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Monday, April 22, 2019
Rose Pest Solution's Grand Rapids District Manager David Popp joins Betsy Thompson and Dan Hansen on Wood Radio in Grand Rapids, Michigan to take listener questions about mosquito prevention and control!
[Dan Hansen] Well, we've got David Popp from Rose Pest Solutions in the studio with us, and he's going to give us some advice on how we potentially can take back our yards from the mosquitoes this year. David, thanks for being here.
[David Popp] You bet.
[Dan Hansen] Now, David, you're from Rose Pest Solutions. You're the district manager there.
[David Popp] Yes.
[Dan Hansen] Why don't you just give us a little idea of where you're located and what services you offer?
[David Popp] Our particular office in the local area, we're located in Grandville, Michigan there, but our company is based out of Troy, Michigan. We're in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and so forth?
[Dan Hansen] Really? Okay, all over.
[Besty Thompson] Wow.
[David Popp] We take care of, yes, roaches, mice, ants, rats, earwigs, mosquitoes, these things, but we also provide bird exclusions, nuisance wildlife. The big thing in the news today, of course, is bed bugs. We take care of bed bugs in many different ways. We're actually the oldest pest management company in the United States. We've been around since 1860.
[Dan Hansen] Really?
[Besty Thompson] You know pests.
[David Popp] We know quite a few pests.
[Dan Hansen] Well, David, today we want to drill into a very specific outdoor pest. We already mentioned it, the mosquito. Now, you're the expert. What are the things that I can do to minimize them? What can I do to take back my yard? Is there some magical solution that will just eliminate them from my yard entirely? Please say yes.
[David Popp] Well, there are things that you can do let's just say on an attempt at a preventative measure. What I mean by that is that you're only able to do where your property goes. There are four different stages of a mosquito's life that they go through. Three out of the four are in the water. If you can find areas of stagnant, still water, then you're going to be able to help eliminate the reproduction of the mosquitoes, things like playground equipment that might be containing water, a tarp that might be on a boat or covering outdoor equipment, things like this. Any place that you can find, make sure bird baths, make sure that you empty these things.
[Dan Hansen] Oh, a bird bath.
[David Popp ]I've literally-
[Dan Hansen] Birds are going to be mad, but hey.
[David Popp] Yeah. Well, you just empty it, pour it in, and it just makes sure that there's nothing that's inside of it. You can continue with the birdbath itself.
[Dan Hansen] Okay.
[David Popp ]I've been on properties, surveying properties, where I've seen at the edge of the property line an old paint can. Literally, thousands of mosquito larva in that paint can.
[Besty Thompson] Ugh, so gross.
[David Popp] Dump the paint can. Get rid of the pain can obviously. By just doing that action, you've just eliminated thousands and thousands of mosquitoes.
[Dan Hansen] Okay, now that's what I was going to ask because I had not that exactly, but I think probably worse. I had a garbage can that I had ... Not a can, not that that matters. It was a plastic thing, but it was out behind my barn. I found it right at the end, fall. I cut through the weeds.
[Besty Thompson] Yeah, so all summer.
[Dan Hansen] It's full of water. If a paint can with just a gallon of water contain thousands you said?
[David Popp] Mm-hmm (affirmative), thousands.
[Dan Hansen] I had about five gallons in there. That explains why we can't find one of our children who was just carried off during the summer.
[Dan Hansen] You're listening to the RepcoLite Home Improvement Show, and we're in the studio with David Popp from Rose Pest Solutions. He's telling us what we can do to eliminate mosquitoes, or at least reduce mosquitoes in our backyard. Eliminate the water. That's one step. What about all the places? I mean because I've heard we can miss the yard and they'll protect the yard. My main question here is, how do the mosquitoes know to stay away from my yard? Is it a repellent?
[David Popp] No.
[Dan Hansen] What if my neighbors don't do anything? Am I still protected?
[David Popp] Right. Well, there's no magical ... Mosquitoes do not respect property lines.
[Dan Hansen] I hate that about them.
[David Popp] What happens is that when a company like ours would come out and adulticide your property, we're killing any of the adult mosquitoes that are there at that time. There is a little bit of a residual that will maintain there, but that's dependent upon how the temperature's going, how the weather is, how much rain we're getting and so forth.
[David Popp] Mosquitoes, adults mosquitoes will basically be on the underside of leaves in a heavy brush area, a lot of bushes, things of this nature. By treating those areas, you're killing the adult mosquitoes. You're putting a dent in it, but if your neighbors are not doing this, then if you're outside, you are a source for the mosquitoes themselves. You're eliminating a lot of the problem, but you're not preventing the problem.
[Dan Hansen] Let's say I had an event coming on, like an open house or a graduation, and I wanted to be outside. Is that something that this would be-
[David Popp] I would do that, absolutely.
[Dan Hansen] Your company, Rose Pest Solutions, does that?
[David Popp] Yes, absolutely. One of the other things, which a lot of people don't like to do, is to wear insect repellent. That does help. Then one other thing you can do, you mentioned being out onto a deck. You can actually take an oscillating fan and put it outside on the deck, not necessarily for temperature but mosquitoes, adult mosquitoes don't like to be in the wind. By putting that fan out there, you're actually also helping them to stay away. That's another thing you can do.
[Dan Hansen] My sister has a situation where there's a pond, and they have mosquitoes-
[Besty Thompson] Like crazy.
[Dan Hansen] Yeah. Outside of the realm of understanding almost. Is there anything they can do about that?
[David Popp] Well, one of the simplest things they could do is to constantly circulate the water. The fountains that you see, they're really pretty in commercial properties and stuff, it's kind of neat to see, but one of the main functions of those fountains is to continue to circulate the water because mosquitoes will not breed in the water that's moving. They need stagnant water. Now, certainly they could breed around the edges of it if that doesn't have a tendency to move, but that really helps out.
[Dan Hansen] Sure. Okay, so just a fountain in a pond.
[David Popp] A fountain in a pond will help.
[Dan Hansen] That's one potential solution.
[Besty Thompson] She should just get a wave machine so that it hits every edge.
[Dan Hansen] Just put a child out there with a paddle and just hit the water from time to time.
[Besty Thompson] Yes.
[Dan Hansen] David, if our listeners want to get in touch with you for any of the things we talk about, how do they do that?
[David Popp] They can reach us through our website, which is rosepestsolutions.com. Also, we have social media, Facebook, Twitter, all the different forms of social media.
[Dan Hansen] All right. David Popp, thanks for being with us.
[David Popp] Thank you.
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