Monthly Archive June 28, 2019

So where did these nasty ants come from because they surely didn’t come from here. It is believed that they came to North America on a shipment of cargo back in the 1930s. So, how did they get in your lawn, well most likely from an infested nursery plant, fertilizer or grass sod being used in the home’s landscaping. Fire ants like warm, sunny conditions as they prefer dry lawns and avoid shady areas. When responding to a disturbance of sorts, fire ants first use their mandibles for grip and then inject venom through a stinger. Fire ant stings are very painful and potentially fatal. Their venom is an alkaloid that is very irritating to humans and results in red bumps and white boils. These ants are difficult to control because the colonies are often very large underground nests with multiple queens. One common sign of fire ant activity is the worker, swarmer ants, sandy earthen mounds and people being stung by ants.

https://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/blog-fire-ants-1.23871220

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fire-ants-randy-bilesky-1e/?published=t

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome Virus (HPS) is a severe, respiratory disease that can be lethal and is spread through infected rodent droppings, urine or drool. A person can contract the virus by breathing in air particles, such as stirring up dust in areas where rodents have been causing the virus to get into the air. It’s best to wet down droppings with a disinfectant to prevent the particles from becoming air-born. Symptoms of the virus typically develop within six weeks after exposure and may include fever, muscle aches, chills, headaches, nausea, abdominal pain and respiratory distress. There is no treatment for HPS but recovery may be probable with quick medical care.

https://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/rodent-droppings…y-syndrome-virus/

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rodent-droppings-hantavirus-pulmonary-syndrome-virus-randy-bilesky/?published=t

Recently, numerous serious issues have motivated the pest control industry towards non-toxic solutions. Businesses are reacting to consumer concerns about adverse effects of the overuse of pesticides. The pest control industry is continuously researching and developing solutions that are more effective, sustainable and are better for our environment. Innovations are evolving non-toxic solutions that are more targeted and effective. Researchers are developing new organic-compound solutions, with zero mammalian toxicity, that can repel or destroy pests such as fungal spores that attach to the external body surface of targeted insects.  Another significant benefit is that unlike chemicals, pests cannot become resistant to the spores, so we are getting closer to solving a nagging issue with how insect pests learn to acclimate to chemicals and pass on resistant genes.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/non-toxic-pest-control-go-green-randy-bilesky/?published=t

gogreenpestcontrol.ca Ladner Tsawwassen Delta B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

A recent survey on honey bees reveals that the 2018/2019 winter resulted in a extremely large die-off – as upwards of 40 percent of their population was lost over the winter. Fewer honeybees is an ecological and economic problem, as there has been a major decline for the last 50 years. There are a variety of reasons for the decline, starting with wild bee habitats are disappearing and managed bee colonies are living in unhealthy bee populations. Managed colonies typically feed on the pollen and nectar from just one or two kinds of plants. As well, in the winter managed bees are generally feed corn syrup which weakens bees’ immune systems which can lead to colony collapse disorder. Once their immune system is compromised, honey bees become more susceptible to parasites such as Varroa destructor mites and other diseases. The Varroa destructor mite causes deformed wing virus and weakens bees by feeding on their fat. Bees rely on their fat stores to survive the winter and to combat the negative impacts of various toxic chemicals in pesticides.  

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/honeybees-largest-winter-die-off-50-years-randy-bilesky/?published=t

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF 

https://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/honeybees-larges…-off-in-50-years/

The ants of Delta are the most successful of all existing insects. There are approximately 8,800 described species of ants in the world of which approximately 570 species are found in North America. Ants perform numerous important ecological and ecosystem functions. Their occurrence is staple food for birds to bears. Of course our notorious Carpenter ants are know for physically breaking down wood on the forest floor or 2×4 studs in your house walls. Six interesting things about our ants:

1. The ant is one of the world’s strongest creatures in relation to its size as one single ant can carry 50 times its own bodyweight.

2. Most ants you see are female, as the queen is the founder and her the workers are females. The queen lays the eggs and the workers care for the queen and the young, gathering food, and waste disposal. A female ant will become a queen if she receives a diet richer in protein (not genetics).  

3. Okay, the guys job is simple, they are born to fly and mate, and once they mate they soon die but their sperm can live on for years with the new queen. 

4. Flying ant day / nuptial flight  – When the conditions are warm and damp, the winged virgin queens and males fly into the sky and mate. After mated queens drop to the ground they shed their wings and find a nest site. The new queen don’t eat for weeks after the mating.

5. The new queen ants can live for decades laying egg, the female workers live for a year and the male for a couple weeks. This is all due to the way their genes are switched on and off.

6. Sometimes there can be several queens in one nest but eventually they fight so only one survives. Some colonies will steal brood from their neighbours, putting them to work as slaves. 

https://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/six-interesting-…s-about-our-ants/

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/six-interesting-things-our-ants-randy-bilesky/?published=t

Blog: Flying squirrels? Just the facts

Randy Bilesky / Delta Optimist

JUNE 19, 2019 11:35 AM

#DeltaBCThe flying squirrel is a type of squirrel known for its ability to glide through the air. Usually found in deciduous, coniferous or mixed type of forest they are thankfully not endangered. Males and females look alike and their tail is flattened and large used as a rudder when they glide through the air. A special type of the furry membrane stretches between wrists and ankles serving as a parachute while jumping from tree to tree to the ground. They can make 180 degree turns during gliding and use their thick paws as cushion for landing. They are active at night using their large eyes to see in the dark. Main predators of flying squirrels are raccoons, coyotes, owls, foxes and birds. Flying squirrels are highly social animals living in a woodpecker hole in groups of squirrels and sometimes share their dens with other animals like as bats and screech owls. The average lifespan up to five years. 

Go Green Pest Control owner Randy Bilesky is a long-time South Delta resident. Trained and certified, Bilesky has first-hand knowledge of the pest problems that local homeowners and business owners encounter

What really is going on down-under. If you are one of those people that like your lawn to look like a golf course, then here is a collection of rodents that try very hard to make your putting green style lawn vanish.  So down under the ground we have moles, voles, shrews and pocket gophers (and a lot more). So often confused with moles, voles are entirely different. A mole tunnels underground, lifting the soil upwards and making your yard squishy when you walk on it. Voles tunnel creating super highways under the grass. Like the vole, the pocket gopher is a rodent and looks like a mouse, but with bigger teeth. They burrow into the ground, leaving behind unsightly mounds on your lawn that are horseshoe-shaped. The shrew is a small mole-like long-nosed mouse, but a shrew is not a rodent. Shrews have sharp, spike-like teeth, not front incisor teeth like rodents. Shrews will reuse the tunnels made by moles and voles.

https://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/moles-voles-shre…ers-vs-your-lawn/

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/moles-voles-shrews-pocket-gophers-vs-your-lawn-randy-bilesky/?published=t

The flying squirrel is a type of squirrel known for its ability to glide through the air. Usually found in deciduous, coniferous or mixed type of forest and thankfully they are not endangered. Males and females look alike and their tail is flattened and large used as a rudder when they glide through the air. A special type of the furry membrane stretches between wrists and ankles serving as a parachute while jumping from tree to tree to the ground. They can make 180 degree turns during gliding and use their thick paws as cushion for landing. They are active at night using their large eyes to see in the dark. Main predators of flying squirrels are raccoons, coyotes, owls, foxes and birds. Flying squirrels are highly social animals living in a woodpecker hole in groups of squirrels and sometimes share their dens with other animals like as bats and screech owls. The average lifespan up to 5 years.

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

Small black pavement ants, thatching ants and the large black carpenter ants seem to be everywhere this year and some of the mating ants with wings have already been out. They are flourishing in the usual sunny locations — cracks in driveways, under patio pavers, and of course in wood mulch (their number one built in home). If you find that they put the “p” in pest, then try reducing their numbers with borax, diatomaceous earth or any number of those gimmicky retail ant solutions – by spraying on the anthill or in the cracks were they are sending up sand. To help deter them from coming inside, spray a little diatomaceous earth near doorways. Many ants are actually coming inside for water, so eliminate any leaks or drips and of course don’t leave pet food out after they have eaten. Now the only way to actually kill of a nest is to illuminate the queen (or queens as many ant nest will have multiple queens) which usually requires ant specific pesticides. Use caution when using pesticides, read all instructions for use and location.

Insect numbers are declining at an extraordinary rate and this is not a result of all the pests Go Green pest control deals with daily. Most insects are undeniably vital for the existence of many plants and animal species. Insects are vital to our planet’s ecological well-being, which many animals and plants relying on. As the insect numbers continue to fall, the effects are likely to be distressing. Between 30 and 50 percent of insect species are currently endangered with extinction and insect biomass is dropping by 3 percent yearly. The insects role is essential to the planet’s ecological health, with fewer insects the world might see potential extinction. The world’s population of beetles, bees and butterflies has become relatively ominous, as it is now estimated that in a half a century most of the world’s insects will be gone. And the culprit is – agriculture, urbanization, deforestation and climate change. Not all insects are struggling as more adaptable species (the ones commonly classified as pests) still will to thrive. 

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C. Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/declining-insect…ge-our-ecosystem/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/declining-insects-change-our-ecosystem-randy-bilesky/?published=t