New brochure on IPM for Schools and Child Care Facilities now available.

A collaborative effort between NCSU, Texas A&M and Syngenta has produced this new IPM publication - "An Ounce of Prevention!" covering IPM for Schools and Child Care Facilities. 

"AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION" Brochure

Proper Use and Maintenance of Insect Light Traps

If maintained and used properly, insect light traps (ILTs) can be very effective at both capturing and monitoring for flies. ILTs allow for easy identification, because generally, intact flies are preserved in the sticky traps. The following maintenance and use tips will help ensure your ILTs are working to the best of their ability:

Light Trap Location. Location and proper positioning are main factors in successful light trap usage:

Install lights on the same wall as entryways, if
possible (Photo: Mike Waldvogel, NCSU

• Install traps either on the same wall as the entryway (see photo at left), or on a nearby perpendicular wall. The attractant light should not be seen from the outside to avoid attracting outdoor flies.
• Avoid other light sources that could potentially compete with the trap. Try to avoid placing ILTs in brightly lit areas, if possible.
• Insects need to be able to see the light, so make sure that there is nothing placed in front of the ILT that would substantially block the light.
• For day-flying insects like house flies, install wall-mount or corner-mount light traps low.
• Ceiling-hung traps work better for night fliers like stored product moths.
• Install ILTs along the path to stored or processed food. Narrow hallways are good installation sites. ILTs are most effective where flying insects are funneled into narrow spaces.
• In food-processing areas, place ILTs so as to draw insects away from the food. Do not install ILTs over exposed food or near food prep surfaces. 
• Place open tube electrocuting traps near back doors that lead to garbage areas and dumpsters but are not near food or customers.
• To capture Drosophila (fruit flies), place an ILT that contains a sticky board low behind counters or behind beverage or salad bars. 
• Place ILTs in drop ceilings or attics to trap overwintering flies, such as cluster flies. 
• Don’t place ILTs near air blowers or in areas where there are strong air currents. 

Trap Maintenance. Be sure to dust off the lamps and the guard door on a regular basis. Use a wire brush to remove insects from the grid. The lamps, reflector and grid should be periodically washed with warm, soapy water. Inspect the trap for signs of electrical problems like damaged wires, cracked insulators, scorched transformers or loose electrical connections. Most ILTs will automatically turn off the electricity when the trap is opened for inspection or maintenance. However, it may be necessary to unplug the unit before cleaning.

Collection trays should be emptied and cleaned regularly. Dead insects left in the collection tray may attract dermestid beetles, so don’t wait until it’s full of insects to empty the tray. A small paint brush can be used to brush insect parts out of the catch tray and other parts of the trap.

Many ILTs use glue boards rather than a collection tray. Glue boards that are dusty or full of debris and insects will not be ineffective and should be changed. Even if the glue boards are clean and empty, they can dry out over time. Check the manufacturer’s recommendations for replacement of the glue board.

Most manufacturers recommend that lamps be replaced at least annually. The effective life of a lamp is about 7,000 hours or 9½ months of use. Even if the light appears alright, it may no longer attract insects. It’s good practice to replace the lamp in the spring to ensure they are most effective during peak season.

Examine the catch. Examine traps regularly. An increase in trap catch or the appearance of a new pest may indicate a developing pest problem somewhere in the building.

Use and promote IPM. Fly management will get an extra boost if other pest control strategies, such as exclusion and sanitation, are integrated with ILTs. Discuss with and educate your customers about the issues that may be contributing to a fly problem. Provide recommendations for minimizing these conditions. In addition, take advantage of any opportunities for some up-selling. For example, you might recommend the use of fly fans (air curtains) and/or vinyl strips at exterior doors and loading docks.

The Buzz About Paper Wasps

Common paper wasp (Polistes spp.)
Photo:  Russ Ottens, Univ. of Georgia

The cooling weather will soon bring an end to activity for Polistes or paper wasp colonies. There are

several species of paper wasps, but the common ones are brown in color with yellow stripes on their abdomens. The workers (who will die soon), along with next year's crop of queens, are starting to bail out of their nests. The surviving queens will seek out some place to pass the winter. All too often our houses, and other structures, become the location of choice.

You may begin seeing wasps outdoors hovering about the eaves and soffits on warm afternoons. At some point, the wasps may make their way indoors, and things can get more exciting. The wasps are often seeing moving about slowly and bouncing off windows, ceilings, light fixtures, etc. Cold weather seems to stop the activity, but quite likely on subsequent warm days you will find wasps flying about indoors or again spot them outside around the roof area.

A few things to keep in mind:

First - seeing the wasps does not mean that there is a nest in a wall; however, there may be a nest outdoors on a roof overhang, under a porch, in/on a tree or some other protected area.

Second - since these are queens looking for overwintering sites and not workers defending a nest, they are not aggressive and so stinging incidents are rare unless you have a "close encounter of the Polistes kind," such as I had when I laced up my running shoe one morning only to discover that a wasp had crawled inside there during the night.

