Pests

How Termite Colonies Function

How Termite Colonies Function
Termites don't live on their own. They infest your house in colonies, organized similarly to a bee hive or an ant's nest. That affects the way you have to try to deal with them, because it's not just a matter of killing a bunch of them. You have to kill off the colony for the infestation to end.

How is a colony organized?
Like other hive insects, termites can be classified by caste:

Queens - There is a primary queen, which is usually the first termite that founded the colony, along with several other secondary queens that also lay eggs and will take over if the primary queen is killed.

King - There is only one king - the male termite that mates with the queen to help found the colony. When the founding king dies, in some species a reproductive will grow into a replacement king.

Soldiers - Soldier termites defend the nest from intruders, usually other insects.

Workers - These termites stay inside the nest, building it, tending to eggs and larva, and gathering food. They are white and often die easily outside the tunnels they have built from exposure to sunlight.

Reproductives (also called Neotenics or Swarmers) - They the ones you most often see - they fly around in swarms attempting to start new nests. They can also become queens if needed. They will fly for short periods, shedding their wings when they have found a new home.

Termite Tips

No earth-wood contact.
This is a special problem due to the building practices in Thailand. It is common practice to install ground-floor door-frames before the ground floor slab is poured, so that the bottom of the door-frames actually rest in the earth below the house. First remedy: remove all ground floor door-frames, and completely fill in the holes in the slab which remain. Install new door-frames, in any material, including wood. If you use wood door frames, cut them up short and set them on concrete risers. Inspect the entire ground floor, inside and out, to see if there are any other potential sources of earth-wood contact.

Water-pipes and drains
Another common building practice is to brick-in pipe and drain causeways. Even if the floor of these causeways is cement, there cannot be a good seal between PVC pipe and cement. Termites will find a way through the space and set up 'termite-tubes' and gain access to the entire building. A yearly inspection is recommended.

Wooden skirts
Remove all ground-floor wooden skirts and replace with the fake versions or with ceramic tile properly installed (no voids behind the tile). The way tiles are installed in Thailand leaves voids that the termites will use to crawl behind the tile to get to any wood in the area.

Ceilings
Open and inspect all suspended ceilings. Make an inspection hole in each room. Remove all the consumable materials.
Once you cut off the termites in the house from their ground access, they will die in about 2 months.

Ticks

Ticks are parasitic, blood-feeding arthropods that mainly attack mammals, birds, and reptiles. They are vectors of many diseases including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, relapsing fever, Lyme disease, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, and tularemia.

In North America, young ticks (nymphs or seed ticks) prefer to feed during the warmer months when people tend to spend more time outdoors. Most cases of Lyme disease occur during the months of May, June, and July, when young ticks are most active. They are very small and difficult to detect. Adult ticks feed in the fall and are generally easier to spot and remove.

Children 5-9 years of age are among the most susceptible group to a tick bite. Tick bites on children frequently occur on the upper parts of the body, especially on the head, neck, and under the armpit, so if you have a child that likes to take romps through the forest, visual inspections (and prompt tick removal) can be helpful in the prevention of disease (adults are more likely to be bitten on the lower legs).

As is the case with most blood-feeding insects, carbon dioxide (from your expired breath) will also attract ticks to you. Some ticks can recognize chemical cues left behind by passing animals or humans on plants, and may wait patiently on or near these areas to ambush their host.

Some studies indicate that ticks are also attracted to squalene, which is an abundant, naturally occurring skin secretion found in humans and mammals.

Ticks can settle and feed in moist areas such as around the groin, navel, and behind the knees. They also prefer to bite in unexposed areas (out of direct sunlight). Some ticks, such as the American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) (pictured above left), favor the head and neck areas for attachment.

In US studies in California hardwood forests, researchers found that certain human behaviors were riskier than others for tick encounters. People most at risk were those who just sat on logs, followed by those out gathering wood, sitting against trees, walking, and sitting on leaf litter.

Depending on the age of the tick and the person bitten, ticks may spend up to 24 hours on your body before they even begin to feed, but may need only 8 hours before disease may be transmitted. Infection is transmitted faster by adult ticks.

An interesting Swedish study found that women 40 years or older had an almost 50% greater risk of attracting ticks to them than men of the same age. Moreover, they had an almost 100% higher risk of being bitten than men who were younger than 40 years of age.

Keep in mind that ticks are attracted to light-colored clothing. Some entomologists advise people to wear light colors to make ticks more visible to you, in which case, they can be spotted and removed easier. My suggestion is to wear dark clothing to reduce your exposure, and follow some of the other recommendations given below.

