Pest Control

    For nearly 40 years, the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) has been celebrating April as the National Pest Management Month, an occasion created to “honor the professional pest control industry for playing a key role in in protecting both health and property from significant pest-borne threats.”   The National Pest Management Month’s goal is to raise awareness about the serious health and property threats posed by common household pests such as ants, termites, rodents, and stinging insects. Additionally, April marks the beginning of the pest season, offering an excellent opportunity for homeowners to take preventative measures against pest insects along with cleaning, landscaping, and other spring chores.   Also taking place in April, the Bed Bug Awareness Week (20-26 April) is a campaign created by the National Pest Management Association in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help homeowners learn more about how to detect, treat, and prevent bed bug infestations.

    While the following incident took place in San Diego, California, it is a useful warning for homeowners and commercial building managers everywhere. About two weeks ago, two homes in the city of San Diego were burglarized while the owners were distracted by an individual posing as a city pest control worker. Wearing an official-looking shirt with a name tag on it, the suspect requested to see the backyard in order to take measurements for raccoon and possum traps. While the suspect took the victims out in the back, his accomplice got inside the house and took cash and jewelry amounting to several thousand dollars.   This is neither an isolated incident nor the only way in which property owners can by scammed by con artists or unprofessional pest control companies. The most common tricks in the book include:  

• The false license: In their quest to save as much money as possible on pest control, some people hire help off the street and get the service they are paying for.

    Weather affects everything from the level of soil moisture to the reproduction rates of insect populations,Click To Tweet and different weather trends may submit pests to a whole new set of variables. Now is probably too early to tell the influence that Canada’s dry, mild winter will have on the springtime pest populations, but there are certain patterns in the survival and growth of pest populations we have come to recognize over the years. Here’s what you can expect come spring if our weather stays unseasonably mild and dry.  

More Pests Will Invade Your Property

    Overwintering pest populations are directly influenced by winter temperatures, and consequently, warmer-than-normal temperatures cause an increase in the survival rate of many species, especially those overwintering above and below ground. If under normal temperatures, many eggs that weren’t buried deep enough freeze and burst, milder weather means an increased percentage of eggs will hatch, giving birth to pest populations that are greater in numbers and also appear sooner than usual.

    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.