deBugged

So blog post number one then… Where I grew up in this big old barn house in the south of France, me and my family were pretty used to rats. It was an ongoing battle that became part of every day life, just like brushing your teeth or arguing with the neighbour. But one fateful year, back in 1995, they must have run out of contraceptives (the rats, not the neighbours). Suddenly, they were everywhere.

Everywhere. You’d call this a serious infestation. So we gathered all the rat poison we could find this side of the equator and planted it strategically around the garden and house, although now I would obviously call in a professional pest control company! I remember having to wade my way through all the dead rats in the back garden afterwards, just so I could get to my favourite stick to play with (I was still very little).

But it wasn’t enough. I didn’t personally witness the scene I’m about to describe, but apparently it went something like this:

That day, it was mum’s turn to get up first, make the coffee and take it back up to dad. Just a normal day. I can imagine my dad, half asleep in bed, enjoying a peaceful lie-in and looking forward to a strong black coffee to start the day. Anyway, he must have heard some commotion downstairs, but it was only when he heard the sound of smashing tiles that he ran down to see what was going on.

He burst through the kitchen door to see my mum holding a broom above her head, and then smashing it down on the brand-new tiled floor – only narrowly missing the rat she was aiming for.

Naturally, this didn’t end well for the tiles or the broom. Or the rat…  eventually.

Many thanks to Allie, whose blog drawing style inspired me and that I very very crudely imitated in my illustrations!! (http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com)

Here in the Northeast, the heat over the past few days has bordered on unbearable.  There are heat warnings and heat advisories on the radio.  The malls and pools are packed with folks looking for refuge.  As I drove home yesterday, my car thermometer hit 102 degrees F.  That’s hot!

It got me to wondering what impact all of this heat has on pests?  Sure, ants, stinging insects and flies love the heat, since they are very obviously active in the summer.  But this is more than just summer heat – this is oppressive.

I posed the question above to one of our bug experts and got some interesting information.  For instance, did you know that crickets chirp less when it’s really hot?  While this is somewhat dependent on the humidity, not even crickets want to work when it’s this hot.   Also, would you have guessed that we get an increase in customer calls for pests like milipedes, centipedes and pillbugs when it’s really hot?   The explanation, it turns out, is that pests don’t like this kind of heat any more than we do.  They’re looking for refuge and often find it in basements and crawl spaces where it’s usually cool and damp.

I guess bugs aren’t that different from us after all… they don’t always like the heat and will head off somewhere to cool down.

With football madness reaching fever pitch when England successfully beat Slovenia yesterday in the last of their group matches, a colleague suggested we put together our best Pest XI football team.

So with suggestions from various colleagues we have come up with the following 4-4-2 formation for a range of pests. The only other football team made up of animals we could collectively recall was the Disney film ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks‘ – lions, rhinos, ostriches and other large animals battling it out on the pitch… Anyway, back to our team list.

The Rentokil Pest XI

So, let’s start by putting a Herring Gull in goal. Have you seen how aggressive they can get when defending their nests in the breeding season? Nothing would get past them – the ultimate goalie for this team.

In defence you’d want some pests that will do anything to protect their nest (sorry ‘net’) from attack. Perhaps some wasps – their ability to sting repeatedly might deter the other side. Bees would get dropped, they’d die in the act of their first tackle – no stamina, tsk tsk! A millipede would be very practical, simply for its imaginative use of space, and loads more legs on the pitch would obviously come in handy. The common house spider would be an amusing sight on pitch, it would wind its web around the opposition and stop them in their tracks. Our final defender? The bed bug, it is very resistant.

Now for some creative midfielders. The confused flour beetle and crazy ant are renowned for their erratic, maze-y type running style which should open up just about any defence. But I’d leave the Drugstore beetle out of the squad to avoid any doping scandals! We also suggest the female German cockroach – yes, the female. These devoted mothers-to-be can carry around egg cases containing their young for up to a month until they are ready to hatch – so the ideal midfielder for holding on to the ball.

Mice would have to play out on the wing, and would run up the wall-floor junction, sorry line, all day. Rats would not get selected for the team because they would stay back in their familiar half and not venture forward unless they knew it was safe (definitely playing with fear, but a ‘fear of the new’, or neophobia to give it it’s correct term).

You would have to definitely drop squirrels though, whilst good at getting the ball and holding on to it, they would then promptly forget where they put it. Equally, house flies would be useless as they would be attracted to any yellow cards given out and forget about the game in hand.

For the strikers, we’re thinking that maybe fleas, with their ability to use their hind legs to jump to great heights (up to 200 times their body length) will be good enough in the air to get onto any ball and stick it in the net. And how about pairing it up with the ghost ant, since nobody would see it coming….

