Category: Pest Control

How to Prepare for Pest Control Service

Hiring a professional for pest control service does not mean you can just simply call for service, then sit back and wait. Effective elimination requires a partnership between the professional pest control operators (PCOs) and the homeowner, with both taking action to get the pests out–and them keep out.

While the preparation required of the homeowner is fairly standard, most PCOs will provide you with a list of specific prep steps to be completed before their visit. Because a lack of preparation could make a treatment unsafe or cause reinfestation of the entire home or building, many PCOs will not treat areas that are not prepared to their specifications.

Today, professionals most often use gel bait insecticides to control and eliminate cockroaches. This requires the placement of small beads of gel bait in areas where cockroaches are known or expected to harbor, travel, or feed. In addition to cleaning your home before the pest control visit, you should commit to keeping your home as neat and clean as possible for long-term success. This helps to eliminate food sources for the insects, making the bait more attractive.

Pets can get fleas from outside or from being around other animals that have fleas. Whether you purchase flea control products for your use or you choose to work with a pest control company, the home, pet(s), and yard (as applicable) must be all treated at the same time

A few of the standard preparation steps recommended before extermination include:

Washing all pet bedding in hot water or destroying it

Vacuuming carpeting and mopping hard-surface floors, including along walls and inside closets

Cleaning or vacuuming furniture, especially between and under cushions

Pest Control

Are you looking for a way to keep your family safe from pests, but aren’t sure where to begin? eco-friendly pest control services are specifically designed to treat and prevent pests that are common. We use a highly effective, family-friendly pest management approach that brings you the instant relief you expect along with the long-term protection you deserve

Why Pest Control makes sense for you

We understand how important keeping your family safe and your home pest free is to you. Our qualified exterminators use treatments that are safer for your entire family, including the four-legged members

Are your pest control products and procedures safe?

We mean business when it comes to the safety of families, pets, and property. Our pest management procedures meet the EPA’s Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program, which is all about reducing pesticide risk in all environments. We are also proud to be part of just 1% of United States companies that are GreenPro certified, which allows you to be confident in choosing a green company

Which pests will you keep away from my house?

We can take care of almost any pest you can imagine, in fact, we can protect you and your family from over 50 different types. Our general pest control services take care of ants, roaches, spiders, rodents, and many other common household pests. We can also protect you from mosquitoes, termites, and eliminate bed bug problems.

Pest Control and Exterminator License

Business License Compliance Package

We do the research and provide you with all the licensing requirements and forms. For just $139 per location, you get the licensing and permit answers you need to keep your business in compliance. With our Business License Compliance Package, we’ll research your business so we can tell you which business licenses, permits, and tax registrations you need for your geographical location and type of business. We also include the actual applications, so you can quickly take care of your compliance requirements.

The great thing about the pest control business is: you’ll never be without customers! Until they come up with a bug spray that will kill all the bugs in the world, you’ll have more work than you can handle. But to start a business in pest control or extermination, you first need a pest control license.

Who Needs a Pest Control/Exterminator License?

If you will be involved in applying pesticides, commercial or private, you need a pest control license. Here are just a few of the roles that require this type of health license:

Private pest control companies

Commercial exterminators

Pesticide contractors

Companies that treat wood for termites

Companies that inspect irrigation systems for chemigation

Pesticide container recycling companies

Requirements for Your Exterminator License

Every state has its own requirements for becoming a licensed pest control professional. Check with your state’s business licenses, permits & tax board to find out what you need to get your business license. More than likely, you will need to be at least 18 and have a high school diploma or equivalent. Next, you will need to take certain education courses or training to ensure that you know how to properly and safely apply all kinds of pesticides. Your local business licensing board can direct you to the appropriate program for this. You will need to pass a pest control license exam.

Your state may also require you to work in pest control a certain number of hours before you will quality for your pest control license.

