A flea infestation can cause chaos on your family and house. Any furry animal that goes outside can pick-up fleas, so a trip to the vet for topical flea and tick prevention should be done periodically. Maintaining your landscaping outside can protect your pets from fleas by cutting back tall grass, weeds, and shrubbery. Beds of mulch around your house perimeter repels fleas. Next, vacuuming indoors is really important as the growth stages of fleas, from eggs to pupae, will hide in in carpets and baseboards until they are ready to jump on your pets or your own legs. Wash all pet bedding in hot water.
We often don’t think about carpenter ants in the cold wet months but they still exist and continue their never ending destruction of your house. Their role in the environment is waste processors as they tunnel through dead plants, trees and soil, aerating it. Regrettably, these ants see our homes as piles of sticks that they can covert into their satellite nests. Ants are the most damaging wood destroying insects in the lower mainland and they are active 24/7 365. When the temperatures drop, most outdoor carpenter ants hibernate and remain dormant during the colder months but the ones in your walls continue to burrow through wood, feed the larvae, and maintain the satellite nest in your walls.
Indoor insects can do many things to you, including nasty bites to contaminating your food. Read on and discover what lurks under your bed.
-Spiders are in and under your furniture, appliances, the attic and craw space. When a spider bites, it can cause allergic reaction – to necrotic wounds to…
-Silverfish can ruin anyone’s day by eating wallpaper and clothing, to contaminating food. Their diet also include dried products, flours, glue, paper, dander, hair and grandma’s vintage wedding gown.
-Ants, once these guys get in, they can eat you out of house and home, literally from eating everything we eat to chewing away the wood that holds your house up. Some bite, some sting you, but the common denominator is there are very hard to get rid of.
-Flies can get into your house through just about any opening. More than just an aggravation, they infect all food they land on as they travel from trash to feces to our food.
-Carpet beetles don’t need any introduction, they damage natural fibers in carpets, furniture and clothing. But the elephant in the room is the carpet beetle larvae, often confused with flea or bedbug bites, they have sharp hair-like needles that cause allergic reactions all over your skin.
-Cockroaches multiples rapidly, eat everything, live for years, cause allergic reactions and are usually found in filthy environments.
Although winter weather is heading our way we only usually only get a few really cold freezing days and the rest of the season is just wet and miserable. Mild winters allow insects and rodents breeding season to be longer and more successful. And, over the last couple years a lot of pests have been showing up earlier in the spring. In the winter, some pests burrow into the ground, lay their eggs deep in the soil and others reduce level of activity or survive in our homes where there is heat, shelter, food and moisture. A few things that you can do is removing any surplus water from melting ice and snow – as all pests need water. Rake leaves and avoid piling anything close to your home.
Now that its getting closer to freezing at night, you know who is looking to keep warm in your house? insects, spiders, squirrels, rats and mice ! Here are a few DYI fixes to keep them out. Look for cracks, crevices and holes on the outside of your house. Areas that most people miss are the cracks and holes around pipes and electrical wires that lead into the house. Make sure there isn’t any areas in the soffits that have been open up, and get mesh put on chimney tops to keep squirrels out. Move firewood and other clutter away from the bottom areas around your house. Trim trees and shrubs at least 6’ from the house especially the roof line. In the house, store all of your pantry foods in sturdy plastic containers, always clean up spills and vacuum regularly. Cardboard boxes in the attic should be converted to hard plastic as rodents use the cardboard to make nests, and silverfish love cardboard.
I heard a line the other day that relates to Dr. Google and pest control “ reading what you like to believe is not research”. Many if not most suggestions for DIY pest control on google don’t actually work or they are one-offs. If you do try a google fix make sure it is safe for your family and pets, and remember it is probably a temporary fix. Here is a keeper that actually works and is “green” so give it a try. Crush fresh garlic in a bowl with water until it’s sticky constancy. Use latex gloves and apply the garlic slurry to areas where insects and creatures are getting into your house. A lot of pests, insect and animal, don’t like the smell of garlic and will often stay away. It’s best to call Go Green Pest Control to fix an issue once and for all.
You wake up in the morning with a itchy back and immediately google what has happened and oh NO….. bedbugs. Like most people you freak-out and as soon as humanly possible head to Canadian Tire to buy any can of insecticide that shows a bed bug on the label. You have read on Dr. Google that these bloodsuckers can reproduce rapidly and are problematic to get rid of on your own. Anyone can get bedbugs, its not necessarily how clean your house is but who brought the bug into your home and can there be more bedbugs in your house, as they like to hang out around beds and couches. These leeches can bum a ride on clothing or suitcases from a motel, a hotel or any other place that has a bedbug infestation. If you have bedbugs, don’t waist your money on store bought potions, call a professional at Go Green Pest Control 778-886-4111.
So was it a rat or mouse – look at the feces, mice produce rice sized feces and rats have ½” – ¾” feces. Mice and rats are very different in terms of their behavior, eating habits and obviously their size. Rats like to gorge on available food and cause more damage by chewing bigger holes and chewing through plastic pipes, wires, brick, aluminum, wire mesh, cinder blocks, and even concrete. When it comes to eating, mice are nibblers, they are inquisitive and like to roam around, even if you are standing there watching them and therefore are easier to catch. Rats are smart and really scared of anything new i.e. human made traps, therefore it takes longer to trap them – if at all. Rats and mice will eat everything but mice will eat other mice and even their own tail. Both vermin are nocturnal, social, and territorial in their nature.
So it’s windy and raining, you hear creaks in the attic, leaking roof? something being banged around by the wind ? or what you are afraid of the most – rodents. If the creaking-scratching noise persists at night and there is no wind or rain then it’s time to call a professional pest control company. Okay, that scratching alone could drive a Benedictine monk into a swearing tirade, but there are also more than a few health hazards you’re being exposed to: asthma, respiratory issues, West Nile virus, hantavirus and leptospirosis. So, if you’ve even think you suspect a rodent running around above or below its important to address it sooner than later. Call Go Green Pest Control @ 778 886 4111
Okay, rats and mice are nasty common urban and suburban vermin, yet they are a relatively smart animal. They seem to prosper regardless of all our attempts to eliminate them. Two things you can do if you have them in your house: contact Go Green Pest Control and a read the rest of this blog. Mice – eat all the time but very little each time as they are nibblers. Like all rodents, they need to wear down their incisors, which grow nonstop, hence the constant chewing on everything. Mice don’t prefer cheese, they like peanut butter because of the sweetness and its oily. They will eat almost everything in your panty and food on your countertops. Rats – they are gluttonous eaters, eating as much as they can when food is available. They also can tread water for days and survive in sewer pipes, yes the ones that lead to your toilet. The hardest-working cat has a tough time keeping up with any rodent infestation, as the rodents multiple continuously and are small enough to get into small places. Cats are typically over feed and hunt rodents for entertainment.
