Pest Control Links Round-Up: 5 For Friday

Atlanta Millipede Infestations Common

So what exactly are millipedes? Are they dangerous? Are they even considered pests? How do you get rid of them? Here’s what you need to know. More…

5 Fun Facts About Ants

Think you know all there is to know about ants? Think again! Here’s a comical view, with some amazing ant facts. Who knew ants are feminists? More…

How German Cockroaches Easily Infest Homes – And Effective Techniques To Stop Them

German cockroaches are considered one of the most challenging pest infestations to eliminate – even with professional treatment. Learn how to implement a successful prevention strategy, here.

CAUTION: Stinging and Venomous Caterpillars

The four major stinging caterpillars occurring in Florida are the puss caterpillar, saddleback caterpillar, Io moth caterpillar and hag caterpillar. These caterpillars have tiny hairs or spines that release a toxin. Contact may require hospitalization. More…

Carpenter Ants: Preventing Them Before They Become a Problem

Our pest of the week, the Carpenter ant can be quite the destructive pest. There are a few steps you can take before they become a serious problem. More…

Pest Of The Week: The Carpenter Ant

The Carpenter ant (Camponotus vicinus) makes it’s nest inside wood; dead trees or stumps, wood piles, rotten home structures, and old cracking furniture to be exact. It because of this, many home owners confuse the Carpenter ant for the termite.

Carpenter ants have black bodies, with a dark red thorax. Their abdomen is covered with a fine hair that forms a ring around the ant. They measure in length somewhere between ¼ of an inch to ½ of an inch. Note, Carpenter ants do not eat wood. They do eat food debris, like crumbs and sweets. It’s this food that foraging ants are looking for when they enter your home.

If you see sawdust piles around your home or property, you may have Carpenter ants. If this is the case, seek the services of a licensed ant control professional.

Related articles

• Ant problems on the rise in Portland area
• The Carpenter Ant: Insect or Alien?
• Gigantic Ant Hill!

Anthony Ball

Image via Wikipedia

Back in the 1950s, American exterminators thought that the common bed bug, had been completely eliminated. However, over the past decade, these blood-sucking pests have made a huge comeback. In fact, in hotels, homes, and multi-unit housing complexes across the United States, the number of reported bed bug infestations have surpassed (up to 100x) the numbers recorded; in 1990. If for no other reason, it appears that the bed bug’s ability to produce healthy young through inbreeding, is a major contributing factor to the continued strength; of their U.S. invasion.

“Inbreeding gives bed bugs an advantage in being able to colonize. A single female that has been mated is able to colonize and start a new infestation. Her progeny and brothers and sisters can then mate with each other, exponentially expanding the population. With many organisms, extensive inbreeding would cause serious mutations that would eventually bring about an end to the population.” – an entomologist at North Carolina State University.

A recent study on how bed bugs survive genetic inbreeding, was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. In the report, researchers reported that in each dwelling, there were high levels of inbreeding and that genetic diversification, was very low. This important discovery, suggested that only one or two bed bugs are required, for a serious bug control problem to develop.

The ability to produce healthy offspring through inbreeding, allows these bugs to expand the infestation to other areas within a building, without any outside assistance. In fact, in almost all of the infestations studied, just a single room within the dwelling; was found to be the source of the pest control problem. It is also interesting to note, that cockroaches are another species of pest, that have the ability to survive inbreeding; as well.

Image via Wikipedia

Related articles

• Bed Bug Information! (realtorkaera.wordpress.com)
• Bed Bugs Inbreed And Still Produce Healthy Offspring (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Charlotte Pest Control (bulwarkpestcontrol.com)
• Inbreeding allows bed bugs to spread, studies find (thestar.com)

Transcript from How Roaches Infest-Roach Control:

Roach Control Professional:

“- storm drain system: Because the fact is, is that the roaches in every metropolitan city in the United States, these roaches, American roaches and oriental cockroaches, called “water bugs”, breed and thrive in the sewer lines. But, the problem that we have here in the desert is that- these sewer lines- we go a long time without rain, and they dry out. In the heat of the summer, the sewer lines will dry out.”

“These water bugs require water, right? They don’t swim in it, but they need to be in a moist environment, a warm, damp, moist environment, preferably dark. So they, at a very warm period of time, in the summer, they start exiting through the storm drains, that’s this right here, or through the actual sewer manhole. And they run because the street is hot, a lot of times exodus is at nighttime, and if you’re out at night, sometimes you can actually see them do this. If you watch and become aware, they exodus, they make this big exodus off the hot pavement, looking for some place to hide, right? They go right into the rock. You know how the rock out here in the yard is, it’s easy to get under it.”

“So they get up underneath the rock where there’s some moisture in the soil up underneath the rock until they find a plant with a water dripper on it. Now, that’s what this little red thing is, its a little water dripper.”

“We’ve talked about how plants need water and how they’re fed, they’re watered every two to three days, and how the moisture underneath the plant is always there.”

“So, now our water bugs left the sewer because of a lack of water and the heat of the summer, came into the yards, and have infested all of the yards in your neighborhood. This is the reason you guys see water bugs when you walk around outside in the evening time, or your evening walks. Because your neighborhood is infested, all of the yards in the neighborhood are infested with water bugs.”

“Now, they breed out here and they do really well and they thrive, but expanding populations always do just that, expand. And in the very dead of the summer, when we’re talking one hundred and ten, one hundred and fifteen degrees, these rocks are in direct sunlight right here, and they get so hot that the roaches start looking for better places to live. It gets actually too hot for them. So, they proceed to look for a shady place, and often find places next to the house shady; this purple stuff you see coming out of the wall here is moist air.”

“We talked about how there’s condensation on the exterior walls of stucco homes and how there’s a J-rail here, and how it’s open, and how moist air escapes so that we don’t get black mold in the wall? Well, this moist air escaping, not visible to the eye but sensible to an insect, draws these roaches, plus the darkness and the shade, up into the J-rail, up into the wall.”

- Bulwark Exterminating Roach Control

Transcript from How Roaches Infest-Roach Control:

Roach Control Professional:

“- storm drain system: Because the fact is, is that the roaches in every metropolitan city in the United States, these roaches, American roaches and oriental cockroaches, called “water bugs”, breed and thrive in the sewer lines. But, the problem that we have here in the desert is that- these sewer lines- we go a long time without rain, and they dry out. In the heat of the summer, the sewer lines will dry out.”

“These water bugs require water, right? They don’t swim in it, but they need to be in a moist environment, a warm, damp, moist environment, preferably dark. So they, at a very warm period of time, in the summer, they start exiting through the storm drains, that’s this right here, or through the actual sewer manhole. And they run because the street is hot, a lot of times exodus is at nighttime, and if you’re out at night, sometimes you can actually see them do this. If you watch and become aware, they exodus, they make this big exodus off the hot pavement, looking for some place to hide, right? They go right into the rock. You know how the rock out here in the yard is, it’s easy to get under it.”

“So they get up underneath the rock where there’s some moisture in the soil up underneath the rock until they find a plant with a water dripper on it. Now, that’s what this little red thing is, its a little water dripper.”

“We’ve talked about how plants need water and how they’re fed, they’re watered every two to three days, and how the moisture underneath the plant is always there.”

“So, now our water bugs left the sewer because of a lack of water and the heat of the summer, came into the yards, and have infested all of the yards in your neighborhood. This is the reason you guys see water bugs when you walk around outside in the evening time, or your evening walks. Because your neighborhood is infested, all of the yards in the neighborhood are infested with water bugs.”

“Now, they breed out here and they do really well and they thrive, but expanding populations always do just that, expand. And in the very dead of the summer, when we’re talking one hundred and ten, one hundred and fifteen degrees, these rocks are in direct sunlight right here, and they get so hot that the roaches start looking for better places to live. It gets actually too hot for them. So, they proceed to look for a shady place, and often find places next to the house shady; this purple stuff you see coming out of the wall here is moist air.”

“We talked about how there’s condensation on the exterior walls of stucco homes and how there’s a J-rail here, and how it’s open, and how moist air escapes so that we don’t get black mold in the wall? Well, this moist air escaping, not visible to the eye but sensible to an insect, draws these roaches, plus the darkness and the shade, up into the J-rail, up into the wall.”

- Bulwark Exterminating Roach Control

I went to this house in the run down part of town to do an emergency service.  It seemed like the tenants have issues with their rental home.  All five of them sat outside the house with luggage bags in tow when I showed up.  Unfortunately none of them spoke English fluently.  In broken sentences and hand signals, I gather that they were just in the middle of moving in when they noticed that all is not well.  The husband who had been quiet all this time suddenly burst out and said, “The roaches built that!” pointing to the house.  So I proceeded to do the service and was just sort of shocked when I had done the first socket.  There were hundreds of little hair-like feelers waving back at me.  Not even wall plates to cover the plugs.  I was thinking this would be an easy job.  Gross as it was; I kept on going and dusted every outlet.  After I was done inside, I proceeded to spray the exterior of the house. As I rounded the bend that leads to the back, I noticed a shoe sized hole near the foundation.  I immediately sprayed it thinking this would be a good hiding spot.  I started hearing screaming coming from the people inside and turned my head to see what all the commotion was.  However, I wasn’t able to find that out because of the sudden rush of cockroaches that came pouring out of the hole.  I’m not kidding when I say the roaches came out like a wave of Black Death and covered the entire patio and back wall.  These things were even crawling over the doors and patio furniture.  The more I sprayed, the more the roaches came, and for each that was dying, there were twenty more flushing out of the hole.  I soon found out the interior was no better.  By the time I finished the service, the tenants had left, but the office had called me with a message from the landlord. He lost the renters but will keep our service.  Seems like the last tenants were complaining about roaches too!

By: Oliver Gomez

Las Vegas, NV