Multi-legged Insects: How To Get Rid Of Them
Gutters were originally intended to keep water flow away from a structure’s foundation. They are also great for keeping multi-legged insects, channeling the water away from the sides of the home or structure and preventing erosion and pooling water that can leak into basements or crawl spaces.
They are also nice and convenient for keeping water from pouring directly over doors and windows during rainstorms. However, the gutter wasn’t designed and installed for inhabitants of nature, such as mosquitoes and the many other pests that seem to make their home there.
They feed on rotting vegetables, garbage, and damp organic materials. They thrive and feed inside muddy tunnels you find beside the foundation of the interior or exterior walls indicate their presence.
Cockroaches of several types are common gutter insects, and they may cause health hazards such as food poisoning, dysentery, and diarrhea.
There are some basic rules for preventing mosquitoes. Regularly change outdoor water dishes for pets, water in fountains, kid’s swimming pools and even keeping potted plant dishes empty.
But, most homeowners forget one of the most important methods of mosquito prevention – keeping gutters clear of debris that clogs and creates small pools of water. This is the perfect breeding ground for pesky and disease-carrying mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes are not limited to living in the gutter. Just ask anyone who braves going up the ladder to take a look inside the gutters.
Homeowners, groundskeepers and gutter maintenance people find all kinds of pesky residents inside the gutters. Birds create nests in gutters causing water stoppages and all other kinds of mess.
Wasps and hornets love to build nests in the corners of gutters and even within small gaps between gutters and homes caused by settling or lack of gutter maintenance.
Aside from insect and animal pests, there are all kinds of other living things from nature found in gutters. Flowers, weeds, plants, even trees can start growing inside gutters.
Seeds that are carried by the wind find the moist dirt and debris inside a gutter and will start growing rapidly. Imagine finding a maple tree starting to grow inside a gutter. These types of stories are quite common and can become a real problem if neglected too long.
One solution for homeowners is the regular maintenance of gutters. While some homeowners may decide to take this on themselves, those who don’t have time or don’t want the risk may decide to hire someone.
Gutter maintenance services can be performed by groundskeepers or gutter maintenance companies. Signs of insect infestation in your home from these gutter insects can be done professionally by pest control, though.
Another solution that would help limit the cost and bother of regular maintenance would be to purchase a gutter guard or leaf guard system. This type of gutter system keeps animals, insects, leaves, and debris from entering the gutter in the first place.
While there are various types of gutter guard and leaf guard systems, the ones that only allow water to penetrate a fine mesh are considered the best by many and result in greater customer satisfaction.
How To Get Rid Of Rats In Attic?
Unfortunately, most people don’t think about these things until they already have a problem with rats or mice. It’s highly recommended using these steps on how to get rid of rats in attic first and then moving on to a more extensive inside attack.
Rodents (rats and mice) can be a big issue this time of year. As it gets cold outside rodents will make their way inside your home and business looking for shelter and food.
Rodents carry diseases and can cause extensive damage to electrical systems and other parts of your home or business. Did you know that 1 in 20 house fires are caused by rodents chewing on electrical wires in people’s attics?
That being said, a little prevention can go a long way to keeping your home or business rodent-free.
There are 3 main ways we will look at keeping rodents OUT: eliminating entry points, preventing food sources, and basic prevention with bait stations and traps.
- One thing that is commonly overlooked is how the rodents are gaining entry into your home or business. It is important to make sure you check your building on a regular basis and make sure there are no obvious entry points.
Rodents can squeeze through holes and cracks the thickness of a pencil! Weather-stripping is a commonly overlooked entry point. Most garage doors, as well as doors leading to the outside, will have some form of weather stripping on it. If you can see daylight coming in, it needs to be replaced.
Pay attention to pipe/air conditioning penetrations going into the wall. When buildings are built, contractors are famous for cutting holes much larger than the pipe that will go into it. You can either patch this up or use steel wool to plug the hole.
