Invasive Pest Solutions™

You can save your beautiful ash tree…

Invasive Pest Solutions™ tackles emerald ash borer and many other pests of trees and shrubs. We’ve worked with countless trees and we’ve used injection technologies for over one thousand trees, putting the right medicaments or nutrient solutions directly inside ailing trees for maximum impacts!

Hoosier National Forest ash treatment by injection

Emerald ash borer (EAB) has been described as the worst insect infestation in North American history. The pest is so destructive, all untreated infected ash trees eventually die, usually within three to five years of when the beetles find the tree.

Don’t believe the misinformation: You can save your trees if you act in time. For best results, trees should be injected with TREE-äge® insecticide before the beetles find your trees. Our Ash Tree Pro™ service group, a specialty service, employs leading technologies to protect and recover your ash trees–if we get to them in time. Check out our Ash Tree Pro™ website for detailed information and links to maps indicating infested areas and to the latest research results in the battle against EAB.

A common slime mold of turf may alarm property owners unnecessarily. Invasive Pest Solutions™ can help you identify property pests during monitoring and service visits, routine elements of our Integrated Habitat Management™ service plans.

Common turf invader, the slime mold Mucilago ssp.

Small sacks form along blades of grass, dry in the breeze, and open to release spores.

The discolored powdery-looking patches in your turf may be nothing of consequence, just a temporary distraction lasting only a few days. Small patches (3″ to 10″) of powdery gray, purple-blue, white, orange, or yellow slime mold fruiting bodies appear overnight from April through October.

Slime mold is an odd organism, not a fungus at all. It’s out there all the time and it’s abundant, but infrequently seen. Common turf slime lives most of the time out of sight in the soil and thatch. Warm weather followed by rainfall causes the slime to rise up along blades of grass to form fruiting bodies, little sacks high on grass blades where the wind can dry them and open them, releasing countless tiny spores.

Fruiting bodies of slime molds in the genus Mucilago ssp. are mistaken by some operators for destructive molds called powdery mildews. There’s a spray for that. Turf slime rarely becomes a serious pest and chemical counter-measures are likely unnecessary. Nevertheless, the small patches of odd color may be unsightly and can be controlled simply and inexpensively. Just direct a water spray from the hose onto the patches and rinse the slime off the grass blades.

IPM = Integrated Pest Management

Invasive Pest Solutions™ offers consulting and services for Integrated Pest Management. Prevention is the foundation of IPM. Ask us about our exclusive Seven Zone Defense™ Service-Pack.

IPM is an abbreviation for Integrated Pest Management.  The best summary explanation may be found in the epa.gov IPM Factsheet.

Quoting from the IPM Factsheet,

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices.

IPM programs use current, comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction with the environment. This information, in combination with available pest control methods, is used to manage pest damage by the most economical means, and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment.

The IPM approach can be applied to both agricultural and non-agricultural settings, such as the home, garden, and workplace. IPM takes advantage of all appropriate pest management options including, but not limited to, the judicious use of pesticides.

IPM approaches pest management using a four tier approach:

• Set Action Thresholds
• Monitor and Identify Pests
• Prevention
• Control

Set Action Thresholds

Action thresholds for bugs and other pests in homes, businesses, and personal habitats relate to personal tolerance limits for bugs in human habitats, indoors and out, to economic losses due to pests, and to health and safety. Most people tolerate sighting occasional bugs and mice outdoors, but we all draw the line at regular sightings inside dwellings. Tolerance levels may be different for different bugs. Sighting a single German cockroach in the kitchen is reason for concern and exceeds our suggested threshold limit for this invasive pest in food processing and serving areas or anywhere in the home or business dwelling. By contrast, sighting a single native Pennsylvania wood cockroach when gathering wood from the outdoor woodpile may not be reason for concern. Specific pests found at or above a threshold limit prompts control actions. Proper identification and monitoring of pests is essential for success.

