In reading the latest issue of a pest control association newsletter, two headlines stood out: “In Houston: Record Year for Rats and Mice in the Attic, Due to Hurricane Harvey,” and “Wasp-Sized Mosquitoes That Bite Through Clothing Are Swarming North Carolina After Florence.” That last one might be a bit of an exaggeration but it
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It sounds like good news. Scientists at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute say that early results from blacklegged tick surveys in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts during the summer have turned up fewer of the ticks that transmit Lyme disease. Likewise, the number of cases of Lyme disease have also declined this summer. Experts
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Picture it. Two sets of hooks, each with three barbed fingers pushing in and pulling, swimming into your skin in a sort of breaststroke to get a good purchase. This is how a tick’s mouthparts work. These backward-facing teeth have been described as mini-harpoons or looking like a chainsaw. Once the barbed mouthparts are securely
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We’re getting into the time of year when we get calls like this. That’s because we’re nearing the end of the breeding season for little brown bats, the bats most commonly found roosting in homes. In our region, the young are born in May to June and remain with their mother for several weeks while
VIEW MOREThere might be a single product that would kill all of the pests you mention but the problem is timing and application site. A pesticide applied to control springtime-invading pests like millipedes may not remain very effective when you need it to kill pests that appear months later in the fall. It’s a fact that
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If you spend a lot of time working or playing outside or if you live in an area with a lot of tick activity, maybe you’ve considered wearing permethrin-treated clothing to keep ticks from attaching and biting. While repellents containing DEET are still the main recommendation for use on exposed skin, the insecticide permethrin is
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We pretty much knew it was happening and we had theories as to why. Now we have official government confirmation that diseases spread by ticks and mosquitoes have been increasing rapidly in the U.S. in the last several years. The Centers for Disease Control has just issued a new finding that illnesses from mosquito and
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Domestic cockroaches are those that live and reproduce inside homes or other structures. The very common German cockroach is the best known, but American cockroaches and Oriental cockroaches will sometimes reproduce inside. One cockroach that is not a domestic cockroach but causes great alarm when it appears indoors is the wood cockroach. It doesn’t reproduce
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We are approaching that time in spring when certain outdoor insects that have been spending the winter hiding in your house are waking up and looking for a way back outside. The brown marmorated stink bug is one of those insects that some of us in the Northeast see every fall and spring, but others
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