RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Squirrel Pox Outbreak Action Plan in Place

Traps are being offered to the public in order to catch and kill grey squirrels in the area.

The virus has no apparent effect on the greys but is invariably fatal to their red counterparts.

Scotland is one of the UK's last red squirrel strongholds, with the south of the country seen as being on the frontline of conservation efforts.

The organization Red Squirrels in South Scotland said post mortem examinations had confirmed the outbreak around the River Tweed.

The public has been advised not to put out garden feeders as a measure to help stop the disease spreading.

Estates on both sides of the river have already removed a number of the animals.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Late night fire in a vacant home on Weller Road, off Bell Ave, in Elyria is believed to have started after a squirrel ate through wiring in the attic of the home.

When Firefighters arrived they found a moderate amount of smoke coming from the house and flames could be seen inside through the front windows. Firefighters were able to bring the fire under control within a half hour.

No injuries were reported.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Flying Squirrel Invades Hospital Emergency Room

Firefighters were needed stat after a flying squirrel went nuts in a New Jersey hospital's emergency room.

The squirrel kept launching itself from an 8-foot-high wall-mounted lamp into a glass wall after becoming trapped in a trauma room at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Rahway Tuesday night.

Fire Department spokesman Capt. Ted Padavano told The Star-Ledger of Newark it would climb up on a light and would jump off and glide.

A pair of firefighters threw a blanket over the squirrel and released it into a wooded area outside the hospital.

Padavano believes there may be a nest in the building because it's the second time in two weeks that a flying squirrel got in the ER.

Source = Associated Press

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Tenant Starts Apartment fire Trying To Kill Bedbugs

A fire started in an apartment as the tenant used a cigarette lighter to chase bed bugs, police told 24 Hour News 8.

No one was injured and the blaze was contained to a bedroom, which sustained fire, smoke and water damage.

The fire was in a second-floor residence at Fox Ridge Apartments, 1400 Alamo Hills Dr. in Kalamazoo.

Members of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety were dispatched around 6:35 p.m. Thursday and evacuated the building. They then extinguished the flames in 15 minutes.

The resident admitted to starting the fire and tried using a fire extinguisher but had to evacuate as the fire spread.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Rats: Holiday Spirit, in Rodent Form

During the holidays, if kids become brats, you can shout with a straight face, “Start acting like rats!’’ According to a study in the journal Science, University of Chicago researchers discovered that lab rats can show empathy — a quality not previously demonstrated in rodents — at levels that are rare even in primates.

Free rats sensed distress in caged rats and worked tirelessly to free them. When chocolate chips were added to the experiment, the free rat did not selfishly gobble them up and let the caged rat languish. It still freed the other rat and shared the sweets. Researchers hope their observations will inform studies of human empathy. Despite the rat’s image as the first creature to abandon a sinking ship, the new finding may inspire a rising tide of concern for one’s fellow beings, especially during the holidays. If even rats put others first, surely humans can, too.

Source = Bostonglobe.com

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Research Uncovers Empathy in Rats

As charges of greed and self-interest fly in these hyper-partisan political times, humans might do well to look to rats for lessons in kindness and caring.

A University of Chicago experiment to determine how much empathy rats have for each other had some surprising results, which were published Friday in the research journal Science.

In laboratory studies, a rat was restrained in a small cage that could be opened only from the outside. A second rat, seeing the predicament of the trapped rat, immediately began tirelessly trying to find a way to free his fellow rat.

Eventually, the second rat taught itself to open the cage door, freeing the restrained rat, leading to what strongly resembled a triumphal celebration between the two. Even when faced with an alternative choice of chocolate chips, the free rat would not be deterred from helping its caged fellow rat.

As simple as it sounds, the experiment is being hailed as a new paradigm that will help scientists trace the development of emotion in mammals back through the evolutionary tree.

Previously, scientists thought that empathy and pro-social behavior to help others were unique to humans, said Jeffrey Mogil, a researcher at McGill University in Canada who has done similar studies on mice.

“This study shows the roots of human empathy didn’t just appear but evolved,” said Mogil, who was not connected with the University of Chicago study. “It is very impressive, showing really robust and conclusive evidence that rats show pro-social (helping) behavior. You can argue why the rats are doing it, but you can’t argue anymore that the rats are doing it.”

The experiment is the work of University of Chicago doctoral student Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal; her adviser, Jean Decety, a professor of psychology and psychiatry who studies human empathy; and Peggy Mason, a neurobiology professor who studies pain modulation and relief.

Decety said it has been proved in past studies that rats also experience a primitive form of empathy called emotional contagion — the sort of thing where if one baby in a group of babies begins to cry, they all break out in tears.

“Ben-Ami came to my lab to do her Ph.D. with an idea of using an animal model to study higher forms of empathy,” said Decety, who enlisted Mason for a study that wound up taking three years.

The team first paired rats of the same gender for three weeks.

Then they placed one of the pair in a small, Plexiglas restraint cage, locked by a door that could only be opened from the outside. The cage was placed in a larger enclosure where the rat’s partner roamed free.

By means the researchers aren’t sure of, the caged rat seemed to communicate its distress to the freed rat, and the freed rat sprang into action.

“The free rat jumps on the restraining cage immediately, pushing it, biting at it, touching its nose and whiskers through the openings in the restraining cage with those of the trapped rat,” Mason said. “Clearly it wants to help out the trapped rat.”

After about six days, the free rat would accidentally open the door and from then on quickly learned how to deliberately open it, and then excitedly interact with its now-free partner as they raced around the enclosure.

