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!