Pest Control Health Concerns

Mice and Rats:

Furry rodents may look cute, but the creatures live wild dirty lives and are responsible for spreading many dangerous and even deadly infections. The most common rodent infection transmission routes is urine and feces, so take special precautions to avoid inhaling or ingesting these potentially contaminated substances when cleaning a rodent infested area. Therefore, you should always wear a mask and plastic gloves when cleaning rodent infested areas. Thoroughly clean and disinfect, with hot water and detergent, all sheets, pillow cases, blankets, and towels that have come in contact with rodent waste. Don't use a vacuum cleaner. The resulting air currents may kick up pathogen containing dust that mixes with the air and is easily inhaled. Contact your physician immediately if you develop fever or flu symptoms after cleaning a rodent infested room or house.

Use precautions whenputting out rodent poison. Put the poisons in areas where they will not be ingested by pets or children. One or more of four compounds are usually found in rat poison; they include Bradificoum, Difacinone, Warfarin, and Bromadiolone. All four compounds deactivate vitamin K dependent clotting factors. If someone deliberately or accidently ingests one of these compounds, he may subsequently suffer from ecchymosis (bleeding in the skin), epistaxis (nose bleeds), gum bleeds, flank pain (due to internal bleeding), hematuria (blood in the urine), retinal hemorrhages, or frank internal bleeding (large doses). If someone in the household ingests rat poison, they should immediately be taken to the emergency room. Treatment for rat poison ingestion is long term administration of vitamin K.

Mosquito Borne Illnesses:

Mosquitoes are a vector for many dangerous viral illnesses including Zika fever, chikungunya, dengue fever, West Nile virus fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Dengue fever causes painful joint pain (breakbone fever). Malaria is a febrile illness that can cause death if not properly medically treated. While Zika normally causes a mild flu like illness, it can lead to birth defects when contracted by a woman who is pregnant. The health risks behoove all members of the public to protect themselves against mosquito bites. If you discover mosquitoes in your backyard, call a pest control specialist immediately. He can eradicate local mosquitoes and clean up potential mosquito breeding areas. If you find yourself in an area where mosquitoes are endemic, protect yourself by wearing clothes that cover your body, use mosquito repellant, and sleep in mosquito netting.

A recent article in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) listed reliable mosquito repellants: Deet - 7% pump spray, 15% and 25% aerosol spray, and 30% lotion; Picardin - sprays or wipes; IR3535 - lotion or spray; Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus (30% pump spray). All of these repellants are available in local stores at reasonable prices. When using the repellants, be sure to note how long they are effective, and reapply the material before the protection lapses.

Pest Spray Health Precautions

While all pest sprays on the market have FDA approval, that doesn't mean they can't cause cancer when used improperly. FDA approval implies that the benefits of the substance significantly outweigh the harms. To protect yourself from any pesticide side effects, be sure to use the substances as directed on the product labels.

How to Correctly Choose and Use Rodenticides

Rat Hole Under a Stove

Chemicals that are effective in killing rodents are appellated rodenticides ("rodent" comes from the Latin rōdēns, rōdēnt- ‎(“gnawer; one who gnaws”) and "cide," a suffix meaning "killer"}). When applied properly these chemicals are valuable pesticides, but when misused they can harm pets, children, and the environment. Determine the exact nature of your rodent infestation before applying chemical poisons. Make a thorough inspection of your room, basement, whole house, or outdoor area. Look for evidence that rodents are present. Signs of rodents include claw marks and droppings. Search the Internet for pictures of rodent droppings to determine the type of rodent and species infesting your home. Before applying rodenticide, make sure the infesting rodents are rats and not mice.

Now that you have determined the type of invader, look for clues that will tell you about his behavior. Search for borrows in the ground,  holes in concrete or in the walls. Determine what activities the creatures are engaged in on your property. Are they nesting on  or merely visiting in search of food?  Rat droppings around your trash cans are a sign they are visiting  in search of food. Rat holes near your stove or refrigerator are a sign the rats are nesting. Sometime they will make a nest by removing your refrigerator's insulation.

 

Sometimes it will make more sense to use mechanical traps rather than chemical bait. Facilities for sick people and homes with pets and children are two types of residences where  using mechanical rat traps might be more appropriate.

Once you make the decision to use rodenticides, you will need to decide which type of rodenticide is appropriate for the specific rodent problem you are facing. Wax bait is moisture resistant and therefore a good choice for exterminating external infestations. Pellets are effective against rats that are raiding the home to eat.  Tracking powder works well against rats in holes and borrows. Introduce the powder into the hole or borrow, then seal up the opening. This will ensure that only rats, but not children or pets, eat the poison.

To ensure the safety of your applications, always put them in areas that are invisible and inaccessible to pets and kids. Keep in mind that if children merely see the poison, they will try to get at it. If the poisons are out of site but accessible,  pets are likely to find them during their foraging around the home.

One last tip. If your infestation is serious, don't try tackling it yourself. Call in a pest exterminator to handle it for you.

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Bed Bug Awareness

Bed Bug Crawling on a Sleepers Skin

Bed bugs continue to spread around the world and are increasingly resistance to current pesticides, but tenants and municipalities are fighting back with greater bed bug awareness backed up by court actions. As public awareness of the epidemic grows, homeowners and tenants are becoming more savvy about recognizing and reporting bed bugs at an earlier stage, thereby avoiding more serious and more costly infestations. When bed bugs are not discovered and exterminated early on they can cause a serious invasion which results in property damage, psychological damage to tenants ranging from anxiety to full blown post-traumatic stress disorder, to the need for vacating the premises.

 Positive strides are definitely being made in the public awareness sectors; tenants are increasingly pressuring landlords to be responsible in carrying out bug eradication  on the premises, and some have taken landlords to court via class action suits. One recent development coming out of Perelman School of Medicine is the discovery that bed bugs may be capable of transmitting the potentially fatal Chagas disease. According to a Harvard University bed bug expert, the evidence while compelling is not conclusive. The Harvard professor added that homeowners should not overreact to the news, and should discuss any bed bug concerns with their local exterminator.A parallel rise in the American incidence of both Chagas diseases and bed bugs is suggestive of a connection; however increased migration from Latin America to the United States may also explain at least part of the rise in Chagas disease.

Conclusions that can be drawn from current bed bug trends are that a greater focus on public awareness leading to quicker reporting of bed bug sightings, and efforts to prevent bed bugs from entering the home, will help offset the growing bed bug resistance to pesticides.

The staff of A # 1 Pest Control of Baltimore are expert bed bug exterminators with more than 2 decades of service to the Baltimore community. Call 410-764-PEST for immediate service.

Thoughts About Bed Bug Treatments

No two pest control concerns have the same reasoning when it comes to getting rid of bed bugs. Dovid Davis, an entomologist and owner of A # 1 Pest Control, a Baltimore pest control company is a particularly opinionated and outspoken individual and describes his bed bug eradication principles in a very pleasing way.

Dovid makes the point in numerous ways that his company focuses on treating with pesticides that have effects that continue for months after the treatment. This means the first bed bug treatment will keep working for up to 90 days or more when combined with high temperature washing and drying of clothing and bedding plus diligent household cleaning.

A # 1 Pest Control does not dispute the effectiveness of foggers and heat treatments. The company doesn't use them only because they are temporary kills, and Dovid is partial to treating with long lasting pesticides. However, when they are hired to treat a small area such as a single room or small dwelling unit, they will exterminate in the whole area and save the expense of using a bed bug sniffing dog.

The initial bed bug treatment often clears up the problem completely, but if not the company does offer follow up treatments as needed. If you live in the Baltimore area and need bed bug treatment, be sure to call the company office at 410-764-7500.

I think you can tell already, that director Dovid Davis understands every type of bed bug treatment. The company's decision to not use foggers and heat treatments is clearly based on a well thought out consideration of their uses and limitations. The company also employs bed bug sniffing dogs, but rightfully concludes that the dog's greatest contribution to pest eradication l is locating the bugs when the area infested is large.  The company director likes to use the strongest available pesticides, and to treat with residuals so that his treatment will retain their effectiveness for as long as possible. In short, by selecting A # 1 Pest Control for your personal pest eradication needs, you will be assured of getting a treatment based on sound intellectual principles.

Bed Bug Control Baltimore; 410-764-PEST

Dovid has a unique gift and offers insights about the various types of bed bug treatments that you won't hear anywhere else.

