…in which I say thank you to all of you for a wonderful 2009 — and what I hope will be an even better 2010. Peace always to you and yours, now and forever:

To all:

Before I leave the offices for the final time of 2009, I wanted to take a
moment to thank all of my friends and supporters in the pest management
industry who have supported Pest Management Professional throughout what was
an interesting and challenging year for everyone, including us. But as we
approach the end of the year, I wanted to let all of you know how grateful I
am for everything you do for our publication and the industry.

I have never before worked in an industry with so many people who have gone
the extra mile to help each other during these difficult times. This is a
special group of people in this industry, and I’m lucky to count you among
my friends.

Have an absolutely fantastic holiday season and a happy New Year. I will be
back in the office on Jan. 4, rested and ready to take on whatever
challenges 2010 has to offer. I remain committed to trying to help all of
you succeed, and I look forward to working with you even more closely to
make that happen.

Thanks, as always, for your time, attention, support and friendship.

Peace always to you and yours,

Frank

Please check it out: http://bit.ly/7h5nxK

I’m testing this out to see if I can actually blog from my email. It would make my life a lot easier if I could, so keep your fingers crossed.

Life got started a little late today (I’ve been in the office, but I had a few things to catch up on, so I apologize for the lateness of this). I used to rock to this song when I was a teenager:

Great song. I like this remake better than the original, but either works for me:

The Danville (Ill.) News-Gazette reports the the University of Illinois Department Entomology celebrated its 100th anniversary last Friday — and the story starts off with a termite joke — so how bad can the story possibly be?

And congratulations to May Berenbaum, chairwoman of the department and the rest of her strong team, on this historic achievement.

Hey, our columnist Mark Sheperdigian of Rose Pest Solutions in Troy, Mich., is two-timing us with The Columbus Dispatch to discuss the use of heat to kill bed bugs.

Oh, that’s OK, Shep — I’m glad you’re out there doing the education so critical to the future of the industry. Go see what he had to say.

Want more information on heat treatments for bed bugs? Click here.

Kudos to Toped Development for their efforts to avoid pushing pests into neighboring buildings as they destroy a building. I don’t know how common this is, but I think it shows quite a commitment (and a smart one).

It also seems as if this is a potential business opportunity for PMPs. If anyone else has this as a part of their business plans, I’d love to hear about it.

The wildlife of California are on the move because of the California wildfires. We don’t have those kinds of problems in the city, but I was amazed to read the line about how a coyote had reportedly snatched a dog off a leash. Not to brag, but I think my dog Puddin’ could take it.