Mosquito Activity Will Be Increasing, by Mike Waldvogel

Many areas of the state saw significant rainfall last week and that also means we will see a rise in mosquito activity particularly by the Asian tiger mosquito which takes advantage of those small and often inconspicuous sites around your property that fill with storm water and become prime mosquito breeding sites. So, before people start planning a chemical assault on their yards as the solution to their mosquito problems, they need to start with the simpler and more long-term approach of eliminating "collectibles." I don't mean souvenirs; we're talking about all of those objects that collect and retain rainwater for days or weeks. For example:

• Bird baths - simply flushing them out with a garden hose will flush out the mosquito larvae. Plus, the birds will appreciate the fresh water. For horse owners with water troughs near stalls or out in pastures, one option is to use a product such as "Mosquito Dunks," which contain the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, which kills the mosquito larvae (but not the adults). Although you can use them in outdoor water bowls for pets, it is far simpler (and better for your animals) if you “tip and toss” the water from the bowl and replenish it with fresh water *daily*.

• Old cans, tires, etc. - empty them and get rid of them (legally dispose of them, don't simply toss them along the highway to become someone else’s problem).

• Outdoor flower pots - empty the water from the dishes/trays underneath them. Your plants have plenty of water without the overflow. This also helps reduce fungus gnat problems in the plant soil. 

• Remove all of that built-up debris from your gutters. The water and decaying material attract mosquitoes. 

• Rain barrels – if you collect water from your gutters or some other system, make sure the barrel is screened to keep out debris and mosquitoes.

• Tarps that cover your boat, grill, firewood, etc. also collect pockets of water that can remain for 1-2 weeks. So make sure you check those frequently and dump out any water that has collected on them.

• The bed of that '57 Ford pickup that you've been “restoring” for the last 25 years can collect water particularly if the tailgate faces uphill in your yard. 

• Kids' pools - if they're not being used by kids, they're probably being used by the mosquitoes (and maybe some toads) - so empty them. The same thing applies to pools (in ground or above ground) that aren't maintained (e.g., pools on abandoned or foreclosed properties).

• Drainage ditches - they're meant to collect storm water temporarily. Keep them free of debris so that water flows and has time to filter into the soil.

• Decorative fish ponds can be a source of mosquitoes if they contain a lot of vegetation that provides hiding places for the mosquito larvae. “Mosquito Dunks” are an option here.

• Tree holes - when limbs fall off trees, the remaining hole in the trunk can collect water. Flush that out or put a small piece of a mosquito dunk into it.

Many people ask about treating shrubs in their yard. Mosquitoes will rest in these locations, but whether treating them really "controls" a mosquito problem is difficult to determine depending on the species of mosquitoes most prominent in your area. Similarly, people using outdoor foggers will definitely kill mosquitoes, but depending on the time of day/evening that they use it, they may be missing the peak activity of the most common mosquito species found in their area. Two other issues about using outdoor foggers are important. First, safety is critical. Make sure that you are standing upwind from the direction that you are dispersing the fog and wear appropriate protective equipment to prevent the fog from getting into your eyes and lungs or on your skin. Second, know where the fog is going. Some of your neighbors may not actually want chemicals drifting onto their property (particularly if they're outside eating at the time!). The same applies to the automated misting systems that some people have installed on their homes. From time to time, we get reports of companies that offer “mosquito control” whose response to the question of what they are using is simply that it’s something “safe” or “natural” but they won’t actually tell you what the chemical is. Personally, I would steer clear of a company that isn’t willing to tell you what they are spraying (or propose to spray) on *your* property. You have the right to know the identity of the product and if they won’t reveal it, the NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is very willing to “encourage” them to be forthright about their control program.

One other point to remember - mosquitoes have no concept of property lines. Mosquito management takes a neighborhood effort to be truly effective. We have information on mosquito control on the web at http://insects.ncsu.edu/Urban/mosquito.htm.

Those Darn Ants!

Argentine ants (Photo: Alex Wild).

Okay, so we can all admit that at some point or another, we’ve dealt with accounts where we cannot seem to get a handle on an ant problem. Your customer keeps seeing ants in and around a kitchen or bathroom sink, or other water source.

So let’s run through what might be a typical scenario:

You look around and rule out the presence of a leak or other plumbing issue. You determine that the ants are just after whatever water is in the sink. You spend some timing looking around, but because the ants haven’t established a foraging trail, you can’t figure out how they are getting in.