Generous Holiday Offer Nearly Bankrupts Baltimore Pest Control Company

How Exterminators Block up Mice And Rat Entryways

If you hire someone to get rid of the rodents in your dwelling, be sure he also checks for and blocks mice and rat entry points. While rodents mostly dwell outdoors, by nature, they are also drawn to human dwellings, warm winter houses with a ready supply of food.

Rats and especially mice are dexterous critters that can squeeze into tiny cracks and holes. Rats and mice enter homes beneath doors, through open windows, by crawling along pipes that pierce walls, by way of thin chewable material such as walls, and via burrowing through subterranean passageways.

Because rodents have teeth that can chew through flimsy wall material such as cardboard, wallboard, plaster, and thin wood, their entry points must be clogged with steel wool, metal, or concrete. Examine the following original photos from A # 1 Pest Control to see how pest exterminators use concrete to block rodent entry points.


Boarding up a pipe hole






Notice the picture to the left. Plumbing pipes come in the dwelling through the wall and are completely enclosed by concrete. The concrete is packed around the pipe and stops up the hole that the pipe exits from. This protection totally blocks this former rodent access point. If a homeowner had enclosed the pipe with plaster, it might block rodent entrance for a while, but eventually they would gnaw though the dried plaster and open the entrance point once again. The concrete, on the other hand, will stand up against any attempt by the rodents to chew through it with their sharp teeth.



Outside rat burrow that has been filled with cement





Notice that the big hole in the grass has been filled up with concrete. That was once a rat entrance hole that an industrious rodent dug through the earth and extended underground until it got to pipes or other types of entryway into the dwelling. If A # 1 Pest Control - Harrisburg had not blocked up that hole, rats would have continued coursing into the nearby house through their improvised tunnel.


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Bed Bug Photos - Bed Bugs in Mattress Seams

No surprises here, bed bugs love to hang out around matress seams. That's a nice quiet protected place during the day, and keeps them within easy shot of the victim's arm at night.

This photo shows another mattress seam infested with bed bugs. Notice the bed bug defication on the matress around the seam. This mostly consists of dried blood. It becomes food for bed bug larvae. The seam itself is full of shed bed bug skins. 

The Social Significance of Having Bed Bugs

Bed bug infestations cause a physical discomfort, loss of sleep, and additionally a financial and social penalty. In the best case scenario, bed bugs cost more to eradicate than your typical insect; in the worse scenario the cost can rise sky high. A responsible assisted living center in Martin County, North Carolina willing handed over more than $100,000 to a pest control company to rid their center of bed bugs. Bed bug infestations also levy a stiff social toll when girlfriends, relatives, and friends learn that your abode is infected with the annoying bloodsuckers.

A New York comedian recently shed light on the at times painful social side effects of having bed bugs. One night the aspiring entertainer was successful in luring a new beau back to his apartment, but to his embarrassment she woke up the next morning with bed bug bites on her arms. The fragile relationship experienced difficulties to say the least. Parallel scenarios repeated themselves over and over again, eventually placing a serious burden on his social life. The apartment crisis soon cast a shadow on other social encounters. One night he was having dinner at an upscale eating establishment when a single bed bug dropped off his shirt and onto the table. It only takes one bed bug to clear a courtroom; obviously, the uninvited guest who decided to drop in for dinner was not welcome.

At times bed bug infestations can seriously strain family relations. A mother-in-law, accustomed to putting up with bed bugs, mistakenly thought her new daughter in law would feel the same way. The daughter and her husband received an invite to the parent's home for the Thanksgiving holiday. When the daughter saw the signs of bed bug bites in the morning, she moved her husband and herself to a local hotel. She threw away her entire set of luggage, and after returning home  she washed all her clothes in hot water and then dried them at high heat. The mother-in-law, who felt the response was extreme, wrote to an advice column. The newspaper columnist, however, was not sympathetic. She said the daughter's actions were appropriate. and ordered the mother-in-law  to cease finding fault with the daughter, pay her for all damages, and eradicate all the bed bugs in her home. Potentially, the advice helped to repair the relationship.

Landlord tenant relations can also significantly deteriorate, at times, when the loathsome vampire bugs are found in one of the apartments. In the very worst scenario, tenants
take their landlords to court, occasionally winning large settlements. At best landlords are more edgy as new ordinances define growing responsibilities for apartment owners whose dwelling units are bug infested.

More troublesome than the oft mentioned pain of infected bed bug bites is the social stigma and financial strain caused by this bug infestation. These two side effects of the insect plague help explain why the populace is so alarmed when the tiny bugs turn up in a dwelling. And the at times extremity of discomfort in these two factors helps illustrates why people are willing to pay large sums to get bed bugs out of their dwellings.


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Copy of Bed Bug Treatment Video - Baltimore

Copy of Bed Bug Treatment Video- Baltimore

This is our latest video. It features some of the signs of a bed bug infestation including blood stains from squashed bed bugs and shed bed bug skins on mattresses.

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How You Can Avoid Getting Bit by Bed Bugs in Public Places

Bed bug infestations are on the rise this summer as people travel and spend more time in public places. As an example, youth group orchestra members on tour recently experienced numerous bed bug bites during a four day stay at the Ramada Inn in Florence, Ky.

Some bed bug bite victims gain comfort by winning large settlements in courts, but most people want immediate protection from the annoyance and this involves a careful prevention plan. Just now summer travel is near its peak and dormitory living just around the corner, so reviewing bed bug prevention techniques is sensible.

Most bed bugs are located within a few feet of a bed, so reducing clutter on the floor near the sleeping area is paramount. Rule number one, carefully check out a public sleeping area such as a hotel or motel room, before taking it over. Bed bugs are tiny watermelon sized flat bugs that puff up and take on a reddish hue after a blood meal. They are usually found in mattress seams, on mattresses, behind the bed boards, on the carpet near the bed, on objects sitting on the floor near the bed, or on upholstered furniture in the room. Sometimes you might see live bed bugs , but mostly you'll notice shed bed bug skins, blood on a mattress where a bed bug was squashed during the night, or dried blood colored bed bug fecal stains on mattresses..

If you fail to find bed bugs, then it is safe to sleep in the room, but more precautions should be taken. Put your baggage on luggage racks and not directly on the floor. If there are no luggage racks you may place your luggage in the bathroom. Place fresh clothes on hangers, and place dirty clothes in closed plastic bags, not on the floor. After taking off your clothes at night, inspect them for bed bugs. When you get back from your trip, kill bed bugs in your clothes by washing them in hot water and placing them in the dryer on highest heat for at least 20 minutes. Luggage should be inspected for bed bugs before being allowed back into the home.

Living in a college dormitory requires further precautions. Any second hand furniture should be carerfully examined for bed bugs before being brought into the dorm. Sheets and bedding should be placed on the bed rather than on the floor. Clutter should be removed from around the bed and a careful search for bed bugs should be completed in the room before moving in.

If bed bugs are seen in a hotel room, the patrons should request another room. If you find bed bugs in your dormitory, contact the dorm authorities and ask for a new room. Unpleasant bed bug bites can take a lot of the fun out of vacations, and can interfere with a college students needed rest and concentration. The first step in bed bug control is bed bug prevention. Therefore it is well worth the effort to take a few minutes to check carefully for evidence of bed bugs in your room.


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Home Made Mosquito Repellent and West Nile Virus

From June to September, cases of West Nile virus fever are reported throughout North America. West Nile Fever is caused by a flavovirus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes who feed on birds and then humans. Most cases are without symptoms; however, approximately 10-20 % of people who contract the virus do have symptoms that include abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, headache, lack of appetite, muscle aches, nausea, rash, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, and vomiting. Less than one percent of infected individuals go on to develop a neurological condition. Neurological disease manifests as either West Nile Encephalitis or West Nile Meningitis. Symptoms may include confusion, loss of consciousness, muscle weakness, stiffness, and weakness of an arm or leg. Approximately 1 in 10 patients who develop brain inflamation will die.

