Showing posts with label pest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pest. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Thursday, October 22, 2009
A dogged pursuit of bedbugs
Rich Wilbert searches for bed bugs with his dog, Sara. Dogs are trained to sniff along baseboards, beds and furniture for the pheromones, the faint chemical odor that the insects emit to signal one another. (Michael Nagle / For The Times)
Signs of bed bugs(Michael Nagle / For The Times)
Rich Wilbert points out evidence of bed bugs in an apartment in Jersey City, N.J.
A Dogged Pursuit of Bedbugs
October 21, 2009
By Bob Drogin
(This artice isn't local but a very good synopsis of Bed bugs and Bed bug dogs)
There's high demand for dogs trained to track down the tiny, bloodsucking parasites that have invaded cities in the last four years.
"It can be a very valuable tool," said Richard Cooper, coauthor of the 266-page "Bed Bug Handbook" and a member of New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's new Bed Bug Advisory Board. "You can work your way through a hotel or a college dorm or a movie theater much more quickly with dogs than just relying on a visual inspection."
But Gary Alpert, an entomologist at Harvard University who specializes in bedbugs, cautions that some pest control companies use dogs as a gimmick to exploit people's fears and to charge more money.
"There are a lot of scams out there," he said.
Because dogs are given a reward if they "alert" for a bedbug, for example, they may alert just to get the food. An unscrupulous or inexperienced handler could easily use the false alarms to charge for unnecessary treatments.
"You can waste a lot of money very quickly," Alpert said. "Some handlers have no idea what a bedbug looks like."
At Bed Bug Solutions Inc. in Des Plaines, Ill., Linda DeVelasco has filled her calendar with appointments for Scooby, her beagle mutt. To avoid a conflict of interest, she sells Scooby's services independently of local exterminators who actually kill the bugs.
"Otherwise I would find bugs every place I go into," she said.
No one knows why bedbugs are back. Scientists theorize that the wingless insects hitched a ride on visitors or cargo from abroad, or that they resist pesticide better than their forebears, or even that a new, super-strong strain of household pests has evolved.
What's clear is they are hard to eradicate. Bedbugs may survive a year without feeding, and unlike termites and other insects that cluster in colonies, they can create havoc in small numbers. A single female may lay enough eggs to infest an apartment -- and then crawl 100 feet a day to bite neighbors down the hall.
In Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency convened the first National Bed Bug Summit in April. The two-day conference brought together the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pentagon, state and federal housing officials, experts and exterminators to help fight the invasion.
"A year ago, I thought bedbugs were a thing from a couple of centuries ago or maybe in a children's nursery rhyme," New Jersey state Assemblywoman Joan Quigley told the summit. "I had no idea they were a modern scourge."
Quigley successfully sponsored a bill in the New Jersey Assembly, apparently the nation's first, that would require landlords to pay for bedbug eradication in most cases or face a fine. The state Senate has not yet taken up the measure.
On a recent sunny morning at Laurel House in Asbury Park, a once-grand seaside resort, Sara went room to room in a former boarding house now used to house 28 homeless people a block or so from the boardwalk.
"I've done public housing for 20 years and never heard of bedbugs until four years ago," Steve Heisman, who heads the social service agency that runs the facility, said as he followed Sara. "Now they're public enemy No. 1."
Heisman requires residents to remove pictures from their walls and to keep their clothes and clutter to a minimum to eliminate places where bugs can hide. But he still calls exterminators back "three times a year, and that's if I'm lucky," for $10,000 treatments.
That afternoon, Sara was about 50 miles north in a working-class neighborhood of Jersey City. Wilbert took her to see whether bedbugs had returned to a recently treated three-story apartment building. Out back, someone had painted "Bedbug!" in red on a discarded mattress and crib.
"We had to throw everything out," said Saroj Bala, one of the tenants. "It was an utter nightmare. I was being bitten every night.
"She anxiously watched as Sara sniffed through her living room and bedroom. Bala smiled with relief when the dog left without finding any new bugs.
"Wonderful," she said.
bob.drogin@latimes.com
The Los Angeles Times
(This artice isn't local but a very good synopsis of Bed bugs and Bed bug dogs)
There's high demand for dogs trained to track down the tiny, bloodsucking parasites that have invaded cities in the last four years.
"It can be a very valuable tool," said Richard Cooper, coauthor of the 266-page "Bed Bug Handbook" and a member of New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's new Bed Bug Advisory Board. "You can work your way through a hotel or a college dorm or a movie theater much more quickly with dogs than just relying on a visual inspection."
But Gary Alpert, an entomologist at Harvard University who specializes in bedbugs, cautions that some pest control companies use dogs as a gimmick to exploit people's fears and to charge more money.
"There are a lot of scams out there," he said.
Because dogs are given a reward if they "alert" for a bedbug, for example, they may alert just to get the food. An unscrupulous or inexperienced handler could easily use the false alarms to charge for unnecessary treatments.
"You can waste a lot of money very quickly," Alpert said. "Some handlers have no idea what a bedbug looks like."
At Bed Bug Solutions Inc. in Des Plaines, Ill., Linda DeVelasco has filled her calendar with appointments for Scooby, her beagle mutt. To avoid a conflict of interest, she sells Scooby's services independently of local exterminators who actually kill the bugs.
"Otherwise I would find bugs every place I go into," she said.
No one knows why bedbugs are back. Scientists theorize that the wingless insects hitched a ride on visitors or cargo from abroad, or that they resist pesticide better than their forebears, or even that a new, super-strong strain of household pests has evolved.
What's clear is they are hard to eradicate. Bedbugs may survive a year without feeding, and unlike termites and other insects that cluster in colonies, they can create havoc in small numbers. A single female may lay enough eggs to infest an apartment -- and then crawl 100 feet a day to bite neighbors down the hall.
In Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency convened the first National Bed Bug Summit in April. The two-day conference brought together the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pentagon, state and federal housing officials, experts and exterminators to help fight the invasion.
"A year ago, I thought bedbugs were a thing from a couple of centuries ago or maybe in a children's nursery rhyme," New Jersey state Assemblywoman Joan Quigley told the summit. "I had no idea they were a modern scourge."
Quigley successfully sponsored a bill in the New Jersey Assembly, apparently the nation's first, that would require landlords to pay for bedbug eradication in most cases or face a fine. The state Senate has not yet taken up the measure.
On a recent sunny morning at Laurel House in Asbury Park, a once-grand seaside resort, Sara went room to room in a former boarding house now used to house 28 homeless people a block or so from the boardwalk.
"I've done public housing for 20 years and never heard of bedbugs until four years ago," Steve Heisman, who heads the social service agency that runs the facility, said as he followed Sara. "Now they're public enemy No. 1."
Heisman requires residents to remove pictures from their walls and to keep their clothes and clutter to a minimum to eliminate places where bugs can hide. But he still calls exterminators back "three times a year, and that's if I'm lucky," for $10,000 treatments.
That afternoon, Sara was about 50 miles north in a working-class neighborhood of Jersey City. Wilbert took her to see whether bedbugs had returned to a recently treated three-story apartment building. Out back, someone had painted "Bedbug!" in red on a discarded mattress and crib.
"We had to throw everything out," said Saroj Bala, one of the tenants. "It was an utter nightmare. I was being bitten every night.
"She anxiously watched as Sara sniffed through her living room and bedroom. Bala smiled with relief when the dog left without finding any new bugs.
"Wonderful," she said.
bob.drogin@latimes.com
The Los Angeles Times
Friday, February 13, 2009
From: Saanich News Feb 4, 2008
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When squirrels go bad
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Although this grey squirrel was photographed at Beacon Hill Park, they are found throughout the region and pose a serious threat to the indigenous red squirrel population.
Introduced in 1960s, Grey squirrels are a furry plague, biologists say
They cloak themselves in grey or black. They carry diseases that kill off their red-furred cousins. They murder smaller, defenceless species. And they're on the march up Vancouver Island.
Sounds like the plot for a science fiction novel but it's not. It's a story played out daily in Greater Victoria by Eastern Grey squirrels. Adorable as they may appear, dashing across lawns and up trees, they are a scourge, say Ministry of Environment officials.
Introduced to Vancouver Island in the mid-1960s, when three Eastern Greys from Ontario escaped from a Metchosin farm, the squirrels actually be black, brownish grey or colours in between. The rodents have now spread as far west as Sooke and as far north as Duncan.
"They're moving into habitat where we'd normally have native Red squirrels - they're displacing our (native Red squirrel) species," said biologist Michael Stalberg. As head of the ministry's Vancouver Island Fish and Wildlife section, Stalberg said Greys are twice the size of Red squirrels, they usually win fights over food and territory. They also carry diseases that can overwhelm Reds.
Even more bizarre, Greys are also linked to a decline in native bird populations.
"They kill and eat birds in bird houses and then use the houses to raise their young," Stalberg said, advising people to only use squirrel-proof bird feeders.
In addition, Grey squirrels are a threat to Garry oak trees. By biting through acorns before stashing them so the nuts won't sprout in winter storage they limit potential re-growth. If they get into humans' houses they can chew on wires, remove shingles and shakes, and chew through eaves to nest in attics, roofs and chimneys. The squirrels also frustrate gardeners who find the rodents dig up lawns and plant bulbs.