So you do what you can in this situation – perhaps you make a crack-and-crevice application into any obvious cracks or gaps in an effort to keep the ants out. You recommend that your customer seal up the couple of gaps you found with some caulk or other sealant. You go through your regular spiel about making sure that food is stored properly, garbage is taken out regularly, excess water is wiped up, etc. And you’re done.

Until you get another call about ants from the same account! So, you go back, look around again – this time taking even a little more time to check for potential entry points. You know that for optimal results, you really need to find and treat the source (i.e., the nest). So you go outside and look for a nearby ant nest but find nothing. You watch the ants closely, but never see where they are coming from or going to. So you make another, more thorough crack-and-crevice application into the gaps in the area. You treat a few extra openings that you somehow missed before. And you’re done.

You wish! You get yet another call from the same customer complaining about ants in the same area. So, what can you do now? What is going on?

Well, I can tell you that I’ve had this exact same problem occur at my house – in my kitchen around the sink. And I tried everything that I wrote about above. I checked outside for a nearby nest but found nothing. Since I could find no nest, I realized that my best bet would be to attempt to keep the ants out of my house. So I treated all the obvious gaps with a crack-and-crevice insecticidal spray. I sealed up whatever openings I could see. Yet, I kept getting ants around my kitchen sink. I watched the ants carefully to try and determine exactly where they were getting in. But I could find nothing, because while there were several ants around the sink, there was never a real distinct foraging trail.

Ants recruited and feeding on jelly (Photo: Patty Alder)

Then it hit me: I realized that in order to find the entry point(s), I needed a distinct foraging trail. So I placed a very small dab of apple jelly on a piece of cardboard, placed it on the counter near the ants…. and waited. It didn’t take long – maybe 20 minutes or so – for more ants to show up (see photo at right). 

Pretty soon, I had myself a pretty distinct trail of ants going from my kitchen sink to…. a small opening where the caulk had come out in an area on the counter right behind my sink. (see photos below). A small opening that I had overlooked! So I treated that opening with a crack-and-crevice spray and guess what? No more ants!

Foraging trail can be followed from the jelly down the
window frame (Photo: Patty Alder).

If you have this issue with ants, probably the last thing you want to do is spend even more time at an account! But if you’ve searched for a nest with no luck, then the next best thing you can do for your customer is try to keep the ants out of the house. So spend a little extra time and set out a bit of jelly on an index card in a couple of areas where you are seeing the ant activity. The extra time spent may save you a callback later. Or, if you’ve got a willing customer, ask him or her to set out the jelly about 30 minutes before you are scheduled to arrive. 

Ants were coming in through a gap in the counter behind
the sink (Photo: Patty Alder).

Check for a trail of foraging ants and carefully follow the ants to see if you can determine how they are gaining entry into the area. If jelly does not seem to attract the ants, you could try a small piece of cheese or a potato chip. Once you figure out where the ants are coming in, you can treat that opening with a crack-and-crevice application. You may even want to suggest your customer seal up the opening after it has been treated.

Good luck and happy ant hunting!

Warmer Weather Bringing Out Some Pests, by Mike Waldvogel

Ground-nesting bees. Warm temperatures and the recent rains are promoting a burst of insect activity. We received a call this week from a school system about "swarms" of bees showing up on the school grounds. These are most likely the solitary “digger” bees, particularly andrenid bees. Colletid bees will follow suit within a few weeks. Homeowners often mistake andrenid bees for honey bees because they are similar in appearance, although typically have blackish abdomens and light-yellow hairs. If you're a pest management professional, this is a good point to mention to your office staff who answer the phones because people will start to call about bees swarming all over the yard.

Andrenid bee (Photo by Tony DiTerlizzi)

The bees begin foraging for food and seeking out new nesting sites. This activity will continue for the next 2 months or so depending on the area of the state and the species of bee. The bees dig a vertical tunnel in the soil, particularly in areas where the soil drains well and vegetation may be sparse. They make small side chambers off the main tunnel and provision them with pollen for their offspring. These bees are "solitary" which means there is no true colony which is supported by worker bees. Mating takes place at this time, so a lot of the "swarming" is just males and females trying to pair up (think of your lawn as a big singles bar for solitary bees). The bees frequently make small mounds in the soil, and small clusters of these nests may be seen together, but each mound is all made by an individual female bee. At one school in Raleigh, we’ve had reports of 5 or more nests in just 1 square foot of lawn. The damage can be unsightly with large numbers of mounds in the yard, but it is mostly a cosmetic issue. The bigger problem is usually that people walking by panic because they assume that these are swarms of honey bees (or a similar bee) that will likely attack them if they venture too close to "the nest." Turf-nesting bees can sting but rarely do, so unless you accidentally step or sit on one (which kids might do while playing), they are not likely to sting. Since they are not "social," there is not a large number of worker bees trying to protect a nest. So, there is no "mass attack" as might occasionally occur during a close encounter of the yellowjacket kind (and it's still early in the year for us to see any yellowjacket colonies out there).

