March Madness

On February 24, 2015 / Blog

March Madness – it’s not just for the NCAA anymore! As we reach the end of February we look forward to March and a break from the less than desirable weather we have been having. Undesirable for many of us – I understand that there are some that enjoy Winter and the colder temps. March is a month full of fun, interesting and unusual events.

March Events

American Red Cross Month – 70+ years ago March became American Red Cross month with people donating funds or giving blood to support the organization.
Pi Day – March 14 or 3.14 is National Pi Day. Not the kind that is edible but the kind commemorating the mathematical constant.
Save a Spider Day – Yes, you read that correctly. March 14 is also Save a Spider Day. Who would of thought such a day would exist!
St. Patrick’s Day – The day used to celebrate St. Patrick, the most commonly recognized patron saint of Ireland. Often times used as an excuse to drink heavily, people consume green beer and feast on corned beef and cabbage.
Spring Training for the MLB – Let the exhibition games begin!
NCAA Basketball Tournament – Where the term March Madness came from.

This is just a very small sampling of the Weird Holidays in March. For a complete list, click here.

Weird March Holidays

Earmuffs Day – 3/13
International Fanny Pack Day – 3/14
Awkward Moments Day – 3/18
Kick Butts Day – 3/23
Hot Tub Day – 3/28

March is known as National Nutrition Month. While this is a legitimate observance, some of these others may seem a little silly. I’m only mentioning four of the many strange food observances of March, more of them are here.

March Food Observances

National Peanut Butter Lovers Day – 3/1
National Crabmeat Day – 3/9
National Potato Chip Day – 3/14
National Something on a Stick Day – 3/28

So, while we are waiting for the warm weather we have plenty of holidays and observances to celebrate. Rapid Pest Solutions wishes you a Happy National Sauce Month. (yes, this is a real thing)

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Spring Fever

On February 19, 2015 / Blog

We are coming to the end of February and in turn the beginning of Spring! One of the nice things about March is we can begin looking forward to warmer weather. After the brutal cold we have been facing recently I would be happy to see some 40 degree days! Do you have a case of Spring Fever? I know I do!

Spring Fever is defined as a feeling of restlessness and excitement felt at the beginning of Spring. I would like to add that I think Spring Fever can be felt before the season even starts just because of the anticipation of what’s to come. We look forward to longer, sunnier days and spending time outdoors in the fresh air. After a long Winter mostly spent indoors the promise of warmth and sun can be intoxicating.

Personally I have some specific things that I can’t wait for. These are just a few, I love seeing the first buds on the trees, sitting on the deck enjoying the weather and wearing flip flops. What are you looking forward to most this coming Spring?

Spring is an awakening and unfortunately that includes an awakening of pests. Ants, termites, bees, wasps and more. Luckily, Rapid Pest Solutions is here to help. Warmer weather means dealing with insects and Rapid will take care of your pest problem quickly so you can go back to enjoying the season.

Because Timing Is Everything!

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President’s Day 2015

On February 16, 2015 / Blog

President’s Day is observed on the third Monday of February each year. Officially known as Washington’s Birthday, the holiday has evolved to honor all of the U.S. presidents, not just the first one. We have had 43 Presidents over the course of history. In honor of this holiday Rapid Pest Solutions is providing a few little known facts about some of our leaders.

James Madison was the shortest president at 5-4.
Martin Van Buren was the first American-born president. All his predecessors were born in England.
John Tyler had 15 children — the most of any president.
At age 17, James Polk had surgery for urinary stones. The only anesthetic used was whiskey.
Abigail Filmore, wife of Millard Filmore, had the first running-water bathtub installed in the White House.
Franklin Pierce did not use the Bible to take the oath of office, instead using a law book.
Abraham Lincoln was a licensed bartender and co-owned a saloon in his hometown of Springfield, Ill., called “Berry & Lincoln.”
Ulysses S. Grant was once pulled over for speeding in Washington, D.C. — on a horse. The fine was $20.
Alexander Graham Bell installed the first telephone in the White House during Rutherford B. Hayes’ administration. The number: 1.
William Howard Taft, who stood 5-11 and weighed as much as 340 pounds during his presidency, once got stuck in a White House bathtub and had to be pulled out by staffers.
Herbert Hoover had two pet alligators which were sometimes allowed in the White House.
Lyndon Johnson’s Oval Office chair was a vinyl helicopter seat because he liked to fly in helicopters.
Gerald Ford was once the cover model for an issue of “Cosmopolitan” magazine.
Jimmy Carter once reported seeing a UFO while governor of Georgia.
Ronald Reagan received an award from the University of California in 1940 for having the “Most Nearly Perfect Male Figure.”
Bill Clinton once got a perfect score on a “My Little Pony” quiz on National Public Radio.

