The Pest Advice

Hello, I trust you all had a good Christmas and you are looking forward to a great New Year. I thought I would write one last blog for 2009.
I took a look at what subject is currently bringing most people to the Kiwicare website for advice. That subject is most certainly White Tail spiders and their bites.
There is some controversy over the bite of the White Tail and how serious it can be. There is no doubt that White Tail spiders do bite humans and that the bite is painful. But there are reports from many people that they have been bitten by a White Tail and the result has been ulceration of the site of the bite (see the Recommended Forum for examples). I am not sure whether the spider bite, infection of the bite site or some other cause is responsible for these necrotic ulcers but I am sure it makes sense to get rid of White Tail spiders from your house.
A month ago I was embarrassed to have a White Tail spider drop from my living room ceiling during the visit of some friends. I remembered I had not yet treated the house to prevent White Tails and flies annoying me over the summer. The next day I made up some NO Bugs Super and sprayed all the nooks and crannies where spiders and other creepy crawlies hide; skirtings, hot tank cupboard, behind furniture, wardrobe, ceiling fittings, roof voids etc. With the rest of the residual surface spray I went around the outside of the house and sprayed the eaves, gutters, window frames and sills, vents, downpipes and anywhere else other spiders form webs.
Within a week I found more than a dozen dead White Tail spiders around the house, one in a pair of shoes. I am glad I had not put my foot in the shoe while the spider was alive.
If you have not already, I suggest you treat your house to prevent any painful encounters with White Tails. For more advice go to the spider page of the Kiwicare website.

Christmas is almost upon us and with the cooking of turkeys all over the world there is the increased risk of infestations of turkey locusts.

Turkey locusts can be identified by bright crowns on the top of the head. The crowns are papery in nature and can be of many different colours. Some locusts have also been known to have fluffy red and white caps, it is thought that these might be King locusts known as Santas.

Infestations are most likely on Christmas Day but it has been known for infestations to break out sporadically coming up to Christmas; often where work colleagues gather at restaurants and hotels. After Christmas the locusts are likely to linger on for Boxing Day and the next few days, all the way to New Year. But after Christmas Day the locusts tend to become slow and can often be seen to wobble when walking and many are not able to walk at all.

Turkey locusts are hard to get rid of and they are likely to consume large quantities food of all sorts, not just turkey. They may also consume large quantities of liquids containing ethanol. It is advisable to keep such liquids locked away and only bring them out after checking the house thoroughly for any signs of locusts. Locust infestations are liable to spread rapidly, particularly between close friends and families. Locusts often travel from one home to another, only moving on when there is no more food or ethanol available.

The best way to prevent locusts infesting your home is not to have any food or ethanol in your home to attract them. However this makes for a sad Christmas so I suggest metamorphosing into a locust yourself and find a suitable home or homes to infest. I have found the best opportunities for infestation are family and friends.

Kiwicare wishes you a very Merry Christmas whether you are a locust or you are having an infestation.

Bed Bugs are found throughout the world and are becoming more common in New Zealand. They are found particularly where there is a large turnover of visitors; places such as backpackers, hotels and motels etc., but you are also at risk in your home.
Bed Bugs hide in cracks and crevices during the day and come out at night to feed on our blood. They are attracted to the food source (us) by body heat and carbon dioxide from in our breath. They feed by using their hypodermic like mouth parts to penetrate skin and suck up the blood. They then inject you with saliva containing anaesthetic and anti-coagulant proteins to stop your blood clotting. It is these proteins that cause itchy reactions and the raised bite marks that you might wake with.
The Bed Bug is wingless and slow moving it is therefore likely to be found near to where the host sleeps; in the mattress or bed frame, behind wallpaper and in furniture. They will hide in spaces behind skirting, the seams of mattresses, curtains, furniture etc.

Because they can ingest up to seven times their body weight in blood in one feed, they can survive long periods without feeding. After mating takes place, Bed Bugs will lay up to 200 eggs. The nymphs that hatch out are miniature versions of the adult. There is no larval stage. The nymphs will moult several times over a period of 6-18 months before becoming an adult.
Bed Bugs are notoriously difficult to get rid of because they hide so well. There is also some evidence that they have become resistant to some insecticides, but they can be controlled with thoroughness and persistence.

How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs
Control of bed bugs requires a four pronged attack.

