Woodstream

Terro Fruit Fly Traps are now available from Woodstream in an economical, professional bulk pack containing 12 traps and lures (item# T2512). These apple- shaped traps have a new design for increased fruit fly interaction and performance, according to Woodstream. Traps containing the proprietary food-based, non-toxic, non-staining lure can be placed anywhere fruit fly activity is seen, including bars, restaurants, wineries and kitchen areas. Once flies enter the trap they cannot escape, the manufacturer reports. Each trap lasts 45 days and features several see-through windows to easily monitor catch activity. Visit Woodstreampro.com or contact your Woodstream products distributor.

PestRoutes

PestRoutes announced the expansion of the PestRoutes platform to include features that assist pest control companies servicing commercial customers. PestRoutes’ software provides commercial customers with the information to be audit-ready at all times. Enhanced features include the ability to define structures, record activities and observations, and manage compliance on specific locations for commercial properties; report and transmit on all conditions for substructures, designate and report condition types, and transmit notes and recommendations via mobile, with or without connectivity; send in-depth commercial property notifications, delivered within a branded customer portal; and provide automated conditions and pest activity reporting for customers. For more information, visit www.pestroutes.com.

OvoControl P

OvoControl P, “birth control” for pigeons, is now available through distribution in Mexico. “Just as in the U.S. market, many commercial sites and communities in Mexico are plagued with pigeons,” explained Erick Wolf, CEO of Innolytics, maker of OvoControl. “More than anything, as the popularity of the product has grown, requests for the product have also increased from Mexico.” ECONTROL in Mexico City is the distributor of OvoControl P. The representative of the company, Benjamin Gómez, commented, “Especially based on our export economy, the critical importance of food safety in Mexico cannot be overstated. Our pest control customers and their clients are keenly interested in innovative options to control the pigeon population, safely and humanely. OvoControl meets these criteria and fits well with ECONTROL’s portfolio. OvoControl works like an IGR, but for birds instead of insects. We believe that birth control for pigeons is a valuable addition to the portfolio of bird control tools that can be used in Mexico.” OvoControl is a ready-to-use bait, which is dispensed on flat roof covers with an automatic feeder. For more information, visit www.ovocontrol.com.

Bell Laboratories

Bell Laboratories introduces new Protecta EVO Edge, a versatile rodent bait station that is fast to open and service, according to the manufacturer. Protecta EVO Edge is easy to use and opens and locks quickly with Bell’s EVO key. The built-in service record card holder, side-opening design and rounded interior walls make servicing fast, maximizing technician productivity and thereby enhancing profitability. The station has a large bait capacity, holding up to eight 28 g or two 225 g Blox securely inside the station and comes with vertical securing rods. Protecta EVO Edge also accommodates two Trapper Mini T-Rex mouse snap traps, or a Trapper T-Rex rat snap trap, which can be set forward in the runway. Service technicians can swiftly adjust baiting or trapping tactics at their accounts, without having to switch out their equipment, according to the manufacturer. Protecta EVO Edge is the latest addition to the extensive range of EVO tamper-resistant rodent bait stations from Bell Laboratories, including Protecta EVO Express, Protecta EVO Ambush, Protecta EVO Circuit, Protecta EVO Landscape, Protecta EVO Mouse and Protecta EVO Weighted Landscape. For more information about the company’s comprehensive product line that includes rodenticides, bait stations, mechanical traps, glue traps, trap gels, mole traps and accessories, visit www.belllabs.com, or call 608/241-0202.

Gardner Fly Lights

Gardner introduces a 4-foot glueboard fly light that’s waterproof and made of stainless steel. The manufacturer says its inspiration was to design an insect light trap that incorporates all the feedback from its customers into one product. Features include: Stainless steel — its extremely durable, commercial grade construction withstands harsh environments; Easy installation — mounting and leveling made easy with built-in mounting slots; Large glueboard — it traps more insects in comparison to other models, the manufacturer reports; and IP65 rated — the iFly65 is waterproof and dust tight and made to withstand harsh/wet environments.

Editor’s Note: This article was reprinted with permission from Techletter, a biweekly training letter for professional pest control technicians from Pinto & Associates. To subscribe, visit www.techletter.com.

At this time of year, in most areas, yellowjacket colonies are either dying out or becoming extra obnoxious, or both. In late summer, a yellowjacket colony is at its largest (1,000-4,000 workers), but its social structure is breaking down. Next year’s queens and males are produced and workers begin dying off.

You’ve heard that the reason yellowjackets become so aggressive and “in-your-face” late in the season is because they begin foraging for sugary foods rather than insects, as they have fewer developing larvae to feed. While no one really knows why yellowjackets undergo such a noticeable personality change in the fall, one yellowjacket expert rejects the change in diet explanation, saying that yellowjackets routinely forage for both carbohydrates and proteins throughout the season.

Apparently, much of the change in yellowjacket behavior has to do with social problems within the nest as allegiances change and conflicts increase in late season. The current queen’s influence begins to wane and she’ll die soon. There’s fighting among the workers as some of them are developing into next year’s reproductives and dealing with that whole hormone thing. Workers begin demanding regurgitated food from the remaining larvae, sometimes killing them in the process. According to the expert, yellowjackets are losing control as their society is collapsing.

CAUSE FOR CONCERN? How concerned should you be about fall calls for yellowjacket control? After all, the wasps will be dead soon and new queens won’t re-use the same nests next year. Nevertheless, there are some good reasons to eliminate yellowjacket nests, even late in the season. They include: Eliminating next year’s queens before they leave the nest to help eliminate future nests — these future queens don’t go far to overwinter and may start spring nests in the same general area. Nests this year = more queens = more nests next year. And, if yellowjackets are interacting with people or pets in late summer, they are likely to come into contact with people even more often as their foraging becomes more erratic — the option of leaving yellowjackets alone is never worth it if it may put sting-sensitive individuals at risk.

In more northern states, yellowjacket colonies begin to decline in July and August or later, but some remain active throughout September. In southern states, reproductives may not even be produced until after September. Yellowjackets nesting in building voids can remain active well into December. In very warm regions, colonies might not die off at all.

The authors are well-known industry consultants and co-owners of Pinto & Associates.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Entomology Today, a project of the Entomological Society of America with the goal of reporting interesting discoveries in the world of insect science and news from various entomological societies. To learn more, visit www.entomologytoday.org.

While millions of Americans took a break from their daily routines on Aug. 21, 2017, to witness a total solar eclipse, they might not have noticed a similar phenomenon happening nearby: In the path of totality, bees took a break from their daily routines, too.

In an unprecedented study of a solar eclipse’s influence on bee behavior, researchers at the University of Missouri organized a cadre of citizen scientists and elementary school classrooms in setting up acoustic monitoring stations to listen in on bees’ buzzing — or lack thereof — as the 2017 eclipse passed over. The results, published last fall in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America, were clear and consistent at locations across the country: Bees stopped flying during the period of total solar eclipse.

“We anticipated, based on the smattering of reports in the literature, that bee activity would drop as light dimmed during the eclipse and would reach a minimum at totality,” says Candace Galen, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri and lead researcher on the study. “But, we had not expected that the change would be so abrupt, that bees would continue flying up until totality and only then stop, completely. It was like ‘lights out’ at summer camp! That surprised us.”

As anticipation mounted for the eclipse, “it seemed as if everyone and their dog was asking me what animals would do during a total eclipse,” Galen says. However, few formal studies had ever examined the behavior of insects, specifically, during a solar eclipse, and none had looked at bees. Galen and colleagues, meanwhile, had recently field-tested a system to track bee pollination remotely by listening for their flight buzzes in soundscape recordings.

“It seemed like the perfect fit,” Galen says. “The tiny microphones and temperature sensors could be placed near flowers hours before the eclipse, leaving us free to put on our fancy glasses and enjoy the show.”

Supported by a grant from the American Astronomical Society, the project engaged more than 400 participants — including scientists, members of the public, and elementary school teachers and students — in setting up 16 monitoring stations in the path of totality in Oregon, Idaho and Missouri. At each location, small USB microphones were hung on lanyards near bee-pollinated flowers in areas away from foot and vehicle traffic. In some of the locations, light and temperature data were also captured.

Participants then sent the devices to Galen’s lab, where the recordings were matched up with the eclipse periods from each location and analyzed for the number and duration of bee flight buzzes. The recordings didn’t allow for differentiation between bee species, but participant observations indicated most bees monitored were bumble bees (genus Bombus) or honey bees (Apis mellifera).

The data showed that bees remained active during the partial-eclipse phases both before and after totality, but they essentially ceased flying during the period of totality. (Just one buzz was recorded during totality in all of the 16 monitoring locations.) However, shortly before and shortly after totality, bee flights tended to be longer in duration than at times early in the pre-totality phase and late in post-totality. Galen and colleagues interpret these longer flight durations as an indicator of slower flight under reduced light or possibly as the bees returning to their nests.

Bees commonly fly more slowly at dusk and return to their colonies at night, and so the same behavior triggered by a solar eclipse offers evidence about how they respond to environmental cues when those cues occur unexpectedly.

Candace Galen, Ph.D.

“The eclipse gave us an opportunity to ask whether the novel environmental context — mid-day, open skies — would alter the bees’ behavioral response to dim light and darkness. As we found, complete darkness elicits the same behavior in bees, regardless of timing or context. And that’s new information about bee cognition,” Galen says.

The researchers also noted the success of the project in engaging students in scientific inquiry and practice. At elementary school classrooms in Columbia, Mo., for instance, Galen and colleagues report that “young students were asked to predict how bees would respond to the eclipse. Students made predictions based on their life experience, proposing that bees would cease flying at totality because they do not fly at night. After the eclipse, sound clips were shared with students who learned how to measure the frequency, amplitude, and duration of buzzes, and how to use these properties to recognize and count bee buzzes in recordings made at their schools. Fourth and fifth grade students produced buzz counts that matched our research team’s numbers with a correspondence rate of 91 percent.”

Another total solar eclipse for North America is not far away: April 8, 2024. Galen says her team is working to enhance its audio-analysis software to distinguish the flights that foraging bees make when they leave or return to their colonies. Thus prepared, she hopes to answer the question of whether bees return home when the “lights go out” at totality in 2024.

It likely won’t be difficult to find willing citizen scientists and students to help out again.

“The total solar eclipse was a complete crowd-pleaser, and it was great fun to hitch bee research to its tidal wave of enthusiasm,” Galen says.

What does it mean to be social? Being social, or sociality, is defined as a group of individuals of the same species exchanging information and cooperating in one way or another. The key to this cooperative living is communication. The word communication is derived from the Latin word “communis,” which is translated to mean “to exchange or share obligations.” That is precisely what these social insects do: they share information on where to eat, what to eat, dangers to avoid, potential mates, etc. Many interactions in the insect community demonstrate characteristics of sociality; however, not all insect gatherings are considered “social.” Many times, a large gathering of insects indicates a response to an environmental stimulus, either positive or negative. There are numerous forms of social behavior among insects: eusocial, semisocial, subsocial, solitary, communal and quasisocial.

So then, what makes an insect truly social? To be considered eusocial (truly social), an insect species must exhibit cooperative care, reproductive division of labor, and an overlap of generations. Insects demonstrate cooperative care when all members of a colony collectively take care of the brood. Division of labor means that some members of a colony will mate and reproduce while others will never be given the opportunity. Finally, overlapping generations occur when certain offspring grow up to help parents feed and nurture their young. The two orders of insects that contain eusocial species are Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps) and Blattodea (termites).

Social behavior in insects is not limited to eusociality, though. Insects that demonstrate other degrees of sociality may exhibit some, but not all, of the three characteristics discussed above. For example, subsocial insects do not exhibit all of these behaviors, but adult subsocial insects will care for their young to a degree. Common species of insects characterized as subsocial include cockroaches, true bugs, aphids, and earwigs. Some species of solitary insects, such as butterflies, although not social, will aggregate together.

There are many benefits to group living. One of the primary benefits is strength in numbers. Animals that live in groups and communicate together have an increased likelihood of survival. They have more eyes available to watch for predators as well as chemical communication through pheromones. These pheromones produce an odor that can alert the rest of the colony to oncoming danger. Another benefit to living in numbers is related directly to survival. It is less likely that a predator will single out any one individual, and typically when a predator reaches a colony they will soon realize the danger of large numbers. Two other benefits of group living are the increased success of raising young and increased likelihood that an individual will find food. One of the characteristics of being social is cooperative care of young. There are numerous individuals whose only job is caring for the young. This fact alone increases survival rates, as many hands (or tarsal claws) make light work. Finally, because colonies consist of such large numbers, there are always several individuals foraging for food. This increases the likelihood that the entire colony will be fed or know where food sources are located.

Photo credit: Gene White

PMPs & SOCIAL INSECTS. There are a number of social insects that pest management professionals may encounter, including several different types of wasps (some are social and some are not). For example, we often come across cicada killers or cuckoo wasps. Most of the time, these solitary wasps are not aggressive and positively impact their environments as pollinators. However, the wasps that we must be most concerned with are social. There are about 20 species of social wasps in North America and more than 700 social wasp species worldwide. These wasps are in the family Vespidae and typically fall into three groups: yellowjackets, hornets and common paper wasps. Yellowjackets and hornets are in the genuses Vespula and Dolichovespula spp.

Yellowjackets and hornets present constant problems around residential areas. They are a medium-sized wasp that is black with patterned bands of bright yellow or white, the latter of which can be seen in Dolichovespula maculata, commonly known as the bald-faced hornet. Yellowjackets and hornets can be distinguished by their coloration and nesting. Yellowjackets typically build their nest in underground cavities, while hornet nests are always located above ground. Because yellowjackets make nests underground, detecting their nesting sites is challenging — their presence often goes unnoticed until someone steps on or otherwise disturbs a nest. Yellowjackets often nest in rodent burrows or low-lying wall voids where they can remain hidden.

Bald-faced hornets, on the other hand, always build their large, football-shaped nests above ground. Both wasp species surround their nest with paper walls to protect against weather and natural enemies. Both yellowjackets and hornets are aggressive and will readily sting, especially when their nests are threatened. When threatened, they emit an “alarm pheromone” which alerts the colony of pending danger. This results in an aggressive attack from the rest of the colony. These wasps are readily attracted to sugar sources, such as berries and flower nectars. When sweet sodas and ripened fruit are on the menu, they may become unwelcome picnic guests due to their “sweet tooth.”

Paper wasps are the other group of Vespid wasp that are typically dealt with by PMPs. These wasps are in the genus Polistes spp. and are named for the papery nests that queens build and colonies live in. They are long, slender wasps characterized by brownish-reddish colors with yellow markings. Using saliva and wood tissues, paper wasps build their nests facing the ground and attach them to tree hollows or structures, such as the eaves of homes, with a small pedicel. These wasps are not very aggressive and will only sting when threatened.

Wasps are a nuisance around homes, during picnics, and in the workplace. Notably, their sting can pose a double threat: in addition to the pain, many people are allergic to stings. Because of these threats, safe and timely control of these pests is a must. Being aware of these pests’ behaviors better equips us to handle this daunting task.

Kristen Stevens is a corporate entomologist at Cook’s Pest Control, Decatur, Ala.