You can read the complete list here…

George Bush, Barack Obama, George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter.

I consider February to be our last official month of Winter and look forward to slowly warming days and less snow as we enter and move through March. With Daylight Savings a short 3 weeks away, we can look forward to it being light out later. This always seems to improve my mood and make me think of the summer to come.

If you notice a pest problem as we enter our warmer months, contact Rapid Pest Solutions. We have a program to fit your needs. We are here to help.

Love Is In The Air

On February 10, 2015 / Blog

February 14 has long been recognized in the United States as Valentine’s Day. This is the day when you express your feelings for a spouse, partner, friend or secret crush. It has become more and more commercialized and is now a major gift giving holiday, also known as a “Hallmark Holiday”. But the focus is love!

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

In the U.S. about 190 million Valentine’s cards are sent each year. That number doesn’t even include the millions of cards that are part of the celebration in schools. It is estimated that the average amount spent per person for Valentine’s Day is over $130. That’s a lot of chocolate!

If you find that you do not have a significant other to share this day with don’t feel left out. Valentine’s can be shared with your children, BFF’s or even your pets. Who wouldn’t like to hear how much they are loved by another person? Check out the 10 reasons your dog is the Best Valentine!

Of course you could always be your own Best Valentine. Treat yourself to a massage or dinner at your favorite restaurant. We all deserve to be pampered once in awhile.

Rapid Pest Solutions

How About Some Local Color?

On February 5, 2015 / Blog

Photographs can be very powerful. They can inspire, they can show heartbreak, beauty, loyalty, love and triumph. A photograph can move you to tears or make you laugh. Taking pictures of the world around us is sometimes the only way to really SEE.

Jackie Novak is a very talented local photographer. She resides in the Hammond area and was kind enough to share her story with us. Throughout the blog I am including photographs that Jackie has taken in this area. She finds the beauty that is all round us. Below is her journey into photography in her own words.

Jackie Novak and Marley Taken in her very own backyard!

“One of my favorite things to do when visiting my grandparents would be to go through their photo albums and look at pictures. Even if I had seen the album a dozen times, I’d still enjoy looking. My grandpa was a photo bug and I think it must have run in the family. It’s something my grandpa and I both loved – taking photos.
I’ve always had a good eye for composition and a passion for art. I majored in art in high school and bought my first film camera when I was 22. I fell in love with it, but couldn’t really afford to go to school and learn more. After a while I couldn’t even afford to develop my film because so much had collected! Once I got my hands on a DSLR (a type of digital camera) three years ago my skills really developed. It’s a bit of an obsession for me. I started taking pictures of anything and everything. I invested in some better lenses and lighting and decided to be a photographer as a second job. Doing something I loved was exciting rather than working for minimum wage somewhere and being miserable.”

The pier in St. Joseph, Michigan Sunset in NWI

“I’ve always wanted to be a photographer but never had the confidence. So after my family and many friends told me I should go for it, I did. I made an investment in myself and my passion.
I’ve sold my photos and artwork worldwide through websites such as fineartamerica.com. I also get hired locally for jobs such as family portraits, birthday parties, engagement photos and weddings. I have also been hired to take real estate photos.
In my spare time I read about photography and browse photography websites trying to learn as much as I can so I can put it into practice. I have never had any formal education in photography – my knowledge is self-taught thanks to the internet and magazines.”

Marley

There are far too many beautiful, amazing and heartwarming pictures that Jackie has taken for me to ever be able to share a good cross section of them here. I strongly encourage you to further view her work. You can visit her Facebook page at Jackie Novak Photography for a good sampling. She also has many pics posted on Flickr.

NWI Hammond, IN bike trail over the Little Calumet RIver

Rapid Pest Solutions is proud to be part of such a wonderful community. If you have any pest problems or concerns, please contact us. We are here with a solution that will fit your needs.

Groundhog Day – Or Trapped In A Time Loop

On February 2, 2015 / Blog

It’s Groundhog Day – the day when we find out if we can expect an early Spring or if we must endure more Winter. This morning the famous Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. If you believe the folklore then this means 6 more weeks of snow and cold. Now, I don’t truly believe that Phil can predict our weather future but Groundhog Day does add a little fun to our chilly February.

