Pest Control

Pests of the Dark

What Dwells Below?

There are inevitably pests in your house or apartment, and so long as you keep everything neat and tidy, they should all be very manageable and not something that bothers your day-to-day activities.

But if you live in a house and have a basement, a handful of bugs and vermin would prefer to make their homes there rather than in your living room or even kitchen.

It’s darker and damper, and more accessible for pests that come in to your house via pipes and drains or bugs that are on the ground and slip through the cracks and foundations. Absent a regular human occupant, it’s also more peaceful for them.

In this post, we’re going to be talking about some of the pests you’ll readily find in your basement, and what you can do to keep them out.

Rats

How to Rid Your Home of Mice and Rats for Good

While mice and rats like grooming themselves, they’re also carriers of diseases like leptospirosis. If you find them in your basement, setting traps would be the more humane way of dealing with them – while it may seem like the more brutal option, sticky paper would actually mean a slow death for them and leaving poison for them means you may not readily find their bodies to dispose of them quickly and safely.

Spiders

Most spiders you see in basements are harmless, and are in fact good for you since they eat a lot of other peskier bugs you’ll find in your home (cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes and more) and if anything, you may just want to clear out their cobwebs.

However, there are 2 dangerous spiders you may want to keep an eye out for – the Brown Recluse and the Black Widow.

You can tell a Brown Recluse by its color and telltale violin-shaped mark on its body, and a Black Widow is a shiny black with a red mark below its abdomen.  While they’re shy and are generally non-aggressive, their venom is toxic to humans and very painful so if you see one, consider getting rid of them carefully or call a pest control services provider ((you wouldn’t want to be down there and not notice you’re about to come into contact with one!).

Earwigs

Despite the name, Earwigs no more crawl in to your ears than any other small insect might. While they have pincers, they usually lack the force to break skin and are considered harmless. Like spiders, they spend their time hunting pests that are more problematic for you.

Centipedes

While they may look like they crawled their way out from the bowels of hell itself, centipedes typically do their best to stay out of your way and only really bite you if you pick them up. Like spiders and earwigs, they show their gratitude for your hospitality by hunting other pests for you.

Cockroaches

Unlike most of the others on this list, there are no benefits to having cockroaches in your house. Like rats, they’re carriers of bacteria and disease, and will happily propagate it wherever their tiny and frightening spiked legs carry them.

To get rid of roaches, regularly clean your basement (and house, of course), and make sure there aren’t any readily available food sources for them like trash. Some cockroaches do eat common household items like toothpaste and soap, so if you have any in your basement, keep them in proper containers.

Also get rid of unnecessary boxes or other storage containers bugs can crawl into and hide (consider using tin or plastic containers) and consider investing in a portable humidifier if you don’t have one yet.

It has a lot of respiratory benefits and helps dry skin, and helps prevent dampness thereby helping to keep pests (and mold) away!

For any pest infestation, don’t hesitate to reach out to a professional pest control company Serving greater Phoenix AZ with quality pest control services.

Author Bio: Dane Kolbaba is an owner at WatchdogPestControl.com. He resides in Chandler, Arizona with his wife and four furry friends. He has a passion for helping others and enjoys surrounding himself with interesting and motivating people.

Uncategorized

How To Prevent Termites From Taking Over Your House

Termites have been keeping carpenters annoyed and employed for millennia. These sneaky little creatures can turn a solid wood structure into a pile of toothpicks in short order.

Each year, termites and similar pests cause an estimated $30 billion in damage to crops and man-made structures in Canada alone. So, knowing how to prevent these little buggers is important. There are a few tricks you can do to ensure your old house is as safe as possible. Though no wooden structure is completely safe from termites, these tips can save you money and frustration.

1. Fix Leaks
Termites love soft wood! Much the same way we appreciate an especially tender steak, termites are looking for some soft tasty wood to munch on. When you have a water leak, whether, from leaking pipes or an old roof, that water is causing wood to soften up. Wet wood is softwood. And often times, you’ll have a colony of termites set up shop right at the spot where the wood has been softened up from months or years of a leak softening the wood up.
Be vigilant about your old house’s preventative maintenance. Check for leaks annually in the attic and basement or crawl space. Fixing these leaks early is like slamming the door in the termite’s faces.

2. Use Borate
Spraying borate onto any wood prior to priming and painting is an excellent way to prevent termites, carpenter ants, and some wood destroying fungi from attacking your house. Products like Bora-Care are simple to apply, you just dilute with water and spray on any wood you want to keep termites off of. The sprays soak into the wood and make for a very unappetizing meal. After it dries, you can still prime and paint any treated wood.
The great thing about these sprays is that they only need to be used once. One treatment works for decades as long as the boards aren’t exposed to rain before being painted. And while many houses are treated with borate during construction these days you can also treat any existing house just as easily.

3. Use Old-Growth Wood
Yet one more reason to use salvaged materials to repair your old home. If you have some damage to your house that needs repair, try using reclaimed old-growth wood for the repair instead of the soft new wood from lumberyards and hardware stores. Old-growth lumber is higher in resins, has more rock hard “late wood”, is more stable, more rot-resistant and a slew of other benefits. All that translates to a wood that is less attractive to termites and other insects. Find a local architectural salvage yard or restoration carpenter and they can help you find the right wood for the job.

4. Get a Termite Bond
In case you’re not familiar with how a termite bond works, here’s the skinny. You pay a pest control company a couple of hundred dollars every year to ensure you against termite infestations. If they find active termites in your house they treat for free and usually pay for any damage caused by the termites. A termite bond works good because it transfers the risk of a termite problem to the pest control company and off of your shoulders. Another positive is that the company is motivated to come out and do spot treatments (also free with a bond) because if there is damage it’s their responsibility.

