Ant Control 101: A Guide to Identifying Types of Ants In Houses – PestWorld

Ant Control 101: A Guide to Identifying Types of Ants In Houses – PestWorld

Bed Bug Control Survey: Bed Bug Infestations on Rise – PestWorld

Bed Bug Control Survey: Bed Bug Infestations on Rise – PestWorld

Bed Bug Detection and Identification - What do bed bugs look like? How do I know if I have them?

Bed Bug Detection and Identification - What do bed bugs look like? How do I know if I have them?

Identifying Bed Bugs

Surefire signs to identify a bed bug infestation.

You can detect bedbugs bug looking for black tracks on your bedding and mattress (look at the top of the matteress in the picture below). These tracks are actually fecal stains that bedbugs leave when they move. Because bedbugs feed on human blood, their feces is pretty much nothing more than dried blood.

Image credit: University of Minnesota Entomology

Sometimes while a bedbug is feeding you will move or turn over. If the feeding bedbug is crushed when you move, it will leave small blood stains on whatever they are squished against. Obviously, bedbug fecal stains and blood stains show up best on lighter colored bedding.
You also may have bed bugs if you start showing bed bug bite symptoms.
Bedbugs tend to come out later at night as they feed closer to dawn. So if you find yourself awake late at night or early in the morning, you might be able to more easily find a bedbug. Make sure you have a flashlight. Gently check the sheets while you are still in bed. Then carefully pull back the bedding and mattress cover near the head of the bed and use the flashlight to check the seams and piping of the mattress. If you get up and move around, it might alert bedbugs that something is up and give them time to scurry away into their hiding places. If you're having trouble seeing an actual bedbug, read How to Trap Bed Bugs
. Chances are you won't see bedbugs during the day unless you have a very bad infestation. Bedbugs do move around during the day but are known to more around more at night. Between that and their tiny size, it could take some luck to see them out during the day.

West Nile Virus Cases Increase; NPMA & CDC Urge Caution

NPMA Staff

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Government Officials Warn of Public Health Threat

Mosquito season is in full swing and with it the increased threat of West Nile virus (WNV) infection. As of July 31, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 241 cases of WNV disease and four deaths have been reported. This is the highest number of cases reported through the end of July since 2004. These figures grow daily as more West Nile virus reports are confirmed. Government health officials and the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) experts are warning that this mosquito season may pose a severe public health threat. In fact, health officials have said that WNV cases in Texas are at epidemic levels.
“The CDC is closely monitoring West Nile virus reports from around the country,” said Roger Nasci, Chief of CDC’s Arboviral Diseases Branch. “Compared to this time last year, the number of reported human cases is much higher. People spending time outdoors, particularly in areas of the country where WNV activity is increasing, should take precautionary measures to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes.”
”In addition to protecting oneself, NPMA is asking the public to help by limiting the number of mosquito breeding grounds around their homes. Mosquitoes can breed in as little as half an inch of water, so it’s important to take stock of any items that may collect water after a rainfall such as flowerpots, children’s pools and toys, grill covers, and others,” advised Missy Henriksen, vice president of public affairs for NPMA.
WNV is a mosquito-borne virus transmitted through the bite of a mosquito that has fed on an infected bird. “In most cases West Nile virus is a mild infection with symptoms so slight they can go unnoticed, or feel like a summer flu,” said Dr. Jorge Parada, medical spokesperson for the NPMA. “In extreme cases, it can be a potentially life threatening infection with higher fever, head and body aches, worsening weakness, confusion and even coma. Anyone experiencing these symptoms should seek immediate medical attention.”
About NPMA
The NPMA, a non-profit organization with more than 7,000 members, was established in 1933 to support the pest management industry’s commitment to the protection of public health, food and property.
About CDC
CDC works 24/7 saving lives, protecting people from health threats, and saving money through prevention. Whether these threats are global or domestic, chronic or acute, curable or preventable, natural disaster or deliberate attack, CDC is the nation's health protection agency.