Third - spraying indoors is an exercise in futility because there simply isn't a specific target area you can treat. Spraying the exterior of the building also has limited value because there are so many gaps accessible to the wasps.

Best advice: keep a rolled-up newspaper handy. Be patient; let the wasp land then smack it.

For further information about paper wasps, check out:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Other/note144/note144.html

http://insects.ncsu.edu/Urban/paperwasp.htm

Kudzu Bugs on the Move Again

Kudzu bugs aggregating on structure searching for 

overwintering sites (Photo:  Dan Suiter, Univ. of Georgia)

Kudzu bugs will soon be moving out of soybean fields, which means you may begin seeing them aggregating on or inside structures. The kudzu bug's fall movement indoors is very similar to what we've experienced since the 1990’s with the Asian lady beetle. The major difference between the two insects is that the Asian lady beetle is actually beneficial as a biological control agent because it feeds on aphids and other plant-feeding insects. By contrast, the kudzu bug's primary food source (aside from kudzu) happens to be field crops, such as soybeans, where they can significantly impact on yield. The kudzu bugs fondness for soybeans is one reason why we could see significant numbers of them invading homes and other buildings, even in rural areas. In more urban areas, there are plenty of other hosts, such as wisteria and privet. The insects are quite mobile; they are able to catch rides on wind currents, as well as automobiles, trucks, trains, and planes. This helps explain why this pest has managed to spread in about 4 years from the north-central Georgia to most of South Carolina, North Carolina and on into Virginia (plus west into Mississippi).

At this point, we still do not have anything new to report in terms of recommendations as to how to address this problem. Kudzu bugs are attracted to light-colored surfaces but that certainly doesn't mean that brick buildings or those with dark-colored siding will escape the bug invasion. While shortcuts and easy solutions would be nice, there simply aren't any.

The emphasis still has to be on exclusion because chemical control is only partially effective and relies primarily on targeting the insects that are aggregating on surfaces. Preventive sprays are not recommended because they simply won't be durable enough to last the weeks during which these insects will be actively seeking overwintering sites. If you feel a treatment is required, stick with targeted treatments of critical areas: windows and doorframes, soffits, and eaves. If you choose to treat using a pyrethroid insecticide, remember to follow new label requirements. For the latest label changes, visit:  http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/reevaluation/environmental-hazard-statment.html.

For more information about the kudzu bug, please visit our website: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Urban/kudzubug.htm

Cockroaches Quickly Lose Sweet Tooth To Survive

http://www.wral.com/cockroaches-quickly-lose-sweet-tooth-to-survive/12478379/

Rains Will Lead to Mosquito Activity, by Mike Waldvogel

The warming temperatures and recent spate of heavy rains will lead to increased mosquito activity in the next week. Before people start planning their chemical assault on the biting menaces, they can put a reasonable dent in populations simply by engaging in some "Tip and Toss" (which has nothing to do beer and watching TV). Our most common mosquito pest is the Asian tiger mosquito which takes advantage of water-filled objects as breeding sites. So, now is a good time to correct problems before you start hearing that familiar buzz of mosquitoes in your ear when you're sitting outdoors in the evening:

• Empty or (preferably) get rid of those objects that collect water - old cans, tires, and trash cans missing their lids.
• Put fresh water in bird baths and pet water bowls (both will be grateful for the new water!).
• The purpose of your rain gutters is to collect rain water, not pine needles, leaves, and other debris. Remove debris from your gutters and make sure water runs freely through through them. And make sure rainwater doesn't just splash and pool at the end at downspout. Make sure it drains out into your yard.
• Likewise, drainage ditches in front of your property are not meant to become "mosquito swimming pools." Clear them of debris and vegetation so that they don't impound water and let it stagnate.
• If you're going to collect rainwater to save for watering your gardens, make sure you have a screen over the top of the rain barrel to keep out debris and mosquitoes that are hunting for a good playing to lay eggs.

Pass along these suggestions to your neighbors as well because mosquito control takes a community effort to truly succeed.

You can find these details and more information about mosquito control on our website:http://insects.ncsu.edu/Urban/mosquito.htm

Spring Insect Invaders

Paper Wasps. Paper wasps (Polistes sp.) are long-legged, reddish brown to black insects with slender spindle-shaped abdomens. They may have differing degrees of yellowish or brown striping. Paper wasps can become a problem in the fall as the inseminated queens invade homes in search of overwintering sites. But paper wasps can also become a problem in the spring. As temperatures begin to climb, queens that spent the winter in structures become active and fly about. If they have been resting in an attic, wall void or crawlspace, the wasps may be attracted to light coming through a gap in the baseboard or a wall fixture, or around an AC vent and emerge inside the building. Since there are no nests or young to defend, the only real danger of being stung is from accidentally stepping on or pressing against one.

