NHT Day 04 03 Flies
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Good afternoon, everyone,
and welcome back
as we continue on
with our pest control lessons
as we look at the subject of flies.
Hope everyone had
a good hour break there
and are ready, raring to go.
Remember, if you have a technical issue,
you can call 1800-826-2492.
Well, we did ants,
and that was one of our major pests.
Now we're gonna look at flies,
which is another one
of our bigger pests.
But you're going to notice
some differences here
with this pest lesson
as it'll be a little unique
compared to what we looked at
in ants and cockroaches.
And this is also probably a good time
of day to have this conversation
because most of us have
or at least a lot of us, I should say,
have eaten lunch
and food's kind of sliding down
our digestive system.
Well, let's imagine
it's, flash forward to May,
Memorial Day,
you're grilling, cooking out outdoors,
got your plate of food,
you're about to eat
and you realize
you've forgot your drink.
So you get up and run over
to the cooler nearby, rummage around,
find what you want to drink
and come back.
And in that mere, you know,
15, 30 seconds it took to do that,
this is what you find on your food.
Phone call in.
What would you do
if roaches got to your food?
Starr in Anderson,
what would you do with that sandwich?
I'd throw it away.
I think most of us
would feel the same way, Starr.
Looks like our folks are saying
similar things in the chat.
I think... Burn it.
I think most of us would be pretty upset
if those roaches got to our food
because it's kind of nasty
and, you know, wouldn't be appetizing.
Same scenario, we get up,
walked off, come back,
but instead of roaches this time,
this is what we have discovered.
A few flies have buzzed in on that food.
Phone call in.
What would you do this time?
Would you do the same thing?
Or think about it.
If you were the average person
in the public, what might you do?
Randy in Milwaukee.
- I'd just wave the files away.
- Yeah.
So most people in the public,
if you think about it,
and if we're honest with ourselves,
we've had that experience
where you're outside with a beverage
or a food item,
and zoom in, one fly lands on it briefly
and we swat at it, shoo at it,
and then we continue drinking or eating
whatever it is.
Why is it we're more lenient on flies
and not a roach?
And I think it goes to the ways
that we encounter them.
If you think about cockroaches,
how often do you encounter them
in your daily lives?
Probably not ever.
Or if you do,
it's that light out experience
where you flip on a light in the garage
and one scurries away
or you're out on the city street
and you see one crawl out of a manhole,
look over right out of a storm drain.
And so it's that kind of odd
scary kind of experience.
Versus flies,
if you've ever been outside
in the summer months, warm months,
they're everywhere.
And you've had those experiences,
I'm sure,
where they've come inside your home
and then beaten themselves silly
against the window,
trying to get back out.
And so we encounter them more,
we get less concerned about them,
let's say.
Now having done your pre-work though,
you should know now that
actually if you can believe it,
flies are more filthy and nasty
than even a roach.
And so to that point,
one of the major damages
that concern the flies is the disease.
Flies crawl through
filthy, nasty materials
just like that roach.
It's crawling in manure, sewage,
carcasses, all kinds of good stuff.
And every time that fly lands
and walks around,
it's tracking that stuff on its body.
Now if you've ever just sat back
and watched a fly,
just kind of stare at it
for a few minutes,
it's constantly doing this
and then rubbing its back and its wings.
Why it does that is it crawls
in this wet gooky stuff,
it gets it all over it.
And if it gets so gummed up,
it can't move or it weighs it down,
then that's not good for the fly
and that's why they're constantly
grooming and scraping themselves.
And if that's your counter,
that's your food they're on,
and the last thing they just got off of
was a big pile of manure
or some rodent kill,
then the particles from those things
are getting scraped off
onto those other surfaces.
And it may not be visible things
you can actually see with the naked eye
but those bacteria
are getting deposited nonetheless.
And so that's where
there is that disease issue.
Then there's social stigma.
And I know we said that we're
more tolerant of flies than roaches
but I still think most of us
in the public
if we went into a restaurant with flies
or we went into a person's home
with flies,
that would not be a good thing to us,
that would give us the image
that there's something going on.
They're also a nuisance.
As I mentioned, if you get them inside,
even if they're not spreading disease
or causing other issues,
they're just aggravating,
they're buzzing around,
beating themselves against the window,
and I know with my home,
I have a cat, the cat goes berserk,
tears down half the house
if there's a fly
and they're trying to get it.
And so it's a nuisance, an aggravation.
And then the last thing there
was contamination.
We talk about contamination,
you may wonder,
"Well, what's the difference
between disease and contamination?"
And the difference is disease
is specifically some health consequence
like with the bacteria
versus contamination
is simply a foreign object
where it doesn't belong.
And if I clean and sterilize the outside
of that fly but dropped it in your food,
that's still a form of contamination.
And it's not just foodstuffs,
by the way, too, when it comes to this.
You know, you could have, let's say,
a plastics manufacturer
where the flies are getting stuck
in the plastic,
that's contamination as well.
Now one point, Jeremiah,
if you think you'll never eat again,
let me add one more interesting,
disgusting fact to flies.
Not only are they tracking
filth and disease
on their outside of their body,
flies as adults can only consume liquid.
And so if they are
on a solid food material,
they will regurgitate up
digestive juices onto it
and then let it kind of start
to break it down a little bit
and slurp it back up.
And if the last thing
it was slurping up off of
was manure or carcass, guess what?
When it vomits up,
some of that comes up with it.
And so that's just one more fun way
that flies can spread filth.
And so all of these are
all really fun things about flies
and reasons why we don't want them,
but I share these with you
just so that you can be
more knowledgeable about it
and then to be able
to interact with the customer.
'Cause again, sometimes
customers are more tolerant of flies
and may not be as eager
to jump into certain situations
or do certain actions that we may ask.
And we need to make sure
we can communicate these points to them
to make sure they see the need.
You know, it's important
that you take out the trash,
cover the lids, clean these things up
because if you don't,
this is the stuff
that could be happening.
Here's a thought provoking question.
Which type of account do you think
deals with flies more?
A business or a home?
Which one you do think
deals with them more?
And the survey says A.
And it is A, commercial.
For those of you
that marked residential,
let's really think about, you know,
what's going on here
and why is it commercial?
And before we do that though,
Pablo has asked,
"Do flies cause diarrhea?"
Well, I mean there are lots
of sources for diarrhea,
but certainly bacteria,
certain types of bacteria
can cause it as well.
And again, flies,
if they're transmitting diseases,
it's usually in the form of bacteria
or things like that
they've pick up on their body.
And if it's crawling around
in things like poultry,
where it's got, you know,
you can pick up salmonella, E. coli,
you know, there's all kinds of bacteria
that they can get on their bodies
and some of the symptoms
could be diarrhea if you got exposed.
Going back to the difference
with residential and commercial,
if we think about
the scope of attractant...
Meaning, what's the thing
that draws them in,
you've got a dumpster,
let's say, at a restaurant
or a garbage can at a home.
You know, clearly, the dumpster
has far more in it to draw the flies.
There's more to attract them,
there's more for them to breed in,
and so to that point number two,
you're going to have a greater frequency
of the threat.
And the frequency of the threat
also has to do with the fact
that at a business think how many times
those doors are opening and shutting,
how many gaps there are
around businesses
that are wide open versus a home,
and so again, more opportunity.
Impact of the infestation.
If you think of that restaurant
that's got
a filth spreading fly problem,
how many people could get exposed
versus a single family home,
clearly, there's more in commercial.
And then lastly, treatment.
And for those of you that will service
both residential and commercial stops,
I want you to understand
that with certain pests
like roaches or flies today
and rodents on Friday,
there are big differences in treatment.
Meaning, what you will typically
use and do at a home
can be very different
than what you will do at business.
And since flies are
a bigger pest problem in a business,
we're going to have a lot more tools
in our arsenal
when we service commercial accounts
than we do at a home.
And you'll see that again
tomorrow with rodents.
Now when we get to next week,
we're going to talk about fleas.
Fleas are a bigger pest to residential.
And so to that point,
we'll be often more doing flea jobs
and we do it well in a home.
And so it does vary a little bit
depending on the type of account.
How high can flies fly?
Antonio, to be honest, I have no clue
of what the exact limit is.
It would depend on
I guess the fly itself,
the lifecycle and the nature
of its habits and what it's doing.
Flies typically like to stay down lower.
But certainly, some flies
can get some little bit altitude.
But again, that's one of those
kind of odd trivia things
that I just, I'd be honest,
I don't know.
You'd have to maybe do a Google search
and see what comes up.
All right, well, let's talk about
then the objectives now
that we understand
why flies are so important
and why this is such a big topic for us.
The objectives are by end
to identify critical inspection areas
for flies,
list types of treatments
to control them,
we're going to walk through
a Customized IPM Service,
and then talk about how to review
the service with the customer.
Let's go through now
and review the pre-work.
And remember, I asked you to do that
before coming to this lesson.
Which of these
are characteristics of pest flies?
Select all that apply.
They have one pair of functional wings,
undergo complete metamorphosis,
thrive in cooler temperatures,
attracted to light, odor, and moisture,
fly great distances without landing.
And yes, Antonio, flies do have
a really good sense of smell,
probably one of their keener senses.
Do all maggots become flies?
Well, not if they die
but certainly
if they continue to survive on.
Yes, maggots will usually.
That's the adult stage,
and the maggots, the immature.
And we're largely agreeing
that it's A, B, and D,
and those are the correct answers.