Monitor and identify pests

Identifying pests correctly and monitoring pests in human habitats is essential for IPM success. From the epa.gov Factsheet:

Not all insects, weeds, and other living organisms require control. Many organisms are innocuous, and some are even beneficial. IPM programs work to monitor for pests and identify them accurately, so that appropriate control decisions can be made in conjunction with action thresholds. This monitoring and identification removes the possibility that pesticides will be used when they are not really needed or that the wrong kind of pesticide will be used.

Prevention

Prevention is key to Integrated Pest Management. Prevention activities encompass dwelling and landscape design, construction, maintenance, and management, and the cultural practices used to sustain sanitation and limit harborage, and the careful storage and use of food for people and pets. Simple regular activities such as mopping the kitchen floor and cleaning up leftover pet food are important for IPM success. Exclusion activities such as closing cracks and crevices and eliminating harborage for pests are important for success. Proper prevention practices consider the life cycles of problem pests and attempt to disrupt the life cycles by removing food, shelter, and moisture supporting the pests. From the epa.gov Factsheet:

As a first line of pest control, IPM programs work to manage the crop, lawn, or indoor space to prevent pests from becoming a threat. These control methods can be very effective and cost-efficient and present little to no risk to people or the environment.

Control

From the epa.gov Factsheet:

Once monitoring, identification, and action thresholds indicate that pest control is required, and preventive methods are no longer effective or available, IPM programs then evaluate the proper control method both for effectiveness and risk. Effective, less risky pest controls are chosen first, including highly targeted chemicals, such as pheromones to disrupt pest mating, or mechanical control, such as trapping or weeding. If further monitoring, identifications and action thresholds indicate that less risky controls are not working, then additional pest control methods would be employed, such as targeted spraying of pesticides. Broadcast spraying of non-specific pesticides is a last resort.

Invasive Pest Solutions™ supports client efforts to employ Integrated Pest Management. Many of our specific services center on prevention, monitoring and identification of pests, and control of pests in human habitats; homes, businesses, and landscapes.

Debugging the pantry…

Invasive Pest Solutions™ offers consulting and services for kitchen conversions to pest-resistant modular container systems. We help clients obtain pest-resistant pantries and more. Ask us about our exclusive Seven Zone Defense™ Service-Pack.

Many grocery store foodstuffs are packaged for short-term retail shelf-life and quick sale and consumption, not for long-term consumer storage in bulk quantities. More and more retail products are available in reduced packaging formats to reduce waste. Many environmental advocates suggest reducing packaging even more and doing so for many more retail products to further reduce our waste stream. Buying in bulk is a good value for consumers when bulk products are properly protected. Where does this leave the consumer who is concerned about pests in the pantry? Vulnerable!

Pests get into the pantry by hitchhiking on packaging, on fresh fruit and vegetables, and with grain products, or by spreading from nearby infestations. The solution is a simple two-step process: Inspect and Protect. Prevention is key to IPM (Integrated Pest Management).

Inspect produce and packaging at the origin, your grocery. Select fresh produce that’s not over-ripe. Check it in the grocery store for obvious signs of infestation. Check grain products for freshness and check packaging for damages left behind by chewing pests and for tears and openings allowing pest access.

Protect food products in the pantry by repackaging vulnerable (just about anything not in cans or sturdy jars) groceries and grain products in air-tight resealable container systems. Store fresh produce following a good scrubbing with a soft bristle vegetable brush in a small basin of water. Bananas and other counter-top fruits should be scrubbed, too. Your clean refrigerator is the best place for most fresh produce.

Pantry pests ruin food items in storage causing more than sanitation problems, they cost you money spent on spoiled products. They cost you money for pest control services. They cost you money and personal risk and discomfort due to health consequences of infestations.

Bulk storage is a good starting-point for protecting foodstuffs from pests by exclusion.

Closing the door on unwelcome bugs, target area exclusions…

Invasive Pest Solutions™ offers consulting and services for pest-resistant homes and businesses. We help clients use target area crack & crevice closure and other pest haborage control systems. Ask us about our exclusive Seven Zone Defense™ Service-Pack.

