LAST DAY TODAY: SIGN UP FOR THE NEW YORK PEST EXPO

Join us for the finest pest management training and exposition program in New York. Get connected with the metropolitan area’s leading professionals. View exhibits and discuss product features with major manufacturers and business support providers. Meet Dr. Michael Potter and Dr. Dini Miller who will be on hand to present the latest research on bed bug habits and control. Last chance to earn recertification credits in 2009.

I absolutely LOVE this show, and I would personally urge you to come if you can. It’s such a pleasure and privilege for our magazine to be associated with this show.

Want a taste of what you’ll see in New York? Check these out:

Are Dusts The Bed Bug Bullet? by Mike Potter

Living With Bed Bugs By Dini Miller

Proof Yet Again That Pete Grasso Is The MAN

He beat me to it. My jaw dropped when I heard of Alec Baldwin’s character’s problem — and then I laughed out loud.

One Last Plea

In case you missed it in yesterday’s Buzz Online e-newsletter, you may have missed a podcast by Mike Potter and Dini Miller inviting you to be a part of the New York Pest Expo: Bed Bug Edition. In case you missed it, I’ve attached it here.

Take a listen.

Too Much Death

This time in Orlando. More prayers, please, and hope that they catch this murderer. Too much senseless death this week.

Please Keep All The Families And Soliders In Your Thoughts And Prayers

What a horrible tragedy. Please keep all of the members of the Fort Hood community in your thoughts and prayers. It breaks my heart that soldiers who have risked their lives for this country — and survived their tours of duty overseas — would be so chillingly gunned down by one of their own.

Combining Two Of My Loves

Pest management and hockey — two great institutions that go great together. Congratulations to Gannon Pest Control in Syracuse, N.Y., for supporting their community. It offers another abject lesson in how to earn free publicity for your company. Nice job.

I’m Finally On YouTube

So check it out and subscribe, won’t you?

I credit Pete with explaining to me why I needed to do it so that I can make my liveblogging from The New York Pest Expo: Bed Bug Edition much more effective. Make sure you follow the blogging next Tuesday.

Mike Potter Really Wants You To Attend

So don’t let him down.

Boston Rat Rampage

Seriously. That’s the headline on this incredibly lengthy story in the Boston Phoenix on the rat problem in Boston.

For those of you not familiar with the Phoenix, it us Boston’s alternative paper, which means they’re more able to give longer treatments to stories than the mainstream media papers. I was fairly blown away by the amount of space it gave this story. It certainly is thorough, and it has some great photos.

Kudos, too, to Bell Labs’ Mark Westover and occasional PMP contributor Dale Kaukeinen for representing the industry so well.

If I were a PMP in the Boston area, I’d be bombarding the city with phone calls trying to get in on the action. It sounds like an enormous opportunity to do something good for the city and get immense free publicity out of it.

I did also laugh at the photo below, which makes the rat look pretty demonic — it’s the art designed to grab your attention and make you read the article. I’d say it probably succeeded, but I must admit that if I encountered a rat that looked like that, I would run in the other direction.

If you see this rat, run away — RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN

I’m Sure I’m Violating Some Labor Laws

My daughter has decided to spend her day off from school with me at the office. This is now the third time she’s done this (despite the fact that I can’t be my usual entertaining self). I’m not sure I would have been quite so anxious to join the cubicle world at the age of 11, but she seems to adore it. This time, she’s talked it up so much that her cousin Sarah Martin, daughter of this incredibly talented artist and designer (focusing on toys), joined her.

If nothing else, they’re getting a chance to learn what a wonderful industry I work in. I’m doing my best to expose them to my friends in this industry.

On The Other Side of The Desk

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes I do get requests from state associations to do interviews for their newsletters (I’ve also been known to write short articles for state newsletters as well and I work cheap — free, in fact). Some people are interested in my opinions on some pest management industry issues, and I try to be helpful when I can.

On that note, I wanted to let you know that Rich Kozlovich, owner of Ohio 2000 Pest Management in Mentor, Ohio, decided he wanted to interview both myself and Pete Grasso on the subject of green pest management and its effects on the industry. He was writing the article for the Ohio Pest Management Association’s newsletter.

For those of you unaware of Rich, he has some strong opinions about the issue, and the article is a mixture of his own opinions with Pete’s and mine. We had a delightful discussion, and I’m pretty happy with the way the article turned out.

He tells me it will be up online, and when it does I will post it here so you can check it out.

Thanks to Rich for his time and support, and it was quite a good experience.