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There’s good news and there’s bad news.  The bad news is that bed bug numbers are increasing all over the world, including the UK.  The good news is that they are not dangerous.  Well, there is a possibility of an allergic reaction, but usually they just cause itching.  That is, if you ignore the fear and anxiety they create.

If you have a bedbug problem, call in the professionals

The idea of little tiny bugs living in your bed and then coming out and biting you and sucking your blood in the middle of the night puts some people on edge.  Quite understandably, actually.  Some people won’t sleep in a bed with bedbugs.  So they can cause quite a few problems mentally if not so much physically.  In the last posting we reported on the campaign to appreciate wasps more, and perhaps one solution here is to learn to love bedbugs.  Perhaps not to the extent that you do not try to get rid of them, but just so that, if they do happen to bite you, you allow them to have your blood freely.

This might seem silly to some people though, perhaps even sillier than a bed-bug-sniffing dog.  And yet that is exactly what certain hotels in the UK have been using to find bed bug infestations in their rooms fast.  This is actually quite important because hotels are where a lot of the bed bug problems spread from.  Bedbugs do not only live in beds, they also stow themselves away in luggage, clothes, any sort of nook or cranny.  People travelling then carry bed bugs with them, leaving them at new hotels for other people to pick up.  It only takes the dog three minutes to check a room, but if he finds anything he doesn’t kill the bugs himself, he just paws at the area for someone else to come and get rid of them.

Even if you do have a bed bug sniffing dog then, you are still going to need pest control specialists to come in and get rid of the infestation.  This goes for private individuals as well as commercial companies.  As stated, bed bugs can live just about anywhere during the day – they’re not too small to see as some people think – they’re just good hiders.  Pest control technicians will use chemicals to get rid of the infestation, but this is one of the other problems which it is thought has led to a rise in bed bugs, an increasing resistance to the chemicals used.

Whatever the cause, there is no quick solution to the potential pandemic around the corner.  According to one study, between the years 2000 and 2006 the number of calls to pest control companies to eliminate bed bugs rose, on average, nearly 29% every hear, which means that over that six year period the number of calls had nearly tripled.  And they continue to increase at about the same rate.

To make sure that it does not continue to spread, it is important to get rid of the problem quickly so that you are not inadvertently carrying them around with you.  So if you have a bed bug problem, call an expert in pest control to take care of it immediately.

When it comes to pest control, many people see wasps as one of the most frightening of pests, after all others might be a nuisance or unhygienic, but wasps can actually hurt!  That is why the conservationist agency, “Buglife” is probably going to have an uphill battle trying to get people to love wasps.  The centrepiece of the campaign is that we should not be swatting wasps, we should be just wafting them away calmly.

They have timed the campaign well, because it is at this time, towards the end of summer, that wasps start to get more aggressive and start going after the sweet food, such as what we like to eat at picnics.  The queen has already laid all of her eggs, and they should all have hatched by now.  This means that the wasps do not have to gather food for them, which is usually high in protein, and instead can go for the food they really want.  Like jam, ice cream, fruit… well, you know the food they like!

Also, they’re not going to survive past summer.  Only the Queen hibernates through the Autumn and Winter, the rest of them die off.  Of course the wasps themselves are not aware of this, or then again maybe they are and so they are going for the food they like now and don’t care who they hurt to get it.  Either way, wasps do tend to become a bigger problem around this time.  If you have a wasps nest close by, do not hesitate to call a pest control expert.

Buglife points out, however, that wasps actually are important to the ecology of the country.  They are not as important as bees of course, nor are they as friendly, however it is pointed out that they are good pollinators and kill other pests, such as spiders.  They also suggest that we appreciate the colour and “drama” they bring to our lives.

The problem here is that the “drama” that they bring to our lives is more like horror – we’re the one’s screaming and running away!  Or the ones sitting still and acting cool like we’re really supposed to.  In any case, when the drama is whether something is going to sting you or leave you alone, it might be a tall order to get people to embrace that.

