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.

Occasional Invaders: Western Conifer Seed Bug (Stinkbug)

The cool weather brings the occasional invaders to our homes and businesses looking for overwintering sites. Besides the Asian Ladybird beetle, another fall pest to arrive on the side of our structures is the Western Conifer Seed Bug. This bug only uses structures for overwintering sites. A complete exclusion service from an integrated pest management professional is the key to keeping this bug from becoming a nuisance. The next time they are spotted at a home or business is late February or early March when they come out from overwintering sites in walls or attics.
-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.

Green News

Recently Sean was interviewed by the Lowell Sun as part of the Green Column written by Hiroko Sato. You can link directly to the column in the Lowell Sun here. It discusses integrated pest management, the employment of cultural, mechanical, physical as well as chemical strategies to manage pest populations.
-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.

Mosquitos

Biting flies and mosquitoes are coming out. Mosquitoes can breed in moisture as small as a soda or water bottle cap, so vigilantly inspect your yard for breeding sources, swings, kiddie pools, tires and toys that collect water. For mosquitoes an integrated pest management program is critical. Focus on reducing breeding habitat (water) by eliminating standing water, keeping gutters clean and using repellents if outside at dusk and screens on windows. Mosquito dunks, or larvacides, such as the small donut shaped bacillus thuringiensis dunks are available at hardware stores and are widely used around homes in standing water, like rain barrels. They have no effect on other organisms, except they kill all stages of pupating mosquitoes, not just the final pupation like growth regulators do.
-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

Octopamine Blocker?

Octopamine is a neurotransmitter that is found in insects and crustaceans. The botanical oil products we use for pest control act by focusing on and interrupting the octopamine neurotransmitter receptors in insects. This leads to a breakdown in the insects central nervous system. These botanical oils are beneficial to our service because when used properly they provide control, and since mammals, birds and fish do not have receptors for octopamine, botanical oils do not effect them adversely.
-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.

Moisture

We are in June, and starting to spend time maintaining our gardens. Moisture around a home is a sure way to attract insects. Integrated pest management and green pest management rely on making changes to the physical environment to reduce pest populations. Pruning vegetation off a structure is a great way to start. Try to keep at least 18 to 24 inches of clear space around your home. Walk around your home staying against the siding and see if you can do it without being engulfed in branches. If you cannot, it is time to prune the vegetation like trees and shrubs off the 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.

Carpenter Ant Frass

To the left you will see conical piles of sawdust and carpenter ant body parts (carpenter ants are cannibals) that piled on folding tables below a pair of skylights. This sawdust and ant parts is called "frass" and when falling continuously from the same spot forms conical piles. This is a sure sign of a structural carpenter ant nest and should not be ignored. An integrated or green pest management program should be implemented to eradicate the nest and a plan put in place to protect the structure from further attack.
-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.

Carpenter Ants!

You may have noticed Carpenter Ant foragers returning to the exterior of your home. Look out for foraging trails to see what lines the ants are using. This is useful for you or us to apply baits and other materials to the active areas. Carpenter Ants are most active after dusk, so inspecting at the end of the day, or early morning will yield the best results. And always think of wood that has gotten wet in the past, such as areas with former plumbing leaks or ice dams. When examining those areas look for frass, essentially sawdust with ant parts in it, falling out from wood members.
-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.

Gutters and Biting Flies (Mosquitoes)

Mosquitoes and biting flies such as the small, but painful biter called the no-see-um, will soon be here, usually arriving in late June as we begin to enjoy the warm dusk outside. Reduce wet vegetative matter is critical to mosquito and biting fly control, that means treating with dunks catch basins on your property and eliminating potential breeding sites. Look for water collecting in tires, planters, cans, trash cans, children's toys, even forgotten cups or pet bowls hiding under tables or play area equipment. A critical and often overlooked area is the gutter. We install the Leaf Defier to keep debris out of the gutter and to keep mosquitoes and biting flies from using the gutter as a site to lay eggs. Even if you don't want to install a solid product like the Leaf Defier, keep your gutters clean and catch basins clean and dunked (with Bacillus thuringiensis isrealensis) to reduce the biting fly population around your home.
-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.

Air Humidity

In New England, it is common that homes have a dehumidifier. Dehumidifiers are great appliances to remove moisture from air inside homes, usually in basements and crawl spaces. Controlling humidity is a great addition to a integrated pest management (or green pest control / green pest management) program. We sell, install and recommend high quality units. The brand we prefer is Thermastor, using the Santa Fe Classic or Compact to efficiently and effectively remove moisture from the air at typical basement and crawl temperatures. These units offer better energy efficiency and water removal performance over other units. In Metro Boston, these are usually installed with a condensate pump pulling the condensate from the unit to the exterior of the 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!

