Carpenter ants love damp climates and moist area and nest in those damp locations, like wood that has been damaged by water. They make nests in the floors or walls of your home and search for food through your home. Carpenter ants, unlike termites, do not eat the wood in your home, but are still a problem as they destroy the wood in your home.

Since carpenter ants love damp areas, if your home is located in an area that gets lots of rain you are more susceptible to getting a carpenter ant infestation. Just the same as homes built in heavily wooded areas or in a low, shady place where the ground stays damp.

Where to look in your home? Where is the most water. Look for nesting around a sink, try the kitchen or bathroom, or clogged gutters. Keeping a clean house is always good, but just cause you keep a clean house doesn’t mean you are safe from an infestation. Once they move in they will be looking for food, syrup, honey, jelly, meat, fruit, grease, fat, almost any food will attract them. If your home is spotless from leftovers on the counter, they will find there next favorite on the menu, dead or living insects, ants will eat other insects if they can’t eat your leftovers.

What are a few signs you may have a carpenter ant problem? Trails of workers around the kitchen, pantry and other areas where food is stored. If the nest is large enough, listen for ants, may sound odd but when your night is quiet and everyone else has fallen asleep listen closely. Ants moving around in the nest make a sound that sounds like rustling cellophane, so listen closely. Another sign are flying ants, the flying ants, or ant swarmers, are a huge sign you have a carpenter ant problem.

Where to look? You know they will make nests in damp wood but where do you tend to have the perfect spot? Try dead or living tree limbs, hollow trees, piles of standing wood, tree stumps and roots of dead trees. Also keep your eyes open for nests in your walls, ceilings, attic insulation, and doors. But how are they getting in? Well, they find their way into your home through drains and gutters, windows, doors, mulch around the home, pluming, and even your fireplaces.

Now what do I do next if I believe I have a carpenter ant problem? Well, if the nest was large enough, you may have heard them and found the nest, if that is the case spray it. But the chance of that is not as likely, killing the ants is not as difficult as finding them, sometimes you may not even realize you have a problem till it is too late. The most efficient way to remove your carpenter ant problem is to call us, A1- Exterminators, to take care of your carpenter ant infestation.

Contact A1-Exterminator at 1-800-525-4825 today to help you locate and eliminate any carpenter ant problems you may have.

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This time of year, the warm weather and longer days attract more outdoor human activity as well as a more active tick population. This means greater opportunity for human and tick interaction and increased risk of human exposure to ticks that can carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. Some researchers have predicted that this year’s unusually warm winter in much of the U.S. could lead to more abundant tick populations.

Lyme disease is bacterial infection transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks. Fever, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and a skin rash (often described as a “bull’s eye rash”) are some of the common symptoms of the disease. While an antibiotic treatment is effective for most cases when treated early on, if left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) more than 30,000 confirmed and probable Lyme disease cases were reported in 2010. Of these cases, 94% were in 12 states in the northeast (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) and upper midwest (Minnesota and Wisconsin).

The CDC has also created interactive maps that illustrate the dramatic increase of Lyme disease in the United States from 2001 to 2010. Blacklegged ticks and other tick species can spread several other diseases, but Lyme disease is the most common.

In parks where tick populations are prevalent, protecting our employees from exposure and encouraging visitors to have safe adventures means providing reminders and information about what precautions to take. Such reminders include telling visitors and employees to walk in the center of trails, use insect repellent, cover exposed skin, and find and remove ticks immediately after being outdoors.

Fortunately, the CDC has a webpage with resources related to Lyme disease prevention that provides clear, simple and evidence-based information to keep employees and visitors informed. The site includes free fact sheets, trail signs, public service announcements (PSAs) and brochures, offering a range of communication options to post in public areas and employee offices. The 30 second PSAs are pre-produced radio spots that can be downloaded for websites or personal MP3 players or played via park radios or at visitor centers. Brochures and signs are also all free to download and print or upload to park websites.

http://goldrushcam.com/sierrasuntimes/index.php/news/mariposa-daily-news-2012/129-may/5178-tick-season-a-time-to-focus-on-lyme-disease-prevention

Filed under: disease, disease carrying insects, Dog Ticks, insects, Massachusetts, News, pest, Pest Control, pests, pets, spring insects, Summer | No Comments »

Filed under: Massachusetts, mosquito, Pest Control, pests, Residential Pest Control, Summer | No Comments »

Nanabette’s Ice Cream, Woburn, MA

Free Sundae for all Mothers on Mothers Day.

Just need to be present to receive.

