Earth Guard's Blog

Our friends at Sacramento News 10 called recently about a story they were doing on how to get rid of ants without harming the environment. Long story short, it seems one of the newscasters had woken up that morning to find ants in her kitchen!

The news team gathered some home remedies from their Facebook fans, such as baby powder, cayenne pepper and cinnamon, white chalk and even dried cream of wheat. Then they turned to the experts!

Earth Guard Pest Management manager Barbara Romig and technican Lito Marquez from our excellent team of Sacramento pest control professionals were happy to share information about Earth Guard’s line of green pest control products, which include botanical oils that stop the ants without the use of toxic chemicals that can get into the air or water. Here’s a link to the clip on Earth Guard’s YouTube channel:

We’re still getting calls about ants with every shower. This great article about a 2001 Stanford study of 69 California households explains that bug spray and ant baits simply won’t stop them. The culprit is weather: The study concludes that ant “abundance is highest in winter when the weather is cold and wet, and there is a second, smaller peak in the hotter, drier part of summer.”

 The article goes on to discuss the ecological impact of the Argentine ant that has successfully invaded California. Among other impacts, the Argentine ant has decimated native ants that are a food source for the native horned lizard found in the San Diego area. The Argentine ants are so successful in part because they do not fight among their own species but rather treat other Argentine colonies as part of their extended family. Hmm, maybe a lesson there for our human species…

“Nighty-night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.” When I was a child, I’d hear that affectionate bedtime tease from an older person once in a while. But never did I see a bed bug in the flesh, and for a long time I thought bed bugs were just make-believe, like the boogie man or the monster under the bed.

But as a grownup and owner of a Sacramento pest control company, I now know bed bugs do indeed exist. Practically unheard of when I was a kid, bed bug infestations have become increasingly common in the United States since the 1980s, likely as a result of increased global travel and trade, changes in available pesticides and possibly pesticide resistance. Once associated with crowded, deteriorated housing conditions, bed bugs infestations in the finest hotels have made recent headlines.

Whatever the reason for their resurgence, bed bug infestations are difficult to treat and exceptionally easy to transmit to other locations.

Bed bugs are widespread in temperate climates, most commonly in North America, Europe and Central Asia. The most common bed bug species in California is Cimex lectularius, an oval-shaped, reddish-brown insect, about one-fifth inch long, with a pyramid-shaped head. Female bed bugs lay 200 to 500 white eggs in small clusters of 10 to 50, affixed to rough surfaces like paper or wood by a white sticky coating and not generally visible to the naked eye. Often the egg shells remain in place after the bugs have hatched. During daylight hours, bed bugs hide in cracks and crevices behind headboards, under loose wallpaper and in seams of mattresses, usually not more than a few feet away from a bed and their night-time food source—you!

Bed bugs go through five nymph stages before they reach adulthood, and must take a blood meal at each stage before molting to the next stage. The life cycle may take up to four months, depending on room temperature and access to food. Bed bugs typically live six months to a year, and adults can live for a year or more without feeding.

Although bed bugs can feed on rodents or birds, their optimal food source is humans. At night, they are attracted to the warm bodies of their sleeping food sources, puncturing the skin, and feeding for five to 10 minutes until engorged. Usually the victim sleeps through the pinprick bite, not realizing he or she has been bitten until the next morning. Saliva secreted by the bed bug may cause itchy red welts and in some cases more severe allergic reactions. The only way to know the bite is from a bed bug rather than a mosquito or spider is to find evidence of a bed bug infestation.

Although there is not hard scientific evidence that bed bugs transmit diseases to humans, older scientific literature associated bed bugs with such diseases as tuberculosis, smallpox and plague. Recent studies indicate that while the bugs do indeed ingest disease germs from humans, they do not replicate or transmit the germs back to humans.

Adult bed bugs and clusters of the lighter-colored nymphs are visible to the naked eye, but because they hide so well, it usually takes a thorough inspection to spot them. Since bed bugs are almost always found near a bed, start by checking mattress seams, box springs, head boards and bed frames. They also leave tiny, dark-red fecal stains and shed skins that are sometimes easier to spot than the insects themselves. They have stink glands, and you may notice a strong, rotten meat smell where there is a heavy infestation.

Bed bugs are great travelers, and you may inadvertently bring them home in luggage or packages, from hotels, movie theaters, and bus or train seats. If your holiday plans include travel, whether you’re staying at a 5-star hotel or a roadside inn, a good rule of thumb is to leave your bags at the door of your room, pull up the bedding and check the mattress seams and surrounding nooks and crannies for any sign of these unwelcome occupants—before you start unpacking.

Eliminating bed bugs is time- and labor-intensive. Pesticide treatment must be coupled with thorough steam cleaning, vacuuming, washing of bedding in hot water, sealing up hiding places, and ongoing monitoring of the affected areas. Over-the-counter chemicals are less effective in field tests, and the most effective pesticides for use on bed bugs must be applied by licensed pest control professionals.

To read more about bed bugs and other pest control and environmental issues, visit my blog at http://earthguard.com/blog.

