off, when it comes to curbs. Cut an extra 1-2 inches and corner your screen to walkways and sidewalks. Remember! Gophers have legs, they can walk across a concrete surface and burrow in at the edge or corner of a lawn.

Sprinkler heads & Valve Boxes, Irrigation folks spend alot of time building up the valve box and proper sreen under box is another blog, but screen around is vary important. AGAIN! Over cut your gopher wire by about 1-2 inches, maybe more depending on size of the box.

Make a (capital I shape) cut across the box and fold the wire down around the box tight. DON'T just cut a circle around the box or head.

Look at your average pocket gopher hole size. If you leave a gap between a box or sprinkler head, they will borrow.

If the sod is installed directly on top of the wire gophers will go under it and pull the grass down through the wire and moles will push piles of soil up through it defeating the purpose of the extra expense. Proper placement is to install the wire and then cover it with one to two inches of soil and then lay the sod on that. If you exceed one to two inches then gophers and moles will just tunnel in between the sod and wire.

Contractors sometimes try to talk you out of this extra step but be firm, this is the step that makes the extra expense work. Below is the first stage of laying the wire. I like to see the wire laid so that the leading edge of the wire or the part the is shingled under the next is toward the invading gopher or mole. This usually means that if the lawn is next to the house, the second row of wire goes under the first and so on. Just think of the animal tunneling under the wire. You want the seams to be layered so that if there is a small opening it is away from the direction of the tunnel.

Next you see the overlapping and soil is added as the sod is laid. The wire is held in place with sod pins or landscape staples

The staple placed about 2 to three feet apart. Again be very careful to have tight overlaps of 4-6 inches without buckling or openings.

Sometimes a vertical barrier is more appropriate for a garden area or to fence a wild area and home area. I recommend a trench 2-3 foot deep and install the wire with a ninety degree bend to the outside. Because gophers also invade from the surface, an above ground portion of at least six inches is needed also. Sometimes this can be tied into a fence or border

Gopher Baskets are very easy to use and install and I recommend them for perennial plantings, especially young fruit trees or roses. You can make them out of gopher wire or hardware cloth again stay away from making them with chicken or aviary wire.

Below is the kind of damage you can avoid with proper wire placement.

resource & photos The Grass Farm, GopherMan

Mosquitoes: Here they come

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:09:00 +0000

It has been theorized by many scientists who are familiar with human history and anthropology, as well as with insect-borne diseases, that one half of all the humans who have ever existed on the Earth have died from malaria. This is a pretty astounding suggestion to make, and one that obviously is based only on good circumstantial evidence, but it points out an undeniable fact:

Insects are, without a doubt, the most dangerous of all the animals when it comes to human health threats.

Today there are many dozens of diseases that afflict humans around the world, and which are carried to these people by insects, and other arthropods such as ticks and mites. In this first online course that begins a coverage of the insect and arthropod vectors of diseases to humans, we would like you to join us in learning about the basics of Vector Management and our first group of vectors, the mosquitoes.

I often take my dog-and-pony show of Showy Insects into elementary schools, and have the opportunity to talk for a half hour or an hour to students from first grade right on up through sixth grade. Not only is this a great way to share my fascination with the Bug World, but it's good corporate citizenship to become involved with your community. When I'm talking with groups of 7-year-old students in the second grade level I try not to get too morbid with my presentation, and therefore I don't dwell on the negative aspects of insects. No sense in sending them all home crying.

However, I believe it is extremely valuable for people to understand the importance of insects to the lives and livelihood of humans, so I at least go over the topic of insect-borne diseases briefly. I first hold up two insect specimens - a rhinoceros beetle that is about 6 inches long from the end of its horn to the end of its abdomen, and a mosquito (which they, of course, really can't see from where they are sitting). I then ask the students which of these two bugs is probably the most dangerous to people, and almost always their answer will be "the rhinoceros beetle". They base this perception on the huge, scary size of the beetle, compared with the tiny mosquito that they know only as a nuisance on warm summer evenings.

