Pest of the Month

January

Odorous House Ants

We have made the Odorous House Ant our January pest of the month for two reasons. First, over the past few years it has become one of the top residential pests and 2nd if you have activity in January then they are nesting in you home. This 1/8"/3mm black ant gets it's name from the rotten coconut like odor it produces when it is crushed. Personally we think it smells like old bubble gum. What makes these ants such a problem is the size of their colonies (100 to 100,000 workers); each colonly has numerous queens and their habit of "Budding". Budding is when the primary queen gives a signal to the secondary queens to split from the main colony and start a new nest. This can and does happen if the ants are sprayed with a repellent insecticide or if the nest is disturbed. This is why the colonies grow so fast and cause a major problem in homes.

February

Termites

Swarmer or Reproducer

Workers and Soldiers

Usually around February termites will start to swarm from their nest. It's not unusual to see hundreds of winged black ant like insects emerging from a crack in the floor or a small hole in the wall. These are your reproducers or swarmers. Their only job is to pair up, mate and find a new spot to start a colony.

March

Wasps

As soon as the days start getting warmer in the early spring wasps will leave their overwintering areas and will start building new nests. Wasps will chew unpainted or weathered wood to make their nesting materials. Then they will look for an ideal area to build their nest. Most of the time this will be on a sunny side of a structure. Gaps under siding, under playground equipment and behind shutters are perfect areas for wasps to build their nest. These areas should be checked regularly through the spring and summer as new nests can be started in late spring too.

April

Birds

              Sparrows                                               Starlings

Around early April your pest birds which include Sparrows and Starlings start looking for places to build a nest. One of their favorite places is outside vents. These birds will put enough nesting material in a vent to completely block any air flow. In newer homes they may peck through the plastic vents and nest in a ceiling void or in the attic. Their droppings and feathers can attract mites that can later infest your home not to mention the sounds of hungry baby birds chirpping in the early morning.

May

Carpenter Bees

Carpenter bees will bore into unpainted wood and lay their eggs. The bees' offspring will return every year to the place that they were born and make more holes. Over a period of years they can complete destory the wood they nest in. They usually will nest in wood that gets full sunlight during the day. Signs of their presence will be a yellow stain under the 1/2" hole that they bore.

June

Carpenter Ants

Carpenter ants are a large black to brown ant that can range in size from 1/4" to 1/2" and larger. They look for water damged wood to hollow out a gallery for their nest. Some of their favorite places are under window sills, around chimneys, in wood piles and hollow trees. They don't eat the wood, but they will rip out tiny pieces of wood to make their nest. A good sign of a carpenter ant nest is a pile of saw dust under the gallery they hollowed out.

July

Stored Product Pest

Indian Meal Moth

Sawtoothed Grain Beetle

Rice weevil

Since the cut back on fumigat materials over the last few years, stored product pests have been making a come back. The weevils, grain beetles and moths which only a few are shown above are being found more and more in the grain product you buy. They can show up anytime of the year. We put them as the July pest of the month because the hotter it is the faster they reproduce. The best protection from these pests is to not keep a lot of grain or nut products for a long time. Open products should be stored in a tightly sealed plastic container.

August

Yellow Jackets

Danger

By late summer Yellow Jackets' nest have become large enough where you can see them entering and leaving their nest every few seconds. They will nest in the ground, on a building, in bushes, junk piles or any voids they find. It's not uncommon to hear a customer coming home to find hundreds of Yellow Jackets in their home. They will chew through drywall in the attempt to make the void they nest in larger to let the nest grow. BEWARE of any stains that appear on your walls or ceiling in late summer. That's the first sign a nest is present in your home.

September

Bald Faced Hornets

Danger

Hornets most of the time will build their football shaped gray nest in trees or bushes, but can also build them on the side of a building. Hornets are very protective of their nest and will attack anything that disturbs it. BEWARE if you find a nest! Make sure you keep any children away from the area until it can be treated.

October

Seasonal Invaders

Crickets

Roaches

Large hunting Spiders

When the nights start getting cold in the fall, a lot of your outside insects will look for a nice warm place to stay for the winter. Unfortunately, this could be your home. The most common of these seasonal invaders are Lady Bugs, Box Elder Bugs, American Roaches, Crickets, Wasps and the Large Hunting Spiders. The best protection from these invaders is a barrier treatment around you house in the early fall.

November

Rats

Most of the year rats are happy to be outside, but in late fall when their food sources get low thats when we start getting calls about burrows appearing around sidewalks,  porches and decks. Usually there will be trash can kept near by or pets being feed outside. Rats need to be taken care of right away. Their teeth are rated as hard as steel and given enough time they will chew through almost any material.

December

Mice

Like rats, mice are happy to be outside most of the year, but when the nights turn cold they will look for a warmer place to stay. All they need is a door left open for a few minutes or a hole as small as a 1/4" to get into you home. Most of the time mice enter you home before December, but it's not until around December before they start getting noticed. Small holes being chewed, droppings, food being chewed or for somebody in the house to actually see one. If a mated pair gets in then by this time you will have offspring running around too. Mice become sexually mature around 5 to 6 weeks and can have litters of 6 to 12 every month after that.