- Steel wool is very effective at plugging holes because the rodents will cut their gums when trying to chew through it. Even if you have a hole up high, plug it. Remember that rats and mice are excellent climbers.
An available food source is an easy way to attract a rat or mouse problem. By leaving bowls of dog or cat food outside, or even inside for that matter, you are inviting rodents into your home.
Be sure to only feed your pets when they are going to eat, and remove any standing food sources.
Remember if the rodents have an easily available food source, like dog or cat food, they will not consume the rat or mouse bait you put out. This is an important tip for those trying to prevent rats and mice as well as those trying to deal with an infestation.
- The third key to preventing a rodent problem is utilizing a monthly baiting program. By placing bait boxes around your property, filling them with bait, and checking them monthly, you can keep the rodents from ever making it inside your home.
This holds true with both residential homes as well as businesses. If rat infestation worsens, better call in pest control for rodent removal services.
House Fly Life Span
The house fly can be classified into two groups. It is a generic term that applies to the common housefly, the lesser house fly and fruit flies, all of whom may enter a dwelling. It can also refer specifically to the common housefly, Musca domestica Linnaeus. The house fly life span is explained below.
The common housefly is distributed throughout the world and is a very successful breed. Its success can be attributed to a number of factors including its adaptability and resourcefulness.
Otherwise known as a housefly, the Musca domestica Linnaeus is seen anywhere — in places and spots where there are rotting food and/or manure.
Oftentimes house flies will pick up a scent most from afar and try to seek its source. Until then, they keep on flying.
Flies are just as opportunistic when laying eggs. Rather than prepare an area for their eggs, they simply find a wet and warm area where there is some food and lay their eggs there.
Freshly laid manure is a perfect place. The cream-white eggs are laid in clusters of between 75 and 100 eggs. Within 24 hours of being laid, they will hatch into larvae (maggots).
The larvae are completely self-sufficient – another sign of this breed’s robustness and adaptability. After a few days, the larvae will move to drier areas (or the medium they were hatched into may dry out anyway).
They will then pupate and from the puparium will emerge a mini version of a fly. After about an hour, the young fly will mate if possible and then take off and start its life as a flying adult.
This, of course, is when the trouble starts.
The amount of houseflies at any given time is largely governed by temperature. A fly’s functions, including breeding, will slow as the temperature cools. It thrives and multiplies rapidly in warm to hot temperatures but doesn’t like the temperature to be too hot.
This is one of the many attributes they share with humans. Alarmingly, house flies share some other human characteristics such as the inability to see in the dark and a liking for sweet and fatty foods.
That last point may explain why they are so keen to visit our kitchens. They are less fussy than we are. They will have no problem with visiting our trash and rubbish tips looking for discarded food.
Flies often take advantage of reliable sources of food and are eternally curious – just like us.
Although they are not curious in the intellectual sense the way that we are, they do tend to explore. This behavior is simply their way of getting their next feed. They will fly around until something comes up.
Flies are responsible for spreading disease – sometimes very serious diseases. There is a universal need to keep them away from our food and food preparation areas.
A business that prepares and produces food has a legal duty in most jurisdictions to ensure cleanliness, and of course, pest control measures are taken to deal with house flies to avoid infestation.
Bed Bug Larvae Worm: From Life Cycle To Full-blown Infestation
Much to your chagrin, it’s quite unbelievable that a single, tiny bed bug larvae worm can change alter your lifestyle.
But, this bug phenomenon, otherwise known as bed bug infestation, happens every single day in millions of homes to many unsuspecting victims.
To fully understand these small pests you need to learn the life cycle of being bed bug larvae first.
Little creatures as they are, bed bugs feasted on the blood of bats as well as the primitive cavemen. But when the primitive cavemen abandoned the caves, they too were gone.
Another interesting thing about these sucker pests is that their sense of smell is super sensitive enabling them to follow any mortal that gives off carbon dioxide.
A better understanding of these bug’s life cycle will give us more insight into what we are contending with:
The actual larvae go through 5 different stages to complete an entire life cycle and become an adult bedbug. This process takes approximately a month if they are at the right temperature and have a good amount of hosts to feed off of, such as animals and humans.
This is because of these bugs only feast on blood, warm blood immediately extracted from their hosts.
One thing to keep in mind when you are in the actual treatment stages is just because you have not gotten a bit in a month or so does not mean they are gone. Adults can actually survive well over a month without a meal.
These tiny pests originate from their eggs, akin to other insects. The egg’s size is around 1mm long and within 2-7 days, the egg will hatch and this hatchling will turn into bed bug larvae. This 0.5 mm-long maggot can already draw blood from you at this point and your blood will nourish it turning its translucent body into crimson.
Prior to becoming mature, the maggots of these pests go through five nymphal phases that will somewhat last from 32 to 45 days. A mature pest takes about 7 months before it can lay scores of eggs estimated between 300 to 500 eggs per adult pest.
At this rate of reproduction, they can populate and infest our homes in just a few months giving us additional tiny creatures to deal with and more itchy bites to scratch.
Hundreds of bites caused by mature and bed bug larvae can result in paleness due to loss of blood finally leading to anemia.
Then you get to wonder how was it possible that you do not feel anything when these tiny pests were feeding on you? It is because these small pests inject some sort of anesthetic through one of their feeding tubes together with an anti-coagulant so your blood will not clot.
This is the reason why you do not feel anything until your body reacts to the foreign fluids left by these mature pests and their maggots.
A pest control service is strong enough to be able to eradicate the adult pests as well as their maggots that last a long, long time.
Where To Find Bed Bugs: They Can Be Anywhere Lurking In Your Home
Knowing where to find bed bugs, eggs are often located and often grow can help a lot in dealing with the infestation. In looking for these pests, there are several things that a person should take note of.
Bed bugs alone are not evidently visible to the naked eye. Basically, a typical bed bug is reddish-brown in color and spans around less than an inch. However, if there’s one thing to note about these bloodsuckers is that they keep their eggs inside their bodies.
Bed bug eggs are often found in places where these bugs sleep or mostly dwell. Thus in looking for bed bug eggs that then it’s best to check places that are often hidden, well protected and dark.
Do You Have Any Idea What Bed Bugs Look Like?
If you don’t, then you need to go over this article so you’ll know what you’re dealing with once you encounter these bloodsuckers.
Here are some of the main physical features of bed bugs:
- They are flat, oval-shaped and very small in size;
- Their hatchlings can be compared in size to poppy seeds;
- Grown adults are about an inch long;
- These bugs have slender legs along with medium-sized antennae at the top of their head, They do not have wings.
These bugs don’t just wander around so locating the source of infestation requires careful inspection of every possible hiding place. The easiest way to locate where they are hiding is to find signs of fecal material.
The following places/items should provide a hint on where bed bug infestation is often found and where it will likely thrive:
- These bloodsuckers often hide inside crevices and cracks inside headboards and footboards. It may also be good to search inside supports and railing for such infestation.
- Mattresses – as their name implies, bed bugs have made name for themselves because they specifically and usually thrive on mattresses. Bloodstains and signs of fecal material on the bedsheet are sure signs of infestations.
- Wall decorations such as posters and wall pictures – picture frames and posters do well to hide these bugs. Since the area between the wall and the poster or picture frame is hidden, it becomes conducive for these bugs to grow.
Pictures and posters on the wall also do well to hide cracks so it’s must to thoroughly check these areas.
- Electrical Appliances – inspecting electrical appliances such as phones and radios is a good thing to do. Electrical wiring and the racks between speakers also serve as a good hiding place for them.
- Baseboards, tack strips, and carpeting – underneath carpets and within tack strips are completely hidden areas. The protection these areas provide bugs make them extremely susceptible
Once the inspection is complete and once bed bug infestation is certain, then it’s time to treat the problem.
There are many ways to deal with bed bug infestation but more importantly, it’s necessary to call in professional help to see how severe the situation is.
How To Kill Bed Bug Eggs: 5 Tips On Clearing Them
On how to kill bed bug eggs infestation, you have to go to the source: the bed bugs’ eggs themselves.
But did you know that a female bed bug can lay and hatch up to 300 eggs in just ten days? So to eradicate an infestation, you really have to put some effort into getting rid of their eggs.
Otherwise, a new generation of bugs will just arrive to replace the ones you so zealously exterminated in the first place.
But getting rid of the eggs is easier said than done. The eggs produced by females are about the size of a mustard seed.
From the egg, a larva is hatched which is about the size of a grain of sand. So to make life easier for you, here are 5 tips to help you get rid of bed bugs’ eggs:
Tip No. 1: Use Hot Water
Use hot water in washing the beddings. You also have to include anything that has been on the bed. Any other items found in the bed should be sealed in a plastic bag to be left there for 3 to 4 weeks. You can also try exposing them to direct sunlight. Then use a dryer, set to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, to dry the beddings.
Tip No. 2: Vacuum
Next, it is important to vacuum the entire bedroom including the:
- Bed
- Boxspring
- Baseboards
- Bed frame
- Carpets
- Drapes
- Any furniture located near the bed
To make your work easier, use the crevice tool of the vacuum set when vacuuming the bed frame and baseboards.
Tip No. 3: Use a Bed Bug Killer
Use a pesticide that contains pyrethrins as one of the ingredients listed on the label.
Some pesticides can be harmful to people and pets so it is advisable to wear protective clothing, goggles and a respirator. Read carefully the directions on the label. Once the pesticide has been sprayed, keep your kids away from the area depending on the length of time stated on the label.
Tip No. 4: Expose Them to Extreme Heat
The best way to kill their eggs is to expose them to temperature over 450 degrees Celsius. This can be achieved quickly and efficiently through the use of steam.
The advantage of using steam over most insecticides is that it not only kills the adult bugs but bugs at all stages of development from the eggs, larva, and nymphs.
Tip No. 5: Learn to Identify Bed Bugs’ Eggs
Lastly, you have to know how to identify their eggs which can easily be seen by the naked eye. Cracks and crevices are the areas where the eggs are often laid.
The eggs are opaque and pearly in color while the hatched ones are translucent and opalescent. Depending on the ambient temperature, the incubation period of the eggs may vary.
To defeat bed bugs and prevent them from infesting your homes, it is important to know how to deal with bed bug eggs which are not always killed even with pesticides. You also need perseverance and faith so you can defeat these pests.
Bug Spray For House
Bug spray for house is a great way to get rid of ants, bees, flies, and pesky spiders. These are insecticides with a high concentration of toxic components that are harmful to humans and animals when used without proper precautions.
This type of spray is normally homemade with organic ingredients that are proven to repel bugs around the home. For the most part, these sprays bring immediate relief from getting bitten by those tiny, annoying bugs we come across on a daily basis.
You can use alcohol for a bug spray. The idea of using alcohol for plants has been around way back then. In fact, this substance can cause Apple trees and African Violets.
This type of spray works best on mealybugs, whiteflies, thrips, scale insects and aphids. You can also use alcohol spray on tropical foliage plans and even on houseplants. When preparing your alcohol spray, you have to use 70% isopropyl alcohol and mix it with a quarter of water.
You may want to add in insecticidal soap spray according to the dilution on the label. Before using the alcohol spray, you can test your spray on the plant first.
Another bug spray that you can prepare is one made of garlic. Organic gardeners are aware of the toxic effect of garlic when used as an insecticide. This insect spray is excellent for aphids, leafhoppers, earwigs, whiteflies, and cabbage loopers.
What’s good about this spray is that it doesn’t appear to harm adult ladybugs. It is also found out that garlic sprays don’t work against grasshopper, sowbugs and red ants.