So, then I tell them the impact mosquitoes actually have on people around the world, and ask if any of them know the names of some of the diseases spread by mosquitoes. Up through about fourth grade they never do. Virtually never do any of these young students know of malaria, yellow fever, dengue, encephalitis, or the host of other "arboviruses" or parasites mosquitoes pass to humans. Curiously, though, when I speak to students in fourth grade or higher I almost always will have at least one student give the answer of "AIDS", as a disease spread by mosquitoes. Interesting they should already believe that, and it isn't even true.

Because we are not personally confronted with the devastation insects cause to human health we are not provided with this information in our schools. Just imagine, though, if Great White Sharks were killing 3 million people each year around the world. NOW they would hear about it.

Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe we should congratulate ourselves on a job well-done, that no children in the United States are aware of these diseases by virtue of having had them, or having friends or family die from arthropod-borne diseases. It isn't that North America has never suffered from plagues of malaria or yellow fever, but only that the vector and pest control industries have done a remarkable job of beating them back and out of the country.

However, we must keep our guards up, because we still have the vectors. We still have all those species of mosquitoes living in North America, species that are quite capable of passing the disease pathogens into humans. All we need now is the pathogen, and they are certainly available out there.

IPM for Cockroach Control

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 22:09:00 +0000

Brought to by:

After decades of fighting them we still find cockroaches to be a formidable and common enemy. It is not so much that the weapons we have for our fight are not effective, since a cockroach properly exposed to an insecticide is very likely to die. The problems may have more to do with the biology of the cockroach, its amazing biological potential to produce more of its own kind, and with the lack of understanding or cooperation on the part of the customer who continues to provide sustenance and a home for these insects. It was said many years ago at a training seminar provided by one of our product manufacturers, that “pesticides cannot overcome poor sanitation”, and this situation has not changed. We cannot expect to spray an insecticide onto a filthy surface and have it available to kill a cockroach that may later wander onto that surface. Filth is very often organic matter, and organic materials have an affinity for pesticide molecules. The molecule is absorbed into the organic matter and is no longer available to a pest. “Filth” is exactly that – it is unsanitary matter on some surface where it does not need to be, and if that surface happens to be in a food service account the stage may be set for human health to be in jeopardy.

There are over 3,500 different species of cockroaches found throughout the world. In North America there are around 60 or so species, many of them native to this continent and most of them of no consequence as pests. Cockroaches are scavengers that feed on leftover organic materials, and when restricting their activities to the outdoors they serve some benefit to a properly working environment. It is the species that have found their way into North America from other parts of the world, and which often prefer to live within our structures, that have become the tenacious problems we have today. Chief among these must be the German Cockroach, actually native to North Africa, but such a prolific breeder that it can quickly populate and overrun a food account if sufficient food, water, and harborage are made available to it. Not far behind may be the American Cockroach, the Oriental Cockroach, and the Smoky Brown Cockroach, often found outdoors but commonly living or foraging inside as well. We also have constant newcomers, such as the Turkestan Cockroach, now being found more commonly in California.

With all the things that do change in our world, some facts do not. The German Cockroach is a serious public health menace, firmly linked to the occurrence of asthma in children and incriminated as a vector of many kinds of pathogenic bacteria that it may carry on its outer body. Allowing this insect to continue to live in association with people in their homes or in food service settings is an invitation to illness. Cockroaches are far more than a nuisance – they are a threat to the health of humans. In fact, a list of known health problems associated with cockroaches includes asthma, abscesses, diarrhea, dysentery, gastroenteritis, typhoid and urinary tract infections. Up to 37% of children may be allergic to cockroaches. They also are survivors, and as organisms that have been around for over 300 million years, virtually unchanged in their appearance, they have seen and adapted to a great many events and changes in their environment that were destructive to other organisms around them.

It also continues to be a fact that a cockroach needs several things in order to survive, just as it has for its millions of years of existence. Cockroaches have lived on the Earth, relatively unchanged, for over 300 million years, and they have been this successful because they have developed some excellent survival instincts. Like all living organisms this cockroach needs to eat, to have sufficient moisture, and to have a place to hide when it is not actively foraging for that food and water. Completely remove even one of these life needs and the cockroach cannot survive. However, all too often we fight our fight only with chemicals, and continue to allow the roach to have its earthly needs. The presence of these three undeniable needs – food, water, harborage – is common for all animals, and completely eliminating one of the three on this triangle would cause the death of that animal. We may have learned that the House Mouse does not need to drink water, but it DOES need moisture, and gets that moisture from the foods it eats. In a very dry situation the House Mouse will still drink water if it’s available.

