All posts in “flowers”

Bees are busy these days

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I often have to walk around bushes and trees and sometimes they are just a humming with activity. This is the case in the Spring, people often get freaked out with all the activity. Honeybees are very important to our lives, 1/3 of all the food we eat are pollinated by bees. The only real time to be worried about honeybees is when they have taken up a home within your home. In this case they have something to defend, and defend it they will especially Africanized honeybees. Africanized honeybees are more prone to attack just because of a smell or lawnmower noise. They are virtually the same size as European honeybees and swarm 2 to 3 times more often Just use caution, unless you are allergic and then use extreme caution especially if there is a hive close to your home. If you are hiking some colonies will bump you to tell you they are close, just back away. Generally speaking swarms won’t attack unless you mess with them, they are full of honey and not yet defending a hive or colony. So don’t mess with them and they probably won’t mess with you.

Bee careful out there.

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Does your pest company still power spray or spray inside monthly?

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There are several things happening around the U.S. which may impact pest control in your specific area.

  • The EPA has been trying to reduce the use of rodentcides, mainly due to secondary poisonings. My hope is that people use common sence in placement of poisons, don’t randomly throw packets throughout attics or crawlspaces. ProBest has not used any of those packets since 2005 and we have swtiched to Terad3 in rodent stations.
  • The restrictions of pesticides continue, power spraying of Permethrin type chemicals are just one of the ways the EPA is limiting chemical usage.

The use of IPM or Integrated Pest Management continues to be the choice of real prevention of pests. So here are a few tips to reduce the use of pesticides and allow them to continue to be used in the future.

  1. Be aware of placement especially of rodentcides. I’m a big fan of not using any rodenticide within a structure, use of snap traps can be just as effective.
  2. Use pestcides that can be hidden and placed where insects will find them, crack and crevices, block voids and wall voids.
  3. Don’t spray any flowering plant.
  4. Follow IPM standards.
  5. Always read and follow label and use directions.
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