REARVIEW

SCIENTISTS TAKE ON  TERMITES AT THE CAPITOL
Earlier this spring, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in New Orleans, La., were called upon to investigate an infestation of termites at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., after the pests made an appearance in February.

The U.S. Capitol superintendent’s office was working with a private contractor to control the termite problem but two treatments with a commercial termiticide failed to stop swarming activity. So New Orleans ARS researchers were called in for help.

Termite samples were identified by Southern Regional Research Center (SRRC) entomologists as Reticulitermes virginicus.

At the Capitol, all infested baseboards were removed from the infested room, and insecticide was applied around its perimeter. No subsequent termite activity has been detected, but SRRC researchers continue to follow up on control measures.

IS FEAR A FACTOR FOR YOU?
It’s the middle of summer — TV rerun season. But one show that pest management professionals may have an interest in sitting down to watch this summer is NBC’s Fear Factor.

Fear Factor is a game show of sorts that tests contestants to match wits with their greatest fears, whether that’s heights, death-defying acts or eating something totally disgusting (like a pig intestine). And naturally, many on the show are fearful of insects. Below is some information about the show and its insects (and snakes and rats). Be sure to tune in next fall.

From Fear Factor’s Web site about working with the animals: Fear Factor always hires professional animal handlers that raise and take care of the animals. These are the same handlers that work on many major TV and movie productions. When animals are involved in a stunt, the handlers are present on set at all times. They also advise producers on how to humanely and safely interact with the animals.

About some of the insect-related stunts: Behold the Fear Factor coffin, a stunt so frightening that it generated one of the most intense reactions we’ve ever seen on the show. Of course, you’d probably have a pretty intense reaction, too, if your body were completely covered with thousands of snakes, worms and giant hissing cockroaches.

How exactly did we come up with such a weird stunt? It was a combination of ideas. At first, we thought it would be cool to cover someone’s head entirely in Madagascar hissing cockroaches. Then we started thinking of covering someone in snakes and challenging them to reach in and sort them out by color. Then again, we thought, how cool would it be to actually combine BOTH into one stunt?

We designed a clear coffin that would enable us to dump thousands of cockroaches on the person’s face and hundreds of snakes all over the person’s body. The person’s head would be separated with a guillotine-like device that would fit tightly around the neck and safely keep the cockroaches away from the snakes.

Snakes and cockroaches do not mix well. The Madagascar hissing cockroaches have sharp little barbs on their legs and a strong grip. It doesn’t feel good on a human’s skin and it doesn’t feel good on a snake’s skin.

As we set out to build the coffin, we realized that a person laying in the box would not be able to reach down past their knees to grab and sort any snakes.

That meant we needed to create yet another section that would separate the legs. So now we had cockroaches on the head and snakes on the torso but we still needed something to cover the contestant’s legs. No problem — when in doubt, order up lots and lots of slimy worms.

When it came time to do the stunt, we had 100 snakes, 3,000 Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and 14,000 nightcrawlers. The smell was absolutely horrible.