Pest perspectives EP 35 - Suann Lehman - Guardian Mosquito & Tick control. - 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