January Rear View

CAIRO — Here’s an example of one of the pest control industry‘s latest Integrated Pest Management techniques: snake charming. According to a recent Reuters news story, a hospital in southern Egypt has turned to snake charmers to help get rid of snakes and scorpions that are scaring patients and staff.

"The snake charmers have caught six snakes and a scorpion since the campaign began on Sept. 13," said Mursi Mohamed Mursi, university hospital director. He told Reuters that the snakes were sighted in corridors and air vents after recent renovation work at Assiut University Hospital. Experts said the snakes were not poisonous.

While most of us are trying to avoid spider venom, several researchers are studying the effects of snake venom (and other chemicals) on humans and other insects. According to Discover magazine, two researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo discovered that a protein in the venom of the Chile Rose tarantula could prevent deaths from heart attacks. The magazine reports that according to researchers, the spider venom might help prevent the sometimes-lethal fibrillation after a heart attack.

In addition, a University of Connecticut researcher is studying chemicals that come from the Australian funnel-web spider. He’s searching for alternatives to pesticides and found that the spider’s venom is deadly to cockroaches, crickets and fruit flies but is harmless to lab rats.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Payroll employment increased by 94,000 in November, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 4.0 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported in December. Employment rose by 148,000 in the private sector, with gains in the service-producing industries, which includes pest control.

Both the number of unemployed people (5.7 million) and the unemployment rate (4.0 percent) were essentially unchanged in November 2000. The jobless rate has remained within the 3.9- to 4.1-percent range since October 1999. According to the report, unemployment rates for most of the major worker groups showed little change over the month.

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• A PCO’s Guide to Breaking Into Mosquito Control

• Overview of Mosquito-Carried Encephalitis Viruses