Figure 1. Use an aerosol insecticide
to destroy a paper wasp nest
(Photo: Patty Alder)

Control. Queens that are found indoors may simply be swatted or vacuumed. If a queen does manage to get outdoors and start a nest, a broom may be all that is needed to knock it down. If a wasp nest has had some time to grow and is considered to be a hazard, they are most easily destroyed in the evening with an aerosol insecticide that is labeled for "hornets or wasps" (see Figure 1). 

Clover Mites. Clover mites are occasional invaders that can become a problem in early spring. They are tiny (1/30-inch long), red to reddish-brown, oval-shaped mites. Clover mites, as do other arachnids, have 8 legs. They hold the front pair of legs straight out in front of the head. Many people actually mistake this pair of legs for antennae. Clover mites do not bite nor do they burrow under the skin. They are strictly plant feeders. Hosts include grasses, clover, and dandelion, to name a few.

Most heavy outbreaks occur in the early spring, especially around heavily fertilized lawns. The mites may invade homes and can leave a reddish-brown stain if crushed.

Control. An 18”-24” grass and weed-free zone around the structure’s perimeter can greatly reduce the number of invading clover mites (Figure 2). In addition, treating a 5-10 foot wide area of ground along the foundation, as well as an 18-24 inch wide vertical band of the foundation wall with an appropriately labeled residual liquid insecticide can help.

Figure 2. Placing gravel around the structure
can help prevent clover mite invasions
(Photo: Mike Waldvogel)

 Many plants are actually unattractive to clover mites, including geranium, marigold, zinnia, salvia, rose, chrysanthemum petunia, juniper, spruce, yew and barberry. Planting these non-attractive plants in the weed-free zone will help reduce the number of clover mites around the structure. You may also contact their county Cooperative Extension Center for advice on proper fertilization of your lawn.

The application of insecticides indoors for clover mites is not warranted. Simply use a vacuum cleaner to collect any mites found indoors. Care should be taken not to crush the mites. The vacuum bag should be sealed in a disposable plastic bag before throwing it away.

Kudzu and Brown Marmorated Sting Bugs. We will most likely start to see an increase in the activity of kudzu bugs and brown marmorated stink bugs as well. The stink bugs have a broad host range and are often found on Paulownia (empress tree), Ailanthus (tree of heaven), and crabapple among others, but at this point in the year (particularly in western NC) those host plants have little foliage and cooler weather has kept the bug activity down. And so, a lot of this current activity is simply a response to the warmer temperature and you'll see the insects on non-host sites, such as house siding, cars, etc. Kudzu bugs will be aggregating on almost anything and so you will see them on wisteria and other plants (even if there isn't much foliage), houses, early-planted beans in people's gardens, etc. But even on plants with foliage the insects will simply be hanging out rather than feeding.

Control. Treating the exterior of buildings with a spray insecticide using products containing pyrethroids (such as bifenthrin) may provide termporary relief, but don’t expect any long term relief. There's a big difference between "killing" individual bugs and "controlling" a population of them when these bugs are essentially a "moving target" in terms of where and when they'll show up. In spring, the situation is different than it is in the fall. In the fall, these insects are searching for a way to get into buildings in order to survive the winter. Now, their attention is focused on heading to the great outdoors in search of food and potential mates. So, spraying aggregations (e.g., clusters on a wisteria plant) will kill a bunch of bugs, but more are likely to show up later.

We have information for residential settings at:

http://insects.ncsu.edu/Urban/kudzubug.htm

Figure 3. Boxelder bug adults and nymphs
(Photo: Whitney Cranshaw)

Boxelder Bugs. Adult boxelder bugs are about 1/2-inch long, black with orange or red markings, including three stripes on the area right behind the head. Their wings lay flat over their bodies, overlapping each other to form an ‘X’ (Figure 3). The immature nymphs are 1/16th-inch long and bright red when they first hatch. As they grow and become larger, they become red and black. You can potentially see all stages at any given time during the summer.

Adult boxelder bugs emerge from their overwintering sites in March and early April and feed for about 2 weeks before mating. These insects prefer sunny areas and, therefore, are found most abundantly on trees in a southern exposure and on sides of buildings facing south. The boxelder bug population increases rapidly from middle July to early September.

Boxelder bugs have unusual feeding preferences. Because these insects feed primarily on boxelder and maple seeds, the insects are found on the ground beneath female trees in the early summer before the seeds start to develop. The bugs move into the trees once seeds begin to form. These insects are cannibalistic, particularly when the victim is molting, and they have been reported to feed on other dead or dying insects.

Control. The most permanent solution to a boxelder bug problem is the removal of female boxelder trees from an area, although in most cases this will not be practical or desirable. Outdoors, a pesticide application around the exterior of structures may help reduce the number of invading boxelder bugs. Preventing boxelder bugs from getting into the structure is key. Caulk or otherwise seal any openings the bugs may be using to get indoors. Bugs that enter the home may simply be vacuumed up.