Odorous Ants: Are They Good Or Bad Ants?
Odorous ants can contaminate food, leave your yard with unsightly mounds, and cause damage to the structure of your home by hollowing out the wood in the walls.
On top of those things, they can be just plain downright pests that are seemingly impossible to get rid of because of their reproductive abilities and tendencies to abandon an area when threatened.
The odorous house ant has become one of the most common of the problem ants in the country today. The ant itself is dark in color; around 1/8 inches long, and forms a very distinct and original path on the outdoor and indoor walls and other surfaces of the house.
When you look at the odorous house ant, you may be fooled as to what type of ant it is; many people around the country identify the ant as the pavement ant. The problem with this identification is that the pavement ant is easily eradicated and the odorous house ant is not.
The best way to avoid this problem is to squish the ant under your finger and then see if there is the odor of bad coconut or pine; this simple test will tell you if you are dealing with odorous house ants or pavement ants.
The odorous house ant will nest just about anywhere, both outdoors and in. You can find these locations under sidewalks, in flowerpots, in the walls of your home, and they have even been found in potted plants that are inside the home.
These ants are quite mobile and move from place to place quite easily; they will move if disturbed or do not have enough moisture nearby. Another challenge with the odorous house ants is that the colonies have more than one queen.
Most of the time when they move from place to place, the colony will split up, making the nests and the root of the infestation that much harder to locate.
When you realize that you have a problem with this type of ant, it is time to take quick action if any chance of destroying the colony without professional intervention is expected. The first thing that you should do is remove the available food supplies on the inside of the home.
Make sure that the kitchen counter is clean before you retire for the night, and make sure you leave no dirty dishes in the sink since this also attracts them in large numbers. consequences.
Next, you will want to get some bait that you can place both on the inside and outside of your house, preferably in high traffic areas so there is a chance of the poisons being passed back to the queens.
If none of these measures seem to do the trick, it is time to call a professional exterminator. Pest control experts see this species of an ant as a real challenge, but their experience is usually more than enough to tip the odds in their favor.
Moths In Arizona
Moths breed during spring and autumn. And, a small moth issue in your home can quickly escalate into a major infestation. Thousands of homes are infested by moths in Arizona each year and these unwanted visitors can be a nightmare to get rid of.
Moths eat the fibers of your clothes and especially love wools and cashmere. If you discover holes in your clothes, it is very likely that you have a moth infestation. There are many ways to rectify this.
Using Moth Traps
Moth traps can help determine the degree of your moth problem. The sticky adhesive pads draw male moths with female moth pheromones; the males are lured in and trapped in a sticky type of glue.
Some homeowners turn to old fashioned products like mothballs but these actually contain some very harmful chemicals – plus they smell disgusting.
If your moth trap fills up within the first one to two weeks then you have a moth infestation going on. That said, a thorough wardrobe cleanout is needed.
Otherwise, these pesky moths will keep breeding, much to your dismay. Remember that moths can lay a lot of eggs in a short amount of time.
Using Mothballs
Many people use mothballs to combat their moth infestation. There are two different types of mothballs that are used to try to resolve the problem. Usually, the main ingredients are naphthalene, and in the other it is paradichlorobenzene.
Both these components are poisonous to the larvae and aim to kill them with the fumes. In order for the mothballs to be effective, they will need to be placed in a sealed container so the fumes can build up and kill the moths.
If this process is not followed, or the clothes that were put in a tight container are not washed before wearing the garments — they can be dangerous to humans, especially babies.
One of the good solutions is to open the containers outside. Allow the clothes to hang and air dry before wearing them again.
Mothball fumes are never pleasant and healthy. None of these chemicals is helpful for people to breathe on a regular basis. Make sure that you hang and air dry your clothes to restrict exposure. You may also use natural moth repellent as an alternative.
How To Spot The Signs
If you see holes in your clothes, then this is often the first sign of a moth problem. Other indicators include:
- Adult moths (often crawling rather than flying)
- Maggot-like larvae similar to the size of a grain of rice
- The silken tubes or cases on your clothes
- Pupae (silk cocoons) in which larvae become moths
Although mothballs are the most common, they are not the safest or the most effective. Moth traps are considered one of the best products on the market as they disrupt the moth’s breeding cycle. If you do this, breeding is discontinued, resulting in little to zero moth infestation.
Spider Control Can Be Easier Than You Think
The first thing to ensure that you’re going to do spider control in your home is by checking outside your home first.
