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Its officially mason bee season and its time to get last years bee cocoons out or buy a bunch. I hung my mason bee house outside in a covered southerly exposed location and within a couple hours I already had a half a dozen males out and circulation around their bee house. For those of you that not are 100% mason bee aficionado (I am not)  you’ll need to rethink bees, mason bees are very easy to take care of and the most beneficial. There are no “workers” in solitary bee life there are only the females and males. Only females have stingers, but you literally have to grab one and squeeze it for it to sting you. They’re solitary bees, and earn their name because they make mud homes in cracks or holes in wood, stone, the ground or a wooden nest if you provide it. Before honey bees arrived from Europe, native bees, like masons, did 100% of the pollination. Mason bees are not particular about the flowers they harvest pollen from as they pollinate everything in their path, in fact one mason bee can pollinate as much as 100 honeybees. So having a couple dozen masons in your yard will give you the equivalent of a fair sized honey bee colony. So with the warmth of this spring, you’ll see these little pollinating dynamos arise to make your garden its most successful by far.

https://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/blog-mason-bee-season-begins-now-1.23666910

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C. Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mason-bees-season-begins-randy-bilesky/?published=t

Here we have two somewhat similar looking stinky creatures that use foul malodorous spray to fend off things they don’t like. Both striped polecats and skunks have coarse black fur with white spots and stripes. These thick-bodied animals all have long tails, short limbs and long claws used for digging in dirt. Skunks lack speed, so they don’t even attempt to outrun their attackers (or a simple dog barking).  As an alternative, they depend on on their reeking spray for defense. The overpowering liquid is a mix of sulfuric chemicals which they can spray precisely at attackers 2 to 3 meters away, with the obscene odour reaching up to a couple kilometers away. Skunks don’t really like to use their spray as their body only stores enough chemicals for about 7 sprays and require 7 days to replenish it. The striped polecat or zorrilla is actually a member of the weasel family, and they also use a well aimed, rank spray to deter any predators. Their spray can be smelled up to kilometer away.

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Ladner Delta Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/the-malodorous-d…-striped-polecat/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/malodorous-dual-skunk-striped-polecat-randy-bilesky/?published=t

Carpenter ants have become a widespread problem throughout Delta. They make their nests in damp, rotting, dead or perfectly dry wood and create passageways so they can easily circumnavigate through the structure. Carpenter ants are small but the damage a colony can cause is not. Carpenter ants cause the most damage of all ants – that commonly infest structures. The amount of damage a carpenter ant infestation can inflict on a property can vary. If a colony has been aggressively infesting a property for a extended period of time, the structural damage can be very wide-ranging. That’s why it’s critical to have infestations treated as fast as possible by a pest control expert. One common sign of carpenter ant damage is the appearance of small, circular holes on the surface of the wood. The worker carpenter ants will exhume sawdust-like debris around or below the exit holes.  

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/carpenter-ants-damage-randy-bilesky/

These insects create nests in wall or floor voids when indoors and target kitchen pantries and cupboards. They also nest outside and may crawl indoors through cracks and crevices in the foundation or doors and windows. Odorous ants release an unpleasant smell when crushed and like the grease ant they also bite. Next to the carpenter ant, these ants are the most commonly encountered ants inside homes in Delta. The most likely sign of odorous house ants is the foraging worker ants, although winged swarmers also might be seen. It is not recommended that homeowner applied liquid and aerosol insecticides as this creates more problems by scattering the workers and creating more nesting sites.  

https://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/blog-the-odorous-ants-1.23662646

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/odorous-ants-randy-bilesky/?published=t

The carpenter ant is in the genus Camponotus which build their colonies in tunnels mined from damp, rotting or dry wood. They dig galleries into the wood grain (the softer part of the wood) to form their nests and make getting around the nest easier. Their galleries are not lined with mud or moist soil as termite galleries typically are. Once a new colony has established the ‘parent’ or main nest they begin to look to establish a satellite nest. The main nest contains a queen (or multiple queens), her brood, and workers. In the satellite nest there are workers, older larvae, and pupae. Workers create satellite nests when the parent nest become to large and they find another suitable nest that has a supply of food or water, which in our case is somewhere in our homes. One main nest may have several satellite nests and all of them maybe in one house. So the potential damage of carpenter ants will depend on the number and size of satellite nests in your home. The longer the infestation remains active the more potential damage may result.

 http://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/carpenter-ants-g…ies-nests-damage/ ‎

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C. Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/carpenter-ants-galleries-nests-damage-randy-bilesky/?published=t