Flies do only have
one pair of functional wings.
And so if you look at flies up close,
you'll only count two total wings.
If the adult insect has wings at all,
'cause some insects don't, like fleas,
but if they have wings
like a moth, a beetle,
any of those other flying insects,
they'll always have four wings.
And so with flies,
it's only a single pair
and that's one of the things
that helps us group flies together.
Incidentally,
mosquitoes only have one pair of wings
and belong technically to the same
scientific group as the true flies.
We won't be looking at mosquito
during your new hire training
but if you're servicing for mosquito,
there is additional
correspondence course
you can take
to learn more about mosquito.
Since they only have one pair
of functional wings,
the E answer is not true.
They tire out more easily.
And so flies, when they're flying,
will only go a certain distance
and then have to land.
And on a downside,
every time they're landing,
they're possibly spreading the filth.
They do not like cooler temperatures.
If you think about the times of year
you see flies the most common,
it's usually in the warmer months.
In fact, flies usually prefer
temperatures above 70 degrees.
They are often attracted
to light, odor, and moisture.
So those are good things to look for
during your inspection
but I do want to caution you,
not all flies will be attracted
to all three of these things equally.
A good example, our fruit flies
are not strongly attracted
as adults to light.
And so when we get into light traps
and things later in this lesson,
you won't usually get
fruit flies on that
'cause they're not attracted
to it as much.
Al is calling in Columbus.
Al, do you have a question?
Al, you called in.
No, I didn't.
You must have accidentally hit it.
Not a big deal.
Jeremiah, you've seen lots of spiders
where flies are.
Is that normal or just chance?
Nope, the spiders go where the food is
just like we do
and so they're trying to grab a meal.
Pablo. Do flies migrate?
Well, I mean if you're talking
monarch butterfly migration,
you know, many, many
miles across, you know,
many states to go to
like Mexico, for instance.
No, typically, flies that I'm aware of
do not do that.
But there are flies like
we'll talk about next week,
cluster fly more
and you learned about that one
incidentally in your pre-work,
do over winter.
But I don't know
if I would call that a true migration.
It's not like geese or monarchs
that will travel many, many miles.
All right, the last point
that was on those questions
was complete metamorphosis.
And that's what flies have.
Now let's just quickly refresh ourselves
on gradual
'cause those are the two main types
we deal with in pest control.
Gradual is like with roaches,
that was egg, nymph, adult.
And remember, the nymph cockroaches
looked a lot like the adult,
the only big difference
is the nymphs never had wings
and the nymphs couldn't have sex.
But that's about it.
And so nymphs and adults
would live in similar areas,
eat similar things,
and if I tried to control them
like with a roach bait,
I could kill nymphs and adults both.
Let's now go to complete.
That's four stages not three,
and it's egg, larva, pupa, adult.
The eggs are laid by the adult
in or near the food source
of the larvae.
So like the garbage, the rotting fruit,
the animal carcass,
and out of it, the larvae hatch,
and it is appropriate
to call fly larvae maggots.
And the job of any larva,
whether it's for flies,
for beetles, for moths, is to eat.
They're little eating machines,
think like a caterpillar on a plant,
all they do is gobble up food.
And so what will happen
is the larvae bores
into whatever the food stuff is
and eats.
Larvae are not extremely mobile.
You know,
that larva is not going to get up
and get out of there really quickly.
You know, if they move,
it's going to be a slow crawl.
And there will be several larval stages,
they'll continue to shed their skin
and get bigger and bigger
until they're ready
to turn into the pupa.
And this is really different,
you know, than gradual.
So the larva, by the way,
looks nothing like the adult.
The larva is a worm.
The adult is a legged, winged thing.
And so they're very different looking
and have different mobilities.
And they're also living
in different areas.
The adults are hanging
around windows and lights.
The larvae is down in the sewage
and the carcass.
When the larvae migrate out,
if we go to my laptop computer,
I have a picture to show you this.
Here on the screen,
you'll see a dumpster with trash bags.
And here, you see these maggots.
These maggots are ready to pupae.
And that's probably
why they're crawling out.
The reason I show you this
is it's not as common,
but on occasion,
you might run into a situation
where a customer sees
maggots out exposed.
And that usually means
they're breeding somewhere nearby.
My personal encounters with this
on my route
where often where
there is a dead animal somewhere
like in an attic space or a drop ceiling
and these crawl out
and drop around a light fixture
or a ceiling tile into the room below.
Once they get to the whatever
they are going to crawl nearby,
they're going to turn into pupa
and that outer skin of the larva
will harden into a shell,
and inside,
the guts and the internal organs
all break down into this soup
and then it reforms itself into
what we know as the adult.
That's a pretty cool process.
It'd be kind of like a snake crawling
into a sleeping bag
and coming out a bald eagle.
I mean, it's going to be
a very different looking organism.
The whole take home for this
is not to be just trivial stuff.
We're not trying to turn you
into an entomologist.
I share this for several reasons.
Number one, the eggs and pupae
are well protected
and our treatments will not
as easily penetrate it.
That usually means
there's going to be multiple visits here
to get the problem under control.
The other component is,
since the larvae are down
in some decaying material
and the adults are buzzing around
near lights and windows and counters,
they're in two deferent areas.
And so when I inspect for them,
I have to have
two different inspection processes.
And then you can imagine,
if they're in different areas,
what works on one, treatment wise,
won't work on the other.
And so, for instance,
if you try to target one half
and not the other half,
the problem will continue.
And if you had to chat,
which stage do you think the customer
is most concerned about?
You know, which one do you think
the pest control professional
is most likely to focus on
of these stages?
So I'll put the slide back up.
Of these four stages, which do you think
the homeowner,
business owner, the technician
is most likely focusing on?
Now, a few of you are saying
some of the other answers
but a lot of you are agreeing
it's the adult.
And that's true
'cause that's the moving visible stage.
Most of us maybe have never even seen
fly maggots in much of anything.
But I'll tell you a pest control secret.
If you want to be successful
in fly control,
you've got to address
the other half as well.
'Cause if all you do
is worry about the adults,
the problem will continue.
And we'll come back
to that concept more later
but that's probably one of the most
critical points in this whole lesson.
Now I've noticed a few chats,
people are asking about
are flies immune to disease?
Well, no, they're not immune to disease
as a general rule
but some of the things that affect us
don't necessarily always affect flies
in the same way.
And so that's where
you may have that illusion
that they're immune but they're not.
Is a botfly a fly or a bee?
Well, count the wings next time
and you'll know the answer.
It should only have two.
So it's technically a fly.
And yes, Ben, that's where we,
to your point, we want to make sure
we're not just focusing on one,
to your point,
the technician needs to understand
all of it.
Are there any questions for me then
about the bio and habits to this point
before I give you
some identification quizzes?
All right, so Richard does.
We see the adults
but where would you find the larvae?
Well, we're going to get into that.
That's going to be an important exercise
we'll do here in this lesson,
so hold onto that.
All right, let's go ahead then
and do some identification.
And in you pre-work, I presented
the flies to you in two buckets.
One was large, the other was small.
In larger, bigger, and smaller, smaller.
Looking at these five flies
on the screen,
and you can use your Pest ID Guide
to help you,
first identify all five of them.
And what once you've identified them,
remember which category we had them in.
I want you to select only the ones
that we labeled large.
About half of us got it right,
the other half maybe got a few of them
but not all of them.
The correct answers are A, B, and C.
A was the housefly, B was the blowfly,
and C was cluster fly.
Those were all called large.
D and E, D was the fungus gnat
and E was the moth AKA drain fly.
Those are small.
If you've seen some
of our older training,
'cause some of you may have
worked for us in the past,
you may have remembered,
we used to teach these in the concept
of filth versus nuisance.
And when we were redesigning
this lesson,
I asked to move away from that
because when I taught this lesson,
it was hard to divide them that way
because a lot of flies are both filth
and nuisance flies at the same time
and so it was confusing.
From my own experiences on a route,
when I went into a customer
with a fly problem,
you know, and you do your interview,
you ask what are you seeing,
the first thing they would say is
I've got these large flies
or I've got these small flies.
And that was helpful to me on my route
to start automatically,
you know, sort of figuring out
these are the possible suspects.
Let's now get into the actual species
and tell me which fly
am I looking at on the screen.
And again, your Pest ID Guide
can be helpful with this.
Is this the fungus gnat?
The phorid fly,
the moth fly, the fruit fly?
And, Antonio,
the number of eggs the fly lays,
life a lot of these things are variable
depending upon species
but they can lay quite a few,
you know, up to a hundred or more
and depends on the species.
And it looks like we're torn
between the phorid and the fruit.
And the correct answer is
this was a phorid fly.
Let's understand why.
If you look at the head,
it's got little black beady eyes.
And if you follow the outline
over the silhouette of the body,
notice the big hump on it,
the hump on the back,
it's part of the reason
why they're called humpback flies,
they're like the Quasimodo of flies.
Also notice, if you look at the legs
where they attach to the body,
particularly the pair,
look how thick those legs are.
They're kind of muscular looking.
And if you've ever seen
this fly moving around,
oftentimes you find them
running instead of flying.
They are scurrying around
on the counter,
hence part of the reason
why they're also called the scuttle fly.
And so their body reflects
that ability to run.
Who is this thing on the picture?
Fruit, cluster, drain, fungus gnat?
And we agree it's the fruit. And it is.
