Photo by: Gerald J. Lenhard, Lousiana State University

Across our region termite control experts are seeing an increase in calls from homeowners, alarmed by the emergence of termite swarms.  Some of these swarms are occurring outdoors, away from structures, but many emerge from the floors and interior walls of homes and businesses.  According to Pest Control Center’s Termite Department Manager, Dennis Kleiber, the changes in temperature and humidity that occur in spring, signal subterranean termite colonies to begin their annual emergence and mating flights.  Mr. Kleiber says the late rains may cause termite colonies to swarm for a longer period.  In response to the large amounts of outdoor moisture seeping into the ground, the swarms are less inclined to emerge outdoors, preferring to move toward the drier soil, adjoining structures.  From there they can travel up through mud tubes and exit either in crawl spaces or indoor living areas.  Don’t be too alarmed if you see them indoors.  It took them years to get there and 90 percent of the time they are easily controlled.

According to information on the UC Davis IPM website, “Because of the serious damage they can cause to wooden structures, termites are among the pests most feared by homeowners. However, swarms of flying termites do not always mean your building is infested.”  Pest Control Center’s experts agree with that assessment.  “If you suspect that your building has been colonized by termites you should get a thorough inspection of the structure to confirm whether or not there is, in fact, an active infestation.”  The swarm may be coming from an outdoor source.   There is also a chance that the swarm may not be termites at all.  They could be reproductives from an ant colony.  There are key differences between flying ants and flying termites.  Consulting a licensed termite expert is the best way to find out which one you are seeing.  He or she can make a positive identification and recommend the best course of action.

Photo by: Eddie McGriff, University of Georgia

The Brown Recluse Spider, Loxoxceles reclusa; Just the name of it makes people shudder.  The mere thought of being bitten by one can make your heart race, and for good reason.  This spider’s venom has the potential for a type of severe tissue damage that is progressive and slow to heal.  

According to sources at the Centers for Disease Control there are roughly 10,000 spider bites reported each year and approximately 2,000 of those are from Brown Recluse spiders.  There are some problems with these statistics.    

• The Brown Recluse Spider only occurs in two regions of the United States, the Central (or Deep) South, the Midwest and a few other, small localized areas.  The species simply does not exist in most of the country.  For California residents, the diagnosis of a recluse bite in our state has a very high probability of being a misdiagnosis, since the spider does not naturally occur here.  The only exception might be one where a recluse was contained in a shipment coming from its native range.  This would be a rare occurrence.  Note: There are some brown, fiddle-back spiders that are native to California which mimic its appearance.

• The species is called the Brown Recluse for a reason.  It is very shy, preferring to hide in dark, undisturbed areas of homes and buildings or outdoors under rocks or other debris.
• They prefer to escape when threatened and only bite if handled, pinched or squished.
• Most bites from this spider heal quickly. A small percentage of bites results in massive tissue necrosis.
• There are bacteria that can cause similar necrotic damage if they enter even a slight wound. Spider bites cannot be diagnosed by simply looking at the damage.  For a positive diagnosis of a brown recluse bite the spider must be captured and positively identified as a Brown Recluse, by a trained professional.

So, if you’ve been diagnosed with a Brown Recluse bite, be sure to get a second opinion and have a pest professional inspect the location where you think you encountered the spider.  Perhaps he or she can collect and identify it.  

Brown Recluse Damage, CDC Photo

Photo by: Susan Ellis, Maryland, USA

Occasionally we get a call from a frantic customer, complaining of a huge mass of tiny hopping creatures either on the ground near their home or indoors in a bathroom, kitchen or garage.  When our technicians arrive they quickly identify them as Springtails.  Springtails are creatures of the order Collembola.  They are tiny (up to 1/8 inch long) nuisance pests.  They come in a wide range of colors and sizes.  Springtails have six legs, and antennae with 4-6 segments.  They occasionally appear in large numbers, usually following cool, rainy weather.  They prefer the moist, outdoor conditions, living in areas with damp leaf litter and other decaying organics.  Because they do not possess a waxy cuticle on their exoskeletons, they will dehydrate and die indoors unless there is an area with an ongoing moisture issue in a particular area of a structure.  They are largely beneficial organisms that feed on fungi and decaying plant material.  Springtails do not bite.  Their only defense is to hop when disturbed by using a spring-like abdominal appendage called a furcula.   The furcula is normally folded up beneath the abdomen.

Control of springtails is usually a matter of clearing up the existing moisture problem, whether indoors or out.  Pesticides are generally unnecessary.

Here are some steps you can take to reduce the incidents of infestation:

• Seal and calk cracks and holes in structures to prevent invasion.
• De-clutter your yard and home to remove hiding places.
• Keep tight-fitting lids on garbage cans.
• Feed pets indoors then take up and store their food in tightly fitting containers.
• Keep kitchen floors, counters and other surfaces clean and don’t leave food out.  Keep foods enclosed in sealed containers.  This includes fresh produce.
• Pick ripe fruits and vegetables and bring them in. 
• Pick up and store or discard fallen tree fruit.
• Trim trees, shrubs and ground covers from structures to reduce cover for pests seeking to invade.  Make sure plants are at least 6 feet away from eaves and roofs to keep roof rats from leaping across.
• Tune irrigation systems to avoid pooling from excess water and empty our sources of standing water.

