Saugus elementary school dealing with rodent problem

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Salmonella victims angry over no prosecutions

Contaminated peanuts were linked to hundreds of illnesses, nine deaths

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Rat Hobbles Citgo Texas Plant’s Catalytic Cracker

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City closes Ford City's Cajun Café

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Seafood processor targeted over HACCP breaches

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Freezing Temperatures Could Send Rodents Into Your Home  

Exterminators are seeing an increase in business these days

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Rats scurry back in hurry 

Downtown reports up, but control program cut in '09 won't return

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$1M worth of food seized from Asian restaurant supplier Won Feng Trading Company

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Rats invade Florida homes in search of warmth 

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FDA finds roaches, listeria at airline caterer

Live and dead roaches ‘too numerous to count’ at the food facility

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Bug bombs may have killed Williamston infant, coroner says

Baby's mother, brother treated for breathing problems

greenvilleonline.com

Over-the-counter insecticides are likely what caused the death of a 10-month-old Williamston boy over the weekend and left his older brother and mother in the hospital, an investigator said Monday.

However, additional tests that will measure chemicals inside 10-month-old Jacob Whitfield’s body will be conducted over the next several weeks to definitively determine the cause of death, Anderson County Deputy Coroner Don McCown said.

An autopsy discovered no signs of “injury, trauma or neglect,” McCown said.

“At the present time, we’re tentatively leaning toward that, but we’ve still got a lot more to look at,” McCown said.
Emergency workers arrived at Whitfield’s home on 104 Kirsch Drive on Sunday afternoon to find his mother, Elizabeth Whitfield, trying to resuscitate him after the baby suffered breathing problems, McCown said.

Jacob Whitfield later died at AnMed Hospital from cardiac arrest, McCown said.

Later that evening, emergency workers were again sent to the home when his older brother, 2-year-old Kenneth Whitfield, had breathing problems, McCown said.

Kenneth Whitfield was transported to Greenville Memorial Hospital, where he remained in critical condition Monday in intensive care, but “things look optimistic,” McCown said.

Elizabeth Whitfield also was treated at the hospital, McCown said. Her clothes were so saturated with chemicals that she had to take a shower and change clothes, he said. She was observed at the hospital but wasn’t critically affected, he said.

The mother told authorities that she had been using indoor insecticides — commonly known as “bug bombs” — to eradicate a roach problem, McCown said.

The singlewide mobile home sits in a thickly wooded area off U.S. 29, he said, and an insect problem was evident.

The mother apparently set off the insecticides “several times a week,” McCown said. A hazardous materials team was called out to the scene, he said.

The mother told authorities that her boys felt sleepy Sunday and took a nap, which is when Jacob Whitfield became unresponsive, Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Scott White said.........

A new report commissioned by one of the nation's largest rodent control companies indicates Atlanta is one of the top cities in the nation at risk for rat infestation.

Rodent researcher Bruce Colvin tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Atlanta's high ranking in the latest evaluation stems from greater urban areas of poverty, a very high foreclosure rate and a much lower city spending on structures and highways."

The d-Con study, which used U.S. Census data on unemployment, foreclosure filings, climate and pest control sales; ranks New York number one, followed by Atlanta, Houston, Louisville, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, San Antonio, Milwaukee and Detroit........

Cue The Pied Piper: Rats Are On Their Way

Boston's Age, Dense Population Put It At High Risk Of Rise In Mice, Rats

www.thebostonchannel.com

BOSTON -- As leaves begin to fall from the trees, and cooler temperatures send animals looking for winter shelter, Boston-area homeowners may notice unwelcome company scurrying through their homes.

Boston has been ranked by independent pest control analysts as the seventh worst city for rodent infestation.

The 2009 Rodent Risk Report said that an estimated 21 million homes nationwide could be invaded by mice or rats.

The city's main drawbacks are its age and dense population. Older buildings tend to have more openings where rodents can sneak in and nest, said researchers. The higher the population, the more buildings there are, which requires more constant maintenance to keep pests out.

Although Boston is still in the top 10, researchers said that the city has made improvements in infrastructure that have moderately reduced the risk that rodents will have ready access to buildings and homes. In 2007, Boston was ranked No. 2, behind New York City, for rodent risk. This year, New York remained No. 1, while Boston dropped five spots.......

102 Brown Recluse Spider Bite Cases In 2009

Bites Cause Swelling, Pain

www.wsmv.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- It's happening all across middle Tennessee: A spider roughly the size of a quarter is causing sickness and injury to a surprising number of people.

Not everyone who is bitten by this spider experiences serious medical problems. But from Hendersonville to Coffee County, Nashville to Goodlettsville -- the brown recluse is leaving its mark.

"We've had some patients who are healthy otherwise that may come in with extreme tiredness, shortness of breath. They feel like they can't get any air," said Dr. John Benitez, director of Tennessee's Poison Control Center.

Benitez said this spider's venom is no joke.

"It starts digesting the tissue a little bit, so that starts setting up an inflammation," Benitez said. "You may see some redness, little bit of swelling that gradually progresses."

One bite can make a person very sick.

"Now my fear is will I ever be able to lay down again?" said Angel McPherson, who was asleep in her bed when she felt something crawling on her face and smacked it with her hand.

"He said, 'Oh, here's the fang,' and they removed it. I'm thinking, I mean, I was in shock," said McPherson........

Woman mistakes rat in bed for cat

www.nzherald.co.nz

A dozing Marlborough woman reaching out to pet her three-legged cat found instead a large, aggressive rat in her bed.

The water rat, which had somehow got into Lynne Henderson's motor home at Spring Creek Holiday Park on Tuesday, immediately latched onto the woman's face.

The rat fled when the woman's husband Neil turned on the lights, the Marlborough Express reported.

He managed to shoot it once with an air rifle, causing the unwelcome night-time visitor to make "a hell of a squeal", Mr Henderson said.

Mrs Henderson required hospital treatment for a pierced lip after the incident.

"It was about nine inches long, very round and cuddly ... well, violent, actually," Mr Henderson said.

Ants ignore President Obama’s pleas not to bug him

www.bostonherald.com

President Obama has decreed that he intends to enjoy a relaxing vacation on Martha’s Vineyard this week.

But the Leader of the Free World chose the worst time to come to the island if he didn’t want to be bugged. Because the Vineyard is currently over-run with ants!

“It’s the worst I’ve seen since the ant explosion of 1997,” said exterminator Dan Simski of Griggs & Browne Pest Control Services, who has received dozens of calls from freaked out Vineyard vacationers and homeowners in recent weeks.

“They’ve been calling and yelling that there are ants all over the place,” Ed Simski says, who’s been eradicating insects on The Rock for more than 15 years.

Simski said the deluge of wet weather this spring and summer most likely set off the pest population explosion. “And some years, there are just more ants,” he said.

The bug hunter added that the Vineyard, because it is surrounded by water, often doesn’t get a deep freeze in the winter, which would kill insects. And since the island is namely made of sand - “It’s really just one big beach” - it’s a regular Club Med for Ants.

Simski said he has no idea what the bug situation is up at Blue Heron Farm, the Obama family’s posh $35,000 a week rental. But he presumes at that price, they have retained the services of a good exterminator.

File Under: Buggin’ Barack.......

Bedbugs Are the New Mold, Vexing Real Estate Lawyers and Clients

www.abajournal.com

At one time, home buyers fretted about toxic mold, but now they have a new worry—bedbugs.

The problem is so widespread in New York City that some lawyers have begun adding sellers’ representations about bedbug-free condo and co-op units into the sales contracts, the New York Times reports.

“Complaints about bedbugs have risen sharply over the last few years in New York, according to city officials, and no neighborhood in the city has been spared,” the story says. “While the pests do not pose a dangerous health risk, they inflict considerable psychological distress on their unwilling hosts. Moreover, the uninvited guests can be excruciatingly difficult and costly to evict.”

Eva Talel, a real estate lawyer at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, told the newspaper that her firm’s real estate group has been getting at least two calls a week from condo boards worried about bedbug infestations. Condo and co-op boards, she said, are becoming aware that bedbugs know no boundaries. “For a lot of years, people thought this was confined to rentals or housing projects or fleabag hotels,” she said.

One lawyer who represents home buyers told the Times it’s a good idea to check the condo board minutes for references to bedbugs, although the newspaper acknowledged that sometimes the minutes avoid mention of the problem to protect home values. The lawyer also recommended a good inspection.......

TANK Checking Buses For Bed Bugs

www.wlwt.com

There's fear in the Tri-State that the bed bug crisis is going mobile as transit workers search for the unwanted critters on buses.

Cincinnati has one of the worst infestations of bed bugs in the nation. The dread scourge is found in homes, schools, libraries and even hospitals in the area.

However, workers with the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky said bed bugs have yet to be found on any bus.

TANK has exterminators checking buses for the little blood sucks over concerns that riders could be carrying some riders of their own.......

Bug bomb vapors ignited to cause explosion in Lebanon row home

Patriot-News

Vapors from as many as 31 cans of aerosol bug bombs found inside 1103 Lehman St. were believed to have been ignited from the pilot light of a gas stove around 10:15 a.m.Thursday, blowing out the balcony wall of the building and injuring five, city officials said.

There were 17 cans of bug bombs found on the second floor, 12 cans on the first floor and two in the basement, said David Eggert, deputy Lebanon fire commissioner.

One can should be used for every 25 square feet, said Barry Fisher, Lebanon fire commissioner.

The bug bombs were being used because landlord John Light had been issued code violation notices for roach and bed bug infestation, Eggert said.

Tim Balsbaugh, a second floor tenant, said he was getting ready to set off the bug bombs for his landlord, when another tenant, Dennis Morgan, grabbed some and took them into his apartment. "He was not supposed to be setting them off yet," Balsbaugh said.

