June 2019
The Inspector
It's time to renew your membership! The membership year runs from July 1 through June 30 annually. To ensure you don't miss out on any member benefits, be sure to renew today! Do so by logging into your MyNPMA account, or by clicking the link below. You can print the form and mail directly to NPMA with payment.
We're moving our State Conference! Due to a unique opportunity, the Board of Directors has elected to move the dates and locations of our November annual event. Mark your calendars for November 13-14. We'll be staying in Lancaster, but moving to the Spooky Nook Sports Complex, a one-of-a-kind sports and conference center. Check it out here! We'll be offering more great speakers and look forward to seeing you there!
2019 Platinum Partners
Continuing Education
Technical Spotlight
Gearing Up for Tick Season 2019-2020
New Tick Concerns Prompt Increased Surveillance

Written by Techletter. Reprinted with permission. www.techletter.com.

There's been a lot of news lately on tick prevention as it seems that ticks are becoming our most important public health pest. The number of tick-transmitted diseases has increased dramatically in recent years, as have tick hosts. Here's a compilation of what's happening now regarding ticks and tick monitoring.

Longer tick seasons are a concern.

Weather patterns are changing. While we can still have severe winter weather in temperate regions, overall winter temperatures have increased in most areas. That means that potentially (1) more ticks can survive the winter, (2) ticks can begin feeding (and spreading disease) even earlier in the spring, and (3) ticks such as the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, that transmits Lyme disease, can continue to feed much later into fall and winter. They don't slow down until the temperatures drop below 35-40 F (2-4 C). During warm spells in winter, they become active again and begin feeding on host animals. Health experts are concerned because the longer that ticks can remain actively feeding, the greater the potential of disease transmission.

Warming temperatures across the nation also allow ticks to gradually move into colder regions of the U.S. where previously they couldn't survive. Blacklegged ticks have been steadily expanding their range westward and northward, moving throughout the U.S. and into southern Canada. Weather changes have also allowed moisture-loving ticks, such as the Gulf Coast tick, to move westward into semi-arid areas. Ticks that can transmit diseases to people and animals are now found in areas where they were previously unknown.

More available host animals are a concern.

Weather changes notwithstanding, experts think that an even more important factor influencing tick populations is the number of deer and mice available. Deer are running amok, especially in suburban areas. More deer and small rodents means more host animals for ticks, especially those that feed on both during their life-cycle. The blacklegged tick, that was formerly known as the "deer tick," is a prime example.

The Asian longhorned tick is a concern.

Health officials are working to limit Lyme and other tick diseases and their vectors as they continue to move into new areas, but for now we have an entirely new tick in the U.S. For the first time in about 80 years, an invasive tick species has arrived, bringing with it the potential threat of a new tick vector and another serious tick-transmitted disease. The Asian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis, can be a serious pest on livestock but will also bite wildlife, pets, and humans. Females can self-fertilize; males are not necessary for production.

The tick was first identified in 2017 on sheep in New Jersey. Since then, it has been found in AR, CT, KY, MD, NC, NJ, NY, PA, TN, VA, and WV. Potential suitable habitat for this tick could cover a good part of the eastern U.S., as well as the coastal Pacific Northwest.

In Asia, this tick carries a virus that kills up to 30% of its human victims. While there's no sign of the virus in the U.S. ticks as of this date, health officials will be on the watch.

Increased efforts to monitor and track tick activity.

Because ticks and the diseases they transmit are becoming increasingly important, federal agencies are making tick awareness a priority. Someone came up with the brilliant idea of having Forest Service field personnel, who are in the woods all the time anyway, monitor for ticks at the same time. Crews with the Forest Service's Southern Research Station have been working in collaboration with researchers at the University of Tennessee to collect ticks that they encounter while on the job. Ticks were collected over a four year-period, sorted, and also screened for the bacteria that causes ehrlichiosis, giving important information on the abundance of three tick species in the 13-state Southern Region. The hope is to expand this type of surveillance nationwide.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has announced that in 2019 it will begin monitoring ticks and the diseases they might be carrying in order to determine in advance areas of the U.S. where people are at greatest risk. TickNET is CDC's public health network that funds projects and collaborates with state health departments and academics on surveillance and prevention of tickborne diseases.

For residential properties, CDC recommends a combination program of strategic landscaping to establish "tick safe zones" in a yard, along with tick treatments by PMP's to reduce tick-transmitted diseases around suburban homes.
Small Business Spotlight
More Than 150,000 U.S. Small-Business Websites Could Be Infected With Malware at Any Given Moment. Here's How to Protect Yours.

Small-business victims were involved in 43 percent of data breaches over the course of a year, according to a recent report.

Originally published on entrepreneur.com

It was March 2, 2016, and Melissa Marchand’s day on Cape Cod started out like any other. She drove to her job at Hyannis Whale Watcher Cruises in her mid-size sedan, picked up a latte with 1 percent milk at her local coffee shop and sat down at her desk to check her email. Then, Marchand got the call no website manager ever wants to receive: The site was down, and no one knew how to fix it.

After she dialed up the web hosting provider, the news went from bad to worse: Whales.net had been hacked and, to her horror, all visitors were being redirected to porn sites. Google had even flagged the company’s search results, warning potential customers that the site may be hacked.

“It was a total nightmare -- I had no idea that something like this could happen,” Marchand said in an interview with Entrepreneur . “I’d say 75 to 80 percent of our bookings are done online, so when our site is down, we’re just dead in the water.”

At the provider’s suggestion, Marchand called SiteLock, a website security company, and granted its representatives site access. SiteLock discovered the hackers had exploited a security hole in a Wordpress plugin, which gave them the access they needed to redirect visitors to racy websites.

By the end of the work day, Marchand sat in her car in her gym’s parking lot, speaking on the phone with a SiteLock representative to review the plan of action. She finally felt like things were going to be OK.
Within three days, Whales.net was back up and running, though it took another three weeks for Google to remove the blacklist warning from the company’s search results.

The hack hit about a month before the whale-watching season began in mid-April, and though it wasn’t peak season, the company still missed out on pre-booking tour groups from schools and camps. Marchand estimated the attack lost the company about 10 percent of its March and April business.

A risk for small businesses everywhere

Small-business owners were victims in 43 percent of data breaches tracked between Nov. 1, 2017, and Oct. 31, 2018, according to a 2019 Verizon report . The report tracked security incidents across all industries, but the most vulnerable sectors this year were retail, accommodation and healthcare.


Upcoming Events
Join us at our upcoming 2019 events!

Central Region Fall Seminar – Tuesday, August 20 (Park Inn, Mechanicsburg, PA)
Western Region Fall Seminar - Thursday, August 29 (Doubletree, Cranberry Twp., PA)
Eastern Region Fall Seminar – Thursday, September 12 (Wyndham, Trevose, PA)
Northeast Region Fall Seminar – Thursday, September 26 (Radisson Hotel, Scranton, PA) 
Annual State Conference – Wednesday and Thursday, November 12-14 (Spooky Nook Sports, Lancaster, PA) Note the date and location change!

The Eastern Division continues to hold its monthly meetings with varying topics of discussion on the second Thursday of every month at the Crowne Plaze in Trevose. For more information on monthly topics and speakers, contact Sue at (215) 331-1121.
The NJPMA is inviting you to join us at the
72nd Annual Clinic, Trade Show and Clambake!

* Earn Credits! DE, MD, NY and PA Available!
* Learn Valuable Information
* Meet Industry Leaders
* See Latest Technology from Exhibitors
* Cap off a Great Day with Great Food!
  
Neighboring Pest Associations get to take advantage of our “Friends and Family” Rates!
 
Make Plans to Join us Under the Tent for The 72nd Annual Clinic, Trade Show and Clambake as we return to Rutgers University - New Brunswick, NJ
August 15th, 2019!
 
Details and Registration are Online at www.NJPMA.com
Silver Partners
Industry Updates
Spotted Lanternfly
For up-to-date information on the Spotted Lanternfly and the current quarantine zone, visit the PA Department of Agriculture's website at the link below.

Bronze Partners
Legislative Update
The information below represents legislative activity (including bill introductions) that has occurred since the last newsletter. For a full listing of legislation that Versant is tracking for PPMA, please contact us at (717) 635-2320 or cwright@versantstrategies.net. Activity marked HCO or SCO indicates a co-sponsorship memo which precedes the actual introduction of legislation and is designed to secure the support of other legislators prior to introduction as a bill.

HB 21 - Helm, Sue (R) - Amends the Engineer, Land Surveyor and Geologist Registration Law, providing for the regulation of the practice of home inspection; and making a related repeal.

This legislation is of particular interest to PPMA. The bill has been refered to the House Professional Licensure Committee where it awaits action.

HCO 1764 Solomon, Jared (D) - Modernizes and overhauls the Landlord and Tenant Act.

The co-sponsorship memorandum has been filed. We await the filing of the legislation.
REMINDER from NPMA
To update your company's service area, please follow the steps below:
  1. Log on to the Manage My Group area of the NPMA website. Please note: in order to access the "Manage My Group" area of the NPMA website, you must be a company administrator. 
  2. Click on "Company Information" from the drop down menu.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the Service Area section.
  4. Download the excel template found on this page.
  5. Update this template to include all of the zip codes that you service.
  6. Save the file on your computer.
  7. In the Service Area section click Choose File. Locate the excel template file that you just saved. Click open.
  8. Click Upload file.
Once you've completed these steps your service on Find-a-Pro is instantly updated to include these new zip codes. 
If you are having problems accessing please contact NPMA at (703) 352-6762 or  npma@pestworld.org .
Articles of Interest
Woodpeckers, squirrels and other animals are getting stuck on the sticky tape used to trap spotted lanternflies, prompting an outcry from animal rehabilitation centers and other nature groups. Sticky bands are typically recommended by Penn State Extension to catch the... - Allentown Morning Call

Members of Pennsylvania Noxious Weeds Committee are hoping that adding a new species to its list will help address another invasive issue: the spotted lanternfly. The committee has added Tree-of-Heaven to the state.s Class B noxious weeds list. .Class B includes species that are so widespread, it would be prohibitively... - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey has seen the statistics on the rising number of honeybee colony deaths. And he's seen an example in his own backyard. The Pennsylvania Republican became an amateur beekeeper in 2017, and had two honeybee colonies on his Zionsville, Lehigh County, property when it... - Reading Eagle

The drone hovers over a park across the street from the Capitol in Harrisburg, its six spidery arms extended as its whirling propellers buzz. Christopher Ryan watches his craft, equipped with a camera for videotaping and a plastic jug for spraying pesticides, as it lingers in the sky,... - Reading Eagle

The tiny white-flecked black nymphs showed up around mid-May in one Bethlehem backyard, right about where the adults of their ilk had swarmed the grapevines last fall. Scraping egg masses off the nearby maple tree apparently didn't do the trick to eradicate them.... - Easton Express-Times