At the end of February, Maine saw its first case of the Zika virus, months after the first outbreak in South America. The person who was affected is older than 65 and had travelled to a Zika-affected country, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control.


According to Dr. Siiri Bennett, Maine’s state epidemiologist, this one case is not cause for widespread alarm.


“It’s important for the public to understand that the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the Zika virus is not found in Maine and that your neighbor who has come home from a trip to South America cannot transmit the virus to you,” Bennett said in an interview with Bangor Daily News.


Then, last Tuesday, New Hampshire reported its first case of the Zika virus, a female who had sexual contact with a man that had travelled to a Zika-affected country. According to New Hampshire’s state epidemiologist Dr. Ben Chan, the women was not hospitalized and has recovered.


According to the CDC, as of February 24, there have been 107 reported cases of the Zika virus, all of which were due to travelling to countries where the Aedes aegypti mosquito is commonly found. Florida has the most confirmed cases, 28, which is largely due to the warm climate and the fact that it attracts many tourists.


The virus is transmitted primarily through mosquito bites, with the common symptoms being fever, rash and joint pain. People rarely die from the disease and are rarely sick enough to go to the hospital, so a lot of the time cases of the virus can go undocumented.


The Zika virus was first discovered in 1947 and was named after the Zika forest in Uganda. In 1952, the first human cases were documented. Fast forward 63 years and Brazil sees its first confirmed case. Then on February 1, the World Health Organization declared the virus to be a public health emergency of international concern.


Currently scientists are studying possible connections between pregnant women who contract the virus and microcephaly, a birth defect that causes babies to be born with unusually small heads. As of now, the CDC recommends that pregnant women delay any travelling to Zika-affected areas.


So how can you protect yourself against the Zika virus? Well, currently there is no vaccine or cure for the disease, and the countries that are being affected by it the most have yet to develop any kind of concrete plan to combat the virus.


Modern Pest Services, a family owned pest control company that’s headquartered in Brunswick and operates throughout New England, would like to remind people that the mosquito responsible for transmitting the disease does not reside in the Northeast.


“New Englander’s are understandably concerned with the new threat that Zika virus brings, and while the primary carrier the Aedes aegypti mosquito is not currently known to be in New England, there are over 40 different types of mosquitoes in the northeast that carry other harmful diseases like eastern equine encephalitis,” Mike Peaslee, technical manager and associate certified entomologist at Modern Pest Services, said in a press release.


Peaslee also pointed to the fact that the Aedes aegyptti mosquito thrives in warmer climates, and while New England typically has the cold on their side, due to unseasonably warm conditions it has now been made easier for warmer climate mosquitoes to spread.


“Taking precautions now to control our environment to create unfavorable conditions for mosquito breeding will help prevent the spread of all mosquito-transmitted diseases, like the Zika virus,” Peaslee said.


Peaslee and Modern Pest Services advocate getting rid of every form of standing water as mosquito season approaches to cut down on the breeding grounds for mosquitos. These forms of standing water include: buckets, tires and even things as small as bottles and cans. Kiddy pools are another good example of standing water. Peaslee says that you should keep them drained and even flip them over when not in use to prevent them from collecting rain water.


Modern Pest Services also stated that you should treat every area outside of your home as if it was a mosquito breeding ground, and “cover up exposed skin and wear bug spray to avoid getting bitten – or sick.”

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US regulators have tentatively agreed to allow a biotech company to field-test genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida. Authorities need to wait for public and stakeholder feedback before giving their final approval.


The altered insects are unlikely to harm humans, animals or the environment, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in their preliminary report on Friday.


"FDA found that the probability that the release of OX513A male mosquitoes would result in toxic or allergenic effects in humans or other animals is negligible," the authority said.


The "OX513A" variants were designed by British biotech company Oxitec to combat the spread of mosquito-borne infections, including Zika, dengue, chikungunya and West Nile. Oxitec genetically alters the Aedes aegypti mosquito strain with synthetic DNA, shortening their life span and causing the offspring to die before reaching maturity.


Representatives from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency also have reviewed the proposal along with the FDA.


WHO backs testing


Oxitec intends to release a number of the insects in the Florida Keys for a field test, following similar probes in Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands. The goal of the experiment is to have genetically modified males mate with wild females and thus reduce the mosquito population.


The OX513A mosquitoes have proven to be effective during previous tests. Also, the World Health Organization (WHO) came out in favor of the trials in February, saying that the controversial method might be necessary to wipe out the Zika-carrying insects.


"Time is not on our side here, if you look at how Zika has been spreading in Brazil and other countries," Oxitec CEO Haydn Parry told reporters on Friday. "The sooner we can start the trial, the sooner we show what we can do."


Insects breed faster in warmer spring weather, and some officials also claim that the mosquitoes are growing resistant to insecticides.


Alternative to Oxitec


In their assessment, the FDA found no significant risks that the modified mosquitoes would move beyond the trial area or develop resistance to insecticides.


However, the FDA is obligated to wait for feedback from the public and other stakeholders in the initiative after giving tentative approval for the trials. This process may take months to complete.


Earlier this week, a residents' group called the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition voiced their opposition, arguing that Oxitec's proposal was inadequate and that it would not have proper oversight. The group proposes infecting mosquitoes with a bacteria that curbs the ability to transmit disease.


Anti-GMO activists have also criticized Oxitec's trials, warning that the experiment might open the way for an infestation of a different dangerous mosquito species.

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Spiders are known as clever predators, trapping and stalking their insect prey. But many species round out their diets with a little roughage.


There are at least 95 recorded instances of spiders eating plant products, according to a new review in the Journal of Arachnology. Spiders chow down on everything from nectar to sap to small fruiting bodies, wrote the study's leader, Martin Nyffeler, a research fellow in conservation biology at the University of Basel in Switzerland, and colleagues.


"Such a large diversity of plant types, plant taxa and plant materials being used as food by spiders is novel," Nyffeler told Live Science.


Even the most plant-loving spiders can't survive on a vegetarian diet alone, the researchers wrote, but spiders might be more resilient in times of food shortages if they eat plant food as well as prey. [See Photos of Amazing Plant-Eating Spiders from Around the World]


Plant food


About 60 percent of reported incidents of spiders eating plants have been jumping spiders (Salticidae), the largest family of spiders. These spiders live all over the world, and their plant-eating behavior has been observed on every continent except for Antarctica (where the spiders don't live) and Europe (where they live but haven't shown their habit of eating leafy greens). In about 75 percent of reported cases, spiders were observed eating nectar, and field tests of spiders have found that 20 percent to 30 percent have fructose in their guts — an ingredient in nectar — the researchers wrote.


For some jumping spiders, getting nectar is a sticky business, Nyffeler wrote in another study published March 6 in the journal Peckhamia. Ants also eat nectar, so spiders have to scurry in when ants aren't present in order to get nectar without a battle. They may also have to outrun or outjump ants if challenged, Nyffeler said. One genus, Peckhamia, even mimics ant behavior to sneak in for a sweet treat.


Nectar is only one portion of the potential spider diet, though. Some spiders bite into leaves to feed on plant sap. The South American spider Anelosimus rupununi has been seen biting into mango leaves in Venezuela to suck the sap, for example. Spiders even eat the solid parts of the plants — though they have to inject small pieces with digestive fluids to liquefy them, just as they do with insects. In particular, a colorful jumping spider from Central America, called Bagheera kiplingi, eats almost exclusively Beltian bodies, which are sugar-rich nubs that grow on acacia plants.


A juvenile jumping spider () eating a Beltian body, or a detachable leaflet tip from an acacia tree, in Akumal Mexico. Beltian.


Credit: Eric J. Scully, Harvard University


View full size image


Even weirder, some spiders feed on honeydew, which is a sugary liquid secreted by insects such as aphids that are also feeding on plants. Two species of jumping spiders, Myrmarachne foenisex and Myrmarachne melanotarsa, have been seen "milking" honeydew from insects called coccids. [Check Out Incredible Photos of Peacock Spiders]


Spiders seem to have all the enzymes they need to break down plant material, the researchers wrote, except for exinase, which breaks down the outer covering of pollen. But some spiders have been seen eating pollen, perhaps by piercing its outer shell. Spiders may also consume pollen, seeds and spores that accidentally get captured in their webs, the researchers wrote.


A balanced diet


About 80 percent of spider plant-eating occurs in warmer regions of the world, perhaps because plants secrete more nectar in warmer spots, Nyffeler and his colleagues wrote. They found evidence of more than 60 plant-eating spider species, but many more species may do the same, they added.


Most spiders cannot survive on plants alone, Nyffeler said. In lab studies, scientists have fed spiders vegetarian diets, like pollen or nectar alone, and have found that the spiders fail to molt or they have stunted growth. A possible exception is the largely herbivorous species B. kiplingi, Nyffeler said. But one laboratory study found that when B. kiplingi spiders were fed only plant matter, they died after a few weeks, too.


Nevertheless, plants may be an important part of the spider diet, Nyffeler said.


"The ability of spiders to derive nutrients from plant materials is broadening the food base of these animals; this might be one of several survival mechanisms helping spiders to stay alive for a while during periods when insect prey is scarce," he wrote in an email to Live Science. "Furthermore, enriching the spiders' diets with plant materials leads to a more diverse diet, a process considered to be advantageous from a nutritional point of view, since diet mixing is optimizing a balanced nutrient intake."


More studies need to be done to understand how different categories of plant food contribute to spider diets, how spiders digest plant foods and how frequent plant-eating is under natural conditions, Nyffeler said.

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Regular riders of the London Underground may bemoan the iconic and occasionally fierce tube mice. But there is another, smaller animal living in the Underground that is perhaps even more at home in the subterranean network – since it actually evolved in the unique conditions of the tube environment.


The London Underground mosquito is a genetically distinct subspecies. It was first reported during the Blitz of World War Two, when the Tube's tunnels were used as overnight bomb shelters. Over the course of the war, almost 180,000 people sheltered in the Underground. They were ravaged by all sorts of insects.


"The Tube then was a very different place than it is now," says Steven Judd, Head of Environment for the London Underground. With standing water and different pest controls, flies, ticks, lice and fleas were a lot more common than they are now, he says.


We've searched the country high and low to bring you the very best Great Britain has to offer. Explore our site for yourself and discover the moments you'll want to share. #OMGB. Great Britain. Home of Amazing Moments.


After the war, other than the odd complaint of biting made by maintenance workers, the mosquito received scant attention. That was until almost 50 years later when a London-based doctoral student decided to study these subterranean biters.


Over the course of the war, almost 180,000 people sheltered in the Underground


Katharine Byrne collected mosquitoes from seven sites across the 180km (110 mile) network. She found they were fundamentally different from their surface-dwelling relatives. While the above-ground Culex pipiens bit only birds, the Culex pipiens molestus – named for their tendency to molest – had a taste for human blood.


"The Culex is a very common mosquito," says biologist Bruno Gomes from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. "There are hundreds or thousands of types of them and they're not very harmful."


While they look the same as Culex pipiens, the molestus mosquitoes behave in a different way. Aside from being bird-biting, the above-ground midge-like flies hibernate in the winter, need blood to lay their eggs and require a lot of space in which to mate. The new subspecies does not require any of these.


"These differences can be interpreted in a straightforward way as adaptations to a subterranean life," wrote Byrne. Since there were no birds to feed on, they began feeding on mammals, mostly rats and humans. They mated in closed areas, because they had to – and they lost their tendency to hibernate in winter because there are no obvious seasons underground.


The tunnels were largely sealed off from the surface, and some of the mosquitoes found themselves trapped underground


Byrne also found the underground mosquitoes are now so distinct they can no longer interbreed with other mosquitoes.


"There are differences in both the mating behaviour and the reproductive biology," says David Reznick, a biologist at the University of California in Riverside.


While the surface mosquitoes form big swarms in order to pair off and breed, underground ones are not as abundant so it is just individuals who choose each other to mate.


After the London Underground system's construction, the tunnels were largely sealed off from the surface, and some of the mosquitoes found themselves trapped underground. It was this physical barrier, Byrne wrote, that caused the divergent evolution of the two populations.


It was "evolution by natural selection but in a speeded-up form," writes Tom Quinn in his book London's Strangest Tales.


It's unclear if it evolved there or was brought into the Underground system


With one species breeding above ground and the other below, for some 100 years, the stage was set for a new subspecies to evolve. Scientists say that it might have taken just a few hundred generations to do so.


"People usually think of speciation as being very slow and as something you can't see happening," says Reznick. "But in this example, you can sort of see it happening. It's a relatively recent phenomenon and you can see a clear start date" – when construction of the London Underground began in 1863.


Not everyone is convinced though.


"It's unclear if it evolved there or was brought into the Underground system… from the freight and fruit movement into the docks of London," says Judd. There is not enough research to give us an indication, he adds.


It is also found in metropolitan Tokyo and in the New York subway


This might come as a surprise, given that there is actually a diverse array of species available to study in the London Underground network. Mice, foxes and even tortoises have been found below ground, says Judd. They live amongst tunnel fluff, made up of human hair and clothes fibres, and tunnel dust: carbon that comes from the train's brake shoes.


"In 2015 we had no customer complaints related to biting incidents, with 1.3 billion passengers travelling on the system," he says.


What is clear is that the molestus mosquito is not unique to the London Underground, says Gomes.


It is actually found in all sorts of human underground constructions, from water systems to the basements of large houses. It has been found in similar enclosed environments, such as caves and sewers, across Western Europe, particularly temperate countries such as Spain and Portugal. It is also found in metropolitan Tokyo and in the New York subway.


Still, Reznick argues there are a number of genetic factors that suggest the underground mosquito first evolved in London.


For instance, Byrne's research involved sampling 12 surface mosquito populations near Underground sites. She compared the genetic makeup of overground and underground mosquitoes and found their alleles, or gene variants, to be incredibly similar.


"If they [the subterranean mosquitoes] had come from Spain, you would expect them to have distinct alleles to those above ground," says Reznick. The underground insects should then have been most closely related to Spain's above-ground mosquitoes. But this was not the case: London's underground and overground mosquitoes are each other's closest relative.


What's more, the Underground mosquitoes are all quite genetically similar.


"If you have a big population of humans and then 20 go and colonise an island somewhere, the colonisers will only have genes that are a small subset of the initial population," says Reznick.


A few hundred years in the right circumstances can form a new species


The underground mosquitoes are so similar to each other that it "suggests a small number of genetic individuals created this population", he says.


Reznick says finding the molestus mosquito in other countries only further demonstrates how incredible the process of speciation is. It "shows that the capacity of surface mosquitoes to invade the underground exists elsewhere with the tendency to evolve other species", he says.


It has also shown that speciation does not have to be a painstakingly slow process taking place over tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of generations, as Darwin first speculated.


"A few hundred years in the right circumstances can form a new species," says Reznick.


He points to the example of the marine stickleback fish in Anchorage, Alaska, which are changing genetically to adapt to freshwater environments following an earthquake in the 1960s which created new lakes there. Given that a generation in these fish lasts about a year, Reznick says speciation is occurring within 50 generations.


And, unlike the London Underground mosquito, the marine and freshwater sticklebacks do not have such a distinct physical barrier between them. "This is all happening without geographic isolation," he says.


I just love that it happened on Darwin's own turf and began almost the same year he wrote his book


Still, with no one having examined the London Underground mosquito since Byrne in the late 1990s, he says work needs to be done to bring our understanding up to scratch. "The genetic tools that they were using aren't the ones we'd use today. The truth is – it would be nice if someone studied the mosquitoes more closely."


