ALBUQUERQUE, RIO RANCHO, SANTA FE & SURROUNDING AREAS
|
PAST FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT PESTS:
Preventing Bed Bug Infestations Bed bugs are very successful hitchhikers, moving from an infested site to furniture, bedding, baggage, boxes, and clothing. Although they typically feed on blood every five to ten days, bed bugs can be quite resilient; they are capable of surviving over a year without feeding. A few simple precautions can help prevent bed bug infestation in your home:
When traveling:
Identifying Bed Bug Infestations Much of the time, a bed bug infestation is only suspected when bites appear on a person. Oftentimes, the bites are misidentified, thus allowing infestations to go unnoticed, which gives the bed bugs time to spread to other areas of the house. When cleaning, changing bedding, or staying away from home, look for such as:
Treating Bed Bug Infestations Integrated Pest Management Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices. IPM programs use current, comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction with the environment. This information, in combination with available pest control methods like pesticides, is used to manage pest damage by the most economical means, and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment. IPM methods for bed bugs include:
Non-chemical treatments
Chemical treatments Pesticides are one component of a comprehensive strategy for controlling bed bugs. Several classes of chemicals are registered for use against bed bugs. The chemicals within each class share a similar mode of action, or way in which the chemical affects the biological functions of a bed bug. Hiring Pest Management Professionals Getting a pest management professional (PMP) involved as soon as possible rather than taking time to try to treat the problem yourself is very effective at preventing further infestations. Each pest management company should have instructions for residents on how to prepare the unit for a treatment which will include laundering and cleaning. The PMP will inspect your residence, take apart furniture if necessary and use vacuums, heat and pesticides to treat the infestation. Common Bed Bug Myths Myth: You can’t see a bed bug. Myth: Bed bugs live in dirty places. Myth: Bed bugs transmit diseases. Myth: Bed bugs won’t come out if the room is brightly lit. Myth: Pesticide applications alone will easily eliminate bed bug infestations. Click Here for full article on EPA web site. Preventing Problems With Pests A buzzword, or perhaps buzz-phrase, circulates throughout the pest management industries, and that phrase is "Integrated Pest Management", thankfully abbreviated as IPM. I would like to discuss the use of IPM for the prevention of many kinds of pests that you may be concerned with in your yards and homes, and the ways that you can put Integrated Pest Management to work for you. There is no magic in IPM. It is simply the common sense approach that says that any organism, pests included, looks for certain conditions that ensure its survival, and that if one or more of those conditions cannot be met on a property that pest will look and live elsewhere. The professional pest control technician tries to employ IPM each time he inspects a property where a pest problem exists, and identifies the things that invited that critter onto the property and are now supporting its existence. I shouldn't limit this to "critters" for a pest is any organism that is found in a place where it is not wanted. This could include plants and plant pathogens as well as animals, so we do include weeds and plant diseases within our broad definition of "pest". Generally speaking, the things that any pest needs in order to survive will be an appropriate supply of food, a proper amount of moisture, and an appropriate place to live, which we call harborage. All pests need these three things, and to completely eliminate any one of them means the pest will be eliminated too. You may not be able to eliminate - 100% - all of one of these needs, but you can make great strides in reducing what is available to pest organisms. Integrated Pest Management refers to the use of several steps for resolving a pest problem. One of those steps may be the discreet use of pest control chemicals, such as herbicides, rodenticides, or insecticides, but it is not our intent on BugInfo to coach the general public on the use of pesticides. We believe that this is best left in the hands of the licensed professional pest management industry, which receives extensive training on the use of toxic materials. When used correctly these products pose little to no risk. However, the other steps in IPM are just as important, and it would not be unusual for you to be able to completely eliminate a pest problem in a non-chemical way. Even if some amount of pesticide is deemed necessary to finish off the problem, performing the other steps first will give you much greater and longer term satisfaction. IPM relates to the use of: Sanitation - cleaning up the spills of food and liquids that insects and rodents live on Many