Efforts to prevent West Nile Virus infection include attempts to remove mosquito breeding areas and keep mosquitoes from flying into the home. Mosquito larva grow in standing water, so eliminating standing water around the house reduces the quantity of mosquitoes in the area. Insecticide spraying can further decrease the mosquito population. Proper use of backyard mosquito eradication, as practiced by pest control specialists, can further reduce the number of mosquitoes. Installing window screens can stop mosquitoes from entering the home. The last line of defence in the war against mosquito bites is to take personal precautions. When anyone knows they will be in a locale where there are mosquitoes, he or she should wear long pants, and put on a shirt with long sleeves. Everyone should spray themselves with an approved mosquito repellent. It is critical to remember that mosquitoes can bite thorugh thin clothes, so if you are wearing thin apparel you should spray them as well as your self.

Dovid Davis, the Director of A # 1 Pest Contol suggests using the following home-made mosquito repellent , which employs chemicals in fabric softener that drive off mosquitoes. People can take advantage of this fact by putting the suit of clothing they are planning to wear to a mosquito infected area in a dryer along with 2 strips of fabric softener. They should run the dryer for about 10 minutes, long enough for the active substance in the fabric softener to permeate the clothing. According to Dovid, mosquitoes will not approach a person wearing those clothes.


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Natural Remedies for Mosquitoes

Today, I had the chance to converse with Dovid Davis, the Director of A # 1 Pest Control in Baltimore Maryland, and Dovid talked to me about what's going on with mosquitoes. This year, he pointed out, we're having a hot summer and one of its characteristics is the mixture of periods of hot dry weather and  periods of heavy rainstorms and downpour, which is good for causing mosquitoes to increase. Mosquito larvae typically live in any container that has a minimum of two teaspoons of liquid, and that can be an empty soda can or it can be a swimming pool that you are not using.

Dovid mentioned that he gets calls from homeowners wanting to know if he can treat their yard to eradicate the misquitos. Dovid does offer this treatment, and it will help for a few days, providing coverage for an outdoor wedding or party, for example. Yet it won't provide a permanent relief from the misquitoes. There is, at this time, no effective pesticide treatment that provides long lasting protection against the mosquito. If a pest specialist treats with insecticides in your backyard, for example, it may provide enough relief to cover an outdoor party, but after 48 hours mosquitoes start to return. If it should rain during the 2 days after the treatment than it will weaken but not do away with the effectiveness of the treatment.

If you take preventative measures in your yard, to remove all mosquitoe breeding areas, but there are nearby misquitoe breeding areas, then despite your efforts the mosquitoes will come back. So for example, if your next door neighbor has a body of standing water on the far side of your fence, the mosquitoes will simply fly over the fence and repopulate your yard.


So what treatments does Dovid recommend. Dovid pointed out that mosquitoes hone in on people based on the CO2 levels in expired air. The CO2 levels in the air people breathe creates a powerful attraction for mosquitoes. So the question is what can we do to repel misquitoes and Dovid described a type of repellant. First off Dovid made two suggestions for repelling misquitoes naturally, people shouldn't wear bright clothes and they should put a type of ointment on their skin. A natural way of doing this is to take a fabric softener that you use to treat your clothes, prior to wearing them, All you have to do, according to Dovid, is put two sheets of fabric softener in a dryer with the outfit you are about to put on. The fabric softener chemicals become absorbed in the clothes and act as an excellent natural mosquito repellant, According to Dovid, as long as you are wearing fabric softener treated clothing, you won't be approached by a misquito.

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Accomplishing Total Bed Bug Eradication

Knocking out your household's bed bugs in a manor that ensures they won't return (total bedbug eradication) is the final difficulty in bed bug control. Etymologically speaking, eradication represents the complete uprooting of a thing. Bed bugs are tiny but hardy little blood suckers that are hard to weed out once ensconced in the home. The tiny obnoxious critters can squeeze into tight places such as between two pages of a book, in an electric socket, and most especially in the seams of a mattress or a typical piece of household furniture. It is so difficult to extirpate these tiny insects, once nested in a mattress seam that many exterminators will recommend replacement of the infested mattress. But not everyone can afford such a drastic solution, so they will opt for thorough pesticide application instead. Bed bug deracination does not stop at insecticide application. It is important to wash all clothes that may have been in contact with the bugs, in very hot water. By washing the clothes in a washing machine using the hottest possible water, it will be possible to kill bed bugs and bed bug eggs.

