Unseasonably warm winters mean insects that go dormant for the winter stay active. It means insects will breed earlier than usual, supported by accelerated life cycles; also due to warmer temperatures. Ticks, for example, are likely to start the phone ringing sooner than anyone would want due to their resiliency and a biology that supports activity in months most of us relax our tick prevention efforts. (Remember, treat your pets and your home year round for year round protection.) While we cannot control what mother nature does as she drops two-feet of snow in October, or  as you walk the dog in shorts January 14th (it was 68 degrees), you can protect your home and family from pests year round and be prepared for the unexpected twists and turns the weather is going to throw at you.

Mild winters also mean more rodent activity. Rodents that moved into structures in the fall for warmth, while happy with their new surroundings, could mean that rodent populations increase instead of decreasing as they should in colder months. More importantly, populations can quickly surge in the spring bringing ticks, fleas and other parasites that rodents carry along for the ride. Not a good scenario for pets or humans alike.

So if you’re noticing the odd fly or ants sporadically throughout the winter, or if the mouse activity you suspected suddenly ceases to make itself known, brace yourself. Spring’s true measure of pest activity now begins with winter’s puzzling display of climatic oddities.

How Mild Winters Affect Pests is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Rentokil Pest Control staat op 18, 19 en 20 januari 2012 op de Vakbeurs Facilitair. Deze belangrijke vakbeurs voor de Facilitaire wereld wordt in Den Bosch gehouden. Een fantastisch evenement waar vele facilitaire beslissers naar toe gaan.

Rentokil Pest Control is op de beurs aanwezig, samen met Initial Hokatex en Ambius, op stand 1.037. We hebben een gezamenlijke stand om onze kracht als één bedrijf duidelijk te maken en te laten zien wat wij allemaal te bieden hebben. Ook zijn de nieuwe logo´s tijdens de beurs voor het eerst duidelijk zichtbaar voor al onze relaties.

Op dit moment is de beurs in volle gang. Veel van de standbezoekers vragen Rentokil naar nieuwe technologieën op het gebied van ongediertebestrijding. Onder het genot van een hapje en een drankje spreken de accountmanagers met de standbezoekers over de diensten van Rentokil Pest Control en laten ze de MMU, Radar en de Luminos insectenlamp zien.

Ambius staat op de beurs met een prachtige verticale tuin en ze hebben Microfresh mee, de stand van Rentokil Initial ruikt hierdoor heerlijk.

Initial Hokatex heeft hun gedeelte van de stand aangekleed met sanitaire producten.

Door de gezamenlijke stand neemt de mogelijkheid tot cross selling toe. Veel geïnteresseerden in één van de 3 divisies nemen ook een kijkje in de rest van de stand of vragen de verschillende accountmanagers naar meer informatie over hun producten en diensten.

Vakbeurs Facilitair is geopend op donderdag 19 januari van 10.00 uur tot 19.00 uur en op vrijdag 20 januari van 10.00 uur tot 17.00 uur. Rentokil Pest Control, Initial Hokatex en Ambius zijn te vinden op standnummer 1.037.

Rentokil at the Vakbeurs Facilitair (English translation)

Rentokil Pest Control is taking part at the Vakbeurs Facilitair at 18-20 January 2012. This important trade fair for World facilities is held in Den Bosch, Netherlands and is a fantastic event attended by many facility decision makers.

Rentokil Pest Control will be joining the exhibition, along with Initial Hokatex and Ambius. If you are attending please stop by to meet us at booth 1037. We have a joint stand and would love to show you what we have to offer. Also, we will be unveiling our brand new logos for the first time and introducing new technologies in the field of pest control.

Please join us for a drink and a snack and meet one of our account managers to learn more about our innovative products including Mouse Monitor Unit, Radar and Luminos Fly Killers.

Ambius have decorated a beautiful vertical garden fragranced with Microfresh, which scents the Rentokil Initial stand too. Initial Hokatex has decorated their part of the stand with sanitary units.