1. Control of bed bugs requires very thorough examination and treatment of all the possible places where they might hide. Check around seams of mattresses, bed base, bed heads, curtains and other furniture. Also check around the edges of carpets, behind skirting, edges of wallpaper and picture frames and in all other crevices within the room and adjacent rooms. Bed Bugs leave tell-tale blackened smears of blood which look like ticks made with a black pen.
2. Carefully collect all bedding from the room and place in a plastic bag for transport to your washing machine, being careful to make sure no insects are dropped on the way. If possible wash the clothes in a hot wash.
3. Spray all areas where signs of infestation are found and all cracks crevices and seams with NO Fleas Total. This product contains a residual insecticide and a growth regulator which will help prevent young Bed Bugs reaching maturity and continuing the life cycle.
4. Release NO Bugs Borafume Fumigators (2 for an average sized room). The fumigant produced will kill adult bed bugs and penetrate into areas that cannot be treated directly. Lean the bed mattress and bed base upright against a wall in the room to improve exposure to the vapour.
5. If the Bed Bug infestation has become established it may be necessary to repeat this treatment. Always follow the instructions on the products carefully.

The keys to controlling bed bugs are thorough searching for their hiding places and persistence.

A bed bug walks into a bar and says to the bartender. “A Bloody Mary please.”
The bartender says. Do you want a straw with that?”
The bed bug replies. “No. I brought my own. But can you spit in it for me?”

“Pest control is different in New Zealand.” This might seem to be a strange statement but it is a statement from my own experience. In most parts of the world pest control or pest management is about preventing or eradicating nuisance pests; rats in the roof, ants in the pantry, borer in the floor, weeds in the lawn and other things that annoy us at home or at work. When I worked in the UK and Ireland these pests are what pest management was all about.

All this is true in New Zealand too. There all the problems with nuisance pests, but in New Zealand there is an additional level of pest control. The control of invasive pests that damage the unique natural environment of New Zealand. Possums, rats, rabbits, stoats, gorse, broom,…………………

This extra level of complexity to pest control in New Zealand is exciting. Helping to eradicate or control possums, rats, Argentine ants etc. to protect the natural environment is a much more positive and ‘green’ (if I can use that word) occupation than just stopping a nuisance. Kiwicare is involved in this part of the pest control industry as a manufacturer and supplier of many products which assist in the control of many of these pests; NO Possums long life baits, rodenticides, herbicides etc. Kiwicare is proud to be a sponsor of the NZBI.

The New Zealand Biosecurity Institute (NZBI) is an organisation made up of those involved in or interested in the protection of NZ’s biosecurity and biodiversity. I am a member of this organisation, we are an incorporated society with membership open to anyone interested in biosecurity issues. We organise activities on a local and national basis and produce a quarterly magazine. Come and join us and help us keep New Zealand the beautiful and natural place it is.

A rabbit walks into a bar and orders a beer.
When the beer comes he raises the glass and says “Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeers!”
“Why the long eeeears?” asks the girl behind the bar.

Have you noticed how green the hills still are at this time of the year? There has been plenty of moisture to keep the grass growing. The same is the case for our lawns. They are looking green and lush with good continued growth. This means that it is a good time to use selective weed killer like Kiwicare’s Turfclean weed killer for getting rid of the weeds in the lawn and feeding the lawn with a good organic liquid fertilizer such as Kiwicare’s new BioGro certified Organic Fertiliser.

Whether it is weeds, moss, fungal disease like red thread, grass grub, or poor soil health Kiwicare has a range of products to help you solve the problem and keep your lawn green and lush.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday (Sunday) working with a group of volunteers from Weedbusters and NZ Biosecurity Institute Canterbury Branch pulling and cutting broom from the heads between Taylor’s Mistake and Nicholson Park. This is a project to remove the invasive weeds and replant with natives along this part of the coast. The project is run and inspired by the ever energetic Keith Briden of DoC.

The project received funding for the purchase of native plants and more than half of these have already been planted. This has required a lot of hard work on the part of Keith and his volunteers. First weeds have to be cut out or sprayed and patches where natives are to be planted sprayed. Kiwicare has donated and subsidised Glyphosate and Buster for this work. Then holes are dug and selected plants planted. But the work does not stop there. The weeds need to be kept under control around the plantings and because the areas are exposed dry hillsides the plants will need watered over the hot summer months. With about 3000 plants planted so far this is a lot of work.

