Mosquito & Tick Control: Disease Risks, Prevention & Professional Treatment | Suann Lehman - Pest Perspectives

Hello and welcome to Pest Perspectives episode 35, the second one of the week. I did Born last night as well, which is good. You can catch up with that. That's the awful of a very interesting wasp book. I've you must, you must listen to it. It's quite insightful and listen to it or give it, give the book a read. The wonderful world of Wasps. It is quite interesting, but today I have on for episode #35 Juan Lehman. Is that correct? It's Lehman, but. Lehman, Lehman, there we go. Lehman from Guardian Mosquito and tick Control.

Got that bit right? Yes, There we go. So do you want to introduce yourself on what you kind of do, but the name kind of explains it? It does, yeah. Absolutely. So my name is Suanne and I am the owner of Guardian Mosquito and Tick Control and we we do focus on 100% outdoor pest control but we really specialised in mosquito and tick control. OK. OK. That sounds good. So just before we could go into that, how did you, when did you start, how did you get into the pest control industry as such and how did that start?

It wasn't something that I anticipated. I actually had a, an art business that I was doing and I was looking for some side income for my household and I got a position as an administrative assistant for a mosquito and take control company. And so I, I worked there for several years and then when the owner was getting ready to retire that he was debating on trying to sell the business, some leads didn't quite pan out. And so I've actually had my yard treated for the last several years and I'm a mosquito magnet.

And so one of the deciding factors, it wasn't solely the deciding factor, but I didn't want to not have the service for my home. And so I decided to purchase a business when he was retiring. And so I've been owning the, I've owned the business now for the, this will be my third summer so or my third season. Oh, nice. So it's quite recent into into, into business as such. It is, but I've been working in the industry for over 10 years. This This year was my tenth season to be in the pest control industry so.

Very nice. Who's that with your business in your neck and where you live? Is this is the service you can do year round? It, it is not a service we do year round. So I, I live in Pennsylvania, which is in the North East side of the United States and we do get cold blistery winters here. And so we, we do not have a whole lot of, we, we would definitely have rodent issues and there is pest control to be done here all year long. But the services that we do 'cause we focus purely on outdoor is not a all year long business.

We operate usually around I guess say probably nine months out of the year. So ticks can tolerate much colder temperatures than all of your other insects. They actually if it is freezing. If it is above freezing, ticks can be active. OK, So what do you do out of interest for them? Do you have a three month holiday? Do you make enough money to be be fine for them their months you can't do mosquito and ticks, that's all. You kind of work it into your business plan that then three months should be good, so.

We we do offer snow management services. I actually partner with some landscaping companies and that's what we do in the offseason to be able to kind of keep the rent paid or keep the lights on. So yeah. I thought I've been, I've heard a lot of thought. I listen to American podcast, I listen to lawn care and they're all into this no stuff in the winter and putting people's Christmas lights up for the for the quieter months. Yeah. So I just wondered, wondered how you what you did for the the months.

You can't do it in because we we always. Yeah, sorry, we can. I looked into doing the Christmas light thing because I'm just trying to come up with other revenues of income. I think that there to be able to do that successfully, you need some different tools and it was just more of an investment that I looked to do to provide the safety I needed for my staff to be able to do that. Yeah, I could see what you mean. It's it's icy out there. You've got to get up a ladder. The risk of falling and breaking your leg.

And it's quite high, isn't it? It is, to be honest. You don't want that. No. No, you don't. So, so how? How do you we? We do have mosquitoes here, but it's not a service I see widely advertised by pest control companies. I got corrected a week or two ago by by Graham on the podcast that he says there is mosquitoes here and you can do treatments for them. But it's not something I actually heard UK people say. Yeah, we do mosquito treatments as such because a lot of people you just I've obviously learned I've learned how to do them on my by level 2 course it was on there.

So that should have rang arm bells to me that there is mosquitoes and it was things like there wasn't they didn't mention things like any treatments as such more like not the stagnant water make the make the ponds water move and clear water butts and stuff. I think like treatments as such. But how do you do mosquito treatments? Or does it depend on the situation of where it is it's in? Sorry. So about 10 years ago, I had never heard about mosquito treatments either. So I really think in America that it is kind of a new trend and it is really a rapidly growing industry.

But so we we here in Pennsylvania, we have a lot of different styles of homes that people live in. So we have some that live in apartments, townhouses, but we have some people who have 20 acres of property. So it's a pretty rural, it's developed, but it's definitely a rural area here. And we have some properties that just have a lot of trees. We have some properties that have natural springs and marshes. We have a lot of streams and, and whatnot that roll through Pennsylvania. So we really have to make a plan for each individual property as to what we do to the purpose.

And of course, one of the big things that we do is we we kind of evaluate the property to see what improvements we can make. Some places we can make tremendous suggestions to cut down your reading. And of course, if you can stop the reading cycle, you're going to reduce the amount of mosquitoes in the property. We, we do have some properties that I think even doing all the best things that they can do, the environment around them there is not a lot. And so we, we actually kind of target in, in many different ways when we have to treat for mosquitoes.