While Reznick has followed this speciation process in a number of organisms – from moths to flies to invasive plants – the London Underground mosquito has such a special spot in his heart that he devoted a chapter to the insects' evolution in a 2010 book he wrote on the subject of Darwin's 1859 classic Origin of Species.


"I just love that it happened on Darwin's own turf and began almost the same year he wrote his book."


This story is a part of BBC Britain – a series focused on exploring this extraordinary island, one story at a time.

So far, in the United States, 258 people have shown up at hospitals with the Zika virus - the mosquito-borne disease that has spread frighteningly quickly through much of Latin America.


None of them acquired the illness from a bug bite in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control reports. But that may only be a matter of time.


A recent study in the journal PLOS Currents: Outbreaks found 50 U.S. cities where the six-legged, blood-sucking vector of the virus - the mosquito Aedes aegypti - would be able to survive in the upcoming summer months. Nine of those cities, home to an estimated 14 million people, could have a "high abundance" of the virus-carrying mosquitoes by July, the study says, and the mosquito could be a problem as far north as New York.


That doesn't necessarily mean that the U.S. will see a sudden explosion in Zika cases. The finding is just a simulation, based on climate data and other information from the past 10 years. It's not clear how far north the Aedes aegypti will get, as warmer, wetter weather makes the U.S. more hospitable to the insect, and scientists are still figuring out how exactly the bugs transmit the disease. It also doesn't account for vector control practices that could be developed before the situation gets too bad - things like installing window screens or developing an insecticide that the pests aren't already resistant to.


But the study (http://currents.plos.org/outbreaks/article/on-the-seasonal-occurrence-and-abundance-of-the-zika-virus-vector-mosquito-aedes-aegypti-in-the-contiguous-united-states/) provides a "baseline risk" level for the country, the researchers write, especially as public health officials gear up for the mosquitoes' likely arrival. It gives a sense of where and when we should start to be worried.


The cold, dry weather of U.S. winters means that, until now, the potential abundance of Aedes aegypti is relatively low, and the mosquito is likely confined to a few very Southern cities. But that will probably change in the coming months.


To figure out which cities were most at risk of a summer outbreak, the authors examined a few factors: The estimated abundance of the bugs based on the weather conditions and their life cycles, the number of people arriving from Latin America who could carry the virus with them, the past presence of Aedes aegypti as well as cases of locally-transmitted dengue and chikungunya, two other diseases that are also transmitted by the mosquito.


They also looked at the percentage of households living under the poverty line. Poverty is associated with decreased access to things like sanitation, air conditioning and safe housing; the first is important because it limits the amount of standing water in which the bugs can breed, the latter two because they make it less likely that mosquitoes can get into people's homes.


By July, conditions are suitable across the entire Southern half of the U.S. for Aedes aegypti to thrive, particularly in the southeast. Some of the identified cities have never seen the disease-carrying mosquito before, but it has already been observed along the U.S.-Mexico border and up the East Coast to New York. (Note that the study didn't include non-contiguous U.S. states and territories - places like Puerto Rico and Hawaii have already been identified as likely hot spots for an outbreak.)


The Zika virus has been linked to a range of birth defects, including microcephaly, which causes children to be born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains. It's almost certainly the cause of an increase in cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can lead to paralysis. But researchers are still scrambling to figure out who is most vulnerable to infection, how the disease should be treated and whether the mosquito that carries it can be stopped.


"There is nothing about Zika control that is quick or easy," Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said earlier this month during a conference call with reporters. "The only thing quick is the mosquito bite that can give it to you."

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My co-op apartment has recently experienced an onslaught of mice. Since my building provides only a perfunctory monthly exterminator visit, I hired my own pest-control expert to “mouse-proof” the apartment, as well as an exterminator. Still, the mice find new entry points. They must be living in the building’s walls, so wouldn’t this be the building’s problem, too? Can I demand that the co-op board deal with this?


Mice don’t materialize out of thin air. They inhabit a building, traveling along its pathways, scurrying up plumbing and electrical lines. A mouse can enter your apartment through an opening as small as a dime. “Old infrastructure often has lots of pathways between units, between floors,” said Matt Frye, an urban entomologist at the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell University. “It’s all connected.”


Because the mice live in the building, they are the building’s problem. “Co-ops are responsible for addressing whatever falls outside the four walls of the individual apartment,” including vermin, said Andrew J. Wagner, a Manhattan real estate lawyer.


The board needs to tackle your infestation. By failing to intervene, the co-op could be violating the proprietary lease and city codes. The condition could also breach the warranty of habitability, a state law, Mr. Wagner said. Write the board and the managing agent a letter insisting that they address your relentless rodents. Note the dates and times of sightings and include photographs of droppings. And suggest that the co-op also manage the building’s rodents by sealing holes and access to pathways in common areas, finding nests and treating “hot spots” like compactor rooms.


But as Dr. Frye noted, buildings rarely take a holistic approach when it comes to mice: “It tends to be that pest management is reactive instead of being proactive.”


If you get no response at all, call 311 and request an inspection from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. You could also start an HP proceeding in Housing Court against the co-op to compel it to act, or face fines if it refuses, Mr. Wagner said. But with any luck, after a little prodding the board will step up.

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A Berclair couple is dealing with a bee infestation in their home—but that’s not even the biggest battle they are fighting.


Windsong Levitch heard a faint buzzing behind her wall that could have turned out to be deadly.


"As soon as I realized what I was hearing, I thought I was going to have a heart attack, and as soon as I made it to the door, there were five bees," Levitch said.


Levitch said she and her husband were living in a nightmare. Levitch has terminal cancer and both she and her husband are allergic to bees.


"If I had my EpiPen in my hand, by the time my mind told my hand to use it, it would be too late," Levitch said.


Levitch heard her walls buzzing several days before. With limited funds, she called WMC Action News 5 for help.


We reached out to Billy Schubert, the owner of Action Pest Control, who agreed to help.


"It's Good Friday,” Schubert said. “The Lord blessed me, and I feel like if I don't give it back, he will take it away."


Schubert found bees inside the walls and worked to get them out. He also saw a wasp nest ready to hatch.


“With her having terminal cancer and allergic to them, I knew this was something we had to take care of today,” Schubert said.


Levitch said she cannot thank him enough for his kindness.


"This renews my faith in Mankind and my faith that if you pray hard enough long enough,” Levitch said through tears. “I'm sorry. I'm really grateful."


"It's awesome,” Schubert said. “It's what we're here for: to protect and serve."

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HOT SPRINGS -- A pest control company attempting to rid a residence of a squirrel problem triggered a school lockdown Wednesday and a brisk response from local law enforcement agencies.


Hot Springs police officers and Garland County sheriff's deputies responded to Gardner Magnet School, 525 Hammond Drive, after a teacher saw three men with what she thought were rifles near the school and activated her Rave Panic Button smartphone app.


The app has buttons to summon help for medical situations, fire, or police, and a large red button for an "active shooter" situation. The app dials 911 and sends an instant alert to other school employees, said Doug Upshaw, Hot Springs School District director of human resources and communication.


The teacher was outside the school at around 7:57 a.m. Wednesday when she saw three men with what appeared to be rifles near the school, said Capt. Chris Chapmond of the Hot Springs Police Department. The teacher used the app, which contacts a 911 dispatcher directly, and the school was put under lockdown.


Police said in a news release that a school employee told its dispatcher three men with rifles were walking near the front of the school. Within two minutes, patrol units, special operations units, and SWAT officers from the police and sheriff's departments responded.


"We created a perimeter around the school and the three suspects were located," Chapmond said. "The Panic Button worked as it should and the kids and faculty were secure inside."


It was determined the suspects were employees of a local pest control company, armed with pellet rifles, who had responded to a complaint from a customer in the area.


One of the employees fired a shot at a squirrel near an apartment but missed. The squirrel fled in the direction of Gardner Magnet School, and the exterminators were chasing after it when the teacher saw them and activated the alarm, the release said.

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A number of insects can potentially enter food processing, storage and handling sites. Some species—if they find suitable food material—can reproduce inside and cause an infestation. These insects are typically referred to as stored product pests. Some will feed on whole grains like the rice, maize and granary weevils. Others will be in processed foods like flour beetles, warehouse beetles and Indian meal moths. Finally, there are pests found in poor sanitary conditions such as cockroaches and flies.


Proper identification of the pests is the first step. This identification will lead to information on where the pests might be originating from, what their food preferences might be, and what treatment options might be best. Think of standing in a closed, dark room. With a flashlight, you can pinpoint certain areas and focus on where you need to go. But without that flashlight, you are just wandering around in the dark. Correct identification is like a flashlight to pinpoint likely areas and focus our time and attention on those areas.


To determine what pests are present at a site and in what numbers, monitoring devices are utilized. Insect pheromone devices can identify which stored product pests are present. Insect light traps can also indicate what flying invaders are potential issues. Both mechanical traps and bait stations will help indicate if there is rodent activity. As important as it is to identify which pests are in these devices, analyzing the data and looking at the overall population trends can lead to identifying problem areas, sanitation issues and increases in population levels. These data can be used to make application decisions that are targeted and effective.


Say you find 15 warehouse beetles in a sticky trap in your warehouse. If you also know that the previous week you only found 10 and the week before only five, this clearly indicates a population that is increasing. If you know that devices around that one haven’t had any activity, you can infer that the issue is localized to that one area around the trap. You can then focus inspection efforts to that specific area. The decision can be to target that area for action, instead of treating an entire warehouse. Analyzing the data from these devices can be a valuable tool in catching issues early and managing pest risks.


An important way to reduce the risk of pests is by having good sanitation practices. Sanitation is a key part of an integrated pest management (IPM) approach. Coupled with facility maintenance steps, an IPM program is the most effective program to proactively manage pest pressures. By limiting the amount and the access to a food source, facilities can limit the number of individual pests. Limited food means more competition and more resources expended to find the food. Because of this, pests will develop and reproduce much slower, keeping overall populations minimized. While sounding pretty simple, sanitation is in fact very complicated. The goal is to do as much as possible with the time and resources you have. Sanitation is also important on the outside. Pests can be attracted to dumpsters, trash bins and other areas where decomposing plant and animal matter may be present. Keeping the outside neat and clean discourages high numbers of pests, meaning less risk. By having good sanitation, you can reduce, prevent or even eliminate pest problems.


Stored product insects and rodents are small. They can utilize very small openings to enter a facility. For example, a full-grown rat needs just a half an inch opening to get in. It’s impossible to completely seal up a structure, but all doors, windows and other openings should be sealed, screened or otherwise closed off. Personnel and dock doors should be kept closed when not in use and the seals around them close fitting. Air handling units should be properly screened, and filters should be changed on a regular basis. Any openings that connect the inside of a building to the outside should be addressed. Many pests have a natural population on the outside and not providing them with an entry point will help keep them from entering and infesting a site.


When it comes to control options, pesticides should be the last step when dealing with a pest issue. Pesticides are valuable tools and can significantly impact a population. However, if underlying conditions are not addressed, the efficacy of a pesticide treatment may be limited and short lived. Pesticide options range from insect growth regulators, baits and small residual treatment up to full facility gas fumigations. The decision to treat should be based on the pest species, the population levels and affected spaces. Work with your pest control provider to determine if pesticide use is the right choice and to ensure all label instructions are followed.


The majority of facilities contract out their pest management to a third party, although some still maintain an in-house pest control program. In either case, a pest management program should be an integrated approach, using all available tools and resources to address the issues. Pest management is not just one person’s job. The entire facility team has responsibilities including sanitation, inspections and addressing structural issues. Consider your pest management a partnership between the sanitation team, maintenance department, quality assurance, your pest management professional and everyone at your site. There is always a risk of having pests, but that risk can be greatly minimized with everyone working together.


Chelle Hartzer is a Board Certified Entomologist and staff entomologist with Industrial Fumigant Company.


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