Yesterday’s two hours of labour were well rewarded. Keith is a keen (as mustard) cray and paua fisherman and put on a bbq of paua patties and heaps of cray at his house to celebrate the work so far and the coming Christmas break. Thank you Keith and all the volunteers that have helped during this project.

If you should wish to help in this project contact me by clicking here and I will put you in touch with Keith or the Weedbusters team.

What is the worst drink to have after working for Weedbusters?
Herby cider.

If you did watch Campbell Live last night? If so Kiwicare would be very interested to hear what you thought of the piece and if you would use natural organic insect repellent like the Kiwicare Safari Organic Insect Repellent Wipes.
Many Thanks

The weekend is almost upon us. Christmas is coming and many of you will be out doing your Christmas shopping. I will myself. As usual it has crept up on me while I wasn’t paying attention. But the other thing I will be doing is going around my house with my sprayer and some residual insecticide, that is an insecticide that lasts for several months, and treating the eves and gutters, cracks and crevices where spiders lurk.

Recently I have found webs strung across where my dustbin sits, each time go to put some rubbish in the dustbin I get a face full of web. I don’t mind spiders, I like them catching insects and they do no harm in the garden, but there are places in and around the house that I don’t want the spiders and I don’t want the webbing. A well directed spray can keep them where they are wanted. I will use NO Bugs Super the new Professional Strength or NO Spiders. Both will work well and should stay active through the summer season.

I will also spray some parts of the inside of my house. I found a young White tail spider drop out of the ceiling onto my settee the other day. It suggests that there are more in the house. There is considerable controversy over how dangerous the bite of a Whitetail can be. It may be just a bee sting like bite or there may be a risk of infection of the bite site and a more serious necrosis or ulceration. My feeling is I don’t even want the bee sting level so I will spray around the cracks and crevices and pay particular attention the roof voids.

Half an hours work will make me feel happy to invite you all for Christmas Dinner with out fear that you may be caught in webbing or bitten by White Tailed spiders.

Yesterday I visited Kaikoura. It was a lovely warm day with the temperatures getting up to 30C according to the dashboard of my car!

I was in Kaikoura to visit a possum control contractor who has begun a project to protect the farms in the area from the threat of tuberculosis (Tb) carried by possums. The bush on slopes of Mount Fyffe and surrounding mountains contain possums that move onto pasture where if they have Tb they are likely to infect the cattle and deer farmed in the area. This would be bad news for the farmers and the local economy.

The Animal Health Board funded project is using Kiwicare NO Possums Cholecalciferol Gel Bait along the bush/pasture boundaries to reduce the possum numbers and reduce the risk of Tb infection. Reducing possum numbers also has the benefit of reducing the browsing destruction caused by the possums in the bush and encourages good health and biodiversity in the bush itself. It is not well known that possums also feed on pasture, ten possums will consume grass that would have supported a sheep.

The NO Possums bait contains Cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) which is effective against possums and rats. The gel bait is designed to remain effective for long periods in the field, lasting as much as 26 months even in high rainfall areas. This means that there is an effective control in place over extended periods and not just a quick knockdown which has to be regularly repeated. Because the bait remains effective for months there is much reduced need for labour to continually check and replenish baits that deteriorate.

NO Possums has other advantages; it is less eco-toxic than other baits, it does not require a licence to use it, there is low risk to dogs and other scavengers that might feed on dead possums and it is readily available from rural supplies stores or in commercial quantities directly from Kiwicare.

A possum walks into a bar and orders lunch. Once finished the possum stands up, pulls a rifle from its fur and shoots at random around the bar. There is glass flying everywhere. Finally he puts the gun away and walks tot he door. 
“Hold on” says the barman. “What was that for? Where are you going? You haven’t even paid for lunch, never mind the damage.”
The possum says “I’m a possum. Look it it up.” and exits.
Confused the barman finds a dictionary and looks up possum. 
It says, Possum – furry pest of New Zealand, eats shoots and leaves.

Here at Kiwicare we regularly get calls from customers asking if they can buy our professional strength products. We have to explain them that the Kiwicare concentrate products that they can find on the shelves of good hardware shops, garden centres, rural supply chains and supermarkets are the same strength as the equivalent products used by our professional customers. To emphasise this point we have recently re-labelled our popular NO Bugs Super product line as NO Bugs Super “Professional Strength.”