Many visitors interested in our hygiene products may also be delighted to discover that we can supply beautiful plants and pest control too.

If you want to find out more about Rentokil Pest Control, Initial Hokatex and Ambius please drop by at stand number 1037.

Vakbeurs Facilitair is open Thursday, January 19th from 10am to 7pm and on Friday, January 20 from 10 am to 5pm.

Rentokil op de Vakbeurs Facilitair is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Winter gnats are usually about six to eight millimetres in length with long transparent wings. A winter gnat has only one visible pair of wings, rather than the two pairs of a wasp. The second pair of wings, technically known as halteres, are tiny and beat rapidly during flight, providing stability.

I can’t find any reference to them biting, or having biting mouthparts. However, there’s a lot of folk on the internet claim to have been bitten by them. Could it be that a winter gnat is unfairly mistaken for something more sinister like a painfully biting horse fly or deer fly?

Winter gnats are very common in England. The adults emerge from larvae that live in rotting vegetation such decaying leaves. Fungus gnats can live in the soggy leaves of a houseplant. The larvae can injure the roots of bedding plants and damage stored food such as potatoes.

Winter gnats are abundant throughout the year but are more prevalent in the autumn and winter. They are fond of woodlands and open water and are an important food source for birds, plus fish are not impartial to a snack either. In the winter the male winter gnats gather in large swarms and dance up and down to attract females. The females lay their eggs in decaying wood or other rotten matter and emerge in the spring.

If you have been bitten by a winter gnat, please let us know – we’re curious!

Thanks to Brian Valentine (Lord V) for the amazing photograph posted on Flickr.

Winter Gnats and Other Biting Insects is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

After some not so exhaustive research I learned that Integrated Pest Management is not a modern practice derived from modern thinking. Charles Valentine Riley, who was born in Chelsea, London, England on September 19, 1843 used his love of the natural world to catalogue an insect collection of 115,000 mounted insects. Educated in Germany and France, Charles Valentine Riley was fascinated with insects from an early age. By age 17 he landed in the United States in Illinois and turned his passion into an incredible body of work in his all too short life.

Charles was a keen observer of crop damage caused by insects and at age 17 was sending his findings of insect crop damage to the Prairie Farmer, an agricultural journal in the Midwest. By the age of 21 Charles was working as an entomologist, artist and reporter for the entomological department of an agricultural journal. His passion led to numerous appointments including State Entomologist of Missouri in the spring of 1868. He published nine annual reports (in collaboration with Asa Fitch, T.W. Harris and B.D. Walsh) that are widely regarded by authorities as the foundation of modern entomology.

Riley was not prone to sitting back and watching the grass grow. His body of work includes getting Congress to pass a bill that created the United States Entomological Commission in March 1877, and was also appointed the chairman of the Grasshopper Commision due to his work  during the grasshopper invasion of many western states between 1873 and 1877. After a fallout with the Commissioner of Agriculture, Charles left his position and pursued his passion from his home. After President James Garfield was inaugurated in 1881, Charles Valentine Riley was reappointed and remained the chief of the Federal Entomological Service until June 1894. Riley also authored over 2,400 publications and two journals; the American Entomologist (1868-80) and Insect Life (1889-94)

One of Charles’ crowning achievements was his role in helping reduce the decimation of citrus crops in California in 1888. Charles collected parasites and predators of the cottony cushion scale and found a natural enemy of the scale in Australia. Charles introduced a beetle, Vedalia cardinalis, now known as Rodolia cardinalis to the California citrus industry and significantly reduced populations of the cottony cushion scale, without the use of chemicals. His efforts set the tone and direction for the study of biological control of plant damaging insects.

There are four components that make IPM (Integrated Pest Management) the right solution for many commercial customers and homeowners alike. The Ehrlich IPM philosophy follows these core areas:

1. Action thresholds are established in order to determine what pests and or environmental conditions exist.
2. Highly trained technicians identify and monitor pests and engage client participation to ensure the success of the program.
3. Prevention is upheld through practising good sanitation, exclusion and the use of mechanical trapping devices to intercept pests before they become a problem.
4. Control is the goal and to that end Ehrlich utilizes mechanical, physical and lastly, chemical means of achieving this goal.

