Oct 15, 2024 | Florida Pest Control
If there’s one thing most of us can agree on, it’s that spiders belong outside, not taking over our Naples homes! While these eight-legged visitors may be great for controlling other pests, no one wants to find them lurking in every corner of our home and property. If you’re tired of spotting webs and want to keep spiders out of your home, here’s how you can send them packing!
Easy DIY Steps to Keep Spiders Out
Naples offers a warm, humid climate that spiders thrive in! These pests are attracted to dark, undisturbed places like attics and even your closets. Plus, if you’ve got other pests hanging around, spiders will happily stick around for an easy meal. Check out our do-it-yourself tips to deter spiders from your home and property:
- Seal Up Entry Points: Spiders are sneaky and can slip through tiny cracks in doors, windows, and walls. Make sure to check for gaps or holes around your home and seal them with caulk or other sealants, depending on the size of the opening. Pay extra attention to places like vents, pipes, and electrical outlets.
- Declutter Your Spaces: Spiders love clutter! Piles of clothes, old boxes, and unused furniture give them the perfect hiding spots. Keep things tidy, especially in storage areas like the garage, attic, or basement, where spiders often make themselves at home.
- Turn Off Outdoor Lights at Night: Outdoor lighting can attract household pests, which in turn attract spiders. Turning off unnecessary lights in the evening can help reduce the spider activity around your home.
- Keep Your Home Clean: Spiders love places that are dusty and undisturbed. Regularly vacuuming, dusting, and wiping down surfaces can help make your home less inviting to them. Don’t forget to sweep away those webs too!
- Control Other Insects: Spiders go where their food is – so if you’ve got a pest problem, you’re likely to see spiders, too. Consider scheduling regular pest control treatments to help keep household pests in check.
- Consider Natural Repellents: Certain essential oils, like peppermint and tea tree oil, are known to repel spiders. You can mix a few drops of water and spray it around windowsills, doorways, and other spider-prone areas for a natural deterrent.
If you’ve tried everything and still find spiders creeping around, it might be time to call a local pest control company near you. These professionals can treat both the inside and outside of your home, ensuring that you can keep spiders out of your home.
Oct 8, 2024 | Florida Pest Control
The last thing you want to see is a cockroach scurrying across your kitchen floor, but unfortunately, Fort Myers’ warm and humid climate is a haven for these unwelcome guests! Luckily, knowing which types of roaches are most common in Fort Myers homes can help you keep them out of your home and know what action to take if you spot one!
Types of Roaches in Fort Myers
American Cockroach
The American cockroach, also known as the “Palmetto Bug”, is one of the largest roaches you’ll find in Florida. These bugs can grow up to 2 inches long and are a reddish-brown color. You’ll often find them in dark, damp places like exterior ornamental areas, sewers, and under appliances. They’re not picky eaters and will consume anything from food crumbs to decaying matter.
German Cockroach
German cockroaches are small but mighty. Measuring about ½ inch long, these light brown roaches are the most common species to invade homes. They multiply fast, so spotting one could mean there’s already an infestation. They love warm, humid areas, especially kitchens and bathrooms, where they can find food and water easily.
Brown-Banded Cockroach
Brown-banded roaches are about the same size as German cockroaches but have distinctive brown bands across their wings. Unlike other roaches, they prefer drier areas and are often found in living rooms or bedrooms – even inside our furniture! They also tend to hide in high places like shelves and cabinets.
How to Prevent a Roach Infestation
Cockroaches are more than just creepy—they can carry bacteria and trigger allergies. Here are a few more tips to keep them out of your Florida home:
- Regularly sweep, mop, and wipe down surfaces to eliminate crumbs and spills that can attract roaches.
- Keep your kitchen clean, store food in airtight containers, and empty the trash regularly.
- Declutter your home, especially areas like closets, and vacuum regularly to remove potential hiding spots.
- Roaches love garbage, so make sure your trash cans have tight lids and are emptied regularly.
- Repair any plumbing issues and reduce humidity in your home as roaches are highly attracted to water.
