Tonight the moon will be 222,175 miles away from Earth. The average distance of the moon from Earth is roughly 240,000 miles which makes the moon (when it is visible) around 12% larger and brighter, and makes for some great photography.

When the moon is closer to earth there are slightly higher and lower ocean tides. There evidence the reproduction system of marine invertebrates and badgers are influenced by the moon and moths use the light of the moon to navigate.

Let’s hope that nocturnal pests like bed bugs, cockroaches, moths, rats, mice and urban foxes aren’t lured out in force tonight.

Nocturnal Pests and the Dark Supermoon is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Spiders, fleas and stink bugs all hasten to avoid this sucking, whirring appliance which will bring a speedy end to their terror.

Fleas lay lots and lots of eggs which can lie dormant for a year. Flea larvae live around and feed upon the organic flecks of skin and other similar materials that collect wherever pets spend time. Food and other debris tends to be pushed to the edge of the floor so vacuum regularly, right up to the edges and in any cracks and crevices to get rid of the flea eggs and larvae. Be sure to empty the bag as fleas can hop right back out again. By vacuuming regularly you will keep the eggs from hatching and avoid a flea infestation.

If house spiders have you climbing the walls, vacuum their cobwebs. This will reduce their food source and may deter them from viewing your house as a larder. For those terrified of spiders the vacuum cleaner is a great means of removing the problem at more than arms length.

Vacuuming enables you to remove stink bugs without smashing them which releases the stench. You can also catch them in a box or jar and brush them inside gently with a lid.

To ensure stink bugs don’t make an entrance back into your home check the areas around the windows, doors and vents in your home for cracks or openings where a stink bug could enter.

Foam strips, purchased at any hardware store, are ideal to fill gaps in windows, or use caulk. Dispose of the stink bugs by placing them outdoors, or freezing them in a sealed container such as a glass jar will kill them without releasing the stink.

Vacuuming thoroughly and often will also deny cockroaches food sources such as crumbs.

Good housekeeping is key to keeping the creepy crawlies out of your home, so keep your vacuum cleaner close.

Pest Control Weapons is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Have you ever wondered how a cockroach can feast on the remains of a week old takeaway and not get sick? Scientists are fascinated by this too. Recent research has shown that the American cockroach brain contains antibiotic elements which could help fight off deadly bacterial infections such as MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and toxic strains of E. coli.

By studying the way cockroaches move, scientists have shown that they have one of the most stable ways of walking, called a tripod gait, and can get around very quickly, on all kinds of terrain, and do so while using very little energy. From this research, robots are being developed that may carry tiny cameras over landmine-littered terrain or into conflict zones without being easily detected.

Finally, the flexibility of the cockroach leg is inspiring the development of stronger, more flexible artificial legs to allow an amputee greater mobility to safely maneuver over a variety of surfaces. Studies on the cockroach antennae and sensory perception are helping to develop tiny robots with enhanced ability to move safely through dark and dangerous locations, such as smoke-filled rooms with debris strewn about.

Large roaches like the Madeira cockroach have very large nerves that are routinely used in neurological work and have led to fundamental discoveries in how nerves work.

There’s a lot which can be learned from cockroaches…

What We Can Learn From Cockroaches is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

The findings from a study led by Matthew Perzanowski was recently published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The study investigated the relationship between cockroaches and asthma.

Perzanowski and his team visited the homes of 239 seven and eight year olds living in New York. More than half the children already had asthma, and families were selected who had similar income and health care.

The researchers collected blood samples from the children to identify allergens such as pets and dust mites, plus they took dust samples from their beds.

The results suggested that children living in neighbourhoods with high rates of asthma were twice as likely to carry antibodies against a cockroach protein in their blood and their homes contained more of the allergen produced by cockroaches in household dust. This is a sign that the children have been exposed to cockroaches and are likely to be allergic to them.

The findings provide further evidence to support the theory that cockroaches can contribute to higher rates of asthma in certain areas.

More information can be found on the cockroaches and asthma report at Reuters Life!

Cockroaches Linked To Asthma In New York Study is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

@TheRandomWords top tweeted earlier claiming that more than 60 million people around the world will stay at home today for fear of something bad happening to them.