Sadly, Charles died at the very young age of  52, leaving a wife and six children. Charles contributed his scientific findings to what is now The Smithsonian Institute and left a legacy that pioneered  biological control of crop damaging insects. Integrated Pest Management has now evolved beyond being a mere industry catch phrase and is now one of the standards by which many programs are juged by. I think I will go finish my apple now.

Integrated Pest Management and Apples is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Our archives record an interesting account of a job we were called out to in 1964. The privy of Her Majesty’s High Court judges fell through the floor on which it had been standing for many years in the Newcastle Assize Court. Plunging twenty feet below into the barristers’ robing room, luckily no one was injured, or tending to their personal business at the time of the incident. Rentokil were called in treat the decaying floor timbers and the building is still standing strong today.

Greater wisdom was shown by the benchers of the Middle Temple, London who looked to Rentokil for help in 1968 to give precautionary treatment to preserve the roof timbers from further attack by wood-borers. Harold Maxwell-Lefroy had been up into the rafters with pot and brush in 1924 and kept the enemies at bay for more than twice the term of the guarantee.

Almost 40 years ago today, on January 5 1972, Rentokil was granted a Royal Warrant to supply Timber Preservation Services and Products. Rentokil were already treating mice in the House of Common’s kitchen. The whole of the Palace of Westminster was surveyed and 750 trays of poison laid down. At Windsor Castle and Buckingham Castle centuries old upholstery was treated for moths. The pigeons lost their seats at Westminster when parliament was relieved of the pigeons and their acidic deposits.

Whether you are buying a home, or have lived in your house for many years,  make sure you survey your property for signs of damp and rot. Or if you don’t want a nasty surprise, consider insurance protection against the risks of attack to timber by woodboring insects and wood-rotting fungi as well as the risks of rising damp.

Protect Your Timbers is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

So I did some extensive, thorough research on the subject matter. (Looked at the top 3 results of Google.com)…..alright, I also asked one of our technical experts here at head office, who have being doing pest control longer than Google has been around, so these facts have to be legit.

Did you know…?

There are more than 300,000 species of flies across the globe – imagine if you studied flies, remembering all their names.

Here is something interesting, Flies only have two wings whereas most insects have four wings.

• The common house fly lives for about 30 days – so you don’t really need to catch that annoying fly if you are going on a month long vacation.
• You might reconsider that fact about the fly, when you learn that flies can lay up to 3000 eggs in their lifetime of 1 month, better cross your fingers that you didn’t leave behind a female fly or you might return to an epidemic!!!
• Flies wings beat up to 200 times per second, making them one of the speediest insects with average speeds of about 5mph and burst of 15mph when threatened.
• Flies eyes are rather interesting, they consist of over 4000 lenses per eye (they have 2), they can’t see very well, but they can detect the slightest movement.
• Flies vomit on food before eating it, you probably heard this fact before, its pretty well know, so chances are if you have seen a fly sitting on a food item, chances are it’s probably vomited it, eeew!!!
• Flies defecate every 4-5 minutes – so if flies haven’t vomited on your food, chances are high they tarnished it in another form.
• When they decide to eventually fly away after vandalizing your food, their take off sequence is a bit different from other insects, flies jump up then backwards before moving forward.

To keep a fly free environment, speak to your local Rentokil branch about the great fly control solutions they have on offer.

Not So Wonderful Fly Facts is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

I remember reading a really great parable when I was younger, about a mouse, chicken, pig, cow and snake, I can’t seem to find it online, so I’ll try to explain the jist of it, hopefully:

Well here it goes….

One day, a mouse looked through a crack in the wall, hoping to spot the farmer and his wife opening some food, but to his astonishment, they were in fact opening a brand new mouse trap.

