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The Super Service Award is earned by businesses that achieve and maintain a superior service record on Angie’s List. In order to be eligible, a company must meet certain criteria. This award recognizes excellence in overall performance by service and health providers. Congratulations AZ PEST employees and keep up the great work!

Bed Bug Facts & Statistics

Arizona Pest Control Company — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:50:55 +0000

Bed Bug Facts & Statistics

From the NPMA/University of Kentucky Bugs Without Borders Survey:

95 percent of U.S. based professional pest management companies have encountered a bed bug infestation in the past year.

Prior to 2000, only 25 percent of respondents had encountered a bed bug infestation.

Bed bugs are a much greater problem in urban and suburban areas with larger populations of people who live close together and interact in enclosed spaces on a regular basis. Because of the bed bugs’ ability to “hitchhike” on people and their belongings, these living environments will continue to see higher infestation occurrences than those living in rural areas. According to the survey, 52 percent of pest management companies report treating bed bug infestations in rural areas compared to 71 percent in urban and 80 percent in suburban areas.

Bed bugs are THE most difficult pest to treat, according to 76 percent of survey respondents, more so than cockroaches, ants and termites.

As for where infestations occur, residences top the list with 89 percent of pest professionals treating bed bug infestations in apartments/condos and 88 percent treating bed bug infestations in single-family homes. Respondents also report other common areas, with 67 percent treating bed bug infestations in hotels/motels, 35 percent in college dormitories, 9 percent on various modes of transportation, 5 percent in laundry facilities, and 4 percent in movie theatres.

From the NPMA’s Bed Bugs in America Survey:

One out of five Americans has had a bed bug infestation in their home or knows someone who has encountered bed bugs at home or in a hotel

Americans who have encountered bed bugs tend to be younger, live in urban areas and rent their homes. The incidence of bed bugs is three times higher in urban areas than in rural areas due to factors such as larger population size, apartment living and increased mobility, which are conducive to the rapid spread and breeding of bed bugs.

Bed bugs are found in all 50 states. Specifically, the pests were encountered by 17 percent of respondents in the Northeast; 20 percent in the Midwest; 20 percent in the South; and 19 percent in the West.

Most Americans are concerned about bed bugs and believe that infestations in the United States are increasing. Nearly 80 percent are most concerned about encountering bed bugs at hotels; 52 percent on public transportation; 49 percent in movie theaters; 44 percent in retail stores; 40 percent in medical facilities; 36 percent in their own homes; and 32 percent equally pointed to places of employment and friends’ homes. The fear of getting bitten topped the list of concerns.

As the public’s awareness of the bed bug resurgence grows, many Americans are modifying their behaviors to minimize their risk of an infestation: 27 percent have inspected or washed clothing upon returning from a trip; 25 percent have checked a hotel room for bed bugs; 17 percent have inspected or vacuumed a suitcase upon returning from a trip and 12 percent have altered or canceled travel plans because of concern about bed bugs.

Sixteen percent of survey respondents inspected second-hand furniture they have brought into their homes; 15 percent have checked dressing rooms when trying on clothing and 29 percent have washed new clothing immediately upon bringing it home from a store.

Of the 13 percent of respondents who said they knew someone who had a bed bug infestation in their home, 40 percent said they avoided entering the infested home and 33 percent discouraged those who had the infestation from entering their own home.

Despite the availability of information, most Americans still have misconceptions about bed bugs. Nearly half of respondents incorrectly believe that bed bugs transmit disease. However, research conducted to date has shown that bed bugs do not transmit disease to their human victims, although some people may experience itchy, red welts; 29 percent inaccurately believe bed bugs are more common among lower income households, and 37 percent believe bed bugs are attracted to dirty homes. Bed bugs do not discriminate in regard to household income and are found in both sanitary and unsanitary conditions.

Other NPMA Bed Bug Facts:

Bed bugs can lay one to five eggs in a day and more than 500 in a lifetime.

Bed bugs can live for more than a year without eating.

Bed bugs can withstand a wide range of temperatures, from nearly freezing to 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bed bug draw blood for about five minutes before retreating to digest.

Bed bugs hatchlings are so small they can pass through a stitch-hole in a mattress.

Bed bugs can ingest seven times their own weight in blood, which would be the equivalent of an average-sized male drinking 120 gallons of liquid.

Bed bugs are found in all 50 U.S. states.

Pest Control Blogs

Arizona Pest Control Company — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:39:53 +0000

A look around the pest control blogs…Enjoy!

Meet the Wheel Bug

War on Terror Misses Invaders: Invasive Bugs, Diseases

Five Signs Of Bed Bugs

Paper Wasps – Monster Bug Wars

Pest Prevention Tips for Food Facilities

Green Lacewing Larva

The Common House Spider

PEST ID PRO

Arizona Pest Control Company — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 05:25:15 +0000

Order Scutigeromorpha Family Scutigeridae Scutigera coleoptrata House centipede, good predator known to eat cockroaches, silverfish, bedbugs, spiders, ants, etc.

Arizona Pest Control Pest ID PRO

AZ Essentials Blog Contest

Arizona Pest Control Company — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:55:33 +0000

Arizona Essentials October Fall-ow Us Contest!

Arizona Essentials first contest is limited to Arizona Residents. Contest rules may change in the future, for now, this contest will remain local.

This is Arizona Essentials First Contest – Please be Patient and Have Fun Fall-owing along!

All links necessary to the contest are listed below the rules.

The contest rules are simple: Fall-ow Us, Fall-ow the T!

