It’s that time of year again!
Every year, as the weather moves from spring to summer, we get inundated with questions about new and interesting bugs. In most cases, these pests are just something the client hasn’t experienced before, and luckily, with an expert like Chris Davis on hand, we can quickly identify the problem and propose a solution.
The difficulty comes when the description, by phone, isn’t always easy to understand. Naturally enough, people don’t always know how to describe the new type of insect they have encountered. With years of experience, however, we can usually come up with an answer and a suggestion for how to proceed.
I thought it was probably useful, therefore, to reproduce a couple of these enquiries in the hope they will answer other people’s questions.
1) We recently had an enquiry about ‘mould mites’? Since no such thing exists, Chris had to put his thinking cap on and here was what he suggested:
“These are probably Booklice but could be a number of damp loving insects, including Plaster Beetle - priority should always be to address the damp issue using dehumidifiers etc. Be very wary of advising insecticidal treatment as, until the damp issues are addressed, the problem will keep returning.”
In this case Chris recommended a survey of the site by a senior member of staff in order to ascertain exactly what needed to be done.
2) A customer called about an infestation of tiny little black bugs all over the house. These were identified as ‘Thrips’, or Thunder Flies.
Chris said, “These insects will suddenly appear in large numbers just before a thunder storm - they are quite annoying and get everywhere, including in your hair, behind picture frames, through fly screens etc..., and they can scrape/irritate the skin surface. This is when we normally get a call.
They will disappear just as quickly as they have arrived, unless your house is next to a field of peas/beans - which Thrips love! There is no easy treatment as most insecticidal formulations will not adequately penetrate the cracks and crevices where the Thrips congregate.”
In this case Chris recommended purchasing coloured attractant "sticky traps for Thrips" from a garden centre.
In both cases, Chris’ expertise allowed him to identify the problem and suggest a sensible, cost effective, approach to the problem.
In the last few days I, myself, have had experience of two strange insect related phenomena. Having managed to play tennis twice in the last couple of evenings, I noticed, at about 6.30pm, our tennis whites became coated in hundreds of small black flies and, if a tennis ball sat in the corner of the court for a few minutes, it too became heavily coated in flies - becoming black instead of green! The flies then disappeared almost as fast as they had started to appear!
In the second instance, on my way home last night the mating flight of the black garden ant happened. My windscreen suddenly became covered in flying ants and you could see people at the bus-stop batting them away...an hour later they were gone!
So, while some may identify this as ‘silly-season’, for us, it is a chance to exercise the ‘little-grey-cells’ and do a bit of lateral thinking. We get to help our customers and we develop our knowledge at the same time.