This course is going to be on “Integrated” pest management of cockroaches. We have used this phrase for decades, and in recent years it has morphed to a slightly different phrase called “Green” pest management. But, IPM or GPM, the concept is much the same. We should never place a total reliance on chemicals to provide us with the best pest management. If we evaluate (a.k.a. “inspect”) a situation we can find many factors that are supporting the existence of the pest. Working to eliminate these factors plays a major role in providing satisfactory pest elimination for the longest period of time with the least use of toxic substances. This is not a criticism of insecticides, for they have a very important role to play when used properly. But, pesticides need to be only one part of the overall management program. So, please begin by taking our short 10 question Pre-Quiz, which will not count toward your successful completion of the course, but which may indicate how much you know about this topic beforehand.

Who is "The Pest Guy"

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:42:00 +0000

Hello fans!

I have been a Pest Control Tech for 19 years, and focused on Rodent Proofing, and Rodent Behavior for over 16 years. I currently run a IPM & Pest Control Dept for a US Government Agency.

I started off as a route tech for a Pest Control Company with a night route! Need I say more, it sucked! I found that I hated Cockroaches and Rats more then any of my clients, making it very easy to do and enjoy my job.

I make Pest Control look good! ...... & COOL!

For years now I wanted to share my experiences and knowledge of pest control and give folks the INSIDE world of Pest Control Companies and what you can do.

Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to contact me!

Bedbugs and other True Bugs

noreply@blogger.com (Evanino.com) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:31:00 +0000

"Sleep Tight, Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite" - a short bit of poetry that virtually everybody in the United States has heard at one time or another, and yet for so many years the citizens of the U.S. lived virtually free from annoyance by bedbugs. I have been with the pest control industry since the 1970's, and for the first 20 years of my tenure in it I almost never saw bedbugs, and a pest control company was likely to receive a phone call for their control only about once every 10 years. There were exceptions, of course, for bedbugs were always out there, and in some situations reared their ugly heads on a regular basis. But, in general these common household pests of the early 20th Century were pushed back into obscurity for many decades. Those days appear to be over.

There is a lot more to the group we call the "True Bugs", a Suborder of insects called the Heteroptera. For those familiar with the Latin names of some of the groups of insects we deal with, you may be going "Aha! - the guy doesn't know what he's talking about…..the true bugs are the Order Hemiptera", and you are essentially correct. However, with all the shuffling of names that continues to occur in the insect world, the Hemiptera now also includes a whole bunch of insects that used to be in a separate Order called the Homoptera. This group includes things like aphids, scales, leaf hoppers, whiteflies, and cicadas, which for now at least are lumped into the Hemiptera, but within their own sub-grouping.

But, back to the True Bugs. Just why we have chosen to call this group, out of all the groups of insects, the "TRUE" bugs, is still a matter of debate. Some believe the word "bug" is derived from an Old English word "bogy", which meant a Hobgoblin, which in turn meant a "terror in the dark". It is believed that our common bedbug originally fed on bats that lived in caves, and as humans evolved and moved into caves for shelter these blood feeding bugs began to utilize humans for their food as well. As humans eventually began building their own shelters to live in they brought the parasites with them, and over hundreds of thousands of years the common bedbug became associated more with humans than with its original host animals. In fact, though, the common bedbug - Cimex lectularius - continues to be a common problem on poultry and other birds, as well as on bats and rodents.

However, the Suborder Heteroptera is a big group of insects, and there is a lot more to it than just the highly publicized bedbugs. We also are very familiar with a family called the Reduviidae, or Assassin Bugs. Several species in this group are blood feeders and potential vectors of one very nasty disease. A wide variety of "bugs" are serious plant pests, and while we will mention a few of them the primary focus of this course will be those Bugs that occur within structures. The plant pests will be a separate Master Technician course for the Turf and Ornamental topic area. Various kinds of Bugs are known to choose our structures for their over-wintering headquarters, and become a serious nuisance as they enter in the fall or leave in the spring. For the remainder of this course we can just refer to this important insect group as the "Bugs", and move on from most of the scientific names.

More crawling here soon!