To lessen your exposure to ticks:

• Wear a hat and closed-toe shoes.
• Wear long pants (tucked into socks).
• Use repellents.
• Inspect your own (or your child’s) body daily for ticks.
• Reduce tick habitat by removing leaf litter and woodpiles, mowing grasses, and clearing brush.

• Build fences to exclude deer from residential yards.
• Stay on trails if you are hiking in the forest.
• Do not feed birds during the summer.
• Control exposure to pets by checking them frequently for ticks.
• Wear dark clothing (ticks are attracted to white and light colors).

Keep in mind that ticks attached to clothing that is laundered in washing machines are not always killed outright. Young (nymphal) ticks have survived hot water washes using detergents in experiments. Setting clothes dryers to high heat for at least an hour should insure tick mortality on clothing, however.

Forests, lawns, areas with leaf litter or shrub cover, and watered areas all tend to be desired habitats for ticks.

Ticks that transmit Lyme disease prefer moist, humid conditions, and are sensitive to dehydration.
Homes built near the forest edge are especially prone to having increased numbers of ticks in the area.

If you live adjacent to woodlands, creating a barrier several feet wide of wood chips, mulch, or gravel between your grass and the woods, will offer increased protection against tick bites.

Nymphal (young) ticks are often found in leaf litter, and can also be found concentrated near stone walls and on hollow, fallen logs. These sites provide ideal nesting areas for mice and other small rodents that they feed upon. Adult ticks seem to prefer tall grasses. Keeping your backyard mowed and free of debris will greatly reduce their numbers.

If you play golf, you may want to know that deer ticks (currently known as black-legged ticks and pictured above right) are often present in large numbers in the surrounding woods adjacent to fairways. They are much less common on fairways due to the closely mowed grasses there. If you are less than a scratch golfer, you may want to examine more than your game after a round or two.
In forests, black-legged ticks tend to be more numerous when their vertebrate hosts (such as deer) are also more abundant.

Ticks tend to migrate and congregate along roadsides and along the road edges of adjacent fields. They may be attracted to the carbon dioxide emitted by passing car exhausts in their search for prey. Mowing these areas will help greatly to reduce their numbers here.

Ticks can survive the cold. In fact, deer ticks have been captured in areas where there was 70% snow cover and temperatures as low as 28° F. Ticks can be attracted to alternate sources of CO2 such as dry ice.

Eliminate mouse breeding sites such as abandoned bird nests, tree cavities, woodpiles, etc. which attract ticks.
In studies in New York, human exposure to ticks that transmit Lyme disease was found to be related to the abundance of white-footed mice in the area. Since these mice primarily feed on acorns, acorn abundance helped to increase the number of mice.

Cats have fewer ticks than dogs due to their more efficient grooming habits.

Birds are the primary predators of ticks; however, ants, spiders, beetles, mites, and some mice also feed on them. There are also minute wasps (chalcids) that parasitize and kill ticks.

Chickens like to eat ticks as well, and may even have potential as biological control agents. Ticks will also prey on each other when overcrowded on the same host.

Cockroaches

Roaches belong to a large group of very familiar insects that includes crickets and grasshoppers. They have chewing mouthparts and can feed on practically anything.

Roaches do not directly transmit disease; however, they can contaminate food with an enormous variety of microbial pathogens including the eggs and larvae of parasites such as pinworms, tapeworms, and roundworms; bacteria such as Salmonella, Shigella, and E. coli; and fungi such as yeast, many of which can lead to gastrointestinal problems and infections in humans. Roaches also have an unpleasant odor, and, as most of us know, their presence can be very annoying.

Roaches have also been shown to contribute to the increased severity of symptoms among asthma sufferers and others with respiratory problems due to the presence of their cast skins and feces which can be allergens.

Some studies indicate that roach allergen exposure early in life could even be used as a predictor for the development of asthma.

To discourage roach appearances, caulk closed cracks at the interface of walls and floors, counters, backsplashes on sinks, and around electrical boxes and other wall-hung fixtures where roaches live.

The German roach prefers to settle in small, tight spaces. It is most common in kitchens and bathrooms. Sealing cracks greatly reduces its preferred habitat. This roach is also highly attracted to odors (pheromones) in the feces of other German roaches. Good sanitation and vacuuming can be effective tools in reducing their numbers.

