Pest Control and Bug Exterminator Blog

Google+ Communities

Today Google+ announced the addition of Communities to its popular social networking site. The idea is to have large groups of members arranged around a Google+ hub page which is dedicated to a specific topic like fishing, running, or pest control. Google+ will let members share to particular communities with posts, photos, +1′s, and hangouts. The feature is now live for the sites 235 Million users.

Pest Control Community On Google+

With this exciting new announcement from Google+, we have founded the Pest Control Community Page. We will be using this page to communicate important news and updates within the pest control industry. We will also use it to curate pest control related articles from our member’s blogs, like this one.

Everyone is welcome to join the Pest Control Community. We are in need of pest control professionals to share their knowledge and expertise. We are also in need of a few qualified moderators with industry experience… If you are interested, let us know.

Join The Pest Control Community Today!

Join Google+’s Pest Control Community today and begin connecting with other pest control professionals from around the world. Post cool bug pictures. Keep up to date on all the latest industry developments. Have rich conversations, and ask the difficult pest control questions.

Let’s build this community together.

Google+ Pest Control Community Page  

Click Here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/113279968105051869214

Published by: Anthony Ball

President Obama Re-Elected For Second Term 

The highly contested 2012 election has come to an end, with President Barack Obama coming out victorious over Governor Mitt Romney. The President retained a second term from an extremely divided nation and electorate. This was illustrated by the popular vote, which Romney lead most of the election night; eventually closing with Obama obtaining 58,720,700 (50.1%) votes to Romney’s 56,145,950 (48.4 %).

This Country’s voters who elected President Obama to another four years, also elected a divided congress. Republicans re-established their majority in the House of Representatives, and the Democrats will keep control over the Senate. As pest control operators, we will wait and see what affects this has on our industry.

What the 2012 Election Means For Pest Control Operators 

With congressional seats up for grabs, pest control operators were not only watching the presidential race, we were watching the congressional races as well. Should some environmental activists gain more control, of both houses, there is a possibility that they could potentially push through significant amounts of legislation that will impact the pest control industry.

Bob Rosenberg, Senior VP of The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) says:

“An environmental movement is re-gaining its footing, and will have the potential to create legislative and regulatory challenges for pest management professionals. There are people in positions of authority that have a long history of going after our industry.”

Knowing this, the National Pest Control Association Political Action Committee, which is/was a PAC qualified committee, contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the 2012 election; according to the most recent FEC filing. Other pest control contributions varied from state to state, depending on the particular legislation.

Most pest control experts believe, with a balance in both houses now, we can expect to see more of the same in the industry. It is unknown how much legislation will change, but our Nation’s elected leaders will strive to make the industry more regulated, with safer pesticides.

Going Forward 

All of us here at Bulwark Exterminating want to congratulate everybody who participated in this year’s election. Whether your candidates won or lost, we should all be thankful to live in these United States. As fellow Americans, and pest control professionals, it is one of our greatest civic duties to vote. We appreciative the opportunities we have to do so, and truly believe that every vote does count.

While our nation and industry is politically divided at this time, it’s best that we all come together and find some common ground to build this Country and help make it better.

God Bless America!

Related articles

• Congratulations, Mr. President
• And It’s Official…President Obama Re-Elected for the Next 4 Years!
• 20 million Americans expected to vote this man
• US Election day live: Polls set to open on D-Day for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney

Anthony Ball

Bed bugs have become a major concern for pest control companies.  Calls for bed bug service are pouring in around the nation.  The National Management Control Association says they’ve seen a 71% increase in bed bug related calls.  New York reported that bed bug infestations increased 34% during the past year. Where are these bed bugs coming from?  Why are bed bugs on the rise?

Authorities want to point fingers at international travelers.  They believe that individuals traveling abroad bring back the pests in clothes and in suit cases. Travelers within the US may also pick up these pests from hotels that are frequented by international travelers and bring them home. But what’s even more frightening is that idea that these bed bugs are moving out of the bed and into couches, airplanes, and movie theaters! …YIKES!

After a 50 year slump these bugs are back with a vengeance.  And Pest Control companies are perplexed on how to solve the problem.  They don’t fall under general pest control treatments.  Realistically it takes special equipment and several interior treatments to rid a home of bed bugs.  Plus its recommended that residents wash all of their laundry around the same time to kill of any bed bugs that are hiding in clothes. And according to pest control companies that attended the recent EPA: National Bed Bug Summit ,”Residents are a problem and are sometimes unwilling to cooperate or engage in behaviors to manage pests”  ….Residents are a further nuisance because… “Preventative and ongoing inspection is necessary to address the problem, … residents and property managers  do not  cooperate  or do not consider pest inspections to be a priority” The conclusion therefore is that IPM which integrates the residents doesn’t work.

It seems that ultimately those in attendance still don’t have a solid solution for controlling bed bugs.  They made suggestions like “Property managers must be certified pest control operators to treat their own properties.” to ideas like “Pest Control Companies should be certified in bed bugs and there should be a national accrediting body for those pest control operators.”  In the end, the biggest complaint from PCOs was that the EPA has restricted the use of products that use to work for bed bugs. So it seems they believe the only solution using the current products is a program that both the residents and PCOs can work together on and both share some of the burdens of failure or success. Needless to say,  “We need to educate the public” was among the better solutions they came up with at the summit. So at least they all seemed to agree on one thing… There is a Bed Bug Epidemic and that the public needs to know about it.

But don’t worry they plan on holding another Bed Bug Summit to further discuss the problem and possible solutions.

Read EPA’s Full report here: http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/cb/ppdc/bedbug-summit/partic-recom.pdf

Bed Bugs 2009 summit was held April 14th.

New bed bug site that proves useful and interesting: www.bugsinmybed.com 1/12/2010

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