RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

EHS Pest's Sabrina Key and George Williams doing their part for the Boys and Girls Club of Boston!

A Helping Hand

Volunteers from NPMA’s Leadership Development Group volunteered time and effort at the Boys and Girls Club of Boston, just prior to PestWorld.

BOSTON — The Boys and Girls Club of Boston is looking refreshed, and its children left with a few buggy lessons and possibly new role models after the NPMA’s Leadership Development Group (LDG) volunteered its time there before PestWorld 2012 officially kicked off, earlier this month.

“The LDG decided collectively to make an effort to give back to the communities we travel to,” said Jen Marlowe, committee chair for LDG, adding that this idea came to a head several years ago during one NPMA Academy. Marlowe credited past LDG chairs Justin McCauley and Adam Witt in helping kick-start the initiative. At PestWorld 2011 in New Orleans, LDG assisted the local Habitat for Humanity chapter.

In Boston, Marlowe said the volunteer group was on site for over three hours, where they first helped with site maintenance needs – that included painting, picking up trash, raking leaves and weeding.

After, the group worked and interacted with about 60 kids under the age of ten. “We started with a presentation on ‘good bugs’ versus ‘bad bugs” and stressed the importance of using a professional,” Marlowe said. The group showed the children some “artifacts” from the field, including a wasp nest and containers damaged by chewing from rodents.

And of course, the kids got to get their hands on everyone’s favorite pest: the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.

“Sometimes it’s hard to know the impact you make when trying to do good for others,” Marlowe said. “But luckily for us, the kids made this day very rewarding by wearing their enthusiasm, creativity and gratitude on their sleeves.

“We decided that this mission to give back will hopefully inspire other members of our industry to get involved in our efforts, or efforts within their own communities,” Marlowe continued. “But we also wanted people outside our industry to feel the need to pay it forward.”

Read the original article, click here.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Mild Weather Keeps Pest Numbers High

Last year’s unusual weather produced a banner crop of deer ticks in New England, and Sam Telford could not be happier. Well into last month, the researcher was still able to collect ticks - lots of them - for his studies.

“It’s not just me. I have a colleague in Rhode Island. He claims he’s been able to collect more than 15,000 ticks this fall. I am so envious. It’s like one-upmanship among us tick biologists,” Telford said from his office at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Grafton, where he is a professor of infectious diseases.

Based on collections at sites in Medfield, Dover, Yarmouth, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard, Telford estimates that the tick population was three to five times larger than usual for early winter. He attributed the increase to last summer’s dearth of truly hot and dry weather, which usually kills a lot of ticks.

Telford’s counts involve dragging a light-colored, 1-square-meter cloth behind him as he walks through likely areas. At intervals, he stops and collects any ticks clinging to the cloth, compiling a tick-per-minute count.

“We were getting three ticks per minute at most sites, and as many as five ticks per minute,’’ he said, whereas the year before “we were lucky to get just one per minute.”

Mild temperatures well into last month also kept the ticks active later in the year than usual - a boon for scientists like Telford, but potential trouble for the unwary who do not take the same precautions in cooler months as in summer.

The population spike took place even as authorities continued efforts to curb the spread of tick-borne Lyme disease through expanded hunting of deer in towns like Dover and Medfield. A single deer can feed up to 100 adult ticks a week, with the ticks dropping off after four days of feeding and moving on to their next stage of life: laying eggs.

“Every tick that feeds can lay 2,000 eggs, so you look at places like Dover and Medfield, where they are actively trying to curb their deer populations through hunting, with all these ticks out there, the removal of one deer can prevent an awful lot of reproduction,” said Telford, who had 80 engorged adult female ticks, recently plucked off a single Nantucket deer, living in an incubator in his office.

It is too early to say whether the boom in deer ticks has been accompanied by an increase in Lyme disease cases. The state will not release its tally for last year until spring.

Reports of Lyme disease have risen for most of the past decade across Massachusetts, most dramatically in communities west of Boston. Statewide, there were 4,116 confirmed cases in 2008 and 4,061 in 2009, according to the state Department of Public Health.

