Meet Chris Jones!

Chris Jones has been with Mid-Georgia Pest Control since February 2011.  He is a 2010 graduate of Griffin High School and currently attends Southern Crescent Technical College. 
Chris has one brother, and his family all lives in Griffin.  In addition to eating pizza, Chris enjoys hunting, fishing, and hanging out with his friends.

Party at the Blue Willow!

Mid-Georgia Pest Control Staff

Last Friday night, the Mid-Georgia team had the pleasure of celebrating Christmas together as a staff with our spouses at the Blue Willow Inn restaurant in Social Circle, GA.  Yummy southern cooking, beautiful decorations, and the company of friends made for a fun and enjoyable evening.  Each year, Brian honors one member of the team by giving away a MVP of the year award.  Congratulations to Bruce Griffin for receiving this award for 2011.  We appreciate the hard work of everyone at Mid-Georgia Pest Control.  Thanks for a fun time together! 

Meet Shannon Bell!

Griffin technician, Shannon Bell, is originally from Manchester, Tennessee, where he attended Coffee County Central High School.  He continued his education at Griffin Technical College and has been with Mid-Georgia since September 2004. 
Shannon has been married to Michelle for 12 years and they have 4 children: Tony, Jessie, Aaron, and Jon.
Playing the drum and bass guitar, as well as singing, are some of Shannon's talents.  He also enjoys steak or anything off the grill!

Meet Kelly Teal!

Grayson office manager, Kelly Teal, has been with Mid-Georgia Pest Control since April 2008.  She is originally from Roswell, GA where she graduated from Roswell High School in 1994.
Kelly and her husband, Darrell, have been married for 8 years.  They have 3 daughters, Hallie (15), Megan (12), and Madison (8). 
Kelly is involved at her church and also enjoys Italian food and being a softball mom!

Meet Brandon Boozer!

The final Boozer brother to introduce is Brandon Boozer.  He has been with Mid-Georgia since July 2008, and his focus is on the Grayson Turf Care and Lawn Maintenance Division of Mid-Georgia Pest Control.  Brandon is originally from Snellville where he graduated from Brookwood High School in 1997.  He then continued his education at Georgia Perimeter College.
Brandon and his wife, Jessica, have been married for 8 years, and they have one son, 2 year old Braden.
Brandon is a fan of buffalo wings and the outdoors.  Some of his favorite hobbies are Motorcross and hunting.

Meet Dawn Robinson!

Our Operations Manager, Dawn Robinson, has been with Mid-Georgia since March 2004.  She is originally from Whitehouse, OH but has called Georgia home for 25 years.  Dawn is a graduate of Anthony Wayne High School and Bowling Green State University.
In her spare time, Dawn enjoys home renovations, decorating, reading, and camping. She also loves Chinese food.
Dawn and her husband, Craig, have been married for 27 years, they have 2 gorgeous daughters (now young ladies)-Megan (26) and Shelby (23).

Meet Brent Boozer!

Brent Boozer has been with Mid-Georgia Pest Control since March 2004, and he is well known and loved among many customers from our Grayson office.  Although Brent is originally from Snellville, he is a 2002 graduate of Grayson High School.
In addition to killing bugs, Brent enjoys dirt bike racing and eating ribs!
Brent has been married to Shannon for 3 years, and they are expecting their first daughter later this month. Make sure to check back for the news and pictures of their new little princess!

Meet Brian Boozer!

What better place to start introducing the Mid-Georgia team than the owner himself, Brian Boozer.  Brian is a native to Gwinnett County where he graduated from Brookwood High School in Snellville in 1996.  From there he continued his education at Georgia Southern University and was part of the class of 2000.  Brian took over Mid-Georgia Pest Control in March 2004.
In his spare time, Brian enjoys golf and is a college football fan.  One of his favorite foods is BBQ.
Brian has been married to his wife, Catherine, for 11 years, and they have 3 beautiful children: Cadence (6), Brock (5), and Boden (2). 
You can find Brian at both the Grayson office and Griffin office.