So we do an adult spray that we do to be able to target the areas that they live and they breed. We use a an IGR in our blend to try to again prevent. We also use the in two care buckets, which is a bacteria. Or I've seen these and that's that's what it is. Is it good? Is it good treatment? I think it works on certain properties. I don't know that it's an ideal fit for every property. They really work well with the 80s mosquitoes. So if you're dealing with more of a Culex mosquito, I don't think you see quite the results that you would see and they are not an instant.

So if you go put them out in somebody's yard today, tomorrow they're going to still have mosquitoes. So it is actually you definitely have to be proactive because it takes several weeks to really become effective because you are stopping the breeding cycle in the larva stage. And so mosquitoes live about two weeks and so you have to have those die off and they have laid eggs and then they have to hatch the larva to be able to be treated. We also used your dunks or it's at the bacteria that's in those.

So we will treat some areas if we have lying water that that we, it's unavoidable. That's something that we will do as well. So plus some clients want to feed the birds or they have house plants that they have outside on their patio and the water is constantly in there. And so we will recommend those as a something they can do to prevent that as a breeding site. OK, OK. Do you, I hear, I hear stuff sometimes where people spray the outside of people's houses. Do you do that kind of thing or? So we don't really spray their home.

We would spray the foliage. If they have like shrubbery around their home, we would target that. OK, OK. I just wondered them. It's a different, different, you know, different country, different. We would never be allowed to do anything like that. We wouldn't. We don't spray the grass either. So that's a misconception that if they're maintaining their grass and they're keeping it mowed and that type of thing, that's not something that you need to spray. Now, if you would have a mosquito activity in your in your grass, and we have had some clients that have had this, it's because there's lying water.

And again, that's where we would use a larvicide or something else to be able to prevent the OR or the dunks in that to be able to stop the breeding in the grass. So, but I won't say that it doesn't happen, but it's definitely not a common occurrence. OK, that's fair. Because we are different countries, different, you know, we, we don't. I've seen videos of pest controllers spraying it from their vans and crazy stuff. I don't imagine you do that. I don't, but I can tell you I have looked into and it's it's not in my budget, but maybe a 510 year growth plan.

They have drones that you can sprains drones Yep. And I for areas that are hard to reach, I think that that could be great future technology. They're they're just not really an affordable option, but they do offer that as a spraying option too. Oh, I just, I'm just thinking. They got me thinking, because imagine if you could do that with, say, Wastest, you know, you could target the hole with a drone. Yeah, that would be pretty good, wouldn't that? That would be, and I think that that could be the future for us.

So that's why again, I'm, I'm always trying to search what is out there, what is the newest tech because I want to be able to evolve as I, I have seen. And again, I don't know how much price they are and, and they may only be a prototype, but there's a device that shoots a laser that you will set up like near your patio and when you're sitting outside, it will detect a mosquito and it will laser them. And that is the only thing it it is to be able to detect. So if it sees a moth or a pollinator, it will not shoot the laser for them.

That's really interesting. Does it actually work or is it? I, I don't know, again, it's, it's something that I've, I've kind of perused, but I'm not sure that it's beyond prototype or it's only a handful out there. I don't think it's a widely used product at this point. OK, it sounds like something someone from China might try and make it does. Yeah, I could see that. So could you see how it would be? You'd have to set some real parameters for it not to make a mistake. Kill like bees or whatever.

Something that they shouldn't kill because they're all AI and they can all make mistakes, can't they? They absolutely can. They absolutely can, but you know technology has come a long way and so if you say in five or ten years that won't be able to be an easy access product to be then maybe affordable by then so. It might be with time and if it usually if people adopt it quicker, the price usually comes comes down. It's like in this country we

we've got like pest control cameras for when you have Dave rodents in an attic and you can't tell exactly, but the vast majority of us use off the shelf ones. I think, I don't know if they're American. I think they are Rio link cameras the house. They're very effective when it comes to putting them in areas of rodents because you can put a SIM card in and they only go off with motion and sound. So a lot of the smaller companies in this country use Rio links because there's no actual trail cameras and things like that.

But the Rio links, I think, I mean, because I've done a digital trial where Syngensa Global have got this system called Secure Choice 24/7 Rodent monitoring. And I said, oh, it's not for small business. It's being mouthy on LinkedIn. And like the trade body and width said, would you like to do a trial? Send Jen to want you to have a go with it. And I gave my honest, honest opinion. And I actually said that it'd be nice if there was a little camera in there so you could actually tell when the bait was consumed because there was 16 or 18 hits in one weekend.

And I thought, oh, the bait's got to be gone and there was hardly any bait gone or a a metre where it could tell whether the bait consumption has gone down or But I put it all in the recommendations. But the but I reckon there's a featuring a lot more use of cameras. I wouldn't say probably in your industry because it's unless you've got a programme where you're monitoring the mosquitoes all the time, but I don't imagine it would work like that, would it? I think that would be very hard. I mean, even when you take a photo like I last night I was driving and I was able to see a lot of mosquito activity in the windshield.

But when you go to get a photo of that, they're so tiny that they just are not really photogenic, I guess. Yeah, no, you, you are right. Sometimes it is hard to get a clear picture of any insect, to be honest. It is especially when you start some of these apps that that because I've got some cards, you see, I've not got them here at the minute and they've got pictures of all different insects. And I made a post on LinkedIn and somebody told me that that's very primitive because we've now got apps, right?

