It’s cold outside, why do I need an exterminator in the cold months?

As the temperature drops lower and lower as we approach winter, insects commonly will do one of three things.  Insects will either die off in the colder months, go dormant, or move indoors.  In this article, we will highlight some of the colder month services that we provide.

Interior Pest Control

For the insects that have not died off or gone dormant, interior pest control may be needed.  Insects can thrive in the moisture prone areas of your home year-round. Common moisture prone areas in the home are the basement, crawlspace, attic, utility room, bathroom, kitchen, garage, and other areas of the home that has piping.  An interior pest control program that utilizes sprays, dusts, and/or baits, can be extremely effective in resolving most common insect issues in the home.  We pride ourselves on limiting the amount of pesticides we apply in the home, while still providing an effective treatment.  Often times this can be accomplished by applying the pesticide inside of the walls or voids and applying a sealant to block off the pest’s access.

Rodent Control

Rodents tend to move indoors during the colder months of the year.  Since rodent control does not require the use of sprays, we are able to tackle the rodent issue on the inside and outside of the home.  Our number one priority in any rodent treatment is determining how and where the rodents are gaining access to the interior of the property.  Since mice need only a hole the size of a dime to enter the structure, you need a trained eye to spot the entrance points.  We use a combination of rodenticides on the inside and outside of the home in conjunction with physically sealing and eliminating the entrance points to resolve rodent infestations.  Rodenticides are always placed out of reach of people, pets, and non-target species.  Our treatments include the inspection, treatment, and removal of rodent droppings.

Exterior Pest Management

During the colder months of winter, we do not have the big tanks on our vehicles.  Typically, during the warm months of summer, our exterior treatments involve us using our big tanks to spray the foundation and eaves of your home.  In the winter months, we change our tactics to include the application of baits and dust.  Granular baits around the exterior perimeter of your home can be extremely effective against foraging insects.  Using baits in combination with a full inspection and exterior sealing can prevent big issues from occurring when the weather eventually warms up in the spring.  Our trained technicians know where bugs like to enter the home and can effectively treat and seal them out.

Wildlife Control

Wild animals like squirrels and raccoons love to enter the home in the colder months as they look for suitable dens for their unborn young.  We are fully licensed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission to effectively and humanely evict these unwanted guests.  Our approach is to evict the animal(s) from the property, seal up and prevent re-entry, and clean-up/disinfect any animal wastes left behind.  We utilize live traps, one-way doors, and special wildlife sealant to effectively and permanently keep animals out of your home.  Other animals that we traps/remove/evict are skunks, groundhogs, chipmunks, birds, snakes, opossum, and many more!

Commercial Pest Control

Many industries are required to have a pest control program in place.  Restaurants and hotels often fall into this category as they want to maintain a clean and pest free environment.  We service many other industries to include hospitals, schools, office buildings, and manufacturing plants.  Basically, if you have a business and don’t want pests, we can help.  We offer preventative plans that   will keep your business pest free year-round.

What sets us apart?

Our clients are often impressed by our “inform first” mentality.  We love talking pest management and believe that an informed client is a helpful partner in eliminating pest issues.  Our technicians are always respectful of your home and situation and will resolve your pest issue with professional and effective treatment methods.  We utilize HEPA vacuums to remove insects and animal debris so you don’t have to worry about the clean-up or the hazards associated with insect/wildlife debris.  Give us a call or shoot us a message to see why we are South Central Pennsylvania’s best exterminators!

It seems like overnight that small bee or wasp nest has exploded into a full grown, angry, huge nest. Maybe you’ve tried spraying them with a hardware store insecticide.  If you have sprayed them with an aerosol insecticide, such as Raid, you may even have a large pile of dead bees or wasps on the ground near the nest.  And yet, the bees and wasps continue to fly in and out of the nest like nothing has happened.  Why didn’t that aerosol insecticide kill off the nest when it can clearly kill individual bees and wasps?

Depending on the type of bees or wasps you are dealing with, an aerosol insecticide sometimes is the best choice.  Species such as paper wasps, or other “open nest” species

can easily be dispatched with an aerosol spray.  This is because their nest is open to the environment and the chemical can easily be applied to all of the members of the colony and the colony material itself.  If you are reading this article and have gotten to this point, this is probably not the situation that you are dealing with. No, you are most likely dealing with a hornet’s nest or a yellow jacket nest.

Yellow Jackets, depending on the type of species, will either prefer to make their nest in a hole in the ground or in the wall of a structure.  If the nest is in a hole in the ground, there is typically just one main opening where the bees are entering and exiting.  If the nest is in a structure, the nest itself may only have one entrance/exit, but the bees could be entering the nest through many gaps and crevices. Hornets typically build their nests on the sides of building or on tree limbs.  Their nests are completely covered in a protective shell and usually have just one main opening for entrance and exit.

Let’s look at what happens when someone sprays an aerosol to try and kill a yellow jacket nest.  Whether the nest is located in the ground or in a structure, the aerosol chemical has a tough time penetrating far enough into the nest to kill off the colony.  Yes, you will kill some bees, but not enoug

h to kill off the nest.  The chemical and method used are not enough to get all the way into the colony and the chemical itself doesn’t last very long to provide any residual protection.  The colony is able to replace the bees that were killed in a fairly quick amount of time and the colony will continue to thrive

If you attempt to eliminate a hornet’s nest with a can of aerosol insecticide, you are a far braver person than I am.  The same issues are present with applying an aerosol insecticide into the nest, mainly the chemical not reaching the entire colony.  Since hornets are much larger and far more aggressive, they will not tolerate for very long someone applying a chemical into their nest.  They will quickly, and aggressively begin to defend their home leaving you and whoever was helping you, in great danger.

