California’s Top Pesticide Blunders

In Butte County, Calif., a man used a salt shaker to apply insecticidal dust on his dog for flea control. Later, he thought the salt shaker contained garlic salt and sprinkled the insecticidal dust on a bowl of chili.

The man realized his mistake because the chili tasted strange and the beans were a gray color. He experienced some stomach discomfort and went to a hospital for treatment.

This incident is one of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s (DPR) “Top Pesticide Blunders,” which reminds the public to avoid illness and injury by following label instructions and using household cleaning and gardening products that pose the least risk to their health and the environment.

What follows are two Butte County incidents and blunders that were drawn from 2007 illnesses and injuries reported to DPR. State privacy law protects the individuals’ identities.
• In Sacramento County, a teenage girl saw a mouse in her home and used gopher bait to control the problem because she had seen her parents use it effectively against gophers in the yard. She read the label, but did not understand it. She poured a handful of pellets into a corner of two bedrooms and waited in another room. Within two hours, she experienced a sharp pain behind her eyes, and tightness in her chest when she breathed in. She was taken to an emergency room for evaluation.
• In Los Angeles County, an elderly woman spilled insecticidal powder on herself as she tried to open the container to use for roach control in her house. She apparently held the container over her head. She experienced “burning” and was taken to her doctor.

Thanks for reading,

Jeff The ANT-SER Man

Do-It-Yourself Bed Bug Detector

From December 18, 2009 Science News, by Susan Milius

After trying some 50 arrangements of household objects, researchers have come up with a new, homemade bed bug detector.

Wan-Tien Tsai of Rutgers University worked with Changlu Wang, also at Rutgers, for six months on designing homemade devices that lured bed bugs out into a trap so residents can tell whether a home is infested.  Like many insects that search for blood, bed bugs are attracted to plumes of concentrated carbon dioxide, good clues that an animal filled with liquid dinner is breathing somewhere nearby.  In lab tests, carbon dioxide beat heat and several chemical attractants in drawing the bugs out of hiding.

Visit us at: http://www.ant-ser.com/home.php  for several bed bug products.

I service some HUD housing and if you live in public housing of any type DO NOT put up with insects. Visit our store (click here) for do-it-yourself pest products @ http://www.ant-ser.com/home.php.

Recession Tempts Landlords to Reduce Pest Control Inspections

While homeowners are reporting that their greatest pest concern these days are bed bugs, throughout the New York-area, a combination of wintertime and the recession is raising the risk of cockroach and rodent infestations for apartment dwellers.

“Inspections both deter and spot new infestations, enabling pest management professionals to take steps to eliminate them,” says Leonard Douglen, the executive director of the New Jersey Pest Management Association. “Without such inspections any structure, homes, offices, and others can quickly become overrun with roach and rodent populations. It’s a no-win situation.”

Douglen noted that public health laws mandating pest control are invaluable. Despite the increased threat of rodent infestations as mice and rats move indoors wherever they can find harborage against the cold, public facilities such as restaurants remain protected by the work of pest management professionals.

The rapidity with which pest populations can proliferate “tends to take people by surprise,” says Douglen. “If you see cockroaches in your kitchen, for every two you see, there can be several hundred you do not.” The young of German cockroaches mature in 36 days while American cockroaches take up to 160 days.

Rats are ready to breed within three month’s time of their birth and their gestation period is 22 days. They have an average litter of eight. Mice, too, reproduce rapidly.

——————————————————————————————————————————————–

With best regards,

Jeff Ahrens, The ANT-SER Man.

Cockroaches are unwanted pests. Cockroaches contaminate food and food utensils with their excrement and saliva and disease organisms, their control are crucial. Most types of cockroaches live outdoors, although some, German roaches, are well adapted to living indoors with humans. While they prosper in polluted areas, even the most clean and sanitary areas are at risk of infestation. Cockroaches are primarily nocturnal and appear during the day usually when disturbed or when large populations exist and they seek additional harborage (hiding places).Indoors, they prefer warm, dark, humid shelters, such as cracks under or inside cabinets: behind window or door frames; in bathrooms; in motor compartments of appliances; or around the kitchen and bathroom sink. Outdoors, cockroaches find harborage in decorative bark, leaf litter, and in sewer manholes. While cockroaches feed on a wide variety of food items, including starchy foods, baked goods, and meat, some also enjoy a feast of leather, wallpaper paste and book bindings.

CONTROL

A variety of control measures should be taken to eliminate any infestation.

• Insecticides
• Bait stations
• Baits
• dusts

Prevention . . . the best technique. All cockroaches require food, water and harborage. Denying cockroaches from any of these essential elements will cause their demise. Use

air-tight containers for food (including pet food) items. Caulk cracks and crevices along kitchen splash boards and around window and door frames.

Contact your online self-help store for proper professional products.

