If you wondered why a horse fly bite was so painful or how far a fly travels check out these fascinating fly facts.

Fly Facts

• Horse flies are attracted to large, dark objects, and to certain animal odors and carbon dioxide.
• Relentless attacks by a horse fly on livestock can result in reduced weight gain.
• Unlike insects that pierce the skin, horse–flies have mouth parts that work like miniature knives, which they use to slash open the skin with a scissor–like motion.
• Cluster flies are often found in large numbers in roof voids in Autumn where they over–winter.
• Flies only eat liquids but they can turn many solid foods into a liquid through spitting or vomiting on it.
• A flies tongue is shaped like a straw so they can suck up their food.
• Flies eat any wet or decaying matter, but they are particularly attracted to pet poo because the odor is strong and it is easy for them to find.
• There are more than 120,000 species of flies worldwide.
• Most flies live an average of 21 days and take on various shapes throughout their short lives.
• Baby flies are called larvae but they are also known as maggots.
• Medical doctors use a special species of maggots to help patients with flesh wounds, especially burn victims. Maggots eat away the damaged flesh, which helps the wound heal.
• These insects have been known to carry over 100 different kinds of disease causing germs.
• House flies tend to stay within 1-2 miles of where they were born but will travel up to 20 miles to find food. They breed in garbage cans, compost heaps and pet areas.
• Fruit flies live for 8-10 days. In that time, females lay around 500 eggs, using rotting fruit or vegetables as their nest.
• The vinegar fly breeds in fermenting residues found in pubs, fruit & vegetables and breweries but may also breed in unclean drains and cleaning utensils.

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Flies Aloft

Maggots and Murder: Forensic Entomology

Flies, Maggots and Mold

Why Flies Don’t Like Zebra’s and Other Facts is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

So why, you might ponder, is numeracy so important in the animal kingdom? It helps animals solve problems and communicate. Science Alert uses a great example of the Cowbird which chooses to eschew all type of childcare. The Cowbird prefers to dump their eggs into the nest of another bird which contains three eggs. The unwitting surrogate bird then has to bring up the Cowbird chicks too. Crows identify individuals by the number of caw sounds in their vocalisations.

The BBC broadcast Test Your Pet in 2004 to discover which was Britain’s cleverest type of pet. Over 25,000 pets and their owners undertook six pet IQ tests. The title of Britain’s Cleverest Individual Pet went to Baggio, the Cockateil from Bristol. Baggio watches his owner, tailor Jack Territo, sewing suits. So Baggio has learnt to copy Jack by using his beak, tongue and claws. He can pick up a needle and thread it through material. Impressive stuff. Based on average scores for each group of pets, dogs ranked first, followed by horses, parrots, cats and rats.

Rats are clever animals and its always not easy to get rid of rats. They are quick on their feet and cunning but more worrying they understand cause and effect, which demonstrates a deeper intelligence. It concerns me to think that a rat may be cleverer than me.

The social hierarchy of ants is impressive but are they numerical. The 2011 study Numerical competence in animals, with an insight from ants by Russian scientists Zhanna Reznikova & Boris Ryabko indicates that ants can add and subtract small numbers and use these operations for optimising their messages.

If you ask any of our bird control technicians if they think pigeons are clever, they will tell you that pigeons can be really clever, and very determined, but in other ways they have a lot to learn. Not unlike a seven year child I guess.

How Clever Are Pests? is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

My Favourite Pest Jokes

Q: How many cockroaches does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: Can’t tell, when the light goes on, they scatter.

Q. Did you hear about the pregnant bed bug?

She gave birth in the spring.

Q. What do you call a nervous beetle?

A. A jitter bug.

Q.  How many rats does it take to change a light bulb?
A.  Two.  One to remove the old one, the other to pee all over the replacement bulb so that it trips the electrical circuit.
A.  None, they prefer to be in the dark.
A.  All of them.  One to take the bulb out and the others to fight over who gets to stash it.
A.  Why change it?  The rats have already gnawed through all the house wiring, which is why the bulb wasn’t working in the first place.

How to tell the sex of a fly

A woman walked into the kitchen to find her husband stalking around with a fly swatter. ”What are you doing?” she asked.

“Hunting Flies“ he responded.

“Oh! Killing any?” she asked.

“Yep, three males, two females,’ he replied.

Intrigued, she asked.”‘How can you tell them apart?”

He responded, three were on a beer can, two were on the phone.

Q. What squeaks as it solves crimes ?

A. Miami mice!

Knock Knock

Who’s there?

Termite

Termite who?

Termite’s the night!

Rat Property Laws

1. If I like it, it’s mine.
2. If I’ve peed on it, it’s mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it’s mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine.
5. If you’ve got something larger, it’s mine.
6. If I’m chewing something up, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it’s in my reach, it’s mine.
8. If I saw it first, it’s mine.
9. If you have something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10. If tastes so bad not even a rat can eat it, then it’s yours.