Pest Health: Record Heat Across Country Makes for Extra Buggy Summer - Pestworld

Pest Health: Record Heat Across Country Makes for Extra Buggy Summer - Pestworld

Giant Jurassic Fleas sucked but couldn't jump

« Giant Jurassic fleas sucked but couldn’t jump

The shortest poem ever written is known as Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes or, more simply, as Fleas. It goes: Adam/  Had ‘em. It’s a cute verse, but we don’t need Blblical references to know what the first fleas fed upon. As with many questions about ancient life, we can turn to fossils.
Among a horde of insect fossils recovered from China and Mongolia, Diying Huang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered several species of giant fleas. There are nine individuals from three different species, and they hail from the middle Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods.  “These outcrops have given us thousands of exquisitely preserved insects, but fewer than ten fleas,” says Andre Nel, who led the study.
The fossilised insects had many features that identify them as fleas – ancient precursors to the ones we know and loathe. But they had many unusual traits too. For a start, they were much bigger. While modern fleas are just a few millimetres long, some of these ancient forms were ten times bigger. The males grew between 8 and 15 millimetres in length and the females reached between 14 and 20 millimetres.
They also hadn’t evolved many of the extreme specialisations that today’s fleas possess. They didn’t have the long hindlegs that allow modern fleas to leap great distances. Instead, their legs ended in long, curved claws, suggest that they were adapted to hang onto fur or feathers. They probably hung on to the coats of feathered dinosaurs and the earliest mammals.
And they would have certainly stabbed their hosts’ skin and sucked their hosts’ blood. Huang found that their mouthparts that were much longer and stouter than those of modern fleas – like drinking straws compared to hypodermic needles.
The stabbing siphons also provide a clue about the origins of fleas. They are very much like those of scorpionflies – a group of insects named after the males’ large genitals, which look like a scorpion’s sting. Many scorpionflies (like the one below) have long snouts that they use to probe the depths of flowers, and suck up nectar and pollen. At some point in their history, some of their members adapted to sucking a bloodier liquid.
“They probably began to reduce their antennae, eyes and wings, and to develop legs adapted for grasping on the bases of the feathers or fur,” says Nels. That takes us up to the earliest fleas at the start of the Cretaceous period. By the end of the Cretaceous, these insects had also evolved specialised legs that allowed them to jump from one host to another. They started to look like Tarwinia, another extinct species that, until now, was the earliest known flea.
Flies also evolved from another group of scorpionflies, which makes them a sister group to the fleas. But they made their debut during the Triassic period, some 50 or 60 million years before the fleas arrived. Nels thinks that fleas emerged much later because they couldn’t hang on to the naked skin of Triassic vertebrates. Only in the Jurassic, when animals started to evolve feathers and fur, could the early fleas anchor themselves while they sucked.
Reference: Huang, Engel, Cai & Nel. 2012. Diverse transitional giant fleas from the Mesozoic era of China. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10839
Note: There are at least three species of the giant fleas but because of space restrictions, they haven’t been formally described yet – Huang will do so in another paper.

Learn How to Keep Bed Bugs From Ruining Your Vacation The Savvy Summer Traveler
Missy Henriksen Friday, July 13, 2012

Summer is officially here and millions of Americans have images of vacations dancing in their heads. Many things can and do go wrong on vacations, from lost luggage to a mean sunburn, most getaways are hardly ever foolproof. However, nothing can wipe out relaxation and pile on stress and anxiety more than bringing bed bugs home with you. Bed bugs feed on human blood and are best known for their uncanny hitchhiking abilities. So before any of these pests ride home in your suitcase, read on to learn what savvy travelers can do.
Before you hit the road, sky or rails, it’s important to be aware of ways to protect yourself and your family while traveling. Whether it’s during transit, your hotel stay or upon your return home, when it comes to bed bugs – prevention is the BEST cure. It may be one more thing to add to your vacation checklist, but it’s one that can make a difference. Are bed bugs really in hotels? Unfortunately, yes! These pests don’t differentiate between a 5-star hotel and cheap, low amenity motel. To them, a bed is a bed as long as a blood meal is sleeping in it (and yes, that means you!). A 2011 NPMA and University of Kentucky survey found that 80 percent of pest professionals have treated bed bugs in hotels and motels. Although bed bugs are found in numerous places other than hotels, most travelers will stay in a hotel at one point or another during their vacation, putting themselves at a higher risk of picking up these hitchhiking bugs. Once inside a hotel or home, bed bugs spread rapidly from room to room - through pipes, in vacuum cleaners, on clothing and luggage. In a hotel, bed bugs can even spread to neighboring rooms, since guests may end up moving to another room and because they can crawl through the walls between rooms.

What should I look for in a hotel?
•Upon entering the room, put your suitcase in the bathroom as that is the safest place for it. Bed bugs are least likely to hide in a bathroom.
•Pull back the sheets and inspect the mattress seams, particularly at the corners, for pepper-like stains or spots or even the bugs themselves. Adult bed bugs resemble a flat apple seed.
•Check behind the headboard, inside couch and chair cushions, behind picture frames and around electrical sockets.
•If you see anything suspect, notify management and change rooms or establishments immediately.
•If you do need to change rooms, be sure that you do not move to a room adjacent and/or directly above/below the suspected infestation. Bed bugs can easily hitchhike via housekeeping carts, luggage and even through wall sockets. If an infestation is spreading, it typically does so in the rooms closest to the origin. •Even if you determine your room is clear of any bed bugs, consider placing your suitcase in a plastic trash bag or protective cover during the duration of your trip to ensure that bed bugs cannot take up residence there prior to departure. What should I do when I return home?
•Inspect your suitcases before bringing them into the house. Your neighbors may give you strange looks, but better safe then sorry. Take the opportunity to educate them as to why you’re unpacking your suitcase on the front porch. You might save them from a bed bug infestation in the future.
•Vacuum your suitcase thoroughly before storing it. Consider using a garment hand steamer to steam your luggage, which can kill any bed bugs or eggs that may have hitched a ride home.
•Wash and dry all of your clothes - even those that have not been worn - in hot temperatures to ensure that any bed bugs that may have made it that far are not placed into your drawers/closet.
•Keep clothes that must be dry-cleaned in a plastic bag and take them to the drycleaner as soon as possible.

How will I know I have bed bugs? Maybe you didn’t check the hotel room as thoroughly as you thought or perhaps you were too tired to vacuum your suitcase. Perhaps you did everything right but a few days after you came home, you wake up with red itchy welts on your body and notice the telltale pepper-like stains on your sheets. A few bed bugs snuck by you and have made themselves at home. Don’t panic! Although bed bugs are a difficult pest to treat, pest professionals have many treatment options available to them and are successful in eliminating infestations. The key is to begin treatment as soon as infestation is suspected or discovered. Bed bugs are not a DIY pest, as evidenced recently by an Ohio State University study and treatments should be left to licensed and experienced pest professionals. If you suspect a bed bug infestation contact a pest professional.

Don’t let this happen to you!

For more information on bed bugs visit: http://www.pestworld.org/news-and-views/pest-articles/articles/the-savvy-summer-traveler/

Brought to you by the National Pest Management Association