Home Pest Inspection Tips to Prevent Holiday Pest Infestations

Across the country, pest control problems can ruin the holidays. A home pest inspection can help you avoid this unsavory situation. During a home pest inspection, a residential pest control House Centipede Tn expert checks out your home, looking for situations that could encourage rodent and insect infestations. The tips listed below can also help you discourage pests this holiday season.
Keep it Clean
As every pest control guru knows, pantry pests are a common residential pest control problem all year long. Weevils, moths, ants, rodents and beetles are happy to feed on any carbohydrate-heavy food, including rice, cereal and flour. To avoid drawing pests to your pantry, keep a tidy kitchen. After eating, immediately clean up any crumbs or spills, and store extra food in airtight containers. Finally, keep your pantry dry; like us, pests need water to survive.
Firewood Pest Prevention
For pests, firewood represents both shelter and food. Avert firewood pest infestations by storing firewood off of the ground. Keep firewood more than twenty feet from your house. Proximity encourages infestations, as bugs tend to explore the area surrounding their homes, and firewood makes an excellent rodent and bug home. Pest inspection experts take a good look at firewood storage, since this area often creates the need for residential pest control.
Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Hitchhike
Bed bugs are showing up in posh hotels across the nation, so don’t feel bad about protecting your home from bed bugs that may have hitchhiked in with holiday guests. After all, bed bugs have spread across America by hitching rides with travelers. Your guests may unwittingly bring bed bugs into your home on their luggage.
Protect yourself against these tiny vampires by dressing guest beds in light-colored linens. This will make it much easier to see bed bug specimens, exoskeletons and feces. Additionally, you should store luggage away from How To Get Rid Of Bugs In Garden Soil bedrooms once your guests have unpacked. Following the visit, wash clean linens in very hot water. Lastly, a box spring and mattress encasement is an excellent method of practicing bed bug residential pest control.
Christmas Tree Pest Prevention
A Christmas tree is a cheery reminder that life survives even the dismal months of winter – a valuable message, especially in wet climates like the Northwest. Pest control precautions are needed, however, even with this most familiar symbol of the holiday season. Carefully check out self-cut or store-bought trees, looking for spider webs. If you find webs, remove them immediately. You should also keep an eye out for live insects lurking in your tree. These pests can breed quickly in your home’s heated environment. Apply these same home pest inspection methods when bringing fresh wreaths or garlands into your home.
Carefully Unpack Decorations
Moths, nesting mice, silverfish and carpet beetles love to set up shop in storage containers. Not only do storage boxes provide a protected home for pests, but they also contain pest food in the form of organic materials like …

Don’t Let Pests Ruin Your Holiday Feast

During the winter months, holiday feasts bring together family and friends in celebration of the spirit of the season. Unfortunately, warm homes also bring together potentially disease-carrying household pests in search of sustenance and shelter from the winter’s wind. Some of the most common pests this season include carpenter ants and cockroaches. But the most dangerous, disease-ridden winter pests of all are rodents. According to research published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, common household rodents such as mice and rats can transmit Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
Ants
Infestations by ants are arguably the most commonly-occurring pest control issue across the country, particularly in warmer climates. Fire-ant mounds on the front lawn are easy enough to spot, but ants can also live outdoors in unkempt flower beds, mulch piles, stone landscaping, the shores of ponds and streams, old tree trunks, and against the foundations of houses. If an ant infestation is discovered indoors, the most likely location for the nest is inside a wall along the baseboard. Some ants, such as carpenter ants, can travel several yards away from their nests, which can make detection of the main nest difficult without assistance from a pest control professional. Another possible source of a holiday ant infestation could be a honeydew insect-attracting plant. Bamboo, cherry laurel and oleander can all inadvertently attract pests like ants.
Cockroaches
While ants are the most common holiday pests, cockroaches rank among the filthiest pests of them all. Research published by the CDC shows that two main health risks exist when cockroaches abound inside a home. The CDC reports that cockroach excrement can trigger asthmatic reactions in unsanitary living conditions. Secondly, cockroaches are a well-documented disease-carrier. Some of the pathogens cockroaches can potentially carry are Plant Pests And Diseases Identification Pdf shigella, streptococcus bacteria and E. coli. At their worst, cockroaches can carry multi-drug-resistant pathogens, which are nasty infections that are notoriously difficult to treat with traditional antibiotics. Cockroaches can live almost anywhere near a viable food source, and since cockroaches eat any type of food, a full-bore cockroach infestation is very difficult to battle with store-bought pest-control chemicals alone.
Rodents
Mice and rats are unequivocally the most dangerous pest to have around friends and family during the holiday season. Rodents, in addition to acting as carriers for fleas and lice, can transmit the extremely virulent Hantavirus, one of the most dangerous viral infections on the planet. Reports from the CDC implicate contact with rodents and their droppings as the probable cause of several cases of Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
Rodents have the ability to mate and reproduce approximately every two months. Each litter can contain as many as nine rodent pups that can quickly turn one single nest into an infestation within a matter of weeks. In the wild, rodents make their nests in trees or in burrows in order to avoid predators. This information is particularly useful when investigating a rodent infestation, since attics and basements are common nesting locations inside of the home.
Pest Prevention …

Pest Control Tips For The Holiday Season

When the winter season upon us, the scent of mouth-watering dishes and desserts leak out of roof vents and windows as delectable meals are prepared. Decorations and lights are pulled from storage boxes that have been stored away in closets, attics or sheds since last year to enhance the holiday experience.

However, most of the items that contribute to making the holiday season a festive time of year, also bring about pest or rodent problems. The delicious food scents coming out of our home attract bugs and rats to the kitchen and leftovers that sit on the table. Although unintended, this is a welcoming invitation to pests.

Ants, spiders, rodents, and all sorts of bugs can hide in storage boxes of holiday decorations. The pests venture out of the storage boxes once in your home. They Pest Control Methods Apes will find a new place in your home similar to the living condition as the storage boxes: dark and undisturbed. These are perfect conditions for a pest to nest.

Other areas pests can live are in pantry foods like flour, cereal, dry pasta, Bugs That Leave Piles Of Sawdust Uk and spices. These pests are called pantry pests (ants, beetles,weevils,etc.).

To keep all these pests out of your home, you will need an effective pest control and rodent control plan enforced in your home during the holiday season. Below are some tips to protect your holiday events and guests from pests. Follow the tips to optimize your pest control program and to keep your holiday plans uninterrupted by pests.

Keep decorations and seasonal items in airtight containers when storing in attics or sheds. Pests or rodents will not be able to get in these containers. Make sure your airtight containers are made of durable materials (non-cardboard) and in a dry area. Also, when you bring them down for the holidays, unpack them outside and inspect all the items for pest infestations.

Do a thorough inspection of gifts,wreaths, and Christmas trees before you bring them inside. Insects or rats can be living in them.

All foods including waste food should be stored away in a sealed container. Trash receptacles should be secured by a lid. Clean all areas where food is prepared and consumed. Tables, countertops, pantries, and cabinets should be free from crumbs or liquid spills.

All the food you bring in from stores should be examined. Damaged packaging or boxes should not be bought from stores. Expired food items should be thrown out in a trash can with a secure lid.

Following these pest management guidelines will reduce your chance of pest infestations tremendously. A regular bi-monthly service & pest-proof service on your home by a professional pest control company can prevent bugs from ever entering your home.

A regular pest control service will treat the inside and the perimeter of your home for bugs. The pesticides will eliminate bugs upon contact. The residue left from the treatment spray will also get rid of the pests!

A pest-proof will …

How To Store Holiday Decorations So As Not To Attract Pests

Once the hustle and bustle that is the holiday season is over, the focus will be on undressing the tree, taking down the garland and packing up decorations in order to store them away in your attic, basement or crawl space until next year. In order to make sure that your ornaments and other decorations will be used for several more years, you should always properly store them to ensure that pests won’t damage them. Storing your decorations properly may take a little extra time and preparation but the benefits make it definitely worth it.

With that in mind, here are few tips on how to store decorations 4 Types Of Pest Control so that insects and rodents will stay away:

Inspect the area that you will be storing your decorations in; make sure that there are no signs of pest activity. This includes looking for nests, live bugs and/or other signs such as droppings.

Store your decorations and ornaments in plastic storage containers that have a locking lid; this will prevent pests from being able to gain access to your decorations. Though more expensive than cardboard boxes which can be easily chewed through, the investment will offer years of protection.

Items made out of fabric such as stockings, tree skirts and table linens should be stored in sealed plastic bags. This will keep moisture out and prevent How To Do Pest Control At Home By Yourself pests from getting in. You may also consider washing them (if the material would allow) to get rid of any crumbs or other debris attractive to pests.

Artificial trees and wreaths should be stored in tree and wreath bags instead of the boxes they were purchased in. The bags are made out of heavy-duty, moisture resistant material that will also be able to withstand pest invasions.

Though ornaments and other seasonal items made by our children are precious, any edible, handmade ones could attract foraging insects and rodents. In consideration of that, it is best to discard any that fall into the edible category. Taking a picture of your little ones’ handiwork is a way to remember their hard work while protecting your home from pests.

By being proactive and implementing the proper storage tips and suggestions mentioned above, you can ensure that when you get out your decorations and ornaments to fill your home with holiday cheer next year, that they will be pest free and in the exact same condition as when you left them.…

Halloween Bats: The Facts About These Holiday Symbols

One of the most common holiday symbols that comes to mind when you think about Halloween is bats. They fly in your hair, have rabies, and suck your blood, turning into vampires at the crack of dawn, right? Maybe. Find out the facts about Halloween bats, and whether they are tricks or treats at your house.
Bats are useful for insect control and plant fertilization. Most bats in North America eat insects. One bat can devour 600 to 1,000 insects per hour! They help keep the population of pest species under control. For example, they eat worms and beetles that destroy corn and other agricultural crops. They also eat pesky gnats, mosquitoes, and flies.
Most bats in Australia, Asia, and Africa live in rainforests and eat fruits or drink nectar from flowers. They are essential for pollinating our food items, such as agave, banana, cashew, and mango.
They also play an important role by dispersing seeds. When they eat fruits, the seeds pass through their bodies and are deposited elsewhere in the area, causing new trees and plants to grow. In fact, some plant seeds cannot germinate without going through a bat’s digestive system first!
Vampire bats are what people think about when they think of Halloween. There are only 3 species of vampire bats in the world. They live in Mexico, Central America, and South America.
Vampire bats do indeed drink blood as their food source. However, they do not normally attack Terminix Acquires Insight Pest Solutions humans. They tend to drink from animals such as cows, pigs, chickens, and goats.
Contrary to popular belief, most bats do not carry rabies. In fact, over the last 50 years, less than 40 people have gotten rabies from wild bats. Fewer than 1% of wild bats test positive for the disease.
Despite being such important contributors to our environment, bats still are disliked or feared by many people. More than half are threatened or endangered.
People kill bats for food, or because they believe they are evil or scary. Their habitat Houseplant Sticky Stakes is also disappearing because of overpopulation by humans, and the pollution we cause.
You can help bats by spreading the facts about them, rather than the myths, or putting up a bat house. They’ll keep your yard and garden free from pesky insects and pollinate your crops. They won’t fly in your hair, bother your pets, or interfere with birds. Those are all other myths.
Contact the Organization for Bat Conservation to find out more information about bat houses, or to adopt a bat.
So have bats at your Halloween party this year, but hold them in a place of honor. They deserve our appreciation, not our hatred.…