PRE-REGISTRATION FOR PESTICIDES TESTING

Due to the ongoing state of emergency declared by Governor on March 6, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 virus outbreak and subsequent directive that provision of all in-person government services cease effective March 17, 2020, in response to the need for the use of pesticides for the production of food and reduction of pests, including the need for application of anti-microbial pesticides

Under current COVID-19 meeting restrictions, face-to-face meetings for CEU courses will not be available in the near future. All courses being approved for CEU credits are only available online. The approved courses and times can be viewed on our Agriculture and Structural CEU Schedules.

For structural applicators, the University of Kentucky has developed an on-line short course for Category 7 applicators to obtain their required CEUs. The program will offer CEU classes from October 23 through December 18 on every Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. You can view registration requirements at the structural CEU schedule.

PEST CONTROL SERVICE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why Do I Need Pest Control Services?

If you’re inquiring about pest inspection and/or pest control, chances are you’ve tried to solve the issue yourself. While taking things into your own hands is great in some instances, pest control almost always requires more strategy and attention than you can give it. More often than not, homeowners tend to lack the expertise and time to handle most pest-related situations that are commonly encountered in or around a home or business.

How Are Pests Getting in My Home?

There are numerous ways that pests can enter a home. Ants, roaches, and even mice can enter through impossibly tiny cracks and crevices as they search for food and shelter. To lessen the chances of pests intruding into your home, be sure to keep any branches, shrubs, piles of firewood, decorative rocks, and any other aspect of landscaping well-maintained.

For example, if you’ve got a pile of firewood adjacent to your home, be sure to roll around the logs every so often to decrease the chance of pests beginning to form nests in the area, or have them raised off the ground. Properly stacking any piles of firewood would also be beneficial and optimal.

Can I Get Rid of Pests on My Own?

There are several temporary solutions that may work for a short period of time, but in our experience, continued pest control is achieved through going above and beyond normal practices

Do You Use Pet and Kid Friendly Pest Solutions?

Pest Control’s first priority is the safety and happiness of our customers, as well as being as environmentally friendly as possible.  All of our materials are EPA approved and biodegradable and all technicians have been thoroughly trained on industry safety regulations and guidelines. The products we use are the same products that are used on sensitive areas, such as schools and hospitals. We take pride in providing pet friendly and kid friendly pest solutions to our clients.

Can Chalk Get Rid of Ants?

Have you ever picked up a chalk to try and draw a line on surfaces you’ve spotted with ants crawling about, chances are you already believing that a simple line of chalk can remove ants away from your premises.

Does drawing a line of chalk near the ant hole or along the ant trail useful in:

Keeping the ants away

Killing the ants

Temporarily derailing an ant trial

All of the above

Is chalk an effective remedy against ants?

An old wives tales, many of you would have chosen some answers which ‘keep the ants away’ and ‘killing ant’. This is false and chalk itself would not work to eliminate ants completely. While the drawn line of thick chalk can temporarily derail an ant trial, making the colony confused with the scents. However these ants soon establish their scents and the trail can come back at work again.  

While derailing an ant trail may seem like the ants are being kept away, these ants are definitely not killed. They are only temporarily shifted away from the original site as they avoid the chalk line.

Get rid of ants at home

Do you have ants at home? Getting rid of ants is more than just chalk and water. Should you have an ant infestation at home; it can be difficult to get rid of ants with DIY methods. Proper and correct identification of the ant species is required before the right treatment method is recommended, this best done by a pest control specialist.

Tips for Keeping Ants Out Of Your Kitchen This Summer

summertime is really all about the food – whether it’s barbecues in the backyard, fresh fruits and veggies for weeknight dinners, or snacks around the firepit with a sunset in the background. Unfortunately, the warm weather is also prime time for ants, and an infestation of these invaders can ruin just about any picnic before the basket is even packed.

Whether you’re a dedicated summer diner or a casual warm-weather snack lover, the spring and summer are prime time for ants to make their way into your kitchen and set about stealing, eating, or otherwise infecting all of your favorite foods.

