Beetles

To the right you will see a section of bamboo floor with beetle exit holes marked with red circles. The large oblong circle also covers a difficult to see powderpost beetle frass. This was found by the owner of a Boston condo in a 6 unit 5 year old building. Traditionally, the treatment options were fumigation or removal of the infested wood in finished wood like this because surface treatments would not be effective due to the wood finish.

-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Valentine's Day Lovebug

  The Lovebug is a small black fly that is common in areas of South, Central and Gulf Coast North America.  The male and female Lovebugs are known for their large swarms twice a year.  Lovebugs will mate and remain attached for days, even in flight, leading to their name.  These bugs are unfortunately attracted to vehicle exhaust, especially diesel exhaust, and end up in large numbers near roads and highways.  They are so numerous near highways they cover windshields, body panels and even radiators leading to engine overheating in extreme cases.  In entomological terms, the name Lovebug lets you know it is not a true bug.  True bugs, order Hemiptera, have a space between the name and the word bug, like Bed bug.  Ladybugs and Lovebugs are not true bugs, so have no space in the name.  The Disney movie of the same name is based on the Volkswagen Beetle, but rules don't apply when describing a car.

-Sean Greenhow

Consumer Information Bulletins

Each year we mail and email the Massachusetts Consumer Information Bulletins for pest control, termite control, lawn care and plant health care to all our active customers.
If you did not receive one, or would like another copy, please follow this link to the Pesticide Consumer Information Bulletin web page.

Sean Greenhow
Greenhow, Inc

Winter Moth is Active

Adult Winter Moth

Early this morning winter moth males were seen flying around lights in metro Boston in Belmont, Watertown and Newton.  This moth will mate and the female who cannot fly will lay her eggs in the cracks of bark on trees.  Those eggs will hatch in the spring and the larva will climb up into the buds and feed on the leaf tissue as spring progresses.  Look for winter moth males to be flying around lights at home, street lights, car and truck lights over the next few weeks.  Activity is highest after precipitation.  No control measures are needed now and these winter moths will not infest a structure or feed on grain or clothing.


-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc. GreenHow.com. Effective Organic and Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control and Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Sentricon HD Bait now is patented.

Termites active in Sentricon AG (above ground) station.

Dow announced that Recruit HD bait was given a patent.  They credit the rapid adoption of the HD bait in helping get patent protection.  We switched all our existing bait stations to HD as soon as it was available and unlike other companies that offer ESP and HD we only utilize HD for its ability to control termites and the fact termites prefer HD bait over wood.  HD bait improves in the ground, it gets better with age from the perspective of termites.
Read more about the patent at the Dow blog.



-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc. GreenHow.com. Effective Organic and Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control and Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Termites Made Nervous by Rock Music

A study done in Florida in 1968 found that termites exposed to rock music ate wood faster, but also abandoned social responsibilities like taking care of the queen.  The research indicated that the termites would consume more wood.  The behavior would endanger the colony because the termites neglected the other worker duties that included caring for and feeding other colony members that cannot feed themselves.  This nugget was mentioned in a book my daughter is reading on Crazy Facts, and it can be verified at The Miami Times article from September 18, 1968 linked here.

-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc. GreenHow.com. Effective Organic and Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control and Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Winter Moth, Annual appearance, on milder late fall days.

Winter moth adults will appear in large numbers around lights over the next few weeks.  Many areas have already seen winter moth adults.  These adults mate and the females lay eggs in the barks of trees they will attack.  The eggs hatch in early spring, with the larva climbing up into the canopy to consume the leaf tissue of the infested tree.  Work is underway in Massachusetts to implement some biological control measures.

The University of Massachusetts Cooperative Extension is looking for reports of Winter Moth, so please report activity if you see winter moth this fall at this link to the Massachusetts Winter Moth Survey.



-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
-GreenHow.com. Effective Organic and Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control and Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Cold weather & Carpenter Ants Indoors

Carpenter Ants under leaking shower pan.

As the weather cools, carpenter ant colonies that may have moved in to structures over the summer can be more apparent indoors.  This is because as the outdoors becomes too cool for foraging, the inside of  a heated occupied structure will be the only foraging areas left.  The pictures here show a colony that moved in under a shower pan with a leak. This black mass is a large group of ants in the exposed rotted wood under the shower door.  Wet wood is ideal carpenter ant nesting material.  The arrows show other ants on the shower door base. As noted by Paul Fisette in thisUMASS article on Carpenter Ants and Termites, "if you see ants in your home and the ground outside is frozen outside, you have a problem."

 -Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
GreenHow.com. Effective Organic and Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control and Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Brrr!

