RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

It's true: Rodents Will Chew on Your Car's Wires

Chew on this. Your warm car engine may also have a warm rodent nibbling on the wires.

"I had to replace some wiring due to rabbits chewing," a Times-Call reader said on Facebook.

"There is apparently an epidemic with squirrels and rabbits chewing electrical wiring and so forth under the hoods of cars," another called into the TC-Line on Jan. 4.

Not quite an epidemic, local mechanics say. But far from uncommon.

"It is a fact," said Scott Nichol of Hitek Professional Automobile Repair, who says he gets six or seven cases of rodent damage a year. "It is a cold, hard, nasty fact. Summertime, wintertime, fall, it doesn't matter. ... The more squirrels you have in an area, the more you see things like this."

Travis Paswaters of Hayes Automotive said he tends to see it a little more in the winter. Squirrels and mice aren't specifically looking for your wires, he said, they're looking for a place to nest -- and in the winter, a recently parked car that sits for a while provides a perfect home.

"We pull nests out of air boxes and intake valleys all the time," Paswaters said. "And if they get down and chew something you can't find, you can get a pretty nasty gremlin. One, I remember, chewed the ignition coil wires. The car would run rough because one of the cylinders wasn't firing."

And sometimes it can add up to more than just a rough ride. Last May, a car caught fire and burned; police later determined it was because of a squirrel nest in the engine.

"If they chew up the wiring, you can have a car-becue," Nichol said.

So what can a driver do?

First, keep the car in a garage if you can. You can't close off all the entryways a rodent would use -- they're openings that the car needs -- but putting the vehicle inside makes it less likely that squirrels will pay a visit. Mice may still be a risk, though, Nichol said, especially outside of town.

Second, open up the hood and check the engine regularly, Paswaters said. If you find twigs, bits of leaves or other nest-building material, you might just have a visitor. Having the oil changed regularly will help, too, he said, since the mechanic will be alert to signs of trouble.

One common home remedy is to use mothballs or paint the wires with Tabasco sauce to discourage chewing. That can work, Paswaters said, but it can also have unpleasant consequences, since the fresh air intake is near the core of the engine.

"It'll make the HVAC unpleasant," he said, referring to the passenger heating and cooling system. "You'll be getting that smell yourself."

Nichol advised not to try putting poison down near the car; the risk of a pet consuming it by mistake isn't worth it, he said. The best thing you can do, he said, is not to let the car sit.

"Don't keep it parked for weeks on end," he said. "Make sure the car moves."

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

The newest deterrent to would-be terrorists at airports might just be mice. An Israeli company, BioExplorers, has created a detector that looks like a full-body scanner, but actually contains three compartments containing eight mice, according to the Telegraph.

The mice will work four-hour shifts and are, according to researchers, more effective than dogs or x-ray machines, according to the Daily Mail. Air is pumped into the mice chamber every four hours so the animals can breathe.

When a mouse picks up a trace of something curious, they are trained to flee to a side chamber, which triggers an alarm (to prevent false positives, more than one mouse has to flee).

Mice take roughly ten days to learn their first smell and unlike dogs, they don't need interaction with trainers or constant attention.

The device was first tested on shoppers last year in Tel Aviv when mice picked out 22 people carrying mock explosives

Source = Huffington Post

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Cops State Pizza Shop Owner Accused of “Food Terrorism by Mice” for Sabotaging Rivals

A large pie with pepperoni, sausage…and rodents?

A Pennsylvania pizza shop owner is in jail after he allegedly dumped live vermin in his competitors' restaurants in a case cops are calling "food terrorism by mice."

Nikolas Galiatsatos, 47, who owns Nina's Bella Pizzeria in Upper Darby walked into Verona Pizza, a few blocks away from his shop on Monday afternoon carrying a bag and asking to use the restroom.

When Fanis Facas, the owner of Verona's, went to inspect the bathroom after hearing a banging noise, he discovered footprints on the toilet and a bag tucked into the ceiling. He turned the bag over to two officers that happened to be eating in the restaurant.

Cops suspected it was a possible drug deal, but instead of finding drugs in the bag, they found several mice, according to the Delaware County Daily Times.

Galiatsatos was then seen walking across the street to Uncle Nick's Pizza. Cops said after he left the second pizza parlor they found another bag containing five living mice and one dead mouse in a trash can.

He was promptly arrested and now faces charges of criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, harassment and cruelty to animals.

Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said Nina's Bella Pizzeria had only been opened for a short time. It wasn't doing well, which may have motivated Galiatsatos to sabotage nearby pizza parlors.

"We believe that he's trying to put the competitive pizza places out of business," Chitwood said.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Click image to Enlarge

What you don’t know CAN hurt you! If you could only see behind the scenes like we do in pest control you would be amazed at what we find! We are talking food handling facilities or restaurants. That serve the general public!!! Some of them are historic eateries in their cities & towns! You hear about all the dangers of uncooked food and what it can do to you. What about the dangers of pests? The attached image is damaged corn from mice and it was in a walk-in refrigerator. This restaurant asked us to come in and solve a mouse issue they were having as their previous pest control company could not solve it. The problem had been going on for YEARS! Mice are eating their food supplies and what they did not eat they urinated and defecated on! Needless to say they had a CRITICAL pest issue.

Why did they let this go on for years? Where are the health agencies that are supposed to be protecting public health?

EHS solved the problem with an aggressive pest control program. I just do not understand why restaurant owners tolerate pests as it can destroy their reputation and may even harm the general public.

Pest Control, MA ,  Pest Control, RI

Everyone always states that mice need just a 1/4 ” void or the diameter of a dime to get inside a structure. Well, here is some visual proof of that being a fact! The attached image shows a juvenile mouse stuck on an insect monitor. The dime is there for visual reference. Let me just repeat that last part…..The mouse is stuck on an insect monitor, we use those to obviously monitor for insects. It caught a mouse, go figure!

EHS performs expert structural exclusion because we know that keeping pests out is vital to the success of our program. For rodents, if you close off a runway they use it creates stress on the population & forces them to do things they would not ordinarily do.

So next time you hear “mice can not get in through an opening that small” you have this picture to prove them wrong.

Cockroach dookie? OK, it is not the most technical term but it sure does get the point across! We all know that having roaches where we eat & live is socially unacceptable but...

Exactly how unhealthy is it? This video is graphic proof that the bacterial levels associated with cockroaches is extremely high! Look at the bacteria count after just 24 hours time with a simple swab of “dookie.”

What if this is a commercial food handling facility like a restaurant or food manufacturer? You have an obligation to protect the public in addition to your brand. Even a few cockroaches can cause a serious issue.

With the increase in global commerce and travel it was inevitable that pest issues would follow. Pests are very efficient hitchhikers and we are introducing them into the U.S. at an alarming rate.

Foreign pests are eating their way through our national forests, destroying majestic scenery and costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

If enforcement efforts to prevent their importation aren't stepped up, irreplaceable resources will be lost forever and taxpayers can expect to fork over billions of dollars by 2019, according to a comprehensive study published today in BioScience.

Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Michigan State University, the University of Central Florida and the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service analyzed the impact of invasive insects and pathogens introduced into the United States through 2007.

What they found was a staggering list of more than 455 insects and 16 pathogens that are destroying everything from oak trees in California to redbay trees in Central Florida. Based on the pattern, the researchers predict one especially destructive pest will sneak into the nation every two years.

"Entire forests are being wiped out, and it is costing taxpayers millions as the government tries to eradicate invaders that threaten industries dependent on trees and plants," said Besty Von Holle, a UCF biologist who worked on the project. "We're losing a variety of native species as a result of importing these pests. It's not just aesthetics. It's impacting our economy."

These pests and diseases sneak into the country on everything from horticultural (or plant) imports to the wooden pallets used to transport building supplies, electronic goods and toilet paper, among other products.

"Global trade has had tremendous benefits for Americans," said lead author Juliann Aukema from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara. "Unfortunately, it also has resulted in the introduction of destructive insects and other organisms that threaten native ecosystems and the services they provide."

No section of the country is immune.

Laurel wilt disease is one of the latest organisms to be spread by a foreign beetle in the southeastern United States. It is wiping out redbay trees in Georgia and last month was discovered in Seminole County, Fla. Redbay trees are important to wildlife, and certain butterflies depend on them for survival.

California has been battling sudden oak death, a pathogen that is destroying oak trees in California and Oregon since the 1990s. California has spent millions trying to stop it, because the trees are a state treasure.

The Asian longhorned beetle, which came into the United States hidden in wooden packing pallets, has ravaged all sorts of trees in New York City and Chicago. So far, those communities have spent $220 million fighting the infestation.