The insignia for Buglife's Wonderful Wasps campaign

The campaign, however, is not entirely without merit.  They certainly are pests, and if you have a nest close by you should certainly call in a pest control specialist.  However, even if you cannot find the appreciation of the wasp within yourself to prevent you from swatting at it when it comes near to you, there are practical reasons not to do it as well.  One is that if you miss, the wasp is going to be angry and probably is going to try to sting you.  So if you do try to swat, you better make sure you hit.  The other is that even if you do kill it, dead wasps let off pheromones that attract more wasps to the fight, so if there are any more wasps nearby you could be in trouble.

Having said that, if you have a wasps’ nest on or near your property, you probably won’t need any encouragement, but don’t try to grin and bear it.  The sheer number of wasps can cause a lot of problems.  Although obviously do not try to kill them yourself, call in a professional pest control technician who will be able to do it for you.  If you don’t have a nest close by though, then why not stop worrying, and love the wasp!

One of the best pest control techniques is prevention.  We might complain about our British Summer sometimes, especially when it is raining, but mosquitoes are loving it.  They have been on the increase this summer, and you might have been unlucky enough to notice if you have been bitten.  Often they’ll get you when you’re sleeping so you won’t notice until the morning when you suddenly have an itch that you really shouldn’t scratch.  There are of course ways to combat this, such as a mosquito net.  Now, however, there is a new one.  Pretend to be their predator.

Mosquitoes could be warned off if you smelt like a predator

As recently reported, using the natural predators of a pest is a tried and trusted pest control technique.  But you might well be thinking that you actually are a predator anyway – if you see one, you’ll squat it.  Ideally though, you don’t want them anywhere near you in the first place, which is what this new spray is said to achieve.  The theory is that you spray this concoction on yourself, then although it is odourless to the human nose, to a mosquito it smells like a backswimmer.  A backswimmer is an insect which lives around water and feeds off the larvae of mosquitoes and other biting insects.  The reason it lives around water is that mosquitoes use stagnant water to lay their eggs in, where they become larvae which swim before finally becoming adult mosquitoes.  Therefore, when mosquitoes smell these backswimmers, they tend to stay clear.

Of course a mosquito is not going to confuse you with a pool of stagnant water, but when it is collecting blood, it is always for their eggs.  Generally, mosquitoes live off nectar but when they are ready to lay eggs they need extra nutrients, and that is when they collect blood.  Therefore it stands to reason that they do not want to be around the predators of their larvae, even when they are just feeding for them.  If they thought it out properly, perhaps they would not be so concerned, but then again the logical capabilities of a mosquito are questionable.

The problem with using sprays at the moment as a pest control technique is that so much is needed to be used.  The advantage of this spray over other sorts of mosquito-repellent sprays is that not so much of it should be necessary.  Mosquitoes are not going to want to come near if they get a whiff of the backswimmer anywhere near the area so all over application should not be necessary.  Nevertheless, at the moment one of the problems with it is that it does not last very long, but research is being done so that it can last longer, removing the need for frequent reapplication.

This spray is being developed at Haifa University in Israel, and the lead scientist, Professor Leon Blaustein, claims that it could also be used to limit their breeding practices.  This of course would make it an even more appealing method of pest control.  One of the reasons for a rise in the number of mosquitoes in Britain at the moment is the increasing appeal of water butts.  As it is stagnant water, it is a perfect place for mosquitoes to breed.  Blaustein has suggested that if this chemical is sprayed at sites such as this, mosquitoes will not want to breed there so their numbers will be limited.   If something of this sort is not achieved, unfortunately the number of mosquitoes may increase even more.

Two companies have decided to use very traditional pest control solutions to deal with their pigeon problems.  In Newbury, a car company wants them kept away from their car park, while in the East Midlands airports want pigeons and other birds out of the airways so that the way is clear for planes to land at the airports.  The answer that both have come to is hawks.

A hawk, patrolling the skies above a car park in Newbury

Although actually the skies in East Midlands will be kept free of real birds, for the mechanical birds, by an eagle owl (called Elliot) who will help to keep pigeons as well as all other kinds of birds grounded.  Our title question is of course not entirely serious, but you might be wondering why sending another bird into the environment is going to keep the air free of birds.  After all, it can’t be everywhere at once.