Griffin Trick or Treating



  



Our Griffin office had the pleasure of taking part in the Historic Downtown Griffin Trick or Treating Event last Friday, October 28th, to kick off the Halloween weekend.  Our very own Hermite the Termite was there greeting the 800 children that came by!  Thanks to Chris Jones and Margo Polk and her kids for working so hard at this event.  

Praying Mantis

 
  
Our Grayson Office Manager, Kelly, took these photos of a praying mantis outside her window.

Praying mantises get their name from their typical "prayer-like" stance. Ironically, the word "mantis" comes from the Greek word for "prophet." Mantises are sometimes confused with grasshoppers and crickets, but their closest relatives are actually termites and cockroaches!

Praying Mantis is often misspelled "preying" mantis, but this name also fits them because they are natural predators.  Mantises mostly prey on  insects, however, they will eat anything small enough to capture and devour.  Some known victims have been scorpions, lizards, frogs, birds, snakes, fish, and small rodents.  They will wait on their prey to come close and then ambush it.  They catch their prey with their spiked forelegs, and this reflex is so quick it is almost difficult to see with the naked eye! 


Green and brown are typical colors of the mantis which helps it stay  camouflaged.  When a mantis feels threatened, it will stand tall and spread it's wings to look bigger and more threatening.  Although they can bite, a mantis  has no venom.

Some other interesting facts about mantises are:
They have a triangular head with large compound eyes.
They can turn their heads 180 degrees.
Some martial arts styles mimic the mantis.
Some gardeners uses mantises as a form of natural pest control.
The European Mantis is the state insect of Connecticut.
They often engage in cannibalism especially during mating.

Whether it's the graceful stance or the alien-like head, the praying mantis is certainly a fascinating creature!

Paper Wasp Nest

Paper Wasp nest

One of our technicians recently brought this paper wasp nest back to the office.  These nests are commonly found under eaves of homes or buildings.  Paper wasps build their nests by gathering fibers from dead or decaying wood and plants.  They chew up the fibers and mix them with their saliva to make a paper-like material (the wasp version of paper-mache).  The nests of paper wasps have open combs with cells for their young and a constricted stalk that anchors the nest.  These wasps secrete a chemical that repels ants which is spread at the base of the anchor.
Although paper wasps are less aggressive than other bees, hornets, and yellow jackets, they will attack if their nest or the wasps themselves are threatened. 
Twenty-two species of paper wasps have been identified in North America and approximately 300 species have been identified worldwide.  However, if you include the species of subfamilies that also make paper nests, there would be closer to 1100 species!

Paper Wasp-photo from rivaitphoto.com

Mid-Georgia's Newest Employee

Exciting things are happening at Mid-Georgia Pest Control!  We are happy to share with you the newest addition to the Mid-Georgia family:

Brenden Aden Vick was born to proud parents Joey and Hannah on October 19, 2011.  Brenden weighed in at 8 lbs, 13 oz and was 22 in long.

Congratulations Joey and Hannah  on  your healthy, handsome little man!

Bat Cleanup

A customer in Milner, GA recently found droppings on the air conditioner outside his home and also heard screeching sounds from upstairs.  Our team found bats in the gable vents of the house.  A water-hot sauce mixture was used to run the bats out of the house and the gable vents were sealed from the outside.  We then gave the guano, or bat excrement, about three weeks to dry out.  At that time, all of the guano and contaminated insulation was removed and new insulation was placed.

New insulation and no more contamination.  Great job, Chris Jones!

Bat droppings can carry a fungus known to cause Histoplasmosis, which primarily affects the lungs.  It is important to take the right precautions when cleaning up guano, such as wearing a respirator, coveralls, gloves, and goggles.  Because of the health risks posed by guano, do not attempt to clean it yourself.  If you find you have bats, give the experts at Mid-Georgia Pest Control a call!

