Archive for the Can You Believe It? Category
Posted on August 24, 2010 with No Comments
Both, The Daily Beast and The Huffington Post recently posted lists of cities in the United States where Bed Bug infestations have been a large problem. Here are the lists
The Daily Beast:
1. Cincinnati, Ohio
2. Columbus, Ohio
3. Chicago, Illinois
4. Denver, Colorado
5. Detroit, Michigan
6. Washington, D.C.
7. New York, New York
8. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
9. Dayton, Ohio
10. Baltimore, Maryland
Shocking how New York is number 7 right?
Here is The Huffington Post’s:
1. New York
2. Philadelphia
3. Detroit
4. Cincinnati
5. Chicago
6. Denver
7. Columbus, Ohio
8. Dayton, Ohio
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Los Angeles
Interesting how Ohio has a few cities on each list, looks like that’s the worst state..but what about city? So to our readers…what is your list? Do you think New York City is worse then Cincinnati, Ohio? Leave your comments below.
Posted on June 29, 2010 with No Comments
When people go on longs flights, exceeding a few hours, the airlines provide the travelers with a prepared food meal. How do you know if the place where the food is made safe? The FDA recently inspected some of the top airline caterers and the buildings they use to prepare the food in. What they found is both surprising and disturbing. Inside the buildings the FDA discovered employees were handling food with their hands, there were dead and alive cockroaches, ants, and fleas, and some of the areas tested positive for harmful bacteria. After the discovery, a spokesperson said that the company was taking immediate measures for cleaning up the problem. Read the whole NY Post story. JP McHale is a Westchester pest control company that can conduct an inspection for your home or building to check for pests. We also service companies in need of pest control. Simply contact us by phone 800-479-2284, email, live chat, facebook, or twitter.
Posted on April 14, 2010 with 5 Comments
There is nothing more pleasant than the smell of fresh air in the spring. After three or four months of battleing the elements of the winter, nothing brightens your day like walking outside in a t-shirt and shorts. So naturally you open the windows in your house and let that spring air filter through your house. Yet, of course, when there is a positive, a negative must find its way into the equation. Having screens in your windows helps you avoid a lot of negative hassles that would arise if you did not have screens installed. Some of you may have screens installed, yet they may be in rough shape and need replacing.
Why Do Screens Make Life Easier?
- They keep out flies, bees, gnats, etc… during the day time.
- They keep out mosquitoes, bats, moths, etc… during the night time.
- Allows young families to open windows knowing that children are safe from falling out of windows.
- Shows visitors and guests that you are invested in the well being of your health and others.
Why Should I Buy/Replace Screens?
First and formost, screens reduce the amount of insects and pests that can enter a home when the windows are open. Let’s look at some of the dangers that these pests can bring into a household. The first and most annoying critter has to be the mosquito. Mosquitoes are a trending topic these days with the introduction of West-Nile Virus into the USA. With many reports in the northeast in recent years, many are taking further precautions to keep mosquitoes away. One way to reduce the number of mosquitoes entering your home at night are by installing new screens or repairing damaged ones. Let’s look at the next and maybe most important animal to keep out of your house. Bats come back out during the spring and are looking for those newly hatched mosquitoes to eat. While bats aren’t the worse animal in the world to have around your property, they help control mosquito populations, they are sure not the animal you want in your house. Bats carry the feared rabies disease which has been proven a fatal over and over again. Even if the saliva of an infected bat reaches your blood system, you have the chance of being infected. Screens are the best way to keep bats out!
Tags: bats, day, flies, Mosquitoes, night, screens, Summer
Category: Bees, Can You Believe It?, Flying Insects, Fruit Flies, House Fly, Mosquitoes, Natural Pest Control, Pests, Spiders
Posted on April 5, 2010 with No Comments
It took months of test, a grueling process that settled the question once and for all. The strongest insect in the world is Onthophagus taurus, a species of horned dung beetle. The beetle can 1,141 times its own body weight. This is the same as if a 150 pound person were to life 6 double-decker buses. These beetles don’t carry balls of dung, instead they bury cow dung. There are two types, a horned version and non horned version. The horned version fight with each to determine if they should mate or not, while the non horned waits for its opportunity and sneaks in to mate.
