All posts in “toilet”

Termites and your toilet – Ohhh what a crappy problem

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Any toilet or pipe penetration in the slab will do

Toilet pipes lead the way in. Pardon the pun. Any penetration in your concrete slab allows that tiny chance that the termites may make their way into your home. Typically not usual but it does happen. This goes for any crack in the slab, have you noticed tile or carpet buckling, it may be a crack. If you replace carpet or linoleum and you see a crack have it treated before putting down new tile. I hate to see drill holes when it was preventable. So if you see something like this, give ProBest Pest Management a call at 602-249-7378.

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How do termites get into home?

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Any break or protrusion into the structure can be an avenue for termites, so any pipe or other object that extends past the concrete can be their entrance.

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This was an easy entrance for the termites and once in they usually don’t leave without taking a bit of your home for food. So what do you look for:

  1. Any mud tube/tunnel on the outside foundation wall.
  2. Any suspicious dirt on the ceiling, small hole with dirt around it.
  3. Drop Tubes inside the homes.
  4. Baseboard that looks crinkled, subterranean termites usually run with the grain of the wood.

Termites and their sneaky way into our homes

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Those termites will find any way into the house, sometimes it just works out that it is a pipe. Originally a pretreat was done and this should work for many years, if the pretreat was done correctly. So as you are doing your monthly inspection, it would be wise to check any pipe penetrations through your foundation slab.  I actually found one swarmer (reproductive) or alate termite walking around inside the shower.

It’s monsoon season here in Arizona so termites are usually a little more active, so please check your home or give us a call at 602-249-7378 or 623-414-0176.

House rodents in the toilet a myth?

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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.

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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

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