licensed pest control companies will perform a Sanitation Inspection before proceeding with pest control work on a property, particularly if the account is a commercial establishment such as a restaurant. In this inspection they identify all the conditions that encourage the presence of the pest and make recommendations for the changes that are needed. This work is generally left in the hands of the customer to perform, and if it is done correctly the customer will be much happier with the results. As one pest control professional stated it you want to "give people the advantage over the enemy in the "Bug Wars". What can you yourself do in each of these IPM steps? Let's give some examples, and apply them to a diverse group of kinds of pests. First, Sanitation. Let's choose cockroaches as our first pest example, and imagine the cockroach that has found its way into a home. The first thing it will try to do is to find a hiding place, but this will be covered more as we discuss Physical Repairs. Once the cockroach is comfortable in its new abode it will venture out to see what kinds of meals are available, and if it is the very common German Cockroach it also will be looking for water, for this species needs to take an occasional drink. So, the roach sneaks out at night, when you've turned off the lights, and starts poking around on the counters, under the fridge, inside the stove, along the edges of the kitchen linoleum, inside the cupboards, and just about everywhere in the kitchen and dining areas, and even beyond. Roaches will eat just about ANYTHING, and it doesn't take a lot to keep them happy. However, if you are really thorough about your cleaning and food storage that roach is going to find zero to eat, and quickly either will die or go somewhere else. Preventing Problems With Pests Sanitation also refers to all that clutter that provides pests with places to hide. Most of the bugs and rodents that get into our homes are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night. The bugs often enter in order to hide once the sun begins to come up again, and rodents enter to seek food or shelter. There also can be a great many hiding places out in the yard, and much of this is unnecessary. If you have piled household trash outside, such as old cardboard boxes or other junk, this evolves to provide a cozy, damp, dark hiding place for the creepy-crawly bugs that may be there, and greatly encourages their ability to remain and create more of their kind. If you have old tires in the yard these will fill with water and provide a wonderful place for mosquitoes to breed. If these are junk tires get rid of them, or at least drill holes in them to keep the water out. On the topic of mosquitoes, since these are so very important now with West Nile Virus occurring throughout the country, try to identify ALL the sources of standing water that you are providing, and get rid of it. It only takes one week for a mosquito to lay eggs and have those eggs turn into new biting mosquitoes, capable of spreading diseases. Some of the places you may not think about are holes in trunks of trees and rain gutters. Plugged rain gutters filled with leaves are the absolutely PERFECT breeding place for mosquitoes, and thousands of them can be produced in this easily drained environment. Old buckets, jars, cans, etc. in the yard should be emptied and removed, and tarps on boats or yard furniture need to be kept from holding pools of water. These simple steps are part of the IPM program for preventing the pest problem rather than dealing with it once it develops. It sounds like a huge task to accomplish, but another very important part of pest prevention is making sure your home is sealed off so they cannot get in. This is going to take a sharp eye and a careful inspection, for bugs can squeeze through very tiny cracks and holes. The house mouse can squeeze its body down and make it through a gap only ¼ inch wide, and rats can get through a ½ inch wide gap. This seems impossible, but it's true, and these kinds of potential access points occur at the foundation screens if they are not in good repair, at the opening to the crawlspace beneath the house if that door is poorly fitted, or vent screens leading to the attic. There can be gaps under doors, especially outside garage doors, and these can be closed off with brush strips that attach to the bottom of the door. Other gaps occur around doors and windows and weather stripping will seal them off. Look for where electrical wires, TV cables, phone lines, and other utilities enter the home from a service point. There often are large holes that are more than wide enough to let bugs, rodents, and bats into the wall voids of your home, and from here into attics or even the interior living areas. You can use caulking, wood, metal flashing, or some other appropriate material to permanently seal off these openings and never allow another critter through them. You also should take a good look at the base of the house on the outside, and make sure there is at least a few inches of concrete foundation showing between the soil outside and the wood siding above. This helps prevent the intrusion of termites, ants, and other pests that don't like to have to cross over that open concrete area. If the soil touches the wood siding you should quickly shovel it away to reestablish that barrier. Take a good look at your plants, and try to think like a bug or rodent. These are animals that want to stay in hiding throughout the daytime, and if you are growing thick groundcovers right up against the home's foundation you are letting the bugs and rodents get THAT close to your home, and from there they will find a way in. If you have shrubs against the house or tree branches that touch the roof line, you are providing pathways for ants, scorpions, rats, mice, and other unwanted guests to get right to the structure and find the openings along the eaves or the roof. Plants should be trimmed away from the structure, and the benefit to moving tree branches back is that you get less of a problem with their leaves plugging up the rain gutters each fall. If you are in an area where raccoons, opossum, or skunks are prevalent you are susceptible to having them trying to live under your house, and this is a problem you really want to avoid. These animals carry large quantities of fleas, and their fleas carry disease, so while we may really love our wildlife it is not a good idea to cohabit with them in our homes. These larger mammals also will seek refuge under sheds and other out buildings, under decks, or within any hidden cavities they can find. For these kinds of areas you need to close off the gaps that exist that lead under them, preventing the animals from finding their way in. This will be a permanent fix that may take time to do initially, but which remains in place for many years to prevent - let's stress that word "PREVENT" - the problem rather than waiting for it to happen. On this topic of raccoons, possum, and skunks, or even stray cats in the area and rats, you may be offering a nightly meal to them if you leave pet foods exposed and available outside. Many times they also enter garages through pet doors and steal the pets' foods you leave there for your own dog or cat, and since these wild and feral animals are not particularly clean you may be allowing your pets to be exposed to parasites and diseases they should not get. If the cat spends the night in the garage either close the pet door or bring the food in for the night. Pets generally can survive for a few hours without eating. Again, this all relates to prevention by removing the attractions. So, enough on the concept of exclusion and keeping the pests out. Let's focus a bit on Cultural Controls, meaning changing our ways of doing things if those habits are encouraging a pest problem. We haven't talked too much about landscape pests, but one of these is fungus problems like powdery mildew and rust on lawns or shrubs. One of the most common ways we encourage these plant diseases is by providing a nice, damp leaf surface in the early evenings of warm summer nights. With automatic watering systems in place we tend to be able to forget all about the watering, and when the sprinklers come on in the evening and cover the leaves of the roses with water that sits there all night, it provides the perfect environment for fungus to grow. Watering should be done earlier in the day so it has the chance to dry in the sun. Automatic watering may also be creating soggy areas in the lawn, leading to fungus problems there as well, and rather than dosing the lawn heavily with a fungicide we would be better off correcting the improper watering, and giving the turf the best chance possible to grow in a healthy manner. Of course, we can give plants too little water too, and quite often the suffering a plant is showing that we might mistake for a fungus or bug problem is instead related to moisture needs, and a change in how we water can fix it. Another cultural control could have to do with how you mow your lawn. The most recent advice from our universities is to leave the grass clippings on the lawn when you mow, which of course very few people are going to do because it doesn't look as tidy. However, if the clippings are just the blades of grass this is about 98% water and nutrients, and it decomposes quickly to provide sustenance to the lawn. However, if you wait too long between mowings you end up with a lot of grass STEMS in there too, and these often translate to "thatch", that buildup of dead lawn materials on the soil below the grass. Too much thatch can result in bigger problems with turf-eating bugs, like white grubs, cutworms, or weevils, as these insects are able to hide in the thatch and feed on your lawn at night. The thatch may be more likely to harbor fungus spores that can affect the lawn, and if the buildup gets too dense can affect the proper distribution of the water you put on the lawn. Our "cultural" controls, then, could be to mow the lawn frequently enough to prevent excessive stem waste in the clippings, to remove the clippings as we mow, or to rake away the thatch buildup regularly. All of these steps ultimately