New Berlin, Wis. (PRWEB) January 09, 2015

Batzner Pest Management is proud to announce that Scott Lupo, Master Service Professional, has been named the 2014 Pest Control Technology (PCT) Residential Pest Control Technician of the Year. Lupo will be honored at a March 15 ceremony at National Pest Management Association Legislative Day in Washington D.C.

Lupo, a Waukesha native and former Marine, has been with Batzner for 17 years as a Service Professional. Lupo was chosen to receive the award based on his outstanding customer service record and technical skills.

Throughout his tenure at Batzner, Lupo has acquired numerous certifications from Purdue University, the National Pest Management Association and the Entomological Society of America. Most recently, Lupo completed the Associate Certified Entomologist (ACE) certification program in 2013.

Scott is very deserving of this award for his longtime dedication to providing legendary customer service, said Jerry Batzner, President of Batzner Pest Management. Scott continually proves himself as a positive community force with his involvement in various Autism awareness efforts.

When I heard I was receiving the award, I felt a mixture of surprise and excitement. I didnt really expect it. said Lupo. It was an honor to be nominated for the award, but to be chosen from a field of the best pest professionals in the business is humbling.

Outside of his day job, Scott is a husband and father of two sons. Scott is heavily involved in Walk Now for Autism Speaks in support of his six-year-old son, who was diagnosed with autism at a young age. Additionally, Scott serves as a volunteer horse walker at Lifestriders, a local therapeutic horse-riding program.

Lupo is the first Batzner Service Professional to win the award since Rob Van Willigen was named Commercial Technician of the Year in 2009.

You can read Lupos story in the January issue of PCT Magazine and watch a video with Scott here.

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Batzner's Lupo Named PCT Technician of the Year

NEW YORK (AP) Most people think of drones as instruments of warfare, but as the Federal Aviation Administration slowly opens U.S. airspace to commercial use of unmanned aircraft, they are going to become more commonplace.

The first uses are likely to be in remote, sparsely populated areas. Some of the proposed commercial applications for drones include:

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TACKLING DANGEROUS JOBS

Searching places that aren't safe for humans, such as looking for survivors in collapsed buildings after an earthquake or inspecting nuclear power plants following a meltdown.

Helping firefighters battling forest blazes by watching where flames are popping up without risking lives. Helicopters often can't be used because their powerful rotors threaten to spread the fire.

Helping scientists conduct research inside volcanic ash clouds, hurricanes, tornados or other spots that are not safe for humans.

Inspecting icy, wind-swept chairlift towers at ski resorts, reducing employee risk and worker-compensation insurance costs.

Assessing damage for insurance companies after natural disasters, letting them process claims faster. It often takes days until people are allowed into a disaster zone.

Visually inspecting oil refinery flare stacks, tall towers used to burn off gas when pressure builds too much. The flares give off so much heat that people often can't stand on the ground below, let alone climb the tower unless there is a lengthy and costly production shut down.

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Arrival of the drones: 20 uses for unmanned aircraft

Dans Pest Control Commercial 2014
Dan #39;s Pest Control - Serving Central Oregon Bend, Redmond, Sisters, Sunriver, Tumalo.

By: Dan Dubay

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Pasadena, Texas (PRWEB) January 02, 2015

Control Solutions is pleased to announce that Matt Shipp has joined their team as the new Vice President of Marketing effective January 5, 2015. In his role, Shipp, who will be based out of Pasadena, Texas, will be responsible for the Marketing, Product Development, and Regulatory groups.

Matt began his career as an R&D Scientist for Monsanto with responsibilities in product development and technical training for Sales and Marketing. Later he assumed a global role in product development, technical service, and product registrations for Evonik Goldschmidt and as Product Manager for Wilbur-Ellis Company. Most recently, Matt was Business Director for North America at Lamberti USA.

Matt holds a B.S. degree in Agronomy with an M.S. degree in Weed Science. "With almost 20 years in the industry, his combination of technical and commercial skills will prove invaluable to the organization" said Mark Boyd, President and founder of CSI.

