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January 2005 / Vol.2 / Issue 1
Hello and Welcome to the January Greenpest News. Each month we aim to provide you with some useful information, keeping it short, sweet and pertinent.
Contents
1. Pest Talk
2. Bed bug warning and advice.
3. Customer Question of the Month - MULCH.
3. Quote of the month.
4. Quick Survey
5. Monthly Special
Pest Talk
Welcome to the new year. I hope that you had an enjoyable Christmas break and a fun Australia Day holiday. I certainly did, even though I worked. you see there were just so many things that I have wanted to catch up on, and that is precisely what I did. Working to keep termites out of your homes is challenging. (And interesting.) You have to have a lot of respect for the little blighters. If there is one tiny way for a termite to get into your home, you can be sure that they will find it.
That is why tricking them into a termite bait and then using their own activity to take a termiticide back to the nest is such a great idea. By destroying the nest you take all the pressure off your home. (no termites = no pressure)
The termite industry is fascinating and I love searching the worldwide web to learn from overseas. There are so many people working on ways to keep termites at bay. During the Christmas break I was able to research and develop of few new ideas to improve the Green Termite Bait System. Tests are continuing and I have a new patent in the pipeline.
The good news for our termite bait customers is that the system is being fine tuned to make it even better. I also have insider information that we can expect a couple of excellent new termiticide formulations in 2005. It's anticipated that these products will work very successfully with the Green Termite Bait System& #8482;.
As a subscriber to the Termite Talk newsletter, you will be amongst the first people in the general public to learn about these exciting new products and how they work to protect your home from termites. Stay tuned!
Bed bug warning and advice.
The following notices have been added to our bed bug page.
Special Warning Notice - BED BUGS.
We wish to advise all travelers to be very careful of bedbugs in hotel rooms. The bites are not a big deal, but it is a VERY big deal if you take them home in your luggage. It is also a very expensive disaster if they spread through the bedrooms in your home. It may well end up costing you thousands of dollars and this is not an exaggeration.
- If possible, don't leave your suitcases in the hotel bedroom. Keep them in the living room if you are in an apartment or holiday unit.
- Pull the sheets up and inspect the bed. (Especially around the header of the bed and check for little brown specks - bed bugs in the seams.)
- Check yourself for bites (especially on your legs or torso) when you awake in the morning.
- When you return home, if you have the slightest concern about bed bugs, then don't take your luggage into your bedroom. Open it, empty it and store it in your garage away from areas where people or pets sleep.
- If you do find bed bugs in your luggage, take it along to a fumigation specialist, or take it to the tip if you prefer.
Prevention is better than cure (and much cheaper), so please enjoy your travels. Just take a little care and try not to bring any bed bugs home. Insurance companies don't cover damages caused by bed bugs.
Notice to Hotel-Motel-Backpackers Management - BED BUGS.
It isn't possible to stop your guests from bring bed bugs into your building. There is nothing you can do to stop bed bugs from leaving a guest's suitcase and infesting a room. It doesn't matter how clean you are or whether you are a 5 star hotel or a low cost backpackers. In most cases the guest will be completely unaware that they are even carrying the bed bugs in their luggage.
The early detection of bed bugs is difficult. They are very hard to spot.
However there are two things you can do:
- Thoroughly train all your housekeeping staff about bed bugs. They need to
know how to check beds and identify bed bug activity.
- Linen trolleys should be inspected every day.
- Laundry companies should be consulted. It's important that their pick-up and delivery vehicles should be certified free of bed bugs.
- Advise your guests. Every guest should be handed a notice upon checking in. It should state what bed bugs are, their habitats and how to identify them. It should also mention their bite so that your guests can report back to you if they even suspect that they have been bitten during their sleep. The wording should alert your guests as a warning but not be alarmist. You should seek legal advice to protect yourself with the best and clearest wording.
Several hotels are already dealing with the threat of legal action taken against them. The current policy is to hush it up. This is wrong. As a pest controller who talks with other pest controllers, I can tell you that the problem is worldwide and wide-spread throughout Australia.
There are no known simple prevention methods.
It is your duty of care to warn your guests. If you do not warn your guests you may be leaving yourself open to liability.
This is a bug that can not be easily prevented. No amount of pesticides will prevent them infesting a room, and too much pesticide may present a reactive health threat to a sensitive guest.
If the accommodation industry as a whole, or the government implements a standard bed bug warning notice to be handed to all guests, it will go a long way to covering your duty of care.
Responsible action needs to be taken NOW. Without doubt this is potentially a serious problem for the tourist industry. I don't want to be a doom and gloom prophet, but the tourist and accommodation industry needs to bite the bullet and address this problem before the problem bites first and things get further out of hand.
Bed bugs are world travelers and now a worldwide problem, not just a local problem. I implore our current affairs programs not to blow the bed bug problem out of proportion. We don't want people to stop having holidays or to boycott our fabulous Australian resort areas.
Nor do our accommodation houses want to be sued by guests who take the bed bugs home... only to have a bed bug treatment bill of thousands of dollars a few weeks later, and sometimes a medical bill also.
The two steps listed above need to be taken straight away to avoid serious loss of trade or legal action in the future.
We are available to train and advise your staff on how to spot bed bugs in a room.
Please call 1800 6 12345 to arrange a consultation.
Customer Question of the Month - MULCH.
Dear Jerry,
We are recently moved into a new home and
the developer has left a pile of mulch on the boundary of our property. We have
discovered termites in the mulch and would be pleased if you could advise if it
would be safe to have the mulch sprayed or if you think it would be safer to
have the mulch removed.
Your advice would be appreciated. Thanks Sandy
Reply:
I
was recently contacted by Gardening Australia Magazine asking for advice on this
same subject, and without doubt it is a question that I hear on a very regular
basis, so let's tackle it!
Many species of termites love to eat mulch.
Timber chips and shredded timber, sugar cane, tea tree, hay and other organic
materials are used as mulch and because they contain cellulose they are food for
termites. Some mulches are resistant to some termite species, but there is
usually at least one termite species that will make a meal of it and then move
on to make a meal of your home.
Most people know that you shouldn't
encourage termites by having a garden bed beside the wall of your home.
Especially one that needs a lot of watering because water is what attracts
termites more so than timber. Throw some mulch onto a garden to keep weeds out,
at the same time retaining moisture under the mulch and you create ideal
conditions for termites to forage.
NOT CLEVER if it's beside the wall of
your home. Now before you panic and go out and rip all your mulch up, keep in
mind that there are a few compromise solutions.
- You could pay a professional to come and spray the mulch with a termiticide that will penetrate down to the soil. This is not a cheap option and not a permanent option either as it will need renewing every 1 - 3 years depending on the termiticide that is used. You can also buy standard insecticides that clip on to your garden hose and mix with the water as you water your plants. It might work, though it is not registered for this particular use.
- You can also stir the mulch up on a regular basis, exposing the termites to the drier air and to predatory ants. If it is only a small patch of mulch then this is a practical and safe method, although it still exposes your home to some risk. It only kills the foraging termites. There still remains a fully functioning termite nest somewhere near you home.
- You can replace the mulch with a non-cellulose material. E.g. small decorative gravel stones over the top of weed matting. It's more expensive than timber mulch but it doesn't need renewal. Unlike timber mulch it doesn't break down and eventually add nutrients to the soil. You can weigh up the pros and cons yourself. My mum's been an avid gardener her whole life and I know how she likes to build up the quality of the soil with mulch and compost, so she opts for the next solution.
- Put some Green Termite Baits™ in the gardens. This works very well and it
has two huge advantages:
- The easy detection and identification of termites.
- The opportunity to destroy the nest, no matter where it is. It helps to protect the home, trees, bushes and susceptible plants from termite attack.
The idea of first spraying the mulch with a termiticide before it is spread is a good idea but it's not practical or legal. Not only are most quality termiticides restricted for sale to licenced pest controllers, but the labels on the termiticides also restrict the way that these termiticides are applied. Even relatively safe termiticides have some pretty tight restrictions. There are two important components to effective termite control:
- The use of Quality Termiticides.
- And their Professional Application.
NOTE: There are several
insecticides available in hardware stores that claim to be for the control of
termites. This is VERY misleading (and unethical). They are no more effective
than an every day can of fly spray. If you spray exposed termites with any
insecticide, they will die. They are easily killed. But you are not harming
the nest. You are only killing a handful of foraging worker termites. It may
make you feel safer in the short term, but all you are really doing is sending
the millions of remaining termites off in another direction where you may not be
so lucky to discover them the next time.
So, back to the mulch
question. Many landscape supply companies happily offer termite proof, or
termite resistant mulch. This is a sales ploy based on the fact that 99% of
people will not question it. It is an ignorant passing on of false
information. Don't be gullible. Question the landscape supplier and ask for
documentation that proves the mulch actually is termite proof. You'll find that
no such documentation exists. Ask them if they will guarantee in writing that
the mulch is termite proof. Beware of "termite resistant" wording. This means
it might not be eaten by a particular species of termite, however other species'
of termite may well have a feast in it. Finally ask yourself this question. Is
it reasonable to expect my landscape materials supplier to be an expert on
termites?
If they tell you it is termite resistant and later on you find
termites, what come-back have you got? Let me predict the answer, "Heck, I just
deliver the stuff. They told me it was termite proof, so I told you."
And here's the rub. you will never be able to pinpoint who "they"
actually are! It's a ploy to sell "high termite risk" mulch to unsuspecting
consumers. Why not try it for yourself. Just pick up the phone and call any
landscape garden supplies depot and ask for some termite proof mulch and see how
quickly they sell you some. Then ask them for the written documentation that
proves it is termite proof. Now before you get too upset, remember it is
probably ignorance that leads to the answer you receive. Like the 99% of people
who believe them, they too believed the "they" who told them that the mulch was
termite proof. The record is now set straight!
Ultimately the solution
you choose for mulching your garden is up to you. Prevention is better than
cure. Don't assume the merchant selling you mulch knows if it truly is termite
proof. And finally, remember the adage: buyer beware.
Quote of the month.
quot;I've got six quotations to treat the termites in my home, six different opinions, six prices from $500 to $5,000. Who's right? I'm more confused now than before I started."
Our reply: "That's normal in our industry. It's wise to compare and shop around. We suggest you go with your intuition and pick the solution that feels right. If you still can't decide then ask a third party, either your local council, the BSA (Building Services Authority), or the CSIRO."
Quick Survey
We've had a few subscribers say that our newsletter is too long. We are trying to keep it brief. Your opinion is valued so if you would like to help, please click your reply button (in your email program) and type either:
Too long, Just Right or Too short in the subject box. Then press Send.
Thank you. This valuable information is appreciated very much!
Monthly Special Promotion - For Newsletter Subscribers Only.
This special is no longer available. Please go to our current newsletter for this month's special.
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The Greenpest News is Published by J & A Furnell Nominees P/L; Shop 23a Franklin Square, 60 Railway Street, Mudgeeraba, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of Jerry Furnell. The reader is encouraged to seek further information from appropriate government and statutory departments before taking any action based on this material alone.
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See you again next month.
Always... At your service,
Jerry Furnell
Green Pest Control & Green Termite Bait Systems.
Phone 1800 6 12345.
Copyright 2005 Green Termite Bait Systems & Green Pest Control. All rights reserved.
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