RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Mosquitoes Fester with Momentum

It’s mosquito season again, and the little blood-suckers are back with a vengeance.

A rainy, wet spring mixed with warm summer temperatures provided perfect breeding conditions for the insects, and the pest experts at EHS say they are bracing for a busy year as the mosquito population booms.

“It’s already one of the worst seasons we’ve seen in awhile,” stated EHS customer service.

Rivers swelled past its banks with spring snow melts, surrounding areas became saturated, creating larger viable areas for mosquitoes to breed.

More areas are wet, and that opened up breeding sites just about everywhere causing EHS to find mosquitoes in areas we haven’t seen before.

Usually the mosquito population peaks in the beginning weeks of June in MA + RI.

EHS strongly urges residents to use insect repellents with DEET whenever they are outdoors. Additionally, residents should cover skin when outside, eliminate standing water in their yards and limit the outdoors at dusk and dawn, which are peak hours for mosquito activity.

For people who choose to lounge outside in the summer, EHS recommends warding off the insects with repellents that can be applied to grass and foliage.

EHS has created a “Take Back My Yard” program for mosquito control and the results have been amazing! We offer both a low impact treatment and a certified organic option. Bottom line is that we give people back the quality of life that mosquitoes take away.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

A Hairy Body Can Mean the Bed Bugs Won't Bite (Because they Can't Get to the Skin)

Finding hairs in your food can be disgusting, and it seems that blood-sucking insects feel just the same.

Scientists have discovered that hairy people are better protected from parasites, as the hair makes it harder for the bugs to reach skin.

Bed bugs and other parasites such as mosquitoes, midges.

But as the insects search for somewhere to dive in, the nerves in hairs also increase the chances of them being felt on the skin and swatted away.

Researchers studied 29 brave volunteers who had one arm shaved before hungry bed bugs were placed on their skin

The results of the experiment showed that people with more hair - both longer hairs and fine, almost invisible 'vellus' hairs - were more protected.

Hair covering the arms extended each insect’s search for an ideal feeding ground, and increased the likelihood of it being detected.

Because of this, bed bugs and other parasites including mosquitoes, midges, ticks and leeches prefer relatively hairless areas such as the wrists and ankles, the scientists claim.

Study leader Professor Michael Siva-Jothy, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, said: 'Our findings show that more body hairs mean better detection of parasites.

'The hairs have nerves attached to them and provide us with the ability to detect displacement. By forming a barrier and providing detection, these hairs prolong search time and make detection more likely because the bug has to spend more time clambering over them.

'The results have implications for understanding why we look the way we do, what selective forces might have driven us to look the way we do, and may even provide insight for better understanding of how to reduce biting insects’ impact on humans.'

The findings may explain why humans have retained a body-covering of fine hair.

'Our proposal is that we retain the fine covering because it aids detection and if we lost all hair, even the relatively invisible fine hair, our detection ability goes right down,' said Prof Siva-Jothy.

The research is published today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Prof Siva-Jothy said it would be wrong to assume women will always be bitten more often than hairier men.

He pointed out: 'Men have more body hair than women which is caused by the action of testosterone at puberty. This does not necessarily mean that women are more likely to be bitten.

'Blood-sucking insects are likely to have been selected to prefer to bite hosts in relatively hairless areas.”

The Sheffield scientists are investigating the biology, reproduction and immunity of blood-sucking insects.

Their aim is to find more effective ways of controlling parasitic insects and the diseases they spread.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

It does not take much for mosquitoes to breed. All they need is a wet environment, this can be stagnant water or an area that gets wet then dry repeatedly. Around your home you are told to look for things that pool water i.e. wheel barrels, bird feeders, tires, buckets, etc. In the eyes of a homeowner this tends to be the very obvious. What about a small bit of water? Is that enough for mosquitoes to breed in? YES! The attached video shows you exactly this, mosquitoes breeding in a citronella candle on a backyard deck. You see the larva & pupae stages or “squigglers” and this is the stages prior to an adult mosquito emerging. Even more proof at how adaptable pests are around your home!