Its almost spring and your ants are about to come back to visit, oh yes, the carpenter ants. Next to the termite, the carpenter ant is the next most destructive insect that will invade the structure of your house and slowly chew it away. So lets have a look at carpenter ants. Carpenter ants are among the largest black ants in B.C. These insects usually build their nests in damp, sound or decaying wood out doors or right in your house. When these ants are discovered in a home, it is a sure sign that there was or is a water leak somewhere in the house and the water damage to the wood was never fixed. These insects will enter your house from the under the soil, along the ground, tree branches touching your roof or wires that lead to your house. When carpenter ants build a satellite nest, a nest in your house that co-exists with the main nest somewhere outdoors, they dig out tunnels in wood and drywall. Unlike the termite that eats the wood (cellulose), the carpenter ant just chews tunnels and discard the sawdust. Other than seeing the ants indoors, the other telltale sign you have a carpenter ant infestation will be the discovery of piles of sawdust. As the ants dig their tunnels, they built up piles of sawdust that need to be removed from the crime scene so the ant push it out away from the nest and sometimes out from the wall where you see it. A long-term infestation with numerous satellite nest in a home often means severe structural impairment and ugly cosmetic damage. To be continue, it a long story.

https://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/blog-carpenter-ants-yikes-1.23653822

http://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/your-aunts-are-h…enter-ants-yikes

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/your-aunts-here-carpenter-ants-yikes-randy-bilesky/?published=t

In Delta, honeybees contribute millions of dollars to the economy each year but now some beekeepers are reporting massive losses due to wasp attacks -as much as 75 per cent have been wiped out. Other reasons the bee populations are reduced is mites, viruses and pesticides. But the main culprit remains yellow jacket wasps. Wasps have been a major problem all over the place as wasps numbers were high last spring and as late summer rolled around, they would attack honey bee colonies, carrying off both the honey bees and honey. Beekeepers can protect their honey bees from yellowjackets with good beekeeping practices such as keeping strong colonies, reducing hive entrances (2½ cm – 5 cm), installing robbing screens (the screens let the bees for the colony go in and out, but makes it easier for them to protect the hives from attackers like wasps), and maintaining a tidy beehive.  

https://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/blog-wasps-taking-a-bite-out-of-delta-s-honeybee-population-1.23652397

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wasps-taking-bite-out-deltas-honey-bees-population-randy-bilesky/?published=t

Everywhere rats go they leave a steady stream of urine, feces and gland grease. Within their urine and feces and gland grease are strong pheromone scents which helps them retrace their steps and attract other rats.  Pheromones and steroids, such as male testosterone or female progesterone and estradiol let other rats know that there is another rat around, so it’s not that dangerous and maybe they will get lucky. Tracking odour trails is a crucial behaviour for rats and all rodents often leading to food, mates or away from danger. When rats find a odour trail they use active sampling, to sense the environment. They track odour trails accurately with near-optimal sampling – within 1 cm, and they use a multi-layered strategy.   

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rats-secret-sensory-world-randy-bilesky/?published=t

Randy Bilesky / Delta Optimist

FEBRUARY 23, 2019 03:35 PM

#DeltaBC

Well I’m calling this year a total epidemic of unseen proportion with regards to grease ants. Never have we seen so many cases of grease ants in peoples homes as we are in 2019. Call outs for these ants are off the charts so far this February. Not only are they unsightly, they are a major nuisance and these little critters also bite and send out large winged mating ants by the thousands. They are a common ant in homes, especially in the kitchen, bathrooms, utility rooms and dinning rooms. They are called grease ants because they are omnivorous, eating just about anything – although they prefer to feed on grease and high-protein foods such as meats, cheeses, seeds, pet food and just about any other food that hits the ground. Grease ant colonies are generally small in size, but can have as many as 20 queens per nest. They will travel a considerable distance for food, traveling along baseboards and cabinets where they leave pheromone trails for other workers to continue the search for food. Simple prevention tips include: caulk or otherwise seal all entry points where the ants are entering from the baseboards, put away foods in sealed containers or the fridge, don’t leave dirty dishes sit in the sink and immediately clean up food spills. 

http://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/blog-big-spike-i…y-delta-optimist

gogreenpestcontrol.ca Ladner Tsawwassen Delta B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

http://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/blog-big-spike-i…y-delta-optimist

Well I’m calling this year a total epidemic of unseen proportion with regards to Grease ants. Never have we seen so many cases of Grease ants in peoples homes as we are in 2019. Call out for these ants are off the charts so far this February. Not only are they unsightly, they are a major nuisance and these little critters also bite and send out large winged mating ants by the thousands.  They are a common ant in homes, especially in the kitchen, bathrooms, utility rooms and dinning rooms. They are called grease ants because they are omnivorous, eating just about anything – although they prefer to feed on grease and high-protein foods such as meats, cheeses, seeds, pet food and just about any other food that hits the ground. Grease ant colonies are generally small in size, but can have as many as 20 queens per nest. They will travel a considerable distance for food, traveling along baseboards and cabinets where they leave pheromone trails for other workers to continue the search for food. Simple prevention tips include: caulk or otherwise seal all entry points where the ants are entering from the baseboards, put away foods in sealed containers or the fridge, don’t leave dirty dishes sit in the sink and immediately clean up food spills.

 http://gogreenpestcontrol.ca/2019-grease-ant-…c-in-south-delta/ ‎

gogreenpestcontrol.ca insectandrodentexterminators.com Delta Ladner Tsawwassen B.C., Randy Bilesky BsF CPA RPF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2019-grease-ant-epidemic-south-delta-randy-bilesky/?published=t