Q. What do you call a 100 year old ant?

A. Ant-ique

Q. What is the biggest ant in the world?

A. Eleph-ant

New Year Cheer is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Rats can live in burrows up to three meters deep but when the first frost sets in and food becomes scarce they can be forced to leave their home and seek an alternative nesting site. If you have rats nesting nearby and there is an entry point to your home or premises, there is a real threat from a rodent invasion. If you ever wondered how far a rat can travel, or how much food they need to eat, check out these interesting rat facts.

10 Rat Facts

• If a rat is trapped and released it can move up to four miles from the release point.
• A rat burrow can be three meters deep but is rarely more than 0.5 meters deep.
• Brown rats show a tendency to be negative geotaxis which means they prefer to move downwards as opposed to upwards.
• Black rats are superior climbers and can climb any slightly roughed surface up or down.
• Brown rats can jump vertically more than 77cm and 120cm horizontally.
• At one time 11-31% of all female rats are pregnant.
• Patterns of movement become so engrained in rats that when they get used to moving around an obstacle, if the obstacle is removed they will continue to move around it. Thus the correct siting of trap means they do not have to be baited but it is imperative they are placed directly on the run.
• Female rats can distinguish the sex of their offspring by smell.
• Rodents can live and breed in cold stores and have been known to nest in the fat layer of carcasses.
• Rats eat up to 10% of their body weight a day and cannot live without access to water.

10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Rats is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Just to see what would happen, Sheffield University researchers placed hungry bed bugs on the arms of 29 brave volunteers (obviously not me).  Half the bed bug victims had shaved arms and the other half retained their body hair. The test was to discover if  the bed bugs preferred their humans hairy or not hairy.

The findings were published in the journal Biology Letters and researchers reported that bed bugs preferred the hairless arms, probably because it gave them an easier access to blood vessels. A bed bug takes between three and 10 minutes to feed, a long time to avoid a good slap from a human. Bed bugs prefer to bite under the cover of darkness and leave three tell-tale bite marks, referred to in the pest control industry as breakfast, lunch and dinner. An even more sinister fact about bed bugs is that they are unlikely to wake their victim, because they inject an anaesthetic whilst drawing the blood from its host.

In the summer I often bitten on my hair-free ankles by beasts unknown and I only ever get bitten below the knee by mosquitoes. But then the OH is very hairy and get eaten alive by anything with six legs. What does that mean?

Do Bed Bugs Prefer Hairy Humans? is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Traditionally hallowe’en costumes have focused on the theme of witches, vampires, devils, ghosts, bats and spiders but more recently it seems like anything goes.  This tiny super hero will be sure to see off any baddie and the cockroaches and rodents will be scuttling off when they see him coming!

Snug As A Bug

This Hallowe’en cutie (pictured right) is as quiet as a mouse, oblivious to the powers of the tiny super hero keeping our streets free of vermin.

Cute Cat

If you have a rodent problem perhaps cat girl can help out. Cats have been used for centuries to control mice and rat populations and today they still have a strong instinct to hunt mice and rats, even if they aren’t even the tiniest bit hungry. Though I suspect this gorgeous feline would prefer to snuggle up on the sofa and chew her tail.

Ladybird or Harlequin?

I blogged recently about annoying Harlequins invading my house in their hundreds but this little lady bug does not look like a pest. More like an angel disguised as a ladybird.

Halloween Super Heroes is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

I have always wondered who thought it was a good idea for a lady to wear a tightly laced corset so her midriff looked like a wasp. The wasp waist was highly fashionable in the 19th and 20th century. Average corseted waist measurements varied between 20 and 23 inches but measurements of 18 to 16 inches were not uncommon.

Luckily the wasp waist is no longer a fashion statement but the humble wasp could still be influencing fashion. Every year the Pantone Color Institute surveys influential designers about the colours which will be hitting our high streets in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Pantone report that this season’s shades are inspired by paintings from the Great Masters, chinese opera, cityscapes and the countryside. Perennial autumn classics like brown and beige can be spruced-up with a splash of yellow and teal. But when researching the shades which may be gracing my wardrobe this autumn I couldn’t help but wonder if they had used pests as their inspiration.

Bamboo is tipped to be this season’s hottest shade.  Similar to the wasp or honey bee which broadcasts its bold colouring as a warning for predators to stay well away or suffer the consequence of being stung, bamboo is warm and exotic; reminiscent of fallen leaves damaged by the leaf miner.

Another key colour is cedar, a mid-tone green which evokes memories of a caterpillar crawling along a juicy leaf. Mousey brown shades of Nougat and Coffee Liqueur could have been inspired by the house brown moth. The bronze-brown moth has black flecks on the forewings and is omnivorous. The house brown moth feeds on anything from your favourite sweater to the carpet or dried flower arrangement.

I just hope that the 1980′s fashion of rat tail hair styles do not make a come back.  Can anyone else think of how pests have inspired fashion?

Pest Fashion: Wasp Waists and Rat Tails is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Although the spacecraft will break into pieces during re-entry, not all of it will burn up in the atmosphere. A more accurate prediction of the location will be possible two hours before the debris is due to land but bookmakers PaddyPower are accepting odds of about 66-to-1 for space debris to land on Ireland.The satellite will not be passing over North America during the time of re-entering and is not likely to fall in Scotland or Argentina.

There are 26 pieces of UARS weighing a total of about 1,100 pounds and some pieces could be the size of a fridge-freezer.

NASA said the odds that a person will be hit by a piece of debris from UARS are about 1 in 3,200. Just in case you see a big, hot chunk of metal falling from the sky the BBC have put together some tips on how to dodge a satellite.

But even if you manage to get through today unscathed by pieces of falling satellite, UARS represents just a fraction of the space debris orbiting our earth. Over 22,000 objects larger than 4 inches are currently tracked by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network. Only about 1,000 of these represent operational spacecraft; the rest are orbital debris. A German satellite with much bigger pieces is due to fall back to earth with a mightier thump later this year.

Apart from space junk, other strange things to fall on land from the heavens above have included insects, frogs and fish. Strong enough winds can create small whirlwinds and mini-tornadoes. When these travel over water small items in their path, such as fish or frogs, may be picked up and carried for up to several miles before being deposited in a hail of fish, frogs or whatever the winds happened to pick up.

A few years ago a hot wind blew over 1000 miles from the Sahara and deposited sand and insects onto our cars.

Humans have sent pests into space, but maybe Rentokil should diversity into extraterrestrial pest control and clean up the space junk.

The chances of being hit are very slim but if you’re worried about being a statistic, real time tracking of UARS is available at Heaven Above.

Is Space Junk Becoming A Pest? is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

How birds navigate has been the subject of much debate but studies have indicated that birds use light to orient, rather than magnetic sensing. Birds may travel at night using the pattern of stars, and the sun during the day.

Last year 10,000 birds were lured from their migratory path towards the bright lights of the Tribute in Light at ground zero. The birds circled in confusion around the spectacular light show which casts its light into the heavens on September 11 in memory of the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Susan Elbin, NYC Audubon director of conservation, estimates that 90,000 birds die annually in New York City, because of collisions with buildings. Nationwide, the bird collision toll in the US is at least 100 million.

When it’s dark or foggy birds fly at lower altitudes, the combination of glass and artificial light confuses birds. Unable to see glass, or simply exhausted by flying around the lights,birds can be injured or killed.

A landmark study conducted by the Field Museum in Chicago showed that by turning the lights off in one building, the number of bird kills dropped by an average of 83 percent.

New York City Audubon inaugurated Lights Out NY in 2005 and a number of the city’s iconic buildings — the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center, 501 Lexington Avenue (formerly known as Citigroup Center), Silverstein Properties, The Warner Center and the Worldwide Plaza — will turn off their lights from midnight to dawn dusk during the peak migration season September 1st to November 1st.

In Ireland lighthouse owners noticed that migrating birds were attracted towards the beams of light during bad weather. The birds were dazzled by the beam and many died by crashing into the lantern or the tower. Birds are attracted towards the light of the burning gas being flared off platforms in the North Sea and off the coast of Cork. Many have been killed in this way, but many others find a safe perch on the brightly illuminated platforms.

In case you were wondering feral city pigeons don’t migrate. There’s enough human food left lying around for them to pick at, and with the warmth and shelter of a city why bother with a long haul flight?

Do Feral Pigeons Migrate? is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

As part of the pigeon courtship a single male will nod his head at the female which takes his fancy and spread his tail feathers to communicate his interest. The birds look directly at each other, and if the hen likes what she sees, she will nod back. The male will then prune his feathers, leaving the next move to the female. If interested the hen will hold out her head and move closer to the male and fan her tail feathers.

Things hotten up when the male offers his beak and indulges in a pigeon kiss (rubbing their beaks together). The hen will feed the male from her beak and together they will coo. After mating the first egg will be laid within 10 days, with a second arrival following a couple of days later. The squabs hatch in 17-18 days and stay in the nest for two months.

After a couple of weeks the cock takes over childcare duty to allow the hen to prepare for the next round of egg-laying. They may have a couple of nests, with squab feeding in one and an egg incubating in another.

A single pair can produce fifty pigeons in twelve months which may make bird control a necessity if they move into your premises. Whilst brooding, both parents develop a nutritious, thick pigeon milk which is a bit like porridge. This amazing substance is so nutritious a squab can double in size in 48 hours. The squabs are fed on the magic porridge for about six weeks which contains immunities against disease which explains why they can live in such filthy conditions. (Pigeons have no hygiene awareness and are quite happy to poo in their own nests).

But apart from living in such a romantic abode, life for these two love birds can be good in the city, especially if they live above a fish and chip shop.

The Pigeon Kiss is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog