BLOG

I had an amazingly good picture sent to me recently for identification and I realized I haven’t talked about these little insects* on the blog yet.   There are millions of springtails in the soil. They are tiny so most people will never notice them outside. There are over eight thousand species worldwide wide but most scientists will tell you that is a huge underestimation. It’s just that no one has identified the rest yet. They get the name “springtail” because many species

I have a lot of google alerts for words relating to pest control. I typically skim through, look for any scientific articles and quickly delete. Then this one caught my eye.   Ugh, here we go again, I think to myself. And yes, here we go again.   Now, I get it. Pesticides are scary, especially when you call them “poisons”. Yes, they are intended to knock down the pest. Yes, some are poisonous (ingested). Yes, we want to make sure only the target animal is impacted by the pest

Sometimes pest problems are relatively easy to manage. One or two visits, some targeted treatments, sanitation, and exclusion recommendations, and presto! Problem solved! Then there are the times it isn’t so easy. Particularly when it seems the customer is working against you.   The other day, I was at a location, let’s say it was a bookstore. (It wasn’t, I’m trying to protect the innocent here!) Now, as I was browsing through the bookstore, out of the corner of my eye, I saw

In my last job, I had to take “media training” and one of the first things I learned was never use the word “pesticide”. They recommended “treatment” or “product” or something else along those lines. Why? Why shouldn’t we say it? Mostly, it’s because people have a bad image of pesticides, and there is a negative reaction.   The problem with that…pesticide is not a dirty word. It’s part of a well laid out integrated pest management plan. Anyone who’s had considerable pest issu

I'm in Orlando this week at PestWorld so I'm super excited to see what's new and get to talk to everyone. Which brings up an interesting point. Is there anything new? Aside from a few new invasive insects which aren't necessarily structural pests (spotted lanternfly, spotted lady beetles, etc.) our pests haven't changed much. So here's a quick rundown of some history on our common pests. Starting with one of my favorites: cigarette beetles. These go back to ancient Egyptian

It’s October and that means it’s my favorite season of the year: spider season! Living in Georgia (USA), we are still under siege from the invasive Joro spider . It is actually a very pretty spider that builds big orb-shaped webs. While these are beneficial (I am pretty sure we had next to no mosquito issues this summer because of all these webspinners), they are very abundant. People don’t like them near their structures, and there is the “ick” factor of walking through one

I’m inspecting a food facility this week and there’s always something interesting that you find. So this week, let’s talk about...

I’ve had kissing bugs hitting my newsfeed like crazy, so now’s a great time for a primer on bugs.   To start with, there are just shy of...

I travel quite a bit, and I consider myself a frequent flier. I know how to navigate an airport, where to find the best food options, and...