When pests do invade, for best results, contact a professional.  Avoid doing your own pest control if possible.  Over application of pest control materials by home owners is a significant source of pesticide pollution in our environment waterways.

Now that spring is here, it’s time to get rid of all the insect pest eggs that have wintered in your garden, yard and other areas of the home. If you live in an area that had an unusually warm winter, it is especially important that you take steps now as more pest eggs were able to survive. Some insect pests were able to reproduce and many life cycles were bred during the warm winter months. As the weather gets warmer, even the pests that were dormant over the winter will become active and more eggs will hatch than usual. Get rid of them before they are able to lay eggs of their own and escalate the problem.

Some insect pests are merely an annoyance. Others can harm your family, your home and your possessions. No matter what type of pests that are prevalent in the area of the country that you live in, there is no reason to give them an invitation to your home, garden or yard. Start fresh this spring by eliminating the problem before it has a chance to start.

Get help from a professional pest control expert before your home is invaded. Have them come to the home and inspect your area. A professional audit will help you to identify what areas in your home are vulnerable to an invasion of insect pests and help you prevent it with barriers that will keep your home, food, furniture, carpeting and even your bedding safe from insects and larvae.

At the same time that the professional pest control expert inspects your home, an audit can be made as to how vulnerable your home is to the bed bug epidemic that is sweeping the country. Take steps to keep these quick breeding pests from invading your home and making your family miserable with their bites.

Don’t put off treating your home for invasive pests until you see the first cockroach or ant. Once they are inside the house you may be tempted to take drastic steps such as treating your home with dangerous chemicals and poisons that may harm your family and pets. When you self treat an insect pest invasion of the home, the possibilities exist that the products that you use will contaminate the food and drinks that you feed your family as well as the surfaces and utensils that you use for food preparation.

Opinions expressed in opinion articles are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Pest Control Center, Inc. or its owners or employees.

Calisoga longitarsis, Photo by: Marshall Hedin, San Diego State University

A couple of years ago my wife went to her family’s Lake Tahoe cabin with her girlfriend from Seattle.  The last morning of the weekend, as she started to reach into a Kleenex box to pull out a tissue, she was confronted by a large, hairy spider which measured about 2 ½ inches from the tip of its front legs to the tip of its rear legs and was half as much in width.  Needless to say she was horrified.  After she collected herself she found a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid, dumped the spider into it and brought it home for me to identify.  I took it to work with me and with a few minutes of research discovered that her furry friend was a Calisoga Spider, Calisoga longitarsis, also known as a false tarantula or funnel web tarantula. 

The Calisoga occurs all over California from sea level to the high Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Its reclusive habits and nocturnal behavior keep it hidden from view most of the time so it isn’t commonly encountered.  It is brown to silver gray in color and has fine hairs all over its entire body.  (True Tarantulas have coarse hairs.)  This miniature tarantula look-alike behaves much like its larger cousin.  If threatened, a Calisoga will rear up and expose its fangs as a warning to its perceived attacker.  It’s not an idle threat.  This arachnid will bite in self defense and it can be painful.  Fortunately, the species is not poisonous.

Webbing Clothes Moth Profile, Photo by: Olaf Leillinger

 Webbing Clothes Moths aka. Common Clothes Moths, Tineola biselliella, are pests of natural fibers such as wool, silk, feathers, animal skins and other animal products containing keratin, usually preferring articles that are in dark, secluded areas that have not been disturbed for some time.  They do not fly toward light sources.  Females with eggs are poor flyers.  Otherwise both sexes are capable of extended flight.  Both are adept at finding small openings into storage areas.  The adults are approximately ½” long and silvery to golden in color with a satiny sheen.  Reddish-gold tufts of hairs may be on the head.  Their wings have feathered edges.  The telltale webbing tunnels and fecal droppings of the larvae are often present in infested articles.  The cream-colored larvae generally pupate in the same materials they’ve been feeding on. Infestations are relatively uncommon but when they occur they can be large, causing extensive damage.  

Webbing Clothes Moth Adult, Mounted With Wings Extended, Photo by: Sarefo

Control of the Webbing Clothes Moth is mostly preventive and accomplished  through good housekeeping practices.Keep your closet or storage area uncluttered.  Stored items should be taken out and visually inspected once or twice per year.  Affected articles can be dry cleaned or hot laundered and hot dried to kill the insects.  Cedar wood and oil are ineffective against these pests.  Moth balls are excellent for prevention and control.  However they do leave a strong odor and care should be taken when storing articles in sealed containers with moth balls.  The active chemical in moth balls, PDB (paradichlorobenzene), may damage plastic buttons.  An infested storage area should be emptied and all items inspected.  If chemical treatment is indicated your best bet is to call a professional.    