Another substance you can use is nicotine. This type of spray can be relatively hazardous to lady beetles and bees. This spray works effectively against leaf miners, thrips, immature scales, and aphids.
When preparing your nicotine spray, you would have to brew the nicotine tea by soaking tobacco leaves and cigarette butts in water. Simply soak 1 cup of dried, crushed tobacco leaves in one gallon of warm water with ¼ teaspoon pure soap added.
The solution will keep for several weeks if stored in a closed container. For its use, you simply pour the spray onto the soil in the area of the root zone. The nicotine spray will then be absorbed by the plant leaves and its effects will become visible within several days.
Another substance you can use for a bug spray is pyrethrin. This substance, when used as an insecticide, has a quick knockdown effect on insects and other bugs.
If you spray pyrethrin on insects, they will surely be paralyzed. They can also kill lady beetles but they don’t seem to be harmful to bees.
On the other hand, Pyrethrin can be very toxic to other animals and aquatic insects.
Always keep in mind that when preparing pyrethrin spray, its concentration is at its peak when the flowers are in full bloom. After picking the flowers, you have to hang them in a secluded, dark spot to dry. Once the flowers are already dry, you can now grind them to a fine powder.
What To Do For Insect Bites?
Insect bites can take out the fun of any summer picnic or gathering and make enjoying outdoors impossible. Red itchy bumps on the skin are not the only unfortunate result of mosquito, gnat, and fire ant bites, some of these insects are carriers of dangerous diseases and infections. So, what to do for insect bites?
Insect bite rash can develop as a result if you are especially sensitive to the substances that some insects such as gnats and mosquitoes, to name a few, inject in human skin.
Insect bites and stings are not unusual and are seldom cause for worry. There are many insects in the Southeastern part of the U.S. that can inflict serious bites and stings.
The results of some more poisonous bites and stings left untreated can result in permanent disfigurement and even death.
Take steps to protect yourself and your family from annoying flying and crawling creatures ruining your best summer days. Start planning the outdoors season many months ahead by preparing your backyard and areas around the house to make them less hospitable to uninvited insect guests.
Treat your lawns with special biodegradable insect control product that will help keep red fire ants, ticks and mosquitoes at bay.
Follow this 7-step guide to help you avoid insect bites and enjoy great time outside:
- Inspect your yard for areas with stagnant water that are almost always the spots mosquitoes frequent the most like birdbaths or fake ponds.
- Do not use floral perfumes or lotions in the summer months, since fruity and flowery notes are very attractive to all types of insects and make you more prone to getting bitten. Try to stick to natural scentless skin and hair products and neutral colors of clothing.
- Plant plenty of marigolds, basil, lavender and peppermint around your backyard to help you avoid insect bites because some gnats and mosquitoes find the scent of these plants unappealing.
- Stay away from DEET containing bug sprays since they have been reported to be quite toxic if used regularly covering larger parts of the body or on children. A naturally based repellent sprays for insects containing citronella, lemongrass, peppermint and vanilla oils for worry-free are proven to be effective protection against insect bites.
- Wear protective footwear and clothing preferably in lighter colors, so any insects settling on you can be obviously seen. If you spend lots of time outdoors, try to choose long pants and light long-sleeve shirt to cover as much skin as possible to naturally protect yourself against blood-sucking invaders.
- Burning citronella incenses at the table is, in fact, a double-protection against insect bites since mosquitoes and gnats detest the smell of citronella and smoke. Most insects are drawn to sweet-smelling fruits and try to avoid bananas as part of your dinner course as much as possible.
- Multiple studies reported that taking vitamin B1 supplements starting in April throughout the summer is a proven way to make you less prone to getting insect bites
Pest Control Inspection: Why Is It Essential?
There’s an old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and a regular pest control inspection by a certified professional is just that.
While he may not find any infestations, he may find a damp area on wood that would be a great place for carpenter ants to build a nest. Of course, when you find the source of the moisture and eliminate it, you’re not only preventing a potential problem with carpenter ants, you’re also preventing future water damage to the wood on your home.