Punxsutawney Phil

Some sportsbook’s offered ‘prop’ bets for yesterday’s Superbowl. Prop bets are bets that actually have nothing to do with the game itself. One of the bets offered was whether or not Punxsutawney Phil would see his shadow or not. I wonder what the odds were on that?
If you ever find yourself in Punxsutawney, PA on Groundhog Day there are lots of things to do. You can go see Phil’s burrow, enjoy the festivities at the Celebration Tent, and shop the many vendors that come out to Barclay Square.
The movie Groundhog Day was filmed in Illinois, most of it in Woodstock. Woodstock, Illinois has Groundhog Day Movie Town every year. You can see sites where the movie was filmed as well as the ‘Bill Murray Stepped Here’ sidewalk plaque and ‘Ned’s Corner’.

The official start of Spring is actually 7 weeks away. (3/20/15) So to me an ‘Early Spring’ would be anything prior to that. All I can really hope is that we have no substantial snowfall after February 28 because I think Spring should start on March 1st!

Have You Heard…?

On January 27, 2015 / Blog

As I was perusing articles today for this blog I came across three stories that are pretty interesting. Rather than pick just one to write about I decided to touch on all three. One might be slightly disturbing. (it involves human cadavers) The other two are interesting and very low on the gross out scale, I promise!

If any of you like to read suspense/crime novels you may have come across a book called The Body Farm by Patricia Cornwell. Well, Body Farms are real places and forensic entomologists use the insect activity on the human corpses to help determine things like time of death. Have you ever seen an episode of CSI? Gil Grissom, played by William Petersen, was a forensic entomologist. In that show, as in real life, it is important to know not only the types of insects that will feed on a body but also the types of marks they leave so that we know what was done prior to death and what was done postmortem. It has recently been discovered that some types of caterpillar as well as katydid, pill bugs and scorpionflies will feed on human remains. The scorpionfly was never seen before on human cadavers and they were the 1st to arrive, within 20 minutes.

The Orchid Mantis is a beautiful creature. As its name suggests it resembles an Orchid flower with delicate colors of pink and white. It was believed that the Mantis resembled the flower in order to blend in making it easier to catch prey. Newer studies say that the Mantis does not mimic an Orchid specifically but a generalized flower. Bugs are drawn to the color of the Mantis so they don’t necessarily have to hide among flowers, the bugs think that they ARE the flower. Because bugs and insects are not capable of cognitive thinking and can’t cross check information as a human brain can they are caught by the mantis before they even realize they have been tricked.

Much is being said about GMO’s these days with a lot of the talk surrounding GMO’s in our food. Right now the FDA is considering releasing genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida. Why? To help control the mosquito population and hopefully help prevent the spread of mosquito borne diseases. A British biotech company has already done this in Brazil and the Cayman Islands with success. They were able to knock down the native mosquito population by 96%! Only female mosquitoes bite so they release modified males. These males will mate with the native females. The modification causes the mosquito progeny to die as larvae, before they are even able to fly. The FDA is performing a thorough investigation before any decisions are made.

I hope you found these news stories to be as interesting as I did. If you have any questions about pests in your home of business contact us. Rapid Pest Solution as the answers you need.

Coffee Lovers Beware

On January 20, 2015 / Blog

Are you one of those people that starts their morning with a Cup of Joe or maybe you drink coffee by the pot. Whether you enjoy a cup once in awhile or mainline coffee all day, you’re going to want to read this. You might be getting more than you bargained for when you load up on caffeine. OK – Here it is …

PRE-GROUND COFFEE MAY CONTAIN GROUND UP COCKROACHES

Yes, it’s sad but true. The FDA’s own studies show that up to 10% of green coffee beans (and sometimes more) become infested with roaches and other insects. They are unable to process them out completely so they just get roasted and ground up with the beans. It is a well known fact the the FDA allows a certain amount of bug parts in our food as long as it doesn’t exceed a certain percentage. (how lucky are we?) If you’re like me and most other Americans, we get grossed out by the idea of eating bugs. Although they are said to be high in protein and other cultures eat them regularly, America hasn’t quite caught up with that way of thinking. I have written several blogs that touch on the ingestion of insects but it doesn’t make me any closer to accepting that as something I will ever be okay with. Cockroaches can be a trigger for both allergies and asthma. What does it do to someone with these problems to drink cockroach coffee? I’m sure it’s not good.

Whole Bean Coffee – No Surprises!

Is there a way around this? YES! Buy whole bean coffee and grind it at home. This a trend that has become more common as of late. You can get whole bean coffee in many brands and types and there are a variety of coffee grinders on the market. Some say the ceramic coffee grinder is the best.

Foods Colored With Cochineal Extract or Carmine Dyes

Now you might be asking yourself, ‘What about places like Starbucks that grind their beans fresh?’ Good question. That may solve the problem of having roasted roaches and other bugs in your beans but it doesn’t necessarily solve the bug problem as a whole. Have you heard of cochineal extract or carmine dye? Well, these are dyes used in foods and beverages for pink or red coloring. (think strawberry frappuccino) Although it doesn’t end with your coffee drinks. Carmine and cochineal dyes are used in other things like yogurt, jelly, jam, ketchup and ice cream, among many others. So to keep bugs out of your mouth check labels for the words carmine or cochineal extract. They are basically natures answer to Red #40. Oh and if this wasn’t bad enough, they also use this ‘bug dye’ in lipsticks and other cosmetics. But that’s another blog altogether!

Read Your Labels!!!

Because we know that there is a certain amount of insect parts, rodent hairs and fungus in almost all the processed foods we eat, this whole coffee bean thing may not really bother you. And that’s cool, but I feel that we should all be informed and aware of what is in the foods and beverages we put into our systems.

Does the idea of insects in your coffee freak you out? Let us know! We love to hear from you.

Here I Come To Save The Day!

On January 14, 2015 / Blog

Who remembers the cartoon Mighty Mouse? I used to watch it on Saturday morning’s while eating my Lucky Charms. Mike the mouse had an alter ego – Mighty Mouse, who would save the damsel in distress or sometimes stop the evil genius from world domination. You know, typical superhero stuff. I guess you could consider him the mouse version of Superman. Too bad the mice we encounter don’t have the same abilities. Although real mice can do some pretty incredible things, they are considered more of a nuisance than anything. The cold weather is driving any mice remaining outside into our homes and businesses. Let’s check out some interesting facts about mice.

Not Alone – If you find that you have mice in your home you are not alone. Mice enter an estimated 21 million American homes each year, mostly between October and February, in search of food, water and shelter.
Big Eaters – Although they are very small, mice eat 15 to 20 times per day and they are going to build their homes near a food source.
Little Olympians – Mice are very good at jumping, climbing and swimming. They can jump a foot into the air which makes it easy for them to gain access to your counters and pantry shelves. Keep food in sealed glass or plastic containers.
Magicians – Mice have the ability to disappear through tiny openings. They may not compare to David Copperfield but mice can fit through an opening the size of a dime. Even the smallest gaps in doors or walls will allow them entrance. Seal exterior walls with silicone caulk and use steel wool for inside cracks and openings.
Germaphobia – I think everyone knows that mice can carry salmonella but you may not know that mice can carry as many as 200 human pathogens. Yuck!
Were’s The Bathroom – Mice are not house trained. Obviously! Each mouse will leave between 40 – 100 droppings a day. They also give off micro drops of urine as they travel through your home. On the upside, they don’t vomit, if you can call that a positive.
Multiplicity – Female mice can have up to a dozen babies every three weeks. This can be up to 150 offspring a year. Not a good thing if they have made your home into their home!

As you can see, getting mice in your home is a somewhat common problem. But it’s a problem that needs to be resolved right away. A small issue can turn into a big one very quickly. For the health and safety of you and your family contact Rapid Pest Solutions if you suspect mice in your home. We will do an inspection and offer a rodent control program to fit your needs.

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The Wintertime Blues

On January 8, 2015 / Blog

January is probably my least favorite month. You have the post holiday slump, the weather is cold, there really isn’t anything to break the monotony. At least February is a short month and then in March you can start looking forward to Spring with some nice days mixed in with the bad. Also, there isn’t very much pest activity in January. As we discussed in my last blog the only trouble you might have would be with roaches or bed bugs. Since January is such a Winter wasteland and most of us would rather hibernate, I’m going to use this time to try and break the monotony with some weird, funny and uplifting posts. We can get back to the bugs next month!

Here is a compilation of some Winter Fails! Cars sliding, people slipping and more.

Snow art is a real thing. I didn’t know that although maybe you did. Some of the snow sculptures are breathtaking, like this one.

Some are more funny. Like these.

The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

And The Pillsbury Doughboy

I think this family must really like cats!

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