And this is the textbook picture
of a fruit fly,
bright red eyes, light tanned body.
But notice the difference,
'cause some of you that were struggling
between this and the phorid...
Look at the legs
how thin and skinny they are.
This is not a fast running fly.
Look at the silhouette of the body,
there's no big major hump on it.
And again, the eyes are different.
If we go back to the earlier picture...
Hopefully now you can see
the difference between the two.
Another point I want to mention
about fruit flies
is on the bottom of page five,
we get into some of these pest species.
Just so you know,
a species is a scientific term
used by one definition to describe
a group of animals or organisms
that cannot successfully reproduce
with others
and produce viable offspring.
And so for instance, the German roach
is a distinct species
Blattella germanica.
Well, with flies, fruit flies,
the general term fruit fly
can be applied
to several different species.
There's more than one in this case
unlike German roaches.
And so with fruit flies,
the main kind that we deal with
is the red eyed one you just saw.
But I'd like to warn folks
there are other ones.
And particularly, I'd like to alert you
to the dark eyed fruit flies.
And there's more than one type.
But overall, they're much darker,
their eyes can be almost black,
and notice the body coloring,
how dark it is,
and notice how much thicker this fly
looks body wise compared to this.
And the reason I show you these
is because I have gotten samples
over the years from folks in the field
where particularly in a restaurant,
they're having the dark-eyed fruit fly
but they can't figure it out.
It doesn't look
like a regular fruit fly,
but yet it doesn't look
like a phorid either,
and they don't have a clue
and they're struggling
with resolving the problem.
And it may and it often ends up
being this thing.
The point about them is not only they're
a little bit bigger and they're darker
but they also can breed in other things
besides what typical
fruit flies breed in.
This one can go for rotten
potatoes and onions, not just fruit,
and you can also
have these breeding in sewage,
which is not something
we typically think of with fruit flies.
And so I just let you know
these things are out there.
I'm not saying
you'll encounter them a lot
but if you're in commercial,
eventually you will probably
run into them.
This leads me to an important point
about identification.
As you've already told me yourself,
it's usually the adult
the customer is complaining about.
And to that point,
when we get called in,
since these things are active
during the daylight,
they're active flyers,
they're usually visible to us.
That means, when you go in,
one of the first things
you're going to do is identify the fly.
And once you know
which fly species it is,
you should have a good idea
of what it likes to breed in.
And we learned about that
in the pre-work,
we taught you
what a fruit fly goes for, a blowfly.
For instance, blowflies typically breed
in rotting meat based things
like animals that are dead,
rotting hamburgers
or meat-based food things,
that's what they target.
That means if I have
a blowfly problem indoors,
then that tells me
that's the sort of stuff
I need to be looking for.
Do fruit flies eat only fruit?
Antonio, no, as I just mentioned,
they can go for other things.
And so I talked about that.
Jeremiah.
Would it be...
Would it be...
Okay, so Jeremiah is asking,
"Is the dark-eyed fruit fly
as long as the regular fruit fly?"
I'm assuming
that's what you're asking.
And actually, the dark-eyed
would be a little bit bigger.
They're not twice as big
but they're a little bit bigger
than your regular red-eyed fruit fly.
And, Robert, if you're having
an audio issue, call the 1800 number.
Well, the question
was asked earlier,
how do I or where do I look
for the maggots.
Let's do that right now
and that is revolving
around the breeding material.
I want to show you
some pictures here
and I want you to select
from what you read in the pre-work
which species of fly
may breed in that.
And by breeding, I want to be clear,
I'm meaning laying eggs,
maggots developing,
eating in the stuff.
And so, Benjamin, if you're having
that issue with the audio,
a lot of times that may be local,
specific to your area with the internet,
and so that's where
call the helpline
and have them look into that.
Our first one to look at here
on the screen,
we've got a commercial
kitchen floor drain,
who would breed down that?
A cluster fly, fruit fly,
moth fly, phorid fly?
Select all that apply.
While you're answering that,
Pablo has asked if flies group
together in a colony.
It's not a colony like ants.
The flies don't work together
for each other.
At the end of the day,
the fly's in it for itself.
So it's every fly
for themselves.
But flies can certainly be
attracted to similar things
and you can have
a large number of them
all gathering
around the same area.
And so it gives the illusion
like a bee or an ant colony
but it's not really
a true colony.
If we look here,
we're hitting all of them.
And it really shouldn't be all.
It's just B, C, and D.
Cluster flies.
Someone remind us
all in the audience
what did cluster flies breed in.
Anyone remember
from the pre-work?
Does anyone out there remember
what cluster flies breed in?
Well, maybe not.
Looks like
Andre remembers those.
Andre, what do they breed in?
Warm walls of buildings,
often outdoors
when temperatures decrease.
No, they're not breeding those.
They're coming in to escape
the cold to survive,
but breeding remember,
A, laying eggs,
and the maggots eating
and developing.
So that's not happening there
but there are a few of you
who got it in the chat.
Earthworms.
So cluster flies
breed in earthworms.
I don't know about you
but I don't remember the last time
I saw an earthworm down
a commercial kitchen floor drain.
Now that would not be
a likely place to find cluster flies.
The other three though could.
Now I think
sometimes people are shocked
by fruit flies being down there.
But if you think about
a commercial kitchen,
they're chopping and cutting produce,
it falls on the floor,
it gets mopped with the mop water
down the floor drain.
There you go.
And the moth flies are called
drain flies for a reason.
And phorid flies similarly will be
breeding in a similar location.
And Richard has asked, "Could you have
fungus gnats down a floor drain?"
Possibly.
You know, if there's
fungus growing in it,
that could be a possibility.
Let's test our knowledge
another time with this one,
potted plant
that's been over-watered.
So what could we have
breeding in this?
You could say that, Pablo.
I mean they do attack
the earthworms.
It's not a parasite of humans
and I have to be careful
with the word parasite.
I would not say that
in front of a customer
because people
hear the word parasite
and immediately think
that must mean people.
And so it's not necessarily,
you know, of humans.
And so amongst ourselves
in the profession, it's fine,
but, you know,
just watch that with a customer.
The next thing you know,
they'll be setting their yards on fire
trying to burn them up.
And we mostly agreed here
fungus gnat.
And that's really
the best answer.
I could make up a scenario
where you could have
some of these others in a potted plant,
like you could have a mouse
that crawled in and died
in the potted plant
and you could have a blowfly.
But again,
at the end of the day,
the true essence of this picture
of the potted plant itself,
it's mainly fungus gnat.
And as a side note,
if you have fungus gnats,
they're one of the simplest ones
to resolve in the sense that
there's usually something like that
with the potted plan,
where plants are involved,
you need to find it,
customer needs to not water it
as much, let it dry out.
In fact, with many plants,
not all but many,
it's better for the plant itself
to let the soil dry
a little between waterings.
And if they just let it dry out,
that usually kills off the larvae
or if that's something
they're really concerned about,
just take the whole potted plant out
and that takes care of it.
Now the adults may live on
for several more days, a week or so,
but if the source is gone,
that should usually dissipate.
Do fungus gnats bite humans? No.
In fact, Moses, I'm not even certain
they even have mouth parts.
You know, some of these
adult flies lack even a mouth.
A lot of fly species, you know,
the adult stage is for one purpose only,
that's to mate
and they drop dead.
And so it depends
on the species though.
Some can bite but we're not getting
into those in this lesson.
You know, your horse flies,
deer flies are biting flies
but those are
typically associated
with warm-blooded
large animals outdoors.
It would not normally be
an indoor pest.
Most of the ones we're talking
about here in this lesson
and in the pre-work would not be
considered a biting fly.
Who would breed
in the glass of wine here?
Or not maybe be breeding,
maybe be attracted to, I should say.
Which fly would be attracted
to the glass of wine?
And we mostly agree fruit fly.
And it is poor sad little fruit fly.
Before humans came along,
if fruit was starting to rotten,
they would produce
carbon dioxide and alcohol
as part of the fermentation,
but that's what the fruit fly
would smell.
And when it would land, it would find
this rotting piece of fruit.
And the alcohol
would either be evaporating
or running away into the soil.
Humans found out though,
we liked the thing
that's the byproduct
of the fermentation
and we didn't let it evaporate
or run off and we bottled it.
And so with bottles
or containers open,
the smell coming out of it
make the fruit fly think
it's finding fruit
and then it falls in
and drowns in the liquid.
And so it's not actually
breeding per se in it,
but it will be attracted
to it nonetheless.
And that's why fruit flies
are the number one pest of a bar,
technically not a bar fly.
Do fruit flies get drunk?
Well, Moses, if they fall in that,
it'd pretty much kill it.
So it'll drown in the alcohol
and would not be able to survive.
I'm sure you could
get them drunk
in the scientific definition
of being drunk.
You could probably
alter their senses
but I think it probably
would die long
before that would
even be noticed.
It's not like the fly kind of
comes out and flies around,
weaving around,
or staggering on the counter.
That usually wouldn't happen.
All right,
here's a good question to answer.
And I want you to put
a yes or no on your tablet.
Don't answer yet.
Now looking at this picture
and the question asked
now answer yes or no.
Are flies the problem
in this picture?
Most of us said no.
And in this picture,
the answer is no.
So don't chat anything
right now.
I'm going to put a statement out
that I want you to write down
on page eight.
And I'll go ahead and say it to you.
You can start writing it down.
Flies usually are not the problem.
