deBugged

Indians are usually tolerant to those “insignificant” bugs that might be crawling around their residential property. Even if the creepy crawlers do elicit some fear, our reaction is rarely more than a mild scream or a mere “shoo”. You usually find that lizards command a higher degree of respect as pests (going by the decibels of shrieks or fear they evoke), rather than cockroaches or flies or ants.

I don’t think many even consider the common household pests as real pests because they just don’t worry us as much. The main concern is not necessarily about destruction of property (which termites do rather well) or spreading disease, but mostly the sight of these wriggling pests.

So, we have been going to schools and residential areas, even office complexes, and talking about the harmful effects of pests. Incidentally, pests too have an interesting story to tell.

• Did you know rats have a weak bladder and urinate freely throughout the house while searching for food?
• Or that pregnant female cockroaches usually stop feeding and go into hiding, making it even more difficult to kill using DIY products?
• And we generally get the audience shrieking (in disgust!) when they find out how flies overcome their problems of eating solid food. First the fly vomits on the food, then stamps on it to make it a liquid, and then sucks it back up. Then after their delightful actions – it’s our turn to eat the same food.

Our aim with this education programme has been to raise awareness on the harmful effects of pests. The real dangers are not always perceived, but can surely be ignored because of a lack of knowledge. The message we leave behind during these awareness programs is:

It actually does make sense to be intolerant to pests.

There’s something about a peaceful lakeside vacation that makes you a bit more reflective about the mundane.  Every day me and my colleagues think about pests in some form or another as part of our jobs – pests in homes, bedbugs in hotels, stinging insects at a picnic, the list goes on and on.  But as I watched my friends and family nurse mosquito bites we had received while fishing at dusk, I really started to think about how pervasive pests are.

Pests are not limited by season.  Sure, here in the Northeast, pests are more visible during the spring and summer.  Ants scurry in endless search of food; termites are busy caring for their colony queen, and millipedes are doing whatever millipedes do. In the early fall, we try to avoid stinging insects and survive October’s boxelder bugs that seem to appear out of nowhere.  Even in the dead of winter, we’re mouse-proofing our homes while others battle the cockroach.

Pests are not limited by location or social class.  They’re in the cleanest of homes and the dirtiest.  They’re in budget motels and the swankiest of restaurants. Pests are not limited by economic health.  In the words of our now-retired CEO, “The bugs don’t k know whether we’re in a recession or not.”  When the economy is good, pests are there.  When the economy is bad, pests are still there.

And pests, as I was reminded this week, are not limited by going on vacation.  Pests are the ultimate worker, always efficient and never on vacation.

Globally termites are a real problem for timber framed properties and our Australian and American colleagues are only too aware of the damage they can inflict.

As well as the Natural History Museum presenting research in 2007 to indicate that termites are actually “social cockroaches“, these pesky little critters do know how to make some amazing structures (see right). The termite mounds they produce are actually really, really clever. They manage to angle them in such a way to capture the morning sun and once things get a bit too hot, they move to the non-sunny side of the mound. Take a look at these amazing pictures and read more about the magnetic termites found in Australia.

Another little known fact about termites (which obviously someone with a termite problem won’t give two hoots about – and is actually linked to the fact they are closely biologically linked to cockroaches) is the fact that they are actually a very efficient bioreactor. Basically, they have microbes in their gut which means they produce hydrogen on digestion. I wonder how many you would need to produce enough energy to power a radio or light bulb, for say an hour. Apparently this process is something the US Department of Energy is looking into as a renewable energy source.

The best way to avoid termites destroying your property (thankfully not a huge issue in the UK, although there is a small pocket of infestation in Devon I believe) is prevention, and in particular cases termite baiting proves successful as an early indicator of the problem.

Chris Arne from J C Ehrlich (our US business counterpart) has been quoted as saying: “Termite baiting has become a very useful tool in our termite control program. It gives people peace of mind that the stations are being monitored and checked.  They get an instant termite activity report.” He gives a few more tips on keeping termites at bay here.