Halloween and Spiders

Mid-Georgia's pet tarantula

     With Halloween approaching, there's no doubt you've seen decorations with spiders and spider webs.  They have been the stars of many "scary" movies like "Arachnophobia" and "The Giant Spider Invasion."  It's no surprise that we group spiders in with the other symbols of fear like witches, ghosts, and monsters around Halloween.  After all, arachnophobia, or the abnormal fear of spiders, is one of the most common specific phobias.  For many of us, just thinking about a spider on us can make our skin crawl!  In reality, by Halloween, when there's a chill in the air and colorful leaves all over the ground, most spiders have laid their eggs and died.  During fall and winter, a few spiders may still be found hiding in a dark corner of the house or basement, but they are not running rampant like we portray in our "haunted houses."

Interesting facts about spiders:
-they are found on every continent worldwide except for Antarctia
-there are approximately 40,000 species of spiders
-they have 8 legs
-unlike insects, spiders do not have antennae
-they have the most centralized nervous system of all arthropods
-most detect their prey by sensing vibrations and they mostly prey on insects and other spiders
-most have 4 pairs of eyes
-females are usually larger than the males
-they have been around for over 200 million years

     Despite our fears, most spiders only bite humans in self defense.  The effects of a spider bite are usually no worse than a mosquito bite or bee sting.  A few spiders that can produce medically serious bites, such as recluse and widow spiders, are actually shy and bite only when they feel threatened.  Unfortunately, this can happen by accident.

brown recluse spider (photo from Wikipedia)

black widow spider (photo from Wikipedia)

     Spider venoms are being investigated for beneficial uses such as an alternative to conventional pesticides and medical treatment for cardiac arrhythmia, Alzheimer's disease, strokes, and erectile dysfunction.
Spiders are also part of people's diets in other parts of the world and cooked tarantulas are a delicacy in Cambodia.  I'm not so sure I want this to appear on McDonald's menu any time soon!
    Even though the average spider is not something to be fearful of, enjoy the spooky spiders this Halloween and maybe you'll even see a few cute ones.

   

Earwigs

photo from Wikipedia

Earwigs have been around since the late Triassic period, but they were introduced into North America in the early 1900s.  These insects get their name from an old myth that they crawled into people's ears while they slept and burrowed into the brain.  In reality, earwigs are not really harmful to humans.
Earwigs can be easily identified by the long forceps pincers extending from the back of their abdomen and their membraneous wings.  The pincers in the male are curved while the female's pincers are more straight.  They are mostly noctural and prefer dark, moist areas such as leaf piles, bark, or weeds.  They eat other insects, flowers, seedling plants, soft fruits, and corn silks, so they have been known to cause damage to crops.
The male and female will mate in the fall and live together in debris, crevices, or soil about 2.5 mm deep for the winter.  In early spring, the male will leave or be driven out by the female.  Shortly after, the female will lay 20-80 eggs in 2 days.  The eggs are white or cream colored and oval shaped.  They will turn more brown and kidney shaped right before hatching (about one week from being laid).

female with her eggs (photo from Wikipedia)

female with new hatchlings (photo from Wikipedia)

 
Unlike many insects, the female earwig is very maternal, watching over her eggs and offspring until after their second molt (it takes 5 molts to reach adulthood).  The mother will also continuously clean her eggs to protect them from fungi. 
Reducing possible hiding places such as debris, heavy ivy vines, or wood piles especially around your garden can help to control problems with earwigs.

Helping Save the Georgia Market Bulletin!

logo taken from the Georgia Department of Agriculture website

Since 1917, the Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin has served as a medium of exchange for farmers and consumers all over Georgia.  Think ebay or craigslist for agriculture needs.  In addition to being a venue for advertising to farmers and consumers, the Bulletin also offers a variety of information about agriculture and the Department of Agriculture, as well as columns on recipes and gardening.  Special editions are published throughout the year.  Some of these popular editions include a listing of "pick your own" farms in the spring and summer and a list of the state's "choose and cut" your own Christmas tree during the Christmas season.
The Market Bulletin contains ads for a wide variety of categories including: ag seeds, flowers, livestock, cattle, bee-keeping equipment, feed, hay and grain, fertilizers and mulches, farm machinery, goats and sheep, and poultry.  
As the need to cut costs has grown, the Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin has been hit.  This once free, weekly publication is now bi-weekly with a subscription fee.  Although it may not be cancelled completely, there have been thoughts of only maintaining the Bulletin online.
The Georgia Pest Control Association (which Mid-Georgia Pest Control is a member of) recently presented the Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture, Gary Black, with a $1,000 check to be used for the publication of the Market Bulletin.  Dennis Judy, the president of the Georgia Pest Control Association, added "we would like to challenge other groups and associations that are served by the Department of Agriculture to match our contribution and support the Department of Agriculture's efforts to maintain and grow agriculture's influence in the state of Georgia."  Commissioner Black appreciated the contribution and said he would encourage other groups to accept this challenge.  Way to go, Georgia Pest Control Association!  

Prepare for Rodents

Norway Rat

As fall approaches, mice and rats will start looking for warmth, food, and shelter.  Most rodents live in woods and fields, but there are three species of mice and rats that live with people.  These are the house mouse, Norway rat, and roof rat.  All three of these species live in Georgia.
A mouse only needs an opening the size of a dime to enter your home.  The most common entry point is at the base of exterior doors and garage doors.  Other entry points include areas where pipes, wires, or cables enter the house.  To keep unwanted guests out, seal up these entry points and replace weather stripping if any gaps are present.  If you are in the house or garage and can see light coming through under the door, a mouse can probably get through, too.  Cleanliness can also help to avoid attracting rodents to your house, so cover all garbage cans and keep the area around the house clean and free of debris.

This would be a sign there are mice around

Check around the house and seal up any possible entrances

Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?

This looks like your typical backyard sandbox, right?  They provide hours of fun for many kids.  Unfortunately, my children often do not put the lid back on.  After the lid got left off, a storm came and days later this is what our sandbox looked like.  

My boys went out to play and came in to tell me there were little tadpoles in our sandbox.  Then our fifth grade neighbor sees it and tells us it's mosquitoes.  I decide to investigate the sandbox.  Sure enough, our once sandbox was now the home to mosquito larvae.  The fifth grader was right!

Female mosquitoes lay their eggs in water.  This can include large bodies of water, standing water (like swimming pools), or areas of collected standing water (like tree holes or gutters).  The eggs hatch into larvae or "wigglers" which grow to about 1-2 cm in length.  This stage lasts from days to several weeks.  Then the larvae change into pupae or "tumblers."  This stage only last 1-4 days.  The pupae then encases itself and transforms into adult mosquitoes.

Photos from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

To reduce the population of mosquitoes, eliminate any sources of standing water in your yard.  If you have a small pond, you can stock it with some fish that will eat the mosquito larvae.
Take a lesson from us, and don't let your once fun sandbox become a breeding pool for mosquitoes!

 

A Successful Fly Baiting!

Brian Boozer grilling some yummy hotdogs!

On Labor Day Weekend, our church had a "Tailgate Sunday Worship."  The entire worship experience was held outside underneath a high school rotunda.  Everyone brought food and we ate during the service.  We had grills going, tailgate tents up, and nice weather.  It was the perfect storm for a massive fly infestation!
This was our second annual "Tailgate Sunday."  We decided to take a lesson from last year and do something to stop all the flies that could threaten to terrorize our tailgate.
                                                                   

 Maxforce Fly Spot Bait was our product of choice.  After checking all the labels and reviews, we decided this product would be a good fit for our needs.  This outside tailgate would be the best opportunity to see if Maxforce was up for the challenge.  The product was mixed according to label directions and applied to various places around the rotunda.  It was applied to window and door ledges, the building roofline, around trashcans, and around the perimeter of the dumpster area.

 

To say the Maxforce Fly Spot Bait worked is an understatement!  From tailgate start to finish, there was not one fly seen.  The lack of flies was almost unheard of.  We had two lines of food set up: meats and sides on one row of tables and sweet desserts on the other.  While our worship experience occurred peering over the tables of food, no flies landed on dishes, bothered people as they ate, or hung around the trash.  

Awesome job, Maxforce!  We are looking forward to using this great bait product to help our customers with their pesky fly issues and help them have fun, fly-free picnics, cookouts, and tailgates.

