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Roughly 5 percent of women in U.S. territories and associated states with a confirmed Zika infection during a pregnancy last year had a baby with a birth defect associated with the virus, according to a new CDC report.

New research out of Hamamatsu University and Okayama University in Japan may improve our ability to monitor the cigarette beetle (Lasioderma serricorne) and the drugstore beetle (Stegobium paniceum). Both beetle species are globally important stored-product pests that damage a wide range of dried foods, causing severe economic damage. In the past, various types of adhesive light traps have been used to monitor for these pests in food warehouses and production facilities. A previous study showed that cigarette beetles were more attracted to UV and blue light, suggesting that altering the wavelength of light used could improve trap counts. Similar studies using the drugstore beetle were not conducted, until now. To investigate the attraction of cigarette and drugstore beetles to light, entomologists in Japan compared capture rates of these beetles to either UV- or blue-light traps. Importantly, they measured attraction in both the laboratory and in a real food storehouse. Their results showed that beetles were significantly more attracted to UV- than blue-light LED traps, suggesting that traps fitted with UV-light may provide a more powerful tool to monitor these stored-product pests.

Bed bugs were rare in the United States from 1930 to about 1980. Since 1980, most U.S. cities and even many small towns have become infested with bed bugs with the rate of bedbugs doubling every five years or so.

Vector control workers this week set traps at an elementary school campus in the city of Orange after reports that students and staff were bitten by rodent mites that have infested some of the campus buildings during a pending demolition.