It’s a good job we’re not superstitious at Rentokil because there are lots of bad superstitions around mice and rats.

The Encyclopedia of Superstitions (1949, Radford and Radford) is a fascinating read about folklore and superstitions. I dug out the following quotes which I thought would be fun to share with you:

“To kill a beetle is to court bad luck” – not a great tip for a pest control company!

“It will bring back luck if a beetle enters a room in your house or where you are staying” – if I had cockroaches in my house I would definitely consider that as unfortunate.

“If you catch a mouse and shut it alive in a hole in pollard ash, you will shut up your bad luck” Hmmm… not so convinced about this one!

Roasted mice (yum!) have been used as a charm for over 60 centuries to treat colds and sore throats. Mice skeletons have been found in the mouths of pre-Dynastic Egyptians in the Sudan.

Depending where you live peacocks are either good or bad luck. In Asia, the feathers of the peacock are considered protective. However in the early part of the 20th-century in the West, it was considered very bad luck to keep them in the home. The roots in this concept may lie within the desire to protect the bird from extinction. Some cultures also believe that peacock feathers resemble the evil eye.

And finally some ancient greek pest control advice from The Encyclopedia of Superstitions,

Take a piece of paper and write on it as follows:

I adjure you, ye mice or rats here present, that ye neither injure me, nor suffer another mouse or rat to do so. I give you yonder field (a part of the field is indicated), but if I ever catch you here again by the Mother of the Gods I will rend you in seven pieces.

We’ve been working in pest control for over 80 years and we’re yet to find a rat who could read, but some strange things sometimes happen on Friday 13th.

How To Avoid Bad Luck on Friday 13th is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

• They feed on a wide range of food, including feces and human mucus
• Cockroaches transmit food poisoning, and contaminate food
• Cockroaches are carriers for dangerous diseases such as dysentery, diphtheria, typhoid, hepatitis, food poisoning and gastroenteritis.
• Their feces, moulted skins contain allergens, able to cause asthma and allergies in more sensitive human beings.

To cope with these threats consider the following five point plan to make sure that cockroaches don’t thrive in your home. There are things that will make a cockroach’s life difficult; most measures include the elimination of food, water and hiding places. Indian summer has started and in the last years we have seen cockroach infestation peaks in the hot season. Especially in Bangalore, after the somewhat cool winter, we started seeing more cockroaches with the rising temperatues.

1. Keep your kitchen clean. Try to maintain a proper sanitation for the whole kitchen. Promptly remove and crumbs and spills. A small crumb of food might actually be enough food for a few cockroaches for a few days. Fix dripping water taps and leakages Cockroaches require water to thrive and are attracted to water.
2. Restrict their access to food. Store food in sealed containers and do not leave any food out for extended periods. Do not leave dirty dishes overnight, as cockroaches will have a feast on what you leave them. Empty the garbage bin regularly, and store garbage outside the home.
3. Prevent cockroaches from hitchhiking into your home. Carefully inspect incoming LPG gas cylinders, as cockroaches often hide their egg cases in the handles and near the bottom of these bottles. Inspect the bags for cockroaches when bringing groceries home. Carefully examine second hand furniture and dispose of packaging materials fast.
4. Deprive them of breeding places. Do not accumulate clutter. Cockroaches will nest in anything from paper to clothing. Especially cardboard is a favorite breeding ground for them.
5. Seal all cracks and crevices inside your house. Like this you eliminate their preferred breeding and hiding places and their entry to the house. Fill every crack inside every cabinet; fill the cracks on both sides of floor, door, and window moldings; fill all openings around pipes in bathrooms and kitchens. A minimum number of hiding places will reduce the numbers of cockroaches in your home. Prevent cockroaches from coming up the drain. Put fine netting over the water drains in the kitchen and bathrooms. And regularly pour boiling water in these drains.

Do not postpone activities to get rid of cockroaches. Cockroaches are prolific breeders and the longer you wait the higher the risk of a major infestation that will be difficult to control. An egg capsule can produce up to 42 cockroaches. Given ideal conditions, a pair of cockroaches may be able to give rise to as many as 20,000 offspring in one year. That is, in a laboratory with loads of food. But even a fraction of those inside your home will be a lot.