And I'm also a fan of that because we all learn in different ways. And often you could literally get the cards out and go there. Now, if you take a photograph, I had an app we were paying for. I got rid of it. I did because it it wasn't very good. It was I was literally putting the same photograph in and I was getting 4 it quite loads of times and I was getting 3 or 4 different answers. So it didn't it wasn't sure it yeah, I'm not sold on on AI with regards to insects yet because they they do make a lot of mistakes.

I think them cards I've got, I think you could literally just take it in the house for you and say, look, this is what it looks like even to the customer. I know you're supposed to be an expert by the eye, but you can say this is what it looks like here it is. Compare it so you can you can see it. But the app, I do like AI because I use it. I use it to search things up now, search things up because you've got to get used to this because everyone's going to be using it. But I don't think they're there when it comes to bugs and mosquitoes, and I don't think they're there yet or not.

I think I need to get some very clever entomologists involved and that might help it. That might. I could see that. So I of course I'm I'm a Gen Xer so I grew up long before computer everything and I'm very savvy with computer and tech, but I still use the prime examples. I use a desk calendar as well as a digital calendar. I can't imagine life without. So I I use both supports that are out there there and I like that there are cards just like that as well as the app. So, but you're right there, sometimes that one is just more helpful than the other.

Well, it is. It's like, it's like what with the card, I don't this is Auk company. I'd imagine there'd be somebody in your net in America that does exactly the same kind of thing, identification cards. But I just think that we all have different ways of learning and it's a visual thing you can put in your van. So it's there, you flick through, it looks like this, go in and identify it and you could even show the customer. There you go. There's the bug. So, so they, they believe you, there's the picture.

Some people don't believe you do that, even though you are the expert because so you can say, here's the picture, here's that picture. It matches. So it does. So is there any dangerous diseases in America that mosquitoes can transmit or or not? Is there anything any dangerous ones or just the fact they bite you? So they are a little bit more than just a nuisance in America. So they do carry West Nile virus and Zika. In the county I live in, in Pennsylvania, the mosquitoes have both tested positive for both of those diseases.

We don't have malaria thankfully, but in the the Zika in West Nile, if you are infected and some people may not even realise that they've been infected because it's very similar to the flu. You're very similar. To the flu and I would imagine if you have a good immune system you would be treatable just like the flu and and you may get over it and never even realise that you were bit by a mosquito that had. But we do have both in the county I live in and the county north of us are mosquitoes test positive for West Nile and Zika virus.

OK, that's that's bad news. That really is bad news. That is, that's not a good thing. I had a funny story the other day I told, I told my friend that shout out to Jason if you're listening, that you were coming on to talk about mosquito control when he lived in this country. And a funny story you've heard of Avon. They make beauty company. And. He said many years ago, he said he, he knows a lot of gamekeepers and he says he found this moisturiser where he is. There's loads you get, you get loads of mosquitoes that bite in his neck of the woods.

And he he found this moisturiser and he said the mosquitoes kept away. And he says all my gamekeeper friends were buying it up. Or, he says, somehow Avon got wind of it and removed it from the market, repriced it and sold it as a mosquito repellent at a higher price. It was only meant to be a moisturiser. I have to find out what it was called. But he said no. They somehow found out, repackaged it as a mosquito repellent and put the price up. I did. I know that Avon has AI, forget what it's called, that it's a green bottle that is for.

It's a insect repellent that they sell. It could be. It could be that very one that's changed. It could be. So but the old wives tale is skin so soft from Avon is a good mosquito repellent and I I we have used that long before I knew about the products that we have today. So when you go out hiking and whatnot, but of course, ticks are a bigger issue for us and they're actually more dangerous. And skin Sursoft is not going to protect you from ticks. So I, I don't, I no longer use skin Sursoft as my insect repellent, although it is very effective for mosquitoes.

But mosquitoes, how they find us is they they breathe the CO2 that your body exhales. And so the skin so soft has pretty pleasant woodsy type smell. And I would imagine it just masks the CO2 that you exhale, which is why mosquitoes not finding you. OK, that's fair. You know you stuff, don't you? You really do. I love it. I love it. I love it. I do. So with regards to tick control, how does that work? Well, is it? Is there any, is it similar or is it is it different? How, how do you deal with ticks then?

And what kind of areas do you treat? Are they are ticks at houses, people's gardens? How, how does that work? So. Is. It pet tick. Is it also sorry, is it pet ticks as well? Or is it? Is it a combination? It it is all ticks. So here in Pennsylvania, we have deer ticks, which are they spread Lyme disease. We have dog ticks which are primarily on on your pets. We have the Lone Star tick. I think there's been recent tests that on the western end of the Tate, the state, we have the Asian Longhorn tick.

And I know that there are a couple others, but they are not primarily hosts of people. I think like there's Groundhog ticks and things like that in Pennsylvania, but that people are not their preferred host. And so when we treat, we treat a like a blanket for ticks, we use more of an adult side spray. But we actually, so both the, the mosquito blend that we use, we use the like a garlic base is the main ingredient in our blend and the tick blend that we use, we use a cedar oil is the main ingredient in our blend that we spray.

Now ticks do because of course they can't fly. So their area is more of your ground cover more things onto the ground. And we treat areas that they like to live and breathe, which again would be like your dense shrubbery. So of course they they can't, they need moisture to be able to survive. So if you have a hot, sunny lawn that gets sun all day long, spraying the grass is not you're just adding pesticide to the grass that we don't really need to have. OK. But if you have like you border a woods wooded area that's going to get shade a great deal of the day, you would maybe want to do a nice barrier there so that the ticks are not going to be able to cross out of the woodland area to your grass area if you're home.

OK, OK, it's quite interesting. I'll be honest, it's not something I've ever, ever had to deal with. But we do have chicks as well. My my mate Jason confirmed to me we do have them as well. Please. These are not things that I've ever heard other pest controllers in in my country say that they do treatments for. That's why I found it fascinating. So do you like what? What precautions can people take to try and not get ticks or not have ticks affect them? So there are a lot of precautions and just like we evaluate each property for mosquitoes, we evaluate each property for ticks.

So we're going to go in and try to make recommendations of keeping your leaves cleaned up. This time of the year the leaves are starting to fall so keeping them cleaned up does not allow a breeding harbour or an area for them to be able to nest in. Maintain that moisture level. Keeping your your trees and your shrubs trimmed up, keeping your grass mowed nice and and short and maintained. So they like tall grass. So if you have an area next to the woods, to be able to create a stone barrier in between is a recommendation that keeping away mice.

So that's something that kind of crosses over. So the white footed mouse is the number one carrier of the deer tick in Pennsylvania #1 carrier of that carries Lyme disease. And the white footed mouse carries Lyme disease, which is often how it gets spread to people. So making your yard not rodent friendly, I tell people sometimes when you have a wood pile, make sure that it's not stacked right there next to the house. Put it at the edge of the yard if you want to do a compost pile. And I'm all for compost.

I I have a compost pile at my house. Keep it on the edge of the property. Make it not something that is close to your space that you spend time. Exactly. Slabs. Put it on slabs because like even rats, rats can Burrow under. Like a lot of my rat jobs often are the compost bin because they've not put it on a concrete base because a lot of them dig under and come up for come up for all the nice food. I suppose mice could enter the same way. Yep. Right, that is a especially for mice, but I didn't, I didn't know the crossover there with mice.

So yeah, just like with rodent control, you want to seal up all the entry levels of your home so that the rodents aren't getting in trying to find a food source so that you're going to deter the ticks from being in your yard. So just about educating people with the life cycle of a tick. So the first, so ticks can actually live for three years and they kind of moult in the process. So when they are they're born, they are an egg and then they're hatched to a nymph and they need a blood meal to be able to move to every level.

And so once they've had that, and that's primarily the, the, the, the nymph is what feeds off of the mice. As they get a little bigger, they will like foxes or, and then once they get to a full grown tick, they will often go on deer, which is another big carrier of, of ticks. So, but they, they ideally like anything that's going to be, I mean, they are a parasite. So they just need blood meal to be able to move on. So if if people are in their path, that's what they're going to bite. Oh, OK. I tell you, it's really interesting the different animal stages you say that they got to go for.

Yes. From little to big, but yeah, that's that's quite when you get same blood milk. I kept thinking of bed book, bed books. You've got good. Well, so, so fleas even have a pretty similar life cycle to a tick. So I know that's a benefit for some of the people who have our service that they usually don't have a whole lot of problem with fleas with their pets just because of course, we're treating the outside property. So it it's just an extra benefit for them. Oh. No, most, most definitely. It's have you ever had like obviously I guess the main point of your service as well is educating the clients.

Do you ever get any clients that don't believe you with stuff you say like, yeah, yeah, it ain't that bad. Did you ever get any like that? Just don't believe you. It won't work with you as such. Yep, we do. We get a lot of people who think that. And then if we can talk them into the service, people are like, Oh my God, I was so sceptical. I just can't believe that this product would actually offer or do this. So yeah, we I definitely have people who who doubt what we do, just like I have people who get angry at me that we just spray pesticide, which I don't just spray pesticide.

And I educate my texts personally because I don't want to just go outside and just go spray pesticide everywhere. They, they need to know the proper areas to spray pesticide, the proper mixed ratios for spraying pesticide and trying to not spray pesticide in areas. Like my techs know how to recognise milkweed because the monarch butterfly is and was endangered a couple years back. I think the population is growing. But of course we don't want to contaminate that from, we don't want to hurt the pollinators.

So we want to be proactive for that. And so that's part of training. I believe so. But people, they automatically think, Oh my God, you're in pest control, You're killing all the pollinators. No, you're right. I mean, it's good training. Training is one of the biggest points. I think that makes us different from everyone else. It is the thing that keeps you up to date. Do you have to do you and your technicians have to do we call it continuous professional development? Do you have to you probably call it something else educational hours like to keep up with your your yearly Do you have to do it yearly so many points per year or hours or?

Yep, Yep, absolutely. So we are all certified with the state and so we have to complete X number of hours in each different core subject. So I I have several core subjects that I'm certified in and so we do not maintain those so. Yeah, no, I just wondered how it worked. There is, we've got it. But it is like the, the requirement currently is 2020 hours, but three of them if you do rodent control, I've got to be they are, are you? They're like points. There's three points where you have to do each year now to buy identicides you do.

It's not difficult. It's just basically reminding you what, what the the rules are and stuff. But I've got roughly 70 or more now. But yeah, I I just enjoy trying to learn things I do. I like to learn things too. There's always information out there. I'd like to be able to chat with other people because you do gain experience and knowledge of other people in the field, what that works for them and. Oh no, you're definitely right. I I asked other people for I had a cockroach job recently and I'll be honest, it's the first cockroach job we've ever done.

It's a new region I live in. We do get them in the UK, just that we don't generally ever get them. They're more in the cities because I'm rural, I live in the countryside basically. Don't get me wrong, it's a normal town, but it's countryside like and it's the first time we've ever had to deal with them. But it was a learning experience at the same time it was. So I had to have to look for a little bit of advice because it's not something we deal and we had to actually go and order this stuff. We love it, but they're willing, willing to give it a go, but it's not something we do on a day today.

But thinking of repellence, I tell you my uncle, my uncle's terrified of WASP one day and he works at a refuge place like being recycling centre. He says to me, didn't you get any repellence you like? You don't get mosquito repellent, but WASP, no, there's none you can get, not really. It says no, there's no repellence that you can keep them away or they'll just keep coming for me as well. It's because you fear them. If you fear them, they know. Oh well then maybe that's what happens because I'm allergic to yellow jackets and.

Well mate, I'm, I'm not saying it's, that's factual. I'm just saying that a wasp can generally if you're like running away or flapping your arms and that they'll come for you. I said you flap your arms. No, no, I says I bet you do flap your arms. I says you'll get stung that way. But maybe, I don't know, maybe I just made that up and I'm completely wrong. Well, I, I know usually people get anxious when there are bees around me and they will so I don't really try to flap because I know usually those are smell and unless it it's been agitated, they're not going to be aggressive.

Not both faced Hornets are aggressive, but usually if you're not bugging them, they're not necessarily going to bug you back. So there are people who they have their arms going around me, so trying to get it away from me. And I was just like, please just put your hands down. Like, yeah, you might. You might make me get stung rather than. Right, that's exactly it, yes. Some people think they're helping because I've been out at meals where I said, well, we were leaving at the time. I said, you do know you probably get everyone stung in it.

Oh, why is that? I said I'm a pest controller, but all the all the flapping makes the wasp angry. It doesn't help. Oh, thanks. I've I've learned something now or to myself. You'll learn something when you get stoned because you, you caused it. But but yeah, no, it's, we don't have them bald faced. I keep hearing about the bald faced Hornet and we don't have them, but we've just got European, European Hornets and we are getting slowly we are getting something called you've probably got them already and we are starting to get Asian Hornets here have arrived.

So we asked we're not allowed to deal with them yet. It's not a thing. We're allowed to deal with Defra, a government agency, get the the B unit, B unit people. I'm not sure of the actual name. I can't remember offhand. And they deal with them, but the numbers have rose quite high this year. So I would say they're already established and have lost control, but that's not my that's an opinion. It's not an opinion of anyone. Just I think that within the next two to three years it will be an area of pest control is allowed to do.

I think I understand. So I think, and again this is opinion too, but I think the we've been having a lot of wildfires, especially even like Canada, and I think that that has been driving some of the Hornets in our area just because of course they're trying to escape where they were living. It could be. I think that has. Increased our population in the last several years. Oh no, most, most definitely. I do think you're right because it's like all animals. If there's a fire come in and smokes come in, get out of dodge and move if you can.

They don't want to die, do they? They want to survive. They do. They do.

We've we've. So with, with, with tics, is there any more? Is there any information you'd like you'd like to drop misconceptions of any any misconceptions you've you've seen from customers with? Tics. So to me, I think that tics are probably the biggest issue in the United States for public health. So they spread so many diseases. It's more than just Lyme disease. Lyme disease is most predominant. But I can say that Lyme disease is not necessarily recognised in the medical community as a actual medical issue.

It it's can sometimes be insurance doesn't want to cover it. They don't necessarily believe that it's really Lyme. So if if you do suspect that you have Lyme disease, I just encourage you to find a Lyme literate Dr know that some of the treatment may not be covered by insurance. But ticks carry the Pasilona virus. The Pasilona virus can actually be transmitted in 15 minutes after a ticket. So Lyme disease, they usually say 24 hours for it to be attached for it to pass Lyme disease, but there are so many different encephalitis and and some of them the disease itself may not be deadly, but the issues that it's attacking your immune system can ultimately like it's the complications that you have from getting Lyme disease or one of the other tick diseases that they spread that it often can be debilitating and it could totally.

And so. What? What kind of things are you talking about? Like when you say debilitating, what could it cause? Like someone to become disabled or something really. Absolutely, absolutely. So Lyme disease, they say, mimics. So it can mimic depression symptoms. It can mimic cold and flu symptoms. It can target your joints totally, like kind of stop them from functioning it it attacks through your spinal cord. It can attack your brain. It are are bad news. So of course worldwide, the mosquito is the number one killer worldwide.