can lead to prevention of the pests we don't want in the lawn. Away from the lawn we might look at how and where we stack firewood or lumber. If it is up against the house it should be moved further away, and is best stacked off the soil so that an air gap is underneath. These steps eliminate harborage for rodents, spiders, centipedes, and other ground dwelling pests. We talked briefly about other cultural controls, such as keeping doors closed and windows screened to keep out mosquitoes and flies. We could also push the idea of washing our meal dishes each evening, rather than leave dirty dishes and the food on them to sit on the counter all night. This simply attracts ants and flies and provides cockroaches with their needed food supply. So many of the annoying bugs we find inside are there because of the conditions we have provided, and the control for them is to stop providing that condition. Good examples are moisture loving, fungus-eating bugs like springtails, booklice, fungus gnats, or mold mites. All of these tiny bugs are drawn to moist surfaces and feed on the tiny bits of mildew and mold that grow because of the moisture. If you have dripping faucets or other water leaks in the house it can lead to the presence of the bugs, and fixing the water leaks eliminates the pests without firing a drop of pesticide. So, rather than go on and on and on (anymore than I already have) I hope this puts some thoughts in your head. There are so many common areas of good household sanitation and maintenance that you can do that will prevent and eliminate pests, that it would pay to take that critical look at your home. This seems like an overwhelming chore, but if you take it one room at a time, and one outside wall of the house at a time, it becomes manageable. The benefit will be the joy of keeping pests out for many years to come, and when you seal all the openings to keep pests out, you keep your winter heat and summer cooling IN at the same time. A double benefit. Watch Out: Not all Pests Rest in the Winter While peak pest season occurs in the warmer months, winter is not as pest-free as some homeowners might think. There are several pests that make your customer’s home their own this time of year. Some common winter pests include, but are not limited to, rodents, cockroaches, silverfish and ticks. These nuisance pests differ in their biology and behavior and therefore require different strategies for control. Knowing more about each pest will make control efforts easier and give you that extra winter business you’ve been waiting for. Mice Although mice are becoming more and more popular as household pets, they are not a pleasure when they show up as unwelcome guests. Mice can be harmful pests, damaging homes and spreading diseases through their parasites and droppings. Mice typically live for about five months in the wild, but can survive up to two years in captivity as a pet or a lab specimen. Mice adapt well to almost any environment and are not typically picky eaters. However, a common misconception about mice is their hankering for cheese. Instead they like food that contains high amounts of sugar, grains, fruits and seeds. This is important to consider when baiting snap traps to control the population. When dealing with a large mice infestation, PMPs should turn to trusted products for help. Mice can be controlled with products such as Weatherblok® XT bait blocks or Talon® G pellets by Syngenta which have superior weatherability and palatability. Mice need to eat a mere one percent of the block for PMPs to attain control. Baits should always be used in tamper-resistant bait stations, such as the Syngenta Multiplex® Station. Cockroaches Another pest known to haunt residences during the colder months is the notorious cockroach. Cockroaches are mainly nocturnal and scatter when exposed to light. There are several thousands of species of cockroaches, but among the most well known are the American cockroach and the German cockroach. There are several health risks linked to cockroach infestations including allergies, asthma and other respiratory problems. Cockroaches are also known to carry viruses and bacteria on their cuticle, many of which are potential human pathogens. Cockroaches are considered hearty insects. Some species are capable of remaining active for up to a month without food and some can go without air for nearly 45 minutes. While cockroaches are considered to be one of the most infamous household pests, only a few of the known 3,500 species of cockroaches are able to successfully thrive in the typical home environment. There are preventative measures PMPs can share with homeowners, including storing food in sealed containers and using garbage cans with a tight lid. Frequent kitchen cleaning and regular vacuuming can also help ward off a potential cockroach problem. Once a cockroach infestation occurs, effective pest control products will help alleviate the problem. When controlling cockroaches, an insecticide should be applied to areas where cockroaches harbor and forage, as a low pressure spray along baseboards, in