Pest Control and Bug Exterminator Blog

Transcript from Ant Control-Professional Bug Pesticides video:

Pest Control Professional and Ant Control Specialist Speaks: “What does Raid and professional sprays do? That’s what we want to talk about next. Let’s talk about this picture down here that I drew. Let’s pretend like this black mass is the colony itself, it’s where all the young are breeding. It’s where all the worker minors, the eighty percent of the colony, are thriving, right in here. Forgers will often times forge outside, but they’ll also forge inside, like on the floors or up on the counter tops. That’s what the little black dots represent.”

“Other bug companies use a pump can to pump up their spray, their standard bug spray, their insect spray, and they spray along the floorboards right here. If someone has an ant problem, they’ll spray right here. If it’s a really bad problem, they’ll tell the consumer to open up your cabinet and take all the stuff out, and spray all over in here, and they spray inside, everywhere. They even might spray up on the counter top. And they’re just using a general pesticide. Usually it’s some sort of a pyrethroid; that means it’s been dried from a chrysanthemum flower, very similar to the products that we use.”

“But, they’re spraying it all over here. And you’ve got to ask yourself, well, what does all of that spray do? And I’ll tell you what all that spray does. It will kill any ant that’s out right now at the time. But, this spray, as is Raid and most professional sprays, they’re all repellents. Ants can tell that they’re there, so ants will not cross them. In other words, the colony right here will just refuse to come out. They just won’t come out. And so what you’ll see is a consumer who’s had another pest control company, but if this house is in a neighborhood that’s infested with ants and they have ants, what’s going to happen is the guy comes in and sprays, everything’s cool for about three to six weeks. And then BAM, the ants are right back in the same place, or three feet to the right. Or the guy comes out and sprays and this colony moves, and it starts showing up in the kitchen, or the bathroom, or just some place other than where he sprayed. This is why people think that when you spray, bugs move from one location to the next.”

“Most pests can’t tell that the insecticides are down, but ants can, and they won’t cross it, so they’ll move their colony. Another thing that can happen is let’s say there’s another cabinet over here, right? This is the kitchen and there’s another cabinet over here. This is the pantry. And there’s a whole bunch of stuff in the pantry. And there were just a tremendous amount of forgers forging in here. And the guy says, well, I’m going to go to the source, and he sprays all over here. But, all of these ants can’t go back across the line, they won’t cross it again. So you actually have divided the colony. This is called budding, and what will happen is very likely one of these normal ants, one of these normal working ants will mutate slightly into a queen, and they’ll develop a new colony. It’s called budding.”

“You have to get the queen and you’ve got to get a large majority of their workers to successfully eliminate the colony.”

- Bulwark Exterminating Ant Control

Bulwark Exterminating made it’s first appearance ever in the PCT Top 100 this year ranking #31. But being in the top 100 doesn’t make Bulwark a big company. Bulwark is still a little fish in a big pond. Dwarfed in size compared to Orkin and Terminix, Bulwark is still small enough to care, but big enough to do it right. Here is a visual break down of other stats from PCT’s Top 100 pest control service list.

http://66.181.99.28/PCT0511_top100list.aspx

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Michael Gurevitz has been featured in a number of recent news reports for his research into practical and useful uses of scorpion venom. His research has found varying types of venom and varying effects based upon the chemical proprieties of the venom. Documenting and researching these properties has further proven that some toxins can target specific mammalian channels, and others will attack insect channels that are non existent in mammals, i.e. humans. But Michael hopes to take this information to a whole new level by identifying how these toxin interact with sodium channels, which make up mammal and insect nervous systems.  That information could lead to a pesticide based on scorpion venom and a morphine like medicine based on scorpion venom. But what are benefits of using scorpion venom and are there possible cons?

On the subject of venom toxins Raymond St. Leger, an entomologist at the University of Maryland, states that they are “a resource with almost limitless potential,…But you need a way of getting them into the insect.” Herein lies one problem. Genetically altering a plant to produce a similar compound to the scorpion venom will be useless as a pest control technique if ingesting the plant and its newly acquired compound does nothing to the pest because it is ingested rather than stung/injected into the blood stream. Exterminators that will hunt and manually inject the compound are going to hard to find. Clearly this is not the intent. The objective is to develop a pesticide that will be absorbed through an insect’s exoskeleton. The pest control products need to penetrate into the insects and attack their nervous systems, leading to paralysis and death. Determining the venom’s effective life span and how long it will take to be absorbed will determine the success of this natural alternative.  In order for a pesticide to be effective it must have a decent residual, something many natural products lack.

Individuals must further investigate the human health effects of occupational exposure. What dangers do these bio-pesticides and bio-insecticides poise with frequent and regular use to the applicators? What danger does this put on those that milk the scorpion’s venom? Adam Seever, put it this way, “I know it may seem backwards, but I don’t focus on how the products we use will effect my customers. I focus on whether they are safe for my technicians to use on a day in and day out bases. If my techs are safe then the customers will be safe as well.” On a pound per pound base is the scorpion venom more or less toxic then your average pest control product? Lastly, the most severe problems that occurs with products and even with scorpion toxins are caused by a mammals allergic reaction to the products. This varies on a case by case base, but one must wonder if this reaction would be higher in a pyrethrin based product or a scorpion based product.

The response that Michael Gurevite gave us on the potential allergy’s and dangers of the scorpion venom is as follows:

“In the venom of scorpions of the Buthidae family, to which the Israeli yellow scorpion belongs, one can find a large variety of peptide toxins that affect ion channels. We work on those that affect sodium channel. Among these toxins there are different classes divided according to their pharmacological effects (alpha and beta), and further divided to groups by their ability to compete for the same receptor site, and their activity toward mammals and insects. Some of the toxins would be active against practically all animals, some show preference for mammalian channels, and some are anti-insect selective. All these differences in activity and preference are those that interest us at the molecular/structural level.

The desert bark scorpions belong also to the family Buthidae, the most common is Centruroides sculpturatus in Southern US and Mexico. Their venom contains mostly toxins of the beta class that affect mammals and insects. We work on toxins of both the alpha and beta classes.”

Hopefully Micheal’s research pays off. It is very fascinating that he is documenting these effects and classifying them on a molecular level to the point that he can determine a “alpha” or “beta” class. This will in no doubt be beneficial in developing more pest solutions that will only effect insects and not humans. Or taking that one step further, that can target specific insect species.

And yes there is a sinister side of this in that we could use the scorpion’s sting against itself. Imagine the novel title now, “Scorpion’s recruited for Scorpion Control.” And homeowners that deal with scorpions would welcome the opportunity to use an effective scorpion insecticide against scorpion infestations in Phoenix, Austin, and Las Vegas. Especially using their closely related Buthidae family members for Scottsdale scorpion extermination.

There is also a potential that the research could lead to a scorpion based “morphine”, or other scorpion related health care products. Scorpion venom has even been tested in fighting off cancer. Could it be possible that a pesticide and a cancer “fighting” agent could use the same chemical makeup? Perhaps some day sooner than you think.

Mesa Pest Control