Most Canadians are pretty used to swatting flies in the kitchen all throughout summer.Click To Tweet   Come fall, however, and they may be taken by surprise by an equally pesky, yet mostly innocuous, household pest: cluster flies.   As the days grow shorter and temperatures drop, the large, black cluster flies start entering homes in the search of protected overwintering sites, and they may be seen flying around in large numbers throughout winter and early spring. They show a landing preference for warm, sunny locations usually on the south- and west-facing walls of light colored buildings. Structures situated on open hilltops or near meadows and lawns appear more attractive due to the existence of the large populations of earthworms, their preferred host.   They enter homes through small openings, such as gaps under eaves, as well as open windows and doors. They congregate in large numbers (thus the name 'cluster' flies) in walls, attics, and basements, waiting for spring to emerge and start a new life cycle outdoors.

  Hotel and resort managers have all the reason to think of ‘bed bugs’ as the dirtiest words in their industry.   The problem isn’t so much the bugs themselves, but how travelers react to online reviews of hotels that have been reported by past guests to have a bed bug infestation. A new study by the University of Kentucky, USA, has put some hard numbers to the financial impact of online reports of bed bugs in hotels. Results show that, on average, a single report of the pesky critters in a recent traveler review decreases the value of a hotel room by $21 per room per night for leisure travelers and by $38 for business travelers.   Conducted in May this year, the study surveyed more than 2,100 respondents – 1,298 leisure travelers and 790 business travelers – about how they would react to various problematic issues encountered in hotel rooms.

  The only thing worse than mice or cockroaches feeding on breadcrumbs in your kitchen is finding them munching on invaluable paintings and artifacts in your museum or library. Insect pests are responsible for significant damage to museum objects, historic books, and in buildings of historical or architectural importance. Various wood-boring beetles, various moths, and booklice can destroy materials, objects, and building parts. Termites, cockroaches, and other insect pests are also common in museums and libraries, and their presence results in even greater damage of wood and paper materials.   Insects do not infest all items in equal ways, however. At the highest risk of infestation are natural history collections, dried insect collections, dry plant materials, stuffed animals, items containing fur, and keratin or chitin-based materials. Usually, items made from these vulnerable materials are stored together in dark areas, making the spread of infestation easier and more successful.   In the past, pest control in such collection-holding institutions involved regular applications of insecticides to the infested areas and to the objects themselves.

  Rodent control is often an unsettling subject - no one feels comfortable in the presence of unwelcome pests. In the case of restaurants and food processing businesses, however, the problem of rodent control goes beyond personal comfort and into significant public image and financial loss. A restaurant's success is determined by its public reputation, and nothing destroys a hard-earned reputation faster than a rodent scurrying across a room where food is served and/or prepared.   Rodents, along with flies and cockroaches, are the bane of any food service operation, as they are directly and/or indirectly the cause of:  

• Food contamination
• Infrastructure damage
• Building and structural damage
• Lost time and productivity
• Psychological wellbeing and health of owners, employees, and customers
• Loss of revenue
• Reputation damage
• Legal liability

  Tough public health guidelines against rodents exist for good reason, and the reason is that rodents carry numerous pathogens and bacteria that cause life-threatening diseases in humans and other animals.

  The majority of first-time home buyers take their time to carefully inspect the physical condition of the property they’re planning to acquire. They look for defects or malfunctions in the building’s foundation, roof, plumbing, electrical and heating/cooling systems while making sure of the sound state of walls, floors, windows, and doors. But before they go ahead and seal the deal, a question inevitably pops into their head: Is there something lurking below the surface that they might have missed?   Unfortunately, the answer is often: Yes. Particularly when the home is up for sale by owner, the goal is to accentuate the property’s best features and minimize its potential flaws. And while some sellers are trustworthy and willing to disclose the information about past and present pest infestations, others are either unaware of pests’ presence in the house or are doing everything they can to hide the damage. By spotting the signs of the following common household pests before you close the deal, you can make sure the seller covers the cost and treatment of the existing infestation before handing you the keys.