Cope was hired as the company’s first vice president of products and technical services.
“AP&G entered the mosquito market by developing an adhesive formulation for mosquito applications, which the CDC began using in their AGO trap field-tests,” Jonathan Frisch, VP of global sales & marketing, says. “When we decided to launch the Catchmaster Ovi- Catch we were searching for a mosquito expert to help guide us in the right direction, but to add someone of Stan’s caliber to our team is truly a privilege. His world-class knowledge and proficiency in this field are incredible and we’re thrilled to have him join the AP&G family.”
In 2014, Cope was elected vice president of the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA). He served as AMCA President in 2016, and currently acts as past president. He is also the former director of entomology and regulatory services for Terminix International.
The company came in second on the journal’s “Best Places to Work in the Triad” list.
Terminix Triad is a locally-owned and -operated pest control company based out of Greensboro, N.C. Serving the Triad area for more than 85 years, Terminix Triad also has been on PCT’s Top 100 List for seven consecutive years.
The company says it offers employees a wide variety of opportunities by equipping them with continuous, hands-on training and preparing them for growth into a variety of positions. .
Burns Blackwell, president & CEO of Terminix Triad, says, “Building a place where people enjoy what they do and give meaning to the work they do is an ongoing process. We looking forward to continuing to build on our culture in the future and continuing to make Terminix Triad a 'Best Places to Work' for years to come.”
The new add-on automatically pulls local coupons related to the parts and preventative services needed per vehicle.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — As an added benefit to the Azuga Maintenance module, which alerts businesses about service demands before issues arise, Azuga just launched the Azuga Deals add-on, which automatically pulls local coupons related to the parts and preventative services needed per vehicle. According to Azuga, this new functionality can help businesses save $100+ every year per vehicle on parts, services and repairs – an added bonus to the hundreds of dollars already being saved by performing preventative maintenance to avoid unscheduled downtime caused by parts failures.
Throughout Georgia and South Carolina, 21 Gene Higginbotham Memorial Scholarships were awarded to high school students by American Pest Control.
ATHENS, GA - Throughout Georgia and South Carolina, 21 Gene Higginbotham Memorial Scholarships were awarded to high school students by American Pest Control. All the recipients boasted many academic, athletic or community service-oriented accomplishments throughout their high school careers and reflected the values held by the Higginbotham family, the company said.
American Pest Control introduced the Gene Higginbotham Memorial Scholarship in May 2016. Gene Higginbotham founded American Pest Control in 1971. He valued family, education and community as top priorities for his company. Higginbotham passed away on Aug. 30, 2015 and the scholarship was created in his honor by family and employees to continue his legacy.
For American Pest Control’s 45th anniversary year, the scholarship was awarded to children of American Pest Control employees who graduated in May 2016. This spring, the scholarship was offered to all local students.
In our industry, there are two distinct types of mosquito jobs: one is “quick and dirty,” one is management over the long term.
Editor’s Note: The following was adapted from Techletter, a biweekly publication from Pinto & Associates, Mechanicsville, Md. To subscribe, visit www.techletter.com or call 301/884-3020
IPM is the best way to control any pest over the long term. But not every job is suited for IPM. Mosquito control is a good example. In our industry, there are two distinct types of mosquito jobs: one is “quick and dirty,” one is management over the long term. As a result, we have two different types of mosquito control.
A “one shot,” for lack of a better term, is when a customer calls on Wednesday because she is having an outdoor function on Saturday evening and the yard is loaded with mosquitoes. Maybe it’s a party or a wedding in a backyard or maybe it’s a church function. No matter the occasion, the customer doesn’t want to hear about Integrated Pest Management, monitoring, source reduction and the like. She wants you to “get rid of those mosquitoes” so guests are not bitten on Saturday. This is a spray job to kill adult mosquitoes, pure and simple (although this customer is a hot prospect for a mosquito IPM program in the future).
There are two effective ways to apply insecticides to kill adult mosquitoes. In traditional “fogging,” you apply an aerosol of very fine insecticide droplets using a thermal fogger or ULV cold aerosol generator. The goal is to spray so that the insecticide contacts the adult mosquitoes.
More commonly in our industry, we apply insecticide treatment of a residual insecticide onto mosquito resting areas, most typically in and on vegetation, where they land on treated surfaces and pick up a lethal dose of insecticide. This is often called a mosquito “barrier treatment.”
The most effective way to apply a barrier treatment into vegetation is with a powered mist blower. However, the application also can be made with a power sprayer, backpack sprayer and even a regular compressed air sprayer. When treating vegetation it is critical to get the insecticide residue onto the underside of leaves where mosquitoes most commonly rest.
A wide range of insecticides are suitable for mosquito barrier treatments. Additionally, some EPA-exempt products also have been used for this type of treatment.
One-shot mosquito control jobs are by their nature short term and only partially effective, ranging from 50 to 90 percent reductions depending on the field study. Limitations include: 1) not all mosquito resting areas are treatable or reachable; 2) it is difficult to get complete coverage inside thick vegetation; and 3) mosquitoes can fly in from untreated sites.
The most effective way to control mosquitoes effectively over the entire mosquito season is through IPM. Briefly, a mosquito IPM program contains these essentials:
Inspections and surveillance. IPM programs for mosquitoes require regular inspections. Mostly, inspectors should be looking for active breeding sites (with mosquito larvae, eggs or pupae) or potential breeding sites, but also for adults (biting counts, traps and resting mosquitoes), potential offsite problems and sensitive areas.
Source reduction. All mosquitoes need water to breed. Long-term effective control usually requires a reduction in the number and attractiveness of mosquito-breeding sites…called “source reduction” in mosquito control work. Source reduction includes removal of mosquito-breeding containers, elimination of standing water, and, in rare cases, modification to bodies of water (elimination of organic debris, ditching and draining).
Vegetation management. An often overlooked component of mosquito IPM, vegetation management, can greatly reduce a site’s attractiveness to mosquitoes. Yards with lots of overgrown vegetation, weeds and brush provide many mosquito resting sites. Customers need to remove weeds and brush, thin ornamental plantings, trim tall grasses, etc., to lessen mosquito pressure.
Larviciding. For standing water that cannot be altered or drained, larvicides are the key control tool. They kill the larvae or they prevent larval development so that biting adults are not produced. They are either applied to standing water, or to a site that will flood later (to control floodwater mosquitoes). The common larvicides are methoprene, B.t.i. and thin surface oils.
Other components of mosquito IPM programs are biological control (primarily mosquito fish), mosquito traps, adulticiding (the last resort, often indicating a program failure somewhere) and, of course, ongoing education and communication with the customer.
The authors are well-known industry consultants and co-owners of Pinto & Associates.