01 Intro
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Hello, this is Frank Meek,
Orkin International Technical
and Training Director.
And welcome
to your initial training
for your new Orkin Franchise.
The purpose of this video
is to give you
the basic information
that you will need
before attending your training
here in Atlanta.
During this session,
we will cover an introduction
to pest control
which we will discuss
why our business
actually exists.
We'll discuss
some of the general rules
if you will, of the approach
that we take the pest management
called integrated
pest management or IPM.
And then we'll discuss and cover
some of the basic biologies
and habits
of the most common pests
that we find around the world,
cockroaches, ants, flies,
and rodents.
This will prepare you
for your time
here in Atlanta with us
to complete your training.
So we'll start first
with an introduction
to pest control.
Now the introduction,
the reason we want to do
an introduction to pest control
is simply to help you understand
why it is that our business
actually exists in the world.
Our business does three things
or four things, pardon me.
Our business does four things
in the world to help people.
We do, we provide public health,
we provide food safety,
structural protection,
and animal health.
And we'll touch on each
of these individually,
but these are really
the four primary reasons
that our industry exists
is to is to help people
with these four things.
Let's take a look
at the first one, public health.
Pests have the ability to carry
a number of diseases,
and we'll discuss that
in a little more detail later.
But these diseases are
certainly potentially harmful
to not only us
but to our animals
and to nature in general.
There are two ways
that pests spread disease,
there are primary vectors,
vector meaning
to carry something.
So there can be primary vectors,
ones that directly carry
a disease organism,
and in fact a person
or an animal
through a bite
or through contact.
And then
there are secondary vectors,
which are methods of
transmitting diseases
without actually touching us.
So leaving bacterium,
viral compounds on surfaces
that we then touch
and take into our system,
public health also is related
to the famine problems
in the world.
Pest destroy up to 48%
are the latest estimates
of all of the world's
food supply
before we can touch it.
So almost half of the food
that is created in this world,
whether in the field
or in processing,
is destroyed and damaged by pest
before we can ever touch it.
Now just think for a moment,
that's with all of our
best efforts, 48%,
half of the food supply
has lost.
If we could improve the way
that we provide
pest management services
by simply 10%,
what effect do we have
on the world
as a whole at allowing food
to get out to people
that really need it.
It's our job,
it's that important.
And we have to think of our jobs
in those ways.
Now famine certainly goes
hand-in-hand with food safety
which is the second reason
that our industry exists.
A food safety is really
a huge problem.
It's a growing concern globally
with standards
such as the Global Food
Safety Initiative,
the Safe Quality
Food initiatives
that are started
in much of the world,
and have spread now
across most of the globe.
That these programs
were designed
to try to make sure that
food is safe
for human consumption.
Pests come into this situation
because pests provide
contamination.
They provide
biological contamination,
biological certainly from
leaving parts of their bodies,
hair, fecal matter,
and that sort of thing,
but also through the bacteria
and the viral compounds
that they can place
inside the food.
Pests also contaminate material
physically.
We can open a bag of grain
or rice or beans or something
and many times find
the actual pests themselves
living inside these products.
So there's biological
and physical contaminations
that occur.
And then there's also
the destruction of the material
as well.
Rodents, as an example,
will chew through
a bag of material.
They may urinate or defecate,
drop their feces on the top
of a pallet of bags.
If you have a pallet
of material,
let's say that it contains
30 or 40, 50 kilo bags of grain.
And a rodent walks
on top of that pallet
and urinates
or release fecal pellets,
technically that entire
pallet of goods
is ruined
and should be destroyed,
because there's
no way of knowing
how far the contamination
actually exist
inside that stack of grain.
So that's one of the reasons
why that number,
that 48% is so high.
It's because one contaminant
can effect
an entire amount of material.
Now the third reason
that our business exists
is certainly
to protect structures,
we protect structures
from animals,
insects as well as other,
as well as vertebrates,
residential structures as well
as commercial structures.
There is direct damage caused
by some of these creatures
through gnawing
such as from rodents,
rodents chew a lot,
and all the time to help them
gain access into areas.
And that gnawing is actually
as you know very damaging
to the structure.
There is consumption
that occurs.
Some insects such as termites
actually can consume the wood.
There is excavating.
We know that ants,
some species of ants
love to hollow out the soil
underneath concrete.
When that concrete
is hollow underneath it,
when the ground is gone
underneath the concrete,
it can fall in.
