Crazy ants in Austin area

The invasive Caribbean crazy ant resembles a few
other ant species with its large colony sizes and "crazy"
 running behavior of individual ants. A positive
identification can best be done by the Texas
A&M Entomology lab in College Station.

The tiny crazy ant, known either as the Rasberry crazy ant or the Carribbean crazy ant, is now in the Austin area.  See the story from the Austin American Statesmen, for more information.  I won't say much about this except to note that this is thought to be a mostly tropical ant, and the general consensus is that it won't do as well where winters are cold and humidity is low.  Whether it will turn out to be a serious problem in relatively dry Austin, or whether it will establish as far north as Dallas is yet to be seen.

The Austin American Statesman article gives instructions for sending these to an entomologist in College Station for identification.  Also, you can check out the website at Texas A&M for more information on these little gals.

Multifamily housing and housekeeping

One of sources of pest control information that I link with at the bottom of this site is the IPM in Multifamily Housing Blog. Allison Taisey, author of the site, has been working with StopPests.org to help public housing authorities improve their IPM programs for five years.  I thought her message this month was especially good and wanted to share it with you all.  What follows is a selection from her post of 18 April:

"Good sanitation makes pest control work. Older generations knew this fact and were raised to take appropriate measures—namely, good housekeeping. But kids these days seem to have missed the memo.  

"As I did my spring cleaning this past weekend, I reflected on how I learned to clean and keep a neat house. My grandmother had a 6th sense for loose laundry—I always had to pick up before starting the next activity. My mom had a fly-fishing vest that she outfitted with cleaning products and tools before going to town on our house. And my dad used organizing as a way of procrastinating, something I certainly picked up—you can be sure to find my Tupperware drawer organized around tax time. 

"I learned by example and grew up with standards for housekeeping that were enforced by family members. In public housing, there may not be family members to teach the next generation. It’s up to property managers and housing inspectors to teach by example and enforce housekeeping standards. I encourage [them] to focus on the teaching at least as much as the enforcement. 

"One of the main lessons I learned while getting my teaching degree was to determine what my student knows about a topic before trying to teach him or her my take on it. The teacher must address misunderstandings, acknowledge correct thinking, and find gaps in understanding. In teaching residents to comply with housekeeping standards, I’ve found a lot of gaps. Three of the most common I run into are residents not knowing that:

• They could use a vacuum cleaner in a home without carpet;

• The stove top lifts up for easy cleaning; and

• The stove and fridge should be pulled out and cleaned under at least once a year.

As Ally says, simple things that can have a major impact on housekeeping. If you work with housing authorities, or apartment complexes, these three lessons might be worth sharing in the form of a door hanger, or email newsletter, or leave-behind flier.  Also, check out this interesting and insightful page devoted to the question, “Why do residents not cooperate or maintain a clean and clutter-free home?”

Ally is sponsoring a webinar next Thursday, April 26 on “Managing Pests in Multifamily Housing.” The focus of the training will be on how one housing authority focused specially on residents with housekeeping problems.  If you have the time and are interested in participating, click here.

Catching the new drift on pyrethroids

For years agricultural pesticide applicators have been required to measure and record wind and weather at the time of spray applications. Wind matters in agricultural applications because of the potential for pesticide drift--the movement of pesticides from their intended target to undesirable sites such as other farm fields, homes, schools and natural areas. Weather matters because excessive rainfall can result in poor adhesion of sprays to plant or soil surfaces and pesticide-contaminated runoff--another form of drift.

In structural pest control, drift has always been an issue also, but on a much smaller scale.  For structural pest control indoor applicators, drift can occur in the form of splashback during both spot and crack and crevice liquid insecticide applications indoors. It can also occur with dust applications (I still remember my dismay, as a young and inexperienced applicator, when a compressor fan kicked on, blowing the pyrethrins dust I had just applied to a cockroach-infested motor back in my face). Outdoor applications can "drift" under windy conditions, or when rain washes residues from the application site to streams or lakes.  In fact, pesticide runoff is the reason that EPA has moved recently to change labeling requirements on new pyrethroid insecticide labels.

The new pyrethroid label standards by the US EPA are now out, and should be on every pest control service manager's required reading list. Unfortunately, they are not that easy to find, nor understand. I recently had the opportunity to sit in on the webinar update on these new standards by Jim Fredericks of the National Pest Management Association. NPMA has been working hard to keep up with these new standards and Jim did a nice job summarizing the new use directions you will be seeing shortly on all pyrethroid pesticide labels.

Digital handheld wind meters are relatively inexpensive,
accurate and can have powerful options such as wind
direction, temperature and relative humidity.

