All posts in “crevices”

Does your pest company still power spray or spray inside monthly?

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There are several things happening around the U.S. which may impact pest control in your specific area.

  • The EPA has been trying to reduce the use of rodentcides, mainly due to secondary poisonings. My hope is that people use common sence in placement of poisons, don’t randomly throw packets throughout attics or crawlspaces. ProBest has not used any of those packets since 2005 and we have swtiched to Terad3 in rodent stations.
  • The restrictions of pesticides continue, power spraying of Permethrin type chemicals are just one of the ways the EPA is limiting chemical usage.

The use of IPM or Integrated Pest Management continues to be the choice of real prevention of pests. So here are a few tips to reduce the use of pesticides and allow them to continue to be used in the future.

  1. Be aware of placement especially of rodentcides. I’m a big fan of not using any rodenticide within a structure, use of snap traps can be just as effective.
  2. Use pestcides that can be hidden and placed where insects will find them, crack and crevices, block voids and wall voids.
  3. Don’t spray any flowering plant.
  4. Follow IPM standards.
  5. Always read and follow label and use directions.

Scorpions can really hide, can’t they?

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 All I can say is that block walls retain their heat well into the evening hours in Arizona and scorpions don’t like cold.

 

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We make it easy for scorpion to live, we almost set up little housing units for them to live in. Then we wonder why we have scorpions, right? So try going out some evening on a scorion hunt, you may learn some interesting things about your property. Maybe you don’t really want to know, but I do think its important to have some idea of the populations of these dreaded pests.

The more you can hunt for and destroy the better off you are!

Seek and destroy! Sleep better.

ProBest Pest Management Top 10 Tips how to keep those bugs out!

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ProBest Pest Management Top 10 Tips to keep those bugs out!

 

  1. Seal up those cracks, holes and any entry points where those critters can get in.
  2. Reduce harborage areas where those bugs hang out.
  3. Keep trees, shrubs and vines off the house.
  4. Check your home monthly for any signs of trouble.
  5. Never and I mean never stack firewood against the house.
  6. Check and repair window screens.
  7. Store food in seal-able containers and I usually freeze it first then store.
  8. Avoid taking in boxes and storing them in pantry – see #7 above.
  9. Don’t forget to check out buildings, honeybees and termites can show up and do significant damage if not caught immediately.
  10. Follow your local Pest Management Professional on FaceBook, Twitter or their home seal to stay current with local issues.

A Picture is worth a “Thousand Words”

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A Picture is worth a “Thousand Words”

I love this picture, this crack is about as thick as a credit card and this German Cockroach was making it’s way into it, without much difficulty. German Roaches love to have their top and bottoms of their bodies touching an object, it affords them comfort in knowing that they are out of sight and hidden. This is called Thigmotropic – The turning or bending response of an organism upon direct contact with a solid surface or object.

This isn’t the greatest picture but roaches and bugs are able to hide in the smallest of harborages, just think about the ability of Bed Bugs to hide behind baseboards and in dressers or just about any area in which they can flatten out and hide. Remember pests have adapted to us and have done so in remarkable a fashion, they can hide so well that it takes a true Professional to track them down.

If I only had one tool to use for pest control what would it be?

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If I only had one tool to use for pest control what would it be?

 

      

The tool would be this little fellow, it’s a Bellows type hand duster. Now you’re probably saying why are 2 different colors of this handy little tool, glad you asked? Green = no pesticide, Red = pesticide. We often use Diatomaceous Earth or DE for short and since its not a pesticide is considered GREEN, this powder has a abrasive texture and cuts the cuticle on the insects and is not considered a pesticide. By the way there are different cuts of DE and you must use a food grade type not the pool stuff.

Now obviously I can’t use a duster for everything but this tool could just about take care of everything. I love to dust cracks and crevices where those little bugs hide. You can dust behind baseboards, tack strips excusion plates (those metal plates where pipes comes through the walls), kitchen and bathrooms vanities, inside walls oh any those bump-outs of the block walls ( Bill says those are called pilasters) I’m not convinced yet but everyone knows what a bump-out is.

Doesn’t it make sense that that is where the bugs are going to hide during the day? That is where I would hide to get out of the heat and stay away from predators. I’ll say this again, anybody can spray a bug but the real test is when there is a mega infestation, its all about the biology and habits of those bugs. Da da that’s where ProBest Pest management comes in, “Call a Pro… Call the Best. ProBest!

Before you replace the floor, treat for termites.

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Before you replace the floor, treat for termites.  (Yesterdays answer on picture – magnified picture of wasp nest….)

So you decide its time to replace that old flooring in your home and as you take up the old floor you discover damage and concrete cracks. Now is the time to call your termite experts because and trust me on this one you don’t want to put down the floor and then discover you need it treated. This will destroy or at the very least make the new flooring look terrible. Here is some damage from termites and some water damage, I don’t know which came first but my guess is the termites.

                           

Nothing worse in my mind than having to drill grout lines in stone tile, because no matter how good you are it will never look as good as new. So please take a moment and think it through, treat the concrete and then lay the new floor. It will save you money in the long run and more importantly the aggravation of knowing where those drill holes are. Because your mind will focus on those marks, trust me.

Bed Bugs and other issues…

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Bed Bugs and other issues…

 

This article “Landlord Liability for Bed Bugs and Bed Bug Bacteria” appeared in the “NOLO Law for All” site and whether or not there is or is not a connection with MRSA, I think we should all be more vigilant in our encounters with Bed Bugs. So here are some of my concerns, as I see them. By the way I’m not an attorney or a medical doctor but I do report myself to be “Dr. Bug” but anyway back to what I consider the issues.

After having dealt with this issue for the last 3 years, I empathize for landlords because ultimately it comes down to the fact that no matter who brought them in, you are responsible. At the end of the day it’s your building and these littler buggers could move to another unit and the issues just start compounding. I will add my biggest recommendation – document, document and document. Keep excellent records and keep them in one place, handy to get to and again document everything.

Here is an excerpt from the article  – please follow the link above to read the entire article, its well worth your time.

What This Means for Landlord and Tenants

The implications of this study for landlords and tenants are significant. A widespread bedbug infestation has always qualified as a habitability problem, which, if not addressed, enables tenants in all states except for Arkansas to break their leases and leave, without liability for future rent. Tenants in some states can withhold rent until the habitability problem is fixed or can take steps to deal with the problem themselves and deduct costs from the rent. Typically, however, landlords have a reasonable time to fix a habitability problem before tenants can utilize their remedies.

But, if bedbugs are proven to be vectors for staph infections on the order of MRSA, the stakes have been raised dramatically. A “reasonable time” may be much faster than previously thought. And if tenants contract an MRSA infection as the result of the landlords’ inattention to the problem, the tenant’s measure of damages goes way beyond what it would be if the bedbugs’ bites were merely annoying.

Here is the link to House Bill 2210

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