Almost every single bug needs to be killed to achieve complete weed out because it only takes one pregnant female to infest or re-infest a household. The amount of pesticide that a pest control specialist will use to treat bed bugs is at least double the amount he will use for normal bug treatments. The technician will also apply special treatments to the bed and mattress area and any other infested furniture in the home.

Bed bugs can be eradicated from the house. Success requires cooperation between members of the household and the entomologist, and vigilance on the part of everyone living in the bed bug infested household. Achieving total success will frequently necessitate additional treatments. Over time, however, a relentless program to weed out the tiny pests will prevail.


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Murder Mystery Novel Serves as Trojan Horse Bed Bugs Invasion

Murder Mystery Novel Serves as Trojan Horse For Invading Bed Bugs

An online journal has described yet another transmission pathway that is responsible for the raging world wide bed bug infestation. In a recent article by The Star, a homeowner posted a video showing and describing how bed bugs crawled out of a local library book that his wife had taken home on loan from the public library. The bed bugs, seen in the online video, crawled out of the murder mystery "Watching the Dark," by Peter Robinson. Most likely the previous user of the book lives in a bed bug infested dwelling. Less likely is the possibility the bugs were placed in the book maliciously, as part of a prank.

Fortunately the wife of the homeowner wisely put the book in a sealed plastic bag. Within the next 24 hours three bed bugs crawled out of the book. Three bed bugs is a real threat since it only takes a single pregnant female to infest a whole home. Had the quick thinking housewife not put the book in a sealed container, the bugs might have crawled out mated, and subsequently created a colony that could have spread throughout the whole home. .

The sighting of beg bugs in a book underscores the types of precautions a homeowner must take to prevent these pest from infecting his home. General warnings about how to prevent a bed bug incursion into the home mention inspection of second hand furniture and clothing that has been in public places. However, this incident underscores the fact that it is just as necesary to inspect other types of second hand objects that have been in the public sector. .
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The Dovid Davis Hit 'Em Early Insect Control Plan

Living in a Clean and Insect Free Environment

You don't want to wake up and see a bug crawling across his morning roll so you need insect control. Hit 'em hard and hit 'em fast is the philosophy of Baltimore insect control specialist Dovid Davis. That's why Dovid offers a spring insect treatment special every year. If you spray effectively at the beginning of the season, you might not need to treat again until the fall rolls around.

Category: Insect Control

Everyone Deserves to Live Pest Free

Living in harmony with nature is great when you're thinking about a dense verdant forest, beautiful vistas, and breathtaking views of animals in the wild. But when you're thinking about nuisances, such as roaches, rodents, ants, and squirrels that have made their way into your home, bringing with them filth and disease, that's a different story. And about that I will note that everyone deserves to live pest free. And that's what pest control is all about. The pest management specialist is prepared to do battle with all of the modern domestic pest, and insure that your home is a safe and pleasant environment to be in.

Category: Pest Control

Tags: pest control specialist, pest control technician, pest control worker, pest control, pest management, pest extermination,

Termite Tunnels Termite Eradication

Yesterday I had a opportunity to chew the fat with pest management specialist, Dovid Davis of Baltimore. Dovid and I had neverspoken about termites, so I asked him tofill me in, and I was pleased that I did, because this was the most interesting interview I've ever had with him.

David informed me that we were mostly going to talk about the insect's subterranean life cycle. They live in the ground like earthworms, and live off of cellular and wood by-products such as paper. They have three identified life stages.larva, nymph, and adult. As a nymph, they closely resemble maggots, meaning small white worms maybe a fifth of an inch or even less in size. They live in colonies, and the core or center of their home is the queen. Her sole purpose is to create the workers, of which there may be thousands in one living unit. They are all her children, and while they work, she creates more babies. The worker-slaves, in turn, feed her, and they all eat together, below the surface.

Here Dovid told me an amazing fact about these tiny wood parasites, If they contact the open air they die within 20-30 seconds. Therefore, they musn't be exposed to the air. A moisture level of 15-18% will dry them out. Sounds a bit like man's need to live in enclosed bubbles on the moon.

Most of the slaves live their entire life within tunnels. When the queen wishes to enlarge her dominion, she breeds out a second type of progeny called a swarmer, which is a flying insect with an exoskeleton. This outside shell allows it to live above ground.

