Cable TV has taken us into the heaving northern Pacific to experience the harrowing life of crab fisherman in search of the Deadliest Catch. We’ve followed the Ice Road Truckers on their perilous journey across the frozen lakes of northern Canada. We’ve cringed and flinched as the Ax Men wield the dangerous tools of their trade in remote forests. TV’s next amazing reality show targets the creepy, crawly world of the dedicated pest exterminator. Yes, it’s finally our turn to shine! Watch this fall when A&E debuts Billy the Exterminator. (Yeah, we’re a little disappointed by the name too. We were hoping for something more macho like Terminator Exterminators.)

Patterned after Dog the Bounty Hunter, the new show will feature fellow pest control expert Billy Bretherton, 37, an 11-year industry veteran. You may have seen Billy on the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs this past year. The new show will follow Billy and as-yet uncast sidekicks as they battle insect invasions and combat out-of-control wildlife to keep America safe and pest-free! If our own experiences at Stern Environmental Group are any indication, the show should be entertaining. Pest control certainly has its share of comic blooper and icky gross moments. Should make for riveting TV. Tune in this fall!

I’ve heard of “bugs” in computers, but ants? Swarms of hungry ants are eating their way through electronics in Houston. Dubbed “Crazy Raspberry Ants,” it is believed that the insects with an unusual taste for electronic wiring arrived in Texas on a cargo ship, though their original home is unknown. The ants are creating havoc in Texas and the Deep South where their munching has left an expensive path of destruction. They have destroyed PCs in countless homes and businesses, taken up residence in homeowners’ gas meters, ruined pumps at a sewage treatment plant, and placed NASA’s Johnson Space Center on full alert, according to Associated Press reports.  

“If you open a computer, you would find a cluster of ants on the motherboard and all over,” pest expert and namesake Tom Raspberry told Computerworld magazine. “You’d get 3,000 to 4,000 ants inside and they create arcs. They’ll wipe out any computer.”

The tiny ants, about the size of fleas, congregate on electronics by the thousands and exhibit frantic behavior. One victim said their movements were like watching an Indy 500 car race. “They’re going fast, fast, fast. They’re crazy,” Patsy Morphew of Pearland, Texas told PC Pro. At that rate, these nasty little critters could give a whole new meaning to the phrase “bugs in my computer”!

If you’ve served as the main course at a bed bug buffet, you may feel like you’d rather burn your mattress than ever sleep on it again. Of course, with the cost of a good mattress, that’s pretty expensive revenge. And if one tiny bed bug lingers (well, OK, it takes two), your new mattress could become infested before you drag the box out to the dumpster. Instead, consider encasements.

Encasements trap any lingering bed bugs and eggs inside where they can never get at you. The bugs can’t bite through the plastic, and specially designed seams and zippers keep them from crawling out. Eventually they suffocate and die. Encasements are meant to remain on your mattress and box springs for as long as you own them.

The beauty of encasements is that they also protect your mattress and box springs from future bed bug infestations. If you cover your mattress and spring set as soon as you buy it, bed bugs will never be able to burrow inside and hide. Should you ever suffer a bed bug infestation, encasements make it easier to find and kill the little nasties. To find out more about Protect-a-Bed bed bug-proof encasements, click here.

I would like to welcome you to the Stern Environmental blog. Consider this blog your interactive pipeline to get answers, ask questions, share bug and pesky animal experiences that you’ve had and learn about the bugs that are bugging you the most from our professional team.

We encourage your comments on this blog. You can even leave comments anonymously if you would like. Our blogging starts in earnest on Monday so check back then. We look forward to keeping you interested, entertained, and informed.

Douglas Stern
Stern Environmental Group