What Is Up With All These Ants?

What Is Up With All These Ants?

What is it with ants? The weather turns cold and they disappear. But then when things start to warm up a bit, there they are again! As if by magic. Where were they all this time? And why don’t they stay away? Why do they come back every spring to torment us in our homes and our businesses? Is there anything you can do to make them stay away? Actually, there is, and we are going to explore that possibility in just a moment. But first, let’s look a little bit at why having ants come back year after year is not a good thing.

Problems Ants Bring To Home Or Business

Ants Bite

All ants can bite, but there are two that are particularly troublesome in this respect, the fire ant and the carpenter ant. Fire ants can quickly swarm and bite repeatedly, which is not only painful but can be deadly if the victim is a person who is not able to escape the biting insects, persons such as infants or the infirm. If you have fire ants plaguing your property, it is wise to have them eradicated.

Contrary to what their name suggests, carpenter ants do not build or repair anything. In fact, they destroy. And they do this by chewing galleries inside the wooden structures of a home or business. And while they are not normally inclined to bite humans, they are able to use their wood-cutting mandibles to give a painful bite. They may also spray a defensive chemical (formic acid) into the wound, increasing the pain.

Ants Crawl

All ants crawl, but pharaoh ants are some of the worst. These ants are known to invade kitchens and pantries, crawling all over stoves, countertops, refrigerators, food, plates, cups and silverware. Perhaps this wouldn’t be too bad except for the fact that they also crawl around in garbage cans and inside toilet bowls, and then carry all sorts of bacteria back to your kitchen. Studies show that pharaoh ants are able to carry more than 12 infection organisms.

Ants Stink

All ants put off a scent, but odorous house ants take the cake. Not only do they have the pheromones that all ants use, but if they are threatened, or stepped on, they put off an awful smell that is comparable to rotten coconuts.

If you are encountering these ants, or perhaps Argentine, acrobat, or little black ants in your Tennessee home or business, consider help from the pest professionals here at Russell’s. It stinks having biting, crawling, annoying and potentially dangerous ants around. Reach out to us today and become ant-free.

Why Do I Have A Boxelder Bug Problem?

Why Do I Have A Boxelder Bug Problem?

Boxelder bugs love trees! They feed, live, and breed on all trees that bear seeds like the boxelder, maple, ash, and fruit trees like apple and plum. In fall, they infest homes in large numbers to seek a warm environment for shelter to overwinter. They flock to sunny sides of homes, storage sheds, or garages and enter through cracks and crevices on exterior walls, gaps around window and door frames, or through vents. While enjoying the warmth of your home or storage areas, they will leave marks and stains with their feces that may be noticeable. In the spring, homeowners will experience a flurry of boxelder bug activity as they start trying to move back outdoors.

Before you chop down all of the seed bearing trees that are in your yard, you should know that this may not solve all of your boxelder bug problems because they will just move to another area or to your neighbor’s yard, and they still may flock to your home in the fall. Not to mention cutting all of those good trees would be a terrible shame.

Boxelder bugs are black with a red outlined thorax, sides, and wings. Their wings lay flat and allow them to fly and relocate if necessary. Their mouth has sucking-piercing parts that they can use for feeding on trees. An adult boxelder bug can be as long as 1 inch, but they are not dangerous, and they do not transmit illnesses. They can infest a home in large numbers creating a nuisance to homeowners, thus making it necessary to eradicate them. Your best bet is to contact your local pest control service so that they can identify your infestation and correctly target these pests.

In order to help prevent an infestation, you will need to seal up all cracks, holes, and gaps coming into your home or storage areas. You need to replace damaged screens, window frames, and door frames. Also, install door sweeps under all exterior doors. If boxelder bugs are present, you can sweep or vacuum them away to help reduce their numbers, but for total eradication, you will need a professional to take control of all aspects of the infestation.

In order to control a boxelder infestation, you can rely on Russell’s Pest Control in the Knoxville, Tennessee, area. Give us a call, and ask about our ongoing year-round home pest control programs. Our courteous, professional staff will help you with all of your pest control needs.

Carpenter Bees Will Be Active Soon

Carpenter Bees Will Be Active Soon

When spring temperatures warm up, all the creatures in Tennessee will become active again. Some of them will just crawl around in your backyard, dig tiny tunnels under your lawn, and hide under your rocks (and only be a nuisance every once in awhile when heavy rains make the ground saturated, or extended days of drought make the ground too dry.) Some will build nests on eaves and overhangs and leave painful welts on the skin when we accidentally come in contact with them. Some are wood-destroying pests that will damage our homes. There are many ways bugs can become pests. Of the three we’ve mentioned, what kind of pest do you think carpenter bees are?

If you said that these insects leave painful welts on the skin, you would be half right, because only female carpenter bees are able to sting. Male carpenter bees, though sometimes aggressive, are not able to sting. All of the dive bombing and excessive buzzing is just posturing, they can’t actually hurt you. Females, on the other hand, can give you a painful welt, or worse if you have an allergy to her venom. But a female carpenter bee doesn’t want to sting you. Her focus is on building a nest and making babies. That is how she has earned her pest status.

Female carpenter bees chew tunnels in wood to make their nests. While these tunnels aren’t all that extensive at first, they can grow quite a bit over the course of several years. These bees are prone to using and extending existing tunnels. When they do, these tunnels can cause quite a bit of damage.

Tunnels made by carpenter bees can be frustrating to repair because it is hard to know how much tunneling is present just beyond the tiny circular hole they leave in the wood they are attacking. If these tunnels are being created in a sensitive area, like a stair leading up to a balcony, a railing, or a support beam, serious injury could result if the damage isn’t properly addressed.

If you have carpenter bees appearing on your property this year, it is important to have a professional pest control technician take a look at your issue and give you some actionable input on how to protect your home. Identification of carpenter bees is quite easy. They look like a big bumblebee with an entirely black abdomen.

Don’t let carpenter bees damage your property and cause the potential for injury. This is an issue you should address when it first appears.

Termite Awareness Week 2017

Termite Awareness Week 2017

Did you notice the warm winter we just had? You can bet termites did. That makes this year’s Termite Awareness Week (March 12-18, 2017) even more important for folks in our Eastern Tennessee service area. We’re expecting a busy year, but we hope most of that business will be “preventative” and not “reactive” services. Here are a few points regarding termites in Tennessee, that you should be aware of.

  • Subterranean termites are the most destructive termites found in the United States. Unfortunately, Tennessee has subterranean termites.

  • While a single termite doesn’t do a lot of damage, a colony with thousands of individual termites can do a lot of damage.

  • Subterranean termites aren’t called “silent destroyers” for no reason. They can feed on a structure for years, undetected. These termites were found in the West Wing of our White House, where security and surveillance are the highest priority. If they can hide from the White House staff, they can hide from you.

  • Subterranean termites have been found to avoid detection from a certified home inspector. These are folks that are trained professionals, but they do not have the tools or knowledge to adequately inspect a home for these subtle pests.

  • Subterranean termites feed inside wood. They don’t leave sawdust as a warning sign.

  • The first warning sign of termites is swarmer termites. These are winged reproductive termites that are produced by a mature nest for the purpose of establishing new nests. If you see swarmers on your exterior walls, it is highly possibly that those termites came from a nest on your property or, worse, inside your property.

  • You can prevent termite damage. You don’t have to wait until the wheel of fate determines that your home will be destroyed by termites. It is possible to stop termites before they cause all that damage. Modern termite control protocols are not only effective, they are 100% safe for your family, your pets, and the environment. They target termites and use worker termites as a weapon against their own queen. When the queen dies, the termite colony also dies.

If you don’t have termite protection for your Tennessee home or business, now is definitely the time to get it. This mild winter we just had is likely to cause termite infestations to rise dramatically. When you get termite service, it is like getting health insurance for your home. It is a risk management investment. You may never need it, but having it could save you from financial ruin. For more information, or to schedule an appointment, give us a call today.