Keep Pests From Haunting The House This Halloween

f you watch the local news, you may have seen the pest control industry got a fair amount of attention this fall since the overwintering pests like stink bugs caused more than their fair share of trouble (and are likely to continue to do so in the spring). It’s always good to have a reminder about the important steps you can take to pest-proof your home each season.  Check out a our recent press release below.

KEEP PESTS FROM HAUNTING THE HOUSE THIS HALLOWEEN

Knoxville, TN, October 2013 – Ghosts, goblins, and witches won’t be the only creatures trying to spook homeowners this Halloween. Russell’s Pest Control advises people to be on the lookout for real-life ghoulish pests lurking around neighborhoods, including rodents, bats and spiders.

“As the temperature continues to drop, many of these creepy critters will seek respite from the winter chill – often within the confines our homes,” said Mark Nadolski, Owner/General Manager for the Russell’s Pest Control. “Once inside, rodents and other pests can do more than just provide their fair share of scares. They are capable of contaminating food, spreading disease and posing a threat to our property.”

Rodents can spread salmonella and hantavirus and create fire hazards by gnawing through electrical wires in the home. Bats are frequent carriers of rabies, which is potentially fatal if left untreated, and some species of spiders can administer a painful bite when disturbed.

To keep these pests from haunting the house this Halloween, the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) recommends the following tips:

  • Seal any cracks or crevices with caulk and steel wool. Pay special attention to holes in the structure that lead to dark secluded areas, like attics and belfries.

  • Screen attic vents and openings to chimney.

  • Install door sweeps on exterior doors and repair damaged screens.

  • Eliminate sources of moisture, especially in crawl spaces and basements.

  • Inspect items such as boxes, grocery bags and other packages brought into the home.

  • Store food in airtight containers and dispose of garbage regularly.

  • If you suspect a pest infestation in your home, contact a licensed pest professional to inspect and treat the pest problem.

For more information on common household pests and how to protect your home, please contact us today!

A Halloween Fright: Giant Hornets

It’s time once again to add a page to the chronicle of Russell’s Pest Control Halloween blogs. On some occasions, we’ve discussed local pests that are particularly creepy and alarming. Last year, we examined a frightful fungus that preys on ants. This year, we’re again going to travel far from home to have a look at a particularly terrifying little beast.

Perhaps you’ve heard talk of aggressive, predatory hornets in East Asia that are wreaking havoc on some cities there. These little beasties, whose common name is simply the Asian giant hornet, claim an average of 30-40 lives per year in Asia. In 2013, however, they exploded into public notice when they started attacking cities in China. More than 1500 people have been injured after encounters with these horrific hornets, and experts are scrambling to determine what has caused the increase in aggression (some reports are saying that the giant hornets may be attempting to reassert their dominance over threatened territory, but there are several theories out there). If this isn’t like the plot of some terrifying, modern Alfred Hitchcock flick, then I don’t know what is.

The average giant hornet in these large colonies is about two inches long, but those are just the every-day citizens. The queens (pictured here) are about the same length as the palm of an adult human’s hand. The drones have stingers that are about ¼ inch in length, and they pack a particularly potent venom. Those injured by the hornets compare the sting to a hot nail or a bullet, and as few as ten stings can be hazardous to a human, even if the person is not allergic to the venom.

Even before their sudden spike in aggression, these hornets were a major problem in the Asian agricultural economy. Giant hornets require protein in their larval stage, so the drones will often invade honey bee hives to steal bee larva to feed to their own young. Because the hornets have such a size advantage, a few invaders can completely wipe out a large honey bee hive in a shockingly short amount of time, and Asian bee keepers have faced the devastating effects of these gruesome giants. In case you were wondering, the hornets use their oversized jaws to kill the bees by decapitation. So, that’s just great.

