Posted on December 15, 2011 with No Comments
Have a few spare momemts? Please fill out the questionnaire we have provided and we will not only try to be a better service provider but also send you a free gift! This is our way of saying “WE REALLY CARE ABOUT YOUR SERVICE EXPERIENCE!” We want to improve and impress our ultimate boss, YOU!
Category: Company Announcements, Stories from the Field
Posted on November 2, 2011 with No Comments
A woman in the south had a swarm of bugs and captured some and gave them to a local Home Depot specialist, an exterminator and a county agricultural agent. Turns out that the bugs she found are Megacopta cribraria, an insect native to Asia that likely stowed away on a flight in 2009 and entered the U.S. through Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, entomologists say.
In Georgia, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, the bugs have been smashing into windshields, lighting on exterior walls and smelling up soccer games and outdoor parties.
The bug invasion is of concern because it is an invasive species that is killing kudzo crops. Entomologists are notably astounded by the bug, which originated in Japan.
Posted on November 1, 2011 with No Comments
LEARNING ABOUT BUGS & SCIENCE IS FUN! IT IS EXCITING!
Cornell Universities 2011 Insectapalooza was a huge success amongst attendees! JP McHale Pest Management Inc. sponsored the 2011 Insectapalooza at Cornell University this past weekend. For an entry fee of just $1.00, attendees were able to able to visit a live butterfly house, play insect games, learn about disease carriers, predators, pest and plants, pollination and how insects think and visit an anthropod zoo!
Below is a thank you we received from an attendee of Insectapalooza! It may be a little long but it is well worth reading. It clearly depicts how sponsoring events like this can make a huge impact on the lives of children in our communities!
“I hope you can pass along my thanks for hosting and running Insectpalooza this past weekend. I mentor two boys from Elmira, and they have a difficult home life. We were talking about their school grades on our trip to Ithaca. They are both failing classes. However, when we arrived at the event they were very excited. They went from station to station. They rudely interrupted several students and volunteers. Every volunteer handled them with respect and proper discipline. They really have a desire to learn. I know from my conversations they are smart enough not to be failing classes. Your event shows them learning is fun. It is exciting. I was able to tell them that people study everything we saw for a living. I was able to expose them to passions and occupations they do not regularly see. If you had not opened your event to the public these boys may not have learned this lesson from such a quality event. I can not thank you enough. I hope you continue this event, so we can come back next year. Again, please thank all the volunteers and staff for us.”
Posted on October 25, 2011 with No Comments
Here’s a great article, How to Get Rid of Stink Bugs Safely Around Children, written by Matt Frye, an Entomologist at JP McHale’s Pest Management located in Buchanan, NY. The article was recently published by and can be at DinkerandGiggles.com
Posted on October 24, 2011 with No Comments
Thank you for stopping by www.telljpmchale.com. Pest control is not just about killing bugs! Guess what? We want to be the best service provider you have at your home or business! We want you to remain our most valued client for years to come. Please tell us what we could do better or what we are doing that is great! We want to hear about our road courtesy (trucks are numbered on lower left rear bumper), if our technician wiped his feet, did you see value or feel valued?
Please fill out the questionnaire we have provided and we will not only try to be a better service provider but also send you a free gift! This is our way of saying “WE REALLY CARE ABOUT YOUR SERVICE EXPERIENCE!” We want to improve and impress our ultimate boss, YOU!
Tags: get a free gift!, Take our survey
Category: Stories from the Field
Posted on October 14, 2011 with No Comments
One of our valued customers, Ilana Donna Arazie, wrote an great article published by the Huffington Post titled Five Ways to Reboot and Recharge!
In the article Ilana talks about living in the country, dealing with bugs and how JP McHale’s Pest Management uses the best environmentally friendly products!
Keep it Clean and Environmentally Friendly
“Give yourself a full-day, or three, to organize and clean your home. When you clean and get rid of things you don’t need, you make room for new things and opportunities to come into your life. I also discovered that living in a country home means staying on bug alert. Good thing I met JP McHale out here who uses the best environmentally friendly products. He tells me, “Effective pest control is not just about killing bugs. It is about peace of mind, scientific expertise, immediate response and protecting this great earth we all live in.”
Tags: IPM, New York City
Category: Environmental Care, Natural Pest Control, NY Pest Control, Stories from the Field
Posted on October 3, 2011 with No Comments
Photo's & Story Accredited to: Matt Frye, MS, PhD, Urban Entomologist JP McHale Pest Management, Inc.
It’s a beautiful fall day, and through my open windows I can appreciate the changing of seasons. Buzzzz…. clunk! But there it is again, a sound that brings frustration and anxiety. Hesitantly, I glance over from my typing machine and observe the small 5-sided body creeping along the screen. It pauses, orients, and starts moving again as it looks for an entry point around the window frame. And so begins another invasion by the brown marmorated stink bug!
The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) and I share a long history. I went to college in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where this insect first arrived in the US on a shipment from the Orient. With piercing/sucking mouthparts, this BMSB feeds on plant juices, damages fruit and renders apples, pears, peaches, and other fruits aesthetically unacceptable for sale. During summer months, stink bugs feed on a variety of host plants and large numbers can be found in agricultural fields. Their reign of terror continues into the fall, when adults seek overwintering sites to protect them from harsh winter conditions. Around widows and doorframes in our Allentown dormitories, we encountered so-called “crunchy bugs” that made a pungent odor when crushed. The BMSB has since spread to several states, and is reported as for north as Maine, south to North Carolina, and west to Michigan with new populations in Wisconsin and Washington. A once unknown pest, the BMSB now receives great attention at trade shows and other events to which I bring my insect display. When viewing the 3/4 inch, brown, shield shaped insect, onlookers protest, “how do I get rid of stink bugs?!”