“I can’t say that they are celebrating,” said Mason. “But sure looks like a celebration.”

Because rats love chocolate, in some experiments the scientists placed two restraint cages in an enclosure with a rat that already knew how to open the cage door. One cage contained a rat, the other five chocolate chips.

“We wanted to ask how much the free rat valued being able to liberate the caged rat,” Mason said. “They like their chocolate chips, but the free rat would open both cages in no particular order.

“The free (rat) could have done all manner of things to monopolize the chocolate chips, but on average it always left one and a half chocolate chips for the liberated rat. That’s impressive — a hard thing for primates to do — showing it puts equal value on chocolate and freeing its partner.”

Eventually rats that did not know each other were used, and the free rat still worked hard to liberate the stranger from the cage.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Man Contracts Rat Lungworm Disease in Hawaii, Paralyzing Ailment Caused by Microscopic Parasite

Eric Reinert, 22, lost 50 pounds, suffered pain, numbness and nerve damage, but says 'I'm getting better every day'

A microscopic parasite turned a man’s trip to tropical paradise into a medical nightmare.

Eric Reinert, a 22-year-old Minnesota man, has had to learn to walk all over again after contracting rat lungworm disease in Hawaii.

The rare and revolting bug lives in the bodies of rats and turns up in their feces. Snails and slugs often eat the droppings and lay eggs, contaminating water sources.

Rat lungform, or eosinophilic meningitis, can cause permanent nerve and brain damage.

Reinert, who was in Hawaii’s Puna district to learn about organic farming, told WCCO that the illness began with stomach cramps.

Things got worse quickly when the pain spread, leaving him bedridden.

“Just staying as still as I could on my back was the only way I could be at peace for a little bit,” he said.

After a few days, he was unable to cope with the agony and went to the hospital.

Luckily, a doctor figured out that Reinert had rat lungworm, most likely from eating fruits and vegetables that weren’t properly washed.

“A lot of people in Hawaii don’t know this exists, I didn’t know it existed,” said Reinert. “I wasn’t told about it because I’m sure the people I lived with didn’t know it exists.”

The diagnosis was good news but Reinert was still in big trouble. He had to stay in the hospital for nearly a month before being allowed to continue convalescing in his home in Watertown, Minn.

He had lost 50 pounds, experienced the numbness and nerve damage associated with the disease, and relies on a wheelchair.

Still, he’s making progress and his friends have raised $3,500 to help him pay his medical bills.

“Every day it gets a little better,” Reinert said. “It’s kind of a roller coaster with the pain, but overall, that’s what I tell everybody. Overall, I’m getting better every day.”

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Scary Food Facts: Insects & Rodent Hairs In your food? The FDA Says It's OK

Scary Food Fact No. 1: FDA Allows Rodent Hairs And Bugs into Peanut Butter, and Beetle Eggs in Canned Asparagus

When dealing with produce that has been harvested from the field, it’s pretty difficult to ensure that every teeny tiny critter that may have hopped onto a leaf or a stem, or nibbled their way inside of a tasty fruit is removed before the produce is processed and sold to the consumer. And after all, if you eat a little maggot, insect larvae or even a smidgen of mammalian excreta, you’ll probably be just fine.

In fact, the FDA is so certain you won’t suffer any adverse effects from ingesting minuscule amounts of insects, or “excreta” or rodent hairs (well those rodents, they do get everywhere) that it has published a little booklet called the Defect Level Handbook that advises food manufacturers as to what amounts of contamination from (harmless) foreign material are acceptable. When it comes to frozen or canned asparagus, the maximum level of contamination is “10% by count of spears or pieces {that} are infested with 6 or more attached asparagus beetle eggs and/or sacs.”

With frozen broccoli, come in under an “average of 60 or more aphids and/or thrips and/or mites per 100 grams” and it’s all good. As for cinnamon bark, more than an “average of 1 mg or more {of} mammalian excreta per pound” will get you in trouble. And when it comes to peanut butter, manufacturers can turn a blind eye to an “average of 1 or more rodent hairs per 100 grams,” but no more.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

One of the first things I was taught when I first became a “PMP” (Pest Management Professional) back in the 70’s was to always look up! Come to think of it, we were “Exterminators” back then.

In many situations this holds true for keeping rodents out of your home.

Mice are excellent climbers and our native mice (White-Footed and Deer Mice) are exceptional climbers. I remember camping once and I woke up at 1:30AM to attend to some business. As I exited the camper with my trusty flashlight (PMP’s always carry quality flashlights) I observed a White-Footed mouse climb the truck of a large Eastern Hemlock onto a large branch and disappear into the dark woods!

If you want complete mouse proofing, seal everything larger than 1/4” all the way up to and including the gutter line. Our company has always struggled to be competitive in offering this service to our clients due to the cost of enormous amount of labor and it’s tedious nature. We do offer it though if anyone is interested in it.

John Stellberger
President - Environmental Health Services, Inc.

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

We run into to many situations every year with clients that unknowing strand the young of an animal they wish to evict from their home.

It is important to understand some basic breeding biology when you attempt to remove the adult(s) parents from your home or other structure. These animals usually have distinct breeding seasons. If you remove the attending parents, these young animals may die or wander into your home in a final attempt to survive.

We get many frantic calls every year when customers hear cries from these stranded animals or worse, the animals die and an odor or fly infestation develops.

Please remember this when you set a trap for a mammal or seal a dryer vent after shooing out the adult nesting birds.

Either research their habits and breeding biology or call us at 877-507-0698!

John Stellberger
President - Environmental Health Services, Inc.

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA