logo


 

     February 2017

 

Header


 PPMA OFFICERS
   
Keith Hamilton
President
J.C. Ehrlich
State College, PA
 
John Besic 
President Elect
Besic Pest Control
Transfer, PA
 
Marty Overlilne
Vice President
Aardvark Pest Management
Phildelphia, PA
 
Paul Kutney
Immediate Past President
Larksville, PA

 
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
 
Central Division
 
Gary Lesher
Governor
Perry Pest Control
Landisburg, PA
   
Greg Ten Hoeve
Terminix
Mechanicsburg, PA
 
Keith Jones
Archer Pest Control
Camp Hill, PA
 
 
Eastern Division  
 
Marty Overline
Governor
Aardvark Pest Mgmnt
Philadelphia, PA

Mike Snyder
Township Pest Control
Warrington , PA
 
Jim Nase
Moyer Indoor/Outdoor
Souderton , PA
  
Northeast Division
 
Jeff King
Governor
The Pest Rangers
Hanover Twp., PA
 
Paul Kutney
Larksville, PA
 
Diane Lown
Ajax Environmental Solutions
Dalton, PA
 
Western Division
 
Adam Witt
Governor
Witt Pest Management
Pittsburgh, PA
 
Scott Grill
Bill Grill  Exterminating
Verona, PA
 
John Besic
Besic Pest Control
Transfer, PA
 
Technical Advisor
 
Chad Gore
Rentokil North America
Carnegie, PA
 
AWDII Chairman
 
Ed Van Istendal
Coatesville , PA
 
Legislative Chairman
 
Adam Witt
Witt Pest Management
Pittsburgh, PA
   
Salino Scholarship Chair 
Dana Lown
Ajax Environmental Solutions
Dalton, PA
 
Industry Liaison
 
Brian Smith
Univar
Sharon Hill, PA
 
Executive Director
Versant Strategies
Harrisburg, PA







 


 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Featured Article
What action, if any, do you want your members to take? Add a "Find out more" link to additional information that you may have hosted on your website.
Dear Friends:

The late-spring weather tricked us too as the PPMA office felt the joyful effects of a warm intro to February. While mother nature may have hit "pause" on sunny and 65, the work of PPMA is still traveling full speed ahead.

Salino Scholarship applications are due to the PPMA office by Wednesday, March 15! Applications are available online at  http://www.papmaonline.org/about-us/scholarship/. If you have questions regarding the application, contact the PPMA office at (800) 842-9090. 

As always, be sure to reach out if the PPMA Office can be of assistance to you.


  Team Versant

   

Technical Spotlight

THE NOT SO COMMON HOUSE MOUSE

My recent experience with a poorly serviced fast food account has me second guessing all that I thought I knew about the common house mouse.

Plan of Attack
With the confidence of a service provider with 30+ years of experience in the field, I devised our first plan of attack with an after- hours mass snap trapping.  I rallied a few of our techs, and when the facility closed, began setting up snap traps throughout the facility, including the drop ceiling.  We set up around 125 snap traps baited with Nutella, Pro Pest, and other common industry baits and left feeling fairly confident of the catches we would have when we returned in the morning.

As I was waiting for the morning shift manager to arrive, I looked through the window and saw the mice running freely and avoiding every trap that was set up the night before! After the manager arrived, we inspected all of the areas where the traps had been set.  We found damaged bread and caught zero mice.  Now I am curious---I need to know what is happening when the facility is closed, so I decide I will spend the night in the facility.

Round Two
With permission from management, I arrived and set up the snap traps and glue boards once again and sat down to watch what was happening. It was amazing! The mice would come out and readily run across the middle of the floor, searching for crumbs of food left behind from the nightly clean up . The traps were placed along the walls where my experience has taught me is most effective.  Only one juvenile house mouse was caught. Now I am frustrated.

 I decide to return the next night, but I set the traps baited with bread and french fries { the preferred meal} and place them where they had fed the night before. I watched the mice come up to each trap and turn around and run away. They ran from the glue boards set up as well. This night's captures were one or two juveniles. I am tired of being made a fool of.  But now I know where the mice are harboring and again, work on a new strategy that will make me victorious....

Round Three
I begin by setting up Ketch all traps lined up side by side and create an impenetrable wall and for added measure, placed glue boards on top of each Ketch all in the event a mouse tries to go over the top of the device. Imagine every possible door way and travel path lined with ketch all traps. I am confident with one more night of trapping I can put an end to the mouse issue. 

Although I caught more mice that night than I had in my other attempts, I am still falling short of the number of mice I was actually seeing.  A chain of snap traps is my next weapon. I glued 10 snap traps to a piece of cardboard and made a quantity of 12 of them that were baited with bread and French fries and line them up to create a barrier. So now I have Ketch all traps, snap traps and glue boards-the glue boards are only being used as a way to guide the mice towards the other traps since the mice were avoiding them previously. Now I am getting somewhere...As my mouse count is rising, I am pleased to hear the sound of snap traps going off and the noise of the Ketch all, sending another mouse into the catch chamber.  I am determined to end this as this was my third consecutive night in the facility.
 
Divide and Conquer
Now to plan a way to capture the mice I have seen in the dining area, running table to table.  I make a 3 sided wall of cardboard so that when a mouse runs under a table,  I can place this wall around the table, pinning it against the  dining area wall effectively  trapping it in a square, four sided "box" that it cannot get out of.  My first mouse comes running out, and I corner him with my newly created tool. Inside of this box, I place a large number of glue boards and snap traps so that when I remove the table, it will be quickly captured on one of the devices. I watch as this mouse jumps quickly, off and on the glue boards trying to avoid every trap in this small, confined area. I was amazed at how fast a mouse could get on and off of a glue board!  Admittedly, I took great pleasure in dispatching this guy the old -fashioned way...

I repeated this same process three more times and am happy to report that this facility is now free and clear of rodent activity.  What I took away from this experience is:
  • When mice have no immediate danger and have free roam of an area, they do not hesitate to be out in the open.
  • Use bait that is familiar to them. My initial instinct was to use Nutella as it is like a dessert, but the mice only wanted the bread that they were familiar with and used to feeding on.  At this facility, rodenticides were not an option.
  • I feel strongly that the edges of the white glue boards reflect light and the mice may have easily seen them since they were a contrast to the floor color.
  • Previous history unknown must have played a role in trap shyness at this facility. I should have tried plastic snap traps instead of the wood type to change it up.
  • I now know it is possible to have rodent droppings on a glue board without a rodent.
 
I spent many nights at this location mostly out of frustration, but it was one of the best experiences I have had in a long time. I now have a new respect for the not so common house mouse.
 
Jim Nase A.C.E.
Technical Service Manager
Moyer Indoor Outdoor


NEWS FROM NPMA


NPDES Bill Passes House Committee on Agriculture
Recently, the House Committee on Agriculture approved H.R. 953, the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act.  H.R. 953 would clarify that federal law does not require redundant, and unfairly burdensome National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for already regulated pesticide applications.   H.R. 953 had bipartisan support in the Committee on Agriculture and has passed the Committee the past two Congresses. 

Thank you for the over 1,000 responses sent by NPMA members over the past week! Your voice certainly made a difference, but the fight is not over - we will need your support again on this issue.   H.R. 953 is now assigned to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee due to water jurisdiction.  We anticipate increased opposition in the T & I Committee and then the House floor.  We are also working with Senators to advance H.R. 953's Senate counterpart S. 340.  

In addition to H.R. 953, another important bill, related to pesticide registration fees also passed the House Committee on Agriculture yesterday.  H.R. 1029, the Pesticide Registration Enhancement Act, reauthorizes the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA). PRIA creates a more predictable and effective evaluation process for affected pesticide decisions by coupling the collection of fees with specific decision review periods. PRIA also promotes a shorter decision review period for reduced-risk pesticides. PRIA is vital to ensuring necessary funding is properly allocated to EPA Office of Pesticide Programs resulting in the availability of products for PMPs.




Upcoming Meetings          

The Eastern Division will hold its spring meeting on March 9 in Trevose, PA. 

The Meetings and Events section of the website is always the most up-to-date resource for happenings of the Association. Be sure to check it out!

The Eastern Division continues to hold its monthly meetings with varying topics of discussion on the second Thursday of every month at the Crowne Plaze in Trevose.  For more information on monthly topics and speakers, contact Sue at (215) 331-1121.
  
Legislative Update

The information below represents legislative activity (including bill introductions) that has occurred since the last newsletter.  For a full listing of legislation that Versant is tracking for PPMA, please contact us at (717) 635-2320 or cwright@versantstrategies.net.  Activity marked HCO or SCO indicates a co-sponsorship memo which precedes the actual introduction of legislation and is designed to secure the support of other legislators prior to introduction as a bill.
   
Since swearing in, the legislature has begun the work of the 2017-18 Legislative Session. On February 7, 2017, Governor Tom Wolf will provide his budget address. After that, each Department will have a hearing with the House and Senate Appropriations Committee to discuss funding for the next year. Versant Strategies will be in attendance at key hearings. If you have questions about legislation or regulations in PA, feel free to contact our office at the information listed above. 

HB 397 - Maloney, David (R) - amends title 34 (Game), in hunting and furtaking licenses, further providing for eligibility for license.

This bill was introduced and a hearing has been set for March 15, 2017 to move the bill from committee.

SB  395 - Yudichak, John - Amends Title 64 (Public Authorities & Quasi-Public Corporations), in Commonwealth Financing Authority, establishing the Veteran-owned Business Loan Guarantee Program.

The bill was introduced and sent to the Senate Community, Economic & Recreational Development Committee. 


REMINDER from NPMA
Increase Your Business Opportunities; Update your Find a Pro Listing Today
 
To update your company's service area, please follow the steps below:
  1. Log on to the Manage My Group area of the NPMA websitePlease note: in order to access the "Manage My Group" area of the NPMA website, you must be a company administrator. 
  1. Click on "Company Information" from the drop down menu.
  1. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the Service Area section.
    1. Download the excel template found on this page.
    2. Update this template to include all of the zip codes that you service.
    3. Save the file on your computer.
    4. In the Service Area section click Choose File.  Locate the excel template file that you just saved. Click open.
    5. Click Upload file.
Once you've completed these steps your service on Find-a-Pro is instantly updated to include these new zip codes. 
If you are having problems accessing please contact NPMA at (703) 352-6762 or npma@pestworld.org.

Articles of Interest  
      
02-22-2017 Lawn pesticides are back
To those of us who thought winter provided a respite from the drifting of neighbors' pesticides onto our lawns and sidewalks, certain lawn care companies have decided that winter is over early this year. Be on your guard, because at least one local lawn care company is out spraying a... - Levittown Intelligencer

02-14-2017 Get ready for rite of spring - gypsy moth spraying
State officials are getting ready to spray an insecticide that destroys the invasive gypsy moth caterpillar's digestive system, killing it. The annual spraying, performed on mostly state and federal lands at a county's request, happens each spring. Letters about spraying for the... - Allentown Morning Call

02-03-2017 Joint hearing set on unemployment compensation issue
State Senate and House Labor and Industry committees are set to hold a joint hearing Monday on issues with the state's unemployment compensation system. The system has been a focal point in state politics since Republican Senate members opted not to vote on a bill last session to provide additional... - York Dispatch