New Places, New Programs for Kids and Families in Rockland County, NY - July 2010

Check out these new additions to Rockland County, NY, that cater to children and families.

Bye Bye, Bugs

R. Dana Pest Control, a family-owned business that has served Rockland, Westchester, and Bergen counties for more than 45 years, began offering K-9 Scent Detection Services this past January.

   This new service uses three certified dogs - Walter the puggle, Lucy the chocolate lab-border collie mix, and Ethel the Jack Russell-beagle mix - to detect the presence of bed bugs or termites. The advantage of using scent detection as opposed to other methods is its greater accuracy, says Kristine Effaldana, president of the business. "Other tools...are only maybe 30 percent accurate," Effaldana says. "These dogs are 98 percent accurate."

  Another advantage to the service, Effaldana says, is that the dogs are only trained on live bed bugs, termites, and their eggs - a fact which makes extermination treatments more effective and their success easily testable.

  Effaldana's husband Richard and son Steven are the K-9 team leaders, with more than 30 years combined experience in pest control.

  The business also offers on-site pest control and a "green" line of pest control products. The retail store in West Haverstraw includes a children's center, where kids can learn about insects' role in our environment and visit with Lucy the rat and her friends, a frog, a lizard, and a large millipede.