So, what is the best way to treat and kill off an established nest.  Insecticidal Dusts are the by far the most effective method for treating and killing an entire nest of bees or wasps.  The dust, when applied using an appropriate applicator, can reach every nook and cranny of the nest.  The dust works a little slower than an aerosol chemical but has a much longer and more effective knockdown.  The amount of time that you are exposed to the nest is also greatly reduced.  As opposed to just standing there at the entrance of the nest holding down the applicator on the spray can, you can simply walk up, apply the dust in one or two bursts and walk away.  The dust will begin to work on the bees directly hit by the dust and they will transfer it to others simply by touching them.  The last great feature of the dust is that the bees that are out of the nest and foraging, when they return to the nest, they will contact the dust and be killed.  Within 24 hours, the nest is usually completely dead and the physical nest can be removed (if in a structure or side of a structure or tree) or covered up, if in the ground.

You don’t forget the first time you hear it, and you can’t just forget about it.  There is something in your wall or ceiling and it is scratching, clawing, or chewing.  What could it be?  In this series of the DIY Pest Controller, we will explore the most common causes and solutions to a scratching sound in your wall or ceiling.

I have occasionally received a service call request to treat for rodents in a home.  The homeowner will state that they “all of a sudden” started hearing a scratching or chewing sound in the wall or ceiling.  If there is an attic above the ceiling, we can eliminate some possible causes of the sounds.  If no animal droppings are seen in the attic, or if the insulation does not look disturbed by rodents (or something larger), then it’s time to start thinking that the sound is insect related.

If the sound is coming from a wall, simply place your ear to the wall and listen to the sound.  If the sound sounds like wings flapping, the issue is typically a bird or bat.  A bird or bat trapped in a wall is more typical in older homes where the wall voids are greater.  Refer to our series on animals in your home for more information.

There are 2 types of insects that will make noise like chewing or scratching and should be treated.  The first is a yellow jacket nest, which we will cover in this article, the second is carpenter ants, which will be covered in our next article in this series.  To verify if you have yellow jackets or carpenter ants making the sound, go outside and look around the area where you have been hearing the sound on the inside.  If you see a lot of yellow jackets flying around that area or see them coming and going from your home, you have a nest in the house.

Once you have verified that you have a yellow jacket nest in the wall or ceiling, it is time to treat the nest and remove it.  If the nest is allowed to continue, it will very quickly grow and wear away at the drywall in-between you and the nest.  Often times, I can put my finger easily through the wall or ceiling drywall because the moisture in the nest has made the drywall paper-thin.  You will want to use an approved aerosol insecticide that is labeled for use on yellow jackets and wasps.  Make sure you have at least 2 cans because once you start the treatment, you shouldn’t stop until the treatment is complete. The last thing you want is to begin applying the insecticide and run out, allowing the still alive yellow jackets to pour out of the nest and voice their displeasure with your actions.

• Drill or poke a small hole in the drywall directly over the nest (where you suspect the nest is).
• Apply the approved aerosol insecticide in a manner that is in compliance with its stated label
• Continue to apply the insecticide until you are confident that it has permeated the wall or ceiling void.
• Once all of the yellow jackets are no longer a threat, it is time to remove the nest. Removal of the nest is critical to prevent future infestations
• If the drywall is super soft and thin, remove that entire section since it will need to be replaced anyways. Otherwise, cut a section out so that you can access and remove all of the nest material
• Apply an insecticidal dust into the void, making sure that the product that you use is labeled to do so. This will prevent the bees that were not in the nest from entering the former nesting area.
• Caulk or seal up the gap on the outside where the bees were entering the house.

After the nest has been treated, removed, and the entrance sealed up, temporarily close up the drywall area that you cut open.  This will prevent any straggler bees from entering the livable space of your home.  You can use a simple barrier of cardboard and tape until you can get the drywall patched and repaired.

A final word of caution:

Yellow jackets are not like honey bees.  They are aggressive, stinging insects that love to defend their home.  If you or someone in your home is allergic to bee stings, this may not be the project to tackle yourself.  Once the treatment begins, there is no going back.  Hire a professional if you think that this may be outside of your comfort level.

We’ve all had them at some point, those tiny ants in the kitchen.  The type of ants where the yoga forums tell you to use patchouli oil and vinegar to treat.  After spraying natural chemicals, you move onto a can of whatever insecticide they sell at your hardware store but the ants remain.  You keep your kitchen clean, so why do you have ants?

The best method to treat those small ants in the kitchen is to use an insecticidal bait.  Spraying this type of ant can cause the colony to become distressed but not be eradicated.  You might think, “who cares if they become distressed?”.  If the colony becomes distressed, it can split the colony in order to survive.  If the colonies (plural now) are allowed to continue to flourish, your spraying just doubled the ants you have.  These ants are mostly moisture driven so it doesn’t matter that your kitchen is immaculately clean.

Using a bait type insecticide allows the ants to consume the bait and transfer it to other members of the colony.  In the few hours after you apply the bait, you will see more ants.  That’s a good thing to see.  It means that the ants like the bait, are eating it, and are taking it back to their friends and family.  Resist the urge to kill these ants and allow them to continue to feed.  After a few days you should see less and less ants.

The underlying cause for this issue is moisture.  Maybe you’ve just had a spell of rain where the ground is saturated.  Maybe you have some plumbing issues behind the sink or below the kitchen which is providing a moisture rich environment.  If you are able to locate and eliminate the moisture, you will help prevent future infestations.  Of course, a pest control professional has the tools, and the knowhow to find these areas and protect your home.