Fundamentally, a pest control technician looks to preventative and mechanical cures and finally, if the problem’s bad enough, using pesticides specifically geared to eliminating that particular pest problem without creating as much impact on the environment.
When you include regular pest inspections in your maintenance, you’ll stop problems before they drown or bury you. While you might require some pesticides to control a bug problem, you won’t require as much, primarily because it won’t get too big to handle.
In many cases, you’ll save money on repairing damage from bugs and vermin, lower the cost of treatment and reap some savings on your utility bills from caulking open areas.
You’ll probably find that regular inspections save you large amounts of money and are far less expensive than doing repairs or fighting a full-blown infestation.
For example, if the pest control professionals come into your home every six months for thorough inspections, then your do-it-yourself inspections can be performed every 3 months.
This way, you can immediately alert the professionals if and when you detect signs of pest infestation at its early stages. Nipping the issue in the bud is still the best way to avoid letting your possible pest infestation problem get out of hand.
The reasons are obvious:
- Many types of pest infestations are not immediately observable to the untrained eye. This is true for termites, bed bugs and fleas, all of which are so tiny animals. You may then think that pests are absent when these intruders are just lurking beneath the cabinets, countertops, and curtains, for example.
- Pest control should be largely tackled by trained professionals. This is because the mechanical, chemical and biological products used in pest elimination should be handled by trained hands only lest health issues arise.
The chemicals used in the eradication of termites must be handled with the right safety gear like goggles, overalls, and masks, not to mention that these chemicals require proper mixing.
The fact is, you want to avoid worsening your pest infestation problem by increasing the health risks associated with the chemicals, the risks for injuries from the traps, and the dangers of spreading the pests.
One case in point: you may transfer the bed bugs from one bedroom to the next during a DIY home inspection.
Before you become too confident in handling pests, call the professionals and make it easy on yourself and on your family.
Tiny Ants And The Likes Are Just Everywhere
They can be found in every nooks and cranny of home and office, both inside and outside the building and this range from tiny ants, harmless sugar ants to the dangerous fire ants.
However, regardless of the type of ants invading your house, one important thing is that these unwanted visitors can be very difficult to control and get rid of.
It is strongly advised that people should always try to put the necessary measures in place to prevent an invasion of ants rather than searching for a solution when they invade your house, especially your yards, being the most vulnerable, due the presence of plants and vegetables.
Keeping your yard as landscaped and neat as possible is one of the most important preventive measures that help to refrain ants from your yards.
It is of extreme importance for you to be familiar with the latest techniques on how to kill ants in your yard. This will not allow you to enjoy your yard and keep your garden free from the menace of these creatures, but will also go along way to protect your plants and vegetables and allow them to grow to maturity.
You will need to be cautious of the method, as choosing a wrong approach can be at the detriment of your garden.
But first, you will need to be specific about the type of ants invading your yard, before you can be sure of the best method of getting rid of them. Organic treatment options are possible to control and get rid of ants from your yards organically.
This has been tested and the result was successful.
There are several organic treatment options that are available, which are highly effective in combating the invasion of ants from your yards.
Organic control products containing spinosad are available as baits and as liquid drenches and which can be used to terminate the life of these unwanted creatures in your yard.
With granular baits, though you will need to be wary of the type of chemical you apply to your yard because some of these chemicals can be harmful to your veggies.
However, the use of granular baits has been tested and trusted, provided you are able to follow the standard safeguard rules of applying it.
All you will need to do is to apply the baits two or three times a year onto your yard and close to, but not in, the garden. Please note this. Getting rid of ants from your yards can be a little difficult, especially if you are not sure of the type of ants invading your yard.
But if you are not able to get rid of them through the organic method and use of granular baits, then it will be a good decision to consult a professional pest control agent.
These are team of experts who specialized in getting rid of insects and pests from home and their wealth of experience with the use of high tech equipment will help to find a long-term resolve solution to the issue.