storage areas, around water pipes, doors and windows. Remember to pay particular attention to cracks and crevices, as these are among their favorite hideouts. Silverfish A common pest that escapes the cool outside temperatures by seeking the warmth and shelter inside is the silverfish. Silverfish are often found in the bathroom, in and around showers, baths, and sinks. They may also be found in storage areas such as in attics or garages. Silverfish feed on various materials such as glue, book bindings, paper, photos and hair. While silverfish can cause damage to some household items such as textiles and linens, it is generally thought that they do not affect human health. Silverfish require humid environments with many crevices. If these crevices are eliminated, the silverfish will be unable to survive. This is an important factor when controlling a silverfish population. PMPs should tell homeowners to keep bathrooms tidy and eliminate conditions that encourage the growth of mold or mildew. The bathroom door should be left open after a shower to release the steam and lower the humidity level. Ticks Ticks are pests that often slip below the radar and are often forgotten as potential threats in the winter. Unlike cockroaches and silverfish, ticks are typically found outside the home in the yard. Ticks are parasites that live on the blood of other living creatures including mammals, birds and even reptiles and amphibians. Ticks can transmit infectious and toxic diseases including several human and pet diseases, including Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. According to the Rhode Island Department of Health, approximately 70 percent of people who have developed Lyme disease caught it from ticks in their own yard. There are almost 900 described species of ticks. The major families include hard ticks and soft ticks. Soft ticks typically live in crevices and emerge briefly only to feed, while hard ticks will attach themselves to the skin of a host for long periods of time. A tick bite resembles a mosquito bite, but can sometimes bruise or can look like a bull’s-eye. PMPs can work with homeowners to reduce ticks in the yard by instructing them to remove leaf and twig debris and reduce brush around homes. Wood piles should be stacked neatly in dry areas. Shrubs, bushes and trees should be kept away from playground equipment, decks and patios. Effective tick control products like Demand® CS by Syngenta should be used as perimeter applications and barrier treatments to control or prevent a tick problem. While all these pests vary in behavior and biology, they do have some things in common. An important similarity lies in treatment options. All of these wintertime pests can be controlled with the knowledge of a well-informed PMP and the right tools, such as Demand CS. While wintertime may be a slower season, remember that not all pests take a break when the temperature drops. Keep these tips and tricks in mind and you can keep this season a successful one.
|
CEDAR OIL GENERAL PESTS BED BUGS TERMITES BIRD CONTROL BEE REMOVAL COMMERCIAL SERVICES FAQ PAST ARTICLES TESTIMONIALS CONTACT US HOME |
|
Why Cedar Oil? THE PRODUCT THAT NATURALLY WORKS The natural oil from cedar wood is environmentally safe. The oil is steamed out of the cedar wood found on ranches from previous clearing operations for livestock grazing. There are no chemicals involved in the process. Our refined cedar oil Products have the authentic cedar fragrance, just as it is in nature. Cedar wood has been used for 1000's of years as one of the mother nature's own insect repellents. Texas cattle fences are built with cedar post which naturally resist decay and pest infestation for 50 years or more. The Cedars of Lebanon were used to build King Solomon's' Tomb. The Egyptians used papaya leaves soaked in cedar oil in the mummification of their dead. Our pioneering forefathers used cedar sawdust on the floors of their cabins to rid them from countless pests. Native Americans would rub their bodies with cedar needles to prevent mosquitoes and other biting bugs from feasting on them. Our products are tested and proven to not only kill Mosquito's, Flea's & Bed Bugs instantly but is one of the "ONLY PEST CONTROL SUBSTANCE KNOWN TO MAN THAT WILL KILL THE FLEA, ITS EGGS AND LARVEA THE FIRST TIME" PERIOD... and in-fact our Cedar Oil Solutions will go down in history as the most effective insect control ever. Our product was Tested by Iowa State University at the request of the United States Department of Agriculture for the use of the United States Army in Iraq to eliminate the Desert Sand Flea problem that our troops were in countering, which chemicals treatments were either ineffective or causing rashes, and the test results were astonishing, our product was RATED far superior to its chemical counterpart. Finally a product that is safe and is far superior to any chemicals that you've been using . . . endorsed by the U.S. D.A. leading Scientist Dr. Bradford. It is globally acknowledged as the most effective Bio-control agent for biting and stinging insects available on the market.
|
|