- Consider using motion sensor outdoor lights as it can attract roaches that fly, such as the American roach.
- Seal any cracks or gaps around windows, doors, and plumbing, and keep your home dry by fixing leaks.
While roaches are a common pest in Fort Myers, taking steps to keep your home clean and less attractive to them can make all the difference! If you notice signs of an infestation, consider calling your local pest control company near you to help get things under control. These professionals will provide you with a thorough inspection, determine entry points, and recommend the best treatment and prevention plan for your roach situation.
Sep 18, 2024 | Florida Pest Control
Rodents, like rats and mice, are some of the most common intruders into our Broward attics and once they get in, they can cause plenty of destruction. From gnawing on electrical wires to leaving droppings that can affect your home’s air quality, these pests can turn into a homeowner’s nightmare. However, with a few proactive steps, you can keep your attic rodent-free and even improve your home’s energy efficiency in the process. Check out these tips for keeping rodents out of your attic.
Tips For Keeping Rodents Out of Your Attic
Seal Up Entry Points
Rodents can squeeze through tiny gaps, so it’s important to thoroughly inspect your home’s exterior for any potential entry points. Pay special attention to areas around the roofline, vents, and any cracks or holes in the walls. Use materials like steel wool, caulk, or metal mesh to seal these gaps.
Keep the Attic Clean and Clutter-Free
Rodents love clutter because it provides them with hiding spots and nesting materials. By keeping your attic clean and organized, you can make it less appealing to these pests. Look to store items in plastic bins instead of cardboard boxes, and regularly check for signs of rodent activity, like droppings or chewed materials on a regular basis.
Trim Trees and Shrubs Around Your Home
Rodents often use tree branches and overgrown shrubs as bridges to reach your attic. By trimming back trees and keeping vegetation away from your home, you can make it harder for them to gain access. Try to keep branches at least six feet away from the roofline to lessen the chances of them using it to get inside your attic.
Install a Chimney Cap and Vent Covers
Chimneys and vents are common entry points for rodents. Installing a chimney cap and vent covers is a simple and effective way to block these access points. Make sure these covers are made of durable materials that rodents cannot chew through.
Regularly Check Your Roof and Gutters
Your roof and gutters should be in good repair to keep rodents from finding a way in. Loose shingles, gaps in the roofline, and clogged gutters can all provide easy entry points for rodents and other household pests.
Consider Rodent Control Services
If you’re not sure where to start or want to ensure every entry point is covered, hiring a professional can be a great investment. There are several pest control experts near you that are familiar with the types of rodents in the area and can provide tailored solutions to keep your attic rodent-free.
Consider Attic Insulation
Attic insulation can be a major help in keeping rodents out of your home. Certain types of insulation, like cellulose, can help seal gaps and crevices where rodents might try to enter. Additionally, insulation materials that are treated with borates can act as a natural repellent. Not only does proper insulation make your attic less inviting to pests, but it also has the added benefit of improving your home’s energy efficiency.
Maintain a Regular Inspection Schedule
Finally, make it a habit to inspect your attic and the exterior of your property regularly. Look for any signs of rodent activity, like droppings, gnaw marks, or nesting materials. The sooner you catch a potential issue, the easier it is to address before it becomes a bigger problem.
Keeping rodents out of your home may seem like a daunting task but with a few proactive steps, you can create an environment that’s unwelcoming to these pests! If you’ve noticed rodent activity on your property or in your attic, call a pest control company near you to get a free inspection and the best rodent control plan for your rodent situation.
Sep 4, 2024 | Florida Pest Control
Florida’s diverse wildlife includes a range of snake species. While most are harmless and play important roles in our ecosystem, it’s always good to be aware of what you might encounter and how to keep your yard snake-free. Here’s a friendly look at common Florida snakes and simple tips for keeping snakes out of your yard.
Keeping Snakes Out of Your Yard
Common Snakes in Florida
- Eastern Garter Snake: These small, harmless snakes have distinct stripes running down their bodies. They are often found in gardens, meadows, and wooded areas.