But the number dropped off sharply in 2010, with 2,627 confirmed cases. Dr. Catherine Brown, state public health veterinarian, said the decline was directly related to the hot and dry summer of 2010 taking a toll on the tick population.

While Brown expects the number of Lyme cases to rise along with the tick population, Telford is not so certain.

Historically, 95 percent of new cases of Lyme disease are reported in May and June, when ticks are much smaller and harder to spot, Telford said. Just 5 percent of cases get reported in fall, when the ticks have become larger adults.

“That does not mean people should not be aware and remove the ticks, or prevent them coming on to them by using repellents, taking showers after being in the woods, and doing a tick check,’’ Telford said. “You don’t want to kick a dead skunk.”

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Defending itself from a lawsuit claiming that an Illinois man found a dead mouse inside a can of Mountain Dew, PepsiCo contends that a rodent would have disintegrated and been transformed into a “jelly-like” substance between the time of the soft drink’s bottling and the day the plaintiff reportedly purchased the soda from a vending machine at his office. In a court response to a motion filed by Ronald Ball--who claims to have found the dead mouse in a Mountain Dew can about three years ago--PepsiCo filed a fascinating/revolting affidavit from Lawrence McGill, a veterinarian who noted that he was “familiar with the effects an acidic fluid, such as common soda drinks including Mountain Dew, will have on mice and other animals.”

According to McGill, if a mouse is submerged in Mountain Dew between four and seven days, the rodent “will have no calcium in its bones and bony structures.” During those days of soft drink immersion, “the mouse’s abdominal structure will rupture.” Additionally, “its cranial cavity (head) is also likely to rupture within that time period,” McGill noted.

After 30 days exposure to Mountain Dew, “all of the mouse’s structures” would have disintegrated to the point that it would not be recognizable. In fact, “the mouse will have been transformed into a ‘jelly-like’ substance.” The only part of the rodent that could possibly survive, added McGill, was “a portion of the tail.”

PepsiCo contends that Ball, 52, opened his can of Mountain Dew 74 days after it was bottled at a PepsiCo facility in St. Louis. The company alleges that Ball has provided “no evidence” that the mouse was inside the can when it was sealed in August 2008.

In his Illinois Circuit Court lawsuit, which is pending in Madison County, Ball alleges that he opened the Mountain Dew can, “took a drink, and immediately became violently ill such that he began to vomit.” Subsequent to Ball being stricken, “the contents of said can of Mountain Dew were immediately poured into a styrofoam cup wherein a dead mouse was found.”

The rodent was eventually turned over by Ball to a PepsiCo insurance adjuster. McGill, pictured above, subsequently examined the animal and concluded that it was a young mouse or rat, no older than four weeks old at the time of its death. The rodent, according to his affidavit, had not even been born when the Mountain Dew can was sealed, and was already dead when it “entered the Mountain Dew fluid.”

McGill reported that the pH level of Ball’s Mountain Dew can was 3.43, which according to the veterinarian “indicates the fluid was acidic and within the normal range for Mountain Dew.”

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Mice need dark warm areas to create nests (harborage). They absolutely love to get inside air filters, engines, etc. No matter if it is your lawnmower, motorcycle, or car they will find it. The two pictures attached to this show you how amazingly fast they are at setting up shop in these areas. This is my car and it was in my driveway for JUST ONE NIGHT and I opened the hood the next morning to add washer fluid and found this damage!

As you can see they tore the felt hood + battery cover up to make a nest. This is a VERY SERIOUS & DANGEROUS issue because they can cause the vehicle to malfunction at any point. It can lead to a crash or fire at any time. It is virtually impossible to repel or rodent proof these things from rodents as there are over 100 entry points for a mouse to get into a car engine. Call EHS as we do have some creative solutions for issues like this.

Bruce Lopes Jr.
Service Manager

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 

Post Office Overrun by RATS as Rodents Devour Parcels........
So if You Don't Get Any Presents This Year Now You Know Why

With 16.5 billion letters, packages and cards expected through the U.S. Postal Service this holiday season, the last obstacle senders might expect their packages to face, are thieving rats.

A post office in Manhattan is fighting a rat infestation leaving chewed boxes and envelopes that carries any item found edible, by both human and rodent taste.

