RESCUE! BugBlog

W*H*Y campaign sparks award-winning work

Last Thursday was a good night for our Marketing Department. We won six Spark Awards from the Spokane MarCom Association for various elements of our campaign to launch the W*H*Y Trap for Wasps, Hornets & Yellowjackets.

Entries for the Spark Awards are judged heavily on the results achieved by a marketing project or campaign. With the W*H*Y Trap accepted into nearly every lawn & garden retailer for this year, we had some great results of which we could boast.

Here are (L-R) Marketing Coordinator Alyssa Ando, yours truly, and Sales & Marketing Assistant Jonathan Manfredonia with our haul:

And here's a list of what we won:

Merit Award for our "Break Room" :30 TV spot

Excellence Award for our "Rumble" :30 TV spot

Excellence Award for our W*H*Y Trap package design

Excellence Award for the BugBlog in the "Writing/Recurring Columns" category

Excellence Award for the BugBlog in the "Electronic & Interactive Communications" category

Merit Award for the W*H*Y is the Answer campaign in the "Marketing Communications Campaign" category.

Video of the Week: European Hornet attacks a fly

Being about an inch long with a plump body shape, the European Hornet can be rather intimidating.

I'm sure this fly thought so:

Wasp weather... and we're catching them!

If the Northwest could string together more than two 70+ degree days in a row, we'd all be very happy. But this week, those two warm spring days were enough to capture a bunch of paper wasp (and some yellowjacket) queens in the WHY Trap. The photos and video below were taken on president Rod Schneidmiller's property.

 

 

Last night, three days after those photos and video were taken, it snowed. Many of the wasps were still alive today, and they huddled together for warmth near the top of the trap:

Unveiling the Trail

Gorgeous Northwest spring weather greeted a group of Sterling employees last Saturday as we took part in the annual "Unveil the Trail" day to clean the Centennial Trail, a paved walking/running/biking path that follows the contours of the Spokane River.

Our company has adopted mile 28-29, which runs northwest of the city of Spokane.

The fact that there was very little trash to pick up is a testament to how much residents value their Trail. And it was quite active that morning with walkers and runners training for the upcoming Bloomsday Run on Sunday, May 3.

Here's the group of employees, spouses and kids who participated:

 

Our Marketing Coordinator, Alyssa Ando, with the mile marker:

 

Here's a shot of the view along our mile:

 

Our R&D Department was well represented:

 

And our President Rod Schneidmiller and his wife led the effort:

Video of the Week: A queen at rest

Here's a good closeup of a queen yellowjacket. (And no, she doesn't have a tiny crown on her head.)

If you're experiencing warm spring weather where you live, this lady is coming out of hibernation to start building her kingdom. Make sure you have a trap to stop her!

Talkin' about Twitter

Local web developer and social media strategist Mark Simonds is embarking on a "Twitter Road Trip" to interview individuals and organizations using Twitter effectively. We were honored to be Mark's first interview for this project.

You can see the interview here (be sure to turn up the sound; the Flip camera didn't pick my voice up very well).

Mark's Twitter handle is @simonds, Twitter Road Trip's handle is @route140, and ours is @rescue. Please follow us!

Video of the Week: Nests in unusual places

This week's video installment features several examples of how yellowjackets like to nest in unusual places, such as:

An old lawnmower...

A pile of discarded newspapers...

Under a kitchen sink...

Have you ever encountered a yellowjacket nest in an unusual location?

New Product: The Fly Trap Grenade

The RESCUE! Fly Trap Grenade takes care of your worst enemies. Just hang the trap to catch those filthy flies. Once it's full, just hurl the RESCUE! Fly Trap Grenade at your enemies and watch them run!