For more detailed info about bed bugs, try these excellent sources of information:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7454.html

http://www.pctonline.com/Article.aspx?article_id=37351

dCon’s recently released 2009 Rodent Risk Report ranks the top cities in the country at highest risk for increased rodent problems this year. The 2009 study evaluated factors such as deteriorating city infrastructures, increasing congestion, climate trends, and a new category of research – the nationwide economic downturn, including foreclosure rates.

The US might be in for the worst rodent season in years the Rodent Report said. The study was conducted by two world-renowned rodent experts.

The report found that with the onset of cooler weather and given that rodents already invade an estimated 21 million homes in the US annually, the rodent problem this year could be bigger than ever.
Here is a list of the top 25 cities.
1 New York, NY
2 Atlanta, GA
3 Houston, TX
4 Louisville, KY
5 Philadelphia, PA
6 Chicago, IL
7 Boston, MA
8 San Antonio, TX
9 Milwaukee, WI
10 Detroit, MI
11 Columbus, OH
12 Baltimore, MD
13 Oklahoma City, OK
14 Memphis, TN
15 Portland, OR
16 El Paso, TX
17 Nashville, TN
18 Ft. Worth, TX
19 Jacksonville, FL
20 Dallas, TX
21 Washington, DC
22 San Jose, CA
23 Charlotte, NC
24 San Diego, CA
25 Seattle, WA

Risk factors associated with major rodent infestation are at an all time high.
In the 2009 d-CON® Rodent Risk Report, renowned rodent experts Dale Kaukeinen and Dr. Bruce Colvin reveal how climate changes and recent economic factors such as rising foreclosure rates and unem-
ployment have had a substantial impact on the rising threat of rodent activity across the country. Is your city at risk?

Read the dCon report

Call Earth Guard’s trained professionals at 916-457-7605
for questions or help with rodent prevention and treatment!

As the economy continues to slog along and homeowners become more frugal in response, a new do-it-yourself trend has caught on. More families are enjoying home-cooked meals rather than eating out. The backyard vegetable garden rage has permeated all the way to the White House. Householders are tackling home renovation projects and auto repairs on their own. And undoubtedly, more people are eyeing their pest control service as another potential way to cut costs with a do-it-yourself regimen. But pest management is one area where do-it-yourself is a bad idea. Here’s why.

Pest control is a highly regulated industry requiring extensive and continuing training of personnel. During training, technicians learn about the life cycles and habits of each species of household pest, and more to the point, they learn what kinds of treatment are most effective in eliminating infestations, how to prevent recurrences, precise quantities of chemicals to apply where necessary, and how to handle and dispose of chemicals with the least impact to homes, people, pets and the surrounding environment. Few home- or business owners, regardless of how much online research or reading they do, achieve the level of knowledge and skill that each pest control professional receives in order to be licensed. And the results of well-meaning but non-professional pest control efforts can be disastrous.

As a recent Sacramento Bee article reported, researchers have found high concentrations of pyrethroid pesticides in the American River and many area creeks that feed into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, one of the most significant ecosystems in the world and a source of drinking water and agricultural irrigation for much of California. The source of the pesticides: urban Sacramento. Scientists believe consumers may be overapplying pesticides to their lawns, gardens and homes or pouring or rinsing them down the drain.

Whereas a householder may figure, if a little is good, more is better, a trained pest control professional assesses the situation, determines the most effective treatment to meet the customer’s needs and cost considerations, and then applies a precise amount of pesticide to a defined location. And a pest control professional is trained in safe disposal and storage of unused chemicals, the source of far too many accidental poisonings and other household tragedies.

Since 1987, Pest Control Operators of California has conducted a public service campaign, Chem-Safe, to educate consumers about the proper handling of household chemicals. The U.S. Poison Control Center estimates that half of all accidental poisonings in the United States are caused by household chemical such as cleaners or pesticides. Every year hundreds of thousands of California Children under the age of 5 years of age are poisoned in the home with household chemicals and medicines.

As proud members of Pest Control Operators of California, we at Earth Guard urge you to handle and dispose of all household chemicals carefully and to consult a trained pest management professional to assess and address pest problems in your home or business. You can learn more about Earth Guard by visiting http://www.earthguardpest.com. Here are some safety tips from PCOC:

PCOC Safety Tips for handling Household Chemicals
• Keep all chemicals and pesticides locked up and out of reach of children.
• Use pesticides and household chemicals in accordance with manufacturers’ directions.
• Don’t saturate: using twice as much of a product does not mean it works twice as well.
• Don’t put products in unlabelled bottles or cans—keep them in their original containers.
• Never play chemist! Don’t mix products together because poisonous or explosive chemical reactions may occur.
• Always wear protective equipment such as goggles and gloves when using chemicals or pesticides.
• Avoid breathing mists or vapors, especially from aerosol products.
• Keep children and pets away from the area being treated or cleaned.
• Wash carefully after handling chemicals and pesticides.
• Dispose of the products carefully: containers tossed in the trash may still contain harmful amounts of the product.