Your Robust Guide of Pest Profiles: Coz Pest Identification Can Be Tricky

Pests are a common nuisance at home. As a home owner, you know that your home deserves the best care and you’ve got to protect it from all kinds of pests. The following are some of the most common types of pests that might be invading your homes and damaging your properties.

Termites

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Termites feed on wood and paper products and their average colony normally reach up to about 300,000 in size. A sign of termite infestation is when you see scattered wings that they lose when mating. If not caught in time, termite infestation can cause serious damage to structures. This is the apparent reason why termites are also known as “silent destroyers”. If you’re suspecting that there are termites in your home, you may consider professional residential pest control.

Carpenter Ants

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Carpenter ants are usually black in color and bigger than most other types of ants. Their colonies can develop to nearly 20,000 strong and can cause major structural damage to the frame of a house or building if not removed.

Bed Bugs

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Bedbugs are small, oval and brownish in color. They usually live on the blood of animals or humans. Adult bedbugs have flat bodies about the size of an apple seed. After feeding, their bodies swell and turn reddish.

Yellow Jacket

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This type of pest can be treacherous particularly to people who are allergic to their venom. They can be recognized by their unique markings, their occurrence only in colonies, and a characteristic, rapid, side-to-side flight pattern prior to landing.

Paper Wasp

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Most wasps are valuable in their natural habitat, and are essential in natural biocontrol. They usually feed on nectar and other insects, like caterpillars, flies, and beetle larvae.

Fruit Flies

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Fruit flies can be seen in many different places such as mops, trash containers, and empty bottles. They also love to stay in your bananas, onions, melons, grapes and strawberries. They are known carriers of bacteria and disease so be sure to seek help from a professional pest control in Florida to get rid of them.

House Fly

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The house fly, Musca domestica Linnaeus, is a common broad-based pest of both farm and home. The life cycle of a house fly starts in the egg stage. A female house fly can lay up to 150 eggs in a batch. Over a period of a few days, she will produce five or six batches of eggs. 

Keep Your Eyes Watchful: Proper Steps to Protect Your Home from Termites

Termites are also known as “silent destroyer” because they may be surreptitiously thriving in your home or yard without you even noticing it. They feed on cellulose-based plant materials and your home, regardless of its construction type, can be a good source of cellulose food for termite infestation.

The alarming fact is that a single termite colony can have tens – even hundreds – of thousands of individual termites within it. Particular species, like the Formosan termite can have 500,000 individual insects in a single colony. This is why it is considered as the most aggressive.

Your home is one of your largest investments. Thus, you need to protect it from the damaging termites. The following are measures that you can do to prevent or get rid of these silent destroyers.

Make your home less appealing to termites.  Seal cracks and holes in siding and always use screens in windows. You should also keep the firewood, lumber, mulch piles, and other woody stacks. Maintain a dry home as termites are attracted to moist habitats. Eliminate all stagnant water with the help of suction pump or by broom and keep both the outside and inside of your house dry and secured.

Trace signs of an infestation. One of the most perilous things about termites is their ability to hide. You might know that there is an infestation right in your home when it’s too late. It is difficult to see direct evidence of termite infestation, but that doesn't mean you should remain ignorant of it. Some signs of termite infestation include sagging floors, holes in woodwork and hollow parts of your foundation.

Use boric acid. Boric acid is an effective termite treatment in Florida. The nervous system of termites is shut down by boric acid causing it to dehydrate. You can use the combination of cardboard or any cellulose material with boric acid and apply it on the pest-ridden area.

Call a professional team for pest control. Universal Pest Control is one of the best termite control companies that offer the most effective termite control product available in the industry. It has technicians that are trained to not only deliver the maximum quality termite treatments, but to leave your property in a clean and shipshape fashion. This is part of the high quality service that Universal Pest Control gives its customers. 

Five Reasons to Hire a Professional Pest Control Team

If your problems with pests seem to not go away, hiring a professional pest control company that can finally help you get away from the stress is the best thing to do. While it is possible to control pests such as rodents, spiders or termites on your own, it pays to obtain professional help especially when the situation calls for it. A pest control company has trained technicians who understand where to treat and how to handle termite infestation and more. The following are five reasons that will convince you to hire a specialized pest control company in Florida. 

1. The pest control team has specialized plan. 

Your home is your castle and you’re supposed to enjoy your peace and bliss here. A professional pest control team can win your home back with plans that are specific to your problem. They take several important things into consideration, like the size of your home, the level of infestation and long-term preventions.

2. A pest control team helps you save cash. 

While it is true that hiring a pest control company will cause you to pay a regular fee up front, it can cost thousands of dollars in home repairs if termites or carpenter ant colonies go disregarded. So basically, you will end up saving more. 

3. The pest control team can eliminate your pest problems in a safe and natural way.

Pest control technicians know how to use their products very well.  Today, many local pest control companies are going green and are using products that are safe for humans and for the environment. Exposure to hazardous chemicals can be very risky to your family so you have to be very careful. It is better to leave it to the experts. 

4. A pest control company can help you save time. 

Pest control companies observe and report every time they spray and know when to retreat before the product stops working. The team knows how to use the right products in a timely manner.

5. A pest control company delivers satisfaction. 

You can buy sprays and try to get rid of disease-carrying pests all by yourself and still end up feeling dissatisfied. And have you been informed that killing a killer bee will attract the hive and swarm you? With the help of professionals, you can save yourself and your family from the risk associated in getting rid of the pesky pests all by yourself. 

