From Invading your Home

Ants are one of the most common pest insects in North America, and carpenter ants can go beyond annoying and into the area of causing some serious damage to your home. Like other species of ants, carpenter ants are very hardy as well as adaptable, and many methods of eliminating them have failed. This isn’t a bad thing, because ants are an important part of nature and it would be no good to humans at all if they were to be eradicated.

Of course, an understanding of the role ants play and letting them invade your home are two different stories. Part of an effective integrated pest management strategy is preventing numbers of pest species from getting out of control; that is, making sure their population does not grow to problem proportions, or that the pests stay where they belong (with carpenter ants, that is outside). Here are some ways to prevent carpenter ants from coming inside your home.

(more…)

Most of the time, we tend not to think about problems or potential problems until they are right in our face; many people just don’t think in the long term. One day, though, you might go out to check your garden and realize that all your hard work has been ruined in one night by a group of rabbits or a herd of deer. Or, you might one day see dozens of winged insects in your house, and after killing a few and going to the Internet you realize to your horror that they are termites (this is the most common way in which people realize they have a termite infestation!).

Pest control is one area where long term planning and commitment come in very handy. Long term planning will mean that you never encounter a serious pest problem, because you always ensure that you are taking the proper steps to discourage pests from using your home or yard as a place to obtain food or shelter.

(more…)

For Today`s Home Owner

We live in a world that has taken political correctness to a whole new level of nausea, and as a result many people are inclined to turn the page, turn deaf, or turn off anything that mentions something like education or understanding, particularly when it has to do with something like pest control.

Let`s make it clear right off the bet that pest education isn`t about teaching you to love and empathize with the species you think of as pests. On the contrary, pest education is important so that the individual home owner can take advantage of a knowledge of a pest and use that to keep the insect or mammal away from his or her home and garden.

Pest education covers the basic makeup of the pest in question, including its biology and habits. By understanding what a certain type of pests eats, how it breeds, and where it is likely to make a nest and or lay eggs, home owners can become much more effective when it comes to keeping the populations of pests down.

(more…)

Part 2: It’s ineffective!

This two part article series, we are talking about the reasons why home owners need to use the least toxic pest control approach, and we are specifically talking about the problems with using too much chemicals. Part one discussed a few of the many hazards inherent in using too many chemicals in pest control, and in this part we will talk about why chemicals are, most of the time, a big waste of money to boot.

They don’t just kill one species

There are no chemicals used for pest control that are targeted to kill only one species. As we pointed out in part one, pesticides are deadly both for insects and for larger animals, including humans. We also talked a bit about how over use of chemicals nearly destroyed birds of prey, leading to further problems. Well, the same principle applies to insects within your own yard.

(more…)

For some reason, the green lawn has come to be a symbol of middle class and higher North American living. It seems like many of us are willing to take the strangest measure and sacrifice a lot in order to get that spot of green in front of our homes. Just take a look at many of the houses in the state of Arizona a decade or so ago: green lawns in a state that only gets rain for an average of one month every year means a high water cost and a very regulated schedule.

Today, the attitude about a green lawn is changing somewhat across the country, including in Arizona. The high cost of creating and maintaining that perfect emerald color, as well as the many chemicals that must be used in order to keep it looking that way, have made this symbol somewhat impractical. More and more people are turning to natural methods of lawn care to keep their green space green, or are just accepting the beauty of naturally occurring vegetation.

(more…)

Not long ago, pesticides were the only answer when a pest was disturbing the normal operations of a house, garden, or farm, and the more potent the pesticide the better. Plummeting populations of species other than targeted pests, sickness in humans, and the growing resistance of many different target species made people look twice at what exactly these pesticides were doing, and as a result the population in general is more aware of the harmful side effects of potent chemicals and more interested in pesticides that are least toxic. In this article, we will take a look at some pesticides which are low in toxicity that are in use today.

Definition of a pesticide

A pesticide is always a substance, or mix of substances used to deal with pests and the damage they cause. It can be lethal or just repelling, and the term applies to substances used for anything from insects to rodents. The important thing to remember is that pesticides are synthetically created and controlled; a venus fly trap would not be considered a pesticide but a biological deterrent.

(more…)

“Organic” seems to be the watchword of the day, for people of a certain frame of mind. An awareness of the health effects of concentrated chemicals within our bodies has brought the organic mindset to the forefront. In this article, we will take a look at organic pest control and if it is really effective when it comes to pest prevention in your home and garden.

A definition of organic

Organic seems to be a term that is fairly straightforward; most of us would say that if something has been labeled as organic, it has come about without any use of chemicals during the process, whether it be growing produce or controlling pests.

(more…)

You’ve probably heard that if there ever was a total nuclear war, it would be cockroaches that inherited the planet. While the gallows humor of the statement is debatable, it is true that cockroaches are one of the hardiest species to inhabit our planet. They have several adaptations which make have helped them to become either first or second on the list of pests in the United States, depending on where you live. These adaptations are also very useful when it comes to pest control, for the cockroach that is. Let’s take a look at what makes the cockroach so hardy and how you can control the population in your house without the use of atomic weapons or others that are overly threatening to your own existence.

(more…)

Wasps and yellow jackets are generally looked down on by everyone, and I will admit that I include myself in that category. I don’t like them, they swarm and they sting, and not always when they are provoked. Still as a conscientious person I do feel the need to point out that these insects have a more detrimental effect on other pest insects than they do on people in general; they often swarm and kill the bugs we don’t want around in our gardens and on our trees.

Still, there is little use for wasps in urban areas, and they can be a real risk to those who are allergic to their stings or their bites. Dealing with wasps and yellow jackets is a risky and difficult business for several reasons:

(more…)

When it comes to infestations, sugar ants aren’t all that high on the list of least possible pests. Still, they can be a pain, getting into virtually all your food and constantly being squished underfoot, and of course once that happens there is that awful accompanying smell.

Dealing with sugar ants, as with most ants, the key to success comes in locating or penetrating the colony. Let’s look at some of the least toxic ways of wiping out that queen and thus brining the colony’s life, and that of the infestation, to an end.

(more…)