About Control Solutions Inc. (CSI)

Control Solutions began as a family owned business in 1958 and is built on to the commitment of serving the professional pest control and retail markets. CSI has added product lines for the Industrial, Lawn and Garden, Animal Health and Biocide markets, and is working with over 80 distributors serving those markets. Control Solutions maintains relationships with chemical manufacturers worldwide and provides a ready supply of products in distribution warehouses across the U.S. The partnership with ADAMA/Makhteshim-Agan Industries multiplies Control Solutions agility in continuously adding new products to meet the needs of professionals and homeowners. "The one constant since the beginning in 1958 is our mission focus: to seek out and distribute effective and economical solutions for our customers," stated Mark Boyd, President and founder of CSI.

About ADAMA formerly Makhteshim-Agan Industries

ADAMA Agricultural Solutions Ltd. is a leading global manufacturer and distributor worldwide of crop protection solutions. The Company supplies efficient solutions to farmers across the full farming value-chain, including crop-protection, novel agricultural technologies, and complementary non-crop businesses. In 2013, the Companys revenues were over $3 billion, and it is ranked seventh in the world in the overall agrochemicals industry. The Company is characterized by its heritage of innovation, farmer-centric approach to product development, and its observance of strict standards of environmental protection and quality control. For more information, visit us at http://www.adama.com/en.

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Matt Shipp Joins the Control Solutions Team as Vice President of Marketing

Richmond, Va. (PRWEB) December 30, 2014

Doing something often enough reveals patterns. Thats what has happened with Allegiancy, a commercial real estate asset manager, over the past 25 years as they have managed various real estate assets around the United States.

Allegiancy has found three recurring patterns: 1) properties without cash needing maintenance; 2) properties in distress from lack of attention and more than fundamental problems; and 3) properties with tenants threatening to leave and new tenants not signing on.

Allegiancy immediately recognized these patterns in three properties they took on in Atlanta; Columbia, S.C.; and Phoenix.

Property 1: Breckenridge Exchange Atlanta, Georgia

The Atlanta property was paralyzed by lack of money. The property owners and manager were desperate and skimping wherever they could. They hadnt added any new leases in two years. The property looked uncared for, and the tenants had lost all loyalty. Unpaid rent had reached tens of thousands of dollars.

Allegiancys approach: Spend a little, gain a lot.

Allegiancy met with the tenants and property manager to walk the property. They immediately saw several low-cost, high-impact improvements that could add curb appeal and signal tangible change.

Allegiancy had all the curbs painted, which instantly improved first impressions. Rather than replacing the large entry sign, they took out overgrown trees, cut back bushes covering it, and power washed it. They had all the budgeted flowers placed at the entrance of the property for maximum impact. Essentially, Allegiancy undertook a few simple projects to demonstrate leadership and visible progress to tenants.

Allegiancys Results: Happy tenants, new leasing.

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Allegiancy Releases More Rags to Riches Stories in Latest Post on Web Site

A mixture of volatile organic compounds and histamine, a compound we produce during immune responses, could enable cheaper pest detection and control

Going against conventional wisdom, Regine Gries let the bedbugs bite. Credit: Medill DC/Flickr

Going against conventional wisdom, Regine Gries let the bedbugs bite. A lot.

The biologist let the pests in her laboratory feast on the blood in her forearmsto the tune of some 180,000 bitesin the name of science. In doing so, shes helped discover a previously unidentified bedbug pheromone that could help identify and fight future infestations.

When bedbugs move into a building, eradicating them is an expensive process fraught with anxiety and frustration. Many researchers are working on improving bedbug detection methods because existing techniques are often costly or too time consuming for routine monitoring. Some think that baiting traps with bedbug pheromones could provide an affordable way to detect infestations before they become severe.

But researchers have been missing an important piece of the pheromone puzzle, namely the arrestant compound that bedbugs use to tell one another that a particular habitat is a safe place to hunker downbetween a mattress and a box spring, for instance.

A team of biologists and chemists at Simon Fraser University, in Canada, led by Gries, her husband Gerhard J. Gries, and Robert A. Britton now believes it has identified the arrestant: histamine, a simple compound humans produce during immune responses (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201409890). Bedbugs, the team found, release histamine in their feces and in their cuticles, the skin they shed after a blood meal. This sort of waste accumulates in the bugs favorite hiding spots, often near a food source. The researchers are now working to turn their discovery into commercialized bedbug traps.

The researchers identified histamine, along with a cornucopia of other chemicals, using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. To test how bugs in the lab respond to each potential pheromone, they then had to gather an enormous collection of cuticles and feces to get enough material to identify what the arrestant was, Britton says. Getting bedbugs to shed and defecate the requisite amount required an awful lot of feeding, hence, the nearly 200,000 bedbug bites endured by Regine.