Keep food crumbs to a minimum

It may seem obvious, but one of the primary temptations for ants looking to settle into your kitchen is the availability of food left for the taking. Remember, ants will seek out just about anything they can bring back to the colony: crumbs of bread, bits of fruit, and even grains of salt. Plus, they’ll let other colony members know where they found it, and how to get back there to get more.

Don’t allow standing water to pool or sit undisturbed

While food may be a major motivator for ant explorers looking to extend their supply lines, access to water is also a critical part of any colony’s survival. Even a small puddle or pool of water can quench an ant’s thirst for quite a while – and the more reliable the water source, the closer the colony will want to keep to your kitchen

Keep all pantry items securely sealed and out of reach from the ground

Few feelings make a homeowner more uncomfortable than reaching into a bag of flour or a sack of snacks and finding ants busy chomping away. Not only will this mean a lot of wasted food, but also that ants have found a stable central point to explore from in your pantry.

Get Rid of Fire Ants with These Helpful Pest Control Tips

With its beautiful weather throughout the year and plenty of water, Florida is a haven for lots of pests. Unfortunately, fire ants are one of them. While many homeowners are content to simply deal with some pest issues, spotting fire ants in the yard can easily create a five-alarm situation. What’s a homeowner to do? Get rid of fire ants, of course, and these tips can help.

Learn to Find The Mounds

Fire ants will build mounds in almost any kind of soil. You’re more likely to see them, though, in open, sunny areas like your lawn. If the soil conditions are ideal, a fire ant mound can reach up to 24 inches in height. Even if they’re not right out in the open, these mounds are easy to spot. Take a look around any rotting wood on your property, stumps, trees, or at the edge of your foundation. If you see something that looks like a mound, look for the ants themselves which are 1/8 to 1/4 inch in length.

Understand the Dangers

Fire ant bites are certainly painful, but they’re a lot like the stings and bites of other insects. They’ll hurt or itch for a while, and you’ll want to clean them and work to prevent infection, but the pain should subside in a day or two. You’ll notice a small blister where a fire ant sting has occurred, and as tempting as it is to scratch it, it’s important to remember that it could get infected easily. Keep in mind that there is a small percentage of people who are allergic to these stings, and in that case, they can be lethal.

Practice Prevention for Better Fire Ant Control

Good fire ant control requires an understanding of what fire ants are looking for. They want a source of food, a source of water, and a place to live. You can control all of those things on your property. Start by eliminating potential nesting sites. Trim your trees and shrubs to ensure that the foliage doesn’t touch your home. If you have mulch or a similar bedding material, turn it every few weeks to keep the amount of moisture it retains lower. Mow your lawn on a regular basis, and remove your grass clippings.

When Fire Ants Removal Becomes a Necessity

Even if you do what you can to prevent fire ants, you may still end up infested. Fire ant mounds reach well underground, and that means if your neighbor has them, you may still end up dealing with them on your property. Fortunately, there are plenty of good treatment methods, but don’t be tempted to grab an off-the-shelf solution at the hardware store. They’re only designed to treat the creatures you see, not the queen and thousands of other workers teeming under the soil. Off-the-shelf products mean introducing chemicals to your yard that may end up doing more harm than good

Tips For Keeping Carpenter Ants Out Of Your Home

Do you know what type of ant is inside your home? It can be hard to tell if you’re dealing with carpenter ants or a different kind and is why it’s important to take any ants you see seriously. Most ants are nuisance pests and contaminate food, but carpenter ants will also damage the stability of your home. The destruction that carpenter ants cause is similar to that of termites. They tunnel through wooden structures, hollowing them out and making them insecure.

Ant infestations can occur year-round here in, which is why preventative measures are necessary. At this time of year, it is particularly important to actively defend your home. The warmer the weather, the more mobile ants become. Given that it’s June, we’re going to see an increase in carpenter ants over the next few months. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to put preventative steps in place for the summer.

Fix leaks

Carpenter ants will look for soft, damp wood first because it’s easier to tunnel through.

Repairs

Stopping leaks isn’t always enough. It is a good idea to replace wood that is already damaged

Remove food sources

Carpenter ants do not eat wood the way termites do. They tunnel into wooden structures to build nests but obtain their food elsewhere, like your kitchen or trash. Make sure food and trash bins are well-sealed.

ANT BAITING TIPS

Baiting for ants can be very much like fishing. Sometimes the ants attack with vengeance and keep attacking. Other times, no matter how you wiggle the line or change its depth and location, nothing strikes. Like a patient fisherman, a pest manager baiting for ants has to have patience, re-assessing after each failure and try new approaches to achieve success.

According to a recent survey, ants continue to cause large numbers of callbacks, with 39 per cent of pest management professionals (PMPs) having a five per cent or higher callback rate (PMP Magazine, April 2014). Here are some possible scenarios as to why your ant control may not be working, along with tips to beef up your ant baiting skills.

Wrong placement in space and time. Placing bait at ground level is not the best option if the ants are trailing from trees onto the roofline and then into the structure. Similarly, if the ant species you are trying to control feeds at night, but the bait was placed during the day, either the bait gets ignored or taken by a different ant species during the daylight hours. Make sure you have correctly identified the source and timing of an ant infestation before placing the bait.

Ant nest and foraging patterns disturbed during treatment. Perhaps your ant inspection techniques resulted in moving critical items around, which disturbed the ant colony. Sometimes this can cause the ants to move nest, maybe into the structure! Be thoughtful of your inspection practices and think critically about how certain actions could affect pest patterns in the future.

Wrong bait matrix for ant food preference. Using a bait with the wrong food matrix for the species or for that time of year; maybe you used an ant bait that had a carbohydrate base, but the ants needed protein instead.

Bees

Facts, Identification & Control

Latin Name

Order Hymenoptera

Super-family Apoidea

Appearance / Identification

What Do They Look Like?

Bees are winged insects with more than 20,000 recorded species found globally.

• Length: Megachile pluto, the largest of these creatures, is reported to be 3.9 cm long, while Perdita minima, the most diminutive of bees, are shorter than 2 mm long.
• Color: Bees can be black or brown with red, yellow or lustrous blue stripes.

How Did I Get Bees?

Bees sometimes make their way into homes while looking for a place to nest. The insects prefer dark and protected areas, so wall voids or chimneys often fit their needs. Any living space exposed to the outside is at risk for bee infestations. Some species that nest in wall voids fly inside the living space through baseboards, electrical outlets, and cracks in walls.

How Serious Are Bees?

STINGS

While bees can benefit the environment in many ways, it is inconvenient and possibly dangerous to let a bee hive thrive near your home. In general, bees only sting to protect themselves or defend a nest. Most stings are only mildly painful, but some people may have an allergic reaction.

Problems with Honey

Hives filled with honey inside wall voids may ferment over time. This can:

• Attract other insects
• Damage support structures
• Stain surrounding structures

Bee Behavior

Bee behavior refers to what bees do-as individuals and as a colony. By studying their behavior, we may learn how to change it to our benefit.

Two practical discoveries of bee behavior made our beekeeping of today possible. One was the discovery by Langstroth of bee space. The other was the discovery by G. M. Doolittle that large numbers of queens could be reared by transferring larvae to artificial queen cups. The discovery of the “language” of bees and of their use of polarized light  for navigation has attracted considerable interest all over the world.

Much has been learned about the behavior of insects, including bees, in recent years. As an example, the term “pheromone” had not been coined in 1953, when Ribbands summarized the subject of bee behavior in his book, The Behaviour and Social Life of Honeybees. A pheromone is a substance secreted by an animal that causes a specific reaction by another individual of the same species. Now many bee behavior activities can be explained as the effect of various pheromones.

