Are you bugged by bugs? Call in the pest busters
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER

(Left to right) bed bug, house borer, Norway rat

Chanteyman legend Bill Schustik in concert July 26

 

The Whaling Museum will host legendary chanteyman Bill Schustik at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 26 when he performs traditional 18th and 19th century music, dedicated to his long-time publicist, Doris Fellerman. He first met Fellerman when former Nantucket Historical Association president Kim Corkran introduced them in the early 1990s. He was performing at the old Point Breeze Hotel at the time. Fellerman died in June. Schustik will perform several of her favorite songs, many of which are about Nantucket. The concert, lasting an hour, will include classic sea chanteys and will be followed by a wine and cheese reception hosted by the Fellerman family. Schustik has composed two ballets, written a show about the Civil War produced in Washington's Ford Theater, performed for three U.S. presidents, appeared in on-and-off-Broadway performances and on TV. The event is free for NHA members and $15 for non-members. I

(Left to right) powder post beetle, sow bug

Historical Association will hold stitching workshops with Elizabeth Gilbert

 

On Tuesday, Aug. 12 and on Aug. 14, the Nantucket Historical Association will hold long and short stitch crewel embroidery workshops with Elizabeth Gilbert, an island resident talented in performing this most beautiful of all embroidery stitches. The course will introduce students to "painting with your needle," and involves a pansy design on fine linen with crewel wools. All materials will be furnished. Participants are asked to bring a small embroidery hoop. Class is limited to eight students with a non-member cost of $200 and member fee of $150. Call 228-1894 for more information. Gilbert will host another workshop in September. I While you are sleeping, they are not. Some bugs,

like termites,

never sleep and while you snooze, they are eating your house right out from under your comfortable bed. There are other bugs, namely the Powder Post Beetle, that will eat your bed, too. Maybe worse is an infestation of bed bugs who prefer to feast on you.

(Left to right) mouse, termite

For a few reasons, especially dampness, Nantucket is host to insects and other critters that either cause severe structural damage, can pose health issues or are such an annoying nuisance that they interfere with your ability to enjoy your home. Pest control experts agree that termites and Powder Post Beetles do the greatest damage to structures.

The Cape and Islands have fairly intense insect infestations because of sandy soil that is easy for bugs to burrow through, moisture in crawl spaces, because all insects seek water, and in the case of termites, a lot of dead pine trees that they feed on and houses built more often now with soft pine and spruce they handily chew into, said Richard Valero at Valero & Sons garden center.

Termites may have colonies of 60,000 to a million.

A small colony can consume five grams of wood daily, said Tony Gonsalves, Nantucket's branch manager for Terminix. In a relatively short period of time, unchecked termites can undermine support beams and destroy other essential components of a house.

"This is the most common problem," said Gonsalves. "They cause more damage than all natural disasters combined."

The termite family caste consists of a queen, soldiers, workers or "swarmers," which reproduce and emerge in the hundreds from March through May. The swarmers emerge after a night or morning rain and try to find a new location for a colony. The soldiers protect the colony, and the workers eat wood and feed the colony.

"They are blind and live three years. They don't sleep. They constantly eat and feed the colony," explained Gonsalves. "They don't go dormant. Most people have more damage in their homes in the winter because their houses are empty and they leave the heat on. Termites usually eat wood in basements and crawl spaces; any wood that touches the ground. We've even seen them eat PVC pipe and pool liners - anything cellulose."

Terminix has a termite inspection protection program, whereby if a technician examines your home and finds no termites, but they are discovered after the inspection, the company will treat the building and repair damage for free. The problem is, termites are a neighborhood menace, and if Mrs. Jones two houses away has them, it may only be days or weeks before they start gobbling your place. Termites will eat into siding that reaches ground level, but will also enter homes through hollow cinder blocks to reach wood.

Gonsalves said they use a liquid which is poisonous to molting species and is applied against a home's foundation around its perimeter. When termites penetrate the liquid they bring it to the colony and, eventually, to the queen. Still, a colony can be eradicated and another can move in, so Terminix will arrange for regular inspections if requested.

Powder Post Beetles are another scourge, but Valero said they may exist in homes for years before structural damage is discovered. They may come in as travelers on antique furniture, where the purchaser assumed the tiny holes in antique wood are simply indications of age. Gonsalves said they may also gain entry on firewood stored inside or in barn wood that people incorporate in their home for its rustic appearance.

These beetles burrow into wood and leave an exit hole. The females lay 15 to 50 eggs at a time in crevices, then the larvae tunnel with the wood grain and leave a talcum-like powder when they exit the wood. The more holes, the weaker the material. Beetles start in basement wood, work their way up to the attic, then move back down the walls and invite themselves into your living areas to devour floors, tables, beds and more.

"They get in drawers, books and pianos," said Gonsalves. "If you see little holes or fine powder, call us. A lot of people on the island don't realize they have a problem until it's out of control because they have cleaning crews that think it's dust, clean it up and don't say anything. That is true with termites, too."

A pesticide may be sprayed in the beetle eradication process, or a house may require fumigation. In the latter case, the structure must be evacuated and covered with a tent to enclose the noxious gas released.

There are other bugs and pests that invade island homes, but the latest issue is one that is nasty and hard to eliminate.

"Bed bugs are becoming a problem," said Valero, who has begun receiving calls for help. They may enter a home on mattresses and linens brought from the mainland or catch a ride in egg or adult stages from luggage that was in an infested hotel room. Bed bugs usually begin in bedrooms but can spread to furniture in other parts of a home. Since they are sucking bugs that do not practice good body care, even if they walk through insecticide they do not ingest enough of the chemical to kill them. That means the affected room has to have its floor and lower walls sprayed, mattresses must be sprayed and box springs have to be opened to spray the wood frames.

"Bed bugs are going to be a problem," said Valero, who sells an over-the-counter spray for those who want to try tackling the problem on their own. "If you only see them in that one room, you quickly do that room and hope you got them before they spread."

White-footed mice and rats are common on the island. While rats usually cruise outside garbage storage for left-overs, mice inside the house can chew electrical wires and cause fires. If they find your food supplies, they may cause health issues with droppings and urine, not to mention all the goodies you have to throw away. Mice can squeeze through a dime-size hole, slide under a garage door or slide down the chimney.

A major problem is that they nest in the pink, cotton candy-like insulation under main floors.

Gonsalves said people who do not live here in the winter do not need that crawl space insulation which creates a mouse harborage. For those who are year-round, he recommends replacing that material with a foil insulation his company carries that staples to joist bottoms, has good heat- containing efficiency and will cut down the number of Mickeys and Minnies trespassing in your home.

If eradication is necessary, Terminix uses mice and rat boxes containing bait that are placed beyond the reach of pets or children and are locked, so the only person who can open them to check or replace bait is a technician. They also use traps, but have other methods to remove vermin if homeowners object to their being killed.

Carpenter bees can riddle the exterior look of a home, and have been having "a field day," as Valero termed it, because builders today are often trimming houses with unpainted cedar that is soft and simple for the bees to get into to deposit larvae. Though they are big like bumble bees, they are not aggressive and can be eliminated through spraying the trim boards and dusting the entry holes.

Tiny sugar ants do no structural damage, but are very annoying. How often have you cringed when walking in the door at the end of a day and finding Fluffy's dish of cat food swarming with the buggers, or they found your kitchen garbage or scurry out of the window and door frames in your bedroom or bathroom? As with other insects, sugar ants are looking for water, say the experts, and can enter your home through a dirt crawl space or cinder block foundation. They also find entry when foliage is too close to a house or there are overhanging tree limbs.

"That's a highway for them to get in," said Gonsalves, who said ants build nests in crawl spaces, particularly in insulation. Like termites, ants can swarm. He said if that occurs within a home, it means the owner has had the problem for three years because that is how long it takes an ant colony to reach the reproductive stage. Ants can be eradicated, but it takes a few treatments using gel baits, granules, spray or a line of 'green' products.

Carpenter ants are about a quarterinch long, bite wood and spit it out to craft a void for their nest.

"You can hear them crunching," said Gonsalves.

Sow bugs, which some call tank bugs or roly-polys, but nearly everyone calls disgusting, are simply pesky crustaceans more closely related to crabs than insects that enter homes with moisture problems. They do not live long and accumulate as little skeletons most frequently in bathrooms and kitchens.

"There is no treatment," said Gonsalves. "You need to get rid of the moisture problem, whether it is a damp crawl space, a leaky furnace or dripping from an air conditioner that is not properly angled."

Valero, who said he just does the best job he can to eliminate pests and does not pursue service contracts with customers, has one succinct bit of advice when it comes to home invaders on Nantucket.

"The drier you keep the house, the fewer insects you will have. You

eliminate a lot of problems." I