Pest Control and Bug Exterminator Blog

Waiting for the lights. (Photo credit: kimubert)

Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans was full of twists and turns as the Baltimore Ravens edged the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 34-31. One of the most memorable twists to the game happened to be when the power to half of Mercedes-Benz Superdome, including the scoreboard, went dark with 13:22 left in the third quarter. The game was literally stopped as the players, announcers, and fans where all left scratching their heads.

After nearly 35 minutes of head scratching, wondering what had happened to the power, the game resumed. The San Francisco 49ers, who were down 28-6 just before the blackout, staged a monumental comeback, only to fall short in the very end.

The game will be one of the most memorable in years, primarily because of the power outage. What went wrong?

Could Superdome Pests Have Caused Power Outage?

While weather related reasons cause the majority of power complications, it is not uncommon for small animals and other pests to disrupt transformers and fuses; causing temporary loss of power. We also know that pests can infest sports arenas, like Cowboy’s Stadium. What pests could have caused the Super Bowl power outage?

“Nice rats, nasty rats” (Photo credit: ressaure)

Rodents

Rodents are notorious for wrecking havoc on power systems. Could a few squirrels have got tangled in the electrical equipment in a Superdome substation? Could a malevolent rat have chewed through a major power cord?

Rodent caused power outages happen more often than you might think. I was on Arizona State University’s campus a year or so back, when the power went out on half the campus. An apparent rat found its way into one of the substations and shorted out the equipment. It can happen!

Termites

Could termites be the culprit of the Super Bowl XLVII power outage? Termites may have weakened the structure of the power line poles that were carrying the electricity to the Superdome.

Bees & Wasps

Bees or wasps love to build their hives in well hidden, concealed areas; like that of a circuit breaker box or parts of a substation. If a hive was large enough and the infestation destructive enough, a bee or wasp infestation could have brought the power down at Super Bowl XLVII.

Bird Pests

Bird pests, like pigeons, wreak havoc on the structure of buildings. A well placed nest, or a build-up of droppings, can easily cause a circuit to trip; or spark a short in a power feed to the Superdome.

Snakes

Since hurricane Katrina, snakes have been an increasing pest problem in New Orleans. Tree snakes, which are non-indigenous to New Orleans, frequently cause power outages by crawling on electrical lines.

Raspberry Ants

Crazy Raspberry Ants, are usually only found in some 20 counties in Texas, but were recently discovered in Port Allen, Louisiana. These destructive and malevolent ants are so small; they can  easily get through the plastic casing around the electrical wiring. Raspberry ants have caused street lights in Houston, Texas to malfunction.

As a kudeta, these pesky ants may have been looking to take out one of the city’s biggest icons, the Superdome, and to announce their arrival to New Orleans.

Other Theories Behind The Power Outage

The 49ers Were Responsible- Previous to the blackout, the Ravens had just gone ahead of the 49ers by a score of 28-6 with a 108 yard kickoff return. Someone in the 49ers organization knew something had to be done and quick. That’s when they pulled the plug. With their malicious goal achieved, the 49ers rallied to cut the deficit, but eventually fell three points short. The same strategy is extremely effective when you pull the plug on the XBOX when you’re getting blown out in Madden.

Super Bowl Heist- Picture Ocean’s 13, but instead of robbing a Vegas casino, Danny Ocean and his team of professional thieves set their eyes on the Super Bowl box office where the average price of a ticket is about $3,000.

Another Harbaugh Brother- Jay Harbaugh, the often forgotten about Harbaugh brother, was tired of John and Jim getting all the attention. In an attempt to steal some of the limelight away from the two Super Bowl coaches, Jay cut the power to the Superdome.

More Commercials For CBS- Forbes reports that the price for a single advertisement during Super Bowl XLVII was over $4 Million. The extra 35 minutes caused by the delay would have generated hundreds of millions of extra dollars.

Beyonce Did It- Beyonce forgot to unplug her curling iron before she took the stage for her Super Bowl halftime performance. You know that thing had to have been sucking down a lot of juice; getting her hair to look the way it did.

New Orleans Voodoo- New Orleans is well known for the dark arts like voodoo, and the Superdome is built only a few hundred yards away from a cemetery. There are only so many voodoo commercials you can air before New Orleans will strike back.

Buffalo Wild Wings Got Carried Away- We’ve all seen the Buffalo Wild Wings commercial with the football fans wanting an overtime game. They send the signal into Buffalo Wild Wings, and all sorts of mischief happens. Sprinklers mysteriously turn on, preventing an obvious score. Could someone have sent the signal to BWW during the Super Bowl?

Marketing Campaign by Oreo- A few minutes into the blackout, Oreo sent out a tweet that read, “Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark.” This tweet was retweeted over 15,000 times, giving the cookie company even more exposure.

Bane Did It- This has been one of the most frequent conspiracy theories floating around out there. Bane, of The Dark Knight Rises fame, looked to take over Gotham… I mean New Orleans… by interrupting the big game.  Bane has publicly denied any involvement in the Super Bowl blackout.

Statement Issued Regarding Power Outage:

The following statement was issued in regards to the Superdome power outage:

“A piece of equipment that is designed to monitor electrical load sensed an abnormality in the system,” the statement said. “Once the issue was detected, the sensing equipment operated as designed and opened a breaker, causing power to be partially cut to the Superdome in order to isolate the issue. … Entergy and SMG will continue to investigate the root cause of the abnormality.” 

Congrats to the Baltimore Ravens

By edging out the San Francisco 49ers, the Baltimore Ravens are your Super Bowl XLVII champions. Congrats on the great season!