Two weather-related issues appear in these new requirements. First, for pre-construction termiticide applications only [see update in the May 1 comment below], the new labels will say,“Do not make on-grade applications when sustained wind speeds are above 10 mph (at application site) at nozzle end height.”  This means that anyone doing pre-construction termiticide treatments will have to have some method of measuring wind speed [as far as I can tell wind speed measurement is not required for general pest spray applications around residences and businesses].  There are at least three ways I know to estimate wind speed accurately:

• Purchase and use a digital wind meter, like the one in the accompanying image.  Today's units range in price from $20 to $200, depending on features. They can include barometric pressure, relative humidity, temperature, altitude, etc.
• Get a old-fashioned Dwyer handheld windmeter for about $25. This tough and dependable unit (doesn't need batteries) works on air pressure to elevate a small plastic ball, providing a simple wind speed measurement.
• Go to an online website that provides windspeed data for your location, such as  http://www.intellicast.com/National/Wind/WINDcast.aspx. The problem is that the wind speed at your local airport may not be the same as at the account where your applications are made.

Second, the new labels will prohibit any pyrethroid spray, granular or dust applications made when it's raining. In areas where rain is frequent, or constant at certain times of year, this may be inconvenient (and who's to say when it's really raining?), but the intent is clear.  When it's raining, insecticides will not adhere well to surfaces and are prone to running off the target site into storm drains or streams.

Finally, anyone doing outdoor applications (especially termite pre-treatments) should consider adding spaces on your business' service forms for weather data, like wind speed and precipitation. If you're an honest applicator who goes by the book, this sort of information can only help you if called upon to defend an application.  An on-site reading taken from a handheld wind unit always trumps NOAA area weather data, and could save your rear in a legal case.  

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty...from pests

The quote "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, but most likely was first penned by Wendell Phillips, the abolitionist and defender of Native Americans' rights from Massachusetts.  The same quote could be applied accurately to the effort to keep our country free from disruptions caused by exotic pests.  Without continual vigilance, our country would be overrun (more than it already is) with exotic pests and new pest problems.

A recent five-kilo rice interception at DFW airport contained
evidence of khapra beetle, a notorious quarantine pest. Photo
by Customs and Border Protection.

This point came home to me again recently as I read one of the regular reports I receive from Morris Bigham, Chief Agriculture Specialist for Customs and Border Protection at the Dallas /Fort Worth International (DFW) airport.  Every month various pests are intercepted from the luggage of travelers at airports like DFW.  Mostly these folks are not nefarious smugglers, but average people who are either ignorant of the laws prohibiting transportation of foods and pest, or who think the law doesn't really apply to them.

Take just one example from the latest report:

"On February 06, 2012 a passenger arrived at DFW International Airport from India... The passenger was referred to agriculture secondary for inspection. The passenger did not declare any items of agriculture interest...and a verbal declaration was unattainable due to a language barrier. During the inspection of the passenger’s luggage, 5 kilograms [about 10 lbs] of rice was discovered. The rice was seized and quarantined for further inspected. Upon further inspection of the rice, a coleoptera [beetle] cast skin was found. Tentative identification of Trogoderma granarium [khapra beetle] was given for the cast skin. As a result, the specimen was forwarded to the local USDA Area Identifier for further identification. The rice was destroyed by steam sterilization. On February 29, 2012, final identification of the pest was received, confirming the tentative identification of Trogoderma granarium...a quarantine significant pest."

If you're like most people, you've probably never heard of khapra beetle, but it is one of the most destructive pests of stored grain in the world. According to Wikipedia, "infestations are difficult to control because of the insect's ability to survive without food for long periods, its preference for dry conditions and low-moisture food, and its resistance to many insecticides."  The only real protection we in the U.S. have from this beetle are the dedicated men and women charged with the behind-the-scenes task of inspecting luggage and shipped grain from overseas.  Last month at DFW airport alone USDA/APHIS intercepted 348 passenger and 45 cargoes with pest evidence.  It's amazing to me that with all the international travel that we have managed to keep khapra beetle, and many other pests like it, out of the country so long.

Perhaps it's stories like this that make me not laugh at stories people tell when they brag about how they smuggled something in from a foreign junket.  A sad (for me, because I like her as an actor) example of this occurred on the Tonight Show a couple of month ago. Guest Sandra Bullock let slip on the show that she had smuggled holiday sausage into the country as part of a family tradition. Of course it was all great fun, and the audience enjoyed the anecdote, but it left me feeling a little like listening to a joke about the antics of a drunk driver.  Pretty funny until you know someone who's an alcoholic, or who has lost a loved one from a drunk driving incident.

