Protect Yourself From Bees

Servall Pest Control sharing some bee safety tips with you.

While bee problems are more of an issue during March and April, there were bee incident reports in the region recently. Therefore the City of Laredo Health Department (CLHD) wants to provide the public the following precautions against bees:

· Never try to remove a bee hive yourself, especially if you are allergic to bees; when in doubt consult with your doctor.

Our experienced staff will always take all appropriate preventive measures by assessing the danger and will provide precautions and advice on bee management.

How to Prevent Honey Bee Colonies

· Reduce any potential bee production environment. Keep areas clean of food and standing water. Keep your yard clean.

· If you find an established bee colony, do not panic, but do not ignore it. Have it removed as soon as possible. Keep everyone away from the colony and contact Servall Pest Control.

· Do not try to remove colonies yourself! NEVER shoot, throw rocks at, pour gasoline on, burn or otherwise threaten established honey bee colonies.

How to “Bee Proof” Your Home

· Remove any clutter from your property (this also helps with other pests and mosquitoes). Honey bees will use almost any type of available space, including meter boxes, tires, or downspouts, for a hive.

· Remove any trash or debris that might serve as a shelter for bees, such as overturned clay pots, tires, old appliances, cardboard boxes, or stacks of crates.

· Periodically check your home and yard for indications of hives. A steady flow of bees to and from a single location is a good indication of a hive.

· Check your exterior wall for cracks or other openings, such as holes where pipes or wiring enter your home. Fill these with caulk or steel wool.

If you find that bees are already inside your exterior walls, do not block the entrance. The bees may be forced into your home as they try to find a way out of the wall.

· If you have chimneys or downspouts, check where the chimney meets the house for separation, and make sure chimneys are covered properly with fine screens (less than 1/8th inch mesh).

· Cover or drain pools or tubs when not in use.

· Repair leaky faucets and faulty irrigation systems.

· Put window screen over drains, attic vents, and irrigation valve boxes.

· Fill or cover animal burrows in the ground.

· Make sure window and sun screens are tight fitting.

· Keep shed doors tightly closed and in good repair and exercise caution when entering buildings that are not used frequently.

Emergency Measures If attacked by bees:

· Run away as quickly as possible. Protect your head, especially your eyes and mouth.

· Get inside a secure and enclosed structure, such as a car or building, before attempting to remove any stingers. A chemical is released when bees sting, it draws more bees to the victim.

· Do not attempt to fool bees by hiding or "playing dead." If you are stung they will continue to sting you, so you will need to leave the area.

· Do not jump into water, such as a swimming pool. Bees may wait for a victim to surface.

· If you are with someone who cannot run away from the bees, cover them with a blanket, tarp, or other material. This will not prevent bees already on the victim from stinging, but it could prevent additional injury.

· Do not stay with the victim as the bees can soon turn their attention to you. Run for help.

· In case of multiple bee stings and/or a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting, call 911.

For any bee problem contact Servall Pest Control at one of our four convenient locations. Visit http://www.servallpestcontrol.com for more information.

Fun Friday!

Since it's Friday and we all have a big holiday weekend, here is a little fun joke for our blog today.

Top Ten Things You NEVER Want to Hear the Exterminator Say

10) “EEEEEKKK!!!!!!”

9) “Exterminator down! Exterminator down! Send backup!!! Extermin…”

8) “The GOOD news is… you have termites.”

7) “Do you happen to have a large net?”

6) “You know, I’m also a taxidermist.”

5) “Ma’am, I’m afraid you need to let me take the oatmeal raisin cookies with me.”

4) “FIRE IN THE HOLE!”

3) “Hi, I’m Willie Nelson and I’ll be your exterminator today.”

2) “Duck!”

1) “Shazbot! I accidentally killed Mindy!”

Hopefully this gave you a little laugh for the day! Everyone have a happy and safe Memorial Day Weekend!

As always Servall Termite & Pest Control is here for all of your pest control and home repair needs. Contact us today at one of our four convenient locations or visit http://www.servallpestcontrol.com!

DIY Pest Control

Servall Termite & Pest Control knows there are always going to be pests around, so some do it yourself tips for controlling pests can be pretty helpful. Pest control is a group effort when you combine our efforts with your efforts you will get closer to a pest free environment. Here are some easy ways to control pests.

Here's another use for duct tape: bug trap.