But we don't have malaria in the United States. You apparently don't have malaria in the UK, but ticks. And at first it's my opinion, it is not a fact, but I believe would probably be the number one issue that America would have just because I know it's on the rise. Pennsylvania is been like in the top five states for Lyme disease cases in the last several years. It used to be Maine and most of New England. But I think that it's just awareness. I think that we are kind of so we live in a rural. You were talking about how you have a very country in the country.

So we live in a rural area, but it's pretty developed. We have all of your And so we have these little clusters of woods where there's farm and then there's a little cluster of woods, but it's not necessarily big enough for a lot of deer to survive in might have a couple. Oh. We've got a lot of deer. For Fox, but foxes would keep our mice control under control. And of course, because we have this small area that mice can thrive that they're not having something else of the food chain. So I think that that's partly impacting that.

If you're bit by a tick, make sure that you properly remove it. Of course, there's tonnes of wives tales about that. So you put essential oil on it, Yep, it's going to back itself out, but it's going to spew everything in its system in your bloodstream. When it does that, if you squeeze it with tweezers, it's going to spew everything back in your bloodstream. So you really want to grab a hold of it and you want to pull or somewhat twist out to be able to remove it. And I recommend sending it off to a lab.

So it's actually cheaper. You have less fight with a doctor to have the tick tested for diseases. In Pennsylvania, we actually can have that done for free. We have APA tick labs. We'll test the tick for free. That's. Nice. There are national labs that will test them, but then if you have proof that your tick carried one of those diseases and you develop symptoms, you can take that paperwork with you to the doctor to help support that. So it's more than just a bull's eye. If you develop a fever, some are flu, so you don't.

The flu is not really active in the summer. So if you have a summer flu, most likely it's from a tick bite. OK, honestly, I was not expecting you to say that it is one of the most dangerous pets in pests in America. That's opinion. That's opinion. But I believe that just knowing how debilitating. I know several friends that have experienced that that have had debilitating level of Lyme and I actually know some people who have passed from Lyme. Oh no, you know, you're doing a podcast with Jenny and Candace on the Pestigen.

Who was the other lady that was on the podcast? Did she? Had she had experience with ticks? She she does she that was Stacy floored over cash. She's a friend of mine. She had is a lime survivor and actually her husband and her daughter have have tested positive for Lyme and her daughter they believe received that in utero that she was able to to carry Lyme disease forward are. You are you on the part where? Oh, Oh, OK, that's I suppose you wouldn't think that, would you? No, no, but she she wasn't sure what was going on.

It totally changed her life. Now she is starting to regain her life. She has finally found a Lyme literate Dr and has went through the steps and she is regaining her life back. But Lyme disease took that from her.

I, I, I don't think it's the, the dangers, I don't think it's publicised enough. Is it, is it publicised in your region, the dangers of ticks to that degree or not? No. It is not. And then when you start talking about it, people want to turn away or you, you will usually know somebody who has known somebody with Lyme disease. And the common saying is you don't know until you know, which is unfortunately too late to be educated about the dangers of ticks is once that you know that you've been infected by some so.

So I'm guessing that it the prevent best prevention are not all about pest pest relate pest control related. There you go to the woods. What kind of clothes do you wear? I don't imagine wearing shorts would be too clever, would it? So I, I do, I'm guilty. I go out in shorts in the summertime. It's it's just too hot to go out. But Yep, it is recommended. Long socks, long pants, long sleeves, a hat, boots of course we we use and for some people are are they don't prefer to use DEET or permifin would work as well because of course the pesticides in it, they don't want that on their body.

I would rather have a deep insecticide on my body than experience the debilitating life of being bit by a tick. Oh definitely. Is that the clothes that are dipped in insecticide? Is that what you're on about? The pre dipped? So you can, yeah, there is, I can't remember the name of the organisation, it might be Insect Shield, but they, you can actually send your clothing to them and they will treat whatever you like to wear on a regular basis. So a perfect. And, and I know when we talked about doing this podcast, we talked about doing in the spring and I said, why don't we hold off till fall?

Because to me, this is the time of year people, bugs are starting to slow down. It's getting cold at night. Mosquitoes are going to be soon disappearing in our area. Ants are definitely like you're just not going to be able to see them here soon because winter is coming. But ticks can tolerate 30° temperature and are still active. And so it is hunting season here. It's it's really mostly archery, our small game, but hunting season is a prime time that people they just think it's cold enough that there's no bugs out there and they go out unprotected.

But you could have your hunting clothing treated with this stuff, which I don't know that that would interfere with the smell. So of course, obviously I'm not a hunter, I'm a Fisher. I like to go fishing. I'm not an avid hunter, but I know that scent. Of course you don't want to spook the deer with a scent that's not natural. Hunting season is a prime time that people pick up ticks and they didn't even realise it. I'm just trying to look up the Abigail. Oh, right, now I get it. It's the way you said said it so casually.