Packages found deliverable despite their outside damage of visible gnawing and gaping holes are showing up in the hands of their recipients as mere shells. The little animals can smell the chocolate and goodies,' Maureen Marion, a USPS spokeswoman for the North East told the New York Times, whose office has found the most reported damaged packages.

At Midtown they’ve been very good at putting things in cabinets to keep them away from nibbles, but this time of year they just have more packages than they do have space to accommodate them,' Ms Marion said.

One New York Times employee expecting a treat from The Vermont Brownie Company says they opened a gnawed box to find only a card inside.

Our brownies are individually wrapped so they stay fresh,' the company's note read to the recipient.

Other more sturdy boxes, in one example holding a gift of international chocolates, arrived to their office building more lucky they report with mere teeth marks around the packaging.

It's a surprise since the kind of rats that infest New York City called the Norway rat, are capable of chewing through glass, cinder block, wire, aluminum and lead, according to the National Pest Management Association.

Without the total number of known packages destroyed at other post office branches around the city, with a report by the Gothamist suggesting a second office in the city, a worker at the midtown office signaled to a Times' reporter:

They do have a problem with rats here,' a worker at the office confessed to their reporter.

I've seen one, downstairs on the work floor. It was big, they said.

In size, the average subway rat in Manhattan is 16 inches long, with its thick, tapering tail accounting for about half of that length, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. On Monday the post office changed its usual visitation by an exterminator from every two weeks to once a week.

Ms Marion says that for items damaged in handling,' unless they were insured, there is no ability for compensation, 'regardless of the nature of the damage

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

We never stop training our team and this shows when you speak to us on the phone or meet one of our service specialists in the field. Here you see some of our team going through hand-held computer training. By 2012 all EHS service specialists will be 100% using this cutting edge technology.

They will also be equipped with blue tooth wireless printers so they can print your service report from their phone while right in front of you. This advancement will reduce our paper consumption by 40% !!! This is EHS’s commitment to being a steward of the environment and it’s just another way for EHS to better serve you, our valued customer.

Susan Paradice
Office Manager

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Rat-Infested, Squid-filled Pirate Boat Sitting Off Alaska

The Seattle-based U.S. Coast Guard cutter Midgett, on a September Bering Sea fishing patrol, got the call for an abrupt change of course. For a days-long voyage, it cruised to the southwest to intercept a rusting, rat-infested vessel — suspected of illegal drift-net fishing — that had been boarded in international waters.

The vessel — the Bangun Perkasa — with 22 Chinese and Indonesian crew members — was not registered with any nation. So, it had been seized.

The Midgett's job was to escort the vessel back to the edge of Alaska's coastal waters in a marathon cruise that began Sept. 19 and ended earlier this week. To prevent evidence from being destroyed, some of the Midgett crew took turns standing watch and sleeping, aboard the Bangun Perkasa.

"These were pretty deplorable conditions," said Capt. Craig Lloyd, chief of response for the Coast Guard's 17th District. "In some cases, they were waking up, and there were rats crawling about."

The seizure of the Bangun Perkasa put a spotlight on international efforts to crack down on illegal high-seas drift-net fishing, which can ensnare birds, marine mammals, turtles and many other sea creatures as well as the targeted species and has been outlawed by a United Nations convention.

Each year, the U.S. Coast Guard joins with other nations to search remote sections of the international waters of the Pacific for illegal drift-net vessels. This year, a Fisheries Agency of Japan spotter plane initially reported the sighting of the Bangun Perkasa to the Kodiak-based U.S. Coast Guard cutter Munro, which then conducted the initial boarding.

Typically, the illegal fishing vessels are turned over to law-enforcement authorities in the nation where they are homeported. But the Coast Guard determined that the Bangun Perkasa had no legal registration, so the vessel — along with its 10 miles of drift nets and 30-ton catch of squid — was seized.

As the Bangun Perkasa approached Alaska, the Coast Guard reached out to more than 20 federal, state and other agencies to develop a plan to handle the vessel, which under Alaska state law cannot legally enter coastal waters with rats on board.

