Behind the Scenes: Routing

Let me get back a couple of years... or I guess it's already a decade ago...

 

I started my apprenticeship with a freight forwarding company in Germany for a job title called: Management Assistance. I found it odd to begin with why a freight forwarder would hire a Management Assistance since they're moving freight, right? After a couple of years with the company and paying attention to not only my job but the ones around me it blew my mind away how many different jobs there were to make this one company run well. Little did I know that this company also had its own IT department. Of course, somebody needs to help out when things go wrong with the system and I'm very glad that the IT found me or I found the IT.

 

Most of the time all we see is the execution but not how it came to this execution. How much managing and planning and also manpower has been behind this one execution of the company.

 

Let me give you a little understanding about how our company works in regards of our schedule of services. I think it is very helpful for our customers to know when they call us and have a question about a service date.

 

We plan our routes ahead of time and make sure that one truck has the least amount of miles to drive from one customer to the next once he is in the targeted area. Once assigned, we route them the quickest way possible and schedule them in our IT system (exactly, we also have an IT system). Once we add the customer and schedule the first application the following applications will be scheduled automatically after generating the new cycle each month.

 

When it comes to single applications as well as potential re-sprays it is very helpful to give us a heads up rather than an immediate single application request. Our trucks are on a route in different corners of South East Michigan each day and we try to mix it up very good so we have the flexibility to add a single application anywhere on a short notice. We also have our so called 'emergency truck' that is available around the clock for short notice requests in case the trucks are everywhere but in the area for an urgent single application request.

 

We want to keep our customers happy and satisfied and I hope this was a helpful inside view for you to understand our process of ordering an application and the execution of it.

Home and Garden Show in Novi

We'd like to shout out a big thank you to everybody who took the time last weekend and stopped by at our booth. Many consumers listened to what we have to offer and asked us great questions. We got lots of new orders in which we loved of course. We also were overwhelmed by the response we've received and are looking forward to attend more shows to make our service known to our neighbors. 

This is a great way for potential customers to ask questions you may have or just make you aware that there is a service out there for Mosquitoes. On top of that we had a great time during the three day show with great booth neighbors around us. 

It's very funny to see the two totally opposite sides: The consumer on the one side who is going through an information overload stopping by at each booth while the vendor on the other side feel like a broken disk repeating the same thing over and over again but you have to remember the person in front of you have never heard your version before and there are always new questions coming up you haven't heard yet.

It is also very interesting to see with each show what works best and how you can improve your presents the next time around. 

Thank you very much, 

Your Team at 'Mosquito One'

15% OFF until the End of the Month

Do you remember last Summer? 

Were you able to enjoy a family dinner, party with friends or just a nice chat with your neighbors outside in your yard without being bothered by Mosquitoes? 

If you answer this question with 'No, you were not able to enjoy it without Mosquitoes leaving bite marks on your skin' you should check out our great deal that is going to expire in a week: 

Get 15% off our Residential Treatment Package by signing up now with an option of 4 easy payments or get an additional 10% off if you pay in full. 

Let us help you enjoy your Summer of 2014 without these Mosquitoes in your backyard.

Corporate Truck - Face Lift

Since we are living and servicing the South East Area of MICHIGAN it is very important to us to use Michigan Products and Services for our Company 'Mosquito One'. So far we've succeeded with that goal in most areas and we're working with great Michigan based Companies and service our area in FORD Pickup Trucks.

 

Today I just had to stop by at the shop to see the progress and how great it turned out. This beauty is going to have its first photo shoot soon to show off the new design. 

Wave 'Hello' when you see me driving around in it. 

Mailings and Advertising

The weekend has arrived... we're getting ready to distribute flyers, sending out postcards and starting advertising for the upcoming season of 2014.

The weather is cooperating very well with us. Yesterday it started to get warmer and the snow starts melting little by little. People are 'thinking' spring can't be that away... we're almost there and our trucks are ready to get rolling.

We're having an amazing team working together at Mosquito One and it is a joy hearing feedback from potential customers how great our advertising turned out. That's what you like to hear.

We've put a lot of effort into every single detail and we still have lots of additional ideas that will be presenting in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned...

Check out our website at www.mosquitoone.com for our first amazing deal of the season, it's not getting any better than this so make sure if you're considering a season spray with us that you order it very soon. You won't regret it and you'll be able to enjoy a great summer without nasty mosquito bites who can resist that offer?

Who knew that Mosquitoes like stinky feet?

This made me giggle, who would've thought... Smelly feet are attractive to some Mosquitoes.

• Mosquitoes are known from as far back as the Triassic Period – 400 million years ago. They are known from North America from the Cretaceous – 100 million years ago.
• There are about 2,700 species of mosquito. There are 176 species in the United States.
• The average mosquito weighs about 2.5 milligrams.
• The average mosquito takes in about 5-millionths of a liter of blood during feeding.
• Mosquitoes find hosts by sight (they observe movement); by detecting infra-red radiation emitted by warm bodies; and by chemical signals (mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide and lactic acid, among other chemicals) at distances of 25 to 35 meters.
• Mosquitoes fly an estimated 1 to 1.5 miles per hour.
• Salt marsh mosquitoes can migrate up to 40 miles for a meal.
• Bigger people are often more attractive to mosquitoes because they are larger targets and they produce more mosquito attractants, namely CO2 and lactic acid.
• Active or fidgety people also produce more CO2 and lactic acid.
• Smelly feet are attractive to certain species of mosquitoes – as is Limburger Cheese.
• Dark clothing has been shown to attract some species of mosquitoes more than lighter colored clothing.
• Movement increased mosquito biting up to 50% in some research tests.
• A full moon increased mosquito activity 500% in one study

source: http://www.mosquito.org/fun-facts

BBQ - I can smell it!!!

It's been a really rough winter up here in Michigan but that doesn't mean that Mosquitoes will be gone this year. Predictions are with all the snow melting and the water standing we might get a crazier Mosquito season this year.

Today I could actually see our grass again... the snow is slowly going away however there is more snow in the forecast. It's not over yet.

I'm not complaining about this wonderful winter wonderland at all but I have to admit that when somebody mentioned "BBQ" the other day I could literally smell the delicious BBQ and the sun. I really look forward to spending A LOT of time outside with the kids this year again and since the Mosquitoes love me to death I can't wait for our yard to be Mosquito free!!!

How do mosquitoes survive collisions with raindrops?

While here in Michigan the Snow just comes down inch by inch I was wondering about all melting snow that we'll have very soon and how big of an impact this will have on our 2014 season. I stumbled over this very interesting article about how mosquitoes survive collisions with raindrops. Who ever thought about this very topic? 

I'm glad I found this and would like to share it with you. Very great information:

"Just as da Vinci looked at birds as inspiration for his sketches of airplanes about 500 years ago, engineer David Hu of the Georgia Institute of Technology is taking a close look at mosquitoes to understand how they can withstand the pounding of heavy rainfall.

This isn't just idle curiosity: Hu's research could help improve the design of insect-sized flying robots, which he says are being designed for use in military surveillance and search-and-rescue operations.

Hu is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and biology at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. His research findings appeared in Monday's online edition of theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

His research looked at how mosquitoes, which often thrive in rainy, windy regions — and have done so for at least 170 million years — manage to survive impacts with raindrops during flight.

"These raindrops are moving at a very high speed of about 22 mph, which is too fast for mosquitoes to dodge while in flight," he says.

Though similar in size to mosquitoes, a single raindrop can weigh more than 50 times what a mosquito does. (In fact, a mosquito has the same ratio to a raindrop as a person would while trapped under the wheel of a car.)

Hu's team at Georgia Tech used high-speed cameras to film mosquitoes flying in a cage exposed to a water jet, which simulated rainfall. The study authors found that a mosquito's strong exoskeleton and low mass render it impervious to falling drops and help them survive collisions.

"The mosquito's low mass causes raindrops to lose little momentum upon impact and so impart correspondingly low forces to the mosquitoes," the authors write in the study. How low mass? A typical mosquito weighs about one-ten-thousandth of an ounce.

"If you were to scale up the impact to human size, we would not survive," says study co-author Andrew Dickerson, a doctoral student at Georgia Tech. "It would be like standing in the road and getting hit by a car."

Likening it to the principle of Tai Chi, where the idea is to allow an opponents' force to go through or around you, Hu says the mosquito and the raindrop fall together for about 20 body lengths, then release each other.

"They ride the drop, then reduce the force," Hu says.

All the mosquitoes in the study survived the collisions.

Though there had been many studies of insect flight, he says, this is the first study that looked at how mosquitoes interact with water using high-speed video cameras.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Mosquitoes are carriers of deadly diseases such as malaria, which kills hundreds of thousands of people each year around the world, according to the World Health Organization.

Hu's lab at Georgia Tech focuses partly on how animals and insects interact with water. A previous study looked at how fire ants survive flooding by grouping together as a raft, which can float effortlessly for days. Another looked at how dogs shake off water."

Source: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/research/story/2012-06-04/mosquitoes-raindrops/55382230/1

Where are the Mosquitoes during the Winter Months?

"Believe it or not, the mosquitoes are out there, even in winter. They're just hiding so we don't notice them. Absent unseasonably warm weather, mosquitoes remain inactive through the winter months.
Some mosquitoes lay winter hardy eggs which lie dormant in the soil until spring. In late summer or fall, the female mosquito lays her eggs singly in areas where the ground is moist. The eggs hatch when conditions become favorable again, usually in the spring when temperatures begin to rise and sufficient rain falls.

Certain mosquitoes can survive winter in the larval stage. All mosquito larvae require water, even in winter. As the water temperature drops, it induces a state of diapause in the mosquito larvae, suspending further development and slowing metabolism. Development resumes when the water warms again.

Many mosquito species live through the winter as adults. In fall, the mosquitoes mate and the males die. Only females spend the cold months hidden in protected places, such as hollow logs or animal burrows. When warm weather returns, the females must first find a bloodmeal to develop her eggs. Just when you're outside enjoying the spring weather, the newly awakened mosquito moms are out in force, looking for blood. Once they've fed, the female mosquitoes lay their eggs in whatever standing water they can find."

Source: http://insects.about.com/od/flies/f/wintermosquito.htm