30° and you're in Fahrenheit, didn't you? Oh, yes, yes, I'm sorry. You're talking about -1 you are, yes. Yeah, that's. So freezing temperatures if if water is freezing. That's why I was looking it up. It's like it's like 30° here. It's nice. So tick ticks don't die in the winter. They they kind of just exist I I guess. And of course, I don't know this, this is not fact, but they, I think just become very cold that they're not moving or they're not interacting, but they do survive in the winter. So as soon as the temperatures get, I would think of it like a snake.

So a snake, of course, they're cold blooded. They, they don't die in the winter. They just kind of go into a den where they are surviving until it gets warm enough to come back out. And so that's really ticks. That's kind of how they overwinter, unless they're in an egg that hasn't hatched yet, But. But they're quite, they're quite. Ticks are quite a species if they can survive -1. They they are, yes, very resilient. They are, they are born to be killing machines in my opinion. Oh yeah, the disease vectors, yes.

That's exactly. It they are, yeah. But the way he said so casually, 30° here would be, wow, summer weather. That's lovely. I understand. I thought she's talking Fahrenheit so I had to look it up. Yeah, Yep, Yep. 30° is, is freezing over here in the United States. But you can treat your boots, you can put peripherin on and let it. I mean, and that goes for however long you have to read the side of the bottle, I think 30 days or so. And then you would need to retreat. But that's something that you can do.

But yet they encourage another thing you can do. So when I go hiking, I like to take the dog out. We come home and we change all of our clothes. You can actually put your clothes in the dryer. The high heat will kill them. So you can put them in the dryer for 1520 minutes. Any ticks that you have on your clothing will die. And then we shower and kind of change and I bathe the dogs and everything so that I'm just trying to prevent anything. We do do a tick check, but sometimes there's deer tick are they're the size of a pepper flake.

I mean, they're, they are so tiny. So they actually say you're supposed to check yourself for the next, like check yourself when you come home, check yourself before you go to bed, check yourself in the morning. Because if they're feeding and they're getting a blood meal, they're going to continue to get bigger and you might be able to see them the next day that you wouldn't have been able to see them with the naked eye the first time when they bit you well. I processed them and it happened to do that every time you come home.

I suppose you're used to it now. It's a daily thing. It is. Yep, Yep. Knowing what I know about tics, I don't think I could go backwards. It's just part of the routine. Well, no, I mean, I tell you what, if it wasn't me, listen to the podcasts on Pestigen, I wouldn't have known anything. And I was like, I need to get the run on. I was like, this would be quite an interesting show. That was because I have people from all over the world as well. Come on. Because people in this country like to hear about different ways how people do it.

But it's, it's giving people information here because you can get, you can get bitten by mosquitoes here and and ticks. I've not been bitten by any of them. But there are parts of the country where you can be. So I'm not going to comment on diseases because I don't know. I don't know what we've got here. I don't think they carry anything but here. But I don't know, people correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm just putting out that I don't know. I don't know enough the comment. I'm not an expert. I'm not, that's why I got an expert on.

Yeah, they they have Rocky Mountain spotted fever is another disease that ticks carry there. There are so many. I'm just trying to remember all of them. There is one and I can't remember the name of it, but it affects you eating red meat. And so if you are bit by the a tick and you develop this disease, you will never be able to eat pork or red meat again. It actually interferes. You'll have a reaction to it. So you wouldn't want to have a cheeseburger. I love having cheeseburger. Well you literally what it makes you throw up for poorly for having red meat.

Honestly, I don't know. I, I, I have not done a whole lot of research on that one. I know that it's kind of fairly new. Be interesting. That would be I'd be very imagine if you were the biggest red meat fan in the world of burgers and you got you can't eat. No, you can't eat it no more. Yep, it, it affects vitamins too, because some of the the gelatins that we use and vitamins that we take, you're not able to when you, if you would have that one. I, I do know that from a class that I took that it interferes with not just the red meat, but some of the vitamins because of the, the gelatin, the animal gelatin that you used to be able to make the gel caps.

OK, well. Yeah, fascinating stuff. That says Natalia. I did not. Yeah, it is. But yeah, it's a good, good subject. Do you? Do you, What's it called? Do you do like with your training for your technicians and yourself, do you create a lot of the training for your staff? Do you do you create it or do you do courses someone else provides? I, I would say I probably do both. I have a, a rigid training that I created for my business so that I, so that they have basic training of what that I want. And then of course anything I can educate them on with an additional class or something would be benefit.

So education is the key for all of it. I believe educating people for prevention, because prevention for both mosquitoes and ticks is the key component to that kind of pest control, is prevention preventing the breeding sites, preventing an area for them to house and have activity. No, it's definitely true. It is. It's I remember when I first started speaking to people from America and they couldn't get over it. I mean, they were like, you mean you can't spray for ants just in case they come? No, they were like, what?

But prevention secure was this not here? You have to actually house ants.

They were like, mind blown. They were like, and they couldn't work it out. They're like, it's not the way we do things here, but. I can't imagine treating my house for ants if I didn't have ants though, like I just. Some people do though, from what I gather.

I see one Ant and they'll ring. Apparently I've seen one Ant.