Another beetle, the emerald ash borer, has been destroying trees in the Midwest since 2002. It is estimated municipalities will spend more than $10 billion for landscape and tree treatments and removals in the next 10 years battling the ash borer.

"Once here, these invasive species are virtually impossible to stop," Von Holle said.

Recommendations include better screening before letting items into the country. The department within the USDA that is in charge of screening at airports and ports is now part of Homeland Security.

"These screening agents have too much to do, and right now the focus is on finding bombs and weapons," Von Holle said. "That's absolutely right, but we also need to be more aggressive about biological threats that could undermine large parts of the U.S. economy and harm our environment."

Provided by University of Central Florida, click here for original article.

The U.S. air force is studying fruit flies to mimic swarming behavior for military needs.

The US Air Force is engaged in wacky research on fruit flies maneuvering within a heavily instrumented "simulation tunnel" in order to develop tiny, potentially murderous insect-sized flying robots.

According to a statement issued yesterday by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), research underway at in Californian labs will teach military designers how to build tiny robot aircraft which can fly around indoors or in built-up areas the way flies do.

"This work investigates sensory-motor feedback mechanisms in the insect brain that could inspire new approaches to flight stabilization and navigation in future insect-sized vehicles for the military," said Dr Willard Larkin of AFOSR.

Dr Andrew Straw of Caltech, leading the project for the Air Force, has built a special arena for his test flies to aviate around in, with video walls allowing a simulated environment to be presented to the fly. The insect test subject is tracked using a cunning multi-camera system.

"We developed a 3D fly tracking system which was our most significant technical challenge: localizing a fly in 3D nearly instantaneously," says Straw. "Next, we developed visual stimulus software capable of making use of this information to project virtual edges and textured floors in which we could modify the fly's sensory-motor feedback mechanism."

According to the AFOSR:

"The scientists have found that, counter to earlier studies suggesting that insects adjust their height by measuring the motion beneath them as they fly, flies in fact follow horizontal edges of objects to regulate altitude. Remarkably, this edge following behavior is very similar to a rule they use for steering left and right and always turning towards vertical edges."

If Straw and his colleagues can work out the rules the flies use to navigate - thought to be primarily visually based - it could be possible to design control systems for so-called Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs, small robot aircraft already in development) which would let them maneuver in places where there is no GPS signal.

Then the dark/exciting future shown in the vid above could become reality, with tiny military swarm droids scattering across towns or cities to locate or spy on persons of interest to the US authorities. They might even, as shown in the vid at around three minutes, be able to land on the back of your neck and blow your head off using some kind of tiny warhead.

Amazing what they can do nowadays.

By Lewis Page
Posted in Rise of the Machines, 8th December 2010 17:00 GMT

I never approve of people who try to “do it themselves” when it comes to controlling pests. Too often the pest problem gets worse with other serious consequences. However in this case I applaud the customer for their ingenuity with solving a pest problem. I went to pick up some product at a vendor of ours when I realized the front door to the office lobby was blocked by cardboard. Upon closer examination I noticed some orange tape with the words “chipmunk guard” written on the cardboard. I stepped over the obstacle as it was not a human guard and compliment the receptionist on her invention. She laughed & said that the office gets hot and they like to have some fresh air so they open the lobby door. Unfortunately every time they open the door the chipmunks come running into the office & wreak havoc on the staff. She said that you would hear a scream or someone drop something and you knew that “Alvin” was in the building. So that is the story of how the unofficial “chipmunk guard” got started and to this day seems to be working.

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The correct terminology is larva or larvae. For all intents & purposes they are MAGGOTS! I happen to snap this picture of something that happens in every city & town and that is flies. What you are looking at is about 2,000 maggots in some stagnant water in a garbage can cover. In about 5-7 days these 2,000 maggots will be 2,000 flies. Those flies will continue to reproduce in alarming volumes and at a very fast pace. In fact that 2,000 flies if uncontrolled & they survive can easily be 100,000 in just 30 days!!!

Most people see a roach or rodent in a restaurant, their business, or their home and they freak out and need something done immediately. It is the fly that should cause this type of reaction in people yet all we do is swat at them & do not give them a 2nd thought. We even joke about them….

Waiter, there is a fly in my soup!
What’s he doing?
I believe it is the backstroke.

Flies are one of the most disgusting insects on the planet and they are capable of transmitting so many diseases through the bacteria they contact. Next time you see a fly take it VERY seriously!