BY JESSICA L. MICKLEY
jmickley@njherald.com
In an unassuming building on
Wheatsworth Road, just outside of
Hamburg, is Web-Cote Industries, a hot
melt coating company that may melt
your heart.
When Web-Cote president Jim Cowen
heard about the extensive flooding in
Iowa, and that the flooding had reached
Hamburg, Iowa, he sent the town almost
2,600 poison-less rodent control glue
boards, with a combined worth of
approximately $2,000. The company,
which manufactures pest control products and other items that utilize hot melt
adhesive, provided Hamburg, Iowa, with
enough glue boards to capture more
than 88,000 creatures.
“I feel good about it,” Cowen said. “We
all do.”
It may seem like a unique, even
bizarre, donation, but Cowen explained
that rodent control is needed post-flooding. As Cowen said, you really don’t
know what’s in the muck. Rodents dis
placed by water damage will seek out
dry ground and food, leading them to
areas not usually infested. The creatures can be troublesome for many rea-
sons, not least of which is health-related.
The only epidemic-prone infection
that can be transferred directly from
contaminated water is leptospirosis, the
World Health Organization website
states. According to the website,
“Transmission occurs through contact
of the skin and mucous membranes with
water, damp soil or vegetation (such as
sugarcane) or mud contaminated with
rodent urine. The occurrence of flooding
after heavy rainfall facilitates the spread
of the organism due to the proliferation
of rodents which shed large amounts of
leptospires in their urine,” states the
website.
Without treatment, leptospirosis can
lead to kidney damage, meningitis and
liver failure, among other ailments.
More than 300 people were evacuated
from Hamburg, Iowa, since the flooding
began. President Obama authorized a
Presidential Major Disaster Declaration
for six counties, including Hamburg’s
home county of Fremont, that have been
affected by the flooding along the
Missouri River since May 25.
The serious flooding may not immediately result in an infestation. |
|
Photo by Sara Hudock-Cole/New Jersey Herald |
| Jim Cowen, owner of Web-Cote Industries, demonstrates
the rodent control glue boards manufactured in his plant,
located just outside Hamburg. Cowen arranged for his
company to donate 36 cases of the boards to flood-ravaged
Hamburg, Iowa, to help address the rodent problem
inherent after flood waters recede. |
|
“They may not have a serious [rodent]
problem until the fall,” Cowen said.
The glue boards do not have a shelf-
life, so Hamburg can use them whenever needed.
Cowen is interested in potentially con
tinuing this new relationship with the
Iowa town. In the future, he may ask
Hamburg to test out new products,
expanding Web-Cote’s already large
reach. Web-Cote’s products can be found
around the world, though the company
operates entirely out of the site near
Hamburg on Wheatsworth Road and a
10,000-square-foot warehouse down the
road.
A Hamburg more than a thousand
miles away, with no connection to New
Jersey’s own, may be suffering damages
now but one day, it may be Hamburg,
N.J., that is in need.
“You never know from one year to the
next how favor can be turned,” he said. |
