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Watch out for that larval stage!


Axolotl

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LMAO! :lol: I think that picture is on Bugguide, those larvae came out of a roach oothecae, they were parasitic wasps I believe.

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  • 3 months later...

This is sort of related, even if the thread is old.

 

I was trying to visit Terminix for Pycnoscelus research and came across this:

The first one appears to be a silkworm female, and the second one is definitely a moth fly.

I will no longer visit them for researching.

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You can never trust pest control websites to give you credible information, their businesses thrive off of your average entomophobes! :lol: They often post images of completely harmless non-pest species and label them as pest species that look somewhat similar. A moth is a moth to the average Joe.

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It is reasonable to assume that pest control people distort information slightly to improve business...

But seeing a large, famous company fail to tell the difference between a clothesmoth and an adult Bombyx mori is just terrifying, especially if they truly can tell the difference and are just posting random pictures out of self-interest/laziness. Imagine the possibilities.

 

 

Soon, they'll try to brainwash us into being afraid of poor madagascar hissers! 

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And despite my poor-planning induced doublepost, I am serious about such threats, despite all the jokes. We might not find ourselves swamped with anti-hisser propaganda in real life, but they might try to convince us that some introduced but mostly harmless species will "threaten ecosystems and livelihoods".

I will now dream of six-armed exterminators eating roaches from the inside out.

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37 minutes ago, Guest AlexW said:

It is reasonable to assume that pest control people distort information slightly to improve business...

But seeing a large, famous company fail to tell the difference between a clothesmoth and an adult Bombyx mori is just terrifying, especially if they truly can tell the difference and are just posting random pictures out of self-interest/laziness. Imagine the possibilities.

Soon, they'll try to brainwash us into being afraid of poor madagascar hissers! 

Orkin actually has a page specifically for Madagascan hissers in their "Pest Library". :lol: Doesn't say anywhere that they are actually pests though, and some the information they provide is actually pretty accurate. Of course, some of the information is pretty inaccurate as well, like when they say that nymphs molt 6 times before becoming adults, they definitely go through more molts than that to reach maturity!

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  • 1 month later...
1 hour ago, Tleilaxu said:

Dudes they forgot the pupal stage!

What a bunch of idiots right!? I mean, a cockroach life cycle chart isn't complete without showing off the pupal stage, duh! :lol:

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  • 3 weeks later...
3 hours ago, Test Account said:

Bump

How pathetic, I tested him and he thinks Parcoblatta is a pest

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Haha how typical! :lol: Really wish they actually knew something about insects, I mean these are the people we trust to eradicate pests?

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Unfortunately this is most of the guys in the business. They would not know the differance between a oriental cockroach and a ground beetle if their job depended on it.....because it doesn’t. No matter what words they use, pest control uses cookie cutter approaches. There are only a few molds, roach baiting, crack and crevice, spot treatment sprays....yeah that’s it. One sprayer in his truck with what ever concentrate his boss could find on sale. He is not mixing up something special for your individual  problem. This is an entry level job. You take a certification test and they hand you a sprayer, some glue boards, roach, ant and mice bait and an aerosol can or two.  Now some of us are unique. I have 5 years of college biology degree education (yeah I’m 18 hours short if non related courses) and I use that along with my personal research to help people reduce and maybe eradicate true pest problems. If you are seeing woodroaches, I don’t care. Turn off the porch light. Never seen a female parcoblatta in a house. Asian lady beetles or brown stink bug? Leave them alone they just want to rest in the corner until spring. Carpet beetles on your boxspring? Vacuum up the cat hair. Other pet peeves, “we have a wasp in a newborn room window come spray room and ceiling in the NICU immediately. What!?!  They were quite mad when I came in with my IPM-HED. Integrated Pest Management Hymenoptera Erradication Device...or fly swatter. Or perhaps the restaurant that wants you to “bomb” for their “gnat” problem. Then you take pictures of all the food, fruit, trash, refuse, leaking disposals and other filth pushed under the sinks by the help. Tell them it’s a sanitation problem and hand them a bill. Yeah it was a rough week at work lol. You get some wild looks when walker over and pick up a jumping spider and throw it out the door. I carry a pill bottle in my pocket to collect all the innocent “occasional invaders” I find. Really you label a lone spider or pillbug an occasional invader? What in the crap kind of invading is a Rolly Polly going to do at room temp and 40% humidity? For you guys that don’t speak normal talk, woodroach= Parcoblatta, carpet beetle=Dermestids and rolly Polly= Isopods...wasp....I think you got it....hahaha. (Sorry I got tired of the common name/scientific name trolls on arachnoboards)

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Yes, @Matttoadman , I know. Same problem occurs with actual "pests" as well. I hate being chased by nonnative Aedes, but I respect them greatly (after all, they are not deliberately malicious) and enormously prefer removing stinky breeding puddles to actually attacking them. And don't worry about the scientific names; even though I prefer them, roachforum is a very non-hostile place.

Fooling him with a Parcoblatta is not a big deal, considering the state of affairs. It did get me thinking, though. I am now executing my plan to punch holes in all the major "dumb extermination companies" and drink their liquefied innards.

 

 

On ‎9‎/‎3‎/‎2017 at 9:18 PM, Guest AlexW said:

Soon, they'll try to brainwash us into being afraid of poor madagascar hissers! 

https://sp-uns.blogspot.com/2017/11/exterminators-for-breakfast.html

Unfortunately, it turns out that my joke was a prophecy.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

 

 

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Haha. Green widows nice. One of the problem is these chat guys are call center folks. No offense to anyone but I bet they are from India. I don’t gamble but I’d put money on this lol.

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  • 1 month later...

In case anyone hasn't seen it...

https://sp-uns.blogspot.com/2017/12/exterminators-for-breakfast-2.html

I know it's a spider, but the same ideas apply to roaches and other organisms which annoy humans. My old hisser jokes seem to be truer than ever now. The Terminix thing was not truly a hisser extermination campaign; it was just plain ignorance and the worst case scenario would probably be some shocked parent killing a single pet hisser.

 

 

 

But there is plenty of actual propaganda directed against harmless insects, including the hissing roach itself. Ever heard of hisser-eating contests? The implied message is generally not "entomophagy for a sustainable future". It is "EWW nasty cockroaches, let's see if you dare to eat one".

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  • 1 month later...
Guest Test Account

I've been neglecting Public (Ex)terminator Humiliation for a while because many of the examples across various companies were all similar-looking and thus not noteworthy, even though some of them were pretty cringe-worthy ("Roaches have wings, but can't fly". This may be true of some spp, but just wait til Panchlora, Gyna, and friends head home... :o;))

 

Of course, even though I'm kind of monopolizing the thread here, I just couldn't resist posting this particular one. If you thought the green widows were bad, take a look. I actually waved several metaphorical red flags in his face, and he continued spouting all sorts of lies obliviously until the very end. Too bad he "defeated" me with a free inspection offer, I could almost have kept on going and going...

 

Anybody want to vote on what ludicrous things I should do to them next, in order to raise some stakes?

;)

 

 

 

 

Note: Whoops, forgot to sign in

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To be fair, I have seen homes in India that hissers could live in.  I am curious about those dreaded diseases though, I'd like to know which ones!  Also, think about the mentality of some of their potential customers; my step sister moved into a home that had spiders... exterminator convinced her that because her house was at the bottom of the hill, the rain washed all the spiders downhill and that's why they infest her house, so she decided they had to get a different house.  She also thought her dirty younger (mentally challenged) brother should be avoided because he might have "bacteria".  Her father concluded "My daughter is an idiot".   I assume they get idiots contacting them all the time declaring all kinds of nonsense.  So, how do we have fun with them?  

 

 

 

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38 minutes ago, Marlon said:

To be fair, I have seen homes in India that hissers could live in.  I am curious about those dreaded diseases though, I'd like to know which ones!  Also, think about the mentality of some of their potential customers; my step sister moved into a home that had spiders... exterminator convinced her that because her house was at the bottom of the hill, the rain washed all the spiders downhill and that's why they infest her house, so she decided they had to get a different house.  She also thought her dirty younger (mentally challenged) brother should be avoided because he might have "bacteria".  Her father concluded "My daughter is an idiot".   I assume they get idiots contacting them all the time declaring all kinds of nonsense.  So, how do we have fun with them?  

 

 

 

To be fairer, I specifically made it clear that I was in the US (and thus not some tropical hisser-friendly area). To be even fairer, if hissers do manage to infest a tropical home, it’s probably the owner’s fault for allowing dead leaves and rotted wood in his house ;)

Also, the guy was probably too stupid to realize that hissers don’t spread disease and thus assumed that hisser germs are the same type spread by house-type roaches who have just finished eating decaying slops. Technically the statement is true; all roaches can spread disease, but only under the right conditions. If a hisser in a moldy cage was put into someone’s bed as a prank, of course it can spread germs this way. But his statement is only true under absurd conditions. If a human/butterfly from a moldy cage was released into a shopping mall, that human/butterfly would likely spread disease in the same way a hisser would.

 

And yes, the customers must be very unintelligent people. The thing is, not all unintelligent people are equally easy to identify. The crazed fellow who thinks that 10-legged fanged ghosts follow people around and eat them for dinner? Obvious. The crazed fellow who thinks that 10-legged fanged spiders follow and bite people for dinner? Not so obvious to the insect-uneducated. To be honest, most of our population consists of senseless people like the latter. It is always easier to be ignorant and hateful than to not be.

As for the “fun” part, it’s easy. Public humiliation (possibly a bit troublesome due to legal thingys like “By using this site, you agree not to hurt Raid Corp...” but worth it)! Increasingly absurd plots (pink widows)! Ridiculous in-jokes (like the fact that spiders do not have 10 legs)!

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Why do I get the feeling this is just wonky AI? November 21st, 2021: Terminix becomes self-aware. 

 

... They just need someone with google skillz to correct the stock phrases in their chat program (?).

Edited by Axolotl
clarify, maybe
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34 minutes ago, Axolotl said:

Why do I get the feeling this is just wonky AI? November 21st, 2021: Terminix becomes self-aware. 

 

... They just need someone with google skillz to correct the stock phrases in their chat program (?).

:lol:

 

But I understand. Notice how “Trevor” (the name and pic are probably fake, cause Alex has the same photo as Trevor) uses the same phrase (“We are sorry you are having issues with roaches. We can definitely help to eradicate this pest!”) twice, both in the Parcoblatta and the hisser chat above. 

 

Something tells me, however, that a human might be behind the screen, even if forced to talk like an awkward corporate bot. Notice the attachment paperclip for sending images. 

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34 minutes ago, Marlon said:

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Pretty impressive. I thought the green widow was the zenith of perfection for category Private Mockery, but this just takes it to a new level. ;)

 

Let’s plot our next move, shall we? I’m tempted to perform a public “execution” via whatsthatbug.com, though I am a bit concerned that such a stunt may backfire if if creates too much of a reaction and Terminix catches wind of it.

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@Axolotl

Interesting note: Further evidence suggestive of the existence of human Terminix chatters include occasional minor grammatical and typing errors, like this:

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Also, when I asked the chatter specifically about Therea petiveriana (Domino cockroach, for those unfamiliar with its sci name), somehow it was figured out that it was indeed a roach. Too bad the poor corydiid was still mistaken for a pest nonetheless, although I did get a confession that no info was available on the species in their Pest Library.

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