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It was World Bee Day last week, and that’s a great time to talk about bees. Honey bees specifically. Honey bees are an invasive species. These are sometimes referred to as the European honey bee, the western honey bee, but ESA states the common name is simply the “honey bee”. If you want to get scientific about it, it’s Apis mellifera*, which comes from the Latin of Apis meaning bee and mellifera meaning honey-bearing. There is still a little controversy, but most science poi

It’s a few weeks into May and that means the grass is getting longer and the weeds are coming in. Literally, in many cases, because May is “No Mow May”. This is apparently the month to not mow your lawn and let it just do its thing. You would think that whoever came up with this is brilliant to explain away their laziness in this way. It does have another purpose. The purpose was to help early-season pollinators. Not mowing allows the wildflowers (what many people will see as

It just hit the news – Hantavirus is typically spread through the feces and urine of rodents. There has been mention of human-to-human transmission, but according to a 2022 paper reviewing that claim, “The balance of the evidence does not support the claim of human-to-human transmission.” It’s important to remember that Hantavirus is not a “flu-like symptoms” sickness. It can be, and in this case is, a lethal disease. Sure, it starts with flu-like symptoms but progresses qu

I’m currently on a semi-holiday, and let me tell you: work is a whole lot better when you’re watching the Atlantic Ocean, sipping tea, and enjoying a pastry from the local bakery. (Shout out to the amazing Bagel Stop here in Florida!) But even with the salt air, I can’t help but think about the unique challenges of pest control in vacation rentals. Whether it’s a tiny one-room cottage or a massive condo complex, one thing is certain: there will be guests... and there will be

Two things have happened this week that have spurred this week’s blog post. And yes, today is only Tuesday. The first is that I have found not one but three ticks in my hotel room. The second is the news report that the CDC is reporting that they are seeing the highest rate of emergency room visits for tick bites in a decade. Oh yeah, I'm in New Jersey right now, but this also hit my news feed today: Why are either of these things important? Great question, thanks for askin

As many of you know, about half of my job is inspecting facilities. Everything from food processing to pharmaceuticals, healthcare to hospitality, and so much more. That means I get to see a lot of really cool places and a lot of very interesting problems. Ideally, I want to find the source, the underlying conducive conditions, and solutions to completely solve the issue. Then there’s the reality. The source isn’t always something obvious. The problem could be widespread

I get a kick out of some of the stuff I see on social media. One of my favorites is the ultrasonic pest-repelling device. Even better, they have different sizes or models for different pests. Um… no. There can be a lot of misinformation out there. Since it’s April Fool’s Day tomorrow, let’s look at some of the “pranks” that are out there. Whether you are looking into pest control and come across these, or a pro that needs to answer questions about them, it’s important to know

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 pesti

Mosquito Madness - Day 16! I’m taking my usual morning walk yesterday and since it’s getting lighter out, I can see a bit more. Around my neighborhood, I saw not one, but three yard signs advertising that a pest control company had done a mosquito treatment. You may be asking, “but why is that a big deal?” Great question, thanks for asking. A mosquito treatment doesn’t seem like a big deal until you realize that this is early March. Granted, I live in the south and we have