So excavating the earth out
from underneath the structures
can cause structural weakness
and so forth.
Now, those are ways
that pests can primarily damage
or directly damage structures.
They can cause
secondary problems
through things like fire,
water exposure,
structural weakness.
It's estimated in some areas
that many of the fires
as much is half of the fires
in the world of unknown origin
can probably be related
or contributed to rodents.
Rodents like to chew
on those electrical wires.
If they short them out,
fire can happen.
If a structural's integrity
has been damaged,
water can come in,
which causes weakness
and direct damage
from the water exposure.
So we protect
people's structures,
their homes,
and their businesses
from these pest as well,
because of these things.
Animal health
is the fourth reason
that our business exists.
Protecting people's
domestic animals,
their pets,
their dogs, their cats,
but also animals for profit,
and by animals for profit
what we mean are things like
cattle, sheep, horses, camels,
animals that are grown to resell
for food, for sports,
for what have you.
So we protect
these animals as well
because they have a direct tie
into the economy.
Pests are very important
in keeping under control
for these animals.
For example,
in a cattle or horse stall,
if rodents are out of control,
they are consuming the feed
that's meant for the animals.
If the feed is not there,
the animal doesn't necessarily
grow and develop the way
that it should,
so that it can bring
the maximum amount of profit
for the business.
It's also been shown that
if houseflies are infesting
a dairy barn,
for example,
the amount of milk that can be
produced from the cows
actually decreases
because they are putting
their energy
into swatting flies away,
instead of creating the milk.
Now in domestic animals,
of course, we know that pests,
some insects can spread diseases
to our dogs, our cats,
our pets, things like mosquitoes
can bite our dogs, our cats,
inject heartworms into the dogs
and cause problem.
Ticks can spread diseases
to the animals,
and they can also then
leave the animal
and come to us and spread
those diseases as well.
So protecting the animals
is the fourth reason
why our business exists.
Now these are all
very important things,
and we should keep that in mind
as we're setting up
our business,
hiring our employees,
and talking to our employees.
See, most of the world out there
thinks that the pest controller
is just the guy
that walks around
and sprays chemical.
That's what they think
our job is, spray chemical,
kill some cockroaches.
Now we know,
because of these things
we just spoke about
the importance of our job is
more than just spraying chemical
and killing a few cockroaches.
It's protecting the environment,
it's protecting the communities
that we live and work in,
protecting the public health,
protecting the food supply,
protecting people structures,
and protecting the animals
that we depend on
for our companionship
and our livelihood
in some cases.
So our job is extremely
important,
and we have to remember that
and think about that
all the time.
Now let's talk a little bit
about the pests themselves,
just some general things
about the pests.
So in order to really do our job
and deliver those four things
to the communities
that we live and work in,
we have to understand
a little bit about our enemy.
We have to know
some of the things that they do,
we have to know
some of the things
that they want to do.
Our entire approach to service
is based on the biologies
and the habits of the pests.
So I want to introduce you
to pest in general,
in just over
just a few slides here.
Now every animal on this earth
is classified through a system
called taxonomy.
Now I pulled out just one
because every animal
has the set up
as you see on the screen,
but this is the set up
for the common bedbug.
Now we know what is the bedbug,
that's what we call it.
The scientific name for a bedbug
is the Cimex lectularius.
So the reason I chose
this particular one
is because almost
everyone in the world knows
what a bedbug is,
which can create bad publicity
of your commercial facility
like a hotel
or something like that.
So we find that
a lot of our customers
have started using
the scientific names
of the pests as opposed
to the common names.
Just so that
they don't have that
bad potential public
relations issue
with having some things
like bedbugs, cockroaches,
and thing like that.
If you heard someone say,
"I have a bedbug
treatment program,
" you know that
they may have a problem,
or you think that
they may have a problem.
But if they say,
"We have a Cimex program,"
you don't think,
can you think about it,
"Ah, I don't know what that is
but I'm glad they have one."
So a lot of our customers
are using these words,
so it's important
for us to understand
that every animal has two names,
it has its common name,
and then it has
its scientific name.
Now it's not necessary
as a pest-controls professional
to know all of the Latin
and all of the scientific names
of every pest out there.
But it is important for us
to understand a few of them,
like the bedbug,
German cockroaches,
and things like that.
So every animal
has those two names,
and we don't have to know
them all,
but we have to know
that they exist.
Now let me ask the question,
"What is an insect,
what makes something an insect?"
The legs, the body regions,
and the antenna
are the three things
that make something an insect.
Now how many legs
does an insect have?
It's good question.
And when I asked that question
in a class,
you get
a lot of different answers.
Everything from, "Well,
it depends on how old they are",
or "Sometimes six,
sometimes eight".
Well, the right answer is
every insect
on this earth has six legs,
no more, no less,
six legs always.
They have three body regions,
not parts but regions,
they have the head, the thorax,
and the abdomen.
There is always on every insect,
there are three body regions
on that animal.
And then every insect
has a pair of antenna
or two antennas on their body
attached to the head.
So would a spider be an insect?
No, a spider is not an insect,
because the spider
has eight legs,
and only two body regions,
and no antenna.
So a spider is not an insect.
Insects will always have
six legs, three body regions,
and a pair of antenna
attached to the head, always.
Regardless of
what kind of insect it is,
what specie of insect is,
it will always have those
three characteristics
that we can depend on.
Now what makes an insect
kind of different?
Well, one of the big things
is the skeletal system
of the insect.
Now here you see the insect
down the lower part
of your screen
has what we refer
to as a external skeleton
or exoskeleton
is the scientific term for that.
Compared to us the human,
our skeleton is on the inside
of our body,
our bodies are supported
from the inside out,
and insect's body is supported
from outside compressing in.
Now, unlike a human if we break
a bone, that bone can heal,
that bone can be
repaired by a doctor
or it can be repaired
just naturally in some cases.
If an insect breaks its bone
or skeleton, it's broken open,
it cannot heal itself.
So it will die, that protection,
that skin,
that exoskeleton
that's wrapped around it
actually protects the insect
by keeping the moisture
inside its body,
which is required for its life.
So the insects know
that exoskeleton
is extremely important
to their well-being,
so they will go out of their way
to protect it at times.
Now, if we know that,
we can use that against them.
We can use materials
that are repellent,
because they scratch
or break open that exoskeleton.
The insects know that,
and so they will ovoid
going into those areas.
So we can use these repellents
to make insects do
what they want them to do.
That's an example
of what I was saying
of using the insects biology
and habits against itself.
And that's what our approach
to pest management is.
It is understanding the pest
and then using that knowledge
to help us get control
as quickly as possible.
Now, if we look at the skin
that exoskeleton of the insect,
it's pretty complex
kind of system.
This is a cross-section
of the actual skin
of the insect,
and you see
there's multiple layers
that the insect
has to protect itself
and keep that skeleton in place.
So that makes getting
inside the insect's body
a little difficult
with some of the materials
that we traditionally use
in pest management.
We've got to break through
all of these different layers
of wax, cellular structures,
and so forth to get
into the nerves
and the stomach of the insect
so that we can deliver a toxin,
a pesticide to it.
So the insect has developed
the ability to survive
in one fashion
by developing a thick skin
if it will.
So that thick-skinned insect
can protect its own body
from the materials
that we put out,
and it also protects itself
from the environment
in general outside.
In some cases,
it allows that insect to adapt
and become very comfortable
in many different areas
that we don't normally think
about insects being in.
Example, a cockroach,
a German cockroach can live
very well inside a freezer.
Given time,
he can adapt and survive
inside that cold environment,
because of partially
the skin structure,
the exoskeleton structure
that he has on the outside
of its body.
Now the insects grow
through various processes.
They grow through a process
called metamorphosis.
There's two different
kinds of metamorphism.
We look at a complete
metamorphism
and a gradual metamorphism.
Now the difference there
is pretty simple,
a complete metamorphism
has four parts.
It has the egg, the larva,
the pupa, and then the adult.
This simple
or incomplete metamorphism
is a three-stage process,
the egg, the nymph,
and the adult.
Now in the complete
metamorphosis,
let's talk about
this separately,
in the complete metamorphosis,
we have the four stages,
egg, larvae, pupae, and adult.
The egg is protected
in both actually,
but in the complete
metamorphosis,
the egg is protected,
there's nothing
from a pesticide's standpoint
that we can ever use,
that will penetrate
through that egg
and kill the insect
before it's born.
The larva which in a complete
metamorphosis
looks absolutely nothing
like the adult.
As you see in the diagram there,
this is a diagram of a flea,
the larva is this
warm-like structure
you see after the side
of the circle there.
