Thursday, August 23, 1973
Local Pests City Abounds in Non-Electronic Bugs, Most of Them Harmless
7
By SUZANNE OLSON
Kapsan Staff Writer
It may come as a shock to many people in Lawrence, but Washington D.C. is not the only city that is bugged. Fortunately, however, Lawrence's species of bugs are what one resident termed "the creepy, crawling kind."
German food roaches are, according to Nelson Hall, general manager of Schendel Pest Control Service, probably the most troublesome bugs in Lawrence.
The German food reach is found mainly in kitchens and bedrooms, Hall said. Unlike the brown banded roach, which is found in and around furniture and is easily got rid of, the German roach gets into walls, and in pipes and crevices that are hard to spray. ANOTHER common roach, the oriental roach, is found out of doors.
The only dangerous bug in Lawrence is the brown recluse spider. Hall said. These spiders have become more noticeable around the city since about 1959. The brown spider's bite, while painful and capable of scarring, is not deadly, he said.
BLACK WIDOW spiders are rarely found here and are according to the Control Sheet.
"I haven't seen any black widows in seven or eight years," Rogers said. "Used to be that black widows were found most often in the woodlands of western North Carolina today, these spiders are not common."
FLEAS AND TICKS were other common bug problems mentioned by Roger and Hall. These are particularly evident during the spring when they emerge, and pets carry the ticks and fleas in their coats.
Many people think pest control is a
"17 years ago when I first entered the exterminating business, I thought it would just be a summertime job," Rogers said. "It's a year-round job. I found out."
problem confined only to the summertime.
However, people experience year round
problems.
ALTHOUGH he sprays for bugs the year round, Rogers said the bug population grew in summer when conditions were more conducive for bug population growth.
Other bugs Hall referred to as "misnause" bugs commonly found in Lawrence were crickets, ants, termites, and silverfish. They also have been reported now that they have been in the past.
when spraying for bugs he said, each individual case was specifically analyzed and treated. Hall said he used various sprays.
Prof Sees U.S. Threat In African Bee Invasion
By ANA GABRIEL
Kansan Staff Writer
Although an army of African honeybees, an insect that can destroy livestock and people who can get in its way, is still advancing to a new level, the rate of 200 miles a year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has failed to take preventative measures, according to Charles Michener, professor of entomology at the University of Kansas.
MICHEREN WAS chairman of a National Academy of Sciences committee that went to Brazil two years ago to investigate the African honeybee. The committee's report on ways of controlling the bees went to the Department of Agriculture in May 1972.
"The Department of Agriculture has wanted to start work on our recommendations but there is no money available to start new programs," Micheper said.
Michener stressed that if the African honeybee did invade North America, its aggressive behavior could have a serious effect on U.S. agriculture and economy.
"There is no question that there have been a number of serious attacks that have happened."
Michener said that the African honeybees were more active than their domestic reptiles.
MICHIENER SAID that the danger was that the bees attack in large numbers. When any bee stings, it produces a specific chemical called alarm pheromone, there is evidence that the African honeybees produce more of the chemical, called an alarm pheromone, than do domestic bees. Therefore other bees are also attacked in swarms on people and livestock.
THE AFRICAN honeybee differs in appearance from the familiar American honeybee, which originated in Europe, only in that it is slightly smaller.
"They start working earlier in the day, finish later and will also work on days that are too cold for other bees. As a result they need to stay away from flowers than domestic strains do." Michener said.
Both varieties are of the species Apis mellifera, which existed only in Europe and Africa before they were introduced by man to the new world.
In 1956, the African strain was imported for study to Brazil where entomologists hoped to produce a hybrid bee that was as gentle as the domestic strain but which was as good a honey producer as the African honeybee.
HOWEVER, 26 African queen bees escaped and began to interbreed, passing on the aggressiveness trait. The invading bees soon displaced gentler strains in Latin America, causing many beekeepers to abandon a suddenly hazardous occupation and prompt proposals to wipe out bees altogether.
"Today, the African honeybees have almost completely replaced the domestic bees in Brazil and are well established in India, India, and parts of Peru," Michener said.
AFTER THE African honeybees escaped from their hives in Brazil, honey production in Brazil fell to five per cent of its previous level.
"Coping with the bees will be a more serious problem in the United States because honey production is only a small fraction of what bees here each year," Michener said.
THE NORTH American honeybee's main value is in pollination, with the yearly farm value of agricultural crops requiring pollination in the neighborhood of $1 billion. The farm value of other crops that are important for pollination is about $6 billion. If the African honeybee dominates the United States, it could displace this domestic strain with serious results.
"They are still spreading," Michener said, "moving slowly to the south and to the north. It looks as though they could well spread up through Central America and into Mexico and the United States if nothing is done to ston them.
"They could be here in 10 to 15 years."
Michener said his committee had recommended two steps that could be taken to help solve the problem of the African honeybee migration.