A continued menace in Metro Boston. Since the time the first ships with settlers arrived. No fun to deal with in your home, either alive, or dead.
Integrated or Green Pest Management Keys for rat control:
1) Sanitation: Remove and deal with trash effectively, metal cans or strong plastic, in a room with tight fitting doors and concrete floors. Rats love to burrow, concrete will slow them down.
2) Exclusion: Exclude the rats from the structure by employing concrete instead of dirt or wood basement and crawl floors. Fill holes in the foundation walls with cement or metal. Use gravel in dirt areas inside and outside the foundation walls.
3) Harborage Reduction: Remove clutter inside and out to reduce areas for rats to move about undetected. Keep grass mowed and shrubs trimmed 18" off the structure. Remove debris around the structure. Inside stored items should allow access to all perimeter walls, so keeps stored items 18 to 24 inches away from the walls.

-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.

Ants

Pavement or little black ants follow lines and forage randomly for food. Once a source is found, other ants follow a pheromone trail left to the food source by a returning ant wiping or dragging the abodomen on the surface. That is why regular cleaning, or wiping down surfaces (integrated or green pest management), can disrupt the pheromone trail and make it more difficult for these ants to locate and establish paths to food sources. Take the time to wipe off your counters after cleaning up the dishes, even if they look clean. Regular maintenance, cleaning, will reduce the amount of pheromone trails if ants are trailing in your home. And clean to the edges and backsplash, ants love to follow edges.
-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.

Trash control for rodents.

Keep rodents out of your life by controlling trash. A key pest control strategy to implement an integrated pest management or green pest management program is to control trash resources. This is true with all pests, especially rodents. Remove trash, especially material with odors like food waste, to a covered, preferably metal or thick plastic, covered trash can. Rinse recyclables off and out before putting into the recycling bin. Store all trash and recycling in a tight, rodent proof area and put out for collection the morning of (not the night before). These practices will reduce mice and rats inside, and tipped cans from raccoons outside.

-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.

GreenShield Certified!

We are proud this week to become the 2oth company to earn GreenShield certification, and to be the third company since the inception in June 2007 to offer 100% Green Shield certified pest management services. Green Shield certification is a rigorous standard for Integrated Pest Management that includes an audit by a third party evaluator. GreenHow, Inc. offers Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Green Pest Management (GPM) services to customers throughout eastern massachusetts. We solve ant, cockroach and rodent problem (in addition to other covered pests such as spiders, stinging insects, pantry pests, fabric pests, fleas, ticks, mosquitoes) and termites (soon to be swarming throughout New England).
-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.

What does "green" mean? Continued.

What does “green” mean? Continued...
The answer is (obviously) stated what “green” means to us, GreenHow, Inc, in terms of pest control, lawn care and termite control. “Green” is a vague or ambiguous term. The term “greenwashing” is a response by consumers to a perceived or real misuse of the term “green.” Generally speaking “green” means environmentally-friendly products and services. Usually it is self imposed by a business, but it can be part of a certification or accreditation process. In our business lines, which are lawn care, pest control and termite control, the term “green” refers to different aspects. This is a continuation of the brief descriptions, in alphabetical order by our service types, appearing here over the next few days.
Pest Control: Our primary service is Green Pest Management (GPM). GPM or green pest control is considered some an extension of IPM, since they both follow the same foundation, with GPM the use of natural materials including organic or plant based materials (such as rosemary oil), biochemical or microbial materials (such as abamectin) and inorganic, but naturally occurring materials (such as boric acid and diatomaceous earth). Others consider GPM part of IPM, with GPM materials used first, then traditional materials later, in case they don’t work. We consider GPM the use of a set of green materials. We look to outside resources, such as the IPM Institute’s GreenShield, for direction about whether a material is green or not. That helps us present information to customers that is built on a foundation from resources outside our company (to provide clarity to our opinions, which may need help to become focused). We also use NEPMA IPM Registry and others we are pursuing as outside verification (like the NOFA Organic LandCare accreditation mentioned in the last post) that our processes, products and services are “green.”
-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.

What does "green" mean?

What does “green” mean?
The answer is (obviously) stated what “green” means to us, GreenHow, Inc, in terms of pest control, lawn care and termite control. “Green” is a vague or ambiguous term. The term “greenwashing” is a response by consumers to a perceived or real misuse of the term “green.” Generally speaking “green” means environmentally-friendly products and services. Usually it is self imposed by a business, but it can be part of a certification or accreditation process. In our business lines, which are lawn care, pest control and termite control, the term “green” refers to different aspects. A brief description, in alphabetical order by our service types, will appear here over the next few days.
First, Lawn Care: The main terms we use to describe our lawn care services are organic, organic based and low impact. The organic service we describe uses materials listed on the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) list. This service includes no chemical herbicides or insecticides. This service is also accredited organic by the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) Organic LandCare Program. The organic based service uses blended or bridge materials. These materials are mostly (as a percent of weight) organic, but contain synthetic forms of nitrogen. The purpose of the synthetic nitrogen is to 1) provide a more rapid nitrogen or fertility and 2) to allow greater coverage per 1,000 square feet which decreases material and labor costs (and consumer price). This service may be a better option for some customers who are transitioning to organic, and may opt for organic based for one intermediate year from traditional lawn care programs. The low impact lawn care service utilizes more traditional types of materials including synthetic nitrogen with options for herbicide and insecticides as needed depending on the site.
-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.