How To Get Rid Of Cockroaches is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Each intricate sculpture takes a painstaking 20-40 hours to make and they are individually made to order. deBugged caught up with Mike Libby and got a rare insight into what makes him tick.

What are you working on right now?

Currently, I’m working on a couple of commission pieces, a praying mantis and a scorpion. They are both big, about the length of your index finger big. And I’m also

getting some work ready for a show here in the US and in Germany. I’m also fortunate to afford some time working in my other studio, too.

Your work has been described as futurist, but I think it bears reference to the Victorian-era. The Victorians had insatiable thirst to pin mount or stuff anything which moved – the Rothschild’s alone amassed two million butterflies in the 20th century! In the British Natural History Museum there are 28 million insect and arachnid specimens. Why do you think people love to collect and display insects?

Everybody has their reasons, whether it be an appreciation of form, color, shape, function. There are as many reasons as there are people, likely! But generally I feel it has to do with an inherent fascination and wonder at things that are different.

The Victorians also liked to dress fleas. Any plans to start clothing insects or maybe you could reinvent the flea circus. Fleas with spring-loaded legs – that would be fun!

Mike: Hmmm… naahhh. Not into apparel design, maybe in another life.

I’ve trod on many a dead insect. They disintegrate easily so how on earth do you dissect them – please share your trade secrets.

No secrets, really just a steady hand, good tweezers and small pins. The “secret”, I guess if you call it that, is to place the specimen in an airtight container with a moist towel in a warm setting for about 24 hours, this will “relax” the specimen, make it’s stiff joints loose and it’s wings more manageable to posing. I also use all archival materials for the final displays.

The beetles are so beautiful – what do you polish them with?

Nothing. Besides incorporating mechanical components and posing, I don’t embellish or airbrush or paint or shellac any specimen, even beetles. It’s amazing the variety of colors, patterns, finishes and lustres they have!

Which insect/arachnid would you really like to work with?

There are some pretty big beetle specimens I would still like to work with, rhino beetles, flower beetles, and I’m still looking for some bigger more exotic grasshoppers. Oh, and a really BIG dragonfly would be great.

Has there ever been a time that you wanted to lie to a customer that you accidentally broke their sculpture because you wanted to keep it?

No.

There’s absolutely no way I would go near a spider. What are you scared of?

Little centipedes, millipedes, anything whose front looks like their back end and vice versa.

Have you ever worked with cockroaches? If so I hope you used plastic gloves – they are germ ridden!

Yep, about a decade ago when I lived in New York, too young and naive to know/think about using gloves.

What’s the most difficult job you’ve done?

Ladybugs are always difficult, and dragonflies. And the Orb Weaver spiders are challenging, too, they all have such small body volumes, thin tails, long legs etc, that the risk of breakage or damage is high, but the finish is proportionally rewarding.

Ever had a go at taxidermy? I think you would be great and I heard there’s a revival…

I’ve done other sculptures using taxidermy blanks, the inside forms real taxidermists use to stretch the hides of animals over, I modelled either leaves or fabrics over them, but I’ve never done “real” taxidermy. Not interested, frankly, seems gross, I wouldn’t like working with something that was/is a vertebrate. Also the tendency to be making “Frankenstein” like work is always there, and making creepy, garish work, cobbled together mutant work, seems flat, lacklustre and dull to me.

After ten years of getting under the skin of dead insects do you think you know what makes them tick? (sorry couldn’t resist he he he).

I am no closer to knowing what makes life “alive” than when I started. It is a beautiful mystery, the things that makes us, and other creatures, alive. I rather it stay that way.

The Creative Bug is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

There are 1,700 insects that are edible. In Laos over 95% of the population consumes insects in one form or another. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation has been working with the locals in Laos on a project to farm insects to create food security.

In Camodia the locals eat tarantula which is deep fried. This BBC journalist is a little weary, claiming that he thinks he saw it move on the plate, but tucks in sceptically.

In this era of environmental consiousness maybe we’ll draw some inspiration from living off what the land provides, just like the Aborigines.

Bugs Are The Ultimate Sustainable Food Source is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

It would be almost selfish to assume that we are the only life form in the universe that is supposedly infinite.

So my mind wandered to the thought of how Rentokil would adapt to doing business or pest control services on other planets? Would all technicians be provided with the latest space vehicles equipped to battle intergalactic pests in people’s homes and businesses?

On planets with low gravity the pests could possibly be 5-8 times bigger. How gross would it be having cockroaches the size of your fist in your dwelling?

Or rodents the size of Maltese poodles? That’s if our pests are even similar to the ones that could be found in the far reaches of the galaxy. Or what about planets with high gravity?

Bedbugs may have evolved to be microscopic and Rentokil would have to use specialized space-age nano-bot pesticides to combat these invaders! I certainly would not be very keen on space travel if the accommodation on other planets had these sorts of pests!

One has to wonder if humans do eventually start inhabiting other planets one day whether we might be the pests of more developed life forms.

No one really knows what the future holds, but I think it would be safe to assume Rentokil is protecting you from most pests on earth right now. And with the amount of time and effort we pour into R&D, we’ll be well-equipped for the day humans do start colonizing other planets and have to deal with extraterrestrial pests.

Extraterrestrial Pest Control is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

However dust and dirt is anything but magical. It can support an eco-system of bugs and bacteria. If you have any spring cleaning tips or want some advice please share them at our #springclean twitter party 1-2pm, Thursday 10^th March with cleaning superstar Aggie MacKenzie and pest prevention advice from the Rentokil team.

We picked this month for our spring cleaning twitter party because March is traditionally the time for a good old-fashioned clean. It’s finally warm enough to throw open windows and doors and let the wind blow the cobwebs away. Insects such as wasps and ants haven’t woken from their slumber yet so they won’t creep into your house.

When spring cleaning it’s important to make sure you get into cracks and crevices to get rid of pests. In your kitchen or bathroom you may disturb Silverfish which like moist, warm conditions. These small, torpedo shaped insects feed on food debris, starches and gums and are active at night, so you may have never seen them. Centipedes and millipedes may have crept indoors. Be sure to move potted plants off the floor. Millipedes live off leaves and may be attracted the warm, damp environment beneath the pot.

Wash linen on a hot wash and tumble dry to help kill bed bugs and dust mites. Take curtains and other soft furnishing to the dry cleaners. Beat the dust out of rugs to be rid of fleas and flea eggs. This is especially important if you have pets.

Remove dead flies quickly as they are a tasty snack for carpet beetles. Larvae from carpet beetles will roll up when disturbed. Their hairs may be an irritant to some people. Hoover tight up to the skirting and move furniture to get rid of the larvae known as woolly bears.

Cockroaches prefer humidity and high temperatures which is why they often favour kitchens. Cockroaches are a hardy species and can dine off a crumb for weeks so pull out your cooker and get into those other hard to reach places to stop pests invading.

If you find any wasps nests – leave them in situ as it will be plugging a gap. The queen would have left and she will be hibernating. The workers would have died over the winter. A queen wasp never returns to the same nest.

Spiders can be a particular nuisance in the home, not so much because so many people fear them but they create cobwebs. They are attracted to warm, dark small spaces, like wall cracks, corners, air vents, and in the eaves of your home. Spiders do eat flies but can survive on one a week. A far more effective solution to keep spiders out of your home is to cut off their food source. Stop flies from entering your home in the evening by blocking out the light with curtains and closing windows. Clean up after pets – not only are faeces the perfect breeding place for flies but also somewhere a fly may land before landing on your food.

March is also great time to clear your gutters from dead birds and rodents which can attract blue bottles. Flies carry a whole host of harmful germs and after their dinner on a deceased pigeon they may have their eye on that nice piece of cheese you left out for your lunch.

Spring clean your home well and you won’t be at the mercy of pests for the rest of the year. For more tips and advice send a tweet this Thursday marked #springclean.

Spring Clean to Banish Pests is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog