June 2004 / Vol.1 / Issue 1

Hello and Welcome to the June Greenpest News. Each month we will aim to provide you with some useful information, keeping it short, sweet and pertinent.

Contents

1. Pest Talk
2. Logs and Stumps - How to keep.
3. Customer Question of the Month.
4. Don't let the Bed Bugs bite! (A travel tip.)
5. Monthly Special

Pest Talk

Winter Pests.

In the cooler months we don't see as many cockroaches & spiders because they are tropical pests. They are still around but they are not very active. They wait until summer to reproduce.

Termites are still at work, but to a lesser extent. During winter 1 in 10 of our termite bait customers will have a strike in a bait compared to 1 in 2 during the summer months.

It is the warm blooded rodents that invade us when it gets cold. Rats and mice find our nice warm homes very attractive.  Like a spy, they are coming in from the cold.

Can you stop them getting in? The answer is no. Most automatic garage doors offer rodents easy access. Mice can easy squash in under most regular doors.  They only need a 5mm gap. (Quarter of an inch)

Did you know that they have a flexible skull? They can literally pancake themselves under a door. It looks like magic when they do it at high speed.

Rats easily gain entry by climbing onto your roof and then slipping in where the tiles meet the guttering. They then go down into your walls to nest or to gnaw through the walls to reach the inside.

What can you do?  What's best... Prevention, trapping, baiting or electronic repulsion?

Prevention : Install good door seals (keeps the cold out too). Put in a quality gutter leaf proofing system (also excellent if you are in a bush fire prone area).  Motivate your cat... starve it! (Only kidding... in fact a cat is either a mouser or not).

Trapping : Snap traps might work with mice but are pretty useless for rats.  Basically they will breed faster than you can catch them.  There always seem to be a couple of wily ones that escape.

Sticky traps work well if placed correctly but leave you with the nasty problem of having to dispose of the live rodents.

Rat cages will only ever catch one rat, then the others learn to avoid it.  Mice cages are excellent and will catch most of them in one night, but there is usually one or two that remain behind to repopulate the home.  If you intend to release the mice make sure you do it at least 1 km from your home or they will simply return.

Baiting : This is effective if it is done right.  Plenty of good quality bait placed in the right places.  If you D.I.Y then you'll need to spend a good $30.00 bait.  Just be very careful about children and pets.  Most people fail because they use either too little bait or don't place it in the best locations.

Electronic repulsion: Complete waste of money.  See the truth in the article by Choice Magazine.  Click here .

For more interesting facts about rodents please click here.

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Customer Question of the Month.

Logs and stumps... How to keep.

I have a yard full of logs and cut off sections of tree trunk that I want to keep.  My termite inspector says they have got to go but I want to keep them; I've got orchids growing in some and they contribute to the rainforest feel of my landscape.  Problem is... they are full of termites, what's the solution?

Answer.
There are three very different ways to tackle this problem.

Firstly, if you only have a couple of logs that you wish to keep, then you could surround the log with a few Green Termite BaitsT to catch them if they decide to venture in search of other food.  This is a slow and safe way to do it and will be especially useful if the log is very hard to remove.

Secondly you could use a chemical treatment on and in the logs.  This is more direct and quite cost effective for just a few logs.  The better the termiticide the longer the treatment will last.  I'd recommend this method if the nest is strongly suspected in the log or stump.

Thirdly is a method that I recently came up with for a client who has very many logs.  They are mainly cut off sections of a large tree trunk, the smallest the size of a footstool.  The idea is to roll the stump over and place some heavy duty black PVC (plastic) under the stump.  The stump is then rolled back onto the plastic.  The plastic is cut and securely tied off to from a shallow tray under the stump, effectively keeping the stump off the ground.  I would suggest tightly wiring the top of the plastic so as to prevent rain and moisture reaching inside.  This also would stop mosquito larvae.

How it works .  Subterranean termites need contact with the soil if they are to spread underground.  If there are termites in the log they will be restricted to the log.  If they wish to spread then they will need to exposed their mud galleries to exit over the black plastic.  If this occurs it would be best to have the stump treated with a very low toxic insecticide.

No matter what you choose to do NEVER leave untreated timber laying on the ground around your yard.  You are only inviting trouble.

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Don't let the Bed Bugs bite! (A travel tip.)

Warning: This article may be distasteful to some readers.

For over 15 years I've been a professional pest controller.  This year, not only did I get to see my first bed bug, but I got to see them on more than one occasion.  They are only 1-3mm in size, brown and flat like a pancake.    It hides during the day and comes out in the hours before sunrise and feeds on human blood.  This is truly a pest you do not want to experience.  It can hide in the tiniest nook or cranny and during the day it is very, very, (did I say very?) hard to find.

Our first job (just after the Gold Coast Indie) last year was in a Surfers Paradise high rise.  The bed bugs had infested two bedrooms in one apartment.  When I arrived we were shown the sheets and the mattresses.  They were speckled all over in blood spots.  Later, the whole bed ensembles were taken to the tip.

It took us four treatments over three weeks to kill the bed bugs.  Turns out that bed bugs are tough little blighters with good resistance to synthetic pyrethroids which will kill a cockroach, spider, ant or flea in no time, but not the bed bug.

We found an answer by using a non-synthetic insecticide. 

Now we can do a treatment with confidence although it still isn't easy.

How do bed bugs get inside your home?  Someone has to carry them into your home in a bag or clothing.  They may be adults or eggs.  For example:  One of our regular clients who has a very tidy modern home invited her daughter's friends for an overnight pajama party.  One of the friends had just returned from an overseas holiday in South-east Asia and had bought a small travel case over for the night.

A couple of weeks after the pajama party the first problems started to be noticed.  Unexplained bites were appearing all over her daughter's body after each night's sleep.  To cut a long story short, two single beds ended up at the tip, plus there were pest control fees, doctors bills, carpet cleaning and general inconvenience.

Bed bugs are making a comeback.  Prevention is not easy.  Just be careful where you store your bags when you return from overseas.  Although it is a very low risk, bed bugs may even travel from one bag to another in the hold of an aircraft.

What do you do?   I would strongly urge you to give your baggage a very thorough spray with a natural pyrethrum surface spray inside and out, before and after you return from any trip where you will be staying in hotel/motel room.

When you return home, do not leave your baggage in a bedroom wardrobe on the top shelf.  It's better to leave your bags in a place well away from where people sleep.

Yes, this may seem a little over the top.  The risk at present is still low.  However, I've seen enough examples to know that this problem is likely to get worse, not better.  It's fairly well hushed up at the moment.  Obviously, it's not good news for the tourist industry or the accommodation industry.  We are not trying to scare people from travelling.  In fact, the hotel industry is quick to quell any outbreak of bed bugs as they occur, quarantining rooms until the problem is solved.

We just believe that a little thought and prevention could save yourself a big hassle later.  You never know who stayed in a room before you... It only takes one contaminated bag to drop off some of these nasty world travelers before they are soon heading off to new homes in other bags.

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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 2004 Green Termite Bait Systems & Green Pest Control. All rights reserved.

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