Pic credit: Ben Harink

On a recent trip to Sri Lanka the main objective was to relax on the beaches but insects managed to creep into the holiday. Ok, having a deep interest in the world of creepy crawlies and being in a tropical country full of  (for me at least) exciting new species, that was going to happen. However, I noticed, similar to Colin, that pest control had somehow managed to sneak  into my passion for insects.

Why?

Well, on the lookout for pests I kept finding ants everywhere. Some of them would be your common pest ants, such as red ants, others would rather count as casual intruders to your home. What was really exciting was that I could observe and photograph their interesting behaviour.

Talking about photography, trying to click “crazy ants” made me understand why they carry that name; they run around in a manic and seemingly confused manner.

Pic credit: Ben Harink

Back to the topic. It is known that ants have evolved very interesting social structures; it is lesser known that they have also developed very interesting relationships with other insects. Ants farm aphids such as mealy bugs and caterpillars just as we keep cows, sheep and other animals.

Why would they do that? Remember that ants love sugar? Well, aphids emit a sugary liquid, the so called honeydew, which is a waste product from sucking plant juices. As a trade-off for their honeydew:

1. The aphids receive protection against predators, such as ladybugs and their ever hungry larvae. The ants will attack and eat insects which threaten their livestock.
2. They carry the aphids to ’pastures new’ where they can suck on tender plants and flourish (which makes them a headache for passionate gardeners as the excretion of honeydew causes mould to grow on the plant).

Pic credit: Ben Harink

I also found ants catching an unlucky caterpillar that does not emit honeydew and yup, would be the protein portion of the ants’ dinner.

What do we learn?

Farming makes sense (not only for humans)

And

If ants did not have a sweet tooth, they would be gardener’s friend (and most probably live a more peaceful life, without ant bait and ant poison).

Ants Farm Livestock For Supper is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

Take the Wisteria Scale Pest for example. It was highlighted earlier this year by the Royal Horticultural Society as a problem for British gardeners and this story has also been echoed, echoed (did you spot the typo in their title, tee hee!) and re-echoed by the media. It was allegedly imported on foreign plants and is now busy making its way down Wisteria Lane/Wall all around the country.

Now, I’m not one for gardening, but I have an amazing rose bush at home (thanks to the previous owners) and I quite enjoy having it bloom every year at the end of my garden. I think I’d actually miss having it there if it ever got struck down by a plant pest. I should imagine that people who are avid gardeners would feel even stronger about the distinctive purple wisteria flower if (when) the wisteria scale attacks their plants.

But what to do? According to the RHS since this is such an invasive pest it would be very hard to spray the wisteria thoroughly when it grows so closely up against a wall, so they recommend chemical control measures.

Wisteria Scale Pest Could Wipe Out Wisteria Plants is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog

reading area before

What began as a throwaway question at a team meeting about doing a charity event  snowballed… into the team donating a day of their working week to Millpond Primary School based in Bristol as part of Business in the Community’s Give & Gain Day 2009. The school had put in a request for a volunteer team to come and overhaul an underused area of their property and to turn unused land into a reading area and another into a vegetable garden where the childre could grow-their-own.

reading area after

Turning up to inspect the site at 5pm on the Thursday evening, the team realised they would have to work hard the following day to get their plans complete and ready before the caretaker closed the school for the weekend. And so the digging began… both figuratively in terms of time and effort, and literally in terms of shovels and pick-axes. (I can only imagine the sight because I wasn’t able to join them – I had childcare issues to contend with.)

plants area before

Friday morning at 8am the team arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed, with the 2 areas seperated by the playground cleared of rubbish and old tyres, etc. More digging followed. I have it on good authority that digging holes to embed the posts of the raised beds area was “pretty hard work, actually”. Luckily the day was neither too hot (although there were some pale legs on display in shorts) nor did it rain (does 2 drops count?).

plants area after

With interested children looking on every now and again, and a grateful Headteacher giving a welcome speech – adrenalin was pumping and the team worked hard, very hard (and they did some more digging). They weren’t the only Give & Gain team on-site actually.  The other team were working on an ambitious decking project – I hope they considered the pest control implications of decking ;) - and still hadn’t finished by the time our guys left.

hard at work

When the local Bristol Evening Post journalist turned up in the afternoon, the team were subjected to requests of “hold the plant pot like this, walk towards me, look at the camera” and “look up whilst you’re painting the benches please” and “as you’re hammering, look at the camera”. Luckily there were no accidents (health and safety first) and we’re still waiting to read the story and see the pics from the paper.

The Rentokil diggers

Come 5pm all was ready, with a quick pizza break at lunchtime, and an exhausted bunch of Rentokil marketeers ready to depart. As Brigitta said: “It was great to see the immediate visible and tangible change to the area.” Looking at the photos you can see how under utilised the area was before and now it has been made into a much more useful and generally brighter area for the children to benefit from.

Digging Deep For Charity Give & Gain Day is a post from: deBugged - The Rentokil Blog