Use trash receptacles with tight fitting lids. Rinse out and recycle aluminum or glass containers and store them and other recyclable items in containers with tight fitting lids. Cockroach traps are another very effective method to find cockroach harborages. These traps are nontoxic and contain a sticky adhesive coating inside. The cockroaches enter the trap and

become immobilized. All installations are required to have a self-help pest management program which should include these cockroach sticky traps. The number of traps required will depend on the size of the area and the extent of the infestation. Normally about six traps per home are adequate. Place traps in paths between the cockroaches ‘hiding places and feeding areas. Keep in mind, cockroach trapping will not usually eliminate large cockroach populations. Insecticides can effectively control cockroach populations when combined with other control techniques. However, consider the following items to get the most from insecticide

applications.

+ Perform all housekeeping duties prior to applying insecticides to reduce washing

off applied insecticides.

+ Before applying insecticides, read the instructions on the product labels.

+ Identify the cockroach’s harborage sites. Carefully apply insecticides directly into the

cracks, crevices, and voids where cockroaches occur. Treating these areas ensures that most of

the cockroach population is affected. Be sure to not over apply insecticides. Over application

is dangerous to your health and may hinder control efforts by repelling cockroaches.

+ Treat outdoor populations as well as indoor infestations. Since cockroaches invade homes from the outside, they may reinfest the home once the insecticide disappears. This

reinforces the need for tight fitting door thresholds.

Please visit our online store, ANT-SER.Com, for all your professional pest product needs.

Thank you for reading,

Jeff the ANT-SER man.

Rats and mice often become a serious problem in cold winter months when they seek food and warmth inside buildings. They may suddenly appear in large numbers when excavation work disturbs their in-ground nesting locations, or their food source is changed, such as, rats feeding in school premises may enter adjoining properties during the school holidays. Rats are commonly a problem where a building is located near waterways, creeks and canals or other places where ready water supply is available.

The Danger-

They will live and breed in your home? They will have multiple litters in a year. Rats and mice live in drains, under concrete, in sub-floors and in garbage refuse areas, kitchens, roof voids and other areas where a potential food and moisture source is available. Rats often cause electrical fires in buildings by gnawing through plastic electrical junction boxes. Rats must constantly gnaw on hard objects to cut back their constantly growing incisor teeth.

In addition, they live in the most unsanitary places, and are carriers of serious health risks to humans from their droppings and constant incontinence (they use urine trails to find their way in the dark).

The Solution-

Pest control options may include the use of:

• Sticky straps,
• Mechanical traps
• The selective use of latest generation rat baits.

Any rat baiting program should use safety dispensers, Bait Boxes, placed in areas and is secure from access by children and pets – such as in a roof void and sealed sub-floor and/or storage rooms.

Visit my store for supply options @ http://www.ant-ser.com/home.php

I stop and inspect my ankles and identify the culprit as fleas, flea products. Since I now know why I continue on to the office. My choice of treatment for fleas is CB-80. I treat the truck carpets and my pantlegs.

The how of this is I inspected a house which had pets prior to my visit, the house is now empty. Remeber fleas can lay dormant for quite a period of time and when they smell CO2 they hatch and attack.

Please remember fleas can attack even in December.

Please visit our online store, ANT-SER.com, for all your home pest control needs.

 The adult house fly is 6 to 7 mm long, with the female usually larger than the male. The abdomen is gray or yellowish with dark midline and irregular dark markings on the sides. The underside of the male is yellowish.

Maggots are the early instar larvae. They are typically creamy whitish in color, cylindrical but tapering toward the head. The head contains one pair of dark hooks. The legless maggot emerges from the egg in warm weather within eight to 20 hours, and immediately feeds on and develops in the material in which the egg was laid.

Killing adult flies may reduce the infestation, but elimination of breeding areas is necessary for good management. Garbage cans and dumpsters should have tight-fitting lids and be cleaned regularly. Dry garbage and trash should be placed in plastic garbage bags and sealed up. All garbage receptacles should be located as far from building entrances as possible.

Please visit our Do-It-Yourself-Store for all the products you will need for these and other insect problems. A good residual to use is Talstar or Max Force bait.

Thank you for reading and I hope it helps.

Jeff (The Ant-Ser Man)

 After you are done come to my Ants-R-Pests Depot Do It Yourself Pest Store to keep the spiders from jumping on you.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-Xwmgg7GDWJ4/bee_vs_jumping_spider/

Remember spiders need live insects to feed on to live. They catch the spiders by using webs. They inject their prey with venom through fangs.

When you are moving things indoor look to make sure they are not harboring any spiders or insect prey that will feed the spiders.

Typically spiders will not go on offense to attack a person. They will bite when pressed between shoes, clothes or hats and your skin.

Some great products to use are: CB80-Extra, Demon WP,or Delta Dust . Click on them to purchase and/or view the product items.