Beyond uncovering histamine, the team also determined that bedbugs produce five key volatile organic compounds, including 2-hexanone and dimethyldisulfide, to attract one another. Armed with this discovery, the researchers concocted a cocktail of histamine and alluring volatiles to bait traps. Because the compounds are all rather simple and easy to synthesize, Britton says, the chemical cost per trap was less than 10 cents.

The researchers tested their bait in bedbug-infested locations around Vancouver and found that their pheromone blend not only lured bedbugs into traps, but also kept them there, a crucial and challenging step in detection.

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Chemical Cocktail Lures Bedbugs and Coaxes Them to Stay Put

Glueboard traps prohibited from 2015

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is asking members of the public to be on the lookout for any glueboard rodent traps being used or sold next year.

From 1 January 2015, the sale and use of glueboard traps which are sticky boards used to monitor and capture rodents is prohibited under the Animal Welfare (Glueboard Traps) Order 2009.

MPIs Director Animal and Animal Products, Matthew Stone, says that while MPI supports the need for access to effective pest control tools, this prohibition sends a clear message that glueboard traps are no longer acceptable from an animal welfare perspective.

There are welfare concerns with glueboard traps over the pain and distress they cause captured rodents including the length of time the rodents may be left on the traps and the potential for inhumane disposal, he says.

Attitudes about animal welfare continually evolve, and its important that we keep pace with changes in our society, as well as scientific knowledge, good practice and available technology.

Ministerial approval can be granted for glueboard traps to be used in some cases where there is strong public interest in effective rodent management and no viable alternative, such as in food processing premises and pest-free islands.

Effective pest management is essential for New Zealands food safety, conservation, primary production and biosecurity, however animal welfare has to be taken into account, says Mr Stone.

Pest control operators must make every reasonable effort to find humane alternatives.

Mr Stone says the Ministry is focused on ensuring pest control operators are aware of the new regulations, however the public need to be vigilant and report any retailers breaching the rules. The public have not been able to use glueboard traps for the last five years.

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Glueboard traps prohibited from 2015

SINGAPORE: Pest busters who are trying to contain the rat infestation beside Bukit Batok MRT said today (Dec 20) they believe the infestation is affecting a bigger area than expected.

They added that efforts are being hampered by bad weather while new traces of food which can attract the rodents, have been discovered.

Thirty pest controllers have been combing the hill beside Bukit Batok MRT station to tackle the rat infestation. More than 140 rodents have been caught as of day three of the operation and more rats have been found further inside the forested area.

We can go further, deeper into the hill and other parts behind the hill as well and we do notice that there are activities over there, said Bernard Chan, manager of Star Pest Control. We have created some simple road paths for the workers to access and conduct their work, and currently we are setting up more trappings.

Authorities said food left behind for stray dogs have contributed to the rat infestation. Despite calls for more responsible behaviour, new traces of food have been found.

For the last two days, because we are conducting operations here, the dog feeder actually detoured and went behind the hill, said Mr Chan.

Last night, we discovered that they are throwing the food just behind the hill, which is a restricted area. We have also discovered that the amount of food that the dog feeder is providing the dog is quite a large amount, about 10 kilogrammes.

The pest busters said the rats caught are roof rats, though they were earlier identified by another pest buster as sewer rats. Roof rats have been known to cause damage to properties.

They are definitely good climbers and also good jumpers and their movement is much faster than sewer rats, said Mr Chan. If the population is not under control, if the population is overgrown, I think the rats will start to migrate into the stations and can cause more damage, not only to the properties cables, but also migrate to the food establishments.

Based on their behaviour, they will also need to gnaw something to sharpen their teeth and they might cause damage to the facility. We have seen this before, where they have bitten through the phone cables, land lines or even live wire as well in other places actually like in commercial buildings.

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Bukit Batok Rat Infestation Worse Than Expected

Don #39;t Let the Bed Bugs Bite - Guarantee Pest Control Commercial
Have you met the new neighbors?

By: Sublime Puppets

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Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite - Guarantee Pest Control Commercial - Video

Pest Party - Guarantee Pest Control Commercial
Don #39;t host a pest party!

By: Sublime Puppets

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Pest Party - Guarantee Pest Control Commercial - Video