Balsbaugh was released after treatment at Good Samaritan Hospital for breathing difficulties.

Karen Light, a second floor tenant, was on the ground, Balsbaugh said. She was listed in good condition in Hershey Medical Center Thursday, and Morgan was in fair condition, said a hospital spokeswoman.

"We're all lucky," Balsbaugh said. A total of eight people lived in the building's three units, he said.......

DHS Squashes Bed Bug Claims

www.ny1.com

City officials are investigating claims that part of a municipal building is infested with bed bugs.

An anonymous caller told NY1 that workers on eight floors of the Department of Homeless Services building on Beaver Street have been getting bitten by insects since Monday.

In response to the report, the DHS said, "We immediately began taking corrective action, and are extending it to all premises occupied by DHS. We are aggressively addressing the situation with an expert contractor and building management. No DHS employee has reported bites received from our building."

Man sues Milford hotel over bed bug bites

connpost.com

MILFORD -- A New York man who stayed one night at a city hotel is suing the hotel over bedbug bites he said he got there two years ago.

According to a lawsuit transferred this week to Milford Superior Court from New Haven Superior Court, Luis Jorge, of Glendale, N.Y., is seeking more than $15,000 from the Howard Johnson Hotel, at 1052 Boston Post Road.

The suit claims that, on June 10, 2007, Jorge checked into the hotel for a seven-day stay. He went to bed that night, only to be awoken by "discomfort on both of his arms and his legs" and the subsequent realization that "he had been severely bitten by bedbugs." The bites covered most of his body and caused inflammation, sleeplessness, panic attacks and "severe emotional distress," the lawsuit states.

It also claims that Jorge incurred medical expenses and lost "enjoyment of life's activities" both then and in the future.

"It really is the 'Ick' factor here," said Jorge's attorney, Maria A. Cahill.

Cahill said her client -- who was in town to attend a class on home inspections in New Haven -- continues to suffer from insomnia and anxiety due to his encounter with unwanted bedfellows.

David G. Hill, the hotel's Hartford-based attorney, said he is viewing the suit as frivolous as he awaits more details in the next week or two.....

......The lawsuit begs to differ, claiming the motel failed to properly inspect and clean the room, and additionally neglected to warn Jorge of the tiny terrors inside.......

US marshals raid filthy food plant in wake of FDA clampdown pledge

foodqualitynews.com

US marshals have raided a rodent-infested food processing plant in Louisiana and seized goods worth $72,000 – just 24 hours after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vowed to get tough on companies that flout safety laws.

The Food and Drug Administration ordered the marshals to confiscate an assortment of food products from Bearden Sandwich Company Inc., trading as Southern Belle Sandwich Company, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

Health hazard

Food products, including tuna salad sandwiches, were impounded Friday after being “prepared, packed, and held under unsanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to the public’s health”, said a FDA statement. The tuna fish salad sandwiches were also found to have been processed under conditions that breached Seafood Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulations.

The action came after a recent probe found evidence of “widespread and active rodent and insect infestation, filthy conditions, and poor employee practices, such as allowing food-processing utensils to lie on the floor near live insects”, said the agency.

“When FDA investigators find violations inside a company’s facility, we will do what is necessary to keep insanitary and potentially harmful products out of consumers’ hands,” said Michael Chappell, the FDA’s acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. “Companies that are not complying with our laws will be subject to enforcement actions.”

The company distributes products to convenience and retail stores in southern Louisiana, as well as parts of Florida and Alabama.

FDA promises crackdown

News of the raid was released just a day after FDA chief Dr Margaret Hamburg pledged to act “swiftly and aggressively” against food processors and manufacturers that defy safety rules.

Speaking on Thursday, Hamburg said the agency, which she joined as Commissioner two months ago, would be swifter in warning companies about safety violations. She added that where there were perceived risks to public health, the FDA would consider “immediate action - even before we have issued a formal warning letter”.

“The FDA must show industry and consumers that we are on the job,” she said. “We must publicize our enforcement actions – and the rationale for those actions – widely and effectively. This will increase public confidence, encourage compliance, and educate patients and consumers about potential risks. Companies must have a realistic expectation that if they are crossing the line, they will be caught, and if they fail to act, we will.”

Daley’s Dumpster Task Force closes Mayflower Foods

www.wbbm780.com

An inspection by Mayor Daley’s Dumpster Task Force has resulted in the closing of a popular Asian specialty market in Chinatown.

Inspectors visited Mayflower Foods, 2014 S. Archer Ave, Tuesday and found conditions so bad they immediately closed the business, according to a press release from the city Department of Streets and Sanitation.

Signs of an active mice infestation, including more than 300 mice droppings in the main selling area and in an upstairs storage area, as well as bags of brown rice and dried bean curd that had been gnawed into and contaminated, lead to the sinking of Mayflower.

Inspectors also reported flies inside a package of dried fish product, a cooked shrimp noodle dish stored at an unsafe temperature and an absence of required labeling on food products from Vietnam.........

Rat Bites Killed Baby

www.nola.com

The 3-month-old girl found dead in her Westwego, La. home last week died of blood loss from the numerous rat bites she suffered, the Jefferson Parish coroner's office announced Wednesday.

The family places blame on the landlord, whom apparently refused to repair the home........

National Online Bed Bug Registry locates hotels with dreaded infestations

examiner.com

We all know the old adage: "Good night, don't let the bed bugs bite." But who would imagine that there is a growing pest problem in some of the leading hotels where beg bugs are being identified and reported?

A new web site, www.bedbugregistry.com, is a useful tool to see up-to-date information from recent attacks at hotels and other locations around the country. The web site depends on visitors to report their bed bug experiences, sometimes even divulging the exact room number where the attack occured. The site lists bed bug attacks by city, area, hotel name, and even provides a new email alert sent to your personal website address when addresses near you report bed bugs.......

Motel guests covered with bed bug bites

www.wavy.com

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - A 5-year-old little girl with long curly brown hair and pink flip-flops stood in the parking lot of the Midtown Motel pointing out the dozens of tiny bites all over her body.

Her family's motel room was infested with bed bugs, according to her father.

"I've been bit up," the child whispered.

The red bite marks covered her little arms, legs and face.

The problems at the Midtown Motel in Newport News were apparently so bad, so unsanitary, Newport News police officers, firefighters and city health inspectors responded to the motel.

They talked to tenants like Kelly Jordan who has been living at the motel for the last two weeks.

"It's real bad. I mean, I am just itching every night. We have no where else to go. This is our only option," said Jordan.

Even the motel's own maintenance man, Kevin Starllings, said the place is not fit for humans.

"We peeled back the corners of the mattresses and bugs ran out like roaches," said Starllings.

The maintenance man and many of the tenants say the infestation of bed bugs is not the only problem. They say the air conditioning does not work, there is black mold growing in the motel and most of the rooms do not have smoke detectors which are required by law.

Starllings says the owners of the motel refuse to spend any of the money they make off the tenants to clean the place up and make it safe.

"He won't buy freon so the people can be cool," said Starllings. "He don't spend money on nothing, but every time you turn around he is taking a vacation with his family."

The motel owner, Sanjay Burt, at first insisted there are no problems, even as police officers and health inspectors stood in the parking lot speaking with motel tenants covered in bed bug bites. Then, he blamed the tenants for creating the bug problem and stealing the smoke detectors.

"Look at how they live," said Burt......

Holiday Inn Select by O'Hare sued over bed bug infestation

www.chicagonow.com

Last summer, I had my first ever experience with what I think were bed bugs. It was bad. Real bad. A bunch of us were staying in a lodge on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and I was unlucky enough to have the bunk with the bedbugs. I changed mattresses twice, maybe three times, but each time the bugs moved with me.

So I can sympathize with the plaintiffs in today's case. And as a result, I will not tag this entry frivolous or for real. We are not playing that game today. This is for real. Bed bugs are evil, insidious creatures.

The plaintiffs in this case understand this, because they rented a room at the Holiday Inn Select in Rosemont, and got a room that was infested with bed bugs. As a result of spending a night with the bedbugs, they "suffered physical and psychological injuries, requiring them to incur medical expenses, pain and suffering, disability and loss of wages."

Those are some pretty bad injuries. I wouldn't say that after my bedbug experience I had psychological injuries, but I sure do have some semi-embarrassing candid photos from that week tagged on Facebook, in which I'm constantly looking at my hands. There were so many of these photos that one friend noticed and left a comment asking why I was persistently

staring at my nails. Not my nails, dude. Bedbug bites, all over my fingers.......

Fly Infestation Closes North Side Dunkin' Donuts

Fly Infestation Called One Of The Worst In A Long Time

cbs2chicago.com

A Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin-Robbins in the North Side Uptown neighborhood was closed down Thursday after flying insects were discovered all over the restaurant, including on doughnuts and bagels.

Inspectors from Mayor Daley's Dumpster Task Force checked out the restaurant at 5130 N. Broadway after receiving a tip that buzzing sounds could be heard inside, according to a release from the city Dept. of Streets & Sanitation.

When inspectors went inside, they found more than 180 flying insects "virtually everywhere," the release said, including crawling on 25 batches of doughnuts and bagels, on the ceiling-mounted menu, in the food sales and storage areas, and in the women's restroom.

"It was one of the worst fly infestations our inspectors have seen in a very long time," according to Matt Smith, spokesman for Street & San's Bureau of Rodent Control, which operates the task force.

"In the words of one inspector, things were completely out of control," he said.

The owners were cited for inadequate pest control and failure to protect food from cross-contamination, both critical violations, according to the release.

The restaurant will be allowed to reopen only after proving they have cleaned and pest-proofed the building, and improved cleaning and pest control programs, the release said............

Super colony of ants in NZ

www.nzherald.co.nz

A global "mega-colony" of Argentine ants is spreading through New Zealand, with evidence the pests are forming inter-nest alliances to dominate native species.

