Industrial Insectocology

A Physical/Chemical Barrier	Treat exterior grounds... This calls for periodic application of a residual chemical around the perimeter of the building to create a no-man's land for Mr. Insect. For best results...remove all shrubs and grass from a three foot area next to the exterior wall. Add three to four inches of rock fill to retard growth of grass and weeds next to the building. Properly installed, this provides an excellent base to maintain a long lasting chemically treated barrier against crawling insects and their infiltrating from adjacent grass areas.

Chemically treated insects do not always die where you'd like!	Spraying Insecticides... No different than prescribed by a Pest Control Operator for daily or periodic treatment inside plant areas. Spray along interior walls, around the base of machines or other equipment, and seek out the nooks and crannies where insects are provided a place to hide and breed.

Sanitation Keeping the place clean, especially of food to nourish insects, is obviously a must for insect control. Some of these conditions, as expected, occur around the dumpster and garbage areas. Refuse infiltrates cracks and becomes embedded in the soil, gravel and concrete to create a veritable paradise for crawling insects, as well as for flies and Droosophila. If you create a convenient feeding ground at the rear of the plant, then another production line is in progress...capable of hatching out enough eggs to assure a solid infestation for weeks and months ahead. Seriously, a clean plant will harbor less insects.

Fumigation Even the friendly PCO doesn't have the skills to find all the thousands of cracks, crevices, holes and crannies scattered throughout the plant area. So, it is good to occasionally schedule a shut-down, seal-up the areas and fumigate. This procedure finds the hidden havens for insects, and provides a head start on daily control procedures. But, don't relax just because you don't see a bug. You can bet you didn't get 100% kill. Crawling insects are fascinating and require our constant vigilance. Some, like the ant, develop a social order rivaling anything fashioned by men. They demand admiration for the way they have learned to cope with the control systems designed by man.	Secure building and apply fumigate under pressure

Flying insects appear to be more difficult to control because of their ability to move about within the confined areas of our industrial plants. And, when you see "one" fly in an area, you can bet there are 19 more out of sight. They hide...rest...lay up...or however you describe the inactive fly...we never see the total numbers actually present.

Several years ago, we were with an entomologist from a well known university, at a large food plant. He and other professionals had considerable doubt about our light traps. In fact, "there was no way a U.V. light trap could attract a fly." Through diligence, we managed to gain some interest in a test. A production area of about 3000 square feet was sealed off, and a light trap placed about table high in the center of the area. We carefully counted every fly in the room. There were twelve flies to be found, as we remember...yet, in about five hours, we re-entered the confined area and counted one hundred and fourteen flies in the catch tray of the trap.

Insects follow wind currents to warmth	WIND: Insects are lightweight, and most have trouble with winds in excess of three or four miles per hour. Sometimes they will ride the wind and other times travel up-wind from a signal received from a warm environment, food source, or an attraction from the opposite sex. Wind currents carry them higher than they would normally fly. For instance, we've encountered swarms of insects from 5,00 to 8,00 feet as evidenced by the "splat" on our airplane windshield. Variations in plant air pressure also have the effect of moving insects from place to place.

All light attracts insects... some more than others	LIGHT: Everyone knows the old refrain about the moth drawn to the flame. But why? Is it because of the light, the warmth of the flame, or the energy emitted by the light? It's likely a bit of all three. But regardless...understanding light and its effect on the habits and movement of insects goes a long way toward understanding how to control them

	Any light source has a few basic characteristics. White light-the light you and I see-is a composite of several colors. A source of light (energy) humans can't see is ultraviolet which is below our visual spectrum, and infrared, which is above. For whatever reason; whether in search of light, energy or warmth-insects react to light and variations of light in a predictable way, and this can be used to control them.

.TEMPERATURE: Remember, insects are cold blooded. They don't have the capacity, as we do, to generate body heat. Accordingly, they'll seek out a heat source when it gets too cold (only 72；) or too hot (92；). When congregate around parking lots or over the surface of highways after dark, it's because the dissipation of heat stored by the pavement or the bricks and mortar during daylight hours. Long before the word became popular, insects were relying on solar heat. Flyers have a well-tune sense for finding heat to warm their bodies when it gets too cold, and are always seeking an environment with a comfortable temperature.

.FOOD AND WATER: Like all creatures, insects must have food and water to survive and to propagate. Their senses for detecting food and water are marvelously well developed. Not only will insects seek out food and water, but flies, particularly, will establish breeding grounds right on top of any source they find. That's way the grounds around dumpsters, garbage bins and other areas where refuse is stored and handled become the chief hatcheries for a plants fly population. Railroad beds are special offenders. With food laden cars passing regularly over the railroad, inevitably dropping bits and pieces of their loads, the railroad beds become the closest thing to heaven on earth for many insects...especially flies.

.SEX: It's not surprising that creatures capable of reproducing themselves, billions of times over, have a well developed ability to satisfy their sex drive. There is strong evidence that sex odor, drifting on the wind, will be another primary reason insects travel and/or congregate.