What a change from last year! Starting April with snow is one thing. How about these other interesting differences year to year. This March ends with 12 Growing Degree Days (GDD's) where last year ended with 20 GDD's. So it has been much cooler (with the exception of March 18th). And much drier, Last March ended with over 14 inches of rain, this March just under 2 inches of rain. This will be a slow start for insect pests, such as the winter moth which needs 20 to 50 GDD's to hatch. -Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc. GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Chewed Up

Pictured to the right is a picture of a perfectly round hole chewed into a carefully filled opening outside a customers residence. This opening around the air conditioner line runs inside and up to the attic. When the customer noted a return of a noise in the attic, we went straight to the formerly offending hole and found a mouse had chewed back through the polyurethane. We added copper and refilled the hole, actual size around the size of a nickel.

-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

A Gnawing Issue

This time of year, even with 12 degree nights and snow on the ground, rodents can be active around structures. Usually, they will exploit and make larger existing openings. A favorite is the opening that may be in between two doors, at the sweep level of an astragal seal. This photo shows a small gap that let enough heat and odors out of it to encourage a rodent to start expanding the opening. You can see a leaf pictured in the gap between where the mouse has chewed it apart. The solution here is to remove these damaged vinyl sweeps and replace them with new, brush style sweeps.

-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Going down the drain.

Clean drains will reduce fly activity. You can clearly see the pens, forks and straws in the bottom coated with organic matter. What is not visible, but present, are the fly larvae and pupa casings in the moist, organic matter. Using high quality Brushtech

to clean the drain and maintain the drain, the fly breeding source in this drain is eliminated. Fly management is integrated pest management by managing breeding sources, typically wet organic matter, without the use of pesticides.

-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Winter Ants

If you are noticing ants this time of year in the Boston area, then you probably have a nest on the inside of your insulation. Sometimes ants or ants with wings (swarmers) will show up in the coldest months, like now. It is a good sign that a nest exists on the interior side of the insulation, probably near a heating source. These ants will still be trailing in the usual places, looking for food and water. Water or wet food is especially important since in heated home, the relative humidity may be 28 to 32 percent.

-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Back to the blog...Super Service Award

Time has flown by, looking at the last posting in March just before the season exploded. Last year was filled with exciting challenges including a hot dry summer that reduced some pest and lawn issues and aggravated others. We start this year with exciting news. Thanks to our customers, GreenHow was awarded a Super Service Award for 2010 in the pest and termite control categories from Angie's List. Less than 5% of the companies on Angie's List are awarded with the Super Service Award. It is exciting to recieve recognition for great lawn care, pest control and termite control service.
-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Think about winter moth now

If you had winter moth damage last year, or noticed large numbers of the male winter moths around your lights this past winter, think about protecting your favorite decidous trees now. To be most effective, treatment must be done as early in spring as possible. This is because the early stage winter moth caterpillar will bore into the foliar buds PRIOR to the trees leafing out, consuming young leaves or leaving them damaged as they unfurl.
-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Bugs and Beetles, In February

We have had some occasional warm days, that have led to the appearance inside of bugs and beetles that are more often associated with outside activity. For example, when temperatures got a little higher than 40 degrees F, western conifer seed bugs and asian ladybird beetles (the official bug of Massachusetts), both of which will overwinter in attics, came down into living spaces. The combination of heat and light for those overwintering in certain areas, triggered the movement toward what the insects thought was the outside, leading to emergence in a living space. For those outside insects, ending up in a living space provides no resources to enable reproduction, so simply vacuum up (a favored Integrated Pest Management (IPM) technique) the ones you see, they will not infest your structure.
-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Rats, Again

Boston area rats have been a little more prevalent in residential areas. Making sure that the sewer lines that enter the home have concrete or gravel around the pipe's entry point. Rats need an entry hole the size of a quarter and like to burrow in dirt. Gravel and / or cement will reduce the ability of rats to burrow.
-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Hemlock Woolly Adelgid

In greater Boston the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid has caused a great deal of stress on the hemlock stands often used to divide properties. These hemlock hedges are showing the signs of stress from adelgid infestation that can lead to the death of the tree. The infestation is characterized by the woolly masses on the twigs at the base of the needles. Take care of your hemlocks with the low impact GreenHow Tree Injection service, putting material in the tree to protect the plant.
-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Little Black Ants

This time of year, customers start to report sightings of little black ants inside their homes. The foraging ants are very small, and follow edges foraging for sweet and greasy food sources. Try to use baits that the ants will consume leading to colony elimination. Treating foraging trails is rarely successful. A good IPM technique is to clean up foraging trails by wiping trails with a light vinegar cleaning solution or plain warm water.

-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
http://www.greenhow.com/. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Angie's List Super Service Award

Thanks to our customers, GreenHow was awarded a Super Service Award for 2009 in the pest and termite control categories from Angie's List. Less than 5% of the companies on Angie's List are awarded with the Super Service Award. It is exciting to recieve recognition for great lawn care, pest control and termite control service.
-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.