Hairy Ants Invade the South
At Stop Bugging Me, we hope we don’t see these ants in Western Washington anytime soon, but if we do, Stop Bugging Me Pest control will be there for your residential ant control. Stop Bugging Me also prodvides rodent control and spider control. Both of which are popular services as we move into the autumn. Give us a call anytime at 206 749 2847
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It sounds like a horror movie: Biting ants invade by the millions. A camper’s metal walls bulge from the pressure of ants nesting behind them. A circle of poison stops them for only a day, and then a fresh horde shows up, bringing babies. Stand in the yard, and in seconds ants cover your shoes.
It’s an extreme example of what can happen when the ants — which also can disable huge industrial plants — go unchecked. Controlling them can cost thousands of dollars. But the story is real, told by someone who’s been studying ants for a decade.
“Months later, I could close my eyes and see them moving,” said Joe MacGown, who curates the ant, mosquito and scarab collections at the Mississippi State Entomological Museum at Mississippi State University.
He’s been back to check on the hairy crazy ants. They’re still around. The occupant isn’t.
The flea-sized critters are called crazy because each forager scrambles randomly at a speed that your average picnic ant, marching one by one, reaches only in video fast-forward. They’re called hairy because of fuzz that, to the naked eye, makes their abdomens look less glossy than those of their slower, bigger cousins.
And they’re on the move in Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. In Texas, they’ve invaded homes and industrial complexes, urban areas and rural areas. They travel in cargo containers, hay bales, potted plants, motorcycles and moving vans. They overwhelm beehives — one Texas beekeeper was losing 100 a year in 2009. They short out industrial equipment.
If one gets electrocuted, its death releases a chemical cue to attack a threat to the colony, said Roger Gold, an entomology professor at Texas A&M.
“The other ants rush in. Before long, you have a ball of ants,” he said.
A computer system controlling pipeline valves shorted out twice in about 35 days, but monthly treatments there now keep the bugs at bay, said exterminator Tom Rasberry, who found the first Texas specimens of the species in the Houston area in 2002.
“We’re kind of going for overkill on that particular site because so much is at stake,” he said. “If that shuts down, they could literally shut down an entire chemical plant that costs millions of dollars.”
And, compared to other ants, these need overkill. For instance, Gold said, if 100,000 are killed by pesticides, millions more will follow.
“I did a test site with a product early on and applied the product to a half-acre … In 30 days I had two inches of dead ants covering the entire half-acre,” Rasberry said. “It looked like the top of the dead ants was just total movement from all the live ants on top of the dead ants.”
But the Mississippi story is an exception, Rasberry said. Control is expensive, ranging from $275 to thousands of dollars a year for the 1,000 homes he’s treated in the past month. Still, he’s never seen the ants force someone out of their home, he said.
The ants don’t dig out anthills and prefer to nest in sheltered, moist spots. In MacGown’s extreme example in Waveland, Miss., the house was out in woods with many fallen trees and piles of debris. They will eat just about anything — plant or animal.
The ants are probably native to South America, MacGown said. But they were recorded in the Caribbean by the late 19th century, said Jeff Keularts, an extension associate professor at the University of the Virgin Islands. That’s how they got the nickname “Caribbean crazy ants.” They’ve also become known as Rasberry crazy ants, after the exterminator.
Now they’re making their way through parts of the Southeast. Florida had the ants in about five counties in 2000 but today is up to 20, MacGown said. Nine years after first being spotted in Texas, that state now has them in 18 counties. So far, they have been found in two counties in Mississippi and at least one Louisiana parish.
Texas has temporarily approved two chemicals in its effort to control the ants, and other states are looking at ways to curb their spread.
Controlling them can be tricky. Rasberry said he’s worked jobs where other exterminators had already tried and failed. Gold said some infestations have been traced to hay bales hauled from one place to another for livestock left without grass by the drought that has plagued Texas.
MacGown said he hopes their numbers are curbed in Louisiana and Mississippi before it’s too late.
The hairy crazy ants do wipe out one pest — fire ants — but that’s cold comfort.
“I prefer fire ants to these,” MacGown said. “I can avoid a fire ant colony.”
Bed Bug Insecticides Causing Sickness, Officials Warn
This is an article from Health Day News from today. Bed bugs are a difficult problem to solve, and a problem best solved by a bed bug profesional like Stop Bugging Me Pest Control.
