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 

Man Found Dead After Trying to Clear Insect Hive

After apparently trying to clear an insect hive outside his Roselle home, Bruce Madiar was found a short time later lying on his front step, a friend and authorities said Tuesday.

"He just collapsed within five minutes," said Ray Dean, a friend and business manager for an ironworkers local where Madiar had served as president.

Madiar, 62, died Monday evening at Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village. It wasn't clear Tuesday what caused his death or whether he might have been bitten by insects as initial reports suggested, officials said.

His face was swollen, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday.

When police arrived, Madiar's wife told them her husband had been trying to remove an insect hive lodged under their home's overhang, Roselle police said.

Outside Madiar's split-level house a can of wasp spray remained on a window ledge Tuesday afternoon as insects that appeared to be wasps flew around a window.

Madiar had worked as a master locksmith for Cook County since 1993. He served as the president of Local Union 63 International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers for nine years, Dean said. Madiar retired from his post last year, but still was involved with the union.

Among Madiar's accomplishments as president is a loan program he helped implement for union members struggling to keep their homes during the tough economy, Dean said.

Madiar, a father of three and grandfather of five, also loved music. He is the father of Illinois Senate President John Cullerton's chief lawyer, Eric Madiar.

Madiar frequently vacationed in New Buffalo, Mich., where he planned to build a home and retire, Dean said.

Known for his casual attire, Madiar was famous for wearing shorts everywhere, Dean said, smiling.

"He wasn't the rough and tumble ironworker," he said. "He was the articulate, intelligent … guy."

Madiar's family issued a brief statement Tuesday noting his "extraordinary strength, character and generosity."

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

How’s this for a surprise? You are outside doing yard work and trimming bushes when you aggravate a hidden Bald Faced Hornet nest! In fact an elderly woman died exactly this way when she was doing the exact same thing. Once these very aggressive hornets are disturbed they set of an alarm pheromone that tells nest mates to attack. Once stung there is another pheromone released with the sting that puts a bulls-eye right on you!

These nests start small and quasi-slowly in the spring but by August they can exceed the size of a basketball and by September they can be as big as a medicine ball! Wasps and hornets can cause anaphylactic shock in people and pets so do not get a can of “wasp & hornet jet freeze” and try and solve this problem on your own because you could be taking your life into your hands! Trust EHS to protect your health & property.

Jon Hinthorne
Service Specialist
Environmental Health Services, Inc.

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

"If people are hoping that the bed bug infestation will be killed off by cold winter conditions, they are in for a bad surprise," says Leonard Douglen, the Executive Director of the New Jersey Pest Management Association.

"Bed bugs live indoors with their human hosts," says Douglen, "and the same warmth that keeps our homes and apartments comfortable in winter provides the same condition for them. Moreover, a bed bug, after taking a single blood meal, can live for up to a year without another one."

"Termites, too," says Douglen, "enjoy the same conditions when they set up a colony in a home or other structure. This explains why in the springtime they emerge in the thousands to fly off and create new colonies. Most homes in New Jersey have been hosts to termite colonies for three years or more before they discover an infestation.

Outdoor colonies simply head below the frost line where their large numbers and stored food keep them comfortable until spring arrives."

Honey bees use the same strategy says Douglen. "They cluster together as the temperatures get colder and use their collective body heat to stay warm and protect their brood."

"Ants also burrow deep below the frost line in the same way. If a home or other structure has a colony of Carpenter ants, the same conditions exist as for the termites and, of course, they have a constant source of food. Cockroaches, like ants, are provided with plenty of warmth and food by their human hosts."

"Insects," says Douglen, "have had millions of years to develop ways to over-winter. Some like the Monarch butterflies flies thousands of miles to Mexico to wait for warmer weather to arrive in the northern climes."

Douglen explained that insects that are susceptible to freezing avoid it by generating their own antifreeze components. "The same ingredient in automobile antifreeze, ethylene glycol, is the most common chemical found in insects that use this mechanism to survive."

"This survival mechanism is called diapause," says Douglen. Since insects are essentially little bags of water; the smaller the amount of water they contain, the greater their ability to cool without freezing. Those that generate their own antifreeze will be around in the spring."

The smaller the bug, like ants, insect eggs, or tiny spider mites, can survive easier than larger ones. Larger bugs like grasshoppers can fall victim to colder weather. Yellow jacket queens and other wasp species will over-winter in the eaves under roofs of homes so they can emerge in the spring to create an entire new colony.

"Different insect species have different survival strategies," says Douglen. "The praying mantis survives as eggs while Wooley bear caterpillars will curl up in leaf litter for the winter. When spring arrives, the caterpillars spin their cocoons. Whether as eggs or via hibernation, insect species have been surviving harsh winter conditions for millions of years."

Douglen recommends that homeowners in particular have regular inspections of their property to ensure "that the various areas in and around a home do not become places where a variety of insects, some of whom can inflict thousands of dollars of damage, can be identified and protected against infestations." Homes, Douglen adds, are also invaded by rodent species such as mice who seek warm places to overwinter.

Source: New Jersey Pest Management Association

Pest Control, MA ,  Pest Control, RI

By David Abel and L. Finch
Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent / September 8, 2010

It got so bad the lingering wasps, which had already stung the nearly unconscious woman more than 500 times, began attacking her rescuers.

The 53-year-old Attleboro woman had either fallen or stepped on a nest, local fire officials said, and when rescuers found her lying on the grass Saturday evening next to her Division Street home, she was covered in a type of wasp called yellow jacket. The firefighters used a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher, which sprayed cold, compressed gas, to stun the insects so they could help the woman, Fire Chief Scott Lachance said.

Afterward, several yellow jackets remained in her clothing and stung three firefighters in the ambulance, he said. A few stragglers made it to the hospital, but did not sting anyone there, Lachance added.

Though summer is winding down, this is the most likely time of year to be stung by wasps and similar predatory insects, entomologists say.

In the past few months, millions of larvae throughout the region have matured, most reaching adulthood during the past few weeks. There are now more adult wasps than at anytime of the year, and they are all competing for sustenance, making them more likely to prowl garbage bins, picnic tables, or anywhere people leave food, entomologists say.

“This is the time of year that they’re scavenging for food stocks to keep their queens alive for the coming year,’’ said Lee Corte-Real, director of the division of crop and pest services at the state Department of Agricultural Resources. “They’re foraging desperately as the weather gets cooler, and sometimes people get in their way.’’

Yesterday, a group of yellow jackets attacked several students and their teacher in Dover, N.H., as they took part in an outdoor science activity, school and local fire officials said.

One of the sixth-graders from Dover Middle School had stepped on a wasps nest, agitating the yellow jackets and sending the students running, Dover Assistant Fire Chief Richard Driscoll said.

The insects chased the students, stinging 11 of them and their teacher, several as many as 20 times, Driscoll said. Firefighters treated three of the students, while the rest of the class darted back to the school, warding off the insects along the way.

“It wasn’t mass hysteria,’’ Driscoll said. “You have to give the kids credit.’’

Eric C. Mussen, a specialist on bees and other insects at the University Of California at Davis, said part of the problem is that many of the traditional prey of wasps — spiders, caterpillars, and other insects — are dying at this time of year, so the yellow jackets are scavenging for food left by people.