You Would Not Believe Where Pest Control Operators Have Found Insect Infestations
Many people will have to contact a pest control professional at least once during their lifetime. When your home is infested with termites, roaches or spiders, your best friend in the world is your pest control operator. Although some of you may have made polite small talk with the pest control professionals during past inspections, you likely have no idea what a day in the life of a pest control operator is actually like.
As you probably know, insect pests can infest the strangest of places where you would never expect insect infestations to take form. For example, on one occasion a pest control specialist with the University of Wisconsin in Madison was called to a parking lot over a purported ant infestation within a parking meter. When the pest control professional, Richard Ness, arrived at the parking lot, he found that the parking meter in question had already been shut off, and a few ants were spotted crawling nearby, but not enough to constitute an infestation. The call had turned out to be legitimate, as Ness quickly became bombarded with ants after opening the meter’s service door. In response, Ness used a spray to flush the ants out of the meter.
After taking a moment to closely observe a few of the ants, Ness became convinced that the ants were the notorious odorous house ants. These ants get their name from the coconut odor that they emit when they are threatened or crushed. Ness took a few specimens to be analyzed at the University, and it turned out that his judgement was correct. Later on, during the very same day, Ness was called to a different location where another strange insect infestation had been found. This time the insects were cockroaches, and they had been found in a dorm near the campus. This was a normal call for Ness, but for non-insect experts, this particular insect infestation seems like something out of horror films.
Students within the dorm had been complaining about cockroaches appearing out of nowhere. It turned out that cockroaches had been accessing the building through sewer pipes. According to Ness, cockroaches travel up drains and into homes and buildings when ground water evaporates. This evaporation makes the normally damp sewer pipes relatively dry, which does not agree with cockroaches. In an effort to locate a moist environment, cockroaches will follow the air current that flows up pipes until they arrive within a moist sink or bathtub. So think about that the next time you use the toilet.