     

Come visit "The Bug Shop"

Over the last few years, we've had homeowners ask us, "What's the best products to buy for pest control if I would like to try it myself?"  Our answer by default has been, "Try Home Depot, they have some decent stuff there."  Now, Mid-Georgia Pest Control's Grayson office is home to "The Bug Shop." 

The Bug Shop is designed for people who would like to have commercial strength products on hand for emergency treatments, or as an alternative for a professional home pest control service.  The products we provide are easy to use and economical for the pest problem at hand.  Even better, all products come with free professional advice from our qualified staff of technicians.
We invite you to stop by and check out this newest addition to Mid-Georgia Pest Control.  Our Grayson office address is 684 Grayson Parkway, next to the Grayson Library.  For more information, please call 770-962-4240.  

The Good, The Bad, and The Smelly

Photo by Daniel R. Suiter/University of Georgia

Bean Plataspids, or kudzu eating bugs, were first spotted in Georgia in 2009.  They have now spread throughout Georgia, South Carolina, part of North Carolina, and 4 counties in Alabama.  They dine on kudzu, otherwise known as the vine that ate the South!  Kudzu can grow up to a foot a day (that's 7 feet in a week, which is longer than the average human adult!).  Test plots in Athens, Georgia, showed these bugs reduced the amount of kudzu by one-third.  This should be good news, right?  However, along with good, comes some bad.  In addition to kudzu, bean plataspids also like legume plants such as soybeans.  It is still unknown what effect they might have on peanut crops.
Bean plataspids are part of the stinkbug family.  They also go by the names lablab bug and globular stink bug.  They can emit an unpleasant smell, but otherwise are not harmful to humans.  However, as the weather gets cooler, these bugs try to enter homes for the winter.  They are pea-sized and brown with a wide posterior.  They can fly very high.  Recent storms may have helped transport these bugs to surrounding states.  They are thought to be from somewhere in Asia, so how they traveled to the United States is not fully known.

Orange Striped Oakworm

We found this specimen of Orange Striped Oakworm last week in Suwanee.  We had never run across this pest before.  Much like other occasional invaders, we research all the new pests we find.  When we see it again out in the field, we will be able to know how to handle the situation.

closer picture of the orange striped oakworm from Bugwood.org

The orange striped oakworm is around 2 inches long.  They have long, black spines that resemble horns.  These "horns" are used to scare off predators, but they do not have the ability to sting.  Adult moths lay eggs on the underside of leaves from June to July.  Egg clusters contain hundreds of eggs.

Moth and egg clusters (photo from Brookhaven National Laboratory)

 

The caterpillars hatch and feed from August to September, and sometimes into October.  They defoliate sections of various oak species and sometimes completely defoliate smaller trees.  Defoliation usually occurs one branch at a time.
Because of the large amount of intake, they have an abundance of excrement.  This makes this insect troublesome when present in oak trees over patios, sidewalks, or driveways.  However, control measures are typically not needed.
After feeding is complete, larvae pupate in the soil over the winter.  There is only one generation per year.
Thanks, Brandon, for this interesting find!

Yellow Jacket Spread Attack!

When run effectively, a spread option attack in football is a high-octane offense capable of scoring lots of points and baffling defenses.  It is based on the concept of defensive isolation.  The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets currently employ this type of offense for their football team.
We recently ran into a spread attack from yellow jackets in a Griffin apartment complex.  The property residents were complaining of seeing yellow jackets around bedroom windows and bathroom light fixtures.
Our goal:  find the nest, treat the nest, and keep the residents safe from yellow jacket stings.
However, finding the nest was not so easy.  Since there were no visible entrance or exit holes around the building, we couldn't tell exactly where the nest was located.  Most activity was happening in random places like light fixtures and windows.

Our experimentation was to bait the area around the building, hoping to see exactly where the activity was coming from.                                                                                                                                                                            

To attract the yellow jackets, we used a variety of their favorite foods.  We used several placements of cat food.  We also mixed up cocktails of apple juice, corn syrup, and salmon paste.

We have caught several yellow jackets to date, but we are still trying to find the nest.  Check back for updates!