They are the symptom of a problem.
So looking down in your chat,
nobody chat for a moment
so everybody can write this down.
Write that statement on page eight.
Flies usually are not the problem.
They are the symptom of a problem.
In that kitchen I was showing you,
you could go in and kill flies
till the end of time.
But so long as that stuff
that you saw was there,
the problem's going to keep going.
And so that's why flies are really
unique amongst many of the pests
that we deal with for this reason,
you know,
because it is vital and critical
that we not just look at the adults.
A lot of this is going to be
focused on the immature.
In fact, I would say,
the more important part
is focused on the immatures.
And so that's what
we're gonna build through here
in the next piece of our discussion.
I want to walk through
what are we supposed to hunt
for during the inspection.
And then in the second half
of the module,
what are the things that are gonna be
needed to do to take care of it?
Are there any quick questions
that you'd like me to answer
about the sources
or the flies that we just looked at
before I move to inspection?
Do they nest in homes?
Well, I mean, when I hear the word nest,
I'm thinking about they actually
construct something like an ant
or like a bird or a termite
and I don't think they actually
construct anything.
Will they come in
and survive in homes?
Yes, certainly, the small flies
are commonly found breeding in homes.
Adults, the large flies may come in,
they can possibly breed
in some situations.
But to your point, Robin, over winter,
cluster fly,
that's the big issue with them.
That's their whole problem as a pest
is in the fall of temperatures,
they'll come in to survive as adults.
These other flies are not normally
necessarily over wintering per se,
they'll stay active
as long as they're alive,
unlike the cluster fly,
which kind of hibernates
or goes dormant.
Do different species of flies
mingle together?
Well, I mean in the sense
that you could have multiple species
all around the same thing, sure.
I mean, you could have fruit flies
and house flies and blowflies
and all of that,
all in the same dumpster,
in the same trash can.
You know, the adults
are crawling around on it.
As far as competition goes, I mean,
since flies aren't necessarily,
in this case,
in these species, predatory,
it's not necessarily as big of an issue.
Now again, they're not social
in the sense that like ants,
there's no queen fly,
there's no worker fly.
You know, at the end of the day,
they're all just kind of in it
for themselves.
Patrice.
After a facility is clean
and your service used,
how long will it take
to remove the problem?
Well, if all the breeding sources
are gone completely
and we've got our program in place,
I mean, by that point,
the problem should disappear.
I mean, you could have
some lingering adults
for several days, a week or two,
but after the breeding source is gone,
no more new flies
should be being created.
And so we're left with is
whatever adults are left.
And that's a matter of trapping them out
or contact killing them
or just waiting them out,
letting them die.
Why are flies attracted to light?
Well, all the insects,
they're attracted to light
or attracted to it
for this very similar reason.
Before humans came along
and created artificial light,
you know, if insects flew at night,
they were flying, flying using the moon.
The moon was kind
of their guiding point.
And so they would
orient themselves.
But since the moon
is way up in outer space,
they could never fly to it
but they used it kind of orient.
When humans hung artificial moons,
so to speak, down low,
and now the flies can fly to it in.
And so it throws them off
and alters their pattern.
Are butterflies a fly?
I'll tell you what, I'm going
to give y'all the answer of that.
Now look up a picture
and count the wings and you tell me.
All right, let's go ahead
then move to our next piece here.
And I want to talk about
inspections for flies.
As always, we're going to interview
the customer in the beginning
and ask what have you seen,
where, how long, how many,
you know, have you treated for yourself.
And then from there,
we're going to look for,
it says here on the slide,
conditions conducive to pests
as well as critical inspection areas.
Conditions conducive
would be the food sources
which can include sanitation issues
as well as the other flies attractants
of light, odor, and moisture.
Critical inspection areas then would be
where are these things found?
And remember, as we just discussed
what the species are attracted
to is often very specific.
And so if it's a blowfly problem,
you look for this,
a fruit fly problem, you look for that.
And then that means
we know where to target.
I'm going to go through now
a series of commercial environments
and have you think about
what would be
the critical inspection areas
and attractants.
And so as we go through these,
I want you to chat as the video plays
or as I show you the picture
what attractants
or breeding areas you spot?
Now in this first video,
it's going to be the commercial kitchen
here at the Learning Center.
Now we don't cook in it.
It's not set up to actually cook in.
It's the equipment though.
And yes, so it'll be the cleanest one
you'll ever see.
Also, ignore the fly light.
But otherwise, look at this video,
chat what attractants
or breeding areas you spot.
All right, looking here at my chats,
I see sink, I see pots,
I see drains, dishwashing area,
the racks, food debris,
again, the light, ignore that
because that really
shouldn't have been seen there.
The shelving, dishwasher,
could be the food on the counter.
Great.
And so if we think
about commercial kitchens,
the attractants are often
the improper drainage cleaning issues,
could be grease build up or food debris
as well as exposed garbage
or garbage cans,
open meat or produce,
and standing water.
The critical inspection areas
then would be,
as you were telling me,
where those things are found.
And so certainly,
the drains are a big one.
Floor tiles and baseboards.
That's one that I don't think
people fully appreciate.
If you've been behind
in a commercial kitchen,
you'll know there's usually
tile on the floor and grout.
Over time, that grout will chip
and chunks of it will come out
and it creates these little divots there
that will trap stuff
as they mop the floor.
And then grout itself
can be somewhat porous.
And if it's not properly sealed,
or over time,
it'll start to soak up
those liquids as well.
And believe it or not,
flies can breed in as little as that.
Likewise, even the tile itself
can get cracks in it.
And again, stuff gets
trapped down in those cracks
or sometimes the floor will settle
and create these depressions
where these low lying areas
collect stuff.
There's also baseboards.
And pretend this hand here
is a baseboard.
So this is a baseboard
or the side of a piece
of commercial equipment or table leg.
This fist here is a mop head.
As the employees mop the floor,
they're going to rub the mop
against the side of those appliances
or those baseboards.
Well, the leading top edge of the mop
stuff kind of rides up
the mop a film does.
And as they push it
against the top here,
you'll get this little film
getting deposited
just above the mop line.
It's kind of like
if you think about a lake
where the high water line you can see,
when the water is low,
you can see
where the high water mark went.
That's kind of what
we're talking about here.
And over time, that film
can get deposited enough
to where the flies can even breed in it.
And even if it's not enough to breed in,
it'll be enough to attract them
at the very least.
And that's again another thing
that I think people underestimate.
Dishwashers are a big one particularly
if they don't wash
or clean off the big chunks of food.
Garbage cans are certainly a big one.
Refrigerator drip pans.
In your own home,
if you never wipe down a surface,
what happens over time?
Dust and debris collect on it.
Well, these drip pans,
the idea is as the machine's running,
it's producing condensation
that drips into the pan and evaporates.
But since they may often
never clean that pan,
it gets full of crud.
And then here there's water drips on it
and it start stuff growing.
And especially,
if the drip pan's down on the floor,
you can imagine all the food debris
and things on the floor
that can get kicked or knocked
and wind up in that.
And then the garbage disposals
could be another.
Pablo has asked, "Do fruit flies
come in on the bananas already,
meaning they've already
laid eggs in them?
It's possible.
I'm not going to say
that's always the case.
But if you have a bad place in the fruit
or rotten one there in the bag,
certainly that could happen
and you can bring them in that way.
Now let's do the same exercise.
This time, I'm going to show you a bar.
A lot of the answers coming in
are good ones.
We're getting the liquor itself,
the drains, the bottles,
the syrups, the wells,
the mats on the floor as well
as the drink mats up on the bar,
the fruit tray, the condiment tray,
the bus pan.
Good.
If we go through the slide here,
the conditions conducive to pests
would be improper drainage
or cleaning issues,
the open alcohol and alcohol like wine,
if it's left uncork over time
will just eventually turn to vinegar.
Drain odors could be a big issue,
recycle bins, ice wells.
A lot of times in businesses,
they think
since ice is so cold and sterile
that nothing grows
in those ice machines.
And technically, they're supposed
to clean them on a regular basis.
If they don't, you'd be horrified
what would grow in there,
bacteria wise, algae wise,
but you can even get roaches
living in the motor housing
next to the ice with their feces
and them physically
just dying in the ice.
And you can even have flies,
maggots breeding
in the sludge there too.
And so that could be
something else that's considered.
That's why if you've
ever been with a friend
that doesn't want ice in their glass,
it's probably for sanitary reasons.
The critical inspection areas in a bar
would be the liquor storage,
beer taps or fruit trays, water coolers,
soda dispensers, and ice wells.
With the beer taps
and the soda dispensers,
you know, those dispensing heads,
there's lots of syrups
get collected there
on that nozzle
and that whole thing needs to be
broken down
and cleaned periodically,
the lines need to be
cleaned periodically.
And if they don't,
a lot of gook builds up
and you can get flies
even breeding in that.
And so like even in the fast food places
where you put your cup
and the little lever in it,
dispenses the soda in,
you can have flies breeding in that head
dropping maggots into your drink even.
And so all of those things need to be
broken down and cleaned periodically.
Garbage recycle bins
could be another one.
Sink and floor drains.
Those floor mats are designed to keep
the employees from slipping and falling
but they do trap a lot of crud
and they need to be pulled out
and pressure washed on a regular basis.
All right, let's put up
this picture of a bathroom.
And I think we would probably
mostly all of us get these.
So I'm just going to dial
through them somewhat quickly.