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Mother’s Day Brunch

Holiday Inn Hotel Select Boston-Woburn, 15 Middlesex Canal Park, Woburn, MA
$33.95

Celebrate your Mother on Sunday, May 13th at the Holiday Inn Select…soon to be Crowne Plaza by treating her to a delicious Mother’s Day Brunch. With a dazzling display of decadent desserts and a menu including all your favorite entrees and sides, the Holiday Inn Select puts on a great event celebrating the most important women in your life…your MOM!

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WSJ BLOG/Health: Don’t Like the Idea of Ground-Up Bugs? Better Read the Label

Published April 20, 2012

Dow Jones Newswires

News that Starbucks will stop using an ingredient made from ground-up bugs in its drinks may have prompted some consumers to ask: Say what now?

The ingredient in question really is made from insects. It’s a government-approved food coloring derived from the bodies of cochineal insects. It’s commonly used in many products from yogurt to cakes, as WSJ reported. Here’s what the FDA has to say about cochineal extract and carmine, a related coloring made from the bugs.

Starbucks’s use of the red extract in its strawberry frappucinos and other products started gaining attention last month as vegan consumers — who eschew all animal products — objected. A blog post on This Dish Is Veg alerted readers to the ingredient.

The company now says it will transition from the cochineal extract to a tomato-based product by the end of June.

Still, cochineal and carmine are found in a wide range of products, so if you’re concerned about insect-based ingredients, read the label. The FDA says the ingredients may be safely used as colorants, but guidelines say that cochineal extract or carmine should be declared on the label of all food products intended for human use, including butter, cheese, and ice cream.

 http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/04/20/wsj-bloghealth-dont-like-idea-ground-up-bugs-better-read-label/#ixzz1uWHTMo1j

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Getting the bugs out — literally — of Mother’s Day flowers at LAX

By Art Marroquin, Staff Writerdailybreeze.com

The last thing any mom wants next weekend is a pest.

To keep that from happening, federal authorities are preparing for Mother’s Day by scrutinizing an estimated 40 million flowers for bugs, eggs and larvae hiding in shipments coming from South America, Asia and Australia.

“If you ask any mother who tries to grow flowers in her garden, you’ll always hear about having to deal with the insects,” said Jaime Ruiz, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“We don’t want anyone’s mom to deal with that for Mother’s Day.”

Armed with magnifying glasses and tweezers, the CBP’s trained group of agricultural specialists constantly search for unusual signs of disease or clues that mites, thrips, miner flies and other critters are feeding on lush shipments arriving at Los Angeles International Airport.

More flowers arrive in the United States for Mother’s Day than any other holiday, followed by Valentine’s Day, Ruiz said. Los Angeles handles 15 to 20 percent of the nation’s blooms, making it the second-busiest flower importer after Miami.

“Sometimes we don’t find anything, but finding something new to us is pretty exciting,” said Yaan Cheng, who has worked the past four years as a CBP inspector at LAX.

On Monday morning, Cheng grabbed a rose bouquet that had just arrived from Ecuador, flipped it upside down and gave it a strong shake.

Loose petals, leaves and other dry remnants scattered onto a white table as he reached for a pair of tweezers and plucked a twitching mite.

Cheng gingerly placed the insect into an alcohol-filled glass vial that will be examined to determine whether it is already established in the United States.

If the insect isn’t already present, then the entire shipment of flowers is sent back, destroyed or treated with chemical pesticides.

“One little bug that isn’t from here could wreak havoc in the agricultural sector,” Ruiz said.

The flowers arrive in the belly of passenger jetliners, and then are whisked to massive cold-storage units housed inside nearby warehouses.

Nearly 3.5 million flowers arrived last weekend from New Zealand, Ecuador and Colombia for inspection at Gourmet Logistics Co., which has a cavernous refrigeration unit that’s kept at a brisk zero to 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

The petals are kept in fresh condition until they are ready for distribution to West Coast flower shops and supermarkets, said Andy Iturrizaga, business relations manager for Gourmet Logistics Co.

“It’s a great business,” Iturrizaga said. “Especially at this time of the year.”

http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/ci_20567745/getting-bugs-out-literally-mothers-day-flowers-at

Filed under: aphids, article, Boston, chocolate, climate change, Commercial, Commercial Pest Control, disease, disease carrying insects, earth, environment, flowers, Food & Beverage Processing, Foodservice, holiday, holiday events, home, insects, mites, New England, News, News, Promos & What's Up, Pest Control, pests, Residential Pest Control, Small Business, spider mites, spring, spring insects | No Comments »

By David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding

I’m a big proponent of protein. Eggs for breakfast, grilled chicken for lunch, lightly seared filet of salmon for dinner—I can’t get enough. But even I have a limit, and that limit generally begins about the time I see exoskeletons, tentacles, pinchers, or stingers sticking out of my food.

