RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Dreams About Insects: Dream Meanings Explained

Dreams about insects are a common theme at bedtime. If you or a loved one has been covering this ground at night, you may have questions about what it all might mean. As part of a Huffington Post series on dreams and their meanings, we spoke to Cynthia Richmond, author of "Dream Power," and frequent guest on shows like "Oprah" and "Dr. Phil," in Camp Verde, Ariz., to get expert advice about the meanings of dreams about spiders. Note: While dream analysis is highly subjective, this post might provide some insight into why this dream occurred or is recurring.

What do dreams about insects mean?

Richmond says each insect has its own associations. However, when dreaming about insects in general, the dreamer should ask herself what's been annoying or pestering her.

What can I learn about myself from dreaming about this subject?

The subject matter of your dream plays a big role in what you can learn about yourself, says Richmond. For true soul searching, think back to how the bugs were treated in your insect dream. "Often they are being swept under a rug or stepped on," explains Richmond. "That represents the dreamer wanting to ignore the annoyance or end it."

Are there any tricks to avoiding or inducing dreams about insects?

"The only real trick to not having a certain dream is to interpret and understand the meaning so your subconscious mind stops sending the symbol," notes Richmond. To dream about insects, visualize them before dozing off.

Beyond analysis, what cultural symbolism can be found in dreams about insects?

"In Egypt, the beetle is associated with immortality. Bees are associated in many cultures with hard work and organization, as well as producing sweetness, food and the substance of life," says Richmond.

Who tends to have dreams about insects most frequently?

Dreaming about insects is common among males and females of all ages.

What does it mean if I'm completely surrounded/overwhelmed by insects in a dream?

"If you are completely surrounded or overwhelmed by insects, you are probably so annoyed by something or someone that you are ready to freak out," Richmond tells us. "If you are phobic to the insect, you are either ready to overcome the phobia -- by facing it-- or something has pushed you to your limit."

Source: Huffington Post

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

All American pest roaches--like most American humans--were immigrants.

• Roaches wear their skeletons on the outside of their bodies.
• Cockroaches bleed white blood.
• Roach mouths work sideways.
• Roaches use their feelers as noses.
• Cockroaches have 6 legs and least 18 knees.
• Pregnant for life? It doesn't sound like much fun, but some female cockroaches mate once and are pregnant for the rest of their lives.
• No food for a month--not even a crumb? Roaches can go without eating for a month but will only live a week without water.

George Williams
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

“The lord in his wisdom made the fly. Then forgot to tell us why.” ~ Ogden Nash

The reproductive capacity of flies is tremendous. Thankfully for us they can never be fully realized. If you took just a pair of flies in April and they were all progenitors (originator or direct ancestor), and they all survived (flies typically only live 30 days) until August you would have 191,010,000,000,000,000,000 flies!!!! That is in just four months!

To give you a visual idea of how many flies that is, it is enough flies to cover the entire earth 2.5 feet deep!

Unfortunately flies are downplayed in society ala “Waiter there is a fly in my soup. What’s he doing? I believe the backstroke!” The hard fact is that flies transmit over 25 diseases and are VERY serious pests especially in food handling facilities. The risk of bacterial transmission is enormous. Call EHS at 877-507.0698 to protect your brand!

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, MA , Pest Control, RI

Big Brains Steal Insects’ Breath Away (From The NY Times)

There is a type of cockroach that can go without breathing for seven minutes at a time, and a moth pupa that can go several hours without breathing. Now a new study in The American Naturalist reports that there is a commonality among insects displaying this behavior: they have large, complex brain structures.

The behavior, known as discontinuous gas exchange, is seen only in certain insects, and only when they are in a resting state.

“If you’ve got a big brain, it’s costly to run,” said Philip Matthews, a physiologist at the University of Queensland in Australia and the study’s lead author. “If you go into a sleeplike state, you can save energy.”

When in this state, the insect will stop breathing for a long period of time, followed by a series of short breaths, and then one long breath.

To conduct the study, Dr. Matthews and a colleague, Craig White, studied the brains of several species of insects that display this behavior.

They found that when the insects’ brains were removed, they displayed discontinuous breathing patterns.

“They have a nerve cord comprised of ganglia, which are kind of like mini-brains,” said Dr. Matthews. “We think that when the insect is active, the brain is sending a constant message to breathe, but when it’s inactive the ganglia take over.”

The breathing pattern has been seen in different species of wasps, ants, moths, butterflies, grasshoppers, beetles and cockroaches.

Previously, scientists have hypothesized that insects display this behavior to more effectively retain water. But this seemed unlikely when the breathing pattern was found among insects in dry deserts and in the humid tropics.

George Williams
General Manager

Pest Control, MA ,  Pest Control, RI

Warehouse Must Deal with Insect and Rodent Infestation

A New Hope, MN food warehouse was infested with rodents, insects and birds in July, according to a warning letter issued this month by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA ordered the company, New Wha Ming Trading of MN, Inc. to correct violations within 15 days or explain why it needs more time.

During five visits in July, inspectors noticed live and dead rodents, including several in traps; droppings in 17 locations on food and elsewhere; nesting material and gnawed containers.

Bags of food were stained with urine. There were bird droppings on cans of condensed milk. Insects were found on bags and on a dead rodent.

Owner Weizhen Lin said Wednesday he had not received the FDA letter but the company is "working on the issues."

George Williams,
General Manager

Pest Control, MA ,  Pest Control, RI

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.

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

Click Image To Enlarge

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!

Bat poo offers climate change clues

Termites and now bat poo? Earlier this month, I came across a study on how termites can help predict climate change, and now, an Australian researcher is reporting that bat droppings can also offer clues.

An Australian researcher says bat droppings can provide climate change clues in rain forests and semi-arid regions. Here, a fruit bat soars above the trees in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney.

Chris Wurster, an earth scientist at James Cook University in Queensland, said Monday that bat droppings in caves can help measure climate change in tropical rainforests and semi-arid regions.

"Understanding how environments and climates have changed in the past is critical to the task of assessing the possible impacts of future climates," Wurster said in a statement. He said bat droppings or "guano" accumulate many meters thick in caves.

"These provide rich records of the type of plants eaten by the insects that are, in turn, consumed by the bats and birds. We can then surmise how the environment changed over many thousands of years," he said detailing two case studies -- one from the Grand Canyon in Arizona and a second from equatorial South East Asia.

Other new research has found that termites, because they are careful builders that locate their mounds in areas with the right balance of moisture and drainage, help explain how a local ecosystem evolve. That work was done by the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology.

Location = Providence, RI

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is currently determining the causes of the salmonella outbreak in a U.S. egg supply that caused 1,519 people to become sick in 14 states. These totals are expected to rise until the eggs supplies are exhausted in the food chain. They traced the salmonella back to a poultry farm in Iowa. The USDA and CDC found rat, mouse, fly, and bird infestations. All of these pests have the ability to transmit salmonella along with various other diseases. It goes to show you how vital pest protection is in food production facilities. In this case it was illness but it can easily cause death. Certainly you have to put the blame on the facility who carelessly risked public safety by under-valuing pest management.