The ants, which have invaded all continents except Antarctica thanks to human movements, are so closely related that nests refuse to attack each other, co-operating instead to overrun native species.

Infestations of the 3mm, honey-brown pests were first reported in New Zealand in 1990. Now researchers say colonies from Northland to Christchurch come from such a small genetic pool that they treat each other as long-lost relatives.

They are part of the global colony of Argentine ants that has been reported in a study by the University of Tokyo. In Europe, the mega-colony stretches over 6000km along the Mediterranean coast; in the US, the colony stretches along the California coast for some 900km; and in Japan, a huge colony has been built on the country's west coast.

"Our research found Argentine ants from three continents were rather friendly, and not hostile towards each other," researcher Eiriki Sunamura told the Herald..........

Bug bombs blast apartment

www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com

It seems a large explosion that blasted through a Citrus Height apartment complex on Sunday was caused by improper use of a bunch of bug bombs.

“Thank goodness no one was hurt in the explosion that was preventable had the tenant followed label instructions,” says Department of Pesticide Regulation Director Mary-Ann Warmerdam. “I can’t emphasize enough the importance of following instructions for any pesticide product.”

One 6-ounce or 8-ounce fogger is enough for an apartment and other small living spaces. Too many foggers will not control pests better than using the amount recommended, she says. .....

According to the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Department, one of the tenants in the Citrus Heights apartment complex set off at least 10 foggers to control a cockroach infestation in his unit. Three families were left homeless by the explosion fire investigators determined was ignited by a refrigerator.........

Bed Bugs At Disney Resort Ruins Family's Vacation

cbs2chicago.com

They are smaller than your fingernail and come out at night. By the time you see them, it may be too late. That's the case for a suburban family who says they were attacked by bed bugs inside their hotel room at a popular Disney resort. CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports.

The family says they wanted a trip to remember. And they got that. But now, they're warning people to check the beds in their hotels when they check in.

The home video shows that it started as a happy Disney World vacation. But the family says it ended in a red, itchy mess.

Melissa Pecina said bumps appeared after bed bugs attacked her in her hotel room.

"And I had a lot of them," Melissa said. "I think I counted over 200 at one point." .........

Scientists Use Bed Bugs' Own Chemistry Against Them

www.nzherald.co.nz

Scientists here have determined that combining bed bugs’ own chemical signals with a common insect control agent makes that treatment more effective at killing the bugs.

The researchers found that stirring up the bed bugs by spraying their environment with synthetic versions of their alarm pheromones makes them more likely to walk through agents called desiccant dusts, which kill the bugs by making them highly susceptible to dehydration.

A blend of two pheromones applied in concert with a silica gel desiccant dust proved to be the most lethal combination.

In the past decade, bed bugs have become an increasing problem in industries ranging from agriculture and housing to travel and hospitality, so much so that the Environmental Protection Agency hosted a National Bed Bug Summit in April of this year.........

Rat poison drops will make islands safe for rare birds

www.nzherald.co.nz

Helicopters will begin dropping poisoned rat-bait on Rangitoto and Motutapu islands in less than a fortnight as the Department of Conservation prepares to repopulate them with rare birds including the kiwi.

The bait drop is the latest stage in more than a decade's work to turn the islands into a bird sanctuary.........

Scientists ID lethal virus in Africa

The Associated Press

ATLANTA -- Scientists have identified a lethal new virus in Africa that causes bleeding like the dreaded Ebola virus.

The so-called Lujo virus infected five people in Zambia and South Africa last fall. Four of them died.

It's not clear how the first person became infected, but the bug comes from a family of viruses found in rodents, said Dr. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University epidemiologist involved in the discovery.

"This one is really, really aggressive," he said of the virus.

A paper on the virus by Lipkin and his collaborators was published online Thursday in PLoS Pathogens.........

Evansville man dies from apparent spider bite

www.courierpress.com

A 42-year-old Evansville man has died from an apparent spider bite, officials said Tuesday.

Keith E. Reed was found dead in bed in his Evansville home Monday morning with a bite on his leg consistent with that of a brown recluse spider, said Vanderburgh County Coroner Annie Groves.

The cause of death is preliminarily listed as a spider bite while officials await further tests to confirm it. But Groves said there were other indicators.

Reed had been camping in the last couple weeks at Scales Lake Park in Boonville, Ind., telling his wife later that he believed he had been bitten by something, Groves said.

Reed sought medical attention for the bite but only a couple days before he died, Groves said. The venom had likely already gotten into his bloodstream by that point, she said.

Presuming the tests verify the spider bite as the cause, Groves said it would mark the first such death in Evansville she could recall..........

Squirrel blamed for massive P.E.I. blackout

www.cbc.ca

The fire at a substation outside Charlottetown that knocked out power to half of P.E.I. at the end of April was caused by a squirrel, says Maritime Electric.

The squirrel got into the West Royalty substation and gnawed on some wires. The resulting fire eventually led to 55,000 customers being without power and caused $200,000 worth of damage.

"Normally a squirrel wouldn't be able to do that type of damage, maybe a circuit or two, and a small outage, but … we [also] actually had a failure of a piece of equipment," said Maritime Electric spokeswoman Kim Griffin.

"The investigation is still underway in that we're still trying to figure out which happened first."

Griffin said the utility has learned some lessons from the experience, and will be tightening up rodent control at its facilities.

"In some areas where there may be an opening, or anyone who has had problems with even squirrels in their own home, they know the damage that occurs once they get inside," said Griffin.

"It appears that the squirrel was inside, we're not sure for how long, but in terms of being able to get in and do a substantial amount of damage on our wires, it was that as well as a system failure itself."...........

Maggots infest Fresno County morgue

www.fresnobee.com

Fresno County Coroner David Hadden said Wednesday that a maggot infestation at the county morgue is making working conditions there "intolerable," and criticized county supervisors for delaying plans for a new facility.

Supervisor Judy Case said uncertainty over the budget has slowed progress on what she called the county's top capital project.

Morgue employees, meanwhile, talked about the maggots, which they say quickly turn into swirling black flies that swarm throughout the autopsy area.

"They're everywhere," Deputy Coroner Kelly Wiesel said. "They dive-bomb you and, eventually, they just drop dead on the floor."

Wiesel said that while morgue workers encounter maggots and flies when they are sent to death scenes, "these are homegrown."

Dr. Michael Chambliss, an assistant pathologist, said he and another worker thought the infestation was localized until they moved equipment.

"It was like an army of maggots all along the wall," he said. "You can see them everywhere -- along the baseboard, coming out of the wall.

"They're in your hair, bouncing on your face, bouncing on your clothes." He added that it is difficult to keep flies out of bodies pathologists are examining.

On a tour of the morgue, a facility built in the 1940s, Hadden pointed out dead and dying insects and cracked linoleum, which he said was a perfect breeding area for pests and bacteria. At one point he admonished a television cameraman who put down his equipment nearby.

"Don't put anything on the floor!" he said, wincing...........

FDA: More than $1.5 Million of Adulterated Food, Food Ingredients Seized

www.qualityassurancemag.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. —  At the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Marshals today seized more than $1.5 million worth of food products, including herbs and botanicals, stored under filthy conditions at the American Mercantile Corporation of Memphis, Tenn.

During an inspection of American Mercantile in March, FDA investigators discovered evidence of extensive rodent and insect infestation throughout the company’s warehouse. The company failed to correct these problems.  Acting on a warrant issued by the United Stated District Court in Memphis, U.S. Marshals seized all FDA-regulated food products exposed to rodent and insect contamination at the facility. The seized products violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because they were held under insanitary conditions under which they may have become contaminated with filth..........

If pigeon poop caused part of a St. Paul parking ramp to fall, population-control plan could benefit

www.twincities.com

After a chunk of the facade fell off the Alliance Bank parking ramp and landed near the front door of Hunan Garden on Saturday night, Bob Kessler suspected the culprit was pigeon poop.

No one was hurt when the 15-by-2-foot section dropped, raining plaster, baby pigeons and heaps of droppings onto the sidewalk at Sixth and Cedar streets in St. Paul.

The collapse actually could help Kessler, head of St. Paul's Department of Safety and Inspections, persuade downtown building managers to buy into the city's soon-to-be-proposed Downtown Pigeon Control Project.

"The idea is to have a humane pigeon-control program that will reduce the population so we can better manage damage from their droppings," he said. "This is like the sky fell on somebody.".........

Louisiana Woman Sues Walmart Over Rogue Rodent Attack

www.foxnews.com

NEW ORLEANS —  A south Louisiana woman claims in a lawsuit that a nutria known as Norman ran at her in her local Walmart, scaring her into a panic attack and a foot injury that required surgery.

Employees at the Walmart in Abbeville not only knew a wild animal was at large in the store, but had given it a pet name and negligently failed to warn people about it, Rebecca T. White and her husband, Randal, allege in a state court lawsuit.

Nutria are rodents with bright orange buck teeth. Weighing up to 18 pounds, they look like small beavers with rat-like tails. Would-be fur farmers in 22 states imported large numbers in the 1930s and ’40s, then let them go when they proved unprofitable. They proliferated in south Louisiana, where many residents call them nutria-rats or neutral-rats.........

As rats infest Allston-Brighton, neighbors plan to fight back

www.wickedlocal.com

Allston-Brighton - One woman said a rat sat up to look at her while she was walking in front of her house in broad daylight. Another said she walks in the middle of the street when taking her terrier out at night to avoid rats scurrying past her legs like they do when she stays on the sidewalk. One family has spent $30 a week on rat poison, only to have the rodents come back two weeks later.

Allston-Brighton residents voiced their frustrations with the area’s rat population at a community meeting Wednesday, with the hope to catalyze neighborhood-wide efforts to combat infestations of the big, beady-eyed rodents.