The answer to this can be seen more clearly on a smaller scale.  With the car park in Newbury, that is exactly what we have.  Pigeons perching in trees overhanging the car park, you can imagine the mess that is often made on the cars, not to mention the walkways.  You can see why they would want to get rid of them.  Pigeons are difficult to deal with, however, because they operate over such a wide expanse.  Usually the best pest control technique is to control the environment so that favourable conditions do not arise.  When it is a public space, however, that is very difficult.  You can’t really prevent scraps of food being dropped places.  You also can’t get rid of places to perch.  One way you can control the environment though, is not by taking favourable things away, but by adding unfavourable elements.   That’s right, this is where the hawk comes in.

Now, to illustrate the somewhat counter-intuitive point that was being made about how the addition of an owl can keep airways clear of birds when it can’t get all of them, it is quite obvious that fear is going to be a factor.  The hawk patrolling the car park is not going to kill all the pigeons.  But it might get a couple, or at least chase them.  Now, are they going to stay perching in the car park, or go next door or into the woods?  They’re going to leave, most likely.  Of course one owl is not going to get all the birds to leave the East Midlands, which would of course not be a good thing anyway.  But by having it operate close to the airports, birds will become more cautious around the airport.  Perhaps air traffic control will have one eagle owl to navigate around rather than a multitude of other birds.

When it comes to pest control, natural methods are often the best.  Controlling the environment is the way to keep anything in or out of it.  Of course when a problem becomes severe, chemical or other extreme methods of pest control become necessary.  The problem will quickly return if the environment is still ripe for it however.  In most cases this means maintaining high standards of cleanliness, however when that is not possible or effective, introducing predators is also a good way to deal with a pest problem.

If you have been following this blog recently, you will know that we reported on the closure of an Indoor Market in Birmingham and two days ago a case of giant rats, or possibly coypu.  Well, we have some good news and some disturbing news when it comes to these cases.  We’ll start with the good news.

The good news is that the indoor market in Birmingham has reopened.  At first it was only supposed to be closed for one day, but by the time we reported on it, that estimate had been upped to three days.  In the end, it was closed for four days.  As of now, it is open again.  It was originally closed when cockroaches and mice were found to be inhabiting the market, so the doors were locked so that pest control technicians could fumigate the place.  It is now up and running again, and although it has been tough on the stall owners, they are happy to be back.  As are the customers, who are reportedly glad to see the place looking a lot cleaner as well.

The disturbing news is that the rats in Lincolnshire and Bradford, which we posited were probably coypu are now believed to probably be very large rats.  The photographic evidence from Lincolnshire was always inconclusive because of the angle at which the rodent was being held.  Now someone who has actually seen the rat is insisting that it is not a coypu, a semi-aquatic plant eating rodent from South America, but is instead a very big rat.  How did it get so big?  It found lots to eat.  Or so the theory goes.

A giant rat, possible like the ones in Bradford and Lincolnshire

Of course the rats in Bradford have still not been confirmed, and the local authorities are still denying that there is a problem.  Whether you choose to believe the eye witness accounts or the politicians who don’t want to deal with a rat problem in their area is up to you of course. It all started when residents claimed to have a killed a giant rat, nicknamed “ratzilla” a few days ago.  With the sighting of what seemed to by a Coypu less than a hundred miles away, it appeared as if this might have been a similar case.  However, with the coypu turning out to be a giant rat (probably), “ratzilla” has to be taken more seriously as well.  In fact, perhaps the link should be made with the report a few days before that of an increase in the rat population in Bradford due to more food being available to them.  We can all understand that more food equals more rats, but it is also possible that more food equals bigger rats.

At the moment, however, everything is still unclear.  Is it a case of giant rats or is it going to turn out to be coypu after all?  How long will it take before the authorities finally have to admit there is a problem?  We’ll keep you posted of any new occurrences.