German roaches can be attracted to baits that contain bread, stale beer, peanut butter, or Jack Daniel’s Whiskey. Among these attractants, bread and beer combos seem to draw the most German roaches. Unlike American roaches, German roaches must eat in order to reproduce. They also prefer fats over proteins and carbohydrates. If water is available, they can live for about a month without food.

The American roach is considered more of a tropical species, and prefers temperatures over 80 ° F. and humid conditions. It is often found in basements, restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores. These roaches often cannot survive very long in residential homes if humidities fall below 45% and moisture or water is unavailable.

Smokybrowns occasionally enter homes where they can be found in areas where moistures levels are high. They also like to infest attics, and like American and German roaches, can be reduced or eliminated with the use of blowers or fans since they are very vulnerable to drying out.

In China, smokybrowns have been controlled with the use of viruses which can achieve high mortality rates against adults.

A bowl of cheap wine placed under the sink will kill roaches; they drink, fall in and die.

Whiteflies

White_Fly Whiteflies are minute plant-feeding insects that resemble tiny moths. The wings of whiteflies are often covered with a white dust or waxy powder. They are completely white and can be seen flying off your plants, when you shake them. These insects pierce the outer layer of your plants and extract the liquids contained inside. The whitefly can carry diseases and exude a sticky, sugary concentrate of plant juices that can promote mold growth. It also reproduces rapidly and can become a problem in no time. There are two ways to treat an infestation: pesticides and using other insect predators

Pesticides
The first way to rid yourself of whiteflies is through the use of pesticidic sprays. They are easily eradicated with natural sprays. Most gardening and garden supply stores carry these sprays. The most effective sprays are the ones which contain pyrethrum (Biothrin), although you can also purchase an insecticidal soap or make a homemade spray. These sprays are all usually applied in the same way. First you remove all the leaves that are more than 50% damaged and burn them or cure them in a heated temperature of more than 95 degrees celsius or 200 degrees fahrenheit(to kill all the remaining whitefly eggs). Then spray a fine mist over the infected plants, twice, completely covering them each time. Repeat this treatment about every 5-10 days, depending on your level of infestation. Your infestation levels should improve and begin to show signs of improvement immediately(within a day or two after every spraying). After spraying it would also be wise to add a few natural predators to keep from using harsh insecticides on your plants.

Natural Predators
Natural predators are an excellent way to rid yourself of whiteflies and the damaging effects they can have on your plants. Encarsia formosa are by far the most effective whitefly predator(the only other real alternative is the preying mantis). These small wasps attack whiteflies, they do not sting people. They are so small, once you release them you will probably never see them again. As with all predator insects you must completely wash off all the toxic residues left on your plants from insecticides before you introduce them into your garden environment. The parasite attaches itself to the body of the whitefly and begins to feed on its host and when finished lays its eggs inside its body cavity. The wasps take a couple of weeks to begin showing any affects. You should first use an insecticidal spray to bring down the population and then use the wasps to control the infestation from there on out. After cleaning the toxins from your garden, set the parasites out at 2-3 per plant and repeat every 2-4 weeks throughout the plants life.

Another Alternative
Whiteflies are known to be attracted to the color yellow. If you take some yellow strips of paper and apply an adhesive to it, you can position these around your garden or on the tops of your plants containers as makeshift "whitefly traps". If these strips and just a few encarsia formosa are added at the beginning of your garden whitefly and a few other types of insercts will always be kept in constant check. Good luck with your whitefly problems and happy gardening!

Termites

Dampwood Termite
dampwood_soldier Dampwood termites will often be seen swarming during the late spring and on into the early winter, depending upon the species. Despite the name, they will attack any wood, although they prefer wood that has been subject to moisture and decay, especially if there is no contact with the ground. Some will even form colonies in trees. Dampwood termites often work their way upward from ground level, eventually reaching the roof rafters. There are only two castes--soldiers and reproductives, the work of the colony is actually done by the nymphs. A colony may have up to 4,000 individuals.

Subterranean Termite
Subteraen Termitesoldier As their name implies, these termites live underground. These are the termites that probably cause the most overall damage to structures. Workers and soldiers are about 1/4th inch in size, while the reproductive males and females are about 3/8ths inch. Soldiers have a larger head with long mandibles. The reproductives are dark brown, while the workers are a colorless gray. Workers will eat any damp wood, and even damp carpets, to feed the other members of the colony. Even the nymphs will chew on wood. They have a high humidity requirement, and form tubes extending from the ground to travel in search of wood. The tubes are formed from saliva, soil, and bits of chewed wood. Tubes may also be used as shelter, migratory paths, and an exit for swarmers. Extreme damage usually takes years to develop, and the interior of wood is eaten leaving behind the outer shell, and any harder wood portions the termites didn’t want to finish.