We have indeed increased the level of active ingredient in NO Bugs Super by 50%, but in both our retail and commercial range.

KCL Commercial is the name of the commercial brand of Kiwicare Corporation Ltd. KCL products are packaged in commercial sizes suitable to large scale operations. But you do not need to be a commercial or professional operator to purchase many of the KCL products. Many are bought through Kiwicare or wholesalers for farms, lifestyle blocks, larger gardens and houses etc.

The new KCLCommercial.com website is currently being developed and will go live before the end of January 2010. I hope you come and visit us.

There is a professional pestie,
Who once made a joke, I don’t jestie.
He made himself laugh,
So hard he did barf.
So had to clean up the jolly big messtie.

Good morning,

I hope you all had a good weekend and had good enough weather to get out and into your garden. Today is the last day of spring and tomorrow is the first day of summer, so I will expect the weather to warm up significantly. It is only 12C here in Christchurch today! Brrrrr.

If you did get to work in your garden or do your season’s fly and spider proofing of your house, did you use organic products?

Many people are looking for ways to control pests around the house and in the garden with the least harmful and safest methods. Kiwicare is expanding its BioGro Certified Organic Range. The latest product to join the range is NO Caterpillars for the protection of vegetables and other plants from attack by the white butterfly caterpillars and others. NO Caterpillars is safe and effective and leaves your vegetables safe to eat, having no withholding period.

NO Ants Barrier is one of the most popular products in the organic range. It can be used to ring fence your home and prevent ants and other crawling insects from entering. It contains no insecticide, instead it is based on capsiacin obtained from chillies. Ants and other insects will avoid treated surfaces. You can keep ants out of your home and not use any insecticide.

There is an organic farmer,
Who only uses stuff that won’t harm her.
From the Kiwicare range,
She’ll never change.
‘Cause she’s bhuddist and it is just karma.

Hello again,

I have spent the last two days at the National Possum Control Agencies (NPCA) (now the National Pest Control Agencies Oct 2011) Technical Transfer conference in Wellington. This conference is an opportunity to hear about best practice and new developments in the control of possums. It is focused primarily on the control of possums for the prevention of the spread of bovine tuberculosis in farmed and wild animals.

This year there were many interesting presentations but the one that has received the greatest interest from the media was the guestimate of the number of possums in New Zealand.

Bruce Warburton of Landcare Research has used information on the estimated possum densities that a wide range of habitats from farm pasture to native beech forest could sustain. He has then used satellite GIS information on habitat type to calculate the maximum number of possums NZ could sustain. This gave a value of 48 million. Information on possum control and monitoring, the areas under control and other information were then used to estimate the reduction in numbers in controlled areas. This reduced the number in NZ to 30 million suggesting the $80 million spent each year has reduced numbers by 36%.

Bruce was at pains to explain that there were many variables in his estimates that could influence the numbers greatly one way or the other so these figures should be viewed as guestimates only.

Bruce was subsequently interviewed by sections of the media who I note have already reported the numbers as if they are absolute. They have also taken the new 30 million estimate and compared it to the old estimate of 70 million and suggested the numbers have been reduced by 40 million!

What is the old saying? ………lies, damned lies and statistics.

No one knows how many possums there are. Bruce has made a good stab at estimation and the number is probably not far away. What is important is that the benefits of possum control in those areas where they are controlled far outweigh the costs.

Kiwicare manufactures and distributes one of the tools for the control of possums in NZ. The NO Possums Cholecalciferol Gel Bait that can be purchased from all good farm stores, hardware and garden centres is one of the newer tools in preventing possums destroying the New Zealand environment, causing economic loss and eating your roses.

A possum goes into the Shakespeare Bar in Stratford. To get the barman’s attention he clears his throat.
The barman turns and asks “Tb or not Tb?”

Good Morning Followers……….or should that be follower?

I have such an ‘interesting’ life. I am off to the National Possum Control Agencies Technology Transfer Conference in Wellington this evening. It will be two days of hearing about and talking about the best ways to stop possums damaging New Zealand’s environment and transmitting tuberculosis to cattle, deer and other animals.

1080 is a popular subject for discussion among delegates. Most of those in the industry would welcome an alternative if it was as cost effective or the money was forthcoming to use the more expensive options that already exist.