The BMSB belongs to the pest management professional’s category of “overwintering pest,” which also includes the Western conifer seed bug, the multicolored Asian ladybird beetle, the boxelder bug, and cluster flies. As fall approaches and important cues such as cooler temperatures, shorter days, and decreased quality of host-plant material arrives, these insects start their assault on homes and other structures. Why? In their natural habitat, overwintering insects seek southwest-facing, light-colored structures such as rocks that are warmed by afternoon sun. These areas provide some protection and buffering against cold winter temperatures, and enhance survival of the insects. Where buildings have replaced natural landscapes, these structures now provide similar cues to insects preparing for winter. Some overwintering pests use pheromones to form large aggregations, later fleeing to enter buildings. For the most part, overwintering pests cause no damage for the homeowner. However, some species can bite and leave fecal stains (boxelder bug), while a mass of dead insects (ladybird beetles) is displeasing to homeowners.
The best way to address overwintering pests is also the most difficult: exclusion. These insects are adapted to exploit tiny cracks and crevices leading to safe harborage areas. Eliminating entry points is a guaranteed way to provide long-term control. Here are just a few tips to keep overwintering pests out of your home.
If you experienced an infestation in the past, or have recently observed large numbers of insects invading your home, consult your pest management professional for treatment options.
Category: Insects, Stink Bugs, Stories from the Field, Winter Pests
Posted on June 30, 2011 with No Comments
An innovator, who changed the lawn care world for the better, died on Saturday from natural causes at age 85. George C. Ballas introduced the 
Weed Eater in the early 1970’s and had created a multi-million dollar business by 1976.
Ballas’ invention, more commonly known as the weed whacker, is said to have surfaced when one of his lawn care workers was bit by a poisonous snake while trimming his hedges with sheers. The ingenious creation began as a wired popcorn can and an edger, and has since flourished into the weed whackers we see today.
Tags: George C. Ballas, Lawn Care, Weed Eater, weed whacker
Category: Lawn Care, Stories from the Field, Uncategorized
Posted on June 10, 2011 with 1 Comment
It seems that the hustle and bustle of our fast-paced lives often limits our perception of the natural world. Authors past and present have contemplated the observed disconnect between products we use or eat on a daily basis and their source. I was struck by this not too long ago when I was still in graduate school. On my daily walk from research plots to the office were three apple trees, the old kind that you actually had to climb to obtain that delicious mid-day snack. One afternoon I turned the corner and met a group of three boys, two on bikes and one on a skateboard. I greeted the three youths, then proceeded to climb the tree and get my apple. I didn’t see it coming, but those boys were awestruck when they saw what I had in my hands! They had so many questions, the least of which were “is that an apple?” and “can we eat one too?” For them, living in an apartment complex with their parents and little exposure to the outdoors, apples magically came from the grocery store, not from trees.
What does that have to do with urban entomology and pest management? Well, this past week we have received specimens and several calls regarding carpet beetle infestations. In homes, these insidious little critters cause considerable damage and actually affect human health. The larvae are scavengers, and feed on a variety of plant and animal products such as woolens, carpets, furs, silk, dead insects, corn, cacao, cereals and red pepper to name a few. Larvae feeding on fabrics will typically surface graze, later producing large, irregular holes that destroy valued possessions. Carpet beetles represent a health risk when the spear-headed hairs used as a physical defense by larvae irritate human skin. These hairs produce an itching sensation when contacted, and in large, untreated populations can produce irritation in the lungs when hairs are inhaled. Larvae can also burrow through packing materials when seeking stored food products, and spoil food with cast skins and hairs.
The disconnect between our lives and the natural world comes next. What were carpet beetles doing before we had carpets in 
our homes, and do they “occur naturally?” In nature, carpet beetles do much the same as they do in our homes. They feed on dead animals and aid the decomposition process. In fact, larvae of other species in the same insect family (Dermestidae) are used by museums to clean skin and soft tissue from animal bones, and dermestid beetles have been used in criminal cases to estimate time of death. In addition, carpet beetle adults feed on flowers, and might include pollination services on their resume. It was not until recently that I observed varied carpet beetles first hand on flowers. In a dogwood tree on our property at JP McHale Pest Management, each and every flower I investigated had a carpet beetle! After feeding, the adult beetles will be attracted by light or odor to a suitable food source for larval development, lay eggs, and that’s how an outdoor pollinator becomes an indoor pest! Truth is, just about all the organisms we consider to be pests have a place in this world: cockroaches, clothing moths, wasps, moles and spiders.
Tags: carpet beetle, Entomology
Category: Carpet Beetles, Stories from the Field, Uncategorized
Posted on August 13, 2010 with No Comments
Here is a JP McHale technician installing and inspecting a Sentricon Termite System!
Tags: Stories from the Field, Summer, Termites, video
Category: Stories from the Field, Summer Pests, Termites, Termites, Videos