According to Dovid, the flying-breeders are generally seen in the middle of March and April. They're development is triggered by warm weather. There can be up to 5-10 thousand in one pack. They do not eat wood; their sole purpose is to fly around, find a mate, (they come in male and female.), and then locate a new underground home where they can form a new settlement. And all of this must take place in less than 20 hours, which is their average life span. And that, Dovid concluded, ends the description of this stage of the life cycle.

Now Dovid told me some more incredible facts about the underground insect surfs. Should they desire to expand their territory without using flying reproductives, they must create new underground passageways. To effect this they make use of a building paste made of soil and waste, and create hollow channels from one point to another. Now here's an astounding fact, when you go into someone's basement, and see convex mud tubes running up and down the walls, these are actually insect turnpikes, within which the slaves are traveling from the soil up to a wooden roof beam to eat, and back down again to the floor. Like vampires, they must return to the soil from which they came every 24 hours, or they will die. This activity goes on continually 24 hours a day seven days a week.

If you break a hole in one of these underground thoroughfares to examine it, the laborers will immediately begin to repair it or shut it down. After they have closed off the damaged segment, they will build another one, next to it, which reconnects the two ends of the severed roadway.

These toiling insects use these tunnels to go along cinderblock walls, up through the middle of the brick or even around it. They will travel as high as 10 feet in the air or more to eat the roof studs, enlarging the passage as they go.

Amazingly, these blind underground vassals can thrive for long periods of time. Laborers may survive for up to two years, and their queen can live for as long as 50 years. While we think of them as lowly creatures, their existence is not unlike the life man will have when we colonize planets in outer space and have to live in airtight shelters to survive.

Now Dovid got to the heart the conversation. Knowing the lifestyle, how does a pest specialist go about killing these wood eating marauders. To accomplish, Dovid told me, there are two phases. The pest specialist first has to prevent the bugs from entering the house from the outside soil, and then he has to kill the ones that have already penetrated the home.

While extermination treatment varies, the most common technique is to go on the outside of the house and spray around the perimeter, this is stage one. Dovid creates a 6-8 inch deep trench and put a long rod into the soil so that it goes down to the footers, and injects with a termiticide. This will eradicate the invaders who are trying to enter the house. As they come in contact with the bug poison, it kills them. The technician treats internal walls by drilling into whatever substrate the wall is made of and injecting the substance into the holes.

According to Dovid, the efficacy of the treatment lasts for anywhere from 5-10 years if left undisturbed. However, if there is an interruption in the chemical barrier or if the pest control agent missed a single spot because of piping or a tree stump, if there is a gap of even one inch, these persistent attackers will find it and go through it. So when treating a typical household, a technician will have to use between 75 gallons and 125 gallons of insecticide for each application.

Now Dovid finished with one more amazing fact. The new generation of termiticides are unique among pesticides. Whereas the old generation were chemicals that exuded a smell that drove the pests away, the new generation are attack viruses that specifically thrive on them. When the insect crawls through sprayed areas he picks up the germ and brings it back to the queen. It takes 2-3 three weeks to knock out an entire dwelling unit. And the nifty thing about it is that the tiny microbes doesn't attack humans.

Well, that wraps up another episode of "Day in the Life of Dovid Davis Pest Specialist," I'm Boruch Fishman, have a pest free day!

Tracking the Bed Bug Epidemic

Biologist Tony Fountain and a team of workers are beginning to trace the current bed bug infestation using DNA tracing.

The current infestation began 10 years ago, shortly after the Sydney Olympics. Since that time it has spread world wide. The question researchers will seek to answer is exactly where the epidemic came from.

One theory is that the world wide bed bug infestation came from Africa. Tony and his team will therefore be going to Kenya. Whereas bedbugs had died out in much of the world for a number of years, possibly because of powerful insecticides, which are now banned, they have been present continually in Kenya.

Other theories about the bed bugs are that they emerged from tiny pockets in England. London in particular has a raging bed bug infestation at this time.

The world-wide infestation is costing millions of dollars to treat and has been the subject of law suits against infested hotels and against pest control companies who treated homes that became reinfected One particular use of the DNA testing will be to determine where infestations came from. If an exterminator treats a home and bed bugs return, genetic testing will tell the family whether the new infestation was related to the old infestation or not.