Filed under: aphids, article, Caterpillars, Corn Ear Worms, Cowpea Curculio, Flies, fly, Flying Pests, Food & Beverage Processing, Foodservice, Fruit Flies, Health, home, Maggots, News, News, Promos & What's Up, palm weevil larva, Residential Pest Control, Thrips | No Comments »

Add bedbugs to your list of potential occupational health hazards. A new report reveals nearly half of the employees of a U.S. government office in Tennessee were bitten by the blood-thirsty invaders while at work.

A bedbug-detecting German shepherd confirmed the infestation at an unidentified building in Clarksville, Tenn., last September, and investigators concluded that at least 35 workers had suffered bites. Although one woman had bite marks all over her body, the bugs didn’t cause serious health problems, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

Bedbugs can easily expand their territory beyond bedrooms, said Michael Potter, professor of entomology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. “They start in homes and beds, and as people move about, they get transported into office buildings, schools, libraries, movie theaters, retail stores, you name it.”

Clarksville, home to about 125,000 people in north Tennessee, is one of many cities combating bedbugs in nonresidential settings in recent years. Bedbug infestations have soared since 2000 across the United States, sending even customers of luxury hotels and upmarket clothing stores into a panic.

A 2011 survey of U.S. pest control companies found that 38 percent had responded to infestations at office buildings, up from 17 percent the year before. Treatments at schools and day-care centers rose to 36 percent from 10 percent, and visits to hospitals jumped from 12 percent of their jobs to almost one-third.

Bedbugs bite people, often at night, and become engorged with their blood. The bites cause welts, itching and swelling. However, bedbugs do not carry disease like some other insects.

The building in question serves children and has 76 employees, said Dr. Jane Baumblatt, a CDC epidemic intelligence services officer based in Tennessee. Employees began reporting bites and itching last June, she said, and the state health department responded.

Theories about the source of the bites included scabies and fleas. But a German shepherd, one of many dogs around the country trained to detect bedbugs, found them in cubicles and offices within the building, Baumblatt said. Also, dermatologists confirmed that the bites were from bedbugs.

Baumblatt interviewed 61 employees and found that 35 had suffered from bites, often on their legs. ”It wasn’t that severe. It was more of a nuisance than anything,” Baumblatt said.

“The anxiety was that people didn’t know what it was,” she said. “Once people figured out they were bedbugs, they were relieved.”

The office brought in a pest control company to rid the office of bedbugs and performed steam cleaning, Baumblatt said.

Potter, the entomologist, said bedbugs prefer beds and stationary furniture such as couches and recliners because they don’t like disruption when they feed on people. But they may be transported to offices, day-care centers or myriad other locations in personal belongings such as backpacks, briefcases and purses.

Once an office becomes infested, managers may not want to tell workers in order to avoid a panic, he said. “In the best of all worlds, the office would inform the employees that some bedbugs have been spotted and they have a pest control company that’s hopefully involved in dealing with things,” he said.

However, Potter added, “nothing is easy when it comes to bedbugs.”

The report was scheduled for presentation Tuesday at the CDC’s annual Epidemic Intelligence Services conference in Atlanta.

 http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20120423/HEALTH/120421005/Bedbugs-can-infest-your-office-too?odyssey=nav|head

Filed under: article, Bedbug control, bedbug extermination, Bedbugs, Bedbugs, Ticks & Fleas, Boston, bugs, Commercial, Commercial Pest Control, home, Hotel, Massachusetts, News, News, Promos & What's Up, Pest Control, pests, Property Management, Residential Pest Control, Schools, Small Business | No Comments »

Beekeeper suffers 30 stings after being attacked by a swarm of 100,000 insects that are genetically linked to ‘killer bees.’ Populations of the bees can also be found in Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida.

A swarm of as many as 100,000 bees attacked a Tennessee beekeeper last month, and genetic testing of the angry critters has now revealed that they were partially Africanized bees, often referred to as “killer bees,” are a hybrid cross between the bee species normally found in America and African honey bees (Apis mellifera scutellata), which were originally introduced to the Americas as a productive source of honey. But the African honey bees take over hives wherever they spread, killing the hives’ original queens and hybridizing with resident populations. The hybridized Africanized bees are significantly more aggressive than other bees and more likely to attack in massive swarms when defending their nests. Their stings are no worse than those of other bees, but the sheer number of them can create more life-threatening situations, especially in anyone who is allergic to bee stings.

Filed under: africanized honey bee, article, Bees, Bees, Hornets & Wasps, killer bee, Residential Pest Control | No Comments »