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Re: Controlling Pests



A cluster fly is slightly larger than a regular fly.  They are the adult
flies of the last generation of the year and become numerous at the end
of September through the middle of October.  As it gets colder, they
seek warm places to winter.  Isolated buildings in the country are
especially vulnerable.  They are impossible to keep out because they can
find the smallest cracks and holes and squeeze through.  Their eggs need
earthworms to feed on, so they don't reproduce during the winter.  But
you can't control the reproductive cycle because trying to eliminate
earthworms would be harmful to the environment. The flies are sluggish
and, as one person who responded pointed out, can be vacuumed, but it is
very gross.

I got a lot of information from the Virginia Cooperative Extension
website:
http://www.ext.vt.edu/departments/entomology/factsheets/clusterf.html

A lot of buildings on campus had ladybug problems this year.  I had a
few, but they were nowhere near as numerous as the flies.  However, when
I went up to the attic of the Science building to pick up a collection
of geological specimens and fossils, I crunched crunched crunched my way
over thousands of them (they were dead).  That was pretty gross too.
There was a thread on them a while back, if you search the listserv
archives.  If you need websites that have information on pests, let me
know.  I've got a lot of them!

I will post a summary of responses as soon as I get through the rest of
my email.

As always, the list is an invaluable resource.

Rebecca Fitzgerald, CA
Mt. St. Mary's Archives & Dept. of Special Collections
Mt. St. Mary's College & Seminary
Emmitsburg, MD
301/447-5397
301/447-6868 (fax)
rfitzger@msmary.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Berry [mailto:tberry@HCEA.NET]
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 9:34 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: Controlling Pests

I'd be concerned about your groundhog. It may be setting you up for some
real problems by burrowing under the building. We had to have a colony
(?)
of them trapped last year because they were starting to dig under the
building, which has only a mudsill foundation and half basement.

Just out of curiosity, what's a cluster fly? Our problem is ladybugs -
thousands of them converge on the only warm shelter within a quarter
mile
each fall. Last fall our mail clerk, a high school kid, got so annoyed
by
them swirling around him as he tried to work that he emptied most of a
can
of Raid inside the building. End of ladybugs, but almost end of him and
me;
we had to evcauate and let the place air out before we could work inside
again.

Best wishes,

Thomas Berry, Archivist
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
Phone 419-352-5616
Fax 419-352-6086
tberry@wcnet.org
http://www.hcea.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fitzgerald, Rebecca" <rfitzger@MSMARY.EDU>
To: <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 1:42 PM
Subject: Controlling Pests


> I'm hoping someone can help me.
>
> The building that houses the Archives of the college were I work is
out
> in the country and thus fairly isolated, and was infested with cluster
> flies this past fall, winter, and spring.  Since the Archives holds an
> extensive collection of artwork on canvas, as well as many other
> significant paper-based collections going back 200 years, I became
very
> concerned about the damage done to the collection by fly droppings,
dead
> bodies, and other contamination.  I ended up hanging sticky fly paper
> strips in every window upstairs and in several windows downstairs.
That
> seemed to do the trick, but the arrival of warm weather was probably
> what finally ended the invasion.  While doing some research into how
to
> prevent another outbreak this fall, I came across a site set up by the
> Virginia Cooperative Extension that recommends spraying the outside of
> the house with synthetic pyrethroids.  I did some searching, and the
> chemical seems to be fairly safe to humans if it's not ingested.  One
> site said, "Dermal contact may result in skin irritation such as
> stinging, burning, itching, and tingling progressing to numbness," but
> I'm not planning on rolling around in it.
>
> I also have a groundhog living under the back steps.  I've become
> surprisingly attached to it, and worry about the effect on him/her.  I
> could have it trapped and removed.
>
> Now I have two questions.  Does anyone know if those sticky fly paper
> strips have any fumes or other side effects?  They say they don't, but
I
> don't believe everything I read.
>
> Secondly, would you take the risk of spraying the building with
> chemicals since the flies can't be prevented using any other means?
> They come inside through tiny cracks and openings that are impossible
to
> find and plug.  And they were horrible:  think of Hitchcock's The
Birds,
> only with flies.
>
> Thanks for any suggestions, advice, etc.
>
> Rebecca Fitzgerald, CA
> Mt. St. Mary's Archives & Dept. of Special Collections
> Mt. St. Mary's College & Seminary
> Emmitsburg, MD
> 301/447-5397
> 301/447-6868 (fax)
> rfitzger@msmary.edu
>
> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
>
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>
> Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
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Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>