Building construction is not an exact science. Homes and businesses, new and old, allow pest insects and weather penetration through cracks and crevices, utility service openings, gaps, garage door and man door seals, window seals, foundation sill and soffit openings, and more. A truly sealed home or business is an illusive goal. Nevertheless, closing cracks and crevices offering pest access to target areas from the outdoors and between rooms and floors inside homes and businesses is an essential prevention practice, important ground-work supporting Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

Interiors of homes and businesses are riddled with voids and openings in and between rooms and along conduits for electricity, heating & cooling, and more. Interior openings are used by pests from tiny ants to mighty mice for harborage and travel under cover.

Your first step for interior pest management is regular sanitation practices. At home, there is no substitute for a clean kitchen and clean food storage areas. Sanitation is equally important in bathrooms and wherever sources of moisture are found.

Your next step is crack and crevice closure, closing the door on unwelcome bugs. Closing cracks and crevices excludes pests from harborage in wall voids and along utility service openings and conduits between rooms. Don’t let the little buggers hide.

Steps for kitchen area crack and crevice closure:

Oven surrounds are common problem areas for pests.

Step one: Move all movable appliances and cabinetry to inspect for cracks and crevices. Determine where cracks and crevices lead, probe and remove loose debris from cracks and crevices.

HEPA filtration vaccuuming.

Step two: HEPA filtration vacuuming. Needle-nozzle, pencil-nozzle, crevice tool and brush attachments are used to thoroughly clean cracks and crevices. HEPA filtration ensures that tiny dust particles, mold spores, and many other tiny organisms are not released into rooms during vacuuming.

Bulb duster puffs DE into connecting wall voids.

Step three: Dusting with diatomaceous earth (DE), a residual mineral dust. We apply small amounts of dust to cracks and crevices penetrating wall voids and utility conduit spaces using bulb or bellows dust applicators. Its mode of action is mechanical dessication of the bugs that crawl through the dust. The only active ingredient in the DE pesticide formulation we use is amorphous silica, the remains of tiny plankton skeletons accumulated long ago in sediments, and mined today for multiple uses.  Pesticide grade diatomaceous earth is the only suitable DE formulation for use in pest management. It is processed and formulated to ensure effectiveness for coating surfaces with thin dust accumulations to increase contact with bugs passing through the dust. All pesticides must be used according to label instructions.

Foam gun with needle nozzel for fine crevices.

Step four: Fill cracks and crevices with low-expansion foam. We use several foam products and other caulks and sealants and reinforcing mesh and fill products to ensure effective closure of cracks, crevices and openings. Every job is a custom job.

Step five: Optional trimming and painting of exposed foam and other sealants to match interior decor.

Natural insect predator

A tree frog is a gift of the forest. Its gentle trills adorn the night, the calls emanating from tree trunks or green vegetation wherever our natural landscapes bring them in close to our dwellings.

This gray treefrog came indoors with a potted plant when our client brought in the planter with the first freeze during late October. It remained content on the plant indoors until Indian Summer in mid November when it rode the planter outside again, then followed its instinct to find a moist hibernation location.

Every spring, this family will be rewarded again and again with gentle trills of gray treefrogs. The treefrogs will capture insects on walkways, siding, and window sills during nightly forays. Occasionally, the family will smile and wonder as they discover a treefrog clinging to their window, tiny suction cups holding its toes to the window glass as its throat balloons for trills.

Their home’s tight skin and this family’s tolerance for a few harmless bugs of uncluttered foundation plantings and occasional cobwebs under their eves enable them to reject routine perimeter insecticide spraying. Bugs, and the treefrogs hunting them, are unlikely to visit homes treated with powerful chemical sprays. Instead, our client chooses biorational and organic crack and crevice treatments and spot treatments followed by careful closure of insect-size openings, cracks in the foundation and crevices in the siding, to seal the skin of their home against penetration by bugs and weather, too. Their green approach using Integrated Pest Management and their successful effort to restore and integrate their natural landscape into their family habitat through Integrated Habitat Management™ returns dividends daily.

Theirs are the gifts of the forest.