FIRST, TO slow the bee's progression northward, traps could be set up in lower Central America. These traps would actually be hives equipped with one-way doors
The second step is to develop a gender train of the African honeybee to dilute its pheromone.
However, Michener said that no action had been taken because the Department of Agriculture did not have funds to hire workers to develop either the traps or the gentler bees.
Michener, who has recently returned from a month-long trip to Java said he gave a lecture at the University of Indonesia on the implications of various problems of the African honeybee.
"For example, the African bees are virtually identical to the American variety but quite different in behavior. They are more aggressive and more likely to attack." Micheen said.
Michener said that this difference in strains of insects might or might not cause trouble, but every country should be aware of the consequences.
FOR THIS reason, Michener explained, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been pushing for quarantines against the import of bees at any stage from countries that have the African honeybee. The department has also urged the Mexican and Central American governments to do the same.
While in Java, Michener collected many bees for Snow Entomological Museum at KU.
Among those he collected is a parasitic brainsapis. Michener's 12 specimens from the first sizeable collection anywhere. The only other known specimen is a single parasitic brainsapis in the National Museum in Washington, D.C.
"These parasitic bees live in nests of other bees and live on the food the other bees bring in. The parasitic bees con the feeders feeding their larvae," explained Michener.
MICHENER SAID that after viewing the specimen in the National Museum, he judged it to be parasitic because it had no hair on which to carry pollen.
"They are biologically significant because they reduce the population of the regular bees and reduce their usefulness for pollination activities." Michener said.
"We had one specimen in Snow Entomological Museum and now we have about 50 of these. It's good to add to the collection," Michener said.
"This is a bee that has been known for a long time and I'd never seen it alive before."
IN ADDITION, Michener brought back from West Java a collection of carpenter bees, which are distinguishable by their bright blue hair.
GRASSHOPPERIES that eat her garden pots bug (bobbie Neilley, Lawrencerence Bug)
Although she said that she hesitated to spray because of ecological considerations Neelyl said she used a seven-day spray as it was not poisonous to warm-blooded animals.
Neley said she had observed an increase of ladybugs this year. Ladybugs are considered beneficial to organic gardening as they serve as natural predators on other destructive insects such as aphids, which have destroyed many a rose bush.
"Lots of ants, thousands of ants, crawling over everything," bug Charles Ernst, Glencoe, III., senior. According to the program, "a bite on the sugar once."
"We had termites all over too," he said. "We also had flying ants. Some people say these are termites but I don't think so. They have been sprayed, because we had them sprayed."
THE DISCOVERY of chiggers on the Fourth of July, a year ago, bugged Fran Travis, assistant teacher of education, who had just moved to Lawrence from Hawaii.
"There are significantly fewer insects here in Lawrence than in Hawaii," Travis said. "There are not as many butterflies, however, and I miss them.
Travis said she really liked the abundance of fireflies she had found in Lawrence. She described them as "really pretty" and "amazing" experience when she first saw them.
TRAVIS ALSO said she had heard a lot about the common brown spider of Lawrence, which bites. Many of her friends have got bitten by these pests but she has never seen one. She would like to see one, she said, just to see what they look like.
Despite the irritation that most bugs arouse, many of them are quite beneficial, according to Charles Michener, professor of entomology. Among some of the more common bugs, bugs found locally are ladybugs, honeybees, some kinds of wasps, and spiders.
One interesting yet not widely known fact Michener brought up was that honeybees caused more deaths in the United States than any other insect. This just goes to show, Michener said, how few deaths are really caused by insects. Deaths attributed to bees show that people are vulnerable to bee hives. Michener蜂蜜 is very valuable to nature
Honeybees are very beneficial to nature
as pollinators, and to man for their wart and
honey.
A TENDENCY to overspray is the greatest problem that Michener can see in the bug extermination problem. Killing off natural predators can often result in the greater expense of having to spray more often.
An important factor to remember when using insecticides, according to Michemer, is that they should be used only when necessary. People should avoid killing off the natural predators, which help preserve the balance of nature.
"One case where the tendency to over-sperm is understandable, is with farmers," Michener said. "A farmer has a lot of eggs in a crop so you really can't blame him."
stereo components
INTEGRATED control is one answer that is being suggested for the problem of overpreserving on farms. According to Michener, in this system a farmer or a regular scheduler of farmers is placed on a regular schedule and is trained insurer, usually an entomologist.
The inspector is hired by the farmer or cooperative. His job entails looking at the
population of enemies of a crop in relation to the population of natural predators on the enemies. The balance of the two is taken into account, along with climate and general environment, which creates a total picture enabling the inspector to counsel the farmer as to when to spray and what to spray.
integrated control that Michener hopes the problem of overspray will be eliminate.
The use of an integrated control program has been increasing. Michener says especially in places like California and Florida where the cities are especially essential to the economy.
But he said, as far as he knew, the program has not yet been used in Kansas.
"A record that can be read may be new to you and so are many of our exotic items in our shop!"
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