RODENT DANGERS

RODENTS AS DISEASE VEHICLES

In the past century alone, more than 10 million people have died from rodent-borne diseases.  Although rodents are not major threats to our everyday health, it is justified to be concerned over the potential for rodents to transmit diseases. By their very nature and design, rodents make excellent “vehicles” for harboring and rapidly transporting diseases.

Let’s examine WHY ...

Co-Existence with Humans & Investigative Behavior

Rodents are well adapted to living with or in close proximity to humans.  They and their parasites share our homes. They nest and sleep in the furniture where we relax, sleep, and store our clothing – and we don’t even realize it.  Obviously, we are quite vulnerable to the potential spread of any pathogens carried by rodents.

Transporters of Pathogens & Parasites

Rodents harbor a wide range of parasites such as mites and ticks that carry lethal pathogens. Even without parasites, rodents can directly transmit deadly germs excreted in their urine and feces.

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles

Rodents fly with us, drive with us, and live on the ships, buses, and such that transport us and our food around the globe. A hitchhiking rodent with its hitchhiking parasites and pathogens can go from one end of the planet to another in the time it takes to fly aboard our super jets.

Bodily Excretion

In one week’s time rodents produce hundreds of fecal pellets and deposit urine in thousands of areas. The pathogens may also be deposited via saliva and blood spewed during rodent fights. Finally, rodents shed their hair daily and lose an entire coat twice a year.  In this way, millions of rodent hairs and hair fragments, possibly containing pathogens, are also deposited into our environment.

Prolific Breeders

Inside our buildings where food, water, and harborage are readily available, rodents can breed prolifically.  This results in tens or hundreds of rodents living and moving about in our homes. Disease organisms present within these populations can spread rapidly to infect areas, people, and pets.

Interesting facts about pests

• Insects represent three-fifths of all living species- plants and animals combined.
• Spider silk is used as the cross hairs and sighting marks in a variety of engineering and lab instruments, as well for the sights in spotting scopes of rifles.
• Spiders and snakes are the two most feared creatures on earth.
• Forensic entomologists use maggots (fly eggs) collected on bodies to help determine time of death.
• Carpenter ants derive their name from their habit of chewing galleries into wood and leaving sawdust piles around the entrance to the nest.
• Cockroaches have been with us for 350 million years and have survived floods, famine, fire, trips to outer space and even nuclear tests.
• Seven to eight percent of the general population is allergic to cockroaches.
• Fleas have the distinction of killing more people than all the wars man has ever fought. The “Black Death” plague killed 1/4 of Europe’s population in the 14th century, caused by germs transmitted from rodents to humans by fleas.
• A dozen cockroaches can live off the paste on the back of a postage stamp.
• The pest control industry services 12 million U.S. households every year.
• Termites cause about R800 million in damage each year in this country, more than all fires, storms and other natural disasters combined.
• A female mouse is in heat approximately every 4 to 5 days.
• In just 6 months, 1 pair of mice can eat up to 4 pounds of food and deposit as many as 18,000 droppings.
• It is estimated that there is at least 1 rat per person in this country.
• German cockroaches are most commonly introduced into buildings through paper products, grocery bags, cardboard boxes, drink cartons, and second hand appliances.
• Worker ants can live up to 7 years, while the queen ant can live as long as 15 years.
• The total weight of all termites in the world is greater than all the humans in the world.

What to look out for in winter

They don’t move north during the winter, but during the colder months, you may not notice a lot of rodent or insect activity. Just because we cannot see or hear these critters doesn’t mean we should stop defending our homes from them. Don’t relax your pest control precautions too much – there is plenty you can do during winter to prevent spring pest issues from occurring! Here are a few winter pest control tips.

On warmer days this winter when you’re enjoying time outdoors, walk around your home or property. Extensively looking at the conditions of your walls, roof and landscaping will give you hints about what could pose serious pest control threats come August September. Your walls may show signs of rodent entry, including holes, scratches and marks of droppings. A visual examination will let you know what to repair and entries to barricade from pests as they get moving again.

Tree branches often provide great pathways to the exterior of your house, whether to windowsills, your gutters, roof or chimney. Take the opportunity while branches are bare of leaves to chop down any that could lead nuisance wildlife onto and into your home. Speaking of chimneys, both chimneys and stove pipes should be covered with screens to prevent access to your home’s indoors.

Plan on lighting a fire in your fireplace this winter? Keep your firewood stack far from the house. These piles often provide safe harbors for pests, and moisture stored in many types of wood provides a great feeding and breeding ground for roaches and other insects.

Keep an eye on your indoors as well, throughout the winter. Not only have rats and mice moved inside seeking warmth, but the regular indoor crew of pests such as spiders and ants will continue to be active. If you spy spider webs, look for their eggs!

Contact Kill a Bug Johannesburg South and Alberton for a free inspection. 071 607 0813  kabjsa@telkomsa.net

Blow Flies (Brommers)

Blow Fly

The term Blow Fly is a general description of a number of species of large buzzing flies, which include the Bluebottle, the Greenbottle and the Flesh Fly.

Characteristics

Blow flies are so called because they were believed to “blow” their eggs, or larvae on to exposed meats. They all like sunlight and are attracted to meat or carrion, and all may be found around dustbins in hot summer weather.

Diet

Their feeding habits (they vomit onto food to soften it up) and filthy feet, infect food, especially meat products, as they feed or seek egg-laying sites. Their Latin names indicate their habits; Calliphora vomitoria, Sarcophaga carnaria and Cyanomyia cadaverina are but three members of the group with a great capacity for transmitting the bacterial agents of food poisoning.

Why control Blow Flies?

Flies are widely recognised as carriers of disease-causing organisms, and their high mobility makes them particularly effective vectors. They acquire these pathogens whilst crawling or feeding on infected materials such as waste, and may then subsequently infect human food when they alight on it. This transfer may occur simply as the fly walks on the food, but will also take place as a result of the fly's defaecation and regurgitation.

The simple presence of numbers of flying insects may be an irritating nuisance to staff, customers. Clearly, the threshold at which many guests, customers, or the public become upset by insects is relatively low, and unhappy customers lead to complaints.

In any food production or sales environment, the local Environmental Health Department has a responsibility to enforce food safety and environmental health legislation. Typically EHOs will work with and advise businesses where potential insect issues are present. However as a last resort, and where advice has not been heeded, then legal action may be taken against offenders, potentially leading to more negative exposure for the business. This negative publicity can have a significant impact on the public's and customers' perception of the brand. This in turn is likely to affect the business itself.

Identifying Bedbugs

Identifying Bedbugs

Bedbugs are creatures of the night who lurk in the shadows and shun the light of day. They are so good at keeping out of sight that you can have a full blown infestation and never even spot one. So let us shed some light on these little bedroom monsters, and dispel some of their mystery.

What Do Bedbugs Look Like?

Bedbugs are small, oval-shaped insects, complete with six legs and antennae. As adults, they are normally reddish-brown,5-6mm in length and quite flat.

Bedbug Actual Size:

However, right after a good meal of blood, they gorge up like a dark red baloon, reaching 10mm in length. You can see this in the video below as a bedbug sucks the blood from my arm!

Bedbug young (known as "nymphs") are smaller, about 1-4mm in length. They are even harder to spot than the adults, not only because they are smaller, but also because they are a whitish, semi-transparent colour... That is until they feed. A nymph after a quick bite also engorges, and turns into a bright blood-red speck on legs.

Above: image of bedbugs, largest bedbugs are adults, small ones are nymphs, top right light coloured debris are bedbug cast skins.

Above: image of bedbug nymph magnified

Where To Look For Bedbugs

The closer you are to the bed, the more likely you are to find a bedbug. Start by taking the sheets off the mattress and inspecting the seams of the mattress, under any folds of fabric. Then move on to the nooks and corners of the bedframe. As hard as they are to find, once you get one, it is fairly easy to tell if it is a bedbug or not. While a microscope can help with identifying bedbugs, if you have good eye sight, or a camera with decent macro settings, you can see all you need to know whether you've got a bedbug or a booger. Take a look at the pictures of bedbugs here, or on a quick image search online.

Commonly Mistaken for Bedbugs

Spider Beetle: These can be a bright blood-red colour, which make many people immediately think they are bedbugs. Rest assured, these are not bedbugs, and do not bite.

Larder Beetle Larva: These are common household pests that feed on debris like dead skin or dead animals. They don't bite per se, but their hairs can cause skin irritation and sometimes be mistaken for bites.

Lint, Hair, Dried skin, Boogers, Rocks, Seeds and other debris: it is not uncommon for people to suspect that these are bedbugs. When trying to identify a bedbug, look for symmetry, legs, segmented body parts, etc. 

Finding bedbugs is difficult, so you should also consider looking for signs & symptoms of a bedbug infestation, and look into how to identify bites. But keep in mind, no other sign or symptom is a definitive as identifying the actual bug.