Notes from the Green Truck

The extreme heat has taken a toll on northern New Jersey wildlife. New Jersey state conservationists have reported a noticeable increase in bird and wildlife deaths and larger than normal numbers of roadkill on Bergen County streets and highways. It’s all part of the cycle of life. The old, sick, young and infirm are easy targets for the savage heat that has blanketed northern New Jersey this summer, but in their deaths other creatures find life.

Bottle flies and other insects that feed or breed on carrion are thriving. Nature’s own CSI unit, bottle flies are the first insect to reach a dead animal. These insects lay their eggs in carcasses, wounds and necrotic tissue. Females can lay up to 180 eggs at a time, the larvae hatching in 2 to 3 days. So speedily do bottle flied infest dead things that New Jersey forensic pathologists are able to use bottle fly larvae to determine time of death in accident and murder cases.

Somewhat larger than house flies, bottle flies are distinctive in their coloration, making them fairly easy to distinguish from other fly species. Approximately 3/8 inch long, bottle flies have the black legs and antennae and veined grayish wings typical of most flies. It is their brilliant metallic markings that set bottle flies apart. Bottle flies exhibit stunning, iridescent green, gold or blue markings that catch the eye in the sunlight as they hover over road kill or buzz around garbage cans and dumpsters.

Bottle flies can present a health hazard to homeowners in Bergen, Morris and Essex counties. As these insects crawl around on dead animals to feed and breed, contaminants and pathogens adhere to their legs and bodies and can be spread to human food or food preparation areas when flies land. Good sanitation practices coupled with Bergen County professional pest control can keep bottle flies in check.

There’s nothing more pleasant on a New Jersey summer night than being lulled to sleep by nature’s summer symphony. Outside your window, the cricket’s piercing fiddle provides a pleasing counterpoint to the soft drone of other nocturnal insects. But when an errant fiddler takes up residence in your basement, disrupting your peaceful slumber with his strident chirp, it’s time to give the band the boot.

Sometimes mistaken for larger, greener grasshoppers, the common New Jersey house cricket has similarly strong, oversized hind legs for jumping. Pale brown to black in color with thick, heavy bodies, house crickets range in length from 1/2 inch to 1 1/4 inches. Crickets have long antennae and prominent forward eyes protruding from triangular-shaped heads, but it is their dominant, overlong hind legs that are the defining characteristic of this common household pest.

In Bergen, Passaic and Morris counties, crickets typically live outdoors in fields or yards where they feed on organic material such as dead insects, decaying plant material, seeds and fungi. Crickets often seek refuge in Bergen County basements in the fall, but appear to be moving indoors earlier this year because of the unseasonably hot weather. Indoors, crickets seek out dark damp spaces like basements and crawl spaces. When crickets enter Bergen County homes, they can be destructive. Their powerful jaws allow these insects to feed on soiled laundry, silk, wool, manmade fabrics, paper, wood, wallpaper, drapes and rugs. If not eliminated, house crickets can cause annoying damage to your home and may spread disease through their feces. While cricket-borne diseases are not fatal to humans, they can cause painful open sores.

When NJ pest control firms receive complaints about crickets, Bergen County residents are usually motivated not by holes in their laundry but by the piercing, sleep-disrupting chirping of these pests. ChemTec’s experienced New Jersey pest control professionals can eliminate chirping crickets so you can get a good night’s sleep.

Insect, animal and bird pests cost U.S. business owners billions of dollars a year. Commercial loss from pests and the damage they wreak costs America’s commercial sector more than the combined costs of all natural disasters. Pest damage can take a big bite out of your bottom line.

Unfortunately, problem pests don’t merely destroy your product or premises, their presence can destroy your company’s professional reputation. Evidence of cockroaches or mouse droppings can close a restaurant or grocery and send patrons fleeing. The discovery of bed bugs at two New York City Abercrombie & Fitch Hollister stores and a Victoria’s Secret this summer shocked customers and sent sales plummeting. Customers remain leery even after the pest problem has been solved. Your firm’s reputation might never recover from a serious pest infestation.

Regular pest inspections and pest control by a highly qualified and experienced Bergen County pest control company is a smart investment against the high cost of pest invasion. ChemTec Pest Control has been providing effective commercial pest control services to retail, commercial and industrial customers in the New York City metro and northern New Jersey areas for more than 78 years. All of our pest control technicians are state certified and licensed and receive continuous education and training in the latest pest control products and techniques. Our Quality Control Supervisors are well versed in state and federal inspection requirements and are fully qualified to help you plan and prepare for official audits.

Among the things that set ChemTec Pest Control apart is our designation as QualityPro Certified by the National Pest Management Association. This distinctive award of excellence is earned by fewer than 3% of the 22,000 pest control companies in the United States. QualityPro Certification is your guarantee that ChemTec maintains the highest standards of excellence in pest control knowledge and application, technician hiring and training, customer service and business practices.

Some New Jersey pests like ants and cockroaches can be a constant problem for Bergen County home owners. Other pests are a seasonal nuisance, invading northern New Jersey homes primarily in spring, summer or fall. Progressive Bergen County pest control firms offer both one-time and year-round services to meet the needs of all their customers, but year-round plans provide the best value for northern New Jersey residents.

Raccoons nesting in your attic may (hopefully) be a one-time occurrence, but ants invading your Bergen County kitchen may be a repeated problem. Even when insect or wildlife pests have been eliminated, there is always the possibility that they will return. Two things make it difficult to completely and forever eliminate insects from northern New Jersey homes:

1. The sheer number of insects, estimated to be 30 million worldwide, means that as soon as one pest is eliminated, another is ready to move into your northern New Jersey home. Fully 80% of the world’s species are insects. In the ongoing war between man and bugs, man is seriously outnumbered!
2. Many pests are hard-wired to return to the place of their birth. Carpenter bees, mice and pigeons are among the many northern New Jersey pests that instinctively return to their nesting site year after year. If access to their habitat and the conditions that allow them to thrive are not eliminated and monitored, a new generation of pests can move into your Bergen County home every year.

Innovative NJ pest control firms like ChemTec have developed year-round pest control plans to even the playing field in the man vs. bug battle. Our PestGuard Protection Plan provides thorough inspection and treatment of your northern New Jersey residence on a regular basis so that pest problems can be identified and eliminated in their earliest stages before they develop into a problem.

Who doesn’t look forward to summer vacation? Idle days, pleasant evenings, new places, no chores, no demands, total relaxation — at least that’s how most of us envision our vacations before we leave home. Even if your summer vacation doesn’t turn out to be quite as idyllic as you had hoped, the change of pace and scenery is still relaxing. When you return to your Bergen County home, you feel refreshed and recharged — until you open the door and find your home crawling with bugs! 

While you’re gone, your northern New Jersey home could be incubating an insect nightmare sure to bring forgotten stress galloping back the minute you return home. When people leave on vacation, they turn off the air conditioner, close the windows and lock the doors. This keeps your home safe from human invaders but creates a perfect incubator for insect invaders. As indoor temperatures rise, insect eggs and larvae can hatch and multiply, spreading through your northern New Jersey home.

If Fido’s scratching left a few flea eggs in his bed or he brought a tick into your home, you could return to a house jumping with fleas and crawling with ticks. If you forgot to empty the kitchen trash can or trash compactor, your kitchen could be teeming with ants or roaches. If you brought home bed bugs from a recent trip, your bed could be crowded with hungry bugs.

The best way to protect your Bergen County home from pest invasion while you’re on vacation is:

• Be on the lookout for problem signs (like Fido’s scratching) and take care of any problems before you leave home.
• Vacuum your home thoroughly and put the dust bag in the outdoor trash.
• Empty all trashcans and spray with germ killer.
• Ask your northern New Jersey pest control professional to spray your home before you leave town. 

The lazy drone of buzzing flies is a common summer sound in northern New Jersey. Bug-eyed house flies strafe backyard picnics, landing on the potato salad as fast as you brush them away. Tiny fruit flies hover over melon rinds in kitchen trash cans. Fuzzy drain flies rest on shower walls. Iridescent green bottle flies buzz around animal carcasses and road kill. In summer, Bergen, Essex and Morris counties in northern New Jersey seem to be abuzz with these annoying insects.

Primarily due to their habit of feeding and breeding in rotting garbage, decaying plant matter, decomposing animal carcasses and manure, flies carry and spread more than 100 disease-bearing pathogens, including typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, polio and tuberculosis. Worldwide, flies contaminate or destroy in excess of $10 billion of the world’s food supply every year.

Tiny hairs on their feet allow flies to “taste” food as they walk back and forth across it. With each tiny step these insects spread disease-causing pathogens. But their feeding habits also pose health problems for Bergen County residents. Flies are liquid feeders. They regurgitate an enzymatic fluid onto solids, causing food particles to break down and liquefy so they can soak up food with their spongy mouthparts.

To provide a food source for their hatching larvae, known as maggots, flies lay their eggs in rotting fruit, manure and decomposing animal tissue. Metallic green bottle flies will even lay their eggs in the necrotic tissue and open wounds of living humans and animals. Bottle flies are so quick to lay their eggs  in fresh carcasses that forensic pathologists use the larvae of these northern New Jersey insects to help determine time of death.

If you are bothered by clouds of annoying flies at your Bergen County home or business, contact ChemTec for expert northern New Jersey pest control services.

The hot, damp weather has spawned a surge in millipede and centipede populations in northern New Jersey. Some residents in Bergen, Morris, Passaic and Hudson counties have found their homes overrun by these many-legged insects that can scurry across floors or up walls in a flash.

Centipedes and millipedes have segmented, worm-like bodies with two pairs of short, fringe-like legs protruding from each segment. The larger species, centipedes are red to brown in color with long, wide, flattened, fleshy bodies that range in length from one inch to nearly a foot. Centipedes move with a snake-like rippling motion that many Bergen County homeowners find disconcerting. Considerably less imposing that their larger cousins, millipedes are dark reddish brown with thin, hard-looking cylindrical bodies about 1 1/2 inches long. When touched, millipedes curl their bodies into characteristic corkscrews. Both of these leggy insects are scavengers, feeding on soft-bodied insects, worms and spiders.

It’s those legs that give these insects their creepy-crawly reputation. Centipedes and millipedes live in damp, dark places and are generally outdoor dwellers, harboring in soil, mulch, leaf litter, under stones or in dead wood. Homeowners often disturb centipedes and millipedes when stacking firewood, turning compost piles or adjusting paving stones. Summer heat drives these moisture-loving insects indoors where they are often found in northern New Jersey basements, crawl spaces and under sinks.

While considered harmless to humans, millipedes do discharge fluid that can irritate human skin and centipedes have a venomous bite that can produce allergic reactions. Regular home pest control services through ChemTec’s PestGuard Protection Plan can effectively protect your northern New Jersey home from centipede and millipede invasion.

When cockroaches invade your Bergen County home, they carry and spread disease and other pathogens. Cockroaches in your kitchen contaminate food supplies and create an unhealthy food preparation environment. Their decomposing carapaces and feces are the No. 1 cause of children’s asthma in America and aggravate respiratory illnesses, especially in children and seniors. In northern New Jersey restaurants, warehouses and grocery stores, uncontrolled cockroaches can lead to health department citations, alienate customers and quickly damage your business reputation.

One of the most successful insect species on the planet, cockroaches have been part of Earth’s environment since early prehistoric times. Cockroach-like fossils more than 300 million years old have been found, although scientists date development of the modern cockroach to the early Cretaceous period 145 million years ago. Cockroaches are a persistent pest in every corner of the world.

These noxious pests live in large social colonies, sharing information about food sources via airborne pheromones and chemical trails in their feces. Bergen County pest control professionals use their knowledge of cockroach biology and behavior to eliminate these pests when they attack northern New Jersey homes and businesses.

Ridding your Bergen, Morris, Passaic or Hudson County home or business of cockroaches requires the expertise of a New Jersey pest control professional. When you contact ChemTec Pest Control, one of our highly trained, licensed insect control technicians will inspect the building inside and out for signs of pest attractants and entry. ChemTec’s pest control professionals are highly knowledgeable and experienced with a wide range of pest control treatments, including natural, “green” pest control methods. They will answer your questions, discuss treatment options and, in most cases, can perform your initial cockroach control treatment on the spot.

To find out more about ChemTec’s pest control services in Bergen, Morris, Passaic and Hudson counties, visit our website today.

A cockroach scurrying across the kitchen floor of your Bergen County home is cause for concern and an immediate call to an experienced northern New Jersey pest control firm. There is no such thing as one cockroach. Roaches live in large nests that may house hundreds of individuals. They are attracted to garbage, food, yard debris and clutter and will eat anything humans eat or drink and a lot of things we can’t digest, including wallpaper paste, glue, soap, cosmetics, clothing, paper and plants.

Known disease vectors,  northern New Jersey cockroach species carry and spread 33 types of bacteria including Salmonella and dysentery, six species of parasitic worms and at least seven distinct pathogens. Contaminated dust from dried feces, molts and dead roaches are the primary cause of childhood asthma in the U.S. and a significant cause of allergies, asthma and pulmonary disease in adults, particularly senior citizens.

Cockroaches are sometimes transported into Bergen, Morris, Passaic and Hudson County homes in storage boxes or luggage but usually crawl into northern New Jersey homes while foraging for food. Easy access to shelter and food sources makes Bergen County kitchens and bathrooms ideal places for roaches to set up housekeeping.

New Jersey cockroaches prefer to harbor in warm, dark, damp spaces. Cluttered basements and dark closets and cupboards provide welcome shelter. While roaches are most often discovered in kitchens, because of their proximity to food sources, cockroaches have also been known to build their nests in crawl spaces near sweating or leaking water pipes, behind baseboards and built-in cabinetry, inside closets, under washers or refrigerators, in bookcases and inside upholstered furniture.

Cockroaches are a serious health threat. If you discover roaches in your home, call our NJ pest control service immediately.

In Florida people kid themselves by calling them Palmetto Bugs, but no matter what you call it the American cockroach is a dangerous, disease-carrying problem pest in northern New Jersey. The largest cockroach species found in Bergen, Morris, Passaic and Hudson counties, the American cockroach is 1 1/2 inches long and reddish-brown in color with a pale yellow figure 8 marking on its back. One of the most aggressive cockroach species, the American cockroach thrives in warm damp areas and is most often found in basements and sewers. Although roaches are primarily nocturnal, the American roach is often found foraging in kitchens during daylight hours.

Another roach species commonly found in Bergen County basements and crawl spaces is the shiny, black, one-inch-long Oriental cockroach. A common sewer dweller, this wingless cockroach species is often seen outdoors where it inhabits leaf litter, damp mulch and stacked firewood. In winter, it will climb up sewers into Bergen County homes to seek shelter.

The most common cockroach species found in northern New Jersey is the 1/2 inch long German cockroach. Brown with two dark bands on the back of its head, German cockroaches are commonly found infesting kitchens and bathrooms, restaurants and other commercial businesses.

Roaches can squeeze through tiny cracks as small as 1/16 inch, slip under door and window sills, climb up sewer pipes or drop from trees and enter your northern New Jersey home from the roof. In apartment and condominium buildings, roaches spread quickly by through plumbing and electrical conduits and heating vents. With the exception of Oriental roaches, cockroaches have sticky foot pads that enable them to run up walls and along ceilings.  

Next time: Why cockroaches are a threat