All posts in “stored product pests”

Cockroaches & kitchens

Cockroaches in kitchens

Cockroaches in kitchens

 

Cockroaches in kitchens – nothing congers up fright and ewwww and owwwwws more than this nemesis. They are extremely sneaky, adaptable and very difficult to gain control once you have them. Control – not always about the bug but knowledge of the bug. Knowing life-cycles, mobility and habitat are important in gaining control.

Often times when discussing pests we deal with IPM and how to keep them out. This is key to German Roaches as they love to set up house in your house, especially kitchens and bathrooms. They love moisture, food and a good hiding spot. They will travel in the folds of boxes, and once at you home scatter like roaches. A spec of food is all they need, they will even eat soap. Easier to spot if burping bubbles, OK just had to do it. HaHa.

The absolute only way to get control is with a Professional, we have the tools. Sometimes you need every tool you have to get control. If we are performing service on a vacant home, we use an actisol and bait. That is if it is a real issue, we use IGR ( insect growth regulator) stops molting and reproduction. German roaches carry egg cases, and typically 30 eggs within each clutch.

  • Pull out your refrigerator (clean coils) check activity
  • Pull out stoves – clean it, they love, love grease.
  • When bringing groceries home, check contents. Store is Tupperware and if possible freeze it.
  • Dog food should always be checked, stored product pests.

Amazing science – pantry pests gut microbes may be able to consume plastic.

Pantry pests harbor plastic-chomping bacteria” A few insects use their guts to break down wood and various other harder to digest type food – top one in my mind are termites. Termites use a protozoa to break down cellulose which they gather on a daily basis.

 

It is amazing to me that animals, insects and other forms of life adapt to human life on this planet. Can’t wait to see what is next? Anyone else heard of any amazing type critters?

ProBest Pest Management is on the job!

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Its a plane, its a bird no its the ProBest Pest Management technician ready to stop those pests at your home.

Problems with bees, cockroaches, ants, bedbugs, earwigs, wasps, scorpions, stored product pests, termites, flies, spiders, crickets, springtails and wildlife.

Stored product pest ideas

Stored product pest

Stored product pest

Stored product pest include such pests as Beetle, Moths and Weevils. Another pests that deserves a distinction of menace also includes rodents like mice and rats. I really like the idea of using glass bottles to store products away from the pests that might try to get to them. You get the benefit of reducing pests and you can see what the product is. One additional idea is to take a grocery item and immediately freeze it and then store it in an see through container.

Just another great idea that incorporates IPM or Integrated Pest Management.

Don’t believe everything you read!

 

I know this is correct , cause  just week I read a report published by Abraham Lincoln on why he didn’t trust the internet. I think all of us play a hand in what is and isn’t truthful on the internet and I get called weekly where someone says I read the internet and blah, blah blah. I had a customer a year or so ago, tell me emphatically that Bed Bugs can jump out of a dumpsters. The only way that Bed Bug is getting out of that dumpster is if someone jumps in there and removes something. By the way that dumpster was in the direct sunlight and in the middle of the summer it would probably die within hours from our heat.

One more thing that just gets me, is when we jump to conclusions before we have all the facts. Remember that honeybee thing a year ago, was it cell towers or was it pesticides, or was it global warming? Well no one knew for sure but everyone with their own agendas were posting the blame everywhere. If the bee issue is caused by something, then we need to investigate quickly and stop the problem. I believe the E.U. stopped the use of neonicotinoids before all the data was in, but anyway I ran across an excellent article from Alan Caruba  “Another Environmental Lie Exposed: Bees are thriving.”

What do pesticides do? They protect us against trillions of insect and rodent pests that spread diseases while some represent millions in property damage—termites—every year.

So here is what I suggest, lets get the facts before we run off to damage an industry that contributes to Public Health and the betterment of our lives. Remember that mosquitoes continue to kill over a million people each year and rodents contaminate and damage grains and food.

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Something buzzing you at your local store?

Something buzzing you at your local store?

 

           

So yesterday I was shopping here in Gilbert and noticed this lovely little set of bug traps. These traps catch a variety of pests but are designed to capture stored product pest such as Indianmeal Moths to beetles to flies. Depending on the type of store,  food stores probably at greater risk for grain damage and other types of warehouses which may contain flowers, seeds or hides.

Stored product pest are commonly referred to as pantry pests, if located in a product purchased from a store recently you can contact the retailer who then contacts the manufacturer and the possibility of the lot being recalled or destroyed is good. I’m a big fan of freezing the items and then putting it into Tupperware or some type of sealed container. Stored Product pest damage approximately 10% of the world’s annual production of stored grains, In 1981 the loss was was estimated to over 1 Billion dollars in the U.S. Remember by the time you see the flying adults it’s probably to late, the larva are the ones to catch (they eat and damage) the adults only want to reproduce.

         

By the way there are plenty of different types of pests that eat this type of food, we are only scratching the surface with these two moths. Have you seen something like this, what would you do if you brought it home and it was infested? Do you have a scary of unique story about stored product pests? Comment below.

Cereal – Have you ever noticed bugs?

Cereal – Have you ever noticed bugs?

Cereal bugs – Well it does happen from time to time. So what are the bugs and how did they get there? Stored Product Pest can sometimes be found in a variety of goods, from dog food, pasta, dried flower arrangements to flour. Most of the time this contamination occurs outside of the factory where it was produced. Have you ever been shopping and noticed little moths flying about? I notice them quite often in the dry dog food aisle at your local Pet Stores.

Here is a report I believe from France but it points out  how problems can arise to the point of contamination or adultration.   

4,900 kg of cereals destroyed due to presence of insects

US timelines

Lewis Caleb Beck in the Patent Office around 1848 to carry out chemical analyses of agricultural products

1904-1906 Upton Sinclair (did you know he lived in Buckeye, AZ with his 3rd wife) publishes “The Jungle” about the meatpacking industry which sparked the passage of the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906.

1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act

Pesticide Control Law 1910

FDA – 1930

Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Law – 1938

FIFRA – Federal Insecticide, Fungicide & Rodenticide Act passed in – 1947

FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), 1/4/2011

 

Cereal

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