When you’re fighting a zombie, a shotgun is supposed to be the weapon of choice. Werewolf slayers favor silver bullets, and vampire hunters usually carry around a trusty stake. When you’re fighting killer giant hornets…well, the list of appropriate weapons is fairly short. Pest experts were rushed to the area to try to eliminate the large hives as quickly and safely as possible. Those who aren’t willing to wait are resorting to gasoline-fueled fireballs, which is rarely a good idea but does, again, sound like something out of a movie.

And, just in case you needed a bit more creepy news to really set the Halloween tone, I should also mention that at least one country in Western Europe has reported seeing these giant hornets. We have discussed the dangers of introducing pests into new ecosystems before, so we’ll have to wait and see if these hornets can survive outside of their native environments.

Happy Halloween!

The Other Arachnid In East Tennessee

For something new and different, I thought we might cover a pest whose presence is often extremely surprising to East Tennessee homeowners. In fact, these creatures are so evasive that most people don’t know that they’re in the area. I’m talking about scorpions, a creature that, unfortunately, invokes the kind of fear responses that people usually reserve for spiders. They are cousins, after all.

Yes, there are scorpions in East Tennessee. They live mostly in the Smoky Mountains, which tends to surprise people since we often assume that scorpions must live in hot, dry areas. In fact, two species of scorpions live in our area, though they’re both quite small and fairly inoffensive.

Scorpions are easily identified by their arcing tail that they carry over their heads and the claws that they have in front like little lobsters. Yes, even our small scorpions can sting, but neither of the species in this state is considered dangerous. Unless you have a random allergy to their venom (which is quite unlikely), their sting is no worse than a bee sting. Their color can range from light tan to a dark brown, and they’re well-equipped with camouflage to help them blend in to the floors of the forests around here that are covered in leaves and pine needles.

Scorpions are most active during warm weather, which means that you are unlikely to encounter one in the wild before 2014. However, scorpions don’t mind the cold too much and can wait out bad weather with ease since they can go up to six months without eating. This is important since a scorpion can live 5-6 years and needs to be able to survive all the seasons.

Like spiders, scorpions are predators, so they are drawn to debris where other bugs may be living. If residents do find scorpions in the house, it is likely because they were drawn there by a woodpile or leaves too close to the structure. They are also drawn to moisture (likely because moisture is attractive to their prey), so you are most likely to find them in a bathroom or laundry room if they are indoors.

Interestingly enough, scorpions regulate their hunting habits based on their size. Large scorpions out in Arizona and California (which can grow up to 5-7 inches) rely on their strength to catch prey and crush them to death before consuming them. Small scorpions like the ones in Tennessee must rely on stealth-based hunting since they have to ensure that they can immobilize their insect prey with venom before eating them. This is why most Tennessee residents have never seen a scorpion. They are nocturnal hunters and would always prefer to avoid a fight they think they can’t win (though they’re not afraid to have a go at a person if they feel cornered).

Scorpions aren’t like ants and spiders, and you’ll probably never have a problem with an infestation of them in your home. However, we at Russell’s Pest Control know that it pays to be prepared for the unlikely. If you do start to see scorpions around the house, we know how to take care of them. Contact us here; we’d be glad to come out and handle the little creepers for you so you don’t have to.

DEET Bug Spray Is Being Replaced By Natural Substances

There have been many examples in the past of how technology has driven the pest control industry and how the pest control industry has driven some great technological advances. Lots of research that was done early in the field of extermination was closely tied to American military efforts, particularly during the World Wars. American soldiers went to terrifying places in unfamiliar environments, but sometimes, one of the unexpected threats to them involved pest pressure.

If you have ever used a mosquito spray before a picnic, you have reaped the benefits of that war-time research. Most mosquito sprays contain DEET, a chemical that was developed during WWII when American troops encountered the health hazards associated with working in an environment that fostered mosquitoes carrying malaria. DEET helped to keep those soldiers (and thousands of people since then) safe, but now researchers are working toward replacing DEET with a naturally-occurring substance.