John Meaney, the city’s principal inspector and rodent control authority, explained that overflowing trashcans and careless littering perpetuate the rat problem and can bring them into new areas, he said.

“We’re not ever going to get rid of rats, but we can try to control it,” he said.

The rat problem in Allston-Brighton exists mostly at the surface due to garbage and abandoned buildings, rather than underground in the sewer system, Meaney said. Unoccupied buildings and properties create a haven for rats to nest and breed........

Scientists move to identify caterpillars plaguing NW China pastureland

news.xinhuanet.com

URUMQI, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Experts from Beijing have joined other Chinese scientists in trying to identify the mystery caterpillars that are destroying pastures in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

"We are waiting for the caterpillars to change into chrysalides, and will be able to identify them only after moths are produced," said Gao Song, a researcher with the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Gao arrived in Xinjiang on Monday to observe samples of the 2-cm thorny green caterpillar with black stripes at a laboratory of Xinjiang Agricultural University. He and his colleagues were expecting to identify them from the size, color, wings and genitalia of the moths.

"The mystery may remain unsolved for months if the caterpillars choose to estivate in the hot, arid summer and postpone their metamorphosis until the fall," he said Thursday.

Su Hongtian, an expert with Ministry of Agriculture, has taken samples of the caterpillars to Beijing, where he hopes to use DNA technologies to identify their species.

"If their DNA data is not in the existing databank, we, too, need to wait until moths are produced," said Su.

The caterpillars have damaged 8,000 hectares of grassland in Usu and forced nearly 20,000 head of livestock and 50 herding families to leave.

It was the worst plague of caterpillars in three decades in the city about 280 km west of the regional capital of Urumqi........

Bed bug resurgence leads to legislator’s call for federal action  

www.rockymounttelegram.com

U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield has introduced legislation that would shift millions of federal dollars to identify, combat and eliminate bed bugs.

The parasite has grown from cliche to certifiable pest the past few years, and Butterfield says the federal government must take action to exterminate the problem before it gets worse.

Bed bug infestations have risen considerably throughout the nation and in North Carolina the past few years after the insect was nearly eliminated during the last half of the 20th century. Butterfield’s bill – dubbed the “Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act” – would use $50 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s budget to help states inspect for and terminate bed bugs in multi-family housing and hotels.

Wayne Cross, an exterminator with Dodson Bros Exterminating Co. in Rocky Mount, said he has seen a spike in bed bug activity in Eastern North Carolina in recent years.

Cross said treating a bed bug infestation is both difficult and expensive. He called the insects “the biggest problem” facing the hotel and apartment and extermination industries.......

IPM Reduces Cockroaches and Allergens in Schools, New Study Shows 

www.pctonline.com

LANHAM, Md. – For years, scientists have associated growing asthma rates among children with exposure to cockroach allergens, especially among inner-city children. A new study in the May issue of Journal of Medical Entomology entitled “German Cockroach Allergen Levels in North Carolina Schools: Comparison of Integrated Pest Management and Conventional Cockroach Control” shows that using integrated pest management (IPM) to control cockroaches is more effective at reducing cockroaches and their allergens than conventional methods which do not use IPM.

Unlike conventional pest-control methods, which often involve periodic spraying of insecticides on a predetermined schedule, IPM involves close monitoring for signs of specific pests, combined with baits and traps to control them. The authors of this study compared two school districts using the conventional method with one school district using IPM, and found that the one using IPM had much lower concentrations of cockroach allergens and zero cockroaches caught in pre-set traps.

“North Carolina schools are mandated to convert to IPM by 2011, so these findings give credibility that IPM has superior and longer-lasting results than pesticide use alone,” said Dr. Godfrey Nalyanya, one of the authors. “In fact, the study was so convincing that the two school districts using conventional pest control quickly made the switch to IPM.”

The authors also state that besides being more effective and ecologically superior to conventional pest control methods, IPM has long-term economic benefit as well.

“The monetary costs for IPM might be higher initially, but it pays for itself down the road and provides a healthier school environment,” Nalyanya says........

Giant Spiders Invade Australian Outback Town

www.timesonline.co.uk

Scores of eastern tarantulas, which are known as “bird-eating spiders” and can grow larger than the palm of a man’s hand, have begun crawling out from gardens and venturing into public spaces in Bowen, a coastal town about 700 miles northwest of Brisbane.

Earlier this week locals spotted an Australian tarantula wandering towards a public garden in the centre of town where people often sit for lunch. They called in a pest controller, but not before using a can of insect spray to paralyse the spider. The spiders have been pushed out of their natural habitat over the past month by heavy, unseasonal rain.......

Rats prompt city to close North Side bar

www.chicagobreakingnews.com

Investigators from Mayor Daley's Dumpster Task Force closed a North Side bar and grill late Friday afternoon after finding what they called an active rat infestation that put customers at risk and required immediate closure.

The Task Force received a complaint about uncontained garbage at the Mad River Bar & Grill, 2909-2911 N. Sheffield Ave., but found the unchecked presence of rats that presented the bigger problem, according to a release from the Department of Streets and Sanitation.

More than 300 rat droppings were found over two floors including in the kitchen area, the DJ and bar areas, and in storage areas. Inspectors also saw numerous holes and openings that would have given the rats numerous sites in which to nest, according to the city. ........

UNDER ATTACK BY RATS - Residents send SOS to authorities

www.jamaica-star.com

Residents in Tower Hill and Moyhall, St James, are fearing a leptospirosis outbreak as rats and other rodents have begun to overrun their communities.

Owen Parnell, a pastor at a local church in Moyhall, said the rat infestation is as a result of a garbage-clogged gully that runs adjacent to both communities.

"There is no designated area to dump garbage in the respective communities and the garbage truck does not come in the area, so persons have resorted to dumping the waste in the gully and this is now creating a health hazard. We are literally living in fear of getting leptospirosis because of what is happening," the concerned pastor said..........

Bed Bugs Force 12 Residents From Hotel

www.wgal.com

HARRISBURG, PA. -- Tenants of a Harrisburg hotel have been forced out because of a bed bug infestation.

"They're just forcing us out. I don't think they should force you out," said tenant Donald Walborn.

Tenants in the hotel above Tara Station restaurant and bar on Fourth Street had to be decontaminated in a hazmat mobile shower unit.

City code inspectors visited the hotel Wednesday and discovered the bugs.

About a dozen people live in the hotel and some thought the city's response was an overreaction.

"They're just forcing us out. I don't think they should force you out," said tenant Donald Walborn. "If you feel comfortable in a place and they force you out, I think it's wrong."

Officials closed a Harrisburg hotel and restaurant after investigators discovered an infestation of bed bugs.

The American Red Cross is helping the displaced tenants find a place to stay.

The hotel must now be fumigated, which may take weeks. Officials also closed the restaurant on the first floor of the building as a precaution.

Police Chief Charles Kellar said the inspectors themselves were infested with the bugs during their investigation. They were sent to Harrisburg Hospital for decontamination.

"This is absolutely a circus," said Wali Mohmand, owner of the hotel. He believes the city crossed the line in its response.

"One had a cuff, and she undid the cuff of her pants, and a lot came out of there. One guy said it looked like the walls were moving," said Kellar.

The hotel's owner, Wali Mohmand, was on the scene Wednesday, and he said authorities are overreacting.

"I don't see the reason having gone to the hospital and making a big deal of it," said Mohmand. "The building has updated sprinkler system, electric, plumbing. Everything is up to code."

Mohmand told News 8 that an exterminator sprayed the building Tuesday and it was fine.

Tenants Claim They Are 'Comfortable'

The city began debugging the hotel after the current tenants had left.

One former tenant said the order was a long time coming.

Current tenants, however, had a much different reaction.

Tenants were ushered through a mobile hazmat shower unit to be decontaminated.

They said they are comfortable in the hotel, even if there are bugs and even if the hotel's owner is also blaming them for attracting the bugs.

"I'm not their maid, they have to clean after themselves," said Mohmand.

Mohmand said the city overstepped its bounds with its response to the situation.

"Ask an average person what you do with bed bugs," said Mohmand. "Do you call a hazmat team? Seriously."

The tenants were taken to a nearby shelter and were given new clothes.

The hotel is due for two more exterminator sprayings.

The health department will decide on Thursday if the hotel will remain open...........

'Eaten Alive': Mice Chew War Vet's Head 

SkyNews

An 89-year-old war veteran has been found covered in blood after mice chewed his head at an Australian nursing home.

The man was discovered in a state of distress at the state government-run nursing home in south west Queensland.

Local MP Ray Hopper likened the situation to the Third World.

"I'm told by the elderly man's daughter that the poor old fellow had been trying to brush the mice away as they continued chewing his ears, head and neck," he said.

"He was so stressed that doctors put him on morphine to calm him down. He nearly died on Saturday night. He was being eaten alive."

The attack came to light when the man's daughter complained to the MP.

Queensland's Health Minister Paul Lucas has apologised to the victim and his family, and offered to relocate other residents of the facility.

The man's daughter said her father was unaware the mice attack took place.

"Because of his age, he's bed-ridden and he has limited communication ability," she said.

The woman told of her disbelief after seeing the injuries on Sunday. "It wasn't just a little nip. It wasn't nice at all," she said.

She added how her family still had complete faith in the nursing home staff, who have had a close relationship with the man during his two years there.

But Australia's Ageing Minister Justine Elliot has ordered an investigation into the procedures and processes at the home in Dalby, 130 miles west of Brisbane.

Karingal Nursing Home, an 80-bed facility with 22 residents over the age of 90, cannot operate without accreditation.

Extra staff and pest control contractors have been called in to deal with the vermin, a Queensland Health spokeswoman said...........

Australia orders probe into mouse plague  

AFP

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australia ordered an investigation into a nursing home where elderly and bed-ridden residents were gnawed by a swarming plague of mice.

