Cost of Pest Control at busy Airports?

With all the jets going back and forth, and the enormous amount of people coming and going, we mostly notice the rush, the security and the schedules of Arrivals and Departures. But with all those people come food--restaurants as well as the food services to replenish the airliners for their passengers. And there is the waste: waste food and cooking debris...and also all the waste products that come off the airplanes. There is usually an on-going rat or mouse population around airports that, hopefully, you don't have to see. Then you add all the places that jets travel and the possibility of transiting parasites, insects and particularly bed bugs in all that luggage! What does it cost? Well, Los Angeles' airport, LAX, has just caught up with the pest control budgets employed by other major airports and it will be $750,000 per years to protect the airport from runaway pest infestations. Part of the cost will insure that there is a pest control technician on site 24 hours/day, 365 days a year! Our own SeaTac has a similar budget and has had long-term experience with rat problems.

For more information about rats, rat control or rodent control. For information about rodent exclusion and preventing rats. here we discuss how to block out rats, to create a rodent-proof barrier. For information about why rats and mice are so successful. Here we discuss the abilities of rats and mice to climb, gnaw, chew, jump, swim and burrow their way into a home or business. Don Leland

Seattle summer means more wasps are about

Summer is still going strong here in the Greater Seattle area, and after another mild winter, this means we'll be seeing large populations of rodents, spiders, and wasps among other nuisance pests.

One of the more notable jobs we handled this week was a call for a wasp nest near a playground at a condo association (COA) in Bothell. Take a look at the size and location of this nest!

 

Wasps build their nests on bushes or trees, on fences, in attics and crawlspaces, in the ground and even in wall voids. Here in this case we see a large nest established very close to the playground area of a condo association. We see so many of these, in fact, that we've made a short video showing examples of wasp nests.

For further reading, UC Davis has a very good site on bees and wasps. 

Seattle is #1....but not in the way you might think.

Seattle leads the country in contact with rodents, according to a recent study released by the US Census Bureau. The agency conducts a biennial accounting of rat, mouse and cockroach sightings across the country. The most recent numbers, collected in 2013, were released in June 2015, and show Seattle is a rat paradise!

Amazingly, this graph suggests that Seattle has more homes with rodent infestation that New York City, the alleged city of 2 million rats, as does Austin, Miami, Tampa and San Antonio.

The same report shows Seattle scoring in the lower-ranking cities with mice and cockroaches. View the Bloomberg article here, and contact Cascade Pest Control TODAY if you have a rodent issue!

What is this winged ant I'm seeing???

The carpenter ant "reproductives" are out! What's a "reproductive"? We are starting to see carpenter ant swarms (i.e. the reproductive queens and males) in and around homes and businesses. Carpenter ants produce large numbers of queens and males during the late summer that emerge from nests the following spring (also happen during late winter) for their nuptial flights. After mating, queens search for suitable sites to begin new nests. Once they land, their wings break off and each queen attempts to construct a new nest. These are some great pictures sent to us today from a family in Sammamish, WA. If you see these around your home, give Cascade Pest a call at 425-641-6264.

Poultry Plant Closes Again After Cockroach Cleanup

Source: ABC News

While we in the northwest may enjoy relative freedom from cockroaches compared to many other parts of the country, cockroaches are found here and do present a problem in the greater Seattle area from time to time.  What's more is the health issues they present...which is why a chicken growing facility was recently closed due to high cockroach populations:

A California chicken farm that reopened over the weekend after it was shut because of a cockroach infestation says it's "voluntarily and temporarily" suspending operations again.

Foster Farms said Sunday it was closing the plant in Livingston for several days so it can properly implement new food safety measures. The company said in a statement that it is "exercising vigilance" and dedicating additional time to ensure its preventative plan is realized.

Work had resumed Saturday after Foster Farms announced that it met the demands of the U.S. Department of Agriculture by performing a thorough cleanup and treatment of the plant. The company says no chicken product was affected.
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As far as protection from cockroaches in your home or business in the greater Seattle area (Bellevue, Redmond, Everett, Federal Way and more) contact Cascade Pest Control.  We care about your health and your property!

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Don Leland

Bed Bugs Coming? Landlords Liable?

With their re-entry into American life, bed bugs have hit hardest on the east-coast as of yet.  We have them here in the Northwest alright, but the numbers back east have resulted in new landlord laws for when tenants move in to find bed bugs...but how do you know who brought them in?  NewHampshire law makes landlords liable in some cases...
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