So as you're eating your whole grain cereal tomorrow think about those good folks from the Homeland Security agencies and the work they are doing to keep your breakfast affordable and pest free.

A meeting for schools AND PMPs

Past TIPMAPS meetings have included presentations by
Regulatory officials such as then TDA Assistant
Commissioner of Pesticide Programs, Jimmy Bush.

This November will mark the fourth year that Texas school IPM coordinators have gotten together for their annual TIPMAPS (Texas IPM Affiliates for Public Schools) networking and educational conference on integrated pest management for school facilities.  If you want to talk with an enthusiastic group about IPM, this is the place to be.

A handful of PMPs have attended this meeting in the past, but the doors are open to much wider participation. TIPMAPS welcomes pest control contractors to attend and become members, and the meeting could be a great way to make contacts with new school districts as well as building stronger relations with the districts you are already servicing.  In addition, I guarantee that you will gain insight into how school IPM programs operate under the Texas school IPM rules and regulations. Associate membership for pest control professionals, manufacturers and other vendors is $100 per year.  Click here for an application.

The 2012 TIPMAPS meeting will be held November 14-15 in San Marcos, TX at the Embassy Suites.  Vendor booths are two for one this year ($500 for both the Facility Masters and TIPMAPS meetings), and regular registration for the two-day TIPMAPS meeting is $125. The facilities are top-notch, the speakers are engaging, and CEUs are offered; so if your business is involved in servicing Texas school districts, this may be one meeting to get on the calendar early.  Hotel rooms will be limited, so it's recommended to make your reservations early (by Oct 22 to get the group rate) by clicking on this special link, or when calling the hotel directly, by mentioning the group name TASBO/group code TAI (phone 512 805 5340).

To learn more about the conference go to http://www.tasbo.org/about-the-conference-mao-tfm To learn more about TIPMAPS, visit their website at http://tipmaps.org/

Bed bug control in public housing

Last month the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published its official guidance for public housing authorities and managers of Section 8 (federally subsidized) housing.  If you do pest control work for public housing, you should be familiar with this new document.

Click here for the guidance notice PIH-2012-17 and here for guidance on prevention and safe removal of bed bugs.  Thanks to Allison Taisey and her blog on IPM in multifamily housing for this update.

Gee, I love my job

Today's IPM Coordinator training class at
Plano Independent School District.

As I write, I'm sitting in a mostly dark room listening to my Texas AgriLife colleagues Don Renchie and Janet Hurley walk a group of almost 40 school IPM Coordinators through a long list of rules and regulations about how pesticides must be used in Texas public schools.  In between jokes, back-and-forth banter, and scribbling pens, learning is taking place and it's a beautiful thing. 

Given a choice, I suspect most of us would probably not choose to spend our day watching a PowerPoint slide show and listening to speakers for hours. But there is little boring about this session between a group of eager learners and an entertaining speaker (and if you know Dr. Don Renchie, you know what I mean).  I know the efforts made by Janet Hurley to keep this training interesting, relevant, and interactive.  A wireless audience response system gets students interacting with us trainers, and shows both the class and the trainers how well the message is being conveyed.  Refreshments are handy and (at least today) the chairs are comfortable. Life is good.

I've found few things more satisfying that imparting knowledge to a motivated group of adult learners.  Some of my personal best friends are teachers and find great fulfillment in teaching children important life skills. Personally, give me a group of adults.  Sure kids are cute, and their innocence and naivete is engaging; but adults need education just as much as the kids. Adults are easily bored, often critical, sometimes prejudiced and usually forgetful; but nothing in my book is better than giving adult learners skills that they need to excel in their jobs and/or life. The rewards outweigh the pains.

School IPM coordinators, and the PMPs who work for them, are given the weighty responsibility of keeping  school districts pest-free while balancing pesticide risks.  This isn't easy.  Coordinators have to first master a dozen or so pages of laws and regulations; they have to learn tongue-twisting pesticide names and their properties; they have to organize reams of records; they have to fight for scarce  budget dollars; they have to counsel frustrated principals, teachers and sometimes parents; and they have to be ready for unannounced visits from state inspectors.  Few of them asked for their jobs as IPM coordinator, rather they were assigned the position usually on top of several other jobs. 

Watching and listening to classes like this respond to speakers and ask intelligent and probing questions is highly satisfying.  Over the years I watched some of our IPM class and PMP alumni work their way up through the food chain in their school districts and pest control companies.  I've seen people who were initially reluctant to be assigned the job of "bug killer" only to embrace the position and take great satisfaction in their new job. I like to think that I and my colleagues have played a part in the pride and high performance of more than a few of these men and women.  And that's why I love my job.