RESCUE! BugBlog

Video of the Week: Japanese Beetle swarm

July 4 is usually high time for Japanese Beetles to be problematic in the eastern United States. This week's featured video shows a Japanese Beetle trap that's just swarming with beetles.

Since I can't embed videos today for some reason, click here to see it.

When I looked at the video closely, I could see that someone had taken our RESCUE! Beetle Trap and replaced the bag with a gallon Ziploc bag -- presumably to reuse it. Good news: that is no longer necessary, as our new Japanese/Oriental Beetle Trap released this year has a slide-lock bottom so the trap can be emptied and reused!

We'll leave you with our TV commercial from several years back. "Rose" thinks she has found the best way to rescue her roses from Japanese Beetles... Ninjas!

Click here to see the commercial.

RESCUE! goes "On the House"

At the National Hardware Show last month, we made some new friends: James and Morris Carey, stars of the syndicated radio program "On the House with the Carey Brothers".

During the Hardware Show, I had the opportunity to be interviewed on the program and tell James and Morris all about the new W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets.

Here I am describing the workings of the W*H*Y Trap to the Careys (wearing their trademark bright-colored overalls):

 

After that interview, we decided to become the main sponsor of the On the House "Great Backyard Giveaway". When you're enjoying the backyard, you want it to be bug-free, and the prize package of our traps will help you make it so. The Great Backyard Giveaway includes some excellent prizes in addition to ours, including a wood pellet grill and a 7-foot hot tub.

Follow this link to enter the Giveaway!

Costco knows WHY

Specially-wrapped two-packs of our W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets are now in 153 Costco warehouses around the country for a two-month window.

You can see whether your local Costco carries the W*H*Y Trap by searching your city on our web site's location map.

Get them while they're hot... this is what's left of two pallets in the Spokane Valley Costco after only two weeks.

Video of the Week: The Wasp Woman

We're back with the weekly featured video, and this one is a bit of campy fun. It's an excerpt from the 1959 horror movie "The Wasp Woman".

Here's a short description from imdb.com : "A cosmetics queen develops a 'youth formula' from jelly taken from queen wasps. She fails to anticipate the hoary side effects."

Answering your W*H*Y questions

With the W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets in consumers' hands and about six months of sales under our belts, we've had the chance to hear which questions are most frequently on the minds of users.

Where should I place the W*H*Y Trap?

Hang the trap outside at least 20 feet from any outdoor living areas to draw wasps, hornets and yellowjackets away. In general, hanging the trap closer to a house, deck or other structure will draw more paper wasps since they frequent those areas for nest building sites and materials. If a nest location is known, the W*H*Y Trap should be placed at least 20 feet away from the nest.

It is best to avoid placing the trap inside bushes or trees where foliage will surround the trap. Open-air locations will allow the attractant scents to release freely and will yield better catches.

In extreme hot and dry conditions, it is best to hang the trap in the shade to keep the liquid attractant from evaporating too quickly. If nighttime temperatures are lower than 50°F, we recommend hanging the trap in a sunny spot. 

If catches are low, try moving the trap to a new location, such as a spot that receives different wind or sun patterns. 

What time of year should I use the W*H*Y Trap?

As soon as the daytime temperatures hit 70 degrees on a consistent basis, the queens will start emerging from hibernation to look for new nest sites. Paper wasp queens are the first to start flying. You can begin using the W*H*Y Trap at this time to catch the queens, and continue using it all spring and summer and into fall to catch the workers.

Once the queens have already begun building their nests in spring, there will likely be a quiet period of lower catches until the worker populations begin to emerge.

Will the W*H*Y Attractant work in my Yellowjacket Trap?

No; the W*H*Y Trap is designed with two chambers and two entrances to keep the attractants separated. If combined in a trap with one entrance, the three attractants in the W*H*Y Attractant will cancel each other out.

Is there something I can put in the W*H*Y Trap to rebait it, instead of using the W*H*Y Attractant Kit?

Sorry; but no. It took our scientists six years in our lab to come up with the right formula to lure all 21 species of insects, and although the ingredients are naturally-occurring, they are created by chemists and cannot be replicated with anything you would find in your refrigerator or pantry.

Will the trap work on bees?

Our product is not targeted at bees because they are beneficial for pollination. The attractant in the W*H*Y Trap is not appealing to bees.

I've used your Reusable Yellowjacket Trap before and I like the long-lasting (10-Week) cartridge. Will you eventually have a longer-lasting attractant for the W*H*Y Trap?

Yes! That's what our scientists are working on right now. We hope to have a longer-lasting W*H*Y Trap Attractant Kit on the market within the next two years.

Have a question not answered here? Ask it now by leaving a comment!

We're Emmy Award winners!

Sterling International: pest control innovators, insect behavior experts, Emmy Award winners.

That's right, we're Emmy winners... for our TV spot entitled "Break Room", which advertises the W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets. Jones Advertising, the agency behind this funny spot, picked up the award last Saturday night in the Commercial, Single Spot category.

David Edgerton, Jones Advertising Vice President, accepted the award at the 46th Annual Northwest Emmy Awards ceremony:

 

And here's the award-winning spot: