Animated Video on Rat Infestation and Control

Cascade Pest Control is delighted to announce that we have released a great animation that depicts rodent problems in a home in a way that is both thorough and entertaining. View the video. The video dramatizes rat infestation and consequences accurately to educate the public. Rats are an important pest in the greater Seattle area, including The Eastside, Bellevue, Redmond, Everett and beyond. The video, while short, demonstrates the "how" and "why" of rat and rodent control, including assessment, initial control, exclusion and periodic service.

Cascade Pest Control's Rodent Service from No Pests on Vimeo.

Don Leland

Bed Bugs a Little More Active in Summer

A study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology looked at reports on bed bugs over a four year period in the Philadelphia area and found both that overall populations are increasing and that the highest incidents of calls were in August and the lowest in February.

“There is surprisingly very little known about seasonal trends among bed bug populations,” said Michael Z. Levy, PhD, assistant professor in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CCEB), who mapped the bed bug hotspots in Philadelphia in an effort to find more effective ways to control them. “We found a steep and significant seasonal cycle in bed bug reporting, and suspect that bed bugs have different levels of mobility depending on the season, and that their population size may fluctuate throughout the year.”

Although some conclusions have been infered about bed bug populations this study was based on reports, so it could point to activity rather than populations.  It could be that bed bug populations do not "go down" in the winter, but are not as active, not biting people as much.  Either way bed bugs are a an issue that wasn't present through most of the U.S. from around 1950 to about 2005 and now they are back!

"While bed bugs likely migrate actively over short distances, perhaps between adjacent rooms or houses, we think they are starting new infestation hotspots throughout the city by riding on people or personal effects over longer distances," said Mabud.
For more information see http://esa.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/esa/jme/2014/00000051/00000001/art00006

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Don Leland

Plague Case In Northwest -- from Seattle Times

(This post is an update on ther earlier one.)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018446561_plague16.html

For more information on rodent control see http://www.cascadepest.com/rodents/index.htm