The obvious things
in the bathroom are the sinks,
the trash can under the sink,
and then you've got a floor drain
on the far right edge.
There's the urinals here
and the urinal mats.
And if you look in the reflection
of the mirror behind the sink,
you'll see out of shot of the picture
are the stalls
and so you have the toilets
as well as the plumbing.
And so in a bathroom,
your improper drainage
or cleaning issues can be a problem.
Odors from things that are going on
in the bathroom will attract flies,
drain build up,
you could have leaky pipes
as well as loose floor tiles.
And so, William, no, these things
are not all listed in your books
but I think a lot of these
when you're on your field days,
the critical point is
think about what's decaying
or moisture sources for flies
because what I'm even listing
is not a complete exhaustive list
and you'll be able to, onsite,
come up with a lot of things
beyond what this is.
And so what I would say is
on your field days,
you know, be thinking about these things
and asking your CFT about it some more.
The outdoors,
we think about flies, most often,
the small flies that we learned
will breed indoors.
But the large flies
may often breed outdoors
and then come in
around a window or door.
And so when we think about them,
we need to consider what's the source.
And as you can see in this picture,
an obvious one would be
the dumpsters around commercial,
could be a trash can at home.
Other things, look at how that kind of
mulch sort of pine straw shrubby thing
in the back.
You know, if that's real wet and damp,
you might even get some flies
breeding in that.
We also can look at, besides garbage,
you can look at feces.
And you may think, "Well, wait a minute.
What do you mean feces?"
Human feces can happen,
let's say at a restaurant,
if they have a baby diaper
changing station,
you know, and as those diapers
are being carried out to the dumpster,
maybe the bag tears
or some of them fall out,
then there's animal feces.
And this is a big one for me
when I was in residential,
you know, a lot of times homeowners,
if they have a dog,
they'll let it go poop in the backyard.
And if they never pick it up,
you know,
then you'll get these blowflies
or housefly breeding in it.
We talked about the overgrown vegetation
as well as other
just decaying organic stuff,
and so like leaf piles
and stuff that's rotting,
some of those can produce
some other flies.
Compost could.
You might get some fungus gnats
and things
associated with a compost pile.
Now fungus gnats
are such wimpy little flyers.
I mean, them to fly indoors
would be kind of minor
but you could have some issues there.
The final one we're going to do
and then we'll take
an eight minute break is this home.
And so chat in
what are the issues here you see?
And so we've got the trash can,
we got the windows, the fruit.
Dish washer, dishes in sink.
Yeah, you've got a lot of the ones
I was going for here.
The other ones you might want to add
would be the refrigerator itself
could be another possibility.
But all of those things
are possible sources here.
That brings us
to the end of the inspection.
Now onto the underlying thing,
how are the flies getting in
and what are they breeding in?
And so looking for gaps for entry
and then breeding sources
depend on species.
And from my own experience,
when you're out there inspecting
for these sources,
sometimes it's obvious, you'll walk in,
there's the open trash can.
Other times, it's not obvious
and you have to really be
that pest control detective.
You know, sometimes things get down
in behind pieces of equipment.
And in commercial, that's a big deal.
A lot of times in commercial,
these pieces of cooking equipment
never get pulled out
and that's a major problem
for German roaches, for flies,
and so we got to make sure
we get back in there
and look for those things.
And then sometimes, too, it's in areas
that we don't normally get to see.
You know, it could be
in a locked closet,
in a drop ceiling we may not go up into.
And so when you're doing this
pest control detective thing,
you've got to be able to really
look at everything.
Another experience I've even had
in some situations for drains
that when the building
was being built made sense.
But after it opened,
they moved some big time piece
of machinery over it.
Despite the fact
that the floor drain was still there
and it's still connected
to the plumbing.
And so what could happen
is that drain dries out,
you can have stuff backing up
or gases coming up
or flies coming up from pipes
and getting up in through
that floor drain coming out
but because you physically
can't get to it,
it's under this big time piece
of machinery,
it was hard to find.
And I found situations like that
where I had to get the blueprints out
for the building,
you know, from whoever's in charge
of maintenance of the facility
and start tracing lines
and see if I could find
and physically get to all of the drains.
And if I couldn't, you know, maybe
that was where it was coming from.
Vents, Dillon.
Vents are kind of pretty dry.
And so usually it's not
a good place for flies
unless they are getting
water running down inside the vent
which will pose other problems.
But usually, I wouldn't be
as concerned as much with vents.
We're going to take
an eight minute break
and then come back after that
and we're going to finish this
fly lesson up with fly control.
So get up, stretch your legs,
and I'll see you back in eight minutes.
Welcome back 'cause we're about
to finish up our fly lesson
with the second portion
looking at control.
As we come back into this piece,
we're always going to be
looking at our IPM solution,
remembering that that's cultural,
physical, and chemical tools.
And what we're gonna do is
walk through the different tools
but I want you to keep in mind
as we move through these,
I'm going to cover them
in order of importance.
Meaning, the first set
of control strategies
that we're going to look at
are the most critical,
the next set will be second,
and then the third
and final set will be the least.
And so bear that in mind.
That means this first chunk
we're about to cover
is most important
to overall fly control success.
And the reason why this first chunk
is so important for that reason
is it addresses the breeding material.
And I'm going to ask you questions.
Let's see if we're all paying attention
at the end of the lesson
but I'm going to ask you a question
about this very thing.
I'm going to give you some examples
of tools and have you tell me
which one addresses
the breeding material.
And the answer is
it's only the ones in the first piece
that I'm about to cover.
And that's the cultural tools,
the things of customers
reducing food, water, and shelter.
To that point,
who is implementing these things?
Is it us or the customer?
So who physically
is going to mop the floors,
take out the trash?
And, David, I see your
call popped up in there.
If you meant to call in, leave it there
and I'll take it after this question.
If not, you can clear it out.
And most of us agree it's the customer.
And yes, our responsibility
in this situation is to inspect,
identify these issues,
and then make recommendations
to the customer on ways
that they can address it.
And so that's why these cultural tools
are so important
because these are really the only ones
that are addressing the food source
for the maggots.
You know, by taking out the trash,
pitching that rotten fruit,
you know, cleaning up those surfaces,
that's what gets rid of it.
And so that's why
those are the most important.
Now another component of cultural tools
besides addressing
the breeding materials
would be what's attracting
the flies in the form of light.
And as we've established,
flies like white colored light,
but they're not as strongly
attracted to yellow.
And if it's a situation
where customers have lights,
they could just simply turn off
at night, that's best.
But if they can't,
let's say it's a business
and they need to have lighting
on the exterior all night long,
then we would recommend
they switch it out for a yellow light,
if it's attached to the building,
or if they can relocate it,
put it on a post or put it on something
away from the building
'cause what the flies are going to do is
follow the light back to the bulb,
back to the source.
And if that's attached to the building,
then that's just drawing them
like a magnet up against the building.
And so if I put it on a post
away from the building,
it still allows there to be
light in the area
but the flies are going to hang
around the lamp off by the post.
Normally, when we go through
cultural tools with other pests
like we did this morning for ants
and with cockroaches on Tuesday,
this is it.
You know, customer recommendations
and we move on.
This time around,
we're going to have another tool
that we can provide to the customer
and we can even use ourselves.
And so here's a little bit of culture
we could do and that's Actizyme.
And if you're looking
in your books on page 14,
you'll see some printed information.
I'm going to play
for you a marketing video
that covers the high points of Actizyme
from a customer standpoint.
But I think it does a good job
of giving you the basics.
Let's watch the video and I'll be back
to add a few additional thoughts.
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and we know commercial kitchens
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We also know that greasy build up
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Simply put, Orkin Actizyme
is a professional cleaner
and degreaser that break down
organic compounds,
the kind that build up
on floors, drains,
and other surfaces
in food service facilities.
What makes Orkin Actizyme
stand out is the way it works.
Actizyme uses a specialized blend
of naturally occurring enzymes
and beneficial bacteria
specifically selected
because they break down
the type of build up found
in commercial kitchen.
These natural ingredients mean Actizyme
does not produce the harsh fumes
and odor typically associated
with commercial cleaning products.
This makes Actizyme
an environmentally friendly solution
that's also extremely effective.
Use Actizyme to help remove
that slippery layer of grime
from your kitchen floor.
It works deep into cracks and crevices
where grease likes to build up.
Treat dirty greasy drains
with Actizyme to improve drainage
and help prevent flies that congregate
and breed in the drains in your kitchen.
Other floor, grout,
and drain cleaners only mask odors
and simply spread grime around
without actually eliminating
the root cause.
Orkin Actizyme
breaks down the organic matter
that odor causing bacteria feed on
and flies breed in,
keeping bad odors and the bacteria
that cause them out of your kitchen.
And because Actizyme is reactivated
with water, a little goes a long way.
Just 1 ounce of Orkin Actizyme will mix
with an entire gallon of mop water.
That helps save you time and money.
Actizyme is available as concentrate
in 5 gallon, 5 gallon
or 55 gallon containers.
Or try to dispenser system
for quick convenient preparation.
Remember, for commercial kitchens
looking for a low-impact way
to help cut grease and
grime and prevent pests
without harsh chemicals or fumes,
Orkin Actizyme is the answer.
Ask your Orkin Man to find out
how you can get Orkin Actizyme
in your kitchen today.
There you have Actizyme floor
and drain cleaner.
