Pests damage trees, lumber, paper, food and agricultural products in addition to biting humans, livestock and pets, sometimes spreading disease. This category explores the economic, esthetic, medical and nuisance damages caused by pest infestation and suggests ways to reduce or eliminate further damage.
In the 1930s, California researchers began injecting arsenic into active infestations of drywood termites, finding that the termites not killed by the initial application, usually succumbed to toxic residues. Now 80 years later, a natural product, orange oil is being marketed as a herbicide and insecticide, with particular kudos to its effectiveness against drywood termites. So, what is this wonder product and how does it kill termites?
With noses that twitch and tails gone fuzzy, rabbits can be adorable as pets or as one of the gathering at backyard feeders. However, they can wreak havoc on landscaping and gardens, feasting on a range of plants from young trees and broccoli to tree nuts, berries and herbs. Step inside in read more about rabbits as pests, their identification, prevention and control.
Dampwood termites can generally be kept from infesting wooden structures if wood dampening or rot is eliminated by drying up leaks, removing clutter and eliminating termite freeways into the home.
Integrated Pest Management(IPM), principles may be applied to a variety of crops and plants in a home or commercial setting from flowers and shrubs to vegetables and fruit. The goals of IPM are to reduce the damage caused by a range of pests from insects, weeds, and nematodes to birds, deer and fungi while limiting costs, protecting the environment and maintaining health for humans, pets and non-pests.
Adult grasshoppers will eat almost any kind of vegetation in the home garden, using chewing mouthparts to munch on the leaves and flowers of young carrots, beans, corn, lettuce and onions.
Unless their populations are very high, grasshoppers will usually be held in check by their natural predators; various beetles and their larvae, flies, birds, nematodes and fungus.
Step inside to read more on managing and controlling these high-jumpers of the insect world.
Rat Lung Disease was a term used until 1993 to categorize the deaths due to acute respiratory failure in young, healthy, fit persons. Deeper examination led to isolation of the cause as a Hantavirus carried by rodents and transmitted to humans by contact with rodent feces or even dust that had been in the presence of such droppings. The primary symptom is severe shortness of breath and patients are usually intubated and treated with oxygen therapy. There are no cures or vaccines for HPS.
Every pesticide sold in the U.S. is required by the Environmental Protection Agency to be labeled with the active ingredient and its percentage in total composition, the names and percentages of other or inert ingredients and any needed signal words to advise purchasers and applicators of the chemical's short term toxicity to humans.
USDA researchers have applied for a patent for commercial production of a pine oil compound that they say is more effective than DEET at repelling wild mosquitoes and dog ticks.
This site contains a small encyclopedia of information about insect pests in the home, on house plants, in the lawn, flower and vegetable gardens.
Carpenter ants are important decomposers of forest trees, not feeding on the wood but burrowing within it to nest and feed on insects, plants and fruit juices. However, the ants can move to the structures of our homes, where they invade the kitchen, pantry and interior rooms looking for water and human or pet food.
This publication examines the damage that 60+ species of birds inflict annually on horticultural crops and suggests ways to manage the birds and reduce crop losses. Control methods include predicting bird movements, taking pro-active measures to minimize damage and unifiying the efforts of growers, trade associations and government.
Odors can be removed from a skunk-sprayed pet by using the methods and recipes revealed here.
Insect pests along with temperature extremes, light and humidity can wreak havoc on archival pieces, often ruining one-of-a-kind exhibits. So, museum curators must make every effort to preserve history literally, using methods that still allow viewing and enjoyment of the artifacts.
