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Norway rat is the official common name for a rat that is native to the eastern Siberia/China border and parts of Japan. This misnomer occurred because the English naturalist who classified the rat in 1769 thought the rat was introduced to the UK on Norwegian ships. Although not true, the name stayed and continues to be used today.
Norway rats spread west from Asia through human migration, arriving in Europe in the 1500s and the Western Hemisphere in the 1700s. With the exception of polar regions, some islands and the Canadian province of Alberta, Norway rats are a worldwide pest and are the dominant rat species in Europe and most of North America. Alberta has worked hard since the first Norway rat was discovered in 1950 to keep itself rat-free, including monitoring a buffer zone within 29 km (18 mi) of its lower eastern border with Saskatchewan and destroying rats whenever they are found.
Red and confused flour beetles are one of the most common stored product pests. Physically and behaviorally, they are practically the same and can be approached with the same management methods. The main difference between them is that adult red flour beetles fly (although not strongly) and adult confused flour beetles do not. Adults are up to ¼ inch long with flattened bodies that help them hide in tight crevices. They can also live from one to three years, are very active and cause feeding damage along with the larvae.
Red and confused flour beetles infest a wide variety of stored products, particularly those containing processed
Q. Rodents are not going into a bait station and consuming bait. They go around and over it. How can I control activity?
— Armando, CAA. If we’re talking about rats and a newly placed bait station, it might be a matter of patience until they’re ready to go inside. Or, it may be size - some rats are too big for low profile bait stations. Does your program consist of anything besides this one or other bait stations? The rats might better accept food baits on snap traps. If we’re talking about mice, then wind-up multiple catch traps are another option in place of bait stations. Glue trays can also be placed in mouse runways. There are a number of options beyond rodenticides. What to choose depends on which rodent and what else is happening in the environment.
Q. What products and steps are needed to treat multiple cats in a bed bug infested home? The customer has two dogs and eight cats living indoors with them. Hours after I heated and sprayed the home, the homeowners called complaining about seeing multiple live bugs. The only variable in this home is the large number of cats. I tend to have problems with cat owners in general, especially if their cats runs the neighborhood.
-- David, OH
A. It shouldn’t be unexpected to see a few live bed bugs after a treatment. How many are reasonable is debatable, but the point behind multiple treatments is that bed bugs are hard to find and this situation is possible. The pets are probably not the sole reason for this. While bed bugs will feed on pets, it’s not in their nature to stay on pets like ticks and fleas. Bed bugs will return to their harborages after a blood meal whether the host is a human or a pet. In this way, you’d want to focus
Moth flies are fuzzy little flies with wing veins that run parallel from base to tip. In nature, they breed in moist, polluted environments that sometimes flood, where their larvae feed on decaying organic material. In and around structures, moth flies are common in plumbing drains and sewage systems. Because moth flies develop in decaying organic material, they may carry pathogens in healthcare facilities or to food handling areas. They may also cause allergic asthma in sensitive people.
Moth flies are one of the most common flies found in floor drains. Since the adults are poor fliers and are active at night, they are usually found resting
Q. Can a crack and crevice treatment be performed with a microencapsulated product in an office while people are working?
-- George, CA
A. The answer mostly depends on the product label. Product labels normally have restrictions against applications in occupied patient rooms or classrooms. They may have an additional restriction against applications when occupants are in the immediate area or room being treated. So you should choose a product that doesn’t have this additional restriction. However, I don’t recommend spraying a liquid product in front of office employees. If possible, baits are a better option or schedule the treatment around work hours. From my experience, it’s common for at least one employee to claim that they began to feel sick after a treatment. Whether or not the claim is true is not for a PMP to decide. It’s just best to avoid this situation as much as you can.
Voles belong to a group of rodents containing many species collectively referred to as meadow voles. Although they look like mice, voles are generally stouter with shorter ears and tail. They behave differently from mice as well and usually stay outside of structures. Voles live underground in shallow burrow systems and are poor climbers.
Voles feed on plant roots and stems and tend to damage turf and ornamental or garden plants. They are prolific breeders and their populations can peak about every four to five years. This is when most of their damage occurs around structures. Their burrow openings are connected by well-traveled runways, which also ruin the appearance of lawns.
At Veseris, everyone’s a customer service representative in addition to their formal job title. But, we do have some people who devote themselves entirely to making our customers’ lives easier, and Joanna Harris-Goveia is one of them.
As a Customer Service Manager, Joanna oversees representatives in eight Veseris ProCenters in the northeast region. “I work with my Customer Service Reps to ensure our customers are getting the very best service in the industry, leading them to become a customer for life,” she says.
Every great customer service professional has stories about going the extra mile for a customer, and Joanna’s is no different. “I had a customer call in a panic at 4:45pm, he had forgotten to order products needed for a big job the next day and, since UPS had already picked up for the day, he was going to have to reschedule the job. I offered to personally deliver the package to the UPS drop point at the nearby Philadelphia
Conenose or kissing bugs are blood-feeding insects that have a history of biting around people’s faces. Eleven species have been found in the United States – in Hawaii and the lower 29 states from California across to New Jersey. Most are found in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Adult conenose or kissing bugs are about ½ to one inch long and fly. Most have a striped band around the edge of their body. They are mostly active at night and feed on a variety of vertebrate animals. Small vertebrate animals may be reservoirs for Chagas disease that conenose or kissing bugs can vector to people and dogs especially.