These ground-nesting bees are beneficial and should be left alone if possible. Any pesticide that you typically use outdoors for such sites could be applied, but success is likely to be marginal because of the duration of activity. The bees often try to dig into the sand in play areas at schools, childcare facilities, etc., which is a concern particularly for parents and teachers with children that are severely allergic to bee stings. Any chemical treatment in sandy play areas is strongly discouraged because of the contact kids have with the soil (and which they might get in their mouths as well). If the bees try to nest in a sandbox, a simple solution is to cover it during the day but it will take a few weeks for you to deter most of the bees that show up over time. While this isn't always successful, you could saturate the area with soapy water which will bring the bees out and probably kill some in the process since soap does work as an insecticide. Since the bees prefer well-drained areas, water-staturated soils will deter the bees but again we're looking at activity that can take place over a few weeks.

Information, including pictures, of these bees and the "damage" that they cause can be found at:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/Insects/O&T/lawn/note100/note100.html

Mosquitoes. A lot of people have asked about mosquitoes and the warm weather. The mosquitoes that we’ve seen active on warm days are species that overwinter as adults and respond to temperature. In most of NC, our major problem is the Asian tiger mosquito which passes the winter in the egg stage and requires a combination of factors, including the presence of water, temperature (water and air temperature) and day length. So, we still have time before Asian tiger mosquitoes are active. However, this is a good time of the year to add some "habitat modification" tasks to your list of spring chores:

• Get rid of (or repair) those objects that collect water. Fix tarps covering boats, cars, etc. so they don't collect water.
• Clean out your gutters (which trap water and leaf and organic debris that attract mosquitoes).
• Clean out drainage ditches in front of your property. They're meant to catch and drain run-off, not become breeding pools for mosquitoes.

And you really need to convince your neighbors to do the same because mosquito control will be more effective when the entire community is involved.

For more information on mosquitoes and their control, please see our fact sheet:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Urban/mosquito.htm#list

Insect of the Week - Mystery Insect Revealed!

Remember this mystery insect from last week:

Photo by Alex Wild (www. alexanderwild.com)

The only hint given last week was that this little critter was, in fact, an insect (because it has three pairs of legs). No one had any good guesses - and I have to admit - this was a tough one!

So, now to reveal the mystery - drum roll please..... this little critter is a firefly (or lightning bug) larva! Who knew a firefly larva was so strange looking!

We all know that adult fireflies "light up" - they emit light that we enjoy watching on hot summer nights. For many of us, spotting and catching fireflies is one of our favorite summertime memories.

Fireflies use their lights to talk to each other. Adults emit light mostly to attract mates, but they may also use their light to defend their territory and keep predators away. In some firefly species, only one sex lights up. In most, however, both sexes emit light. Male fireflies flash their abdomens in species-specific patterns, hoping to attract the attention of a female hiding in the grass. An interested female will return the pattern, helping guide the male to her in the darkness. Firefly light patterns will vary in frequency and length, and are species-specific. In addition, the height at which they emit their light while in flight will vary depending on the species. Pretty cool, huh? One other interesting fact about fireflies - they are actually beetles!

Firefly larva (Photo by Jasja Dekker)

So, we all know adult fireflies emit lights, but did you know that firefly larvae also light up? But why do the larvae glow? What purpose does it serve? Light emitting serves a different function in larvae than it does in adults. It appears to be a warning signal to predators since many firefly larvae contain chemicals that are distasteful or toxic. 

Firefly larvae live on the ground, under bark, and in other moist places. They eat earthworms, snails and slugs. Larvae may also scavenge on certain small dead animals and other organic material. They have sickle-shaped mandibles with which they can inject a kind of chemical that paralyzes their prey and helps digest it.

Check out this amazing video below to see a firefly larva glowing:

http://www.myspace.com/video/quaoarlo/firefly-larva-of-thailand/24023925

Insect of the Week - What Am I?

Another mystery creature this week! Take a look at the photo below and take a guess at what type of critter this is. Here's a tidbit that might help narrow things down:  insects have just three pair of legs. So, this mystery insect is, in fact, an insect and not a creature closely related to an insect. The answer will be revealed next week!

Photo by Alex Wild, www.alexanderwild.com

New Pyrethroid Label Requirements (for Non-Agricultural Outdoor Pyrethroid Products)

In an effort to reduce the potential for runoff and drift that can result from applications of pyrethroids, the EPA has revised the “Environmental Hazard Statements” and general “Directions for Use” sections for pyrethroid non-agricultural outdoor products. Pyrethroids include pesticide products such as “Talstar” (bifrenthin), “Tempo” (cyfluthrin), “Suspend” (deltamethrin), and others. The EPA revisions also apply to “combination products” such as: “Temprid SC,”  and “Transport WDG and “Transport ME.” The new requirements also apply to consumer end pyrethroid-containing pesticides, such as “Ortho Home Defense Max” (bifenthrin), Bayer Advance Home Pest Control (cyfluthrin), and others.

The new environmental hazard statements are specific for different formulations (i.e., liquid, dust, granular, and ready-to-use products). The general “Directions for Use” included in this labeling initiative are considered to be best management and good stewardship practices.

Let's take a look at some of the new changes:

• Requirements for Granular Formulations labeled or intended for outdoor residential uses: 

o   “Apply this product directly to the lawn or garden area. Water treated area as directed on this label. Do not water to the point of run-off.”

o   “Do not make applications during rain.”

• Requirements for Liquid, Dust, and Ready-to-Use Formulations products labeled or intended for outdoor residential uses:

o   “Do not water the treated area to the point of run-off.”

o   “Do not make applications during rain.”

• Additional Application Restrictions For General Outdoor Surface and Space Sprays, except for outdoor fogging devices:

o   “All outdoor applications must be limited to spot or crack-and-crevice treatments only, except for the following permitted uses: 

(1) Treatment to soil or vegetation around structures;

(2) Applications to lawns, turf, and other vegetation;

(3) Applications to building foundations, up to a maximum height of 3 ft.

Other than applications to building foundations, all outdoor applications to impervious surfaces such as sidewalks, driveways, patios, porches and structural surfaces (such as windows, doors, and eaves) are limited to spot and crack-and-crevice applications only.”

Although the label changes do not apply to turf (such as athletic fields and golf courses), these new label changes will affect the way you conduct pest management using pyrethroids. The one restriction that will probably impact your usual pest management techniques the most is the limitation of structural sprays to impervious surfaces. If you need to do a perimeter treatment, you are still allowed to apply the product up the foundation wall (to a maximum height of 3 feet) and on the soil and vegetation around the building. The major change applies to outdoor applications to impervious surfaces like sidewalks, driveways, windows, doors, and eaves. For example, in an area where a driveway meets a garage door, you are limited to either a spot treatment (an area no larger than 2 square feet) or a crack-and-crevice treatment in that area because both areas (the garage door and the driveway) are considered impervious surfaces. 

Most likely, if you're applying an exterior perimeter spray, you're dealing with a pest like ants, millipedes, ladybird beetles, or another equally persistent pest. In those cases, a crack-and-crevice application to those impervious structural surfaces like garage doors, windows, eaves, etc., will provide the most benefit anyway, as those areas are often points of entry for these pests. So, here's the good news: if you follow the new label requirements, you'll be using the product in a more efficient manner and the potential for runoff will be reduced. A win-win situation! 

Insect of the Week - The Snowflea

Snowflea, Hypogastrura nivicola (Photo: Tom Murray)

What in the world is a snowflea? Are they fleas that only appear when it snows? Are they fleas that are white in color? Snowfleas are not fleas at all, but are actually a type of insect called a springtail. Springtails are primitive, wingless insects that can leap long distances using their tail (called a furcula). They are tiny insects, ranging in size from 0.04 to 0.2 inch long. Springtails are one of nature's decomposers; they feed on algae and decomposing vegetable matter, bacteria and fungi. As a result of their feeding habits, springtails are generally found in damp places, such as in leaf litter and mossy areas.

Homeowners sometimes discover these insects in large numbers in swimming pools, potted plants, around damp building foundations, or in moist soil and mulch. Springtails are primarily a nuisance pest; they do not bite or transmit disease, but may invade buildings in times of dry weather or heavy rains. They may also breed indoors in areas of high humidity that occur near leaks and cracks to the exterior.

Springtail, showing furcula (Photo: Patty Alder)

Snowfleas are a species of dark blue springtail, Hypogastrura nivicola. They are one of those oddball insects that may remain active in the winter and can be found hopping about on snow banks when the temperature is as low as 20 degrees. Their tiny bodies contain a unique, antifreeze protein that prevents them from freezing during sub-zero temperatures. There are hopes that similar proteins may be useful for storing transplant organs.

Check out the video below to see the snowflea "in action!"