There are many signs of rats and mice living in your home: a greasy “runway” along a wall they travel, gnawings, footprints… but one of the best ways to identify if you have rodents and what kind are inside is by their droppings.

Fresh droppings of rat and mice feces are usually moist, soft, shiny and dark, but in a few days they become dry and hard. Old droppings are dull and grayish and crumble when touched.

The Roof Rat's droppings are up to 1/2 inch long, spindle shaped and curved.

Norway Rat droppings which are about the same length but blunt.

Mouse feces are about 1/8 inch long, and are pointed on both ends.

BED BUGS ARE BAD IN PHILADELPHIA

We have been seeing a resurgence of BED BUGS all over the country and especially on the east coast. New York City is so infested that there are Government Task Forces working on the problem. Recently, Philadelphia was named the #2 most-infested city. Bed bugs are bad in your home but in cities like Philly, three of the worst places where they can fester, and spread are:

Bed Bugs are Bad for HOSPITALITY Business.

• Although they don’t spread disease, they do cause embarrassment about the “stigma” associated with an infestation. These places need routine inspections and regular treatments
  

Bed Bugs THRIVE at UNIVERSITIES

• With all the clutter and in and out of guests, dorms are a perfect home for Bed Bugs. Let Royal show you our plan for University housing that includes education of the students as well as treatments, regular inspections and prevention.

Bed Bugs can overtake an APARTMENT complex

• With so many common walls and tenants always changing you may never know WHO brought the bed bugs into the complex. Once they are there it only takes ONE person to not take care of them and everyone is stuck with them.

Call a Pest Professional and let them handle this problem. Bed bugs are very tough to eliminate, and with a thorough inspection a Certified Pest Professional will determine if direct treatment, heat or fumigation will be the most effective method to end your nightmare.
photos at top courtesy of Bayer

Royal Pest on 6 ACTION NEWS!

Channel 6 ACTION NEWS, Philadelphia, called us yesterday morning to ask if they could shoot video of us doing a STINK BUG treatment for a segment they were doing. That sent us into action. Deborah found two jobs scheduled for that day near the station, Eddie our Pest Professional doing the service, contacted the clients and one of them agreed, he changed his schedule to meet ACTION NEWS schedule. Ertell changed into a new Royal Pest shirt and met me at a McDonalds and within four hours all of us met at the house and got ACTION NEWS their story ... and Royal Pest Management a mention on the segment, video of Eddie spraying and Ertell walking the reporter around the house explaining what was happening and what Royal was doing, and our name (and his) on screen. Nice job!

Check it out!

Bed Bugs go to college … sometimes on Backpacks!

Bed bugs are back…all across the US. And not just in dirty, city areas… Bed bugs are showing up in fancy hotels, apartment buildings, medical facilities and, college dorms and residence halls. I’m saying within two years almost every college housing facility will have had a bed bug reporting. There are a number of reasons housing at colleges is an ideal place for bed bugs: students come in and out of each others' rooms, they travel a lot, bring in old furniture and clothes, plus, there are many foreign exchange students on campus.

Here are a few simple suggestions to prevent Bed Bugs from getting into your dorm room;
1. do not bring any used or trash-picked items into your room… especially couches and chairs!
2. if you were somewhere that you think could have bed bugs, inspect everything you brought with you (suitcase, shoes, backpack, laundry bag.) LOOK CAREFULLY… especially in folds, the seams and zippers of bags, your pillow or stuffed teddy bear!
3. Clean up clutter in your room and closet. It provides a great hiding and breeding place for bedbugs
4. Wash your clothes and sheets often and dry them in a HOT dryer.

If you think you have bed bugs immediately contact the student housing office. Student housing departments take this problem very seriously and have a pest control contractor to deal with these issues.

Ear wax can protect you from pests

When I was in grade school, we had gym with our cool, jock guy gym teacher for three weeks and then he turned into our cool, jock guy HEALTH teacher for a week. One of his lessons I’ll never forget was on EAR WAX! He told us that while we are sleeping, bugs can crawl into our ear canals and get stuck. This causes pain and hearing problems. The lesson was that gooey, sticky ear wax, traps anything foreign that flies, crawls, or is blown into the ear canals. Dirt, tiny bits of plant material, small insects, bacteria, and so forth are immobilized by wax. It’s like having a NO PEST STRIP in your ear! The primary purpose of ear wax is to protect your ear canal and ear drum from such foreign materials ...including roaches.

So I did a little research on answerbag.com and found out roaches really do crawl into ears. Happens all the time. What else? Fly larvae, spiders, and earwigs with those scary pincers. Can they get to your brain? Not really … thanks to good ol’ gooky ear wax!

Flying Insects Invade Dreams

Q: In my dreams, my bugs are usually creepy green things with red eyes and sometimes fly. Elvis, you have anything like that?


A: Flying Insects in dreams are fairly common and I have had dreams with SOME of those things you describe but not all in one. Bugs in dreams, no matter what color or how creepy, suggest that you are worried about something. Because you dream of a bug that is GREEN, that signifies something that is positive…good health, growth, vigor, peace and serenity. Sometimes, GREEN in a dream tells you to move forward (like a traffic light saying it’s OK to GO.) Red eyes draw attention and are an open window to a soul of raw energy, intense passion and power. And flying represents being able to do things beyond your physical limitations...in your mind you can do anything and be anybody...and nobody can tell you what you cannot do and accomplish. It usually leaves you with a great sense of freedom. Now, to try and put this together for you I would say this: You are probably pondering a very important decision and are worried about it...your dreams are telling you it is a positive step...something new and to move forward, with passion and courage. It is something that you feel you will accomplish to bring you a greater sense of independence.

BEES AND WASPS DO MUCH GOOD BUT NEED CONTROL

BEES AND WASPS CONTROL AND PROTECTION WITH A PURPOSE

I just want to make sure that all you folk who want to know how to get rid of bees understand how important they are to our world AND OUR ECONOMY!!! According to The New Agriculturist online magazine: “To United States agriculture alone, the annual value of honey bee pollination can be counted in billions of dollars. Bees pollinate about one-sixth of the world's flowering plant species and some 400 of its agricultural plants. Poorly pollinated plants produce fewer, often misshapen, fruits and lower yields of seed with inevitable consequences upon quality, availability and price of food. One of the few farm activities that can actually increase yields, rather than simply protect existing yields from losses, is to manage bees to encourage good pollination.”

If you are allergic to bees and wasp stings, be careful and don’t stir them up. We understand your fear and to some people with severe reactions a bee sting can be dangerous. At Royal Pest Management, we have a bee and wasp control system that attracts bees away from the areas where people are getting together. They are free-flying insects and there is no way to eliminate them outside, but with a well-designed bees and wasp control system, we can keep them a safe distance away from you. Go to royalpest.com and click the NEED YA' NOW button and let us know if you are having problems with bees or wasps.

Middletown BBQ State Championship

This past Friday and Saturday in Middletown, De, the Delaware State BBQ Championship took place. Royal was one of the sponsors. Our butterfly Fran went around the event and put TATTOOS on kids of all ages. Many of them requesting ankle tattoos. She also flitted around to all the BBQ COMPETITORS handing out flyswatters and asking if they wanted tattoos...however most of the guys who were taking part in the cook off had arms full of tattoos and they declined. The did all take the flyswatters and then every time we asked to take their picture in front of their banners with Fran...they all wanted to swat her. LOTS of people came up to our booth and asked HOW TO GET RID OF TERMITES. That seems to be the pest this year. Lots of questions about STINK BUGS, too. Then we listened to THEIR stories of how they are all country folk living on farms and how they get rid of pests. It was an odd day but a lot of fun... especially putting tattoos on the kids... they loved them!

You can see the pictures at:

http://www.royalpest.com/component/rsgallery2/category/7.html

ROYAL PEST INTERVIEW ON WILM 1450 AM RADIO ON STINK BUGS

Today Royal Pest Management Entomologist John Moore was interviewed about STINK BUGS on The John Watson Show on a local Wilmington Delaware radio station WILM 1450AM. John Moore was brilliant as he answered all of John Watson's questions about where stink bugs got their name, where they came from and how to get rid of stink bugs. Most of the interview was serious stuff...after all... there are STINK BUGS EVERYWHERE... but there was one very funny moment during the show: John Watson asked if a house could just be "fogged" all over to get rid of STINK BUGS John Moore said that they hide in walls and cracks and chimneys and the fogging wouldn't reach them plus since Royal is a planet friendly pest control company, we don't like to use chemicals that won't accomplish their intended goal... and then our Mr. Pest Control Entomologist said, "I have had stink bugs in my house all summer." He failed to mention he has them in his house (and his wife puts up with it) because John Moore studies the patterns and habits of STINK BUGS and has devised methods to lead them away from homes and trap them without using chemicals. It sort of left us all speechless saying a pest control guy had them in his house and then saying people should call us to get rid of stink bugs. Just for the record... they are hard to totally get them out of your home but at Royal we do know ways to exclude them from your home. In the late summer call us and we'll show you how to get rid of stinkbugs for NEXT YEAR. Great Job to BOTH John Moore and John Watson. [FYI: The girl in the picture above is Heather Ficarra, who interns in the Royal Marketing Department. If anyone is looking to hire a GREAT YOUNG Marketing person, contact us here and we'll pass it along.... we wish we had the budget to keep her :( ]

Dreaming about... Ants

I heard a news story this morning about an actress on a talk show who revealed that she had, "DREAMS ABOUT INSECTS." I had never given this any thought so I looked it up on the web and found all kids of interpretations of dreaming and sites dedicated just to insects. On dreammoods.com they had something about every bug and this to say about ANTS:

"To see ants in your dream, signify your general dissatisfaction in your daily life. You are feeling neglected and insignificant. Petty things will annoy you throughout the following day. You need to be more cooperative as this will be the only way to achieve your desires. The dream may also be a metaphor on feeling antsy or restless.

"Ants also symbolize hard work, diligence and industry. Increase business activities are expected. On a less positive note, ants symbolize social conformity and mass action. In this regard, you may feel that your life is too structured and orderly."

I'm going to look into this more and hope I don't have any dreams about insects.

How to get rid of...

Tiger Woods. There I said it. Tonight while I was watching the Masters Golf Tournament I was doing a little research on how to get rid of bed bugs. Tiger Woods had finished and was being interviewed and was asked how he felt he did considering the layoff... which is now secret language for all his marital problems... and he said, "I finished fourth...I entered this tournament to win...blubblubblub..." He makes me sick. Then, Phil Mickelson wins it... a guy who marries his college sweetheart, takes time off from golf when she gets breast cancer, is a real good human being...a real man. Isn't it ironic...don't you think? When he hugged his wife Amy and you could see the tear...LOVE HIGH DEF TV... it was a real moment of love conquers all. I was lucky enough to be watching the moment with my friends Tom and Amy who were childhood sweethearts, they invited me to dinner and made amazing steaks on the grill, baked potato and steamed vegetables...and were holding hands on the couch while the three of us watched Phil. Back to How to get rid of Tiger Woods... he's the best golfer ever. Even a great guy at times giving so much to our U.S. Veterans. But he'll never change his stripes. He should start wearing black on Sundays... move on in his marriage and be who he is... not do that phony commercial for NIKE (link below)...what a hypocrite... says "stay out of my personal life" then gets paid to do a tv commercial using his deceased father's voice. How to get rid of Tiger Woods? We can't... it's great money for all involved... even the good guys like Phil Mickelson and that guy who took second Lee Westwood. Hey Tiger...didya' hear Lee's interview...when asked how he feels about not winning he said, "I just have to keep doing what I am doing...I took four second places...I'll get there." Not "I TOOK SECOND." We'll never know how to get rid of Tiger... he'll just have to continue to self-destruct. I hope he figures it out...I honestly don't root against anyone. Congratulations Phil!

When Butterflies Attack

They showed this video on the news the other night which of course caught my attention: When Butterflies Attack. It's totally fake but pretty funny. If you haven't seen it, enjoy.

APRIL FOOL ANTS!!!

My son Matt and I LOVE APRIL FOOL'S DAY and go a little overboard. He's home from College on Spring Break right now. This morning when I got up to walk our dog Tugger, I stepped on a stuffed fake dead body he had laid in front of the door. Last night, I emptied out most of the Rice Krispies from the box (he has them every morning) and mixed in two boxes of little plastic black ants. He just called and said it got him good... he poured them in his cereal bowl and jumped back and thought they were spiders and then started picking out the fake ants. Then decided that there were so many of them he just had toast instead.

Did you see what google did? They changed their name to Topeka for the day.

Happy April Fool's Day! Go Punk someone.

APRIL MEANS ANTS CALENDAR

I saw this very cool calendar and it talked about ANTS so I thought I'd pass it along to you...some info about the different kinds of ANTS and some thing you should know about them. Don't forget...tomorrow is April Fool's Day and little plastic ants make a great GAG!!!

Carpenter Ants

• Excavate wood in order to build their nests;
  wood destroying insects
• Usually first invade wet, decayed wood; move to dry wood indoors
• Build their nests outdoors in various wood sources,
  including tree stumps, firewood or landscaping
• Usually come into buildings through cracks around doors, windows, or through holes for wires.

Odorous House Ants

• Most ants in your kitchen are of no medical concern
• They can have multiple colonies both inside and outside of your home, they can be very problematic and annoying
• If you see them often, it is likely that you have some smaller colonies nesting within your home and should get a thorough inspection and treatment

Butterflies Spotted at the Green Expo

This past Saturday I saw two of the most BEAUTIFUL Butterflies at the GREAT GREEN EXPO in Delaware. Turns out they were Deborah and Fran of the Delaware Pest Control company Royal Pest Management. Deborah and Fran fluttered around the GREEN EXPO handing out flyswatters and placing butterfly tattoos that said "Royal Pest" on lots of kids and even some Moms and Dads. Like the boy with Deborah, the little boys loved looking at the giant bugs while the little girls like these Girl Scouts with Fran, just were happy to pose with the butterfly...and sell her some cookies...(two boxes of Thin Mints.) But everyone loved their butterfly tattoos. See the rest of the pictures from the GREEN EXPO at http://www.royalpest.com/component/rsgallery2/category/2.html

March Madness

I have been watching and listening to the NCAA Basketball Tournament all day. Watching it right now tracking my bracket. Tough to relate this to pests unless you talk about March Madness being how maddening it is to see ANTS crawling all over your house. Nah...too big a reach. Going back to watching basketball... and maybe sleep. oh... I had Murray State!

PEST IN ALABAMA...It's a LEPRECHAUN!!!

There are lots of different types of weird and unexpected PESTS out there… but this one caught my eye on today…St. Patrick’s Day! At the website: wheredagoldat, “Some of Alabama’s finest citizens spotted a leprechaun in a tree located in the Crichton area of Mobile. As word spread, masses of people poured out to see the leprechaun and in some cases, attempt to confiscate his leprechaun gold.” The picture above shows the tree where the discovery was and then “sketches” of the little guy started showing up all over town … and is available on t-shirts. So someone is making a few GREENBUCKS off of this but it’s probably not a pot of gold. You don’t think they were drinking do you? Happy St. Paddy’s Day!!!

Ticks and Fleas on your dog

This is Nancy with my dog, Tugger. He's a SCHNOODLE (Schnauzer/Poodle.) This morning (at 5am) I checked him for fleas and ticks...nothing. But it reminded me it was FRONTLINE time because once all this rain goes away...look out for bugs and pests. So after his breakfast and walk he got his first treatment of Spring. I hate putting chemicals on Tugger but this FRONTLINE is pretty amazing stuff. Four years ago he had FLEAS...which meant my house had them, too. But one treatment of FRONTLINE and one flea and tick treatment of his sleeping area by Royal Pest and they were gone. POOF!!! Just a reminder....it's almost fleas and tick season so treat your pets especially if they hang out outside near wooded areas...and check your kids for ticks, too.

Pests invade Holy Angels School

Jess King, an Entomologist from Royal Pest Management visited with the 4th and 5th Graders of Holy Angels School in Newark, DE and gave a presentation on insects. These students were well prepared. The hallways were lined with posters about pests they had made to welcome Jess. What was truly impressive was as he went along, Jess asked all kinds of questions about insects and every time he asked, these students' hands went up and they knew the answers to all his questions. For getting the questions right, Jess gave out fly swatters. The kids enjoyed it but I think Jess enjoyed it more than anyone...he was like a BUG ROCK STAR!

Student Videos Rock the Royal Pest Website!

Title: "Rats own everything you own" By:

ROYAL TREATMENT FOR BLACK WIDOWS MAKES NEWS

From under the rocks, yet another pest emerges

Sunday, June 28, 2009

By BRENDAN MONAHAN, Staff Writer, DAILY LOCAL NEWS

For the past several days, Anne Bookout has been avoiding her stone walls and doing yard work only in grassy areas.

Typically, the stone walls and other nooks around her outside gardens don't scare her, but ever since an exterminator discovered black widow spiders hanging in stone crevices, Bookout has been careful about where she gardens.

"It gave me the willies," Bookout said.

Bookout, who owns more than an acre, decided to have her West Goshen property inspected after her extermina tion company treated a place infested with more than 200 black widows in Elkton, Md.

(read article)

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 ...

(read more)

Royal Turns The Dogs Loose on Bed Bugs

The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) has reported a 71% increase in bed bug infestations in the U.S. since 2001. “Bed bugs remain unnerving because they inject an anesthetic-like liquid that numbs the skin as they bite, leaving their victims undisturbed,” said Greg Baumann, senior scientist for NPMA. “Unless you experience an allergic reaction, you may not even know you’ve come into contact with bed bugs—that is until an infestation appears in your own home, business or property.”

Man’s Best Friend is Bed Bugs’ Worst Enemy

(read article)