The scientists tied a piece of cotton to the beetles in order to determine the strength. Once the beetle got into the tunnel, they would pull on the string. They also varied how well they fed the beetle. When they fed the horned beetles well, they got much stronger than the poorly fed horned beetle. When they fed the non horned beetle well, they grew much larger testes, didn’t get much stronger, than the poorly fed non horned beetles. They said this happened due to genes.
Picture source & news source.
Posted on March 22, 2010 with 3 Comments
A report from Phoenix, Arizona is stating that at least 4 people are injured after a swarm of bees attacked two women. The women were found almost motionless when a witness grabbed a fire extinguisher and led the bees away. The two women were stung over 100 times a piece and now are in critical condition. Tony Garcia, the neighbor who witnessed the bees, states that
“The women were screaming and they were they couldn’t even flail their arms or anything. They just were frozen.”
As the fire department and EMS crews arrived they immediately tended to the two women that were stung several times as well as the man who used the fire extinguisher (the name of the man is still unknown).
While the species of bees that attacked the two women has not been confirmed, it is once again bringing up the topic of rising number in African Killer Bees in the USA. These bees have been migrating north from Latin American, where the bees were believed to be shipped in on unregulated cargo ships that brought fruits and produce from Africa to the more southern North American countries.
Source: Cbs news
Posted on March 9, 2010 with No Comments
A home in Etobicoke, Toronto was home for 28 cats and kittens. Neighbors have been complaining for over a year about the smells that were coming out of the house to their neighbors. It wasn’t until recently that the Humane Society went into the household and found the 28 cats and kittens. What they also found was a house that resembled a litter box. Feces, urine, and garbage were all over the place. There was something else in the house. A cockroach infestation that one member of the Humane Society said was the largest amount of roaches he has ever seen in one place at a time. When they went into the house to get the cats, they would pick one cat up and more roaches came out. They were coming out of everywhere. Two women are living there, and that resulted in the Health Department being called in.
Officials said that there were roaches all over the floors and walls. When entering the house, officials wore masks and protective clothing. They said it was unbearable to breath in the house. The cats were taken to the vet and examined. Most were ok, while some were treated for respiratory problems. Once they are taken care of, they will be put up for adoption. The rescue was the largest single rescue that the Etobicoke Humane Society has ever done. The amount of roaches and the conditions found were considered “horrifying” to the officials.
TheStar.com wrote first about this story.
photo credit: treasuresthouhast
Posted on February 23, 2010 with No Comments
A big dream is being threatened by a small creature. Businesswoman Cheryl McIntire and Nancy Magliocchetti have the dream of converting a 95 year old Victorian home in to a showcase, but there is just one problem; termites. They’ve tunneled through the wooden floorboards, headers, support joists and the wall studs. Even little piles of termite dung cover the floors, as these pests have created damages in excess of $15,000. This is definitely not good for Cheryl and Nancy, as it was obviously not part of their plan. “This is a huge impendent in their business plan,” said the women’s Tampa attorney, Pete Cardillo.
The house was built in 1915, and sold a year later. The Eubanks family owned it until 2006 when it was sold to McIntire and Magliocchetti for $178,500. The problem is, there was no termite inspection done. While there are no rules to prevent its demolition, losing the house would be a horrible loss for the two. “We don’t want to sink more money in to it if it’s being eaten alive from the inside…We want it treated so we can at least continue working, and then we’ll deal with the damage claim.”
If you would like a termite inspection for your home or other establishment please contact us!