Running to the farmyard in a panic, the mouse warned the farm animals: “They just bought a mouse trap and put it in the house”.

The frightened mouse approached the pig, and explained the news that the farmer had just bought a new mouse trap.

The pig said sympathetically said, “There is nothing I can do Mr. Mouse”, but I will cross my fingers that no harm comes to you.

The mouse approached the farmyard chicken, looking for a solution, the chicken said that there was nothing he could do for him, and warned that he must be careful.

Very disappointed, by the lack of support he got from the chicken and the pig, he approached the cow, and warned her that the farmer had got a mouse trap. The cow was also very unhelpful and told the mouse: “Mr. Mouse, I’m a cow, the mouse trap cannot harm me and there is nothing I can do”.

That night there was a loud thud from the farm house. It sounded like the sound of mouse trap catching something, so the farmer’s wife rushed to see what had been caught.

She unfortunately didn’t see that the trap had caught the tail of a venomous snake; the snake turned around and gave the farmer’s wife a nasty snake bite.

After a few days in hospital, she returned home with a fever, now everyone knows the best way to treat a fever, is with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer went to the farmyard to get the catch the chicken.

His wife didn’t get better, and friends and family came to visit and sit with her. To feed the visitors, the farmer butchered the pig.

Eventually the farmer’s wife died, and to feed all the guests at the funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide the meat for the funeral.

The moral of the story is, next time someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn’t concern you, make sure that you try to help them with it, as you put everyone at risk if you don’t.

That’s Not My Problem is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Since I had never seen bed bug detection K-9’s working, when the opportunity arose to photograph the K-9 bed bug detection team in action, I jumped at it. It was quite an experience. If you’ve never watched working dogs in action, be warned, it may cause you to wonder what your pooch might be capable of… if they weren’t at home napping. Some of the dogs were seemingly structured in their search pattern and worked the room in a clockwise or counter-clockwise fashion, while others seemed to sniff randomly in every direction, all at once, with a frenetic pace. It was really cool to watch! Each dog found the “hides” which were safely planted in two of four rooms within seconds of entering each room.

This skill is not one our colleagues Jackson – a Jack Russell Terrier, Kirby – a Beagle/Jack Russell mix, Annabelle – a Pug mix, Sir Eddy – a Blue Heeler Hound mix, and Suzie – a Beagle and Dachsund mix, were born with. They had to get special training and certification from the NESDCA, the National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association. The tests for certification are designed to determine the proficiency of the entomology scent detection work dog team. Each of the tests is a pass/fail evaluation.

To become certified by the NESDCA, every scent dog must meet detailed and rigorous requirements that include; alerting at the source, a 20-minute time limit to pass through four rooms differentiating between passive and aggressive scents, while only being allowed one negative (false-positive) response.

All in all it was an informative and valuable experience learning about one of the bed bug detection methods Rentokil offers. Whether you choose Entotherm – Rentokil’s heat treatment solution, conventional treatment methods, or elect to use a K-9 bed bug detection team, once you see the Rentokil scent detection team in action, you can rest assured knowing that peace of mind arrived, at least this time, courtesy of the nose.

The Nose Knows Bed Bugs is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Q. So what sparked your interest of insects Matt?
A. It was a progression from studying. I studied biology in University and specialised in animal biology. I then progressed on to a post grad in Entomology as insects were what really captivated my interest and I felt I had a good understanding of them.

Q. Here in the UK, we don’t hear of many termite cases. Where and under what conditions are they most prevalent?
A. Geographically speaking termites are generally found in tropical and temperate zones. However, outside these zones where there is a suitable supply of timber, and the humidity is correct for them to reproduce, termites can be found, e.g. USA where buildings tend to have timber frames so termite control is critical.

Q. Are termites able to travel long distances?
A. There is currently an on-going case on the English coast down at Devon. Termites were brought in on shipments of wine crates, and as a result set up a population. They are only likely to be transported if the wood they have infested is moved.