An 89-year-old war veteran was found bleeding from bites to his ears, neck, head and hands after being attacked by the mice as he lay in bed at the facility in the northeastern state of Queensland.

The old man was so distressed that doctors had to sedate him with morphine, said Ray Hopper, the local member of parliament.

"The top of his ears were severely chewed and he had bites to his head and neck," Hopper told the Australian Associated Press.

"His hands were covered in blood because he was trying to get the mice off him. We are talking about a health facility overrun by vermin. It's atrocious," he added.

Ageing Minister Justine Elliot said she understood there had been a second attack, and had asked accreditation authorities to investigate the staff response to the rodent plague.

"My immediate concern remains for the health, safety and well-being of residents living in the home," Elliot said in a statement.

"These reports are extremely disturbing and traumatic for residents and their families."

If health and safety standards at the 80-bed home were deemed inadequate, Elliot said she would make "no apologies" for shutting it down.

Queensland Health spokesman Stewart Gordon said authorities were doing everything in their power to get rid of the mice, including boosting nursing staff numbers and increasing cleaning staff.

The home, Karingal, is home to 70 high-dependency residents, including 22 who are over 90 years old.

Nurses at the home are horrified by the mouse infestation and believe the home should be shut down if authorities cannot contain the rodents, a nurses' union official said.

"The nurses certainly feel devastated," said Queensland Nurses Union secretary Gay Hawksworth, adding that additional staff had been rostered to ensure proper cleaning and protection of residents.

"If they can't contain the plague, then the next step would be to close the place down," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation..........

Video: Top Five Health Scares   

www.myfoxphilly.com

PHILADELPHIA - In the past two decades, fear of viruses and strange illnesses spreading to pandemic proportions made headlines several times.

We take a look back at the top five health scares.

At five, Hantavirus was first recognized in its current form in the early 90s in the southwestern United States.

Rodent control became the strategy for preventing it.

At four is Mad Cow Disease.

By earlier this year, it had killed 164 people in Britain and 42 elsewhere.

The number of cases is expected to rise because of the disease's long incubation period, but is no longer cause of widespread panic.

Number three is 'Avian' or bird flu.

Since it first infected humans in the 1990s, study of the virus has prompted changes in poultry farming, flu vaccination research, and pandemic planning.

Two is SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)

Within a matter of weeks in early 2003, SARS spread from China to 37 countries.

It caused nearly 800 deaths, but now is considered rare.

Number one is West Nile Virus.

In the past decade, we've come to expect hundred of cases a year in this country.

In 2007, there were 3600 cases reported and 124 deaths..........

NKU dorm treated for bed bugs   

news.cincinnati.com

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS – The bed bugs bit at Northern Kentucky University’s Callahan Hall – to the cost of $10,000 in fumigation and displacing 12 students for 48 hours.

“One of the common myths associated with bed bugs is that they only affect dirty or unkempt places,” said Peter Trentacoste, director of University Housing. “Bed bugs do not discriminate. They can affect a five-star hotel as easy as a one-star hotel. The tri-state is currently heavily burdened by this problem so it should come as no surprise that NKU Housing has handled a small number of cases this year.”

Trentacoste said the source of the bed bugs is unknown.

“It was difficult in this case to identify a source room since we had multiple rooms report the issue at the same time,” said Trentacoste. “As far as where the bugs originated, it’s likely that they were brought in by someone from a location off campus.

“Nationally, a primary source that seems to be named is spending the night in an infested hotel room.”

Two rooms were found to have bed bugs but the university followed their pest control company’s advice to treat the entire floor of Callahan Hall.  .........

2009 banner year for termites, experts say  

www.news-press.com

It's not exactly the biblical plague of locusts, but this is termite swarming season in Southwest Florida, and by many accounts, it's a bad one.

Specifically, we're talking about subterranean termites, whose swarming season runs from February through May, with a peak in March and April.

"This has been the biggest year since I've been in business," said Conrad Burns, owner of Burns Pest Eliminators. "The swarms are bigger, more compact and more numerous. Frankly, I don't know why."

Three kinds of termite inhabit Southwest Florida, subterranean, dampwood and drywood, with subterranean being the biggest threat to homes (though when a house is tented for termites, it has been infested by drywood termites).

Dampwood and drywood termites swarm in the summer.

Southwest Florida has two kinds of subterranean termites, which cause more than $2 billion in damage a year nationwide: native Eastern subterraneans and nonnative Formosan subterraneans.

While there are more than 2,800 termite species worldwide, the Formosan subterranean termite is the most widely distributed.

Scientists first described it during the early 20th century in Taiwan.

By the 1960s, it had reached the United States, and in 1980, a colony was found at a condominium in Broward County.

A colony of native subterranean termites can have several hundred thousand individuals, while a colony of Formosan termites can contain several million.

"The Formosans tend to have larger colonies," said Mike Page, chief of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Entomology Bureau. "Therefore, the damage has a high potential of being greater. It's not that they eat more - that's a false assumption - but their colonies are larger and can do more damage." .........

Campus housing tries to kick out unwanted guests  

The Journal

While students were away during Spring Break, Sentinel Pest Control paid UIS a visit in hopes of evicting some unwelcome guests in campus housing: bed bugs.  At the Student Government Association meeting on April 5, John Ringle, Director of Housing, addressed the “bed bug” problem in campus housing. 

“We have been dealing with this, off and on, since October 2007,” Ringle said.  The bed bugs have been found in mattresses and bed linens in apartments on campus.   The insects have especially targeted residents in Clover Court, though exterminators have also made visits to Larkspur and Sunflower courts.  .........

FDA pressures New Jersey company to recall peanuts 

www.reuters.com

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. marshalls served a warrant on a New Jersey company that has refused to recall peanut products at the center of a major salmonella outbreak, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.

The FDA said Westco Fruit and Nuts Inc., an Irvington, New Jersey-based company, has refused to provide access to distribution documents and declined to recall products after an FDA request. The warrant seeks access to the records.

The FDA said the company, which produces and distributes peanuts and peanut products, received shipments from the Peanut Corporation of America, a Georgia company that went into bankruptcy and closed two plants in Georgia and Texas after inspectors traced the salmonella outbreaks to them.

"FDA's enforcement action against Westco Fruit and Nuts is an appropriate step toward removing potentially harmful products from the marketplace, especially when, as in this case, a company is unwilling to share information FDA needs to ensure food safety," the FDA's Michael Chappell said in a statement.........

Peanut plant in salmonella outbreak fined $14.6M 

http://hosted.ap.org

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The shuttered Texas plant owned by a peanut company blamed in a national salmonella outbreak that sickened nearly 700 people was fined a record $14.6 million on Thursday.

The state fined Plainview Peanut Corp. LLC over violations that include unsanitary conditions, product contamination, illnesses linked to peanuts from the plant and operating for almost four years without a food manufacturer's license, the Texas Department of State Health Services said.

Spokesman Doug McBride said the fine was the largest ever levied by the department.

"We felt the assessment of the administrative fines needed to be done regardless of financial situations," he said, referring to bankruptcy filings by the plant's owner, Peanut Corp. of America. "If there is a violation, the penalties need to be assessed, period."........

Food safety revamp urged 

www.latimes.com

Atlanta -- Food safety in the United States is no longer improving, highlighting the need to reevaluate the way an American meal makes its way from farm to table, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

Rates of salmonella have shown the least improvement of several food-borne illnesses that the agency tracks, according to its annual report released Thursday. The agency also announced that in response, it would increase capacity at its division overseeing incidents of food poisoning.

"Progress has plateaued," said Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC's Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases. "This indicates to us that further measures are needed to prevent more food-borne illness."

The CDC data come as Congress considers legislation that would reshape the food safety system and require more preventive action. The issue has gained President Obama's attention and driven proposals to create an agency dedicated solely to food safety outside the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Food poisoning strikes 76 million Americans every year, with 300,000 ending up in the hospital and 5,000 dying, the CDC says. Salmonella infections can be fatal in the young and elderly.

Officials last month recalled 1 million pounds of pistachios suspected of salmonella contamination. A peanut-linked salmonella outbreak has sickened hundreds and killed nine since late 2008. As of Wednesday, 3,900 peanut-linked products had been voluntarily recalled by their producers.........

Pistachio Recall Signals Tough Stance on Safety 

www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — As the nation’s second-largest processor of pistachios agreed Monday to recall its entire 2008 crop despite no confirmed illnesses, the Obama administration issued a tough warning to all food makers that sloppy manufacturing practices would no longer be tolerated.

With the warning, the administration signaled that it was substantially changing the way the government oversees food safety. Food-handling practices that in the past would have resulted in mild warnings may now lead to wide-ranging and expensive recalls, even before anyone becomes ill from contaminated food.

“The food industry needs to be on notice that F.D.A. is going to be much more proactive and move things far faster,” said Dr. David Acheson, associate commissioner for foods at the Food and Drug Administration. “We’re going to try to stop people from getting sick in the first place, as opposed to waiting until we have illness and death before we take action.”........

Gwyneth Paltrow Bummed By Rat Infestation

www.theinsider.com

Gwyneth Paltrow had to call for pest control because of a rat infestation at her L.A. home, according to Contact Music.

The Hollywood star and hubby Chris Martin of Coldplay are renting an apartment near her mother Blythe Danner as she’s working on Iron Man 2. However, the apartment was infested by rodents, according to the Daily Mirror. How gross!

Paltrow’s friend dished:

“Gwyneth wanted everything to be perfect. She was so excited about moving to L.A. with the family and to be closer to her actress mum. It will be the first time in ages that she, Chris and the children will be living together as a family.

But her stomach turned at the thought of rats running around. She didn’t want her homecoming ruined by those horrible creatures. Being an animal lover, Gwyneth didn’t want the vermin harmed, just removed.”........