The June issue of The Family Handyman magazine suggests setting out long strips of it -- sticky side up -- in an infested room. Then you'll have homemade glue traps that can be changed as needed. The trap is suggested for homes with lots of crickets, but don't be surprised to find other creepy crawlies trapped there as well. To permanently keep out crickets and other bugs, the magazine suggests caulking around windows and in other voids where they can enter. For basements, a dehumidifier also might be in order to eliminate the damp conditions preferred by crickets, spiders, centipedes and others.

Among the issue's home-spun pest-control tactics are using mint to stop ants and rigging up empty bottles to trap mice. Below are their tips for discouraging summer pests.

Lights and sprinklers deter unwanted visitors: Uninvited backyard guests — raccoons, foxes, skunks, etc.— can be a nuisance, cause messes and even damage your property. Installing motion-activated lights and sprinklers are two of the best methods to rid your yard of these intruders.

Keep ants out: Discourage ants from entering your home by planting a mint barrier around the foundation. You can also set whole bay leaves around kitchen food canisters and sprinkle crushed bay leaves along windowsills.

Fend off mosquitoes with lemongrass and basil: Lemongrass contains citronella. Repel mosquitoes by growing it in clumps around your deck—you can mash up the inner leaves and rub the juice on your skin. Basil has the same effect, so planting a bunch in pots around your patio will help keep you swat-free.

A better mousetrap: Got a mouse problem? Try propping up a soda bottle at about a 20-degree angle, then baiting it with peanut butter. A small amount of vegetable oil around the inside of the lip will prevent the mouse from “slipping away.”

Bleach away drain flies: Tiny drain flies are harmless insects that live on the gunky slime in your drainpipes, but they can gather in huge numbers in your house. Try pouring a teaspoon of bleach down the drainpipe and keeping the drain hole blocked for about an hour. If this method doesn’t work, you can starve the flies by cleaning the gunky slime out of the drain with a long-handled brush.

Obviously these are just additional tactics for pest control, for a serious pest problem contact us today and visit http://www.servallpestcontrol.com.

Tips for Pest Control

Servall Termite & Pest Control always wants to share pest control tips and strategies with our customers. The more you know the less pest problems you will have! Take a look at these ideas.

The insect problem areas of your home may or may not be as big a surprise as you would think. Remember that most all pests have three main things in common: the need for air, water, and food. For those reasons, pest control technicians, like those at Servall Pest Control, know that the two easiest places for pests to thrive will be your Kitchen/Dining Room and your bathroom.

The Kitchen/Dining Room area is usually the biggest problem area for most people because of the abundance of two key ingredients: food and water. Most insects can be found in cabinets and/or pantry areas, thriving on the food staples housed there. If a pest can go two feet and have all he can eat and drink, why would he travel farther?

The Bathroom area presents another resource for pests- a dark, wet, and cool place away from the elements of the outside world. Again, they have plenty of moisture to survive and have found a place where they can nest and breed easily while being contained in an environment that provides what they need. Bathrooms can easily attract a multitude of species of insects, so it also becomes a feeding ground for most common species of spiders as well.

Insect Pest Control Tips
The easiest way to help you eliminate pest issues in these areas, here are some simple and easy to remember steps.

Kitchen

• Place all pantry foods in plastic sealed containers. This will help eliminate over half of your basic insect and pest problems.
• Wipe down all surfaces after every meal or preparation of meals. This keeps small food particles out of reach and off of the floors.
• Clean your garbage disposal. Food particles build up on the cutting blades and cause odor and attractants for insects of all kinds.
• Indoor plants are a breeding ground for pests, as it is as close to being in their natural habitat as being outside. If you keep plants inside do not over water them. This causes many pest problems to develop.

Bathroom

• Clean your drains regularly. Materials build up in this area and cause odors that again can draw pests to this location.
• Wet laundry and sustained moisture can help any pests that wish to breed or just nest for a while.
• Trash bins need to be emptied regularly. Any dense material or compacted material can make a great place for spiders to set up and attract food.
• Avoid standing water. Like a day at the pool for the kids, this is a playground for pests.

This is the first step for insect and pest prevention. For help eliminating more difficult pest problems, visit http://www.servallpestcontrol.com.

Understanding Bed Bugs

Servall Termite & Pest Control is concerned about the rapidly growing bed bug problem in the United States. This article from prweb.com provides some insight into what to look for with bed bugs.

It is undeniable that the bed bug population has been allowed to grow out of control in recent years, and much of this is due to lack of understanding from those suffering from an infestation. There is a general belief, for example, that bed bugs are prone to infesting filthy living spaces, but this ill-informed misconception is turned on its head in light of evidence from the New York Times that these insects were recently found inhabiting the Ritz-Carlton hotel on Central Park South. Many people believe it is impossible for them to have a bed bug infestation if they have a clean house, but bed bugs are small and stealthy enough to hide just about anywhere without people noticing. Alan Constantino, the owner of Alco NY Animal and Pest Control, believes the key to combatting the rising tide of bed bug infestations is providing factual information and crafty techniques to both clients and the general public.

The first part of Alan’s plan is to inform the public about how people get bed bugs. As bed bugs are small, flat, and nocturnal, they are often very hard to see, which is compounded by the easy job they have hiding in any cracks and crevices in your home. They can hide under dressers, inside piles of old clothes, in the lining of a mattress, and even behind cracking paint.

As these insects suck blood, the best way to determine if they are in a home is the signs of their parasitism, which manifests in a small pattern of red welts caused by their bite marks. While these marks are harmless, they are unsightly and can cause mild itching. Another way to determine their presence is to find tiny spots of blood on bed sheets, caused by accidentally crushing the bugs as they feed. Besides these “symptoms”, the absolute best way to determine the presence of an infestation is to find an actual colony. Though Alan stresses finding only a single bug is not evidence for a colony, it is an important enough sign to make one start to think over what to do about bed bugs.

Upon finding a colony there are many different options for control depending on where it is. Many bed bug control methods can take advantage of the fact that they are very temperature sensitive. If they have been discovered in old clothes, for example, it is easy enough to wash the clothes and then place them in a high heat drier, killing any of the bugs that survive the wash. If discovered in a mattress, it is easier to leave it outside on a day that is too cold for the bugs to survive. If the bugs have been discovered in easy to access locations, a vacuum cleaner can be used rather easily to trap a large mass and suffocate them simultaneously. In some situations, however, it may be necessary to use pesticides if the bed bugs are in a location that is inaccessible to other methods of removal. Even if one attempts these methods on their own, Alco NY Animal and Pest Control urges people to discuss bed bug control with an experienced pest control company to ensure everything goes smoothly.

Servall Termite & Pest Control is experienced in bed bug treatment and removal. If you find you have bed bugs or think you may have them contact us today. Visit www.servallpestcontrol.com for more information about us.

How to Deal with Wasps

Servall Pest Control bringing you a question and answer session from pestweb.com. Wasps can be tricky and hopefully this article can help.

Question:
I'm a PMP in Washington and this year wasps are becoming the pest of the year. What product or products do you suggest along with the best eradication methods to nests that are apparently visible?
  
Answer:

There are wasps and then there are wasps, and I truly believe that it should begin with an accurate identification of just what wasps are on the property. We could really look at all wasps as beneficial, since nearly all of the larger species are predatory or parasitic, either laying eggs on or in other insect larvae such as caterpillars or simply taking entire caterpillars, crickets, and other insects back to their nest to feed to their larvae. Many of these wasps are "solitary" wasps, such as the mud daubers, and they feed on great numbers of spiders, crickets, caterpillars, etc., and pose virtually no threat of stinging. As a solitary wasp they do not defend their nests, and do not tend their larvae beyond the initial building of it and providing a stash of food for their larvae. These kinds of wasps, to the horror of so many homeowners, ought to be encouraged in the landscape, as they provide great benefit and pose little risk.

If the homeowner simply objects to the presence of mud nests on the walls of their house these nests can by physically removed and disposed of, and no chemical applications are warranted. If the homeowner is afraid of solitary wasps that are entering holes in the ground they can avoid the area for a week or so and the female wasp will be finished, or cover that soil or keep it dry to discourage the wasps from digging. Educating homeowners may help many of them to understand and appreciate the benefits they derive from the work of most wasps.

For paper / umbrella wasps, which create the hanging nest that is exposed on the bottom, an effective treatment is simply the use of one of the jet sprays that can treat that nest directly from 10+ feet away, instantly killing any wasps on it and many of the exposed larvae as well. This is best done at dusk when the adult wasps should all be back on the nest, but it still is advisable to wear protective clothing to prevent any angered wasp from getting down the back of your shirt. After spraying and immobilizing the adult wasps the nest can be removed and disposed of. The most common player in this group now will be the European Paper Wasp, which has taken over the country and in some places displaced native species by out-competing them for food resources. This species commonly builds its nests within small cavities - hollow pipe fencing, bird houses, porch lights, under tile roofing, and within small cavities under the eaves. For these you may need to expose the nest if possible and then spray, or use a dust within the cavity to kill the adult wasps.

Yellowjackets are the biggest problem, due to their aggressive behavior when you disturb their nest area, the size of their colonies that can reach 20,000 or more workers (all with stingers and an attitude), and the enclosed paper nest that often is hidden within structural voids or in holes in the ground. If you can directly access the nest itself you can treat into it with a pressurized duster, but absolutely be wearing protective clothing (a.k.a. bee suit, bee gloves, bee hood, etc.) to avoid being stung. Some PMP's take a twisted wire and poke it into the paper nest and twirl it around vigorously to break up the layers inside the nest. This helps expose more of the interior for the dusting operation. You may only be able to find the entry point in a structure and have no access to the nest itself, which poses a dilemma. For this you may dust into the entry opening and hope the workers passing through there carry the dust into the nest.

Interesting is that Termidor SC is labeled for wasps and yellowjackets, and labeled for exactly this kind of treatment - directly into the entry points or voids being used by these insects. This may provide you with the same "transfer effect" that seems to be so effective for ants and termites, as passing worker wasps carry the active ingredient into the colony. I was once told by a yellowjacket and wasp expert that you might achieve some level of "prevention" of paper wasps by treating the surfaces under eaves with permethrin, treating only those surfaces that have a history of these paper nests on them. Be careful to adhere to the label uses on the containers that you buy, since pyrethroid labels will all be changing and become more restrictive for exterior applications.

Hopefully this article gave you some ideas of how to deal with your wasp problem. As always the safest and most effective method of pest control is to call your pest professional like Servall Pest Control. If you have any questions visit www.servallpestcontrol.com or call us today at one of our four convenient locations.

Servall Loves Moms!

Servall Termite & Pest Control appreciates mothers in all the forms they come in, here is a special Mother's Day bug blog post. Happy Mother's Day!

May is the start of beautiful warm weather, a month for graduations and a time to mention Mother’s Day bugs. With Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 13, Servall Pest Control would like to highlight various insects that, together, spell out MOTHER. Some might inspire you to get pest control for the home while others might bring a smile to your face.

M is for mites of all kinds. There’s the dust mite, clover mite, itch mite, coconut mite, and even a house mouse mite, to name a few. The most prevalent mite in the home is the dust mite. Your mother was doing you a favor when she washed your sheets and vacuumed your room. It helped remove dust mites and their allergens.

O is for orange dog caterpillar, which turns into the beautiful Giant Swallowtail after some time in a cocoon. The insect eats leaves, but it causes no lasting harm to trees. Since the orange dog caterpillar hasn’t reached its full potential yet, it’s a great insect to include on the list of Mother’s Day bugs because mothers strive to help their children grow to their fullest potential—just like a caterpillar that will one day turn into a beautiful butterfly.

T is for tarantula, and although they look frightening, these spiders are docile and rarely bite humans. Even if a person is bitten, the bite doesn’t pack a bigger punch than a bee sting. Still, with some tarantulas measuring up to 10 inches across, it’s obvious why many people choose to avoid this spider—just like they avoid their own mother if she’s in a bad mood!

H is for honey bee, the sweetest of all Mother’s Day bugs. Without honey bees, there would be no Mother’s Day bouquets, since the honey bee is responsible for about 80 percent of all pollination in the insect world. They also produce honey, the most sugary contribution from the insect world.

E is for earwig, which is actually a misleading name. This insect doesn’t actually sleep in people’s ears and bore into people’s brains—the name came from superstition. Although they don’t pose a threat, earwigs can really bug your mother if they make their way indoors. Think about how many times in your life your mother lent an ear to listen to your problems.

R is for red ant, also known as harvester ant. These ants have been observed closing their nests at night in the same way our mothers locked the doors and provided security for us at night. A great Mother’s Day present might be to give the gift of pest control for the home, especially if your mother is dealing with irritating pests.

Just a cute little bug reminder of everything our moms have done for us. A great Mother’s Day present might be to give the gift of pest control for the home, especially if your mother is dealing with irritating pests. Visit www.servallpestcontrol.com or give us a call at one of our four convenient locations!

Closed Crawl Spaces

Servall Pest Control will soon start offering Closed Crawl Spaces. Why do you need one? Read this article and you might find yourself wanting one tomorrow!

 
Q: When a home is built over a crawlspace foundation, what are the advantages, if any, of sealing the vents versus leaving them open?