Q. Technically speaking then, if my neighbour has termites, is there a chance that I will get termites?
A. If your home is built of the correct wood, and the temperature / rainfall / humidity was suitable for them, then yes your home would be susceptible to a termite infestation. But here in the UK these conditions are highly unlikely to be found! You’re more likely to be at risk when you live in a tropical region such as Brazil.

Q. What is the worst case scenario if a home is infested with termites?
A. It’s not pleasant I can tell you . Any suitable, readily available wood will be consumed. It’s not uncommon to see houses that have been stripped bare by termites. They can completely destroy a home in 2-3 years!

Q. So we’ve established that termites are definitely not a welcome visitor in your home! Do you think that treatment of termites will always be reactive? Or is it possible to stop termites through preventative measures?
A. It’s totally possible to ‘design out’ termites from new buildings as long as their presence is taken into account at the planning and design stages. Whether the client or the architects involved are happy to make the compromises required to reduce the risk of attack is an entirely different matter. Once a house has been built in a termite zone, good access to the areas where termites might make their entry (sub-floors, sub-basements ground/wall junctions) should be encouraged. Removing fallen or dead trees from the site and routinely checking high risk areas should also significantly reduce the risk of attack.

Q. Finally, as we are currently reviewing where all future pest control products are created, where do you think the future of pest control lies?
A. We are already seeing a move away from conventional pesticides and insecticides. We can already see the application of dry heat and controlled atmosphere technology to control infestations. I believe that there will also be a move towards the use of organisms to control organisms. For example, there are already trials using a kind of wasp to control mosquitoes, which could bring about a reduction in malaria. The future for pest control will most definitely be moving towards preparation and prevention rather than reactive treatment

This is the first of many (or at least Alicia and Danusia hope it is the first of many!) interviews of colleagues throughout my various placements across Rentokil Initial. This way you can find out a little bit more about the different activities the Divisions are involved in across our multi-faceted business.

Our Resident Entomologist Talks Termites With A Newbie is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Their whine may be irritating, but it is the bite of a mosquito which can prove deadly. Although all mosquitoes will bite humans and cause those horrible itchy wealds, not all mosquitoes carry disease. The Anopheles species of mosquito carries malaria. According to the WHO, in 2008 malaria caused nearly one million deaths, mostly among African children.

The mosquito Aedes aegypti is the single most important carrier of dengue, a viral disease that affects 50 to 100 million people in tropical regions every year. Usually the symptoms are mild, but around 1 in 20 people become seriously ill. There is no vaccine and no treatment, so the only way to combat the disease is to kill the mosquitoes that carry it.

Although there is evidence that mosquitoes are becoming resistant to pesticides, there is hope that one day diseases like malaria and dengue will be relegated to the medical archives along with live-threatening illnesses like scarlet fever and small pox. A report published today by New Scientist outlines the success scientists have achieved with mutating pests like mosquitoes and the Tsetse fly.

Mutating any species has always been controversial, but the so-called “sterile male technique” has been successfully employed for the past few decades with some degree of success. Large numbers of the male pest, such as a mosquito or a crop-destroying beetle, are sterilized then released back into the wild. The idea is that the males mate with the females, producing sterile eggs. Over a period of time the species is very much reduced and eventually becomes extinct. Some pest species like the Tsetse fly only mate once, making it a viable model for the sterile male technique.

The sterile male technique is currently being used in Zanzibar in an effort to exterminate the Tsetse fly which causes sleeping sickness in humans and can devastate livestock.

Whilst it is possible to argue that most pests are just plain old insects in the wrong place, and have their home in the food chain (they fill the tummies of toads), I would counter that no place is the right place for mosquitoes. The tiny bloodsuckers reign at dusk with terror, ruining any chance of enjoying an evening outdoors, lest you could bear the constant slap-slap of a hand against flesh.

Whether we will ever be free of mosquitoes and the risk of malaria remains to be seen but with some simple measures you can deter mosquitoes or if you have commercial premises you may need mosquito control.

Mutant Mosquitoes is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog