Exterminate!

Pest library

Ants
Ant control can be difficult, but there are some things you should know about how ants’ behaviour can lead to big headaches for you and your facility:
• Entry: Ants can enter through even the tiniest crack, seeking water and sweet or greasy food substances in kitchen pantry or storeroom areas
• Scent trails: Ants leave an invisible chemical trail which contains pheromones for others to follow once they locate the food source
• Nest locations: They can nest about anywhere in and around your facility in lawns, walls, stumps, and under foundations
• Colony size: Can number up to 300,000 to 500,000 and whole colonies can uproot and relocate quickly when threatened
• Colony lifetime: A colony can live a relatively long lifetime. Worker ants may live seven years and the queen may live as long as 15 years

Flies
More than 100 pathogens are associated with the house fly including: Salmonella, Staphylococcus, E. coli and Shigella. These pathogens can cause disease in humans and animals, including: typhoid fever, cholera, bacillary dysentery, hepatitis, ophthalmia, polio, tuberculosis and infantile diarrhoea. Sanitation is critical to controlling these pests, but accurate identification is essential for successful fly control.

Some other things you should know about flies and fly control:
• Depending on the species, the life expectancy of a fly is eight days to two months, or in some cases, up to a year 
• Flies plague every part of the world except the polar ice caps
• One pair of flies can produce more than one million offspring in as little as six to eight weeks
• As many as 33 million micro organisms may flourish in a single fly’s gut, while a half-billion more swarm over its body and legs
• Flies spread diseases readily because they move quickly from rotting, disease-laden waste to exposed human food stuffs and utensils
• For every fly seen, there are an estimated 19 more hidden from view. This means humans don’t even see most of the flies present at an infestation

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

Cockroaches
Cockroaches can wreak havoc, and have been known to chew through wiring. To win the war of the roaches, here’s what you should know:
• Entry: Cockroaches can enter your facility in many different ways. Through cracks and crevices, vents, sewer and drain pipes
• Ideal environment: With plenty of food, warmth, water and nesting sites, they can remain active all year round
• Reproduction: Cockroaches reproduce quickly. For every one you see there can be many, many more hiding and multiplying 
• Evasiveness: Because cockroaches are nocturnal, if you’ve seen one, you probably haven’t seen them all. The few cockroaches you see by day could mean they were likely forced out by overcrowding - a possible sign of severe infestation
• Allergies/asthma: The dust created by cast-off cockroach skins, dead bodies and droppings can aggravate allergies, especially in children and sensitive individuals. Be sure to maintain high standards of sanitation to discourage these critters

Rodents
Rodents’ instincts make them difficult to control, and they present a serious menace to any facility. If you’re in need of rodent control services, here’s what you should know about these pests:

Rats
• Instincts: Rats are instinctively wary of rat control measures such as traps and bait, and colonise in crawl spaces, burrows, under concrete, in wall voids and other hard to reach places
• Disease: Rats can harbour and transmit a number of serious diseases. They can also introduce disease carrying parasites such as fleas, lice and ticks into a facility

Mice
• Access: They invade a building seeking food, water and warmth. Without mouse control intervention, one pair of mice may produce 200 offspring in four months
• Contamination: Each mouse can contaminate much more food than it eats

Bed bugs
• Appearance: A hospitality industry nightmare, bed bugs are flat, reddish-brown, oval insects about 3/16-inch long, or the size of an apple seed. Swollen and reddish after a blood meal
• Habitat: Cracks and crevices including mattress seams, sheets, furniture, behind baseboards, electrical outlet plates and picture frames. Often found in hotels, travel on luggage and clothing. Particularly hard to get rid of. Not good for the bottom line
• Diet: Feed on blood
• Reproduction: Females can deposit one to five eggs a day, and may lay 200 to 500 eggs in a lifetime

---