Team Yum -vs- Team Nope Never Gonna Happen

Let’s put this to a vote: The Missouri Botanical Garden recently opened up registration for a new class called “Adventures in Cooking: Learn to Cook Insects.” (This is not a joke! I repeat, this is really not a joke!)

In this class, participants will be able to sample real, edible insects cooked right in front of them. The menu includes chocolate “chirp” cookies, deep-fried BBQ wax worms, sautéed crickets and other seasonal selections…whatever that means! 🙂 Added bonus: Participants will be sent home with packages of roasted crickets and cricket powder along with recipes to try them in.

Time to cast your vote. Are you on Team Yum or Team Nope?

The Power of “WITH”

 

I love how Brian told us that our technician Chris is “a pleasure to work WITH.” I read this with an emphasis on one word: WITH. (Did my use of caps lock already give that away? Ha!) The word “with” can be defined as “accompanied by another person or thing” or even “in the same direction as.” This single word, with, tells me that Brian views his interaction with his technician as having a common goal that they’re both moving in the same direction toward.

We hope this is true as you interact with everyone on Team Blue Chip. Whether you see us at your house or business, talk to us on the phone or chat with us online, we are all working toward a common goal – making sure we solve whatever pest problem you have/had AND to keep any new problems from resurfacing. Each time one of our technicians or managers arrives at a home or business for a service visit (even if it’s an outside-only service), they will always knock on the door and try to make an attempt to touch base with you. Customer feedback & communication with you lets us know what’s working well in the pest control plan we designed for you and what else we may need to do during service visits. We promise to never talk at you — but instead always WITH you to come up with the best plan possible. We truly appreciate the chance to work WITH all of you!

Meet the Cicada Killer Wasp!

You’ve probably seen at least one of these hanging out in your yard this summer. Meet the cicada killer wasp. These wasps are not usually aggressive & rarely sting but can be rather intimidating based on their size alone. At nearly an inch and a half in length, their long, yellow & black striped bodies cause them to resemble overgrown yellow jackets.
Each female wasp burrows one hole in the ground to lay her single egg. Before laying her egg, she will paralyze another large insect, preferably a cicada. She buries the large insect in the hole then places her single egg on top of it. Eventually, the egg hatches and uses the paralyzed insect as a food source while it goes through all of its life stages underground before emerging the next year as an adult wasp.
Unfortunately, little can be done for these foraging wasps other than an additional treatment targeting individual holes. Our technicians are trained in how to spot burrows & puff certain dusts into any found; however, that just controls that one single cicada killer wasp. Usually, the best idea is simply to wait it out. Males die shortly after mating & females die shortly after laying all their eggs. Typically, they’ll be gone in a week or two after you spot them.

Debugging Myths

You probably read the book Charlotte’s Web while you were in school, right? Or maybe you’ve seen a movie with bug-like characters or plots. A Bug’s Life, Arachnophobia or Ant-Man, perhaps? Many of our preconceived notions about bugs are simply something we “learned” when we were younger, old wives tales or just myths. Let’s have some fun squashing some of the myths that our technicians get asked about on a regular basis.

Would You Rather…?

For just a minute, forget whatever major questions you’re contemplating in your life right now and let’s focus on something totally silly: Would you rather be a SQUIRREL or a FROG just for a day?