A recent National Institutes of Health (NIH) study by the department’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) revealed that controlling cockroaches could help alleviate health problems in asthmatic children.
The study, conducted in inner cities, shows that cockroach allergens cause the most health problems for children with asthma. More so than common allergens including dust mites and cat dander.
Whether inner city or suburban, pest control and maintenance is the best defense against roach infestations in any home or building.
Because of our increasingly global economy, with more people and merchandise moving about more rapidly than ever before, new pests are constantly invading this country. Often these invaders end up becoming some of our most serious pests— much more invasive and damaging than native pests.
This is nowhere more evident than in the ant world. Consider these ants that have arrived here from other parts of the world, mostly in the last century: Argentine ants, pharaoh ants, red imported fire ants, pavement ants, white-footed ants, crazy ants, and ghost ants. All of these ants are gradually spreading and showing up where they've never been seen before.
An example of this is the white-footed ant, so named because the bottoms of its legs are whitish. This ant is established and slowly spreading in Florida, but was also recently discovered thriving as far away as San Francisco and Seattle.
What makes these imported ants so "successful" at invading new territories? Many of them have an incredible reproductive capacity because each colony has many queens. Colonies can end up being very large, often with many cooperating nests, and some kinds can easily divide into two or more colonies, a process called "budding".
The cooperating nests of whitefooted ants can total as many as several million ants, which means one colony can invade several homes simultaneously. Incredibly, half of this ant's colony is made up of reproductive, egg-laying females. You can be sure we'll be hearing much more about "super ants" like these in the years ahead!
Abandoned, foreclosed homes may become a serious source of mosquitoes if the homes have untended swimming pools, spas, or ornamental ponds. While mosquitoes commonly breed in backed-up roof gutters and other small bodies of water, consider that an unchlorinated, average size swimming pool can easily contain as many as one million mosquito larvae. Besides the nuisance factor of biting mosquitoes, these pests are more of a concern than ever because of the increased risk from WEST NILE VIRUS.
Thick ivy may look good growing up the side of a building, but it eventually damages the surface it attaches to, and it harbors pests like birds, wasps, mice and ants. Keep ivy trimmed down from walls, or even better yet, keep it trimmed so it is five feet away from the foundation.