Webbing Clothes Moth Larva, Image by: Guido Gerding

Periodically someone will come in to our office or call us on the phone complaining of tiny pests biting them, often at night.  Sometimes they will have physical symptoms such as rashes or sores and scabs.  They say they’ve seen doctors and tried everything; Home remedies, over the counter pesticides, professional pest control services, but nothing seems to help.  Some bring in plastic bags, or other containers with “specimens” which are actually only lint, dust, bits of debris and sometimes scabs or other unsavory detritus, hoping that we can identify them as pests.  They are in genuine anguish and we want to help them so we go to their houses, we inspect and find nothing.  Unfortunately, everything they believe they are experiencing appears, in the final analysis, to be imaginary and we are powerless to alleviate their suffering.  Without positive identification of a pest organism we can’t prescribe or perform a treatment.

The suffering of these individuals is real but not pest related.  So what could be causing their misery?  Sometimes there are physical reasons for their symptoms as with a condition described by the Mayo Clinic called Morgellons Disease.  This is a mysterious controversial condition that is still under investigation and not all researchers agree that it’s real or what its causes may be.  According to the Mayo Clinic website, Morgellons symptoms include:

• Crawling sensations on and under the skin, often compared to insects moving, stinging or biting.
• Fibers, threads or black stringy material in and on the skin
• Severe Fatigue
• Inability to concentrate and short-term memory loss
• Behavioral changes
• Joint Pain
• Vision Changes

More often however, the problem appears to be psychological in nature.  There are different terms used by the medical profession when referring to this condition:

• Illusory Parasitosis
• Delusory Parasistosis
• Delusional Parasitosis
• Delusions of Parasitosis.

The Minnesota Department of Public Health says on their website that, “Delusional Parasitosis is a psychiatric condition, suffered mainly by older women although younger people, including men, can be affected.  DP is a disorder characterized by people having the mistaken belief that they are parasitized by bugs, worms or other creatures.”  According to University of California, “This belief is based on the sensations felt in the skin that are very real to the sufferer.”  They state that causes for sufferer’s symptoms can include stress, reaction to use or abuse of prescription or illicit drugs, a variety of environmental factors or Delusory Parasitosis.    This condition can be induced by various kinds of stress, including work-related pressures, relationship issues, or financial stress.  Individuals suffering from delusions of parasites can sometimes scratch themselves so badly as to damage their skin, causing rashes and infections resulting in sores and scabbing.  These can serve to reinforce the patient’s belief that biting arthropods or other organisms are involved.  According to the University of California, persons with DP sometimes employ desperate measures to alleviate their symptoms.  They will apply unconventional and toxic substances, including pesticides, to their bodies, jeopardizing their health (and possibly their lives) in the process.  It’s been observed that persons afflicted by this disorder will sometimes mutilate themselves in an effort to get rid of the perceived infestation.

This condition can become serious and should not be ignored.  The consensus of my sources seems to be that, If you suspect that you are suffering from DP or you suspect that someone you know is suffering from it and an actual pest or parasite infestation has been ruled out, medical attention should be sought as soon as possible and tests should be run to rule out any physiological causes for the symptoms.  If no physical conditions are diagnosed your physician may refer you to a counselor or mental health professional.  Patience is indicated as your health care providers sort through the causes and prescribe the best treatment for your individual case.

Argentine Ants on Horse Fly, Image by Álvaro Rodríguez Alberich, Seville, Spain

An especially troubling species is the Pharaoh Ant. This species is entirely commensal in all but our most southern states and remains active all year. This species prefers human habitations and can be found living comfortably indoors on every continent, except Antarctica; even in areas with very cold winters. When Pharaoh Ants take up residence it’s best to call a professional familiar with their habits. If spray treatments are applied a Pharaoh Ant colony, which has multiple queens, will split up the colony (a process called budding) and reproduce rapidly, making the problem worse. Baiting is the preferred method of control and patience is again required because control will be achieved slowly over days or weeks.

Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus) Photo by US National Park Service

With cool weather and rain returning, rats and mice will begin to seek shelter in homes and businesses, but don’t panic.  There are a few simple steps that you can take to make your place as uninviting as possible to these would-be invaders: 

1. Remove food sources that might attract mice and rats.  Be sure all fallen fruit is picked up and feed your pets indoors.
2. Remove harborage where rodents might feel safe as they approach your structure.  Clean up wood piles, debris and other objects that may shelter them.  Be sure to trim ground covers and shrubs at least a foot away from walls and foundations.
3. Remove Roof Rat access to your roof.  (These acrobatic rodents are capable of leaping up to six feet from branch to roof and back again.)  Trim all trees and tall shrubs to a minimum distance of six feet from the eaves. 
4. Block access to your home or building by sealing openings.  Mice require a ¼” opening and rats require a ½” opening in order to access a building.  Keep all door seals as well as attic, crawl space, garage and dryer vent screens in good condition.  Be sure to seal around areas where pipes and wires enter the structure.  Make sure that crawl-space doors fit tightly.

 If rodents have already invaded contact a pest professional.  A pro can perform a complete inspection and identify any of the above problems and provide you with a written report.  A pest control technician will be able to identify all the areas in your building where the rodents are active, develop a plan specifically designed for your situation and is the person best trained and qualified to eliminate rodents from your premises.