The problem with DEET is that it is only a short-term solution. As you may have realized, bug spray has to be re-applied frequently to be particularly effective. It often has a somewhat unpleasant smell, and the chemical combination in DEET products can damage some plastics and fabrics, making those sprays impractical in many situations.

Now, however, researchers are delving more deeply into the mechanics behind the effectiveness of DEET. They have discovered which portion of the mosquitoes’ antennae responds to the DEET, and they have studied other substances that can be used to trigger the nervous system response that makes the mosquitoes retreat. They have also cleverly narrowed their searches to natural substances that can be easily acquired. Four compounds have been selected for further testing, and all the early signs are very positive. Three of the four substances are actually already approved by the FDA for consumption as food products. They have been used for this because they all naturally give off a mild smell like grapes. The hope is that these compounds will eliminate the need for DEET while also correcting many of its defects.

In other good news, researchers have also found that the trigger point on the mosquitoes’ antennae that makes these compounds effective is quite common in many species of insects. It’s possible that this research could start off revolutionizing the bug spray industry and could, perhaps, transform the pest control industry as well. We’ll wait around for more information and keep you informed as new developments arise.

Debunking Myths About Stink Bugs

I have to say that right now I’m a little frustrated with the internet (no surprise there). There’s so much misinformation out there. People confidently post information or advertisements about topics they are almost entirely unfamiliar with, and they can seriously waste their readers’ time and money by doing so.

Recently, I was following a thread on a DIY forum about keeping stink bugs out of the house. Several of the participants had consulted someone about stink bugs (be it a hardware store employee or a one-man pest control operation) and had been told that there’s nothing that can be done about them and that their presence in homes is inevitable. Others had been told that winter treatments are crucial for stinkbug control to try to kill the stink bug eggs before they hatch in the spring. All of this misinformation is very troubling to us at Russell’s Pest Control because we would rather you be stink bug-free whether we do a treatment on your house or not. So, here we will give a brief repetition of some information about overwintering pests so that we can dispel some myths that are floating around on the uninformed internet.

Myth 1: Stink bugs are trying to get in the house so that they can lay their eggs.

This is just not true. Many pests in East Tennessee wait out the winter weather in their egg form, but stink bugs do not fall in that category. The adults move into warm, safe locations to hibernate during the winter and re-emerge to lay their eggs outside on leaves in the spring. If you have stink bugs in your house, they are NOT reproducing in your wall voids during the cold months.

Myth 2: Treatments during the fall and winter will eliminate the stink bugs.

We highly recommend that you do not have stink bugs treated in your home during the cold months if they are already inside in large numbers. Your options for doing so are very limited, and the treatment won’t really help much. Because stink bugs stay in attics and wall voids, treating them is extremely difficult and would involve using lots of product over large spaces. You might kill some stink bugs that way, but their bodies will be in hard-to-access places that you can’t clean. Those dead stink bugs will draw other pests (like rodents), thus making your problem worse, not better. If someone is trying to get you to pay for multiple winter treatments, then he or she is either uninformed or, worse, is hoping to waste your money. In fact, if you call Russell’s Pest Control in the winter and beg for the opportunity to pay us to treat your stink bugs, we still won’t do it; it just wouldn’t be right to do so when the treatment can’t possibly be fully effective.

Myth 3: Stink bugs are inevitable, and nothing can be done to keep them out of the house.

It is true that brown marmorated stink bugs have hit the United States hard, and they can prove to be quite a challenge, even for well-informed pest professionals. However, that doesn’t mean that nothing can be done. Contact Russell’s Pest Control on this page if you’d like to hear about our treatment options. Bear in mind that this treatment needs to be done BEFORE the stink bugs come inside, so you need to make an appointment before we start seeing frosts on the ground.