Picture and story source: Daytona Beach Journal
Posted on February 10, 2010 with No Comments
Talk about Natural Pest Control…
Beetles are killing various trees that are important to the ecosystem. So how do you prevent them from doing that? How about blasting some “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses, or how about some “Stone Cold Crazy” by Queen, or even just play some Rush Limbaugh clips. Scientists have found that by playing heavy metal music or Rush Limbaugh (Limbaugh was so annoying to the scientists that they played his voice backwards with the same effect), aka the “nastiest, most offensive sounds they could find”, near beetle infested trees effects tunneling, mating and reproduction. This in effects makes it harder for beetles to eat through trees. It is thought that the acoustic stress that comes from these sounds disrupts feeding and even causes beetles to kill each other. “Beetle Mania”, as the project is dubbed, doesn’t use Beatles music, passing on the irony.
While using these sounds works at the start, after a while the beetles begin to ignore it. When this happened, the scientist turned to a new idea. The idea is to play this aggressive call made by males of the “tree-killer” species. They would play the call louder and longer. By doing this, it messed everything up for the beetles. Tunneling, mating, reproducing was effected. They were particularly effective in turning the beetles against each other, which is rare. On one instance, they played the call as a male and female were about to mate. The effect? The male ripped the female apart. There is still a need to expand this testing, to build upon the early returns. However, until then, it is pretty safe to say that the beetles would rather not hear Paradise City any time soon.
Discovery News broke the story.
Picture Source
Posted on February 10, 2010 with No Comments
Imagine walking into a fancy restaurant in Costa Rica and looking at the menu. You see the usual, but then you come across garlic grasshoppers as a main course. Well the idea of cultivating insects and making them edible has gained steam in Costa Rica. The main source for this idea comes from Africa, where eating insects is apart of every day life. Costa Rican scientists have looked into their forest and surroundings and have found many insects that would work well when put into the everyday diet. The Scientists have joined forces with scientists from Benin. Benin has long consumed insects and mushrooms. In most other countries insects are considered gourmet food believe it or not.
These insects can be cooked multiple ways. You can grill them, fry them, put onions or garlic on them. One Costa Rican scientist said that the large grasshoppers that they find in the forest are “far more savory than shrimp” when garlic is added on. Termites, crickets, butterfly and moth larvae are other types of insects that are routinely consumed. To the credit of the Scientists, they eat every insect that they consider an option to be on menus. The idea has been met with a ton of skepticism, so the best way to introduce this would be to first put only delicacies on the menu, according to the those in charge. Either way, we may not be far off from seeing crickets on skewers with onions in our favorite restaurants.
We found out about this topic from the Associated Press.
Picture Credit
Posted on February 10, 2010 with No Comments
A woman going from Mexico into Texas was stopped at the border. When it came time to declare what she had, she declared a piece of jewelry, a beetle that was covered in gold and blue jewelry, with a safety-pin in it and a gold chain. It was being worn as a brooch on her sweater. One thing though, the beetle was living. The woman didn’t have the right paperwork filled out, so the beetle was confiscated, and taken for further inspection. In Mexico, wearing beetles as jewelry has long been popular. Now it has developed into wearing live beetles, a new fad that has seemingly caught on. Actually, it has been said that Jackie Kennedy got one of these with emeralds on it.
The problem that has arisen is that the women didn’t properly declare the insect. When coming into a country, one must declare pests in any form (living, pets, and so on) on a PPQ form 526. This form is for the importation or exportation of pests. Due to her not doing that, the insect was taken. Another problem that has arisen is animal rights activists have flocked to this story. They are outraged that a woman would do this to a live beetle. They went to the newspapers in Texas to complain about this treatment of the beetle. Regardless of what is said, this practice of wearing beetles as jewerly is rampant in Mexico, and it makes one wonder if that fad will catch on in the U.S.
Picture Credit
The Guardian wrote about this first.
Both, The Daily Beast and The Huffington Post recently posted lists of cities in the United States where Bed Bug infestations have been a large problem. Here are the lists
