Happy Memorial Weekend – make sure you keep the flies off the burgers!!

The following guest post is written by Chris Bowley of P&L Systems. Although we just celebrated Memorial Day this past Monday, these tips and points can be applied to any cookout this summer. We hope you enjoy and think about Chris’ post the next time you entertain outside.

 

Ah, the official start of summer…. and unofficial start of “Fly Season”.

With over 120,000 species, the order Diptera is the fourth largest order in the class Insecta. In the USA we are “lucky” to only have around 16,000 indigenous species – and every barbecue seems to attract every one of them to our yard or deck! They range from the beautiful Male Striped Horse Fly, Tabanus lineola (left pic) to the bizarre Stalk-eyed fly, Teleopsis dalminni (below) and can be among the most beneficial animals in the Arthropod Phylum……. However they are universally recognized as a nuisance and major vectors of disease.  Above all, they are just GROSS – if you followed a fly for a day, you wouldn’t eat for a week.

Not Your Grandparent’s Exterminator

The following article was posted last week in the New York Times real estate section. We wanted to share it with you because it helps to shed light on our profession and how effective a well trained and educated pest control operator is. We think you’ll appreciate this article and may use it as a reference for your clients who think a home remedy will do the job.

The Pest Parade, and How to Stop It

By SAMANTHA STOREY

Published: May 17, 2012

IT has happened to everyone. You are standing in the kitchen and you see something out of the corner of an eye. Was it a mouse scurrying across the floor, or worse, a cockroach dashing along the counter?

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Do you start feeling itchy every time an advertisement for a bedbug removal service comes on television?

SPC Research: Good Growth for the U.S. Structural Pest Control Market News Coverage

According to this article in PCT Magazine, The Pest Control Industry saw a 3.4% growth in 2011 over the previous year. It would appear the reason for the growth overall could be attributed to bed bug treatments. Would you agree? Where do you see growth coming from this year? What about add-on services like wildlife control or bird control?

What Ants Are Buggin’ You?

Recently, the National Pest Management Association conducted a survey revealing ant infestations are on the rise.

According to this study, 100% of the pest control professionals interviewed treated  ant infestations in 2011. The most common types of ants found were carpenter ants, odorous house ants and pavement ants.