Kiwicare manufactures NO Possums Cholecalciferol Gel Bait which is a very novel bait. It will remain effective over long periods (up to 26 months) so that time spent replacing deteriorated bait is saved and control is maintained over extended periods. The gel formulation and use of choleclciferol (vitamin D3) as the toxin makes the bait unattractive and of low toxicity to birds. Cholecalciferol also has low eco-toxicity as it does not build up in the food chain reducing risks of secondary poisoning of scavengers. The bait is available for use by anyone wanting to control possums, even if it is only to stop them eating the roses in your garden or you want to protect the block of native bush on your lifestyle block. It does not require a licence.

Enough of possums! I was supposed to be talking about borer. A rather different type of pest problem. Borer (also known as woodworm) are small brown beetles whose larvae eat their way through soft timbers including our weatherboards, floorboards, joists and furniture. You will know you have a problem with borer if you see small holes (flight holes) in your wood as if someone had thrown a dart into the wood. These holes are where the borer beetle has emerged after 2-4 years as a larva. The majority of these holes will be found in dark areas where the humidity is higher, e.g. under the floor, inside the walls and in a roof space if there is a roof of concrete or terracotta tiles.

The good news is that you can easily stop the borer damage. Treat the timber. If the timbers can be accessed they can be sprayed or painted with products that kill the larva and prevent new infestation for many years. On painted, varnished or polished surfaces the flight holes can be injected. Even when the affected wood cannot be accessed at all the use of borer bombs can control the adults and slow down their re-infestation of the timbers.

I have often heard it said that a house has never fallen down due to borer damage in NZ. This might be true, but it is only because most houses are only now old enough to have been that heavily damaged (it takes at least 50 years) and houses are condemned before they fall down.

This is the flight season (November-February) when adult beetles emerge from the timers and this is when borer bombs are most effective. The other treatments are equally effective at all times.

Save your property. Act now.

One woodworm asked her boyfriend. “How’s life?” she asked.
“Same as usual,” he replied, “boring.”

Good Morning from a cool Christchurch. Here at the head offices of Kiwicare the temperature at 10am is still in the low teens and I am regretting not putting my sweater on this morning. I didn’t bring it with me as I had seen the weather forecast and the high for the day is to be 28 degrees C. So the weather today is reflecting the variability of temperatures we have experienced this spring so far.

What implications has this had for pests in New Zealand? Insects are heavily influenced by temperature. When temperatures rise insects become more active and breed more quickly. We have seen flies, spiders, ants, cockroaches and other pests start to increase in numbers, but the cool interludes have slowed them down again each time. At least that seems to be the case in the South Island.

There is still time to get out and carry out a preventative treatment of your home or office. Stop insects plaguing you this summer. Prevention is always better than cure. Check out the Kiwicare website (http://www.kiwicare.co.nz/) for specific information on how to control all sorts of insect pests.

I am able to analyse what visitors to the Kiwicare website have searched for when they visit. I follow the trends and have seen the biggest increases in searches relating to White Tail Spiders (or Whitetail or Whitetailed or White-tail…..spider) and Borer. I found a large female White Tail in my own house last week. It reminded me that I had not sprayed the house for spiders and insects since last spring. I carried out a treatment and this weekend, when doing my vacuuming and dusting chores, I found a number of dead White Tails. I used NO Bugs Super which is a long lasting and safe pyrethroid surface spray so there are no fumes in the air to breath in. NO Spiders would have been equally effective.

If you have any questions on spiders or other pests around the house or garden contact us at Kiwicare we will do our best to help you.

My next blog will tell you something about borer.

Little Miss Muffet,
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her.
So Muffet gave it a spray.

Hello,

Welcome to my first blog. I am starting this to answer questions that I am frequently asked regarding all sorts of issues with pests such as rats, mice, flies, spiders, cockroaches, aphids, weeds, possums, rabbits, moths, ants, fleas, bed bugs, caterpillars, carpet beetle, borer, …………..the list is almost endless.

I have worked for professional pest control companies in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. I now work for Kiwicare who are manufacturers and distributors of home and garden care products. This is a great Kiwi company that focuses on safe and effective products to keep your home and garden beautiful.

At Kiwicare we get lots of questions from people asking for advice. I hope this blog will go some way to informing you so that you can safely and effectively stay free from pest problems.

Please leave comments or ask me questions. I may not have the answer but I will do my best.

There once was a man from Belfast,
Who stood completely aghast.
At the size of the bug,
That came up the plug.
When it opened its wings and flew past.