Kudzu Bugs: A New Pest In East Tennessee

We’ve talked in previous posts about pests that have come to the United States from other countries and then created problems for our ecosystems. Pests that may be only an inconvenience in their countries of origin can be devastating when they arrive in areas that do not have the proper predator balance for them. Unfortunately, we have seen another non-native species, the kudzu bug, rise up in the Southeast in the last five years, and it’s time for Tennessee homeowner to brace for impact.

Kudzu bugs are also known as lablab bugs and globular stink bugs. They arrived in Georgia in 2009 and spread through several counties that year. Now, in 2013, they can be found in most of the states in the Southeast, including Alabama, both Carolinas, Mississippi, Virginia, northern Florida, and Tennessee.

Like the brown marmorated stink bug, kudzu bugs have straw-like mouth parts, which they use to suck liquids out of plant stems. Based on their name, you might be inclined to call them beneficial since they do, in fact, eat kudzu and significantly hinder its growth. However, their second-favorite food is soybeans, which makes up an enormous part of the U.S. farming economy. In just a few short years, they have already demonstrated their ability to cause devastating damage to crops, and they are a huge point of concern for local entomologists and pest professionals alike.

Even if you’re not a farmer, kudzu bugs are likely to be a hindrance for you. Just like stink bugs, lady bugs, and boxelder bugs, adult kudzu bugs move indoors when the weather first starts to cool off, and they overwinter in attics and wall voids. Light-colored houses are more at risk for invasion (they have a particular affinity for white), and they are most likely to enter homes after sunning themselves on south or west walls on chilly fall days. They then emerge in the spring when the weather warms up to eat, mate, and lay their eggs. Unfortunately, overwintering pests are not blessed with spectacular senses of direction, and kudzu bugs can end up inside your home instead of leaving through the crack they used as an entrance. And, you guessed, just like the other bugs listed above, they emit a smelly, staining liquid when they are agitated or smashed that can be very problematic in a home.

I write about overwintering pests every year to try to warn as many homeowners as possible because we are now in the season when you need to take action to keep these pests out of your home. Check your weather stripping, ridge vents, and the holes around your utility entrances. Make sure to keep those well-sealed so you’re not presenting easy entrance points for pests. If you do not want to have a professional pest treatment, consider getting a hose attachment that will allow you to spray your home with very soapy water. This is a short-term treatment (since both sun and rain dissipate soap very quickly), but if you do it every few days, you may deter these bugs from sunning on your siding. If you do want a professional treatment, call Russell’s Pest Control before the weather turns truly cold. We can use a backpack sprayer to treat the outside of your home to make sure that our products get into the small cracks that the kudzu bugs, stink bugs, and lady bugs are most likely to find appealing.

Contact us if you’d like more information. We’ll keep you informed as we find out more about this new type of invader.

The Three-Part Flea Treatment: Part 3

We have arrived at the end of our three-part flea series. If you missed the first two articles about what you need to do before a flea treatment and what will be going on during a flea treatment, you can visit those posts to get the full story. Let us now discuss what you need to do after a flea treatment to ensure that the family of fleas is fully eradicated and does not re-infest your home.

You might remember from our previous discussions about flea biology that young fleas can be very difficult to eliminate. Insect eggs are so tiny, but they’re surprisingly durable. It’s very difficult to get a pest control product through the walls of an egg. Additionally, flea pupae are like little fortresses. All told, there are two phases of the flea life cycle that are quite a challenge to eliminate. This means that we have to get clever and turn their habits against them to fully stop a flea infestation.

Do you remember that flea pupae are motion-activated? The fleas inside their cocoons will wait to emerge until they feel vibrations nearby. Since most of the fleas hatched and grew up in a sunning spot that is much-frequented by your cat Whiskers, the fleas assume that the vibration is Whiskers returning to lie down. They quickly emerge so that they can have immediate access to a host. Luckily for us, vacuums provide all of the vibration needed to stimulate the waiting pupae. The vacuum tricks the fleas into emerging at the wrong time. They are then exposed to the product that the technician used to treat the carpet, and they are also at risk of being sucked into the vacuum.

Because the adult fleas were probably laying eggs for several days, you’ll need to vacuum every day for at least two weeks to ensure that you stimulate all of the pupae as soon as they develop. You must also empty the vacuum cleaner in an outside trashcan every day. As we’ve said before, vacuum suction does not kill most pests; it is simply a way to gather many of them together and move them outside.

If you vacuum every day for at least two weeks, you should be happily rid of your flea problem in no time at all. This is another example of how pest control is always a joint effort between an experienced technician and a willing homeowner. A professional flea treatment is much less effective without the daily vacuuming by the homeowner.

Thanks for joining us as we’ve walked through the process of keeping Whiskers and your home flea-free.

The Three-Part Flea Treatment: Part 2

In our last post, we discussed what you need to do to prep for a flea treatment before the technician arrives. Now let’s discuss what will be happening during the treatment.

First, let’s cover your job during this time. You remember how we said that you should reward yourself with a smoothie after all of your hard work? You should enjoy some downtime since you need to be out of the house for four hours. Well, on your way to your favorite smoothie joint, you should drop Whiskers off at the pet groomer. It is imperative that you have your pet treated for fleas before reintroducing him into your treated home. Unfortunately, popping on a flea collar won’t cover it. When pets are not properly treated for fleas, the flea treatment on the home is largely negated. Make sure that Whiskers is squeaky clean before bringing him back in the house.

You may remember from our previous post about flea biology that the fleas’ life cycle can make controlling them a challenge, particularly their pupae, which are highly-resistant to pest control products. In fact, they have some instincts that would be really cool if they weren’t so annoying. So, while Whiskers is reveling is his bath, our technician is at the house, executing a multi-tiered approach to flea control. Of course, specific treatment plans vary, depending on each customer’s circumstances, but our main plan is to treat carpeted areas and any necessary furniture with two types of products. The first product is designed to knock down the adult population quickly to interrupt the breeding cycle. The second is intended to keep the larvae and pupae from developing correctly. This means that they won’t be able to make successful transitions into adulthood, which again interrupts the breeding cycle. For this, we often use products called IGRs (Insect Growth Regulators). These are specifically designed to affect insect growth (often in the way they shed their skins), which means that they do not negatively affect humans, dogs, and cats. This is a great tool in a pest professional’s arsenal.

Now, you may be wondering why you need to be out of the house for four hours since that’s not typical during a regular pest control treatment. Of course, anyone can have an allergy to some ingredients, so it can be wise to keep everyone away since we often have to treat large areas at a time. However, we mostly recommend that four-hour time block because the products we use are slick. If you get them on your socks from the carpet and then walk to the hardwood, you could slip, and we don’t want that to happen. So don’t worry; we’re not bombing your house with pesticides.

Next time, we’ll discuss what you need to do after the flea treatment is complete and wind this series down. As always, you can contact us if you want more information!

The Three-Part Flea Treatment: Part 1

Since we’re on the subject of blood-sucking pests, we might as well cover the other creature that you’re likely to encounter if your indoor/outdoor cat named Whiskers starts to have some unexpected hygiene problems. This will be the first installment of a three-part series about fleas. Fleas are tricky in a way that many other pests are not, and they often get out of hand with unexpected speed. Because of this, homeowners need to be very involved in the process of eliminating fleas, so we divide our flea treatment plan into three sections: before the treatment, during the treatment, and after the treatment.

Let’s take a look at that first section today. You’ll probably first notice that you have a flea problem because you might see little blackish specks jumping around on your furniture or on the carpet. Even adult fleas are tiny compared to many pests (this helps them move quickly within a forest of pet hairs), and it may take time to realize that they are around in numbers. Once you’ve confirmed that you have a flea problem it’s best to act quickly before they have a chance to get settled into a breeding cycle.

Once you’ve called to set up a flea treatment, you should begin a cleaning frenzy. Just before the appointment, get everything off the floors that you don’t want treated. This includes your children’s toys, the shoes in the bottom of your closet, and the stack of books by the desk. In many cases, the technician will be treating large portions of the floor and sometimes the furniture as well if Whiskers is a couch potato and has set up a flea colony there. You need to be sure that anything you don’t want treated is well out of the way so that the technician can do his or her job efficiently and effectively.

After all the small items are off the floor, get Whiskers out of the house and put all pet bedding in the washing machine. You may not know this, but your regular house dryer is strong enough to kill many pest eggs (including bed bugs), so a thorough run through the washer and dryer will do wonders for any flea problems in the pet bedding.

While the laundry is running, grab the vacuum and sweep all of the carpet in the entire house, including bedroom and linen closets and any upholstery furniture that Whiskers has been on. Now, here’s the important part. You must remove the vacuum bag from the house or empty the canister in an outside trashcan when you’re done sweeping. Getting sucked up into the vacuum does not kill most pests, and if you just put the vacuum back into the closet without emptying it, the fleas will walk right back out and re-infest the house. The vacuuming should be completed very shortly before the technician arrives (for reasons that we’ll discuss in the next post).

The prep work is almost done! Your remaining tasks include making sure that the lawn is mowed as short as possible since fleas hide in tall grass and the technician will treat around the outside of the house to keep fleas from setting up shop in the grass by the walls. Shut off the fish tank, and have a plan ready so that you, your family, and all of your pets (except the fish) can be out of the house for about four hours after the treatment.

Congratulations, you have finished the preparation for your flea treatment. Go reward yourself with a smoothie while the technician gets down to business at the house. In our next post, we’ll discuss the technician’s treatments along with some flea biology. Later, we’ll cover how you should follow-up after a flea treatment to be sure you don’t end up having another invasion from the same family of fleas.

Mosquitoes Love East Tennessee’s Rainfall

As I’m sitting here writing this blog, I’m enjoying the fact that sunshine is streaming in through the window. The first full week of July featured cool weather and rain showers every day, and though June had its fair share of heat, it was also a noticeably wet month. In fact, the combined rainfall for the month of June and the first week of July was 15 inches! That’s huge, and you can bet that the pest populations love the abundance of water and the break from July’s usual blazing heat.

If any pests (besides termites) are happy about the water, it is the mosquitoes. I took a walk in my neighborhood last night and realized that the mosquitoes are preparing for a blood bath (really, it’s more like a blood feast for them, but still). Every low place that can hold a pond has one, and the drainage ditches are so full that whole sections of yards are rivers that will eventually become stagnant lakes. This is just like Christmas in July for the mosquitoes because their young have an entire life phase in the water. Normally, they have to be picky about where they lay their eggs to ensure that moisture will be available for the larvae. Now, the higher water levels offer them an abundance of new real estate, much of which is in or near yards and, consequently, near houses.

We have explained the mosquito life cycle in a previous post, but let me hit the high points again. Mosquitoes require blood to reproduce, and a female mosquito will only bite a human when she is preparing to lay eggs. This means that every bite you receive this summer directly results in the hatching of about 300 new mosquitoes. This is not good news. We have done another article about mosquito habitat control that you may want to check out as well. It is very important that you get out into your yard as soon as possible and remove as much standing water as you can. This could mean emptying the bird bath or turning over your children’s toys to eliminate the puddles.

Russell’s Pest Control can do an inspection on your property to help you find mosquito habitat issues and make some good adjustments. We can also set you up for a monthly mosquito service to run through the remainder of the warm season to get some control of the mosquitoes that are going to be popping up in your yard.

We hope that you enjoy the sunshine when it’s out and enjoy the fun that comes with the summer months. Just give us a call if there’s anything Russell’s can do to make these next few months even more enjoyable for you.