Written by Lawrence Caniglia on February 22nd, 2010
Over the past several months my house has been invaded by stinkbugs – or to be scientifically (politically?) correct - Halyomorpha halys. I thought I had done something wrong to warrant this intrusion into my otherwise peaceful South Jersey bliss from these really weird looking bugs. Come to find out that these little critters hopped aboard some outgoing freight from Asia in the early 1990’s and have been spreading their stink from South Jersey through Pennsylvania and all the way to the great Pacific Northwest ever since. And by the way, if you have ever squished one, you know where they got their name from – Phewwww!!!!
Now if you have either been plagued with these little stinkers or have customers who may be dealing with them I have some good news. Turns out that the only known way to fight them is to keep them out of your house. And the only way to keep them out of your house is to spread diatumaceous earth (DE) around the entry points to the house. Which by the way, is what DE and stinkbugs have in common.
When I read that, I not only became glad that there was something I could do to stop these little buggers from just showing up, and that is exactly what they do – weird! – but what a good idea for our members to boost their sales to their customers and perhaps new customers as well. What a great service that would be to let your customers know that if they have been dealing with the great stinkbug invasion of 2010 you can help – sell them some DE.
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Written by Al Guzman on February 16th, 2010
Thank you to all who attended and exhibited at this year’s show. Despite the recent economic downturn, this year’s show proved to be a great success! In total, 11,324 industry professionals came to Atlantic City this year, slightly up from last year. Attendees were treated to a preview of all of the new and exciting products, services and technology on display throughout the show floor, the New Product Boardwalk and the brand-new Silent Auction Area. The weather was absolutely beautiful this year, and nothing but positive comments were heard from the 403 exhibiting companies, occupying over 100,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space.
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Written by Lawrence Caniglia on August 5th, 2009
I read an article on the internet a few days ago about the slump in sales of RVs. For 2008 sales were off 33% and in 2009 the number could be even higher than 60%. Dealers across the US are closing their doors and two of the RV manufacturers have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Hmmm? Does this sound familiar?
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Written by Lawrence Caniglia on July 10th, 2009
A few years ago NESPA went through an exhaustive effort to offer group health insurance to our members at affordable rates which would have been below the then existing exorbitant commercial market premiums. Unfortunately as hard as we tried, we ran into brick walls from both the Federal ERISA laws and state insurance regulations which prevented us from developing a program. When George W. Bush was president he had proposed, and even gotten passed in the House of Representatives, a bill to allow trade associations, such as ours, to offer these types of group health insurance plans.
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Written by Lawrence Caniglia on July 9th, 2009
On June 30th, The Connecticut Appeals Court ruled in favor of a licensed plumber and against a homeowner/consumer who refused to pay him. Imagine that. The consumer contended that the licensed plumber was acting outside the scope of his license when he fixed the homeowner’s driveway and front lawn, putting them back the way he found them after repairing a sewer line on the consumer’s property at a price of $6,700.
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Written by Al Guzman on July 8th, 2009
Welcome to NESPA’s blog! This site is intended to be an informational resource covering topics pertaining to the Pool and Spa Industry.
For more information about our association, please visit our website at www.nespapool.org
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