And it's a wonderful tool.
If you're in commercial
and you are servicing
or selling to food serving
or food retail establishments,
meaning grocery stores, restaurants,
those types of areas,
they definitely need this
and this is something
I would definitely offer to them.
It's great to eat the grease
and some of the grime.
But I want to set the record straight.
And Christopher has asks a point
that I can kind of weave into my point
I was already going to make.
So he brought up,
"Will it eat hair out of drains?"
Let me be clear. This is not Drano.
This is not some high powered
drain unclogging system.
If you go in and inspect
and you find build up in the drains,
number one,
the customer needs to clean that first
and they can do that themselves,
they can contract someone to do it,
some of your branches
you can ask may do it,
could be able to offer that service,
but somehow, someone's got to break
all of that and clean it out first.
Then Actizyme can be put in
to hopefully keep that
from building back up
'cause the actizyme bacteria
and enzyme in it
is only going to eat
a certain amount of grease.
It's not going to be a high powered
drain unclogging system.
And so it's good
for ongoing maintenance.
But if there's an issue now,
it's got to be addressed first.
Likewise, with Actizyme,
now this is something that we would
typically not use in residential,
'cause if you think about it,
a residential home kitchen
is going to have far less grease
and food debris on the floor
and on the drains than a business would.
If you take
a commercial restaurant kitchen
versus a home, there's no comparison.
The only example of Actizyme
we might use in a home
would be that aerosol foaming
can version,
but that would be about it.
For the most part in a home
if there's clogs in the drain,
again,
like with the commercial customer,
they just need to break that up,
clean it up, and that takes care of it.
But in commercial,
since there is so much food preparation
going on constantly,
that's where the Actizyme
is an advantage.
Also, when they're using Actizyme,
they should not mix it
with any harsh cleaners or bleach
'cause it will destroy the enzyme.
And likewise, they shouldn't mix it
in boiling, scalding hot water.
And in fact, the bottle itself
will have the instructions on
how to properly mix it and apply it.
And that's something you'll want to read
and then go over yourself
with the customer
if you're setting it up with them
for the first time.
Justin has asked, "Could Actizyme be
sold as a cultural tool for roaches?"
Wonderful, Justin.
'Cause think about it, the grease
and the grime isn't just for flies.
Roaches, ants, rodents, anything
that feeds on that type of stuff
or attracted to that type of stuff,
by keeping that under control,
would be helped.
And so that's why I think
it's such an important tool
for those industries.
Now you have to be careful,
the EPA several years ago
came down with a clear stance
that things were either pesticides
or cleaning agents.
And a pesticide
is what's killing the pest.
And a sanitation product
is just a cleaning product.
And Actizyme is not a pesticide.
And so that's where they wanted us
to be very clear.
When we talk to the customers
or the public about it,
we don't say Actizyme gets rid of flies
or Actizyme gets rid of roaches.
What Actizyme does
is it breaks down grease
and is a great sanitation product.
And by reducing that grease build up,
that's reducing the attractants
that many pest like roaches and flies
and the things it would be attracted to.
But you hopefully see
the difference there.
"Is it considered a green product?"
Charles has asked.
Well, green is a very tricky word.
It depends on your definition of green.
And different people
in different organizations
have their own terminology
and some things apply
to certain products and not others.
I would say it's certainly
more environmentally friendly
than say other things would be.
I don't know if I would label it
necessarily as green,
depends on your definition.
You could ask your branch
about what we as a company
have on our list of green products
'cause there are some areas that do have
what we call a green service line.
Does it have a pleasant scent?
I don't recollect it ever having
like a very perfumy smell to me.
I mean, it's just kind of like
a regular foamy cleaner.
It doesn't smell bad either.
I don't remember it
really having a very strong, distinct,
pungent smell,
either pleasant or otherwise.
And so I think it's just
mainly a cleaning product.
And so to Andre, yes,
it is an Orkin product.
It is an Orkin exclusive.
It is something
that we as a company only carry.
We'll tell you there are other
enzymatic cleaners out there,
meaning that you can go out there
and find other cleaners like it.
But Actizyme itself is an Orkin
or Rollins exclusive.
I would not use it on hardwood floors,
Pablo.
I would be careful.
I would look at the instructions to see
what it says about that.
I would think a lot of
commercial kitchens in the back,
where the kitchen is,
would not have hardwood anyway,
it would all be tiled
or some kind of laminate.
And so that would be fine.
But as far as hardwood,
I would want to look at the bottle
and I don't have one
in front of me to look at it.
But personally, just hardwood
is always making me nervous
'cause even water can stain hardwoods.
And I would be
concerned about the finish
and it maybe doing something to that.
Eric, let's talk about this.
So the other things to mention is,
for us, we can use Actizyme.
You can mix some up in a spray bottle
and squirt down sides of table legs
or appliances.
And then we have a piece of equipment
and it's called the Foamer Simpson.
Yes, that's the name, Foamer Simpson.
And you can mix
the foaming agent in it with Actizyme
and get it to shaving cream consistency
and then you can foam, yourself,
the sides of table legs,
appliances in these kitchens
where I talked about
that mop film build up.
And we've seen in situations
with small fly problems
that we weren't getting that helped.
Now talk to your branch
about charging for that though
because some branches
may want to charge additionally
because it's not a piece of equipment
you usually just have on the truck
and it may take more time to do.
But it could be worth the investment
if they're having
lots of small fly problems.
Vanessa has asked, "Do they
need to use the product only
or if it's dry
then use a chemical to mop?"
So normally, Vanessa, and I'm
not very clear on your question.
So if I don't answer it correctly
then clarify it for me.
But if you're asking
can they just pour the Actizyme
straight on the floor or down the drain,
normally what they would do
is it needs to be diluted with water.
And as they mop the floors,
that'll take care of it.
And then when they're done
with the mop water,
they could just dump it down the drain
and so the Actizyme's in that.
And so they don't necessarily
need to put it on dry
and they're supposed to be
in these environments,
mopping the floors anyway.
And so this is just putting in it
what is already
part of their normal routine.
Okay.
How long?
I mean, it doesn't have an...
I wouldn't say it doesn't last forever.
It's like any cleaner.
You use it, it cleans,
and then it dries,
and it's probably
not doing much after that.
And so that's why...
Again, this isn't Drano.
This isn't something that's designed
to foam and stay really wet
for a long time and break out a clog.
I mean, this is going to get
a little bit of the grease.
It's going to have
some residual activity.
How long? I don't know.
But it probably wouldn't, you know,
you wouldn't use Actizyme once
and then it keeps going
for weeks and weeks.
It would be needed to be every time
they mop the floor reapplying it.
All right, so that's all of cultural.
So that's the first chunk.
And remember,
that's the most important chunk
because between the Actizyme,
the customer sanitation, those steps,
that's the only stuff
that's getting rid of the food source,
the breeding material.
Charles, the toxicity level,
I'd have to look at the product bottle
to see if there's anything on that.
It should be fairly low toxicity
to people and mammals
but I don't happen to have
in front of me the label to look at it
and I'd have to look to see
if there's an LD50 on it
or anything like that.
Does it contain repellents?
No. Not to my knowledge.
I mean, again, it's just
the bacteria and the enzyme.
And so that in and of itself
shouldn't be repellent to the pests.
Step two is the next chunk
that we're going
to take a look at is now
moving down the importance level,
physical.
And there's two parts to physical.
There's exclusion and then
there's trapping and monitoring.
From an exclusion standpoint,
the customer needs to do their part
to keep windows and doors closed
as well as put on screens.
And so this is just simply
keeping the flies out.
And with your large flies,
this can be very important
since that's often how they get in.
In addition,
we have some tools we can use.
Now these are all for the most part,
except for the last one,
are going to be all commercial
in nature.
And so if you're following along
in your books, we're on page 15.
Air curtains, the science
behind the why with them.
If you've ever been in a business
when the doors, front doors open,
there's whoosh of air
and it blows in your face,
people get this notion
that it's to cool me,
the customer off,
it's a comfort thing for me.
It's not actually.
It's designed to keep out bugs.
It's pest control.
With flies only having one pair of wings
and them not being
able to fly great distances,
they tire very easily.
And if you hit them with a blast of wind
and they're trying to fight against
that air current to get in,
they're going to tire out
even more easily
and get blown back and deflected it.
And so that's where installing these
near entry points could be very useful
particularly at accounts prone to flies.
And so if you have food serving,
food retail, you have hotel,
motels, you have hospitals,
anywhere where there's
front main doors opening and shutting,
these are a good option.
And it could be used
elsewhere in the building,
you know, on the exterior,
any major like receiving door,
they could be helpful.
And they could even possibly
be used interior
if you've got like a manufacturing plant
and there's a room
that needs to be kept fairly bug free,
you know, some people
will do an anti-chamber
where there's a door you open,
the fan blows,
you shut the door
before the interior door will even open.
But there's lots of options for these
but it's a wonderful
non-chemical way to keep bugs out,
and it's not just flies,
it would be for other flying insects.
Air strips would be another thing
that we can use.
And I have here on the laptop computer
an example of what these look like.
So if we can go
to the laptop real quick.
So laptop please.
Thank you.
Now here you can see
what these look like.
Now these are these rubberized
plastic strips that are hanging down
and you see the forklift
is parting them.
Over here's some brick indicating
the outside of the building.
The concept is if you
didn't have this hanging here,
this would be a wide open space,
and birds, flies,
other insects could be getting in.