Drywood Termite

The Drywood termite looks just like the Subterranean termite, except that has shorter legs and moves slowly, and it is more of a reddish brown color. Infestations of Drywood termites are just about as damaging as Subterranean termites.Drywood termites will excavate large pockets in the wood that they attack. They require no soil contact, and they can even infest dead limbs on trees. Drywood termites do require a source of moisture. They are usually noticed from the piles of fecal pellets that they eject from their kick-out holes. The pellets accumulate below these holes.

Formosean Termite
Some people call it the “super termite” because it has extremely large colonies and can do major amounts of damage in a relatively short period of time. There can be up to eight million Formosan Termites in a single colony—much larger than any other termite colony. The tunnels and tubes will branch out up to 75 meter in every direction, searching for wood to devour. They will eat anything containing cellulose—plants, lumber and wood products, cardboard and paper, etc. They have been known to chew through foam, some thin metals, plaster, and even asphalt to reach food.
Formosan Termites look just like any other subterranean termite, with the exception of the soldiers. They have a large, dark mandible (jaw) which can cross and form an “x”. Despite their fierce appearance, their bite is harmless to humans. A colony of Formosan Termites will contain a larger number of soldiers than other types of termites. They must be located near a source of moisture—plumbing or roof leaks, watered plants and landscaping, air conditioning condensation, areas where puddles form, etc. They can be located in attics, walls, trees, or even underground.

Wasps

Wasps comprise a large group of insects whose members include scavengers, predators, parasitoids, and plant-eaters. Some wasps are also important pollinators.

Like spiders, many wasps are good general predators in home gardens.

Yellowjackets can nest in the ground, inside buildings and homes, and in trees and shrubs. They are more sensitive to nest disturbance and more aggressive in their defense than other wasps.

Yellowjackets are attracted to garbage cans, dumpsters, food preparation counters, and playgrounds, where they search for protein and sweets.

Ripened apple and pear are among the most attractive odors to foraging yellowjacket workers and queens. Yellowjacket workers also like processed meat baits such as beef, chicken and fish. In Australia, freeze-dried kangaroo came out on top for German yellowjackets.

Grenadine is another effective bait for yellowjacket control. Yellowjackets also love cat food, beef, orange soda.

Orange peels (not the fruit) have been found to be repellent to yellowjackets.

To lessen your exposure to yellowjackets:

• Wear white clothing (yellowjackets are attracted to bright colors).
• Avoid wearing perfumes and other sweet-smelling products.
• Going barefoot in the garden risks stings by foraging ground wasps.
• Try to stay calm when initially confronted by a wasp.
• Slow, deliberate movements will lessen your likelihood of being stung.
• Quick motions will scare wasps and make them more likely to sting.
• Slowly and carefully brush off a wasp that has landed on someone.
• Avoid smashing yellowjackets which may prompt others to attack.
• Mowing lawns may agitate yellowjackets nesting underground.
• Avoid drinking sweet drinks in open containers if wasps are in the area.

Commercially available cone-type baited traps can be used on a long-term basis for yellowjacket control (outside the home).

If a yellowjacket nest must be removed, do not attempt to remove it yourself. Seek out a professional pest control operator to assist you.

Paper wasps build nests that consist of a more or less circular horizontal comb of paper cells which are often suspended from a support by a slender stalk.

Paper wasps often can be found nesting under the eaves of homes or under some other suitable structure which gives the nest protection against the elements.

Paper wasps are not as aggressive as yellowjackets, but will actively defend their nests. They will sting only if provoked. If you leave paper wasps alone, they will leave you alone, and will happily take care of some of the caterpillars and other insects that feed on your trees and garden plants.

Like paper wasps, bald-faced hornets will only sting if provoked or threatened.

Hornets often build nests above ground that are exposed to the elements, and their paper nests can be over a foot in diameter. As with yellowjackets, do not try to remove hornet nests on your own. Seek professional assistance.

Whatever method you use, nests should always be removed in the evening when all the wasps are in their nests.

Did you know?!

Only the female mosquito bites to obtain a blood meal. The male mosquito feeds only on plant juices. All mosquitoes must have water to complete their life cycle.