Rats at a Greenwich Village KFC Taco Bell 

Fox News 5

Video........

Rats Take Over KFC/Taco Bell   

Fox News 5

Video........

Dead Rodents, Chewed Bags Found At Target 

Channel 11 News

Video........

Rodents take over Pinkberry!!

Channel 7 Eyewitness News

Video........

Rat Problem Along Ala Wai Canal

KHON2.com

The Ala Wai Promenade has joggers, walkers and *rats*.

"That's pretty much rodent burrow alright. From the size of it, it looks like it's been going on for quite some time," says Sheryl Garcia, Kamaaina Termite & Pest Control manager.

Dug out holes - big ones, and lots of them.

"Oh yeah, they're really huge, not what you would normally see. That's pretty bad, it is," says Garcia........

WRAL Investigates: Providers violated food safety codes

WRAL.com

RALEIGH — Outbreaks of salmonella and recalls of food from stores, most recently associated with hundreds of products containing peanut butter, have raised concerns about the how safe foods are and about the measures in place to keep them safe.

Since Aug. 1, inspectors with the state Department of Agriculture’s Food and Drug Protection Division have written letters to 34 bakeries, grocery stores and food processors, including some locally, directing them to address problems, many of which posed serious health risks.

At an IGA at 2971 Wendell Blvd., in Wendell, for example, inspectors found 11 decomposing mice below a shelf displaying bread, bagged stuffing and ice cream cones and 10 others in a storage room, according to a March letter. It goes on to describe finding thousands of rodent droppings in the facility.

In another case, at a Lowe's Foods at 2900 Millbrook Road in Raleigh, inspectors seized more than 3,200 food items from shelves after finding hundreds of live and dead weevils on products, according to a September letter. At the same store in 2007, inspectors found rodent droppings on and inside boxes in a storage room.

At the Rite Aid at 1910 Falls Valley Drive in Raleigh, a peanut butter cup came out of the package with a worm on top of it. An inspector also found moth larvae on the retail shelves, according to an August letter. Twenty-seven packages of candy were seized for moth infestation.

Each company says it has since resolved its problems, though inspectors continue to work with IGA to make sure the problems do not occur again, its owner says.

Joe Reardon, director of the division, says the agency's goal is to inspect all grocery stores once a year.

With 27 inspectors, though, Reardon says it is a struggle to get to each of the 9,000 facilities they inspect on the schedule he’d like.

"Grocery stores – we'd like to be in every 12 months," Reardon said. "Many cases today, that's every 18 months. Many of the facilities we'd like to be in every six months – it's 9 or 12 before we get in there."

Last year, the department asked lawmakers for six more inspectors, but funding for the positions was denied.......

Coast Mountain denies buses infested with bugs

Regular transit user spooked by 'body louse' on Hastings Street bus

Vancouver Courier

Kara Ardan was sitting near the back of a Hastings Street bus earlier this month, when something on the seat in front of her made her jump to her feet.

"I just saw something move," she said. "It was probably a body louse. A good sized one, too. There were a few of them just hanging out there on the back of the seat."

The sight made Ardan, who's been a regular transit user for 20 years, wonder what else lurks in the spongy layers of the fuzzy, dark blue seats on TransLink buses. "Head lice, body lice, bed bugs, you name it are riding around this city without a bus pass, and it's costing all of us," Ardan said. "Those seats are soaking up and containing more nasty bacteria, critters and body fluids than any bathroom."......

Mouse problem addressed at Pelham Apartments

metrowestdailynews.com

FRAMINGHAM — ...Within the last year, Corcoran Management Co., which manages Pelham, has performed 265 internal inspections for mice in an attempt to curb complaints and get a handle on the problem.

Residents have complained about the critters scurrying in their walls and under their beds.

Ethan Mascoop, public health director for the town, said this week that "There's been rodent complaints for quite a long time.

"In the past, the management team has been less than effective in eradicating the pests and had collected a number of health code violations," said Mascoop.

Mice present a structural, fire and health hazard, said Mascoop, as they constantly gnaw on anything and everything, including electrical wires, to keep their incisors, which grow rapidly, ground down. As a result, they ingest some inedible materials. To cleanse their systems, mice vomit often, said Mascoop.

In addition, mice defecate a couple times per minute, which can spread pathogens. And they urinate almost constantly, said Mascoop.

"They're gnawing, vomiting, urinating, defecating. Really great stuff from a public health perspective," said Mascoop.

The mice complaints reached the Board of Health, which held a meeting with Corcoran Management officials last month and threatened to fine them $300 daily for every unit.

With at least 540 apartment units those fines could add up quickly.

"We got their attention," said Board of Health Chairman Mike Hugo last week.

....With wetlands nearby and piles of trash festering curbside on collection day, the Pelham environment has been prime for mice....

....Corcoran is also threatening a $100 fine on residents who do not comply with a plan to reduce the mice population. The company will also be reinforcing apartment leases which call for "good housekeeping."....

....Heating ductwork may have exacerbated the problem and made it easier for the mice to move from unit to unit....

....Now the management company is setting 78 bait stations in hopes of putting a dent in the local critter population....

They plan on restocking the bait stations monthly.

Dumpsters are slated to be installed this spring to reduce the amount of curbside trash.

Multiple calls to Corcoran Management Co. were not returned.”......

City Establishes Bedbug Advisory Board

cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com

New York City will establish a 10-member bedbug advisory board to tackle a growing infestation of the blood-sucking insects, under legislation that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed on Wednesday.

In doing so, New York City follows the example of cities like Toronto and Cincinnati, which also formed task forces to come up with holistic strategies to fight bedbugs.

The Bedbug Advisory Board will have nine months from its appointment to report its findings.

“Despite all of our efforts, there is currently inadequate data to understand the full extent of the bed bug problem in the city,” the mayor said in a statement. “The creation of the Bedbug Advisory Board, comprised of experts in the pest management, entomology, and public health fields and representatives from the Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene, Consumer Affairs, Sanitation, Information Technology and Telecommunications, and Housing Preservation and Development will examine the bedbug problem in further detail, systematically evaluate, study, identify and develop appropriate strategies to control and eradicate the bedbug problem in the city.”......

Newark Ag Officials Find New Bug

www.farmfutures.com

Import of Israeli thyme turns up a first-ever pest trying to piggy back its way into the United States.

Border inspectors of food products have to keep a vigilant eye out for invasive species or new pests that could end up causing plenty of damage. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Protection agriculture specialists at Newark Liberty International Airport were doing their jobs last week when they discovered a plant bug - Hallodapus sp (Miridae) - on a commercial shipment of thyme from Israel.

This new bug - called a plant bug - was trying to slip into the United States on a shipment of Israeli thyme. Ag inspectors caught the new-to-the-U.S. pest before it could enter the country.

This is the first discovery of this insect in the United States. The species is described as a quarantine pest that had the potential to cause economic damage to a trillion-dollar ag industry. The plant bug was forwarded to a USDA laboratory for identification and a final report confirmed the pest's identity.

Discovery of a new pest is nothing new to these ag specialists, according to a press release. In 2008, Newark specialists found 14 pests and diseases that have never been encountered in the U.S. This latest discovery of a quarantine pest puts the total to 6 newly encountered pests in the United States in FY 2009. USDA officials concluded that these interceptions were indeed first time finds not native to the United States and each discovery emphasizes the importance of the agriculture specialist’s critical mission within CBP......

Bed Bug Infestation Plagues Apartments

www.theindychannel.com

INDIANAPOLIS -- An infestation of bed bugs in a downtown apartment building is under control, but far from over.

Federal regulators will meet in Indianapolis next month to discuss the public health risk posed by the insects at Lugar Tower, Call 6's Rafael Sanchez reported.

At the height of the infestation two years ago, 42 apartments were found to have bugs in furniture, bedding and clothing. That number has dropped to eight apartments now, housing officials said.

"The problem is embarrassing, but we have made significant progress," said Indianapolis Housing Authority Housing Director Michael Robinson.....

Bee Attack Blamed For The Death Of Two Dogs

cbs4.com

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ― An attack by thousands of bees is being blamed for the deaths of two dogs in one Ft. Lauderdale neighborhood.

A local pest control was called to exterminate a massive hive next to a home in the 45 hundred block of SW 24th Street. William A Sklaroff, better known as 'Willie the Bee Man', said he estimated there were more than 60 thousand bees residing in the hive. He added that he couldn't tell whether they were Africanized bees without proper testing.

Alina Alvarez, who lives in the home next to where the hive was found, said when the bees attacked her two dogs a man ran to their rescue but couldn't save them.

"I feel very badly for everybody," said Alvarez. "I feel very sorry. I've lost two dogs and my neighbors have been bit. I really feel bad about the whole situation.".....

Trains cancelled after rats chew through cables

www.abc.net.au

Rats caused seven trains to be cancelled on the Ballarat line last night.

V/Line says the rodents chewed through signaling cables at Ballan, north-west of Melbourne.

Spokesman Daniel Maloney says some commuters were transferred to buses at Ballan, while others caught buses at Southern Cross station.

He says the drama caused delays of up to half an hour.

"When the weather starts to get bad all manner of weird and wonderful creatures can take refuge in and under the train lines," he said.

"And in the case of last night it appears as though it was rats that basically ate their way through the fibre optic cable and that basically meant we had crews working until about 1:30 this morning to return the normal signaling system."......

Bedbugs invade beds in the Bay Area

abclocal.go.com

BERKELEY, CA (KGO) -- There's an invasion hitting the Bay Area and cities across the country. And if you don't hear much about it, it might have to do with the stigma associated with the problem, because the invaders are bedbugs.

A Berkeley man suffered scars from the bedbugs he said attacked him at local homeless shelter.

Housing director Drew King oversees the shelter in downtown Berkeley, which is about to spend close to $50,000 to eradicate the pests. He's also learned the shelter isn't alone.