That’s it! The rest that you can do is to pay attention to. If you see evidence of termites like rainbow looking wings around your windows or frass, which looks like poppy seeds but is actually the waste of termites. Either of those is sure-fire signs that you’ve got termites. Keep an eye out and practice these tips and your house should be just fine for years to come.

 

Natural Pest Solutions
46167 Yale Rd, Chilliwack, BC V2P 2P2
778-860-5313
https://mynaturalpestsolutions.com/ca/pest-control-chilliwack-bc/

Pest Control

Bed Bugs – What to do about them

Bed bugs—the words alone are terrifying. The thought of the itching, the weeks-long hassle—not to mention the cost of treatment—send shivers up the spine of even the most hardened city dweller. Bed bugs aren’t just limited to cities, either. No matter where you live (and no matter how clean you are) you could be at risk. However, take heart—knowing the common causes of bed bugs puts you one step closer to prevention.

Areas of the Home with Bed Bugs You purchased used furniture
You already know to thoroughly check used mattresses for bed bugs. However, the name bed bug is a bit of a misnomer. These unwelcome critters can take up residence anywhere in a home, especially if you purchased used furniture. Couches, chairs, clothing—none of it is truly safe. Therefore, give that thrift-store couch a thorough once-over before taking it home.

You have a cluttered home
While it’s true that bed bugs can infest any home regardless of cleanliness, the more cluttered your space, the more places they have to hide.

You recently had house guests
Dear Aunt Lorna is coming to visit, bearing gifts for the whole family. Does her list include the unwelcome gift of bedbugs? Gently ask if she’s had bed bugs in her home recently before offering a place to stay and invest in high-quality bedbug covers for your guests.

You’ve traveled recently
Check hotel reviews online before booking a hotel to make sure you won’t pick up any unwanted souvenirs (i.e. bedbugs) on your trip.

 

Natural Pest Solutions
4096 Ponderosa Ln, Gainesville, GA 30506, USA
+1 770-983-6123
https://mynaturalpestsolutions.com/georgia/pest-control-gainesville-ga/

How to Rid Your Home of Mice and Rats for Good
Pest Control

How to Rid Your Home of Mice and Rats for Good

Home, office and other types of building can easily become infested with vermin.  Mice and rats are everywhere and getting rid of them is a must, but that isn’t always easy.  If you think for a second that you may have rats or mice then you need to take action to get rid of them before the situation gets out of control.  Let’s look at how to rid your home of mice and rats for good.

Find where they are coming in

The first step to getting rid of them is finding where they are getting into the building and where they have built their nests.  Is this just once mouse you have or are they living throughout your house.  Things you can look for are holes in the baseboards, check out your attic and walls.  If you have an attached garage look there too, it doesn’t take a very big hole for mice to get in.  Are you finding droppings near food sources?  You can follow them back to nests and entry points.  Here is a guide to finding how mice and rats are coming into your home.

Getting rid of them

Many home owners will try and tackle the problem on their own, they will head over to a home improvement store and grab a couple of traps or some poison to take care of the job.  Be careful of the products you buy if you have pets or children in your home and if you have never used rat poison before you may want to leave it be and look at something easier and less dangerous.

There are a variety of traps you can use some will capture the rodents and others will kill.  If you use traps to capture the rodent then make sure you release it far away from your home or you will find them getting right back in your house.  Traps are ideal if you have a small infestation or just one mouse that managed to make it into your home for a larger infestation you’re going to need something else.

Call an exterminator

If you have never dealt with a rodent problem before then you may want to bring in someone who has.  An exterminator knows where to look to find how they are coming in and how to find their nests.  They know how to remove rodents without causing harm to your pets or your family.  They can educate you on how to prevent further infestations in the future.  They can get the job done quickly and effectively.  Mice and rats carry disease you can’t leave the situation untreated hoping it will resolve itself.

Don’t Put Your Health at Risk Call in an Exterminator
Pest Control

Don’t Put Your Health at Risk Call in an Exterminator

When you are a homeowner there are plenty of basic repairs that you can handle completely on your own, you don’t need a professional to fix a leaky faucet.  Pest control is a whole different matter, and if you have an infestation of pests you need a pro to get rid of them.  Over the counter products may kill the bugs that you can see but they won’t get rid of you infestation at the source.  Not to mention many of these products are highly toxic.  Don’t put your health at risk call in an exterminator.   Here are a couple of reasons you can’t handle this project on your own.

Toxic Chemicals

One of the biggest reasons to leave pest control to the professionals is because of the chemicals required to eradicate the pests that you are dealing with.  Not to mention that different pests require different solutions.  You don’t treat termites and bed bugs the same way.  There are tons of different products on the market, some are harmful and others are ineffective.  A trained exterminator knows the difference and can match the right solution to the job at hand.

Pests are Dangerous

Some pests are more dangerous than others, for example rodents can carry the hantavirus which has the potential to be fatal.  Trying to remove a beehive or a wasps nest on your own can also be dangerous, one small mistake and you can be visiting the emergency room.  Exterminators are trained to handle these situations and can remove the pests and make sure they don’t return.

Damage to Your Property

Some pests are really hard to detect like termites, and termites also happen to be one of the most destructive infestations that you can have.  You may think you have gotten rid of them when in fact you have huge colonies living in your home.  A pest control company can find infestations no matter where they hide and eradicate the nests so that they are finally gone for good.  Which leads to the final point.

Gone for Good

DIY pest control is often only a stop gap measure; you only get rid of what you see rather than all of the infestation.  Pest control companies can stop the pests from coming in your home, eradicate the nest and kill any and all live bugs in your home.  Not only that many of them will guarantee their work so you don’t have to worry about them coming back.

Pest control is one of those jobs that you should never try and tackle on your own; you could end up making the situation worse rather than better.