Life Cycles-Fairly simply explained.

Understanding pest life cycles, or insect development, is critical to pest control. The process is called metamorphosis. There can be critical differences in where pests are located from each stage in an insects life cycle. An IPM or GPM professional must know the differences to be effective. The example is killing an adult fly, without addressing where the larvae are feeding will be ineffective. First, what is metamorphosis? Imagine the butterfly you want in your garden, it is important to understand that it starts as a egg, proceeds through a larval stage, pupates and then becomes the admired adult butterfly. The four types of metamorphosis are without, gradual, incomplete and complete. The first, without metamorphosis, or ametabolous insects, such as silverfish, grow from egg to adult increasing in size and gradually maturing with each molt. All stages are found together. The second type, gradual metamorphosis, includes a set number of molts with definite development of reproductive organs (and wings if applicable) over the stages. Insects that develop through gradual metamorphosis share the same habitat as nymphs and adults and include bed bugs, cockroaches, and termites. The third type, incomplete metamorphosis, includes dragonflies. This type has an aquatic nymph known as naiads. The adults have a different habitat then nymphal stages. Usually, these are not pests. The final type, complete metamorphosis, includes many pests such as ants, fleas, flies, mosquitoes and moths. The larval stage is usually complete different than the adult (think maggot larval stage of winged fly). The differences include not only body type and mouthparts, but also habitat. For an IPM or GPM strategy to be successful, the professional must understand the pests' life cycle.
-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.

Exempt Products. What are they?

What is meant when you hear the term "exempt products" when pesticides are discussed? They are products classified by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as exempt from the pesticide registration process. These are called minimum risk pesticide or "25b products," named after the section 25b that defines the requirements for pesticide exemption from registration. The key to exemption is both the pesticide products active and inert ingredients must come from an approved list of materials. Most of the active ingredients are naturally occurring, such as plant oils or salt. These products are critical for those implementing Green Pest Management (GPM) strategies for thier homes or businesses. A review is underway by the EPA (does that rhyme?) to address a common concern, which is making sure these products are effective. One important aspect to efficacy is to ask other users or look for products from major manufacturers. One example is the EcoSmart line of products. EcoSmart makes a variety of products from homeowner, commercial property manager products to agricultural and commercial products. Before buying and trying a product, try to read about the formulator, since as with any product, registered or not, a quality formulation by a reputable manufacturer should deliver consistent results for the user.

-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.

Getting close to time for termites

With active interior mud tubes being found and termite swarm's starting to peek out, we are getting close to time for termites. Weather over the next few days is expected to top 50 degrees Fahrenheit and if you add a period of rain, increasing humidity, we are reminded that spring is on its way. These winter weather breaks are usually followed by more cold, snow and ice, but serve as welcome reminders that spring is imminent. We have begun urgently preparing for spring with the feeling that (like every year) it seems to approach faster than we expect it. That means ordering materials, reviewing our Sentricon Installation and Maintenance Procedures, and honing our inspection skills. We are excited to continue to use the Sentricon Colony Elimination System, a winner of the Presidential Green Chemistry Award and registered under the EPA's Reduced Risk Pesticide Initiative, this system is both effective and low-impact. Those properties of the system dovetail nicely with our customers goals of having an effective and environmentally friendly solution to their termite problems.
Here's to looking forward to spring.
-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.

Signs of Spring.

Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, GreenHow team members spent time at NE Grows, the annual trade show and education source for landcare professionals. Whether taking courses for Pesticide Continuing Education Units, networking with other professionals or walking around the exhibition halls to see what vendors had to offer, NE Grows never fails to remind us that spring is just around the corner, even if it began with a 4 to 5 inch snow event the opening morning. This year, there will be no New England Flower Show at the Bayside Expo, another spring to mind event that used to occur annually. Instead, to get your mind on flowers, consider BLOOMS, March 12th to 15th as an alternate event or a trip to Providence for the Rhode Island Flower Show February 19th to 22nd.
From a pest control standpoint, this is the time of year that a little prevention can prevent a lot of issues. A thorough inspection and treatment with a material like Diatomaceous Earth in cracks and crevices near infested sites can prevent a lot of carpenter ant activity and excavation in around 6 to 8 weeks when ant activity starts to ramp up in the spring. Implementing a green pest management program or integrated pest management program this time of year is an effective way to plan and to be ready for spring pest issues.
-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.