By hanging these,
it creates a physical barrier
that stops the bugs from getting in
but yet does not interfere
with the business being able to proceed.
Andre asked earlier,
"Can Actizyme be used
for wiping down sink areas?"
I would not use Actizyme
on food preparatory surfaces.
I would think it's best on the floors
or down the drains.
Although, you could
look at the product label to see
if it has that on the label,
but I would think it's mostly
for floors and drains.
Do we install the air current devices?
Pablo asked.
I would talk to your manager.
I would think, in most cases, yes,
we want to make sure
it's installed properly
but there might be some weird exception
I may not know of.
Yes, and so, Jeremiah, a lot of your
warehouse type businesses
will have air curtains
and possibly even air strips,
in your big box stores, let's say.
Another option would be door sweeps.
We've talked about those
for cockroaches and ants.
They work well here too.
Even though flies fly in the air,
they still can crawl
underneath the door.
And then for residential or commercial
both caulking cracks and crevices
would be very useful.
There's another tool that I want
to show you via video here,
it's called Trap Guard.
It originally started out creation
with the intention
to keep sewer gasses
from backing up into the business.
But as an added side bonus,
it was found to have
some pest control value.
Let's watch this real short video
and you'll see what it looks like
and then I'll add a few points.
The functioning of the Trap Guard
is as simple as it is elegant.
When waste water enters
the top of the drain,
it forces open the flexible material,
allowing flows
of up to 33 gallons per minute
through the drain opening.
Once flow stops,
the memory properties of the material
reseal the drain,
preventing any sewer gases
from entering the room.
As we see in this test,
the Trap Guard prevents
the 10.4 psf pressurized smoke
from backing up
through the drain opening.
In addition, the trap guard
prevents evaporation
and stops raw sewerage
from backing up into habitable areas.
There you saw the way the valve works.
And so this is great
to keep flies coming up
from plumbing or from sewers,
roaches, even rodents.
And so any of those pests
that may come up from sewers
or up from plumbing pipes,
this can help.
And the size of the Trap Guard varies
depending on the size of the drain.
And so you'd have to measure that first
and then go to your reference material
and see, you know,
which one do I need to get.
But this would be a great tool
to offer to customers
in commercial to keep flies
and other pests from coming out.
So yes, Justin, we do sell those.
And so ask your branch,
and if they're unaware of it,
they can talk
to their local technical services rep,
they can certainly fill them in.
There's information
on the MyOrkin webpage about them.
The Trap Guard video I just showed you
is also available on demand.
If you go into On Demand
and search on a computer "Trap Guard,"
it should come up as well, the video.
All right,
so that's the exclusion piece.
So again, number one,
most important tool is cultural,
the Actizyme and sanitation.
Number two, physical,
one part exclusion,
the next part would be trapping.
And, Andre, why would you really need
one of those in residential?
They're very industrial looking
and we don't normally have
a lot of floor drains in residential.
I mean, you've got your shower drain
but that's about the only equivalent
you might run into in a home.
So I don't really think
we'd ever run into a lot of floor drains
in that arena anyway.
Now if you did,
I mean you can talk to your manager,
I don't think
there's any reason to prohibit it
but I just don't think
you'd find many cases to need it.
Then next piece to talk about
here then would be the trapping.
And so with trapping,
we're mainly looking at fly lights.
And to help us understand
what some of those things
are going to be like,
we have a doctor on here,
so one of our directors
of technical services here.
He's going to show you on a video
some of the different types
of fly lights
and he's going to walk you through
where they're best used
and what some of the ins
and outs are for using them.
And, Brandon, if you have basements
that have floor drains in them,
potentially, I mean,
talk to your manager.
Again, I'm not aware of anything that
prohibits us using them in residential,
I just can't think of a lot of cases
where that's really come up.
But it could be a possibility.
So let's watch Ron about fly lights.
So we have a couple examples
over here to my right of fly lights
that you could put at
the front of the house
in a restaurant
or even a lobby area in a hotel
that no-one really knows what it is.
It's emitting a light,
it looks attractive,
and so you'd want to select a sconce
that fits that situation.
And if I was a sales person,
I would offer two or three
different scones
and let a customer pick.
Of course, they're all going
to be from those two suppliers.
Also, in an office building,
we have the fly web.
This thing here
is kind of inconspicuous,
isn't real obvious,
has a glue board in the back.
Not a lot of...
It wouldn't be used
on a high fly pressure area
but in an area
where flies aren't that excessive.
That would be workable as well,
more in an office type situation.
Now we're going to move
to the back of the house
and you've got to decide
what the fly pressure back there,
in the kitchen,
in the receiving area.
And so you're going to use
one of these other fly,
something that's a little smaller,
that just has two fly lights...
Lights, excuse me, at the bottom of it
and a glue board that you would remove.
Also, you've got the 1x3,
which has three lights
and it's about an inch or two wide.
Again,
has the Orkin Diamond on the front
but this is much more obvious
to go out in a restaurant area
or dining area but in the back.
Also, you might have a big warehouse
where you have lots of doors
that are open at the back.
Therefore, you're going to use
more of an industrial fly light
that could hang between
the bay doors coming in as well.
So you've got to assess the situation
and assess actually
how much the fly pressure
is to be able to help a customer choose
which of these fly lights,
glue board situations
they're going to use.
Now sometimes,
you have a circumstance
where you really don't want to fly light
or a glue board,
you really want to electrocute them.
And so here's
an industrial electrocuter.
What happens
there is the flies come into it
and they will kind of explode.
This is definitely not a light
that you would use around food
because when they explode,
particles could go every which way.
That's why you want to use
one of these over here
that have a glue board,
they come and get stunned,
drop down on the glue board
and therefore
there's no disease transmission.
This is one where you would be
in a warehouse
that certainly needs some fly control
but you're not worried about
particulates of the fly
to be splattered every which way.
So remember, find out the circumstance
and the fly pressure
in reference to picking a fly light.
There you had
a wide selection of fly lights
and their different uses.
Before we go through
more information on the fly light,
Jeremiah had asked earlier,
"Can you put Actizyme
in sink disposals?"
And that's where
that foaming can version of it
might be used in some situations
like that or sink drains,
it would be possibly used.
Going back then to the fly lights.
As you saw, most of the lights
function by there is bulb
that the flies are drawn to.
And behind it
there was some sticky board
or some measure that captured them.
And that's the usual style
and they come in small ones,
like the plug-in one for walls.
And those would be the only one
we might use in residential,
but then they scale all they way up
to those big massive industrial ones.
Most of the time in fly light,
understand that fly lights
are only for two reasons.
They're for monitoring of activity,
just to kind of keep an eye on
what's going on at the account.
And then they're useful to intercept
and trap some of the adults.
But I want to be extremely clear,
fly lights are not
a standalone fly solution.
Meaning, I would never tell a customer
I going to sell you some fly lights
and that'll take care
of your fly problem, it won't.
The only thing that
takes care of the fly problem
is those cultural things
that we looked at earlier.
And so this is only going to help us
keep an eye on the activity
and catch a few of the adults.
Now with the different sizes
and styles,
there's the ones
that look like light fixtures
called the sconce ones that he showed.
Those are best used
in public viewing areas
where customers might see them
versus behind the scenes like
in the behind the scenes
where the kitchen is
or behind the scenes in the warehouse.
That you would probably be using
more of the industrial grade type ones.
And the exploder ones
that he talked about,
as he mentioned,
those are not as used as much
because when the fly pops,
the guts, the bacteria,
all the stuff on it
just sprays into the air
and rains down on everything below it.
Think about that the next time
if you happen to having to have
one of those purple bug zapper
that you hang on your back porch.
The whole time you're drinking
your drink or eating your food,
you're getting sprayed
in the face with bug guts.
And so it's not something
that we typically use
unless it's a very special situation.
But when it gets into fly lights,
there's a lot more
I could spend time on this,
I could spend a whole
two hour module on them alone.
But since for most of you
in residential,
this won't apply to you that much,
what we've done is we've given you
a self study guide,
commercial folks,
to learn more about them.
You have to replace the bulbs,
change the glue boards,
there's a whole bunch more
that goes along with this.
Same with the mosquitoes.
Yeah. And, Eric, it's not just flies.
A lot of flying insects
will be attracted to these things.
There'll be wasps, moths, beetles,
there's a whole host of things
that are attracted to light.
So just think about your porch light,
you know, what variety of bugs
will be attracted
to a porch light overnight,
you know, the same thing here.
And so you'll catch
a lot more than just flies.
And it's important, folks,
that if we install these,
we don't just look for the flies,
you want to pay attention to everything
that's on there
because it could indicate,
you know, a whole bunch
of different pest problems.
And so, Robin,
you're onto the right track there.
So let's take just a side minute
to step back the whole program
and look at residential
versus commercial.
Residential flies
are not as big an issue,
they crop up every once in a while
but it's usually a case
of there's a rotten banana
or some fruit in the kitchen,
there's some dog poop in the backyard,
there's some gap around the door,
there's a garbage
can that's got bags leaked
that the flies are after.
There's a dead animal in the attic.
But it's usually a fairly confined
specific thing you see.
And so usually what we're doing
as the professional
is recommending customers
to get rid of whatever it is
if they can get rid of it
and then just help them
keep the building closed, end of story.
And so that's most
of residential fly control.
Commercial on the other hand,
because there is so much
more to draw in flies,
they occur so much more often,
there are so many opportunities
for them to get in,
there's so much risk involved
with like food serving, food retail.
There's a lot more
that's going to go on here.
And so that's why you have
all of these added tools
and that's why we started
this whole discussion
in the beginning about the difference
between residential and commercial
is for this very reason.
Justin has asked,
"Do we use those fly sticky strips?"
You can talk your branch.
Some branches do.
They are out there.
I don't think
they're as widely used as fly lights.
I think fly lights
are probably our number one
most frequently used
trapping technique.
But you can talk to them
and see what they say.
And yes, Aaron, dairies, farm fly
is a different beast altogether.
And you noticed
we're not going into farm fly here.
That's a lot more involved there
and that would be something your branch
would have to help you with
if you're going to be selling
that type of industry.
One final thing
that I do want to talk about
when it comes to fly lights
is I want to talk about
what we call the four rules
to fly light placement.
Meaning, when you're selecting
where you're going to be
putting a fly light out,
there's four considerations.
Number one, you don't want
to attract more flies in.
And so the science
behind the why is the light
is going to draw the flies to it.
If I aim the light
towards a window or door,
you're going to make
the problem worse, not better.
However, number two,
you want the fly to see
the light pretty quickly.
You don't want to put it in
some back closet, out of the way.
You want the fly to get caught quick.
And so to make sure
you fully understand what I'm saying,
if let's say this hand
is a door that opens
and shuts to the interior
of the building,
I wouldn't stick the light and aim it,
I wouldn't put the light
on the opposing wall aimed at the door
'cause every time
that door or window opens,
more flies are going to come in.
On the other hand, if that door opens
and a fly just sort of meanders in,
I would put the light on the wall
with the door, aim the interior.
So the light should always be facing
in towards the building,
not towards the exterior wall.
But you want to on the wall
with the exterior.
So you see what I'm saying?
So put it on the wall facing inward,
the same wall as the window and door
is but facing inside.
And, Charles,
if any of you have that issue
where we're having that
break up of the audio,
contact 1800-8262-492.
That's usually a network related issue
and they'll have to look at it
and see what's going on out there.
Edwin has asks,
"When auditing an account
are fly lights brought into play?
You mean if we have fly lights
and we service the account
and we're being audited,
are those looked at?
Absolutely.
I mean, that's something
your health inspectors or something,
whoever it is that audits
that account will be looking at.
Our own internal audit QA department
will look at it.
Going back to our rules,
there's two more rules to look at.
So after those first two are considered,
the third one,
hanging lower is better than higher.
You want to make sure
that you're putting it
where the flies
are going to probably get to it.
And if you think about it,
flies are often seen
resting on countertops,
on walls kind of around human height
'cause that's usually
where the attractants are.
And so you want to put
the lights lower better than higher.
As far as electricity goes, we need
to be able to plug them directly in,
no extension cords,
it's a safety concern
as well as an issue for the machine
because the longer the current
has to travel,
the harder the machine has to work
and it will cause them
wear out more quickly.
And so no extension cords.
I've had a situation
in a warehouse I serviced
where I had the perfect spot
by a loading dock door
but there was no plug-in.
I was able to get the business
to install a plug-in there,
an electrical outlet.
I'm not saying that's always an option
but it was worth me
having the conversation
'cause they were able to do that.
Eye level is okay.
I mean that's not bad.
I mean, again,
look at your scopes of services
'cause some of you in commercial
that service national accounts,
they'll have their specified locations
where they want them put already.
And so sometimes
that'll be a variable thing
but, yeah, usually,
you know, human height, eye level,
you know, somewhere around
that area probably wouldn't be bad.
Number two, all of these,
Robin, are in your book, page 16,
all of them are there.
And so number one, the first...
So number one
is actually the second bullet,
the number two is the third bullet
on page 16 so on and so forth.
How often do we come back?
Pablo,
that's up to your scope of service
and the frequency
that we service that customer.
Some customers,
you may be out there every other week,
some may be monthly,
we even have some accounts
like one up in Buffalo
a big pharmaceutical plant
with a technician, that's all he does
is service that one account.
He goes in every single day all day
and services that one account.
And so it's highly variable
depending on account.
Let's practice this
and the picture you see on page 16,
I'm going to put on the screen,
do not answer yet
'cause I want to describe it,
it'll help.
This restaurant
has three possible places
we could put a fly light
but I'm only going to be able
to do one of the three.
A is on the wall behind the host stand
and the light,
the cone of light, the narrow parts
coming out of the light,
broadening to the direction
it's facing.
So on that one, it's on the host wall,
faced towards the door.
B is back in the customer dining area,
facing into the dining area.
And C is on the wall with the front door
aimed inward towards the host stand.
Now select with your tablet
which of these three
is probably
the most important one to place?
Most of us hit on C and it is.
The only one that I would say
is out right wrong is A,
because A is going
to draw more flies into the business,
it's aimed at the door.
B is not terrible
but I would rather not do B
if I only could do one light
because the flies had to buzz
all around the building to find it.
C would be the best,
B would probably a good
second placement
after I'd put out the C option.
All right,
we're on the homestretch here.
So let's finish this lesson.
The third and least important
of the tools are chemical.
If we do use chemical for fly,
it's often in the form of baits.
And the science
behind the why is fly baits are stinky.
They're very smelly.
And so this is different
than most other pest control baits
like ant bait, roach bait,
they didn't get drawn to it
from a distance, well, fly baits,
they are because of the odor.
And so when you place these,
you're mainly only going
to use them on the exterior
and you're mainly going to be using them
where there's already odors,
bad odors,
like around dumpsters
and trash cans on the outside.
We do have baits
that could be used at residential
or commercial
but I want to be clear with baits,
they only have one major purpose,
crashing the adult population
for the moment.
So if I have a dumpster
with lots of flies breeding,
coming off the dumpster,
coming indoors into the building,
I could put bait around the dumpster,
crash the population,
the customer gets an immediate relief.
But in the long run,
to control the actual fly problem,
what has to happen is that
dumpster has to be done,
something with it.
It has to be emptied, cleaned,
all of that taken care of.
So the fly bait is a very short term
band-aid fix to the problem,
but it will not get
rid of the breeding population.
All it's doing is killing
some of the adults.
We also have residuals
in the form of aerosols,
cracks and crevices,
we could treat areas
that flies might land as well as areas
they may try to crawl in around
the buildings, entry points,
and those all could be possibilities.
Christopher,
I don't know how far flies can see.
That's again
one of those statistical things
that I don't know that.
You know, if I've ever had a need
to know that for practical reason,
I'd have to look it up.
So it'd be fun research I guess.
What is the name of the fly bait?
There are several, Jeremiah, Maxforce
makes a couple of different ones.
For residential, the only one
we have is Maxforce Fly Spot Bait
that I'm aware of,
but there are other baits potentially
for commercial along
with the Maxforce Fly Spot Bait.
Let's do a quick review question
and then we're going
to wrap this lesson up.
So let's see
if you were paying attention
to my warning earlier in the lesson.
Of these choices for fly control,
which ones do affect
the breeding source?
The fly light,
like we saw with Ron in the video?
Actizyme,
like we talked about in the video?
The chemical treatments,
meaning the pesticides,
like fly baits, like flying residuals?
Improved sanitation,
like customers taking out trash,
cleaning floors?
Or air curtains, those things
to block the flies from coming in?
While we're answering this,
Pablo has asked,
"How do flies communicate?"
Well, I mean if you think about it,
they don't really, they're not social.
So they're not like ants,
I guess when they want to have sex,
there's probably pheromones,
there are also visual cues.
Some flies do dances
and movements with their wings.
But again, they're not social.
So there's not a lot of communication
going on there as much.
Do we use IGRs for flies?
Raymond, I didn't talk about it.
It could be a possibility.
Again, but the critical thing here
is breaking down the breeding source
but I don't see why not,
just look at your labels.
And I'm not really sure.
I understand the question, Aaron.
All right,
if we look at the answers here.
We struggled, some of us.
The correct answers were only B and D.
And so like I warned you strongly,
before we started the control section,
the only things that
get rid of the breeding sources
are the cultural ones.
Fly light is physical,
it's just trapping adults.
Chemical treatments or pesticides,
it just...
Ah, I get it now.
Sorry, sometimes, Aaron,
I get so wrapped
in the pest control stuff,
it's hard for me to pull out
of the pop culture sometimes, yes.
Chemical treatments
would be the pesticide.
That doesn't do anything
to the immatures.
The air curtains won't,
it's only the Actizyme
and the improved sanitation.
Just so long as you
don't run away, Aaron.
All right, so let's talk about
reviewing the service at the end.
You need to tell the customer
what you saw, what you did,
what the customer can do going forward,
and what the customer can expect.
Folks, we're gonna end the session now.
If there were any questions or comments,
you didn't get a chance to ask on air,
feel free to shoot me an email.
We'll be back tomorrow morning
with rodents at 10 o'clock Eastern.
Make sure all of you,
as I discussed earlier this morning,
watch the rodents bio
and habits video,
and it's located
just like your week one videos.
You should have already
been doing those last week.
Week one was in the week one
folder on demand.
This time, this is the week two folder.
So go New Hire Training,
Residential or Commercial,
week two
and watch the 20, 30 minute video,
fill out the materials along with it
and I'll be back with you tomorrow
at 10 o'clock Eastern.
Until then,
I hope you have a good day.