Category: Pests

What is that noise in the attic?

In the cold winter months, Rats, mice, and squirrels are scurrying around to gather nuts and food to store for the winter. While looking for food these furry little rodents are also looking for a warm place to call home for the winter. Food and water are two of the major requirements of the rodents to be able to survive the cold; they also have to have a warm place to call home. This is where your attic comes in to play. Most often Rats mice and squirrels choose the easiest entry into your home, (the attic). Attics serve as a perfect place for the rodents to nest and have babies. Some types of rats and mice can have as many as ten per litter and have 8 to 10 liters per year. These rodents can infest anything and everything from old clothing and furniture to dishwashers, stoves, refrigerators, and ultimately the entire house. Here are a few differences in rats and mice that we normally encounter. The roof rat has a tail that is the length of the body, a pointed nose, big ears, and droppings that are about ½ inch in length. The Norway rat has small ears, a blunt nose, a tail that is shorter than the body, and droppings that are about ¾ inch in length. The house mouse is much smaller, has big ears, a blunt nose, and droppings that are about a ¼ inch in length. Rats only need a hole about the size of a quarter to enter the structure, whereas mice only need a hole about the size of a dime. The best method of controlling and removing the rodents is a process called rodent exclusion. This along with baiting and trapping program is most often the most reliable and effective way to not only control the rodents, but to permanently get rid of the…

Millipedes can enter into the structure in many different areas. The most common is under the siding of the house. The gap under exterior siding of a home is probably just as cozy as the loose bark of an old log, and maybe even stays a little warmer and more protected from environmental hazards. Reducing the populations of the millipedes on the property, and at least take away their ability to live up close and personal to the home. For the most part millipedes are nocturnal, hiding during the daytime in darkened, damp places. If there is anything piled or stored adjacent to the structure this could provide harborage for the bugs. It’s just good advice in general to encourage customers of all kinds to keep a path of cleared ground open around the structure. What you need to strive for with any pest that is invading from outdoors is a way to reduce the problem to an acceptable level with the minimum use of pesticides. This should be our Industry standard. A much more sensible approach is to evaluate the outside environment, where the millipedes are coming from, and determine why they are living there and why they are invading a home. Step 1 should be to pest-proof the structure as best you can, using caulking to fill holes or gaps, and door strips to close off gaps at the bottoms of doors. Since they cannot fly the most likely places millipedes are going to enter is at ground level, although climbing outside walls is certainly possible. Any pest-proofing you do is also going to help prevent the entry of any other kinds of unwanted…

Ladybugs can be a nuisance when they enter into a structure, but it is not illegal to kill them. Ladybugs are beneficial. They can help with eating other bugs that tend to feed on plants. They like to eat aphids, which like to feed on roses and other types of flowering plants. When walking around the yard you may encounter many different types of ladybugs. They can range from red with black spots to solid black, yellow or orange. Some have no spots on their wings to those with a couple dozen black spots, from very small species to some nearly 1/2 inch long. The larvae are often misunderstood and misidentified by people who believe they must be a plant feeding bug, but the larvae too are voracious predators that can clear a patch of aphids very quickly. They are usually a patchwork of red and gray spots and are described as “those tiny alligators”. When they pupate they attach to the trunk of the tree, side of a building, or any other convenient hard surface. There is one species that is a concern to plant health, and that is a yellowish species called the Mexican Bean Beetle. It is widespread in the eastern U.S. and in Mexico, generally occurring east of the Rocky Mountains. True to its name it feeds almost exclusively on legumes of many kinds, so if your vegetable garden is growing beans or peas then this beetle might be a problem. If so, a contact insecticide labeled for use on vegetables would be effective in killing them when the larvae first appear. This family of hundreds of species has only a couple of plant damaging species in it, and the rest are highly beneficial as predators, the likelihood is that the ones you are seeing are some of the good guys and should be encouraged rather than killed….

Where do Earwigs live?
Earwigs live outside of the home in moist areas where they have cover from the elements. They will live readily under yard debris, old boxes that are in contact with the soil, firewood piles, flower pots, tarps, children’s toys, trash cans, piles of lumber, or anything else that is left in contact with the soil for an extended period. Although you may see them inside, they can’t usually survive for more than a couple of days indoors. Populations can be reduced by trimming trees and shrubs off the ground and away from the structure. Dense ground covers should be thinned out and or removed. Opening up the soil and allowing it to dry is going to make it difficult for the earwigs to survive. There are some species of earwigs that can fly fairly well and are attracted to lights left on at night. You can reduce the possibility of attracting these species by changing the bulbs to yellow instead of white or clear. This will help to reduce not only the earwigs, but many other types of insects that are attracted to the lights. Most chemicals if applied to piles of debris around the yard will be soaked up by the piles and never make it to the ground, thus causing the chemical to not work effectively. What you want is to get the earwigs and the material of choice in the same place for a long enough period to get the material into the bugs and kill them. An earwig can be fairly active insects and for them to move quickly across a treated surface might not be ample time for them to pick up enough material to get the job done. It is a better idea to remove all harborage areas and then treat where and as…

Bed Bug Tips When Traveling

Bed Bug Tips when traveling When packing for your trip make sure to pack a flashlight. It will be used to look for hidden bed bugs. When you check in make sure to leave your luggage in the car until you have inspected for bed bugs. Take your flashlight into your hotel, motel, house, villa or whatever you are going to stay. Pull the sheets off the bed look all the way around the mattress, under the mattress, and behind the head board for any blood stains or small bugs that can be the size of pepper. Use flashlight to check for bedbugs behind picture frames, in dresser drawers, closets, and upholstered chairs. Once you have inspected for bed bugs bring your luggage in but do not store it on the floor. Place you luggage up off of the floor as well as your shoes and dirty clothes. If bed bugs do make their way home with you make sure to call a professional right way. The longer you wait the more they spread. If you have any questions or concerns please give us a call Mr. Pest Control…