Foreign Affairs (AKA: My internet sucks)

I was in Egypt last week helping out with some accounts and learning all about pest control in the region. Here are some cool things I'm taking back with me (aside from pounds/Kgs of dates!). Sorry there are no pictures, my internet is terrible here so suck it up.

Large flies are one of the biggest problems there. Between infrastructure issues, stray animals, trash, and sanitation problems, there is prime breeding grounds for huge infestations.  Mostly coming in from the outside, but a few spots had them breeding indoors as well. So when you can't control the large amounts of feces and trash, have no window screens, and doors tend to stay open, what do you do? Oh, and don't forget it stays pretty warm here most of the year.

The first thing to know is that we will never be able to fix the problem and eliminate all the flies. Expectations need to be set. We can reduce and continue to manage large flies on the inside though. Obviously, sanitation on the inside needs to be as good as possible. But we can't eliminate all the food from grocery stores or restaurants. That attractant will always be present. We can seal up doors and entry points, but doors will constantly be opening and closing with people coming and going. Many of the grocery stores here are part of larger shopping centers and have neighbors. We can also try to improve the building to have positive pressure (air is pushed out when doors are open, vs being sucked in). That is rarely a realistic option.

Next up is insect light traps. We typically don't want to rely on these for control; we want to primarily use them as monitoring devices. Here though, that's reversed. They are primarily for control and there are usually a lot more per location than we would use at US sites. As with any location, placement is key and they will always be competing with both natural and artificial light sources. Have you ever looked at the lighting in your local grocery store? Check it out next time.

While we want to use pesticides in a limited and targeted way, we get even more limited when it comes to areas with food. Added to that, there are just a few registered pesticides here. (Notice I said "registered".) This happens in many countries; the pesticides are different than US products and/or not available. Sometimes, there are different federal laws governing products (like not using rodenticides or glue boards in much of Europe). There isn't a granular fly bait available, but there are some effective liquid products. That means my idea of bait stations is a no-go.

The team in Egypt had a brilliant idea of tank mixing a liquid residual with what they call black honey (we call it molasses in the US). That provided a little bit of a sweet attractant to lure the flies to the treated areas and knock down just a few more. We are working on finding something that may provide more of a "meat" attractant to entice female flies looking for a breeding site to lay their eggs. Sometimes we just have to experiment with different potential solutions. 

I did get to do a few non-work things while I was here, one of which was visiting the pyramids. You really have no concept of the immense scale of these things until you are there in person! Fun fact - they have found cigarette beetles in many of the tombs from ancient times. Since they would leave food for the deceased in their afterlife, the beetles were happy to infest it.

Stay tuned for more international pest control. I'm headed to Kenya next!

Lagnaippe - okay, one picture! (Yes, I'm squinting, the sun was BRIGHT!)