RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Insects Watch Skies to Navigate

How do insects such as butterflies, locusts and fruit flies navigate thousands of miles so precisely with only the unchanging sky in the foreground? Researchers now have an answer.

"If you go out in a field, lie on your back and look up at the sky, that's pretty much what an insect sees," said study co-author Michael Dickinson, a University of Washington biology professor. Peter Weir, doctoral student at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and Dickinson examined the behavior of the fruit fly, in outdoor lighting conditions, to find answers, the journal Current Biology reports. They demonstrated that fruit flies, equipped with complex compound eyes, keep their bearings by using the polarisation pattern of natural skylight, some of them for thousands of miles, according to Caltech-Washington statement.

Demonstrating that fruit flies can navigate using cues from natural skylight makes it easier to use genetics to better understand the complex capability and exactly how it is implemented in the brain. For millennia, seafarers have depended on the sun to know their position in the world, but often the sun is not visible. Polarisation vision solves that problem, Dickinson said, because if there's even a small patch of clear sky in a fruit fly's very broad range of view, then the natural light patterns can provide location information.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

One of the first things I was taught when I first became a “PMP” (Pest Management Professional) back in the 70’s was to always look up! Come to think of it, we were “Exterminators” back then.

In many situations this holds true for keeping rodents out of your home.

Mice are excellent climbers and our native mice (White-Footed and Deer Mice) are exceptional climbers. I remember camping once and I woke up at 1:30AM to attend to some business. As I exited the camper with my trusty flashlight (PMP’s always carry quality flashlights) I observed a White-Footed mouse climb the truck of a large Eastern Hemlock onto a large branch and disappear into the dark woods!

If you want complete mouse proofing, seal everything larger than 1/4” all the way up to and including the gutter line. Our company has always struggled to be competitive in offering this service to our clients due to the cost of enormous amount of labor and it’s tedious nature. We do offer it though if anyone is interested in it.

John Stellberger
President - Environmental Health Services, Inc.

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Rat Bites Subway Rider at Station

New York transit workers said a rat bit a subway rider on the foot while she was waiting for a train at a downtown station.

Transit sources told the New York Daily News the woman, who was described as in her 20s, was sitting on a bench at the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station at about 9:30 a.m. Monday when the rodent ran up and bit into the flesh of her foot.

"She was pretty frantic and upset," one transit worker said. "You could actually see the bite."

Authorities said the woman was treated at New York Downtown Hospital and released.

Officials with Transport Workers Union Local 100 said rats are becoming more common at stations because of infrequent garbage collection and poor seals on trash storage rooms.

City transport officials declined to comment, the Daily News said.

Source: DailyNews.com

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Research Examines Why Insects Give Us an Itchy Feeling

Why is it that seeing, discussing, or even just thinking about creepy crawlers makes us feel itchy all over? It turns out the experts aren’t sure, according to a story on MSNBC.com titled "Spiders! Ants! Did that make you itchy? Here's why”

University of Pennsylvania neuroscientist Dr. Wenqin Luo places the blame for phantom itch on memories of an itchy past. Thinking about bugs, she explains, might prompt memories of previous experiences – “itchy associations.”

Why, then, doesn’t thinking about injuries prompt our bodies to feel phantom pains?

Dr. Luo offers the following theory: “Compared with itch, pain is a serious protective mechanism that triggers avoidance behavior. Thus, the threshold to trigger a pain sensation may be much higher than that of itch.”

Basically: If our brains registered pain (a danger) as easily as they do itch (an annoyance), our bodies would be sent into constant states of false alarm.

Dr. Glenn J. Giesler, Jr., a neuroscientist from the University of Minnesota offers a slightly different guess as to the phantom itch culprit: Maybe our skin always experiences the tiny sensations capable of causing light itch – but we only notice them when we’ve already got itch (or its creepy crawly causes) on the brain.

“It is amazing to me how easy it is to induce itch in others,” says Giesler. “Whenever I give a talk on the topic, I am amused at the percentage of people in the audience who start scratching.”

“Perhaps,” he guesses, “the threshold for sensation of itch is lowered by thinking about it.”

Dr. Gil Yosipovitch is a professor of dermatology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina. He’s also the founder of the International Forum for the Study of Itch.

Source: MSNBC.com

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Mouse Scurries Around Bag of McDonald’s Hamburger Rolls: Employee Catches Rodent on Cell Phone Video

A former fast food employee says mice ran rampant in the Philadelphia McDonald’s where he worked, and he caught it all on tape, Fox News reported.

Video shows a mouse scurrying around inside a plastic bag filled with hamburger buns at the McDonald’s on Stenton Avenue in the West Oak Lake section of Philadelphia, where Karrium Demaio, 29, worked.

Demaio says he frequently saw mouse droppings, and was told to brush them off the bread and serve them to customers.

“There hasn’t been a time when we couldn’t go in the back and see mouse droppings on the bread,” he said.

He told Fox News he revealed the video, which was shot in November, because he wanted to warn customers.

“That wasn’t the first time. That was about the sixth or seventh time,” he said. “That’s what made me like, I got to get video of this.

“I was going back there to get something else and I heard some rustling, so I turned around, and I look, I seen a mouse inside the bread. Not on top of the package, but inside of the package.”

Demaio worked at the store from October 2010 to January of this year, when he was fired for skipping a shift.

He told Fox News that he’s worked at two other McDonald’s, but had never seen something like this.

The McDonald’s is “not in satisfactory compliance,” according to the Philadelphia Health Department, but inspectors did not cite evidence of rodents.

The store says it will address concerns the video surfaced.

“After viewing the video, we are going to continue to investigate this claim to make certain we have all the facts,” McDonalds owner and operator Ken Youngblood said in a statment.

“I want my customers to know that I am taking this matter seriously and will immediately address any issues that may exist. Therefore, if necessary, we will work with the appropriate authorities to get the facts.”

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

click image to enlarge

Pictured is Scott Possoco, regional sales manager for Nisus Corporation and George Williams Jr., A.C.E., General Manager – Staff Entomologist for EHS, Inc. accepting the award outside the corporate office and training center for EHS.

Nisus Corporation, a leading provider of environmentally sensitive pest control products, awarded Environmental Health Services, Inc. as a Green Pest Management All Star because of their continuous commitment to GPM principles. EHS and Nisus will be featured in PCT (Pest Control Technology) magazine, a publication dedicated to the professional pest management industry.

“An effective Green Pest Management program – which includes inspection, removal of food and harborage, exclusion, the judicious use of pesticides, and monitoring – requires the knowledge and skill of qualified pest management professionals,” said Kevin Kirkland, president, Nisus Corporation. “It’s an important service segment for our industry and the consumers they service and we want to recognize Environmental Health Services, Inc. because they share our passion for providing green pest management solutions.”

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA