The PCT staff just returned from San Diego, host city of NPMA PestWorld 2019. During the course of the event, we attended and provided editorial coverage of business and technical sessions, and we met with many of our readers on the exhibit hall floor. It was a productive three-plus days and our staff returned from PestWorld with lots of great ideas on how to make our magazine and website even better in 2020 and beyond.
I always enjoy attending the general sessions, which are hour-long presentations from outside-the-industry speakers. Many of these presenters are high profile and their stories are well known. Others, like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos creator Richard Montañez, who presented the Corteva Agriscience-sponsored opening general session, are less well known, but their stories are no less remarkable.
One day while working as a janitor at a California Frito-Lay plant, an assembly line machine broke down, resulting in a batch of Cheetos coming out plain. Montañez brought home a few bags, and with the assistance of his wife (a talented cook), began experimenting with different spices and powders. The couple’s inspiration was elote, a Mexican grilled corn made with lime and chili.
Through some persistence and knowing the right people, Montañez was able to pitch his idea to Roger Enrico, CEO of PepsiCo (parent company of Frito-Lay). Enrico agreed to a meeting (in front of executives and other management) the next time he was in California. This was an important leadership lesson that Montañez learned. Enrico led as a “deliverer” — someone who believes that your job as a leader is to develop people to their fullest potential.
I think this was great take-home reminder for PCOs in attendance. Enrico recognized that a good idea can come from anyone on the company’s team. I know there are a lot of successful PCOs who understand this, and they actively seek solutions from all of their team.
For example, I know of a pest control technician who made a cleaning device that gets into the nooks and crannies of rodent bait stations. He pitched this idea to management, and they were so impressed that they made this device a part of every technician’s toolbox. We hear similar stories every year as part of the PCT/BASF Technician of the Year Awards editorial coverage. Technicians understand their job, and they do it so well that they become relied upon for any number of reasons, including recommendations for routing, product selection, training activities, best management practices and many others.
The key for PCOs is uncovering their team members’ skill sets and talents and actively involving them in decision-making. As Mark Miller, director of enterprise marketing, General Assembly, noted in the Inc.com article “Where to Find Your Next Big Idea,” your workforce “can’t be a differentiator unless you tap into the ideas and the expertise therein. This is what I call collaborative innovation. Collaborative innovation means tapping into more than just a person’s knowledge, but also their unique skill set, personality, and mode of thinking and acting. More than that, it means actually utilizing these characteristics by harnessing the different ways that person exhibits them.”
As a footnote, upon my return from PestWorld I bought my first-ever bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. While I did find them tasty and interesting, they were a bit too uncomfortably hot for my bland Midwestern palate; I prefer the traditional, tried-and-true Cheetos.
The author is Internet/managing editor of PCT whose favorite snacks include Chili Cheese Fritos and potato chips with French onion dip.
Making Sure Pet Food is Not Pest Food
Departments - Tech Talk
Steps to take for decreasing the likelihood of developing a pest infestation in a pet food store (or retail store selling dry pet food).
Unlike many of the pests we protect food from, stored product pests (SPP) live in the food they are consuming. They do not travel from a safe harborage to a food source and then return back to their harborage — the harborage is the food source. The living preferences of species of SPP will vary based on its food preference — some will thrive in whole kernels of corn, others will prefer processed grains and others may choose a food source high in protein.
When we look at the food chain of custody, how food travels from harvest to end-user, we can pinpoint which facilities will be more prone to certain types of stored product pests based on the food they store or process. Grain silos may wrestle with weevils, which prefer a kernel; a commercial bakery may wrestle with flour beetles, which prefer processed grain; and a spice factory is at risk for cigarette beetles, which are excellent at making unappetizing food edible. Stores that sell dry pet food will find they’re at risk for all species of SPP, making them a challenging facility for pest management.
THE SOURCE. Infestations in a pet food store (or retail store selling dry pet food) most commonly originate from the following sources:
1. Food Itself: Despite best efforts, sometimes infestations will start at the pet food manufacturing plant. After processing but before packaging, stored product pests will take advantage of exposed food and begin infesting. The size of the infestation is dictated by how many individuals made it into the container, the temperature the product is stored at and how long the product remains in storage. As long as the infestation is contained in the bag, these are the easiest types of infestations to solve: simply identify and discard the product and its inhabitants.
2. Environment: The “wandering” larval stage of several species of SPP, particularly the warehouse beetle and the Indianmeal moth, are adept at leaving their food supply to find a calm, quiet place to pupate and become adults. Once they leave the food, they’ll look for a suitable habitat on the shelves or racking on which the food was stored. The infestation then becomes a “structural infestation” — removing the original source will not solve the problem. The resulting adults typically will find spilled food to make their home in and some species will bore into product and infest previously uninfested food. The same thing can happen during transport. A truck that carried infested product may become infested, putting subsequent foods at risk.
3. Exterior: Some species of SPP are prevalent outside. A pet food store is attractive to these pests and if it has unsealed openings/food spillage, it may become infested.
MINIMIZE RISK. Steps that will decrease the likelihood of developing an infestation:
• Sanitation: Since SPP live in food, the most effective way to remove/limit them is to remove food sources. In a pet store, this is best achieved via thorough cleaning of shelves/racks. While the entire pet food store may be at risk, the source isn’t the entire pet food store. It’s the small forgotten places where food debris has gathered. Hard-to-access areas have food debris build up, an excellent hidden habitat for SPP.
• Minimize Voids Where Food Collects: Shelves and racking should be installed to have as few food-collecting pockets as possible. The u-channels common in racking design are notorious for collecting and hiding debris that warehouse beetles infest. Voids in peg boards and under shelving collect fallen food, attracting several species.
• Follow First-In, First-Out: Proper stock rotation is one of the best ways to minimize risk. SPP need food, but they also need time. It takes about 30 days to go from egg to adult for most species in an ideal environment. The sooner the product is off the shelves, the less time there is for an infestation to grow. Forgotten product that sits undisturbed for months is left to provide harborage to generations of SPP. Depending on the species, we may not even know they’re in the product because they have no need to leave. These items bring so much risk to the facility because when they do need to leave the product to find food, they’ll begin infesting the structure and even more products.
• Inspect Incoming Product: Often there’ll be clues that a product is coming into the store infested. Employees trained to identify these clues can flag or decline product before it hits the shelves. Evidence may include seeing adult or larval stages of the insects, webbing (in the case of stored product moths), shed larval skins, pupal casings in the seams of bags, or small holes where larvae have bored in or out or adults of some species have chewed through.
• Preventively Freeze Product: Stored product pests are temperature sensitive and are most prolific in warm climates. Very high temperatures and very low temperatures slow the insects down and eventually kill them. Freezing can be an excellent way of killing insects in potentially infested food before putting them on the shelves. If a store has the means, identifying consistently infested brands or types of food and implementing a freezing protocol before putting them on the shelves can significantly reduce risk.
• Preventive Chemical Application: Residual chemicals, which kill the insects upon contact, can have a place in stored product pest management, but choosing where to apply needs to be carefully considered. Since the insects live in food, and we cannot apply residual chemical to food or packaging, we’re limited to cracks and crevices that the insects may or may not encounter. Insect growth regulators can be an effective tool against Indianmeal moths and warehouse beetle larvae, which wander away from food to pupate.
• Seal Entry Points: Indianmeal moths, warehouse beetles and flour beetles (as well as secondary feeders such as foreign grain beetles) can have outdoor populations. Ensuring doors are kept closed and sealed will help in keeping pests outside.
CONTROLLING POPULATIONS. Due to the sensitive nature of a pet food store (particularly one that also sells pets or allows pets to roam the aisles), controlling infestations beyond the preventive measures previously listed can be challenging. Sanitation will consistently play a part in control: as long as there is food available for a SPP pest population, there is a place for populations to retreat to. Cleaning one area where we’re seeing activity doesn’t necessarily eliminate the population; the population may move to another area. Diligent sanitation efforts are necessary. Outside of sanitation, control may be partially achieved through ultra-low volume treatment, which will kill exposed adult stages of the pests. This will not affect the juvenile stages in the food itself, though, making it a temporary solution.
Fumigation can achieve control, though this is typically costly for retail stores. One tool that is being used more frequently against Indianmeal moth populations is mating disruption. This solution saturates the air with synthetic Indianmeal moth sex pheromone, camouflaging the actual female’s sex pheromone. The male is unable to find her and the two eventually die of natural causes without reproducing. When Indianmeal moth is the target pest, this method has proven to be effective.
Pet food retail environments are vulnerable to SPP and that puts brand reputation on the line. A proactive pest management program with a strong emphasis on sanitation is the most effective way of protecting food.
Anna Berry is training manager/entomologist for McCloud Services and a Board Certified Entomologist. She is also a member of the Copesan Technical Committee (CTC).
Copesan is an alliance of pest management companies with locations throughout North America. To learn more, visit www.copesan.com.
A Mouse Fell from White House Ceiling onto a Reporter
File this one under fact being stranger than fiction. On Oct. 1, a mouse fell from a hole in a White House ceiling onto a reporter (and he shared the video online at https://buff.ly/30MiUhh).
“A mouse literally fell out of the ceiling in our White House booth and landed on my lap,” NBC News White House Correspondent Peter Alexander tweeted.
He and his colleagues soon shared video of the mouse in the corner of the NBC workspace that’s part of the press briefing area adjacent to the West Wing.
As People.com noted, “The White House, some 200 years old, has all of the character and problems of a house its age. Dead mice have previously been seen in the press work area, PEOPLE understands, and journalists there have been warned about mice when the temperatures outside plummet and they look indoors for warmth. (Over the summer, parts of the property flooded from heavy rains.)”
California Restaurant Dares To Put ‘Rodent’ in its Name
For most restaurateurs, when it comes to naming their establishment the traditional route is to use terms that have alliteration or perhaps sound appetizing. Restaurateur Davin Waite did just the opposite. He named his popular restaurant Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub.
While the name may not make one’s mouth water, it does capture people’s attention. In fact, the eatery was one of the subjects in “Name of Groans: The Search for the Most Truly Awful Restaurant Name in America,” a 2017 feature that appeared on the popular restaurant industry website Eater.com.
Wrench and Rodent Seabasstropub faced off against another quirky fish-centric restaurant — A-Fish-o-na-do — in round one of the competition. Here’s how Eater.com described the matchup.
“It’s a bold restaurateur who deliberately puts the word ‘rodent’ in the name of his or her restaurant. And yet the grossest thing in the name of Wrench & Rodent is the monstrous portmanteau (portmonstrosity?) ‘Seabasstropub.’ It’s a gastropub? That serves... sea bass? Maybe only sea bass? Hmm. But all I want to know is: Would a true A-Fish-o-na-do actually call themselves that? Winner: A-Fish-o-na-do.”
While Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub “lost” that competition, the company is winning over patrons. According to its website, Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub “prides itself on offering locally and responsibly sourced ingredients while taking special care to minimize waste. Menu options range from rolls and nigiri to elaborate sashimi plates and an unconventional omakase.”
It’s proven to be a popular formula. Yelp reviewers have given the restaurant 4.7 out of 5 stars. Here is how one Yelper described their dining experience. “The food here is INSANE! Exciting menu, freshest fish I can imagine and VERY reasonable prices. Our service was phenomenal, extremely friendly staff and the semi punk/alt vibe made for a fun atmosphere.” — Brad Harbison
Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub has a quirky name, but a stellar reputation.
Bees Swarm Airplane — and have to be Removed with Water Cannons
On the morning of Sept.15, Air India flight 743 from Kolkata to Agartala was delayed by two and a half hours after a swarm of honeybees clamped themselves onto the window of the flight deck, CNN reported.
The swarm took up residence on the left-hand window panes, obstructing the pilots’ vision.
Windscreen wipers failed to remove the bees. The swarm was only cleared when the airport fire crew was recruited to use water cannons. The plane had already been delayed 90 minutes due to a technical fault, before the bee attack added an extra hour delay.
The flight to Agartala, in northeast India, takes just 60 minutes.
Target Specialty Products, a provider of pest control solutions in the U.S. and Canada, now offers a line of professional pest management solutions under its brand name Strike MAX. The company says Strike MAX products are designed to enhance the performance of chemicals commonly used in the pest management industry and are exclusively available at Target Specialty Products.
The first generation of Strike MAX products include Poly MAX, Tank MAX and Clean MAX, which are spray tank adjuvants. These products are designed to be used in conjunction with existing pest management chemistry that PMPs use. Using Strike MAX products ensures product efficacy in extreme weather conditions and in difficult treatment areas, Target Specialty Products says.
“The Strike MAX line is the result of our desire to continue to offer the highest level of value and service to our customers,” said David Helt, Target Specialty Products’ president. “Being able to offer Strike MAX products to our customers will help them get the best results for their applications, every time.”
On Sept. 3, the United States Patent Office issued patent number 10,398,141 to Rockwell Labs for the company’s invention titled “breakable non-flowing gel bait.”
The technology was developed by Rockwell’s founder and CEO Dr. Cisse Spragins in 2005 and first commercialized in 2009 with the launch of the company’s InTice Gelanimo Ant Bait.
The unique rigid gel bait technology provides the high-moisture bait insects are attracted to, in an easy-to-deploy format, giving users “the advantages of liquid bait, and more, but without the mess,” the company says. Target insects are also never at risk of drowning or getting stuck in the bait, which might signal danger to other insects, Rockwell Labs added.
InTice Gelanimo Ant Bait contains borax as the active ingredient and is available in simple-to-use 0.25-ounce stations, in 4-ounce cups that fit in the InTice Border Patrol System station for large colony baiting and in boxes of five 35-gram syringes.
Pest Control Insulation recently launched its newly revamped Sales Kit as part of the firm’s annual TAP Season Update. The Sales Kit, which comes in a basic or enhanced version, provides pest management professionals with the marketing tools and resources needed to advertise and generate sales for their new attic capping or attic restoration business featuring EPA-registered TAP Pest Control Insulation, the firm says.
“Each year we have the opportunity to demonstrate innovation and equip clients with the tools they need to be successful,” shared CEO Bill Turk. “This fresh take on our former Sales Kit includes the necessary tools and insight at an easy-to-handle price point.”
The basic Sales Kit includes: the TAP Sales Training Manual, Evidence Notebook, a sample of TAP Pest Control Insulation, an Insulation Demo Tube, Tri-fold Brochures, Leave Behind Door Hangers, Ask Me About TAP Buttons, What’s in the Attic? sales flyers, and access to the firm’s provider website. The enhanced version includes a TAP Thermal Demo Unit and a 60-minute training webinar led by a member of the TAP Client Support and Training team.
ServiceMark Communications has been licensed by the National Pest Management Association to print the newly updated and copyrighted National Wood Destroying Insect Report form NPMA-33. The new version, revised July 1, 2019, may be used for WDI inspections immediately but must be used for all inspections on or after Jan. 1, 2020, the company says. The previous version of form NPMA-33 will become obsolete after Dec. 31, 2019.
ServiceMark says it offers economical and convenient solutions for multi-part carbonless and laser compatible business forms, including form NPMA-33 and many other pest control business-related documents. Packages of ServiceMark’s 50 count NPMA-33 forms are available as individual forms or bound in receipt-style books from pest management suppliers nationwide. Personalized forms imprinted with an inspection company’s information can be ordered directly from ServiceMark Communications in quantities as low as 100 reports.
Next year ServiceMark Communications will celebrate 25 years of providing printing and marketing products and graphics services to the pest management and home inspection industries.
PCO News
Departments - PCO News
Please send press releases about your firm to jdorsch@gie.net.
In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, California Pest Management used pink B&G sprayers in October. Swapping out the top and bottom covers seems like an easy task, but it shows the company’s awareness and optimism for Breast Cancer Victims and Survivors, said CPM President Jim Harmon.
Ace Exterminating, Cincinnati, Ohio, was named a 2019 Torch Award Winner. Torch is a BBB Center for Ethics program designed to encourage and celebrate outstandingly ethical organizational practices.
L to R: Kevin Atwell, board chair, BBB Center for Ethics; Jocile Ehrlich, president/CEO, BBB; Rick Steinau, Ace Exterminating; and Corrie McGlothlin/vice president BBB Center for Ethics.
Go-Forth Pest Control recently increased its customer base in North Carolina by acquiring Intersect Pest Control, located in China Grove, N.C. This will increase the number of homes and businesses serviced by the company’s Charlotte branch.
The U.S. Pest Protection-created Tennessee Honey Festival was held Sept. 7. The festival was created by U.S. Pest President Erica Brister to raise awareness about honeybees.
Baltimore Magazine recognized Brody Brothers Pest Control, Owings Mills, Md., as one of the city’s best places to work in its February 2019 edition. Brody Brothers Pest Control is a family-owned and -operated firm that provides services to the Greater Baltimore area.
Black Diamond Pest Control announced the addition of a new franchise located in Pinellas County, Fla. The franchise owners are Nick Vonella and Ashley Naumann.
Franchise owners Nick Vonella and Ashley Naumann stand in front of their new company vehicle at Black Diamond Pest Control in Pinellas County, Fla.
Ardent Pest Control, which ranked #98 on this year’s PCT 100 list, and #848 on Inc. 5000’s list, announced the opening of three new locations. These new locations are in Nashville Tenn., Oklahoma City, Okla., and Tulsa, Okla. This brings Ardent’s total locations to six with the other locations being in Las Vegas, Nev.; Dallas, Texas; and Houston, Texas.
Brad Harbison