But yeah, there's it's interesting, though. It's, it's, but I didn't know that the ticks for this. I'm hoping a lot of people have learnt a lot today because I think it's been quite beneficial because we have people listening for America and other countries too. We do. I think it'd be quite beneficial for people in the UK for the risk because you never know. At one point mosquitoes could turn change into a threat over here. It could be, as far as I know, treatments are done. I'm going to have to see if I can find somebody in this country that does some kind of mosquito treatments.

I see if I can find someone because I've been told they do them, but I've never spoken. I speak to a lot of people and I've never had anyone tell me that they do mosquitoes. So, but apparently it happens. So I'll have to try and find somebody if I can over there. Yeah. But yeah, so yeah, no thanks. Thanks for coming on. I really appreciate it. Suanne, is there anything else you wanted to cover? What do you think? We've we've covered it all. I think I probably have covered it all. I'm trying to think of something that I may have missed.

But yeah, thank you very much for having me on. This has been wonderful. So. No, I think, I think it's been great. Thanks for coming on. I know we booked it well ahead, but then you were right, you were picking the right time of the year to do it with. And I can send you the clips and if you want to share the clips, you can share them out on, on your socials and whatever you want to do after if you want. It's no, no worries. That would be great, yeah. Because I really want to raise awareness that just because the temperatures are cooling and the leaves are falling, the the the awareness for tick control or for tick activity is definitely not done yet.

So. Yeah, no, hopefully after I finish the show. I pressed beam yards, got an AI section and it it clips it. Now you can check the clips obviously, but it it, it kind of picks up on what you think to the best points within the show. So usually it picks it picks right. But I can make clips as well. I can myself but I have to chop them up. But most of the clips are usual. I've been a bit LAX recently. I've got to get back on the trail and get it done. I've got 2 podcasts this week to now I can pump out all the clips for.

So you might get fed up of seeing them soon. Yeah, right. You'd be like if you like listening to your own voice as well. Sometimes. It's. Not bad when I listen to the Pestrogen podcast that I was on, so I didn't mind listening to that again. No, that's fair, because a lot of people I can now, but for a long time I hated hearing my own voice. Because it's not what you think it is, is it? It sounds different what you think you sound like it. It's strange to start with but I have learnt to listen to it because I know a podcaster, Andrew Czernevski from Osterco's Pest Talks and you got, you got to listen to yourself.

I said well, I said why? I can see how you did. We're not all perfect, we all make mistakes. We do try and improve. But. I don't like at times. I don't mean to nearly talk over someone. Isn't it? If I did that, Sorry, it's not intentional. I get excited, you see, but it's the passion threat I do. So yeah. No. Thanks for coming on. Is there any, anything you want to plug? Any anything you want to tell people? I can drop any links you've got if you've got any educational sites or I can put your the website so where the in the link is.

So is there anything you want to promote or? So I, I am an avid supporter, but of course if anything that is Lyme disease awareness. So my local is the PA Lyme Resource Network. That is what I donate to and support. But if if somebody is listening and, and they want to help raise awareness to donate to a Lyme disease awareness organisation, just sharing. I feel like it's kind of our responsibility as pest control providers to share what could potentially happen when you're dealing with public health, health pests like take the mosquitoes.

We have to educate the public so that they know the worst case scenario. Prevention is key. Cannot say that enough. Prevention is key. Just doing what you can do around your property to avoid breeding sites, treating if if we need to do that if you're having an activity, but just prevention awareness. No, Great, great, great advice and I'm sure we will. You'll get a lot of feedback. I'll get feedback on this. Where we usually do is it's getting quite popular. The podcast is now it's get quite a few people watching, but I've got to promote it more.

Got a gown, I've had it scheduled at one point where it was every day. There was 5 posts and I've got, I've got busy doing other things, but I'll get them all scheduled. I will and I'll send you the, I'll send you the direct link. So if you want it, I'm not saying you will, but I'll, I'll give you the link to download the entire podcast if you wanted to. That way, if you wanted to, you could chop up bits you want for yourself, whatever you want, whatever you want. I'm not saying you want to do that, but you could.

OK. Well, thank you. That's that's wonderful. It doesn't bother me. He shares it. He's still sharing the podcast. It is. It is. But yeah, thank you for coming on. Yeah, life has been really busy. So we actually here we just had an inspection with the state to kind of wise inspection last week. I just feel like it's been a busy couple weeks at work so. And of course today catching up in the office because it's been raining all day so. It was that kind of inspection today, like go for your documentation and chemicals and stuff.

Is that what they do? They absolutely did. Yep. So that's the first time I've had to go through that. But Yep, we we were doing everything in compliance that we needed to be doing so. That's good. That's good to hear. That is, you know you're doing, you know you're doing a good job then, don't you? I do, but I can tell you I wasn't, I wasn't 100% confident when he came in. I'm like, oh, OK. Well, you will though, because it's like a government official, because like you, you did a normal reaction to that.

You'd be quite scared, wouldn't you? Because I believe they can find you in, in states, can't they? For for doing stuff wrong, they can. So no worries now. So it's all good. You're doing you're doing well. You know, you know you've got it right. You do. So all right, I'll end the stream now. But thanks for coming on, Suanne. If you just stay on, stay on the line for a minute. I'll just end the stream. But thanks everyone, and we will be back next Tuesday. Thank you.

Tonight's Episode