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Go to Pests in the News
Ants
These structural invaders are searching for
food and moisture around homes, and
inside too. Think of them as nature's army - constantly
patrolling and searching. Many pesticides merely scatter and/or splitter
their nests or colonies creating an even more difficult situation to
control them. We often hear of homeowners getting so frustrated with
ants that they try remedies which are downright dangerous. It's
often crucially important to fully understand the specific type of ant in
order to control them. Call in a professional to safely eliminate these
pests.
Roaches
Outdoor
roach activity will increase with warm temperatures and wet weather.
Usually sightings will be on the exterior surfaces of buildings at
night. These usually occur around lighted areas especially around front
doors and porches. This roach is the smoky brown cockroach which are
very capable at flying and are attracted to lights at night time.
Indoor
roaches are problems at all times of year should you have an infestation
in your property. What you may see as a few roaches is normally
less than ten percent of of the actual infestation. These insects
are incredibly prolific. To achieve control takes a thorough
understanding of the type of roach being dealt with and a disciplined
approach. Leave a few and they will quickly rebound. Sanitation plays an
important role in both elimination and stopping a new infestation.
Spiders
These structural invaders are setting up their webs in protected areas around homes, and
inside too, to capture their prey. Knocking webs down alone won't deter their
persistence. A properly placed application will stop them and their prey
from gaining access to your home.
Termites
While
working around the yard be sure to watch for signs of termite activity.
These include
mud
tubes on foundations and also damaged wood. Also look for
small wings on window sills or doorway threshold. These are evidence
of termite activity. Be sure to not allow any structural untreated-wood
to come in contact with the soil. Even
treated wood should be inspected periodically for signs of activity
especially larger dimensional lumber used for support piers.
Mature
termite colonies start new colonies by means of swarming, which
is
the colony's release of alates (winged
reproductive termites) in
great numbers. Colonies usually take several years of development
before
they will actually swarm. During this time before first swarms, they
focus on building their colony. An indoor swarm means that the
termites
are likely infesting the structure. It's a good idea to get the building
inspected and make a determination of whether or not a treatment
is
necessary. While working around the house, keep an eye out for mud
tubes on the foundation or hollow sounding wood, don't let your
guard
down just because you haven't had a swarm. Infestations can also
start from roof areas where conditions permit alates (swarmers)
to start a colony.
The
best preventative measure is to have your home
inspected annually by a professional. Today's termiticide treatments
provide a shorter period of protection lasting only three to seven
years but pest control companies
have many new effective tools at their disposal to combat this menace
that causes over $5 billion dollars in damage per year in the United
States alone.
Again,
the most important measure for structural protection from
termites is detection which simply involves having a
professional annual inspection of your property. As Dr. Waldvogel,
Urban Entomology Specialist with NC State University recommends,
"Termite control, whether it is through the use of liquid or bait
products, is best performed by a licensed pest control
professional".
An introduced
species of termite, the Coptotermes formosanus, has been found
in several areas of our state. A particularly serious infestation
appeared in Spindale about ten years ago. It was thought to have
been controlled
but has evidently spread in that area. The NC Structural Pest Division
issued a news release concerning
formosans in the Spindale/Ruth areas of Rutherford County on July
1, 2003 and has now updated that release with the following
warning on June 14, 2004. In 2000 formosans were found in Rock
Hill, SC and they have been infesting structures in Charleston,
SC for many years causing millions of dollars in damage. These
termites do considerably more damage in a much shorter period of
time than
native species. It's best to take action when they are found. Formosans
can swarm
year-round
but swarms usually occur in the evening which sets them apart from
our native species which swarm in the morning. Should you see termites swarming in the evening
it would be very prudent to take samples and have them identified.
Bedbugs
Bedbug infestations are on the rise. Pest control companies have
reported a tenfold increase in bedbug service calls in Florida
since 1999 and
NC State also reports an increase in these insects being sent to
them for identification. Bedbugs have been associated with filthy
conditions
but this isn't so and even upscale hotels can have infestations.
The increased use of Integrated Pest Management techniques in
pest management
are thought to be the cause. Practices such as the use of insecticidal
baits, which target specific pests like the cockroaches, leave
secondary
pests
in the ecosystem uncontrolled, allowing them to flourish.
Mosquito
Warm temperatures and wet weather will have mosquito populations
proliferating. There are
many steps you can take to help reduce their populations. Here is a link
to the
NC State information web site. Many
Pest Control Companies
also have mosquito control programs. For those looking to control
mosquitoes on their own, here is a word of caution from the University of
Florida which NC State also says much of the same holds true here, "Recently,
there has been a number of products advertised as mosquito traps. One type
generates carbon dioxide to lure the mosquito and then sucks it into a bag.
Other derivations use octenol as an attractant. The devices range from a few
hundred to fifteen hundred dollars in cost. Gas and octenol must be replaced at
various intervals. Researchers are currently investigating the efficacy of these
units. However, one might want to keep in mind that there are 77 different
species of mosquito in Florida, and each of these varies in what host they bite,
the time of day they feed, and how far they can fly. One of the species which is
a primary biting pest for homeowners is the Asian tiger mosquito. This species
is not attracted by carbon dioxide or octenol. At this point, no evidence exists
that these traps can play a noticeable role in the decline of mosquito
populations".
Note: The FTC has something to say about these devices also -->
FTC
News Release
EPA Information on
Outdoor
Residential Misting Systems
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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.........
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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." .........
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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.........
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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.........
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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.........
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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..........
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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."...........
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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...........
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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..........
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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.".........
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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.........
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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........
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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........
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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.......
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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........
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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.......
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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. ........
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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..........
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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...........
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'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...........
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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..........
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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..........
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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. .........
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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." .........
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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. .........
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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.........
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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."........
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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.........
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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.”........
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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.”........
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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.”........
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Rats at a Greenwich Village KFC Taco Bell
Fox News 5
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Rats Take Over KFC/Taco Bell
Fox News 5
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Video |
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Dead Rodents, Chewed Bags Found At Target
Channel 11 News
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Video |
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Rodents take over Pinkberry!!
Channel 7 Eyewitness News
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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........
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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.......
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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."......
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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 | | | |