"We looked through the Internet and found bedbug task forces in place," said King.
 
"They're kind of reddish brown, kind of roach-like in appearance, kind of flat like a roach," said the man.

The bedbugs, which were all but wiped out by the 1950's, appear to be storming back.

Entomologist Vernard Lewis studies the pests in his lab at the University of California, and says the banning of strong pesticides like DDT may have let the species off the ropes.

And it's also left experts struggling to control outbreaks in homes and hotels across the country. ......

Recession good for mice and cockroaches 

www.walletpop.com

While many lose, somebody always benefits in a recession: Debt collectors, movie theaters, and sometimes diners who can find a good deal. Add to that list mice, cockroaches and other such pests.

Residential and commercial pest control industry customers are saving money by cutting back on regular exterminations, which can lead to more vermin later, according to a New York Times story.

Restaurants may not be cutting back because they face steep fines if health officials find violations, but apartment landlords and office buildings are cutting back services, exterminators told the Times.

The story quoted Robert Agatowski, who owns an extermination company in Manhattan, who talked with a general manager of a business:

"He said, 'It's very simple. I don't know if we can make the rent or the payroll,'" Agatowski said. "'So in other words, you're out. We'll step on the bugs and kick the mice.' The exterminating almost becomes like a luxury item."

I don't care what the cost. Getting rid of mice and cockroaches isn't a luxury. The pests will multiply if not taken care of regularly, the exterminators said.......

Dead mice found at salmonella U.S. peanut plant

www.reuters.com

* FDA finds dead mice, droppings at Texas peanut plant

* CDC sees new cases seen as consumers eat recalled foods

* Senators introduce bill to expand FDA food safety powers

(Updates throughout with FDA inspection report)

CHICAGO, March 3 (Reuters) - Dead mice and rodent droppings were found throughout a Texas plant run by a company whose peanut products caused one of the biggest food recalls in U.S. history, food inspectors reported on Tuesday.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors who for the first time visited the Plainview, Texas, food processing plant run by Peanut Corporation of America were clearly disgusted by what they found last month.

"Effective measures are not being taken to exclude pests from the processing areas and protect against the contamination of food on the premises by pests," the report reads.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 677 people in 45 states have been sickened in the outbreak of salmonella food poisoning, which is still going on, and which has been traced to two of the company's plants in Georgia and Texas.

So far, more than 2,833 products have been pulled from store shelves since mid-January, although not brand names of peanut butter, which are not affected.

The FDA inspectors found plenty of potential for contamination, including:

* A dead mouse stuck to a glue trap. "The mouse appeared to have died recently," the report reads.

* "What appeared to be rodent excreta pellets too numerous to count were observed in the cabinet under the sink in the south most kitchen."

* "In the cabinet north of the dishwasher ... I counted approximately 27 rodent excreta pellets."

* "Another dead mouse was found just outside the south most doorway of the kitchen. ... This mouse also appeared to have recently died."

* "What appeared to be a bird's nest was observed in the wall/ceiling metal support beam at southwest corner of the mezzanine area."

* Processing machines had buildup of "gooey" peanut paste.

Numerous roof leaks.

The recall is the latest in a series involving tainted lettuce, peppers and spinach that have eroded public confidence in food safety and renewed calls for change at the FDA.

A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation on Tuesday that would widen FDA powers to control food safety......

Bed, bugs and beyond disgusting

www.chicagotribune.com

When Lisa Tousant woke up one morning in August with itchy, red splotches on her elbow, she thought she had been bitten by a mosquito. A few days later, she found more strange, swollen spots up and down her arms and legs.

"You get to scratching and scratching. I almost dug a hole in my arm, that's how bad they were," said Tousant, a 41-year-old city worker who lives in Rogers Park. After scouring her tidy one-bedroom apartment with ammonia in an attempt to wipe out the mysterious scourge, she inspected her mattress. "I pulled the sheets back and turned on the light, and there's the bugs."

Bedbugs -- those nocturnal bloodsuckers -- are on the march in Chicago. After being nearly eradicated in the United States by DDT in the 1950s, the creatures have launched a comeback. Reports of the bugs spiked locally last summer and have been rising ever since. Prompted by an outcry from angry, itchy citizens, city officials next month will train 45 building inspectors to spot the critters. A coalition that includes the Metropolitan Tenants Organization, the Safer Pest Control Project and Ald. Joe Moore's (49th) office is lobbying for a coordinated response that would educate school nurses, establish citywide tracking and launch an aggressive public-awareness campaign.

"It's not at epidemic proportions, but it could be. It certainly is moving in that direction, and that's why the city has to move proactively," said Moore, whose ward has been called a hotbed for the infestation. "We don't want to let this get out of hand.".......

Roaches and Mice Thrive in a Recession

cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com

Brace yourselves for more fun news: recessions, it turns out, while bad for humans, may be good for cockroaches and mice.

Veterans in the pest control industry said that their customers, both residential and commercial, appear to be sacrificing on regular exterminations as a cost-cutting measure. While restaurants are bound by the threats of steep fines, apartment landlords and office buildings are cutting back services, the exterminators said.

Robert Agatowski, with Control Exterminating Company on East 33rd Street in Manhattan, recalled a recent call from a general manager of a business.

“He said, ‘It’s very simple. I don’t know if we can make the rent or the payroll,’” Mr. Agatowski recalled. “‘So in other words, you’re out. We’ll step on the bugs and kick the mice.’ The exterminating almost becomes like a luxury item.”........

London bed bugs 'rise by up to 1,500%'

www.croydonguardian.co.uk

Bed bug infestations in London have increased by as much as 1,500 per cent in some areas, council figures have shown.

Beds Bugs Limited, a pest company which collected figures from 22 London councils, warned that the capital could be returning to 1930s conditions if the bugs continued to spread at the current rate.

In the 1930s one in three homes suffered from a bed bug infestation, the firm said.

Freedom of Information requests sent out by the company showed that reported bed bug infestations rose from less than 1,000 cases in 2003 to more than 3,000 in 2007.

“There is a growth of between 300 per cent and 1,500 per cent in some parts of London,” said David Cain of Bed Bugs Limited.

“If we don’t grasp the extent of this problem today then it will only be a matter of time before we get back to 1930s levels of one third of all London dwellings being infested with bed bugs.”........

Bed Bug Infestation

www.cbs3springfield.com

The tenants of a Springfield apartment complex say they've been living a nightmare. They no longer feel safe or at ease in their homes. The reason an infestation of bed bugs.

For the past 6 months tenants at this Springfield apartment complex off Locust street have been itching and complaining.

Blanche Delbridge said, "I'm eaten up and my hair fell out."

All thanks to their unwelcome guests, bed bugs. Blanche Delbridge has bites all over her body.

Delbridge said, "They are worse than jaws I swear they are worse than jaws, they eat you up, you burn from them and you can't sleep."

She says she's fed up with her landlord's lack of action. And it's not just her. Catherine Fickling lives upstairs. She says the bed bugs are causing her both physical and mental stress........

Bed bugs make a comeback in Illinois  

www.connecttristates.com

QUINCY, IL -- Bed bugs are making a comeback in Illinois, at least according to the Department of Public Health.

The department has seen an increase in the number of calls from the public and from local health departments about bed bug infestations.

KHQA's Rajah Maples checked in with the Adams County Health Department Friday afternoon to find out if that's the case in our area.

Director of Health Protection Jerrod Welch told her the department hasn't heard of any bed bug problems in the area.

But he says it's not usually reportable to the health department.

That's because Welch says bed bugs don't transmit disease and are more of a nuisance rather than a health risk.

If someone suspects they have bed bugs, he advises to call a pest control expert to determine if there's an infestation.......

Bees take over in Katy 

Woman allergic to insects can't go near infested house

www.chron.com

The bees live here, now.

Tangela Perkins has been staying at a neighbor’s house ever since her 8-year-old daughter found bees crawling in her bed a few days ago.

Perkins is used to falling asleep to the sound of buzzing. The hive beneath the floorboards is so huge it occasionally rattles the floor.

Now that the insects have breached her interior walls, Perkins says, enough is enough.

Displaced from her own home and invoking the ire of her Katy neighbors, Perkins realizes the bees are a problem. But she doesn’t know how to get rid of them.

Bees have plagued her home on Pleasant Stream off and on for five years, although never to such an extent. Honey drips from the walls now, onto her front door......

New York bedbug complaints increase 34% in a year

nydailynews.com

New York's bedbug infestation is getting worse, with almost 10,000 complaints to the city last year - one-third higher than the year before.

"There are lots and lots of people who are having a devastating experience with bedbugs," said Renee Corea, who helped start the coalition New York vs. Bed Bugs after being bitten. "We are already regarded as the most highly infested city in the United States."

New Yorkers called 311 with 9,213 bedbug complaints in the last fiscal year, up 33.7% from the year before, according to records that Corea's group obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

That probably understates the problem, Corea said, because uncounted numbers of New Yorkers call exterminators instead of phoning 311......

Destructive beetles found on cargo ship docked in Everett

 The ship, which had Khapra beetles on board, was not allowed to off-load any cargo at the Everett Port.

HeraldNet

EVERETT -- The tiny bugs are just what specially trained customs inspectors hope to find.

In crevasses and corners, in pantries and bins of food, U.S. Customs officials carefully look through ships, trucks and trains coming into the United States to keep dangerous critters from crossing the border.

"They know where to look and how to look," said Susan Spinella, an agriculture program manager for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Seattle.

Earlier this month, agents found an infestation of the potentially destructive Khapra beetle -- Trogoderma granarium -- aboard a cargo ship at the Port of Everett......

Dead rodents, excrement in peanut processor lead to recall

CNN.com

The Texas Department of State Health Services on Thursday ordered the recall of all products ever shipped from the Peanut Corporation of America's plant in Plainview, Texas, after discovering dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in the plant.