Take the example of geneticist Joe Harvey, who moved from Sooke to Oak Bay last year. On his 11-acre spread in Sooke, Harvey had been more concerned about deer than squirrels. A plant breeder with a specialty in halibores, Harvey and his wife Linda now deal with squirrels in Oak Bay digging up potted plants, even four-inch seedlings. In a recent letter to the Oak Bay News, Harvey wondered if it's okay to capture squirrels and eat them. We checked and it turns out it is – as long as it's a live trap.
Biologists have no idea how many Grey squirrels there now are on Vancouver Island. Only one study has been done in B.C. and that tracked the rodents' movements in Vancouver's Stanley Park. That report found an average of 2.2 per hectare, rising to 8.8 per hectare during breeding season.
Grey squirrel territory has expanded dramatically on southern Vancouver Island, to the point where Fish and Wildlife officials are posting notices asking the public for help. If Greys are seen west of Sooke or north of Duncan, ministry staff want to know. In the meantime, Stalberg says Eastern Grey squirrels "can be killed anytime and anywhere."
They can be live trapped and humanely killed within urban areas or shot in rural areas. But, if they are captured, Stalberg is adamant about one thing.
"People need to stop live-trapping and relocating squirrels," he said. "Releasing them somewhere else only increases the spread."
Harvey doesn't think he will go to the trouble of trapping squirrels for dinner. "They're too scrawny," he said. "You'd need a couple for a meal."
For more information about stopping the Eastern Grey squirrel migration, call Ministry of Environment's squirrel hotline: 1-250-751-3100.
Although this grey squirrel was photographed at Beacon Hill Park, they are found throughout the region and pose a serious threat to the indigenous red squirrel population.
Introduced in 1960s, Grey squirrels are a furry plague, biologists say
They cloak themselves in grey or black. They carry diseases that kill off their red-furred cousins. They murder smaller, defenceless species. And they're on the march up Vancouver Island.
Sounds like the plot for a science fiction novel but it's not. It's a story played out daily in Greater Victoria by Eastern Grey squirrels. Adorable as they may appear, dashing across lawns and up trees, they are a scourge, say Ministry of Environment officials.
Introduced to Vancouver Island in the mid-1960s, when three Eastern Greys from Ontario escaped from a Metchosin farm, the squirrels actually be black, brownish grey or colours in between. The rodents have now spread as far west as Sooke and as far north as Duncan.
"They're moving into habitat where we'd normally have native Red squirrels - they're displacing our (native Red squirrel) species," said biologist Michael Stalberg. As head of the ministry's Vancouver Island Fish and Wildlife section, Stalberg said Greys are twice the size of Red squirrels, they usually win fights over food and territory. They also carry diseases that can overwhelm Reds.
Even more bizarre, Greys are also linked to a decline in native bird populations.
"They kill and eat birds in bird houses and then use the houses to raise their young," Stalberg said, advising people to only use squirrel-proof bird feeders.
In addition, Grey squirrels are a threat to Garry oak trees. By biting through acorns before stashing them so the nuts won't sprout in winter storage they limit potential re-growth. If they get into humans' houses they can chew on wires, remove shingles and shakes, and chew through eaves to nest in attics, roofs and chimneys. The squirrels also frustrate gardeners who find the rodents dig up lawns and plant bulbs.
Take the example of geneticist Joe Harvey, who moved from Sooke to Oak Bay last year. On his 11-acre spread in Sooke, Harvey had been more concerned about deer than squirrels. A plant breeder with a specialty in halibores, Harvey and his wife Linda now deal with squirrels in Oak Bay digging up potted plants, even four-inch seedlings. In a recent letter to the Oak Bay News, Harvey wondered if it's okay to capture squirrels and eat them. We checked and it turns out it is – as long as it's a live trap.
Biologists have no idea how many Grey squirrels there now are on Vancouver Island. Only one study has been done in B.C. and that tracked the rodents' movements in Vancouver's Stanley Park. That report found an average of 2.2 per hectare, rising to 8.8 per hectare during breeding season.
Grey squirrel territory has expanded dramatically on southern Vancouver Island, to the point where Fish and Wildlife officials are posting notices asking the public for help. If Greys are seen west of Sooke or north of Duncan, ministry staff want to know. In the meantime, Stalberg says Eastern Grey squirrels "can be killed anytime and anywhere."
They can be live trapped and humanely killed within urban areas or shot in rural areas. But, if they are captured, Stalberg is adamant about one thing.
"People need to stop live-trapping and relocating squirrels," he said. "Releasing them somewhere else only increases the spread."
Harvey doesn't think he will go to the trouble of trapping squirrels for dinner. "They're too scrawny," he said. "You'd need a couple for a meal."
For more information about stopping the Eastern Grey squirrel migration, call Ministry of Environment's squirrel hotline: 1-250-751-3100.
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