Information by the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) – check out the info at their site.
My Top 10 Tips on preventing Termites at your home or business:
- Don’t stack wood or firewood against your home.
- Trim trees so they don’t touch your home, better yet don’t plant trees to close to your home.
- In Arizona our termite season is really somewhere near August through December depending on monsoon rains.
- If you have a crawlspace, check to be sure that you don’t have any water leaks.
- Check the foundation for mud tubes, inside if you see mud trails or tubes coming from the ceiling call a Pro.
- Don’t store boxes over the expansion joint in garage, leave a little space to inspect the wall and foundation.
- Any structure like shed should be installed on blocks or concrete, wood to ground allows termites to damage the shed.
- Slope dirt and stone away from home, don’t allow dirt or rock to be higher than the stucco.
- Position sprinklers away from the house.
- Once a year call a Professional Termite Inspector, have them give you their opinion and advice on termite activity.
Termites will do everything in their power to gain access into our homes and businesses. Here is a picture of a cardboard box that was riddled with termites and their damage.
Thanks to Carrie for the picture
I’m not a real big fan of those cabinets in the garage, I find that all they do is coverup the expansion joint and prevent us from getting a good treatment into those areas. So my tip of the day, check your cabinets and the rest of your home often or better yet give ProBest Pest Management a call today at 602-249-7378 or 623-414-0176
House Rodents – Rats and Mice?
House rodents are an issue. How are they getting in? During my my almost 25 years of servicing homes, I have only on one occasion found 1 rat in a toilet. But a guy in England has invented a flapper device to help keep them out. “MultiFlap helps special needs teacher left terrified by rat in her toilet”
To be honest I’m not exactly sure how it got there, 2nd story shared bathroom. That would have been one big climb, to get to a toilet 20 feet up but I suppose anything is possible. Here is the link to that device http://www.multiflap.com – I think this one is to fit US toilets is MultiFlap 2 (MF-2) and nobody needs to be half asleep and find something in the toilet in the dark. What a way to be jolted from asleep to fully awake in a matter of seconds.
House Rodents Rats Photo provided by Univar
The biggest issue with me is that once in and you have a issue with urine and feces being left everywhere. Rats and mice continue to urinate while running and often the first signs of rodents are their feces. It’s bad enough with flies and that whole regurgitation thing, but rodents will walk over and then walk over your stuff. So whatever they just walked over is going to pass to your food. Often times it isn’t the bug/pest that is the cause but what they do may cause the trigger to a bigger issue. Rats can carry diseases on their fur/hair and transmit that to us, so side on the side of caution. Always the safe bet, keep the pests out. They have a place and that is outside.
Door sweeps and guards.
Keep window screens in place.
Fix any holes.
If you can’t fix an issue call ProBest Pest Management and we can evaluate and come up with a plan. 602-249-7378
I’m not trying to scare anyone but this Bed Bug thing continues, yes we are still getting calls weekly about these little biters. So really what is the answer, I just want to amke sure sure you are informed. Visit National Pest Management Association (NPMA) for all things bed bugs.
They are showing up at weird and unexpected places. Sometimes we become detectives in learning how and when they arrived at the place in question. This story out of Nebraska just goes to show where they may or may not pop in from “Claim denied for Bed Bug removal” the claimant believes his daughter picked them up from a 4-H camp.
Photo provided by PPMA
Does your roof look like this?
Then you need a little help in clearing them off and away from your home. Hardly a house in this neighborhood had a single pigeon on it.
Most of us don’t want pests at our homes, but do you do anything that would bring them in? Here is a little list I put together to make sure you are winning the war against those pests.
- Don’t leave pet food outside.
- Replace and repair window and door screens.
- Replace door thresholds or sweepers at the bottom of doors.
- Install or reseal garage door trim.
- Have you checked your weep screens at the roof-line, check to see they are in place and not damaged.
- If you purchase used furniture, check it twice to be sure it doesn’t have bugs.
- If you store anything in your attic, always be sure to check it before bringing it indoors.
- Check your property monthly for signs of pests, don’t for4get to look up and down and investigate out buildings.
My theory is that no one knows everything, period. I can assure you I know bugs and that includes the pests that can damage your home. Termites are right up there and cause about 5 billion a year in damage across the U.S. While our termites here in Arizona aren’t quite the most aggressive in eating your home they still cause damage.
So my advice, get a yearly termite inspection. Most companies provide free quotes for termite treatment options. ProBest Pest Management offers free quotes and we charge a nominal fee ($45) for a regular home inspection. We may also provide some recommendations concerning conducive conditions which might encourage termites gaining entry into your home. This is different from a Wood Destroying Insect Inspection Report ($57-$67) required generally for the sale of a home and we generally provide a free warranty if we don’t find termites at the time of the inspection * disclaimers, to the new buyers.
What do we look for generally? (not inclusive) – You can also look for these signs.
- Termite tubes, tunnels, dirt on drywall and drop tubes from the ceiling.
- Termite damage, baseboards and wood.
- Termite pellets from Drywood termites.
- Water damage, including stains from leaks.
- In out brief tour of your home we may notice other things maybe or maybe not related to termites such as mold or smells indicative of mildew etc.
- Feces (such as rodent droppings).
- Screening not in place.
- Home-sealing.
After much research here it is – it appears this quote may have come from Rabbi Ben Yair (Hebrew Proverb) (2nd Century) and appears this way in text –
The doctrines of religion are resolved into carefulness; carefulness into vigorousness; vigorousness into absemiousness into cleaniness ; cleaniness into godliness. (spellcheck went crazy over these words….)
So not from the Bible or your Mother, but I’m going to say it should be right up as if it came from either. I’m not saying that if your home is perfectly clean you will never seen bugs. Ants can trail in looking for food and move right on along unless they encounter something. Moisture is probably another much bigger factor, cockroaches can go months without food but seldom a week without water. A speck of food could be a whole meal for a roach. I think the bigger issue – harborage areas for them to hide in. The more cracks and crevices = more availability to hide and stay hidden.
The BIG picture the cleaner the home or restaurant the less chances of hidden pests.
Photo by PPMA
“The doctrines of religion are resolved into carefulness; carefulness into vigorousness; vigorousness into abstemiousness into cleanliness; cleanliness into godliness.” As you can see, in the quote, ‘cleanliness’ is literally next to ‘godliness.‘ – See more at: http://donnaperuginichildrensauthor.com/2011/03/03/where-did-the-saying-cleanliness-is-next-to-godliness-come-from/#sthash.TK7ImvmE.dpuf
First off let me address this from the very start, House Dust Mites are not a pest control issue. We deal with them in connection with Bed Bugs from time to time and really only as a matter of mattress or box spring encasements. I wanted to address this bug in that manner, encasements are the way to go with this bug.
Our homes are their homes, they love human and pet dander or skin flakes. This debris will fall everywhere, carpets, bedding, furniture and furniture. This dust or debris will become airborne and vacuuming is essential in keeping things in check. Along with cockroach skins and dust mites excrement may cause asthma or breathing issues.
A gram of dust vacuumed from carpeting may contain 100-400 and 1 gram of dust vacuumed from furniture may contain 3500 mites.
Encasements are a great way to protect your mattress or box spring investment and keep the dust mites out. Control is possible but it is a ongoing management concern.