1. Like Arizona Pest Control & dear, sweet little ol’ me, Arizona Essentials, on Facebook. Sign-up free @ Happus_Phoenix.

Follow Arizona Pest Control, Happus_Phoenix & Arizona Essentials on Twitter.
*This applies to NEW followers only. If you already follow us on Twitter, please Like us on Facebook or do the free Sign-up options available per site. Sign up, free @ Happus_Phoenix. Sign-up for the Arizona Pest Control Newsletter.

2. Follow Arizona Essentials Blog – Follow Box is toward the bottom of blog.

& then

4. Name one location I have Blogged, Tweeted, Facebooked about regarding my #AZPestSwag , Arizona Pest Control T-Shirt. See this post for an example. These Touring T posts will be dubbed , Mr. T - doing some activity or another.

Arizona Essentials will be taking our Bug Squashing Champion Title T on Tour and using photo’s to entertain you while we do it – so stay tuned to our adventures if you want to win!

5. Comment on this post to let me know that you have done all the contest requirements and are entering to win. Don’t forget to name a location that I mention with my #AZPestSwag T-Shirt! Let me know who you are so I can confirm Likes, Follows & Sign-up’s , please.

The contest will run the entire month of October. Your Likes and Follows must stay for the entire month of October, too. I know , so mean! It’s to protect our regulars and new friends equally. If you want a chance to win, make sure you’re still Liking and Following during the time of the drawing – November 1st.

Contest ends at Midnight on Halloween. Come back to Arizona Essentials on November 1st , to see if you are a winner!

On November 1st, Arizona Essentials will do a random drawing (via an online service) and announce the winner ASAP!

For now, it’s a $25.00 Mystery Prize!

How bad can it be? If I creatively fall on my face, and you win, you will at least get 25 bucks, one way or another!

Contest Links:

Arizona Essentials Twitter
Arizona Essentials Facebook
Arizona Essentials Blog

Happus_Phoenix Twitter
Happus_Phoenix Free Sign-Up
Happus_Phoenix

Arizona Pest Control Twitter
Arizona Pest Control Facebook
Arizona Pest Control To the right, scroll down for the free newsletter Sign-up.

P.S. Happus_Phoenix is offering five dollars Amazon to first 50 sign-ups so let’s get started!!!

Arizona Essentials October Fall-ow Us Contest!

Amazing World of Insect-Wing Color Discovered

Arizona Pest Control Company — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:00:21 +0000

Amazing World of Insect-Wing Color Discovered

By Brandon Keim

A closer look at seemingly drab, transparent insect wings has revealed realms of previously unappreciated color, visible to the naked eye yet overlooked for centuries.

Until now, the wing colors of many flies and wasps were dismissed as random iridescence. But they may be as distinctive and marvelous as the much-studied, much-celebrated wings of butterflies and beetles.

“Given favorable light conditions, they display a world of brightly patterned wings that are apparently unnoticed by contemporary biologists,” wrote researchers led by University of Lund entomologists Ekaterina Shevtsova and Christer Hansson in a December 3 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper.

Wasp and fly wings are made from two compressed layers of transparent chitin, with light bouncing off both layers and mixing to produce color. The same is true of oil slicks and soap bubbles, and scientists considered transparent wing coloration “a soap bubble iridescence effect, with randomly changing colors flashing over the wing surface,” wrote the researchers.

Instead, the researchers found that surface variations in chitin filtered out the iridescence. Remaining colors proved to be stable, and were visible from almost any angle. They differed consistently between species and sex.

Generations of biologists seem to have missed this partly because they didn’t look for it, and partly because the colors are most evident against a dark background. Against a white background, they’re invisible — which is exactly how most entomologists study transparent wings.

“You hold the wing up against the light, so you can see the veins,” said study co-author Daniel Janzen, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Pennsylvania. “If you’re looking through a microscope, you try to get a clear view behind the wing. It’s the antithesis of getting wing color.”

The researchers studied wings under microscopes, against black backgrounds. But once Janzen, who breeds wasps for his research on caterpillar-parasite symbioses, started to look, colors could be seen by the naked eye as wings passed over insects’ black bodies.

“They flash like little diamonds,” he said.

The researchers think the coloration has specific functions, particularly for mating, just as it does in butterflies and beetles and other insects with better-appreciated markings.

The patterns will also help scientists distinguish between species difficult to differentiate in other ways. Already the researchers used transparent wing colors to identify three new species of wasp.

According to Janzen, at least a dozen other orders of insects, spanning dragonflies and cockroaches and grasshoppers, have transparent wings likely to be as colorful as those of wasps and flies.

“I envision taxonomists going back to their animals, and looking at them in a new light,” he said. “It’s like discovering a whole new piece of the animal.”

Images: 1) Fruit fly against white and black backgrounds./PNAS. 2) Patterns in fly wings (top half) and wasp wings (bottom half)./PNAS. 3) Composite image of fly against white and black bacgrounds./PNAS. The images are all true-color, modified only by a 10 percent increase in color saturation.

Bug Identifications

Arizona Pest Control Company — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:52:05 +0000

Check out the creepy crawlies below leave a comment if you recognize them!

Write a review for Arizona Pest Control!

Arizona Pest Control Company — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:50:45 +0000

Want to write a review of Arizona Pest Control? Simply go to

http://www.judysbook.com/cities/tucson/Pest-Control/26904671/Arizona_Pest_Control_Co_.htm

Click on the “Reviews” tab and start your write up. Thanks Alot! We value your feedback.

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