THURSDAY, Sept. 22 (HealthDay News) — Bed bug infestations are bad enough, but a new report finds that more than 100 Americans have become sickened from exposure to the insecticides used to eliminate the pests.
The cases happened across seven states, researchers said, and bed bug insecticide exposure may have even contributed to one death.
“The majority of cases involved misuse,” said report co-author Dr. Geoffrey Calvert, a medical officer at the U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
Although the issue is not yet a major public health problem, he did offer one key recommendation for folks battling bed bugs.
“If you can’t control bed bugs with non-chemical means, such as washing and vacuuming, that means it’s probably going to be difficult to eradicate them, and we would recommend that people enlist the services of a pest control operator,” Calvert said.
The findings are published in the Sept. 23 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Bed bugs have made a notable comeback over the past few years across the United States and beyond. In San Francisco, for example, reports of bed bug infestations doubled between 2004 and 2006, one study found.
In the new study, the researchers looked at data on illnesses linked to bed bug eradication efforts reported via a federally funded pesticide illness surveillance program between 2003 and 2010. They found 111 such cases across seven states.
Most of the cases, 93 percent, were among people who tried to solve a bed bug problem at home. Most of the illnesses involved headache and dizziness, pain while breathing, difficulty breathing and nausea and vomiting, according to the report. Many of those who fell ill were workers — such as EMS technicians and carpet cleaners — who visited homes but had not been told that insecticides had recently been used.
Most of the illnesses did not require medical treatment and resolved in about a day, Calvert stressed. But about 18 percent of cases were more severe and required medical attention, he added.
One associated death was reported: In 2010, a woman in North Carolina who had a history of heart attacks, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and depression died after her husband used too much pesticide to try to kill bed bugs. The pesticide turned out to be ineffective against bed bugs and was used inappropriately over several days — the woman even sprayed the pesticide, plus a flea insecticide, on her hair, arms and chest before going to bed, the report’s authors said.
In another case in Ohio in 2010, an uncertified exterminator used malathion up to five times a day over three days in an apartment to treat a bed bug infestation. The product used was not registered for indoor use, and so much was dispensed that beds and floor coverings were saturated, according to the report. The result: Children living in the apartment required medical help and were unable to live there again. The exterminator pleaded guilty to criminal charges, was fined and put on probation.
Calvert noted that the cases documented in his team’s report are most likely only a fraction of actual illnesses, since most people affected probably never reported their symptoms and got better on their own.
If consumers attempt to control the pests on their own, Calvert advised they first make sure that the pesticide they use is made specifically for controlling bed bugs. Second, they should read the label before using the pesticide and follow the directions carefully. In addition, people living in or visiting the treated space should be notified that a pesticide has been used before they enter, he said.
In some cases, professional help may be necessary.
Overall, the findings “draw attention to the necessity of effective bed bug control by a licensed, qualified pest professional,” said Missy Henriksen, a spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association.
Because bed bugs are one of the most difficult pests to control, eradicating them can require a partnership between a consumer and a qualified and licensed pest professional who will effectively inspect and treat an infestation, she said.
“Treatment may incorporate the use of professional-grade products as well as non-chemical measures such as heating or cooling rooms, vacuuming, laundering and disposal of items,” Henriksen said.
Rodents in Homes
Pest controllers in the Puget Sound are fielding an increased number of calls as rodents leave their traditional burrows in favour of cosy wall cavities and ceiling insulation to combat the colder-than-usual winter nights. Stop Bugging Me Pest Control said at least six people were contacting the firm each day for advice on treatment for mice and rat invasions.
The company was sending out crews on a daily basis to bait and seal homes and commercial premises. Homes with outside debris, dog or cat food left outside or simply close to forrest land were the worst affected. Although their reproduction slows down in the cooler months, they still feed at virtually the same rate, so we still have the ability to seal them out of properties. If they smell a food source they want, they will do anything they can to get to it. We have seen cases where they have chewed through steel mesh to get to food. Anything they can get their head through, they can get the rest of their body through.
Stop Bugging Me urges residents to keep an ear out for suspicious scratching or scuttling sounds in their roof or walls in winter as rats and mice were not only a pest, they could become a safety hazard if they took a liking to your electrical wiring. They seem to love the plastic wiring casings and because they have to keep their incisors down, they chew through them all the time just for the sake of it. The result is often that homes have exposed wiring, which can and does spark house fires.
Stop Bugging Me Pest Control services can be booked at 206 749 BUGS (2847)