And finally, not forgettting the Manager. A termite queen – with the ability to direct a group of players of different skills to work together effectively as a team. She uses pheromones to control their behaviour and gets them to work for her selflessly and tirelessly. Maybe thats’s what Fabio had pumped into the dresing room before yesterday’s match

Questions, just for fun:

1. Who would you sub from this Pest XI or who would you bring off the bench?
2. Did you spot the significance of the team numbers, can you explain them all?

(Thanks to Neil for his original idea,  all the brilliant pest suggestions – mostly Andy’s, and Matt’s comments too to bring this idea to life.)

After a week long pest control induction, here I am making my first contribution to deBugged.

I have to admit that last Sunday the thought of the week ahead made me cringe, made my stomach turn and made me question my entire being. Sound dramatic? I agree, but I was absolutely terrified!

I had lined up a day with a surveyor and a technician which both sounded equally as daunting to me. My initial thoughts were only of rats, huge rats at that, scavenging around, scrounging for food, making people’s homes their own and worst of all – me standing amongst them. I was terrified, to put it mildly. I am one of those people who have a real fear of rodents and when I say real fear, I mean it. The thought of a rodent being in my presence is enough to reduce me to tears. This is not based on a bad experience, I can’t actually even say I have ever seen a rodent; the thought of them is enough for me. But I am now part of the pest control business and facing my fears head on is the best way to combat them, so they say; at this stage I was not so convinced.

My day out with the technician started with him telling me we were off to a rat infested home. I couldn’t believe my misfortune. Unfortunately (or fortunately) depends which way you look at it, the premises could not be accessed so we had to give this particular visit a miss, phew!

I did, however, find myself actually asking questions about rodents throughout the day, my curiosity had gotten the better of me. I found out many interesting facts that I did not know, and to be honest had never wanted to know, but for some reason I was now intrigued. I found out that rats are very clean creatures; they will never eat from the same place more then once, and they won’t eat from the same place they nest. I also found out that their teeth don’t ever stop growing, so if they don’t regularly gnaw them down their teeth will eventually choke them but there are loads more unbelieveable pest truths. Apparently rats are also terrified of humans (thanks goodness) and are extremely clever.

There is a preconception that rats are grotty and that if you have rats you are grotty too, I have now learnt that this is totally inaccurate. Rats are everywhere and at one stage or another, a rat may enter your home through no fault of your own and it will decide whether to stay or go. It is at this stage that you need to act, and a quick reaction whether using DIY products or by using a professional pest control specialist, will help prevent thier visit turning into an infestation.

Don’t get me wrong I have definitely not become a rat advocate but I do now understand rats a little better, and some of the preconceptions I had have disappeared. The thought of a rat in my home still terrifies me and I sincerely hope that I never have to deal with this situation. But now I do feel a little better equipped to deal with this issue in a calm (well slightly calmer), more informed and grown up manner. Perhaps it’s easier said than done.

As my first blog post since taking over from Pam, I thought I’d write about something close to the hearts of all of us….

I can feel the excitement as we count down to the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup kick-off on 11 June.  Whether you like soccer or not, you can’t escape the hype, the headlines in the press, and the steady stream of visitors pouring into Cape Town.  There’s a sense of anticipation that’s unmistakable.

As the single biggest event to be hosted in SA, all eyes will be on our beautiful country.  Of course, it’s far easier to be prepared for a situation that is controllable or predictable, but with pest control we don’t have that luxury.   One of the big concerns is the increase we are seeing in rat infestations in our CBD areas.  This of course begs the question of how well prepared we really are, and whether local municipalities and industries have paid enough attention to ensure we’re on par with the rest of the world in terms of pest control and food safety regulations.

It is believed that a lack of resources in the local municipalities is one of the major causes of this sudden increase in rat infestations. Without the much needed financial resources, municipalities can’t carry out the necessary preventative rodent control measures that are essential to keep public areas free from rodents.  Informal traders, lower sanitation standards in city centers, poor upkeep of basic amenities, etc. all contribute to the serious rat problem in our country.

Health and food safety working together

The South African Food Corporation has recently launched the Star Grading Scheme for the food and food related industries. This project encourages anyone in the food or food related industry to become a safe food accredited supplier, manufacturer, farmer or establishment of food and non-food supplies or service. This will ensure protection for consumers and will especially be beneficial for tourists visiting our country during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The hospitality industry also needs to educate all their staff about the dangers that rats pose to themselves, other staff and to their guests. They need to drastically improve housekeeping, stacking, proofing and monitoring to ensure that they are pest free during this very busy period.

Quirky rat facts

• The average life span of a rat is 2 to 3 years. These omnivores can consume up to 28g (1 ounce) of food and drink per day.
• They are nocturnal and colorblind and can only distinguish between light, shadow and movement.
• They communicate through high-frequency sounds, smell, touch and body postures.
• Rats are more intelligent than rabbits, hamsters and guinea pigs and have an excellent memory, making them the ultimate navigational creature.
• Rats use their tails to regulate their temperature, to communicate and for balance. They have glands on the bottom of their feet and will lie on their backs to sweat.