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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

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

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

It's day 8 of mosquito madness! You folks know I read a lot of research on all things pests so I can help my clients provide the best service possible. I have quite a few alerts set for news stories on all things pest related. It doesn’t surprise me that pest control and pest control devices are in the news. People want to protect themselves, their homes, and their foods from harmful pests. And if you read it on the internet, it must be true. Smh Here’s a few things that

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’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...

We're back this month with our series of ten questions with a pro. Every other month, I’m interviewing a “pro” to find out what they do,...

Who cares, it’s not a problem in the US? It’s not a big deal, they mostly affect cattle. It’s not like it will impact us. Except it is....