Governments Move to Save the Bees

June this year, governments launched an urgent and comprehensive study of the bee population decline. 

Bees, not only help beautiful flowers grow, mainly they spearhead the pollination process that provide humanity and animals its’ food supply.

Studies showed that the degree of decline in the bee population is already quite alarming. Researchers, scientists and government officials world-wide are now concerned of their own country’s food supply.

Factors have been determined through extensive research, which attributed to the insect decline, were named as follows: use of pesticide, habitat loss and intensive agriculture, among others.

Work is being done today for a comprehensive action plan, which could help increase the bee population and other insect species. There are initiatives for a world-wide “pollination strategy” to help develop an action plan to save the black-gold pollinating insect population.

"We must develop a better understanding of the factors that can harm these insects and the changes that government, other organizations and individuals can make to help", said Lord de Mauley, in regards to the Bee Summit organized by Friends of the Earth.

Lord de Mauley, among others, is moving for the regulation of pest control chemicals and the prohibition of unnecessary use of chemicals in the environment. "I do not deny for a moment that it is important to regulate pesticides effectively and to avoid unnecessary pesticide use.” commented Lord de Mauley, in an interview.

"Changes in land use, the type of crops grown, alien species, climate change - these all have an impact. The relative importance of these factors and their interactions is not well understood.” said de Mauley.

Andy Atkins, the executive director of Friends of the Earth, is pleased with the response to the group’s bee initiative.

"We're delighted that enormous pressure for a Bee Action Plan from scientists, businesses and the public has stung the government into action.” said Atkins in a report.

"We all agree prompt measures are needed to tackle all the threats, to bees and other pollinators face, but an urgent and comprehensive route map and timetable are needed to ensure this happens.”, Andy Atkins added.

Hope the latest news on bees helped shed light to the question, “Are bees’ friends or foes?” All I can say is, we can never bee-too-sure, get it? Bees truly do play an important part in the balance of our ecosystem; the total extermination of the bee population will be detrimental to global food supply resulting to shortages and loss of plant life. No food results to hunger of, not only humans, animals which will eventually lead to starvation and an inevitable death toll on all species. No matter how smart, humans are in this day and age, we are dependent on insects, animals and plants for our own survival. Have you ever seen the “Bee" movie, see it and get the picture of how something so small, can indeed change the world

Spread of Deadly Disease. Beware! Part 3 "Lyme Disease"

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released an advisory on how to protect yourself and your family from tick bites. The CDC became famous in the movie, Contagion, showing its involvement in disease-plague prevention. The Flu-like symptoms are true. Ticks pass infected saliva into human skin with a bite. The parasites act quickly, invading and feeding on the body’s red cells, introducing disease into the host through an infected bite.

The elderly population, children and people with low immune system are more at risk. It is advisable to seek medical attention immediately, instead of dismissing it as a case of common flu. They say treatment can be effective if the disease is caught early on.

Lyme disease affects various parts of the body in different degrees as it advances. Bacteria enters the skin through the initial tick bite, infection is followed by the spread of a reddish rash associated with common flu-like symptoms. Overtime, the parasites work fast to hijack your system to later produce abnormalities in the joints, nervous system and the heart.

The part one of this article showed a short story I made about a small town that was unknowingly taken over by a strange disease they took for granted as the common flu, later causing pandemonium and rampant deaths which took the CDC officials by surprise. Fiction as it maybe, the symptoms I mentioned attributing to the disease itself is true.

Lyme disease is medically described to have 3 stages as: (1) early localized disease with skin inflammation; (2) early disseminated disease with heart and nervous system involvement, including palsies and meningitis; and (3) late disease featuring motor and sensory nerve damage and brain inflammation as well as arthritis.

Some tips given by the CDC included the following:

1. Spray yourself with DEET or permethrin tick repellent (on clothing and gear)

2.      Always wear pant before venturing in to the forest. Tuck you pants into your boots.

3.      Wear white or light colored clothing, it will be easier to see a tick and kill it right way.

4.      Before entering a wooded or grassy area use repellents containing 20 percent or more DEET.

5.      Nymphs are commonly found on the forest floor and can climb aboard via your feet.

Always use socks and shoes. Boots are recommended. Check them from time to time.

6.      Avoid tick infected areas like tick vegetation. They like tall grass, shrubs and leaf litter, these hitchhikers are just waiting to get a ride via your boot and snack on you.

7.      Perform daily tick checks after being outdoors, even when in your yard.

8.      Use a hand-held mirror or full length mirror to view all parts of your body. If you find a tick, remove it immediately using tweezers.

9.      Important areas to check: Your arms, in and around your ears, inside the belly button, back of the knees, all around your head and body hair, between the legs and around the waist.

10.  Toss your clothing in the dryer upon coming home from the woods. This will avoid the ticks from entering your house which can be carried via your clothing.

So next time you come down with the common flu, please do not dismiss it. Danger may be constantly around us. The common pests might surprise you as they bring not so common problems.

We do not need to wait the last minute to take extra precaution. Whether it is common pests, health condition, weather changes or spread of disease, one must not take for granted things and wait for the hammer to come crashing down.

Get rid of pests, keep yourself updated with the latest diseases, stay healthy, take care of our ecology, be aware of changes in your surroundings and consult a doctor. These tips will save your life. Time is precious. We do not have the luxury of time. Life is short, we must live it well.