Zunex won with an eye-catching design highlighted by a spider on a shield emerging where the color scheme changes.

VALLEY VIEW, Ohio — PCT announced Zunex Pest Control, Auburn, Wash., as the winner of our fourth annual vehicle wrap cost. Zunex won with an eye-catching design highlighted by a spider on a shield emerging where the color scheme changes. Josh Zuniga, CEO of Zunex Pest Control, wins $500 from PCT. The competition was sponsored by Oldham Chemicals.

Key to this wrap design is the turquoise, white and black color scheme. “I just love the color turquoise. It's my wedding ring color and I love the matte black,” said Zuniga.

Another must-have for Zuniga was the shield. Zunex Pest Control, a family -owned and -operated business, is primarily a residential pest control firm, so the shield “was about letting people know that our family will take care of their family,” Zuniga said.

In addition to the color scheme and imagery, PCT’s judges liked that this wrap was clean – prominently displaying the phone number and core services (pest, rodent and mosquito). “It was something we thought about a lot,” said Zuniga. “There were certain things we wanted to include but we didn’t want it to be cluttered, so it was a balancing act.”

Zuniga took this concept to 99 Designs, a graphic design service by Vista. For the design program Zunex chose, various graphic designers submitted their ideas and Zuniga selected the designer based on the submissions.

Zunex Pest Control has only been in business for 18 months. Zuniga said investing in high-quality wraps was a strategic decision to boost the brand by (1) showing the public they wouldn’t compromise on quality in any aspect of its brand — from its wrap to the lengths they go to ensure customer satisfaction. “The wrap is a visual reminder that Zunex decided even before day one that we wouldn’t cut corners,” Zuniga said; and (2) the wraps get noticed. “The vibrant blue contrasts with the satin black and we have gotten phone calls from people seeing our vans, enough so that it paid for itself,” he said.

PCT will be running a slideshow of the 10 finalists from this year’s contest.

Wildlife Control Supplies offers WCS Special Pro cage traps, which have been designed for professionals to the company’s exact specifications.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are guided toward their victims by a scent from human skin. The exact composition of that scent has not been identified until now.

Mosquitoes that spread Zika, dengue and yellow fever are guided toward their victims by a scent from human skin. The exact composition of that scent has not been identified until now.

A UC Riverside-led team discovered that the combination of carbon dioxide plus two chemicals, 2-ketoglutaric and lactic acids, elicits a scent that causes a mosquito to locate and land on its victim. This chemical cocktail also encourages probing, the use of piercing mouthparts to find blood.

This chemical mixture appears to specifically attract female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, vectors of Zika as well as chikungunya, dengue, and yellow fever viruses. This mosquito originated in Africa, but has spread to tropical and subtropical regions worldwide, including the U.S.

This new research finding, and how the team discovered it, is detailed in the journal Scientific Reports.

“Though others have identified compounds that attract mosquitoes, many of them don’t elicit a strong, rapid effect. This one does,” said Ring Cardé, UCR entomologist.

Mosquitoes use a variety of cues to locate their victims, including carbon dioxide, sight, temperature, and humidity. However, Cardé’s recent research shows skin odors are even more important for pinpointing a biting site.

“We demonstrated that mosquitoes land on visually indistinct targets imbued with these two odors, and these targets aren’t associated with heat or moisture,” Cardé said. “That leaves skin odor as the key guiding factor.”

Given the significance of odor in helping mosquitoes successfully feed on humans, Cardé wanted to discover the exact chemicals that make our scent so potent for the insects. Part of the equation, lactic acid, was identified as one chemical element in the odor cocktail as long ago as 1968.

Since then, several studies have identified that carbon dioxide combined with ammonia, and other chemicals produced by humans also attract these mosquitoes. However, Cardé, who has studied mosquitoes for 26 years, felt these other chemicals were not strong attractants.

“I suspected there was something undiscovered about the chemistry of odors luring the yellow fever mosquito,” Cardé said. “I wanted to nail down the exact blend.”

Methods that chemists typically use to identify these chemicals would not have worked for 2-ketoglutaric acid, Cardé said. Gas chromatography, which separates chemicals by their molecular weight and polarity, would have missed this acid.

“I think that these chemicals may not have been found before because of the complexity of the human odor profile and the minute amounts of these compounds present in sweat,” said chemist Jan Bello, formerly of UCR and now with insect pest control company Provivi.

Searching for mosquito attractors, Cardé turned to Bello, who extracted compounds from the sweat in his own feet. He filled his socks with glass beads and walked around with the beads in his socks for four hours per odor collection.

“Wearing the beads felt almost like a massage, like squeezing stress balls full of sand, but with your feet,” said Bello. ‘The most frustrating part of doing it for a long time is that they would get stuck in between your toes, so it would be uncomfortable after a while.”

The inconvenience was worth the investment. Bello isolated chemicals from the sweat deposited on the sock beads and observed the mosquitoes’ response to those chemicals. In this way, the most active combination emerged.

Future studies are planned to determine whether the same compound is effective for any other mosquitoes, and why there is such variation in how individuals are apt to be bitten. “Some are more attractive than others to these mosquitoes, but no one’s yet established why this is so,” Cardé said.

Though this discovery may not lead to insights for the development of new repellants, the research team is hopeful their discovery can be used to attract, trap, and potentially kill disease-spreading mosquitoes. 

This position will work out of the Cook's headquarters and is part of the training staff.

White, global director of vector management, Rentokil-Initial and one of the pest control industry’s leading educators and trainers, died Tuesday, in Honolulu. He was 64.

***Updated on Sept. 28, at 8 a.m.***

HONOLULU - Gene White, global director of vector management, Rentokil-Initial and one of the pest control industry’s leading educators and trainers, died Tuesday, in Honolulu. He was 64. White was in Honolulu attending the Society for Vector Ecology 2022 International Congress.

White’s more than 40 years in the pest control industry were mostly spent educating others, whether it was in various technical positions or speaking at industry conferences such as NPMA PestWorld or the Purdue Pest Management Conference.

White was a graduate student at Purdue University where he developed a special bond with Dr. Gary Bennett, retired professor and director of the Center for Urban and Industrial Pest Management at Purdue. The two were lifelong colleagues and friends who would go on outdoor adventures together. Bennett told PCT that Gene was “a special person who was unusually knowledgeable and more than willing to share his knowledge and experience with all who would listen. There is truly a part of me missing with the loss of Gene.”

Another industry professional impacted by White from his days at Purdue is Bobby Corrigan. The two would occasionally teach pesticide certification seminars together, which required them to travel together all week from one city to another. These were long drives that included sharing meals and hotel rooms. Corrigan recalled, “It is those trips that linger for me the most and are among my most treasured memories of Gene. Those times were typically filled with his contagious laughter because Gene loved to tell funny stories and to laugh. Over the years, I grew to learn that it gave Gene true pleasure to bring joy to other people’s days by making them smile and getting them to laugh.”   

A native of the Akron, Ohio, area, White attended Glenville State College (W. Va.), where he graduated with a major in biology and minor in oral communications and was a member of the football team. He eventually found his way to Rose Pest Solutions, Troy, Mich., where he was hired to be a trainer. Among his accomplishments at Rose were helping to create an employee hiring template for technicians and the development and fine-tuning of training programs based on insect identification, which then led to the choice of products and treatment protocols.

At Rose Pest Solutons, White worked alongside Mark “Shep” Sheperdigian, vice president of technical services at Rose, who said he and White “meshed quite well in our abilities and interests.” The outgoing personalities shared a love of theater, which they tapped into to create radio clips and training videos, Sheperdigian recalled.

Sheperdigian said White was someone people naturally gravitated to. “He was always smiling, he was universally friendly and larger than life,” Sheperdigian said. “He was just a big happy guy and that attracted people.”

In 2013, White joined Rentokil North America, where he was hired as technical director for the Central Market, which spanned from Mexico to Canada. Four years later he was hired for the newly created position of global director of vector management for Rentokil-Initial, with responsibilities for creating and improving on the vector management space in the company.

Another reason White was so admired by colleagues was his infectious enthusiasm for entomology. He is remembered for his fun, interactive training sessions which extended into the community. For example, he led the outreach program “The Culinary Bugstitute,” which was part of the Cleveland Metroparks “Bug City” program for 23 years. He would spend a week creating a variety of insect dishes at his home in Michigan and then transport them to Cleveland (a 3-hour trip). In his 2018 Leadership profile, White recalled, “It was an absolute blast. I just had so much fun doing it and I think my enthusiasm helped, and I enjoyed coming up with new recipes. It was a great event to help promote the science of entomology.”

Dale Baker, vice president of sales J.T. Eaton and Pi Chi Omega member. said at his core White “was motivated to be of service. He loved to help people. He loved to educate people. He loved to talk to people. He loved to listen to people. He loved to learn from people. He loved people.”

Gene is survived by wife Janet and his children (Kyle and Karey) as well as Janet’s children (Chris, Kelly and Ryan). He was preceded in death by daughter Kelsey. Ceremony and memorial information were not available at this time.

A celebration of Gene's life will take place Sept. 30, starting at 2 p.m., at the South Lyon Hotel. Memorial donations may be given to Purdue University's Entomology Department. Click here for a link to his obituary.

Other Remembrances I got to know Gene at Purdue, back in the mid-1990s-when he was pursuing his Master's degree. We parted ways after that but we ran in the same circles - PestWorld, Entomological Society of America, Purdue Conf., etc. We would see each other once or twice a year thereafter. The last time I saw Gene was at the NC Pest Management Association meeting in Raleigh a year or so ago, and we discussed his new worldwide vector responsibilities. Gene rose like a star in the industry. Not surprising, given his persona. Whenever I saw Gene he would approach me with a huge smile on his face and talk to me like his long, lost best buddy. We'd mostly talk about hunting, and what was going on at his Michingan home. – Dr. Dan Suiter, extension entomologist, University of Georgia

Bigger than life, passionate, funny, devoted, philosophical and a kid at heart, are just a few of the words that come to mind when I think of Gene. No one loved a story more than Gene, and no one could tell a story better than Gene. I will miss his stories, his friendship, and his encouragement. I only got to see Gene once or twice a year, three times, if I was lucky but every time was special. Some of my fondest memories were catching up with Gene, about family, about work, about life, and there were always great stories. Gene did most of the talking, and I was fine with that. We developed a close personal relationship that involved challenging one another and contemplating where our lives were taking us. While often deeply philosophical, it was always filled with its share of laughs along the way. Days spent at Rockbridge, telling stories, fly fishing, and hanging out at the Red House with friends and colleagues, will be how I choose to remember Gene. It seems impossible that he is gone and I will miss him in ways I cannot express, but it seems fitting that he left us the way he did, living life to it’s fullest. For all of us that Gene left behind life will never be the same, that’s the impact he had, not only on me but for countless others that he touched in a deeply personal way. I keep expecting to be overwhelmed with sorrow when I think about the loss of our dear friend, but every time I think about him, I see his smiling face, hear his boisterous laugh, and am filled with joy thinking of him and the times we spent together. That is gift that Gene gave those of us that were fortunate enough to have had him in our lives. – Rick Cooper, R Cooper Consulting