Rats are an invasive species in the Aleutian Islands that can prey on birds and other wildlife. Though the port of Dutch Harbor already battles Norwegian rats, there are concerns that the vessel could harbor other species of rats or rodents that would intensify the problem — or rats that are resistant to rodenticides and could breed with the local population, according to Steve Ebbert, a biologist with the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, suggested the vessel be used for gunnery practice, and sunk.

"It would send an unambiguous signal that pirate fishing is unacceptable," Begich said in a written statement. " It will prevent this rust bucket from ending up back on the market where it most likely would fall into the hands of some other pirate."

But at least for now, that's not the plan.

Instead, the Coast Guard, working with partner agencies, awarded a contract to Magone Marine Service in Dutch Harbor to rid the vessel of rats while it remains moored in offshore waters and to make all necessary repairs. Dan Magone, the owner of the business, is a savvy veteran of all sorts of Aleutian Islands mishaps that require salvage, cleanups and other tasks.

"They don't call us unless its strange, that's a prerequisite," Magone said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

But Magone says he's up to the task of killing the rats, and that the most challenging part of the job has been working through the bureaucracy of agencies.

Once the rats are gone, the Bangun Perkasa, will be turned over to NOAA Fishery agents. They will inspect the vessel and decide what to do with it, and also inspect the 30-ton catch, and decide whether it can be sold.

If a sale is approved, the squid, which has been kept refrigerated, won't be marketed for human consumption, according to Julie Speegle, a NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman in Alaska.

The crew is already in Anchorage, and will be sent back to their home countries, according to Jeff Lisius, of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Source = Associated Press

George Williams
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Insect Stings Hold Deadly Risk for Some

For most people, insect stings are a painful annoyance, but they can be deadly for those who are allergic to them, researchers warn.

Each year in the United States, more than half a million people have to go to emergency departments after suffering insect stings, and at least 50 die, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, which recently released updated guidelines for diagnosing and treating people with hypersensitivity to insect stings.

Its three key recommendations for people who are allergic to stings:

• Consider allergy shots
• Avoid all stinging insects, including bumblebees
• Be aware of factors that increase the chances of a serious reaction.

Research indicates that allergy shots are effective in preventing allergic reactions to stings. The shots work like a vaccine, exposing recipients to increasing amounts of the stinging insect allergen in order to boost the immune system's tolerance of it.

And although bumblebees are considered less aggressive than hornets and wasps, a growing number of severe allergic reactions are being caused by bumblebees, particularly among greenhouse workers. Because of this, people should try to avoid bumblebees as much as other stinging insects, the group advises.

In addition, the allergy experts noted, certain people are at increased risk for serious allergic reactions to insect stings. Factors associated with a higher risk include: a history of severe or near-fatal reactions to insect stings; heart disease, high blood pressure or pulmonary disease in those who have had a reaction beyond the site of a sting; asthma; taking certain medications, including beta blockers or ACE inhibitors; and frequent exposure to stinging insects, such as among gardeners and beekeepers.

Symptoms of a severe allergic reaction to stings include:

• Hives, itching and swelling in areas other than the sting site.
• Tightness in the chest and difficulty breathing.
• Swelling of the nose, lips, tongue and throat.
• Dizziness, fainting or loss of consciousness.

Medical experts stress that anyone who has any of these symptoms should seek immediate medical attention at the nearest emergency department.

SOURCE = USA TODAY

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Our customers really do have a sense of humor!!! The call came into EHS that these people have squirrels in their attic. They had them a year early but set some traps, caught a few, and the problem was solved. Sort of! The squirrels came back so we needed to do a free inspection and offer a proposal for humane exclusion.

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I get into the attic and find out what he meant by setting traps. I assumed he meant live traps but I was wrong! He set out rat snap traps with some taunting messages on them. “SUCK IT MR. SQUIRREL” and “LET’S MAKE IT A DOUBLE FURBALL” were written on two traps. It is not exactly the right way to do squirrel removal but it did make me laugh out loud! The customer said it was a six month battle against the squirrels last year and it became personal when they were chewing up items they stored in the attic.

We excluded the points of entry around the roof line, installed one-way doors, returned one week later to remove the doors, then completed the exclusion. No need to taunt the squirrels this time, EHS was the winner!

Bruce Lopes Jr.
Service Manager
Environmental Health Services, Inc.

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA