With the stock market crash, gridlock in Washington, riots in London, and, here in Wisconsin, recall elections of state senators, I can sometimes understand the doomsday conspiracy theories that can become popular.
For food processing facilities, there’s a much closer threat. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a facility inspected by AIB, SQF, BRC, or just the FDA. The threat is rodent contamination in food. Take a look at this news report:
Who’s to blame in this situation? It’s hard to say without being there. In many cases, some responsibility will lay with the pest control operator and with the food plant itself.
Here’s the top questions that I would ask in this situation. By the way, pest professionals, these are the questions you should be asking about every food plant you service. QA / QC managers at food plants, you should be asking your pest professional these questions, and expecting quality answers.
- What amount of rodent activity is there on the outside of the structure? You can determine this by looking at the amount of feeding on the exterior bait stations, as well as looking at the conditions that will allow mice to breed, such as weedy lots, farm fields, etc. More rodent activity = more bait stations needed.
- Has the building been rodent proofed recently? Rodent proofing is not a do-once and forget project. Part of the regular maintenance any building needs is a regular inspection, at least once a year, if not once a quarter, for openings that rodents can use to enter. For mice, that’s only 1/4 inch.
- Is product being inspected for rodents as it comes off of the truck and into the facility? This is one of the number one ways that rodents gain access to a building. If a food plant’s dock crew doesn’t know how to do this inspection, then their pest control provider should teach them.
- Are proper storage practices being followed? At minimum, there must be a 12-18 inch inspection line along all exterior walls and product must be stored up off the floor. This allows a good inspection and helps to deter mouse infestations, should mice get inside.
- Is there enough rodent control equipment inside? Each set of standards (AIB, Silliker, etc.) have their own requirements for how much rodent equipment is enough. No one is necessarily better than another, so I recommend picking the one you are most likely to have an inspection under and following it.
- Does the pest control company identify problems that could lead to pests, like storage issues, or areas where exclusion is needed?
- When the pest control company identifies problems, how do you make sure they are actually taken care of properly by maintenance?
Now, you might be thinking that this service can get expensive. True, it can. But, what is the cost of having US Marshals come in and seize your product, of having a report in the local paper about your rodent infestation. Spending a little extra to get the right rodent control service is well worth the cost.
What else would you add on to my list of questions to ask?
 Any of your clients have overgrown weeds like this? Weeds provide food for ants and shelter for rodents. So often, those of us who work in structural pest management – controlling insects, spiders, rodents, and the like around homes and businesses – don’t pause to think about weed control.
That’s a big mistake.
If you are doing a green pest program, it’s an even bigger mistake.
The same applies if your client is an audited food production facility (e.g. AIB, Silliker, SQF, BRC, etc. etc.).
Weeds are frequently fast growing plants, and the young shoots and stems on them can be especially attractive to aphids and the like. Aphids are in a group of insects fondly (or not so fondly, rather) called the honeydew producers. Essentially, they feed upon the sap of plants, which is rich in sugars, so rich, that they excrete excess fluid and sugars. This sweet excretion is known as honeydew. Don’t let the term excretion bring to mind foul waste materials that animals such as us produce from our digestive process. It’s quite the opposite, because other insects will use the honeydew as a food source.
How does this relate to structural pest management? After all, these are just turf and ornamental problems, right?
Well, ants are attracted to honeydew, and will go to great lengths to get it. (That’s a whole other blog entry – we’ll talk further about ants and honeydew producers in a future entry.)
So, having weeds around your structure will draw ants to your structure. The same goes for any untended, ill-maintained plants around your structure, weeds or not.
Weeds also can provide cover for small rodents such as mice and rats, which will attract them to the structure and improves the chances of them nesting on the outside or finding their way inside.
You need to be on top of any weed infestation on the properties that you service.
If you are performing green pest control, you need to make sure that non-chemical control is being performed before you apply pesticides, so weed removal as a way of preventing ants and rodents is essential. You could even expand your services into non-chemical weed control.
And for the food production facilities, any auditor should be deducting points from your client’s audit score if you do not have an effective weed control program. A food production facility should expect that their regular pest inspection include an inspection for weed growth.
The problem, however, is that we don’t talk about weeds in structural pest management. We don’t train on them. And we tend not to be licensed to control them, unless you are dual licensed in landscape maintenance or its equivalent.
Wisconsin, where I am at, has an interesting way around this. Certified applicators in their structural pest category, 7.1, can perform weed control immediately around a building.
For the rest of you, it’s important that your regular inspections include looking for weeds.
Here’s a question that I get sometimes: What Gel Bait is Best for Ant Swarmers?
First of all, let’s take a quick stroll through the ant world to see what a swarmer is, anyhow.
Swarmers (technically known as alates) are winged ants. Winged ants are normally the reproductive caste of an ant. Ant society is divided into different castes, which is a fancy way of saying that they are divided into various job duties, which they are born into. Some are born to work, these belong to the worker caste. Others – depending upon the species – are born to fight. These belong to the solider caste. And others are born to reproduce – these belong to the reproductive caste.
Reproductives start off with wings. These are called alates or swarmers. They have a mating flight, where they find reproductives from other ant colonies (ants have a taboo on inbreeding, just like we do) and mate. The male swarmers have served their sole function in the world and die. The female swarmers loose their wings and become queens, whose primary function is laying eggs.
Got it?
Now, let’s head back to the initial question: which gel bait is best for ant swarmers?
The answer is easy. None. They are interested in mating and founding a colony (aside from the males who just wander off and die), not in eating. Bait doesn’t work on swarmers.
I normally recommend people to use a fast acting aerosol or dust insecticide for control of swarmers. Don’t under apply – this is a case where you want to use the highest application rate allowed by the label. A fast acting liquid insecticide can work, too.
I remember treating an apartment for German cockroaches with my Uncle Leonard.
He picked up a phone in the kitchen and told me, “Always treat the phone.”
I asked, “Why is that?”
He put the phone down. “Because once I had a callback and I went through the whole kitchen trying to figure out what I missed. I sprayed into the phone and thirty or forty roaches came running out! Now I always treat the phone.”
Knowing where to find German cockroach harborages is key to controlling them, whether you are old school and use a sprayer or aerosol, or whether you are using modern baits. You must find these harborages and treat every one of them.
Here’s some of the rules German cockroaches use when looking for a harborage. The more of these exist in an area, the more likely it is to be used as a harborage.
The Three W’s
Not to be confused with The Big W. This is an old mnemonic device to help figure out where German cockroaches harbor.
1. Wood.
We’ve all seen cockroaches in wooden cabinets (nowadays more likely particle board), but don’t confine the idea of wood just to this. Anything made with wood will count. Paper bags? Check. Cardboard? Check. Books, phone books, and so forth? Check again.
2. Water
It’s not quite right to say “water,” but it works for the mnemonic device. What they are really attracted to is damp areas. Does the refrigerator drip at the condenser? There you have a source of water. Older refrigerators even have a drip pan and cardboard on the back. That gives you two checks. Wooden cabinets hold moisture from a dripping sink. That gives you another two checks.
3. Warmth
Cockroaches are attracted to warm areas. Thinking back to the old refrigerator above, it had cardboard on the back (wood), a dripping condenser motor (water), and of course, if it’s running, warmth. This is why refrigerators can be a key harborage area in a home.
Finding German cockroach harborages is a matter of learning what makes for a good harborage and applying it in control situations. By all means, they can infest areas that don’t have any of these features, but they are more likely to be food where you have the more ideal conditions for them.
The Three W’s are just some of the factors to look for when trying to find German cockroach harborages. In a future post, we’ll look at some other key factors.
I’ve had a pest problem around my house, and it’s been the darnedest thing to try to get rid of. Every year, bumble bees have invaded my subarea. One year there was even three different colonies. I know this because my subarea is divided into three different areas (it’s a long story… I talk about it some here.) Three colonies!
Sometimes you wonder if the pests are targeting you, like maybe they have a top-ten most wanted list.
And, to make it worse, a few would make their way inside, and buzz around the back of the house, taunting my cats. One even made its way upstairs, to where our bedroom is at.
I tried dusting them, but it didn’t work. I even pulled out my old tub of Ficam D (oh yeah!), and shot them with that, but it didn’t even work. (If you aren’t familiar with Ficam D, it’s an insecticidal dust that is no longer sold, and it was to stinging insects what Safrotin was to cockroaches, one of those products that those of us who have been around for a while use as a yardstick for comparing new products, you know, “this new dust, it works ok, but nothin’ is quite like good ol’ Ficam D.”)
Finally, one year I laid concrete into one of the openings and blocked over another. That was the end of my bumble bee problem.
But, then I got to thinking. Bumble bees are beneficial insects, important native pollinators. What impact was I having on the bumble bee population in my neighborhood by denying them a place to live?
In pest management, we’re not all about killing the bugs, but rather, about bringing them back into the proper balance.
I decided that I would make some bumble bee houses.
They would work fine behind my garage. That way, if a prowler was wandering around back there, he would kick one accidentally, and end up with a face full of bumble bees. It would also help the local bumble bee populations in light of my keeping them from living in my home.
Doing research on the internet, I found that people had success using coffee cans with some holes punched in them and some grass inside for nesting material. I made a few different types. One was a coffee can, meant to be laid on its side, with some drain holes in the side that would be facing down, and a hole in the plastic lid for the bees to use. The other was more sophisticated: one coffee can for the nest, and another for a cover, both with holes to let the bumble bees get in.
 A makeshift bumble bee nest box.  Another makeshift bumble bee nest box. |
Then, I put them out, both with weights to keep them from blowing away. We live near to Lake Michigan, and the wind can be brutal.
 The first bumble bee nest box in place, with bricks to hold it down.  This one is fancy. We have a block underneath to keep moisture from wicking up into it and to keep it from sinking, and bricks on top to hold the whole thing down. |
And, here you can see all of them, lined up behind my garage, mixed in with the black eyed susans I recently planted! Let’s hope the bumble bee queens find these and build some nests.
 All of my bumble bee nest boxes. I should probably talk more about treating for bumble bees, since that’s what you came here for.
Although most consumers think of bumble bees as harmless, we in the pest management industry know better. They will most certainly sting if you threaten their nest.
For control, a dust is often the best choice. Injected into the entry point for their nest, the bees can easily pick it up on their bodies, and then, through social grooming, feeding one another, and so forth, spread it throughout the colony.
Pyrethroids (deltamethrin, cyfluthrin) tend not to be as effective as the other classes. I’ve been using dusts such as Alpine D with good results. (I solved my personal bumble bee problem before Alpine D came out, so I don’t know how it would have fared as compared to my Ficam D.)
And now, the requisite summary: Bumble bees have an important role in nature and should be left alone, unless they are living inside your house or someplace that puts someone at risk of being stung.
Best of luck this season on your stinging insect jobs. May you do all the stinging and take none in return!
Do you have an insecticide that has a warm place in your heart?
If you’ve been around for a while, it might be chlordane. Newer people tend to like Tempo or Demand, and people who come from the country of Argentine Ants often name Termidor.
For me, it has to be Safrotin. Yes, the good old EC formulation of propetamphos, later reformulated as Catalyst. Some people didn’t like Catalyst as much as Safrotin, and maybe they were right, but still, I’d have taken either formulation over any other product if you send me into a dark apartment filled with German cockroaches and fleas. Of course, I’d also want a respirator, since both propetamphos formulations were known for their, ah, odor.
When the EPA brought the sword of Solomon down on the insecticide class called the organophosphates (OP’s for short), we lost many of our best products at the time. Diazinon, Dursban, and the like, were cleaved from the structural pest control industry. But, the best out of all the OP’s, propetamphos, oddly survived with only a flesh wound. We lost the residential use of propetamphos, but kept a label for commercial kitchens.
Oh, what a shame was that!
 The famous dead flea on the back of the Safrotin coffee mug. Makes me want more coffee. For fleas, nothing has yet to compare to propetamphos. The only solace in flea control is that Frontline (on-pet applications of fipronil) have taken the market from the structural pest control industry. Well, without propetamphos, good riddance. And for German cockroaches, oh, this resilient pest, ever gaining the ability to metabolize pesticides into harmless byproducts, or other ways to outwit our treatments. Propetamphos was one of the few products that the German cockroach never was reported to be resistant to.
You don’t get a product like that every day.
I can also make the same comment about the smell. Few OP’s stank quite as much as a propetamphos formulation, so it was odd that a commercial kitchen was the only place where we were still allowed to treat. Really, with baits and modern insecticides, I can treat just minutes before they open or even (illegally) treat while they are serving, and no one would know any better. (Not that I’ve ever done that, or condone that, etc. etc.) Try that with Safrotin and I don’t know what would happen first: either the patrons would go running out, or the cook would come at you with a frying pan. (Good thing you bought those anti-slip work boots, so you can scram and not slip in the oil and grease on the floor.)
I just saw the news today, however. The end of an era. The last of the line dies out. Propetamphos is being cancelled. The date for the funeral is December 31, 2012. Here’s the obituary, as written by the EPA.
As great as propetamphos was, it had outlived its life. The odor alone made it a product of the 1980′s, not of today’s world. Flea control is still gone, and we now have less invasive, safer ways to treat for German cockroaches. Used properly, you can get results equal or better than you could with propetamphos.
Other products that you use today may be coming to the end of their lives. Don’t wait for the EPA to wield the sword of Solomon on them, as well. Try out new products and see if they might work better than what you are using. Maybe you can use less product, or perhaps they have a better environmental profile. And, let me tell you, as much as I mourn the loss of the OP’s, we now have products on the market – finally, after so many years – that compare or even beat out the OP’s.
Propetamphos, rest in peace.
One of the great things about going to school at North Carolina State University was that I got exposed to a great group of insects called the Membracids or treehoppers.
 Crazy Looking Treehopper
Treehoppers are well-known (perhaps even loved?) for their helmets, which are often more outlandish than Phyllis Diller’s latest hairdo. The one you see here is a great example – and a case of insect mimicry, because of course, at first glance, it appears to be a rather wicked looking ant.
 Crazy Looking Treehopper, with body segments indicated But, to a student of insect identification, you can see the flaws in its doppelganger. I see antenna and mandibles on the pseudo-head, but as we move to the pseudo-thorax, it doesn’t have a leg to stand on. There are some thorns on it that look nasty, but as you move to the pseudo-abdomen, you see that it’s missing a node. In the picture, I’ve indicated these sections in red.
Perhaps the biggest giveaway is the treehopper underneath the fake ant, but hey, it’s doing a good job of mimicry considering.
Not all pests are what they seem. Using the basics of identification, you can find your way around some insect mimicry and identify specimens that would perplex people who aren’t as skilled.
 The Cat, contemplating his next move. I just don’t understand my cat, Aesun. When I leave the backdoor open and the screen unlatched, to run out the garbage, it seems like it sets off a signal in his kitty command center (which I think is hidden under the coffee table – why else would he squeeze himself under there so often?). When I get back to the door to go inside, there he is, about to make a run for it into the great outdoors, where he will be able to indulge all of his kitty fantasies of killing small furry critters (yes, that is a scientific term). But instead, he finds me, coming inside, and his chance to make his mark in the world is ruined, as I shoo him inside and – egad – I close the door.
So, last weekend, we decided to treat him to being outside to keep us company while we were gardening. We have a large stake for chaining ferocious dogs in the yard, and since he is such a large, ferocious cat, we used it with his leash to keep him from accidentally running into the street while chasing a small furry critter. (It also doesn’t help that he’s deaf – he’d never hear an oncoming car.)
After a few minutes of eating grass and sniffing the tiger lilies, Aesun started crying and pawing at the door. So I just don’t get it. He wants to go outdoors, but only on his terms, not on ours.
The one thing we didn’t think about when we took him outside, though, was what other animals have been in the yard. And, more importantly, what did these other animals LEAVE in the yard. No, I don’t mean waste, but rather, pests.
Wildlife, neighborhood cats, and even the dog next door can carry fleas or ticks and drop them in the yard, and then when your pet goes outside, they can pick them up.
I’m not a fan of preventive on-animal flea treatments, unless you frequently find little blood feeding pests on your pets frequently, so Aesun isn’t on Frontline. So, this means if there were any fleas in the yard, he could have picked them up and started an infestation inside.
This is why I recommend that people don’t allow wildlife or stray animals to live in their yards. It can be difficult sometimes to keep them from passing through your yard, but if they are living there, something needs to be done. Often live trapping is the best option, but what you can do varies upon the animal and local regulations.
So far, we haven’t seen any fleas inside. But, unless we take a flea comb to Aesun, we probably won’t know for a while.
And if we do get fleas, well, I’ve never lived with them before, so it might be fun to see what it’s like, and experiment on them. Just don’t tell my wife about that. I already exposed her to black flies to see what the bites were like, and then there was the dengue fever she got from the mosquitoes on our honeymoon…
How often do you talk to your commercial clients about inspecting incoming goods, pallets, packages, and so forth for pest activity? If you are like most of us, probably not enough.
(Note to readers from the food processing industry, especially quality assurance managers and technicians, production supervisors, plant managers, and so forth: if you don’t inspect incoming goods, talk with your pest management professional about what you should be looking for, best practices for your industry, and so forth. Even consider a mini-training session on the topic. If your pest management professional can’t help you, try his manager, and if he can’t… you might want to consider another pest management company who specializes in your industry.)
It boggles my mind to think about some of the pests I’ve seen arrive on pallets and in packages:
- German cockroaches (on an international shipment)
- Mice (of course… I heard a study where a distribution center had more mice show up on pallets than through dock doors. Is your rodent management program set up for this type of invasion?)
- Black widows
- Brown widows
- And my personal favorite: Chinese Coptotermes (that is, a relative of the Formosan termite).
The Chinese termites were sent to a landfill, and a couple of swarmers were sent to me for identification. Non-US termites are outside of my realm of insect identification skills, so I sent them to the USDA APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine, who, in turn, sent them off to a specialist in Washington, DC for identification. I never heard back regarding an identification. Sometimes, when I think about the samples, I think of them ending up in some X-Files type secret government lab, preserved in formaldehyde, in a jar next to a jar containing the alien that Deep Throat shot. Who knows?
A Walmart in Superior, Wisconsin, recently got a shipment in that contained what looks to be an exotic and dangerous Brazilian spider. If this can happen in Superior, Wisconsin, of all places, with a pest from South America… don’t think that your clients’ incoming goods are somehow exempt and safe. Be proactive, and this month, make a point to talk to them about the importance of inspecting incoming goods.
Here’s an excerpt from the article and a link to the Superior Telegram:
Sheila Terry got more than just a bunch of bananas from her shopping trip to the Superior WalMart on Tuesday.
The Terrys, both 53, took the spider to Larry Weber, a retired science teacher, member of the American Arachnological Society and author of numerous nature books, including “Spiders of the North Woods.”
After looking at the insect under a microscope, Weber said he’s “90 percent sure” it’s a Brazilian wandering spider.
“It is one of the world’s most dangerous spiders,” he said.
Can you really get rid of pests with one treatment?
This question was posed to me by someone fairly new to our industry. People he had networked with recommended a 30 day follow up with most pests.
I disagree. You can get rid of pests with one treatment.
Now, before you start lobbing virtual tomatoes at me in my comments section, let me add in some caveats. I’m assuming…
* Extensive sanitation, clutter, and structural issues are addressed
* We’re not talking about commercial restaurants (a beast unto themselves) or large apartment buildings (ahem… the problems associated with these is a topic for many later blog posts)
* We are talking about insects and other invertebrate pests, not rodents
* The source of the pests isn’t an adjoining property
If these don’t apply, you should be able to get pests under control with one treatment, in most cases.
These are the keys to controlling pests with one treatment.
* Experienced, knowledgeable technicians
* The most effective product (chemical and formulation) for the target pest, using the proper application equipment
* Methodical pesticide applications, performed based upon the results of a detailed inspection
What did I miss? Feel free to share in the comments.
|
Get Blog Updates by Email
Our strict privacy policy keeps your email address 100% safe & secure.
Destination: Haiti I recently went on a journey to Haiti to bring Pest Management to this devastated country. If you are looking for my Pest Management Project: Haiti posts, go
here to start reading. |