Related articles

• Super Bowl power outage: What went wrong?
• Officials: Cause of Superdome blackout unknown
• NFL commissioner: Super Bowl power outage not Beyonce’s fault

Anthony Ball

Italian automaker Fiat is making a concerted marketing push in the United States.

Just take a look at this year’s Super Bowl commercial.

Among Fiat’s new lineup of 500 series cars is a logo that we wholeheartedly endorse. Did you notice the super model’s…neck? Take another look at the ad if you’d like to get a better look at the….uhh….tattoo.

The scorpion logo can actually been seen in various locations on the vehicle.

FIAT Abarth Steering Wheel

FIAT Abarth Wheel And Logo

Even here…

Abarth's Scorpion Paint Job

While the country of Italy is not known for its plethora of scorpion species, FIAT will probably be the one to put Italian scorpions on the map.

We could go on and on about yesterday’s Super Bowl commercials. Truth be told, on an overall scale of quality, there wasn’t really one particular ad that stood out above the rest. A few were funnier than others. Others stood out because of star power or just random creativity.

But since we’re a pest control company, our vote goes to Chevrolet’s “Joy” commercial.

Every other day of the year we take quite a bit of pride and gratification in killing insects large and small around the house. Heck! People even pay us to do the deed. But yesterday we let them have their day of fun on the grill of Chevy’s new Sonic.

We hope you enjoyed your fun, our little friends. Today is a new day!

Now that’s we’ve had a few days to digest all the chicken wings and baby back ribs from Sunday’s Super Bowl, we’ve also had time to digest the onslaught of new commercials from our nation’s advertising giants.  What were your favorites?  Funniest?  Commercial that might actually affect a future purchase?

Being at a party with tons of food, 5 other couples and a handful of kids running and crawling around (including my own),  it was a bit tough to catch all the commercials like in previous years.  One of the first ads I remember seeing was the “Guy obsessed with cheese Doritos” ad.

“Hey, are you going to finish those?”  “Sorry.  They’re already gone.”  “No they’re not.  You left the best part.”  Guy abruptly jams his co-workers cheesy fingers into his mouth.  “Mmmm, cheese!”

Another good one was Snickers’ Lumberjacks spot.  Richard Lewis and Roseanne Barr make the cameos in this one.  All we really need to know in this one is that Roseanne Barr gets absolutely mowed down.  Describing it wouldn’t even do it justice.

Hahahahaha!  Oh man, that doesn’t get old!

I was a little disappointed in Mercedes Benz’s ad featuring P. Diddy.  Diddy historically does great commercials, Super Bowl or not.  I still think his Pepsi Truck commercial from a few years ago is my favorite Super Bowl ads of all time.  This years’ Benz commercial seemed really anticlimactic.  Once Diddy came in the picture, I was hooked, but only to be let down by the featuring of the new car line.  I wanted more Diddy!

Our favorite commercial here at the office comes with good reason.  Being a pest control company, we thoroughly enjoyed Volkswagen’s ad for the new Beetle.  I didn’t even know it was for VW until the very end, but for 25 seconds I was really, really interested and entertained by this little beetle’s race through the forest as he slid past Mr. Centipede and raced by the praying mantis boxing match.  The rest is history.

Sure, we might be a little bias, but it was an awesome ad.  It grabbed your attention from the beginning.  The music definitely helped.  The race scenes along the ground were creative and humorous.  For being a commercial with no dialog, it was fabulous.

To our defense, we’re also not the only ones that think so.  In a study just released by Alterian, an international marketing group, Volkswagen has had the most social media conversations dating back to Dec. 1, 2010.  Of those conversations, VW is also ranked #1 in both highest positive sentiment (22%) and lowest negative sentiment (3%).  More than two-thrids of those conversations and mentions happened on micro-blogging sites.  We’ll safely assume Twitter was the main channel.

I’ve since gone back and taken a look at some of the ad spots that I missed and I have to say there are some pretty good ones.  But I’m sticking with my first impression on this one that Volkswagen’s ad was the highlight of this year’s Super Bowl ad wars.

Bed Bug feeding on human

Today is the start of the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Bed Bug Summit in Washington DC. The government sponsored 2-day event will discuss regulation, research and prevention on a national level for multiple industries. This is the EPA‘s second such conference in two years, as the first was held in 2009 in Virginia.

Bed bug summits have become an event of high demand lately. In September of 2010, the first ever North American Bed Bug Summit took place in Chicago. With a more traditional summit atmosphere, bed bug experts and professionals gathered to discuss the ever-growing problem that continues to plague major cities and small towns across the county. Consider these summits to be the Super Bowls of bed bug extermination.

So what’s in the playbook? ABC News reported the agenda in Chicago consisted of seminars focused on detection and treatment. Vendors from all over the nation were on site with their anti-bed bug products. For example, on display was an air tight bag designed to seal your laundry during travel, after-which dissolves in the washer, eliminating the risk of opening the bag and letting those little critters escape. Seems like a good idea!

If you haven’t experienced bed bugs first hand, count yourself lucky. ABC also reported that at least 5 states have actually solicited help from the Department of Defense, which gives a whole new meaning to “national security”. I would love to be there for that mission. “Lock and load! Weapons are hot!” right before they bust down the doors to little Jimmy’s room and secure the area. We have veterans here in the company, so our respect goes out to all the men and women that keep us safe.

While we do no target bed bugs specifically, we do advise proper prevention and detection before hiring a professional to service your residence. Bed bug sniffing dogs are a unique and effective way to determine the presence and severity of any infestation.  To our Arizona neighbors and businesses, we recommend AJ and his trusty dog Marcie, over at K9 Bedbug Inspections.