- Southern Black Racer: Slender and black, these snakes are fast movers and can often be mistaken for a more dangerous species. You’ll likely find them in open areas, including yards and grassy fields.
- Eastern Coral Snake: Known for their bright red, yellow, and black bands, these are venomous but are rarely encountered by humans. These snakes prefer sandy or loose soils in wooded areas.
- Copperhead: Recognizable by its copper-colored head and hourglass-shaped bands, you will typically find them in wooded or rocky areas, sometimes near water.
- Black Pine Snake: These snakes are large and non-venomous. They have black bodies and white or yellow bellies. They will often live in sandy, well-drained soils in pine forests.
Easy Ways to Prevent Snakes
- Maintain a Clean Yard: Snakes love clutter and tall grass, which offer perfect hiding spots. Look to regularly mow your lawn, trim bushes, and remove piles of leaves and debris.
- Secure Your Yard: Snakes can enter through gaps or holes, so it’s crucial to check your yard’s fencing for gaps and ensure fencing is buried a few inches underground to prevent snakes from slithering through.
- Remove Food Sources: Snakes are attracted to places where they can find food, like rodents and insects. Place your pet food, bird seed, and other food in sealed containers to manage any rodent issues and ultimately prevent snakes from entering your yard.
- Use Snake-Repellent Plants: Some plants can naturally repel snakes with their strong odors. Consider planting marigolds, lemongrass, or garlic around your yard to keep snakes at bay.
- Monitor Water Sources: Standing water can attract snakes and their prey. Ensure there is proper drainage around your property and eliminate any sources of standing water in your yard.
- Use Outdoor Lighting Wisely: Excessive outdoor lighting can attract insects, which in turn attract snakes. Use motion-activated lights to reduce attraction to your yard.
If you notice more snakes on your property than you’re comfortable with, call a wildlife company near you. These experts will provide you with a snake removal and prevention plan for keeping snakes out of your yard in the future.
Aug 29, 2024 | DIY Pest Control, Florida Pest Control
Our warm climate attracts several unwanted pests, including rodents like rats and mice! These pests will cause significant damage to your property and pose health risks to your family. Let’s review why you need rodent prevention, how you can prevent them from invading your home and the potential damage they can cause!
Rodent Prevention Guide
How Rodents Can Damage Your Home
Rodents are more than just a nuisance, they will cause serious harm to your property, including:
- Structural Damage: Rats and mice chew through wood, insulation, and electrical wiring, potentially leading to costly repairs and fire hazards.
- Contamination: Rodents will contaminate food and surfaces with their droppings and urine, spreading diseases like Hantavirus and Salmonella.
- Gnawing: Rodents have a constant need to gnaw, often gnawing and damaging our furniture, doors, and personal belongings.
- Nesting: Mice and rats will create nests in walls, attics, and basements, causing insulation damage and increasing the risk of fire.
DIY Rodent Prevention Tips
To keep your Doral home rodent-free, consider these DIY rodent prevention tips:
- Remove potential nesting sites in your yard, including leaf piles and deep mulch.
- Keep your garbage in containers with tight-fitting lids.
- Inspect your home for any openings and seal them using steel wool or metal sheeting.
- Clean up leftover food crumbs and spills after each meal.
- Store food in plastic or glass containers with tight lids.
- Keep your home decluttered by removing old newspapers or magazines and storing items in plastic containers instead of cardboard boxes.
- Eliminate excess water by fixing any pipe leaks and consider enclosing your crawlspace to help minimize moisture and keep pests out.
If you’ve noticed rodent activity on your property, it’s best to call a pest control company near you. These rodent experts will provide your home with a thorough inspection, identify the type of rodent that’s invaded, and provide a rodent control and prevention plan.
Aug 22, 2024 | DIY Pest Control, Florida Pest Control
Roaches are resistant and highly adaptable pests, skilled at finding their way indoors and multiplying quickly to create an infestation in your home! One of the best ways