Inspect cracks and gaps that can lead to your home if a spider finds it. Thoroughly seal all of those cracks with self-expanding foam or caulking.
Products for spider control are readily available at your local hardware store. Don’t forget to check your screens and windows. Spiders can easily get in through these places too.
Inspect your home’s outside exterior for any sealing.
When you have sealed gaps and cracks outside, you can start on the inside as well. Keep in mind that spiders have a penchant to feed on other insects so keeping your home free of all insects is a good step. Weekly home cleaning is highly suggested.
Use your vacuum often as this is one of the best natural spider repellents that you will ever use. Spiders love dust, and vacuuming dust keeps them away. They are also attracted to the remains of other bugs, so make sure you vacuum everything.
Spiders also like dampness. Usually, you’ll find this in your basement. Always clean your basement and discard any junk you don’t need down there.
Also, inspect under sinks or other places that could possibly be damp, such as water pipes. Insulating your pipes will discourage spiders from setting up camp in your basement.
Every week we clean and dust our homes but if you use Lemon Pledge furniture polish then you are using a natural spider repellent without even knowing it.
Spiders have taste buds at the tips of their legs which prove really convenient for you. Spiders hate the smell of lemon so when they walk on it they automatically get out of there as quickly as possible. This is a wonderful alternative to harmful pesticides.
During your dusting, use a little on the baseboards of your rooms as well on the floor inside the frames of your exit doors. Dust all your window sills as well as around your door frames.
This product can also be used on the outside of your home only you’ll need a little more than what you used on the inside. Don’t be surprised if your ants move out as quickly as they moved in. If you have laminated floors use some all around the room on the floors.
Don’t put it out too far from the baseboards just in case it can become slippery.
This dusting aid is a wonderful alternative to using pesticides or insecticides as spiders do help the environment by feeding off other insects and in turn, become dinner for other insects bigger than they are.
This way you are just driving the spiders away and as long as they stay outside you can live peacefully side by side dusting with Lemon Pledge is one way of doing this successfully.
Brown Marmorated Stink Bug Control
Brown marmorated stink bug control can be a little difficult. These bugs are responsible for blighting a good percentage of agricultural crops, causing farmers to become alarmed.
Exterior walls of houses appear to be alive as masses of the bugs crawl over them. People report killing hundreds – if not thousands – of them in their houses within a 24-hour period.
The bugs nestle in attics and crawlspaces, in clothing, inside beds, in toothbrushes and hairbrushes, and sundry other places, surprising some, unnerving others.
Stowing away on packing crates from their native Asian country, probably China or Japan, brown marmorated stink bugs were first identified in American shores in 1998, specifically in Allentown, in eastern Pennsylvania.
It is possible that they arrived several years earlier. For a decade, they existed pretty much undisturbed and un-disturbing.
Brown marmorated stink bugs, or halyomorpha halys, are members of the insect family Pentatomidae. Full-grown adults are 17mm – or around 5/8 of an inch – long and are almost as wide as they are long.
They come in various shades of brown. What makes them distinguishable from other stink bugs are the dark and light bands on their antennae. All stink bugs have hard, flat, shield-like covers on their backs called scutella, which serve as protection.
It is these body parts that result in their sometimes being called “shield bugs”. They get the appellation “stink bugs” because of the foul-smelling and bad-tasting fluid they excrete as a defense against predators.
Brown marmorated stink bugs feed on a wide range of fruits, vegetables, and even on crops such as cotton. They do not bite as they have no chewing mouthparts; instead they use their needle-like proboscis to pierce the outer surface of the plant and suck out its juice, leaving cosmetic damage to the host.
In most regions in the United States, adult bugs are active from early spring to late fall. During this period, they feed and mate, and the females lay eggs. The females lay neat clusters of between 30 to 100 eggs at a time.
In their native Asia, where the weather is warm, brown marmorated stink bugs can have four to six generations per year. In the United States, they typically lay eggs only once a year; however, an atypical warm and early spring and summer in 2010 allowed the bugs to produce two generations in some areas of the country.
The eggs hatch into nymphs, which go through five stages before they become full-grown adults. The onset of cold weather is a sign of brown marmorated stink bugs to begin to seek shelter from the cold.
By this time, the nymphs that were produced will have turned into adults that join their parents in the mass exodus from the great outdoors to the warm indoors.
Unlike other bugs that winter in piles of leaves and foliage, brown marmorated stink bugs seek warmth indoors. They congregate on exterior walls and work their way in through any openings that they can squeeze through.