The plant produced oil-roasted and dry-roasted peanuts, peanut meal and granulated peanut.

The order, which applies to products shipped since the plant opened nearly four years ago, came a day after the discovery of filth in a crawl space above a production area during a health services inspection, Texas Health Department Press Officer Doug McBride told CNN in a telephone interview.

The plant's ventilation system pulled debris "from the infested crawl space into production areas of the plant resulting in the adulteration of exposed food products," a health department news release said. .....

'Killer bees' discovered in traps in St. George, Kanab areas

Deseret News

ST. GEORGE — So-called killer bees have arrived in Utah.

Washington County authorities confirmed Wednesday that Africanized bees have been found in Utah's Dixie, something public safety officials have been worried about — and preparing for.

"We figured it was an eventuality that was going to come to pass," Washington County Emergency Services director Dean Cox told the Deseret News. "We've got the Virgin River corridor, which is a superb conduit for them."

Washington County Commissioner Alan Gardner said Africanized honeybees were discovered in seven traps near St. George and Kanab.

Though the presence of the bees is not believed to be widespread, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food spokesman Larry Lewis cautioned the public to approach all bees with caution and respect......

Bedbugs force dorm fumigations
Students irked by University response

The GW Hatchet

Students reported a bedbug infestation on the ninth floor of New Hall last week, prompting the second series of fumigations in residence hall this semester.

New Hall residents Nik Alexoff and his three roommates were notified Wednesday afternoon of the infestation on their floor and that bedrooms would have to be treated. Previously, at least three rooms in Ivory Tower were fumigated this semester after a room of girls reported bedbugs.......

Don’t let the bedbugs bite: Infestations increase in dorms nationwide, expert says cleanliness not a factor 

Kentucky Kernel By Travis Walker and Stephanie Ingolia

Cockroach Allergens Continue to be a Major Trigger of Asthma, Especially in Children

National Pest Management Association

Pueblo dealing with bed bug outbreak 

www.koaa.com

Mice Infestation Forces Closure Of Pilsen Grocery 

www.havenews.com

Sonic Drive-In permit threatened with suspension over cockroach infestation

www.havenews.com

Bed bug infestation angers residents in Spring Valley apartment complex

The Journal News

Bedtime worries put to rest

Reports of residence hall bed bugs appear to be unfounded

www.thedailyaztec.com

Good Night, Sleep Tight

www.washingtoncitypaper.com

Vermin infestation shuts Loblaws store 

www.TheStar.com

Bed Bug Extermination [by homeowner] May Have Led to Fire

www.local12.com

Killer mice eat baby albatross on remote island

cnn.com

Barbados issues another warning on leptospirosis

caribbeannetnews.com

In bacteria, vet sees key to human ills

Sarah Avery, Staff Writer, News and Observer, Raleigh, NC

A notion struck Betsy Sigmon on the way to the hospital to tend to her 13-year-old son Jason.

The youngster, who was admitted after suffering weeks of excruciating headaches, had been bitten by a tick days before he grew sick. While blood tests showed no hint of a tick-borne infection, the idea nagged at her.

So Sigmon called Dr. Ed Breitschwerdt, a veterinary researcher at N.C. State University. Sigmon, herself a vet, knew Breitschwerdt studied tick-borne diseases.......

"I believe it's a silent epidemic," says Breitschwerdt, who is also an adjunct professor in infectious diseases at Duke University Medical School.''......

Eek! Family finds dead mouse in cheese

CBC News

Plague emerges in Grand Canyon, kills biologist

By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY

Experts predict next epidemic will start in animals

www.usatoday.com

Published: October 21, 2008

Ever since Surgeon General William Stewart famously declared in the late 1960s that it was time "to close the book" on infectious disease, new outbreaks have come in waves, among them: Legionnaire's disease, hantavirus, West Nile virus, bird flu, salmonella, drug-resistant tuberculosis and AIDS.

In a typical year, infectious diseases kill about 57 million people, 26% of all deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Three diseases — AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria — account for about 6 million deaths. A pandemic inevitably would send the toll much higher. ......

....Scientists aren't willing to sit back and wait for the next deadly surprise. Given the likelihood the next epidemic will start in animals, human and veterinary infectious disease experts, once worlds apart, have conceptually merged their approach into what they call "one health.".....

City shuts Chinatown Market

chicagobreakingnews.com Published:October 24, 2008

Parents of child bitten by rat held for probation violation

By John Harbin
Times-News Staff Writer

Published: Saturday, October 25, 2008

Rats - nobody wants them around - especially in your home or your car.

01:59 PM CDT on Saturday, October 25, 2008

By STEVE STOLER / WFAA-TV

Hundreds of schools plagued by pests

Sep 22 2008 by Moira Sharkey, Western Mail - WalesOnline.co.uk

Rodents close city food court -
Licenses for 10 City Market vendors were pulled after an inspection Friday.

The Roanoke Times - Mike Gangloff and Mason Adams

Black widow spider sidelines Belding teen

MLive.com

First 2008 Case of West Nile Virus in Escambia County

Florida Dept of Health

Cockroaches 'Rain Down' On Officer, Cover Child In House Of Filth - Police Report Reads Like Horror Novel

Local6.com

500,000 bees infest three Florida homes

AP - Wed Sep 17, 2:30 PM ET

Woman dies from Weil's disease after rat scratch in garden

scotsman.com - 14 September 2008, By Kate Foster

Bee swarm kills six in car smash and sting

Reuters

Elderly Florida Man Killed by Fire Ants After Tropical Storm Fay

Thursday, August 28, 2008 Associated Press

Bed Bugs Move into Dorms

August 21, 2008 USA Today, by Greg Toppo

Two New Yorkers Test Positive For West Nile

emaxhealth.com By: New York City Health Department - Tue, 08/19/2008

Hantavirus suspected in police officer's death

SeattlePI.com By LISA STIFFLER P-I REPORTER

Rat may be on menu in Indian canteens 

News.scotman.com   Published Date: 20 August 2008 By Ethan McNern

Man Mistakes Gunshot Wound For Ant Bite 

KFOXtv.com - El Paso,TX,USA 

Father and daughter bit by snake in Elon 

By Emily Hohenwarter/ Times-News

Girl's death prompted focus on mosquito-borne illnesses 

By TERRY RINDFLEISCH | La Crosse Tribune

Woman finds black widow spider in grape bag

Jodie Sinnema, The Edmonton Journal

Mouse hunt: Mice, 1; shooter, 0

By Linda Williams/TWN Staff Writer Article Launched: 07/11/2008 12:20:58 PM PDT

Dead mouse found

Utah woman says Mid East native spider made self at home

The Associated Press

Summer brings out the sting in bee colonies

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) -- Experts warn bees can be more aggressive during the summer.  Bee removal experts are getting a lot of calls from Central Texas residents.

"Right now is when they're really hitting their peak," said expert Brandon Fehrenkamp.

Bees will do anything to protect and defend their hives, Fehrenkamp said.  The best thing to do if bees are attacking you is to go indoors, since the colony won't follow you inside your home.

A Mendocino County woman who was trying to kill mice in her trailer with a gun ended up shooting herself and another person.

POTTER VALLEY, Calif. —  The 43-year-old woman pulled out her .44-caliber Magnum revolver after she saw the mice scurrying across the floor of her trailer on Highway 20 in Potter Valley, sheriff's officials said.

But she accidentally dropped the gun, which went off as it struck the floor. The bullet went through the woman's kneecap, bounced off the keys sitting on the belt loop of a 42-year-old man in the trailer and grazed the man's groin before ending up in his coin pocket.

Authorities did not release the shooting victims' names.

The mice escaped the shooting unharmed.

Cleveland airport officials want to keep dirty birds off passengers
May 1, 2008 The Plain Dealer
Cleveland wants to keep certain air travelers from doing their business at Hopkins International Airport. Airport officials repeatedly have tried - and failed - to chase away starlings and other birds that roost beneath glass overhangs at drop-off and pickup areas and poop on passengers. Now, they want City Council to pay $110,000 to install nearly invisible nylon netting designed to keep the filthy frequent fliers away. 

Paris rat-catchers tackle rodents
April 28, 2008 BBC News
The French capital has launched its annual effort to reduce the number of rodents roaming the streets. The city, with its canals, river and restaurants is something of a rodent paradise, experts say. There are four times as many rats as humans in Paris - perhaps eight million in total, according to the council.

Rodents Caused Nevada Canal Flood, Report Says
PCTOnline March 31, 2008 FERNLEY, Nev. 
Burrowing rodents caused a century-old irrigation canal to fail and flood a rural Nevada town in January, a team of scientific experts concluded in a report for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation made public Thursday night. Muskrats, beavers, gophers and other rodents dug holes as deep as 25 feet into the earthen canal embankment over the years, according to the report.

Flea Swarms Cover Neighbors Head To Toe In Central Fla. Community 
Local6.com February 19, 2008 FERNLEY, Nev. 
DELTONA, Fla. -- Swarms of fleas from an abandoned Central Florida home are spreading throughout a neighborhood, covering some homeowners' head to toe when they step outside.

You think roaches coming out of the sewer are a problem? For the past 10 years, small white rats have been swimming their way up into toilets in the Blenman-Elm Neighborhood, just east of the University of Arizona.... 

More than 30 of the girl's relatives, friends and classmates were offered injections to prevent the spread of the disease. Some parents whose children attend the girl's school in Bourbon, 25 miles south of South Bend, worried about possible exposure since rabies can stay dormant for more than a year.

Rabies is a viral disease transmitted to humans and other animals through saliva, usually in a bite. It attacks the brain and nervous system and typically leads to death once symptoms appear.

Human-to-human transmission of rabies is possible through direct contact with saliva, health officials said.

State records show Indiana's last human rabies case was in 1959.