Pest Control

    With the holidays fast approaching, many homeowners across the country will be putting the decorating of a Christmas tree and their homes on their long list of things to do. And while this festive activity can bring cheer to your house and put you and your family in the holiday spirit, it can also completely spoil your Christmas celebration.   And this is all because of bugs: bugs that use Christmas trees to hitch a ride inside your house, bugs taking up residence in your boxes of holiday decorations, bugs hiding in wreaths and firewood. To prevent unwanted critters from stirring in your house this Christmas, consider the tips below:  

Check the tree before bringing it inside the house.

  The simplest way insects and their eggs are brought into your nice, warm home during Christmas is via the Christmas tree and other greenery you’re planning to use for decorating your house.

    Now that it’s autumn, you’d expect the cooler weather to make most of the pesky summer critters disappear off the face of the earth – or at least from your backyard. While it’s true that with longer nights, shorter days, and lower temperatures, you’ll see fewer and fewer of those biting, stinging arthropods that bothered you all summer long, their disappearance is not necessarily a sign that they’re gone for the rest of the year.   In fact, you may be even more exposed to their annoying buzzing in the autumn than in summer, because once the warm season is over, they’ll start seeking refuge from the cold of winter – and what better place to hide than inside your warm, cozy house, with plenty of food and water to keep them all happy and satisfied?   You may start noticing insects such as flies, stink bugs, lady beetles, spiders, ants, and others congregating on the south and west walls of your house at the beginning of autumn.

Long a pest in Eastern Asia, the shield-shaped brown marmorated stink bug has finally made its way into the U.S. and Canada. It was first discovered in Pennsylvania in the late 1990s, but soon made its appearance in Canada, as well (the first bug was detected in Hamilton, in 2012). Since then, sightings of the bug have been reported all over Canada, including Ontario, Ottawa, Vaughan, Windsor, Niagara-on-the Lake, Fort Erie, and several other municipalities.   Why Should We Fear It?   While the stink bug doesn’t bite or sting humans and causes no structural or esthetic damage to properties, it is considered a nuisance pest due to the fact that it feeds on a wide variety of vegetable crops, fruit trees, and ornamental flowers. Their initial menu is comprised of grass and weeds, but as they grow older, they move into crops (sorghum, field corn, soybeans, and cotton) and orchards.

The warm season is finally here, and homeowners across the country are in a hurry to store away the fur-lined coats and welcome warming temperatures, humming birds, and budding trees. But as nature awakens from its long winter hibernation, prompting us to make room in our hearts for sunshine, the rest of God’s creatures are doing the same - including the crop-ravaging, property-damaging, mood-ruining household pests.   If you were positive that there would be no way for spring pests to survive the deep freeze of winter, you have another thing coming. Although ants, termites, bed bugs, ticks, and other creepy critters do have their “breaking point,” cold temperature (or even sub-freezing weather) is definitely not one of them.   Over time, insects have developed several strategies for surviving the cold: some have antifreeze-producing capabilities while others burrow into warmer, highly-insulated areas, such as logs or the ground. Fire ants, for instance, which have invaded many regions in the U.S.

  The outdoor recreational season has officially swung into high gear across the country. And with temperatures expected to soar to 86°F over the next couple of weeks, there’s no better time to fire up that grill or throw a picnic party and gather all your friends for a refreshing alfresco dinner. The only problem is, bugs are probably at least as excited as you are to taste those mouthwatering pork chops, chargrilled burgers, or chocolate-dipped marshmallow kebabs. And since sharing would in no way be caring in this particular situation, you have no other option than to fight back and put them in their place.   Instead of letting mosquitoes, ants, ticks, and other pesky critters dampen your enthusiasm for spending time in the great outdoors this summer,stand your ground - and do the following:   Go the Natural Way. It’s easy, cheap, and you probably already have all the necessary ingredients to build natural traps and repellents for some of the most common summer bugs in Canada: ants, wasps, and flies.