Recently, we have learned how certain bee behavior activities are inherited, and this information gives us a vast new tool to tailor-make the honey bee of our choice. Further studies should reveal other ways to change bees to produce specific strains for specific uses.

The Honey Bee Colony

The physical makeup of a colony has been described. An additional requirement of a colony is a social pattern or organization, probably associated with a “social pheromone.” It causes the bees to collect and store food for later use by other individuals. It causes them to maintain temperature control for community survival when individually all would perish. Individuals within the colony communicate with each other but not with bees of another colony. Certain bees in the colony will sting to repel an intruder, even though the act causes their death. All of these, and perhaps many other organizational activities, probably are caused by pheromones.

There is no known governmental hierarchy giving orders for work to be done, but a definite effect on the colony is observed when the queen disappears. This effect seems to be associated with a complex material produced by the queen that we refer to as “queen substance.” There also is evidence that the worker bees from 10 to 15 days old, who have largely completed their nursing and household duties but have not begun to forage, control the “governmental” structure. Just what controls them has not been determined.

These and many other factors make an organized colony out of the many thousands of individuals.

What is Pollination?

Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the females stigma. The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create offspring for the next generation. One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds. Seeds contain the genetic information to produce a new plant. Flowers are the tools that plants use to make their seeds. The basic parts of the flower are shown in the diagram below.

Seeds can only be produced when pollen is transferred between flowers of the same species. A species is defined a population of individuals capable of interbreeding freely with one another but because of geographic, reproductive, or other barriers, they do not interbreed with members of other species.

How does pollen get from one flower get from one flower to another?

Flowers must rely on vectors to move pollen. These vectors can include wind, water, birds, insects, butterflies, bats, and other animals that visit flowers. We call animals or insects that transfer pollen from plant to plant “pollinators”.

Pollination is usually the unintended consequence of an animal’s activity on a flower. The pollinator is often eating or collecting pollen for its protein and other nutritional characteristics or it is sipping nectar from the flower when pollen grains attach themselves to the animal’s body. When the animal visits another flower for the same reason, pollen can fall off onto the flower’s stigma and may result in successful reproduction of the flower.

Referring to the animated image, pollen from the anthers of Flower 1 is deposited on the stigma of Flower 2. 0nce on the stigma, pollen may “germinate,” which means that pollen tube forms on the sticky surface of the stigma and grows down into the ovule of the plant.

This growth can result in:

• Successful fertilization of the flower and the growth of seeds and fruit or,
• A plant can be only partially fertilized, in which the fruit and/or seeds do not fully develop; or,
• The plant can completely fail to be pollinated, and may not reproduce at all.

Plants can be:

• Self-pollinating – the plant can fertilize itself; or,
• Cross-pollinating – the plant needs a vector (a pollinator or the wind) to get the pollen to another flower of the same species

Swarming is the process by which a new honey bee colony is formed when the queen bee leaves the colony with a large group of worker bees. In the prime swarm, about 60% of the worker bees leave the original hive location with the old queen. This swarm can contain thousands to tens of thousands of bees. Swarming is mainly a spring phenomenon, usually within a two- or three-week period depending on the locale, but occasional swarms can happen throughout the producing season. Secondary afterswarms, or cast swarmsmay happen. Cast swarms are usually smaller and are accompanied by a virgin queen. Sometimes a beehive will swarm in succession until it is almost totally depleted of workers.

Swarming is a honey bee colony’s natural means of reproduction. In the process of swarming, the original single colony reproduces to two and sometimes more colonies. For instance, one species of honey bee that participates in such swarming behavior is Apis Cerana.The reproduction swarms of this species settle 20–30 m away from the natal nest for a few days and will then depart for a new nest site after getting information from scout bees. Scout bees search for suitable cavities in which to construct the swarm’s home. Successful scouts will then come back and report the location of suitable nesting sites to the other bees. Apis mellifera participates in a similar swarming process.