That worm looks nothing
like the adult flea,
it's completely different
in appearance and in habits.
Where the larva lives most often
is not where the adult lives.
So the adult will place her eggs
where the larva have the highest
chance of survival,
which normally means
around the food supply,
around water
in a good-sheltered area.
So we have to understand
what does that larva
really want?
Because that's where we have
to start our controlled efforts.
Now that larva, when it goes
through its lifecycle,
it will molt and grow
several times.
It then transforms
into the pupae
at which point it starts to look
a little bit like the adult.
Then it'll go through
this pupae phase,
which is kind of like the egg
and that is very difficult
to get anything to penetrate
through that pupal case
to kill the insect
that's growing inside.
So as it goes through its time,
it will then become an adult,
the adult then starts the cycle
all over again.
So egg turns to larva,
larva turns to pupa,
pupa turns to adult,
adult creates more eggs,
and the circle of this keeps
going around.
With this simple metamorphosis
or incomplete metamorphosis,
the egg which again
is still protected
turns into a nymph.
Now the nymph looks like
and acts like the adult,
only a smaller version
of the adult.
It likes to live
in the same area,
it likes to eat the same
types of food in most cases,
so it's for all-in
practical purposes,
it's an adult in biology
and in habits,
but it lives in the slightly
different areas sometimes
because of its size,
because it's so small
that can live in areas
that the adults cannot.
So by knowing what each of these
stages of the insects
are going to do,
it will help us
design control programs
so that we can break
these lifecycles
and prevent infestations
from happening
in our client's facilities.
That's the purpose of
understanding those,
what each of those steps
are going to do,
and so that we can get control
faster for our clients
and prevent future infestations
for our clients,
which is the whole basis
of what our pest management
program does.
We'll talk about that
a little bit further
when we get into the Integrated
Pest Management section of this.
Now let's
look at the individual parts
of the of the insect.
The head is often where we start
when we're doing
the identification
of the insect.
The head contains the antenna,
the mouthparts, and the eyes.
It contains
some other things as well,
but these are the three
primary things
that we're looking at.
We start out with the antenna
and the antenna are really
very sensitive sensory organs.
In many times,
they taste with their antenna,
they can hear, smell,
they detect air movement,
they detect a lot of things
with their antenna.
And we often use that antenna
as one of the starting places
in our identification
of the pest.
There's many different forms
or looks to the antenna
on the screen,
it's just a few of the ones
that are out there,
there's many others,
and each of them are designed
to allow the maximum
sensory capabilities
of that insect.
We go to the mouthparts
which is the next, many times,
one of the next things
we looked at in identifying
a pest.
The mouth is designed
for the type of food
or the preference of food
for that insect.
So to the side of your screen
you see the housefly head here.
And its mouth part is basically
there's large sponge.
The fly cannot eat solid food,
it only eats liquid food.
So this mouthpart
is like a big sponge
to help it absorb and pick up
that liquid material.
The other head,
this would be the head of
like a grasshopper or a locus,
so it's mouth is designed
to tear, grab,
and chew solid material
such as plant matter.
So the head contains
the mouthparts and the antenna.
Now in the head
also is the brain.
The brain is connected
to the nervous system
which runs
throughout the insect's body.
So the brain, of course,
is very tiny,
because we're dealing
with a very tiny organism,
but this brain is functioning
exactly like our brains,
in some ways.
The brain controls
the body functions,
it controls the body movement,
it's connected
to a series of nerves
just like ours is,
that runs throughout our body,
that allows us to take
data or information
that our body is sending to us
and formulate that data,
think about it,
and react to it.
Insects kind of do
the same thing.
They can detect
when there is a problem
or something coming up
behind them,
because the nerves will send
those signals to the brain
that tells it,
"Something's coming, run."
But they don't have
the ability to sit there
and really kind of think.
They can't sit there and reason.
They can't sit there and say,
"I wonder what's in that,
if I go in there,
will this happen."
They can't do those
sort of things,
but they will receive signals,
receive data from their nerves
just like we do,
and take that data
and react to it.
So the brain is very complex.
And in many ways,
it's just like ours.
You know,
the thorax of the insect,
the second part in the middle,
this is where we find the legs
and the wings,
if the insect has wings.
Not all insects have wings,
of course.
Some of them have wings
that do not function.
They have nice large
full-size wings
that never do anything
other than cover their body.
Others have
what we call vestigial wings.
These are wings that were there
but through the process
of evolution,
those wings have gotten
smaller and smaller,
until there's just a tiny little
remnant of a wing
left on its body,
but it's not functioning,
it doesn't fly.
And, of course,
other insects have no wings
and never had wings.
But the wings are always
found on that thorax
and all six of the legs
originate on the thorax.
So let's look at the legs
for just a second.
We use the legs
again to help us understand
what this insect is going to do.
The legs are different designs
based on how the insect prefers
to move around.
So we see like this leg here,
this is a leg from something
like a cricket or grasshopper.
It's is designed to jump
which as you know
is the primary way
that crickets move around.
They crawl,
but they're great jumpers.
So the leg is designed
for it to jump.
This would be the leg of like
a cockroach is designed to walk,
to run very quick,
very, streamlined.
This is the leg
from like a praying mantis.
It's designed so it can grab
and hold onto its food
and hold it there.
So the leg tells us
where, sometimes,
it tells us where the insect
likes to live,
but it also tells us
how the insect likes to eat,
how it likes to move around,
how it likes to live its life.
And we take all these clues
and put them into
our control programs
so that when there's a direction
of putting a material here,
it's because the animal's body
has said,
"This is where the animal
wants to be."
So all of these things go
into those controlled efforts,
it's not just spraying
a chemical out there.
Now the wings
are very important,
when they exist.
The wings are kind of like
a fingerprint on the human.
All the insects in the same
group of insects,
the wings will look
exactly the same.
They are the fingerprint of that
particular type of insect.
So on the screen,
this is the wing of a drain fly,
or Psychodidae fly we call it,
but it's a drain fly,
a small little fly that lives
in the sewers
underneath structures,
and comes inside
and creates problems.
Every moth fly
or drain fly in the world,
wing pattern is exactly
like you see on the screen.
Now a housefly which has wings,
of course.
It's vein pattern,
its fingerprint will be
completely different than this,
and every housefly's
fingerprints
will be exactly the same.
Many times,
particularly in food processing
or in pharmaceutical facilities,
we're asked to make
an identification
based on a wing.
And that takes some time
and some knowledge
of the wing patterns,
but that pattern of the veins
in the wings
will allow us to tell exactly
what kind of insect
it comes from.
So the wings
are their fingerprint.
All insects in the same group
or the same specie
have the same wing pattern.
Every insect has
its own group though,
and so not all of them
are exactly the same,
but if they're
in the same group,
they are identical.
Now let's look
at the last part of the insect
which is the abdomen.
The abdomen has most of the,
most important working parts
of the insect contained inside.
This is the portion
of the insect
that is responsible, of course,
for the continued survival
of the creature and the specie.
The abdomen,
as we see on the screen,
is broken up into 11 segments,
and has a very important area
on the abdomen right here.
These are called the spiracles.
These are small holes
that allow oxygen to move
into the abdomen of the insect.
They don't breathe
through their head,
through their mouth,
or nostrils like humans do,
they breathe through these
small holes on the abdomen.
Now some insects
like a cockroach
has the ability
to close those holes
and hold its breath
when it senses danger
in the area.
So the abdomen contains not only
the breathing mechanisms,
but it also contains
the digestive mechanisms,
and most importantly,
for a species survival,
it contains
the reproductive mechanisms
of the insect.
Now here in the abdomen,
we see the digestive system
which is contained there.
The digestive system many times
is broken into three
different parts.
There's not just one stomach
in some of these insects,
there are several.
The brain or, excuse me,
the heart is also contained
in the abdomen.
It's contained
partially in the thorax
and the head as well,
but the primary heart organ
is actually in the abdomen
towards the back of the insect.
Now some insects, many of them
can actually take that heart
and stop it for period of time
and survive.
It can also pump the blood,
the body fluid forward
or backwards
or from both ends
into the middle
based on
what the insect is doing.
So the abdomen is really
one of the most important
regions on the insect.
It allows it to breathe,
it allows it to protect its body
by pumping blood
forward or backwards,
and most importantly,
it allows it to reproduce
so that the specie can continue.
Now that's just a general look
at pests.
Now what you need to do is
take any questions
that you've had
based on what we looked at,
the slides that we saw,
write them down,
and we'll address
those questions
when you come in
for your training
here in Atlanta.