A: About 250,000 new homes are built over crawlspaces each year, most of them in a band from Northern Florida to Southern Indiana and Ohio. The reasons usually have less to do with building science than with what the local market considers a better house. “In some places, people think slabs are indicative of a poor quality house, where in others, people think the same way about crawlspaces,” says Bruce Davis, research director at Advanced Energy, a Raleigh, N.C., building science consulting company.
Whatever the reasons for building them, crawlspaces are notoriously damp. Their high moisture levels can cause complaints including mold growth, high humidity, and buckled hardwood flooring.

Most crawlspaces are built with foundation vents, which are supposed to keep moisture problems to a minimum. Building scientists have long asserted that the vents bring in more moisture than they let out. Davis, along with building science associate Cyrus Dastur, just finished a study that looked at whether those assertions were true, and whether it would make more sense to enclose a crawlspace. “We wanted to see if we could do something different in the construction of crawlspace foundations that would solve moisture problems and not cost more energy consumption,” says Davis.

Case closed
Researchers Bruce Davis and Cyrus Dastur of Advanced Energy recently field-tested three crawl-space designs, one vented and two unvented. Their data supports building scientists’ long-held assertion that closed crawlspaces should be drier and more energy efficient.
The study consisted of 12 houses being built on the same street in Princeville, N.C. Davis and Dastur divided the homes into three groups of four homes each and tried different crawlspace techniques on each group, as follows.

Group 1: The first four homes — the control group — were built with what Davis calls “the best vented crawlspaces possible.” The homes didn’t have any drainage problems. A good plastic vapor retarder was laid on the ground, and R-19 insulation was installed between the first-floor joists.

Group 2: In the next four houses, they left the R-19 insulation between the joists, but sealed all the foundation vents, taped all the seams in the vapor retarder, and extended the vapor retarder up the perimeter walls. They ran a 4-inch duct from the home’s HVAC supply trunk line to the crawlspace. The duct put 35 cfm of air into the crawlspace whenever the air handler was running.

Group 3: In the last four homes, they didn’t install the R-19 insulation, but instead put 2 inches of R-13 foil-faced polyisocyanurate foam on the crawlspace walls. As with Group 2, they sealed the vents, taped the vapor retarder seams, extended the vapor retarder, and ran a duct from the supply trunk to the crawlspace.

In each home, small, battery-operated data loggers installed in multiple places took air samples every 15 minutes. They measured temperature and relative humidity in all crawlspaces, as well as inside and outside the house. Each house was conditioned by a packaged unit heat pump, so the researchers installed meters that measured the heat pumps’ electrical use. The researchers also monitored wood moisture content, taking readings from 10 places in every crawlspace every 60 days.

What they found

Davis and Dastur found that the vented crawlspaces in Group 1 were indeed moisture traps, with routine relative humidity (RH) over 70 percent from early spring to late fall and over 90 percent in the summer. “The temperatures in the crawls were actually cooler than the dew point of the outside air,” says Davis, which meant that any air brought into the crawl would condense on the cooler surfaces. This created a fertile ground for mold growth.

“Almost all vented crawlspaces have mold,” says Davis. “We call them MADD, or mold amplification and delivery devices. And because, in most homes, the crawlspace is connected to the house via leakage, we estimate that of all the air in the house, 50 percent had been in the crawlspace at one time. Mold is an asthma trigger, so a closed crawl can be a risk-reduction technique.”

On the other hand, the closed crawl-spaces in Groups 2 and 3 maintained an RH below 60 percent and actually became drier over the course of the summer. The results for the two types of insulation were so close as to be interchangeable.

The closed crawls also used less energy. “We found we were able to actually reduce energy consumption by about 15 percent to 18 percent, saving $87 to $100 per year,” says Davis.

As for cost, Davis says the rule of thumb was $2 per square foot for new construction. Systems that include a dedicated dehumidifier can bring costs up to $6.50 per square foot.

To seal or not

What does this mean for the average builder? If you’re currently using a crawlspace foundation system, look to see if you’re having moisture problems, says Davis. Do you get complaints of buckling hardwoods? Or water in the floor insulation? Or water on the ductwork? Quite often, subcontractors point the finger at each other for these problems. The HVAC guy says the insulation is bad because it has moisture in it. The insulator blames the HVAC guy. But the real problem might be the crawlspace itself, and a closed crawl may be the solution.

If you are interested in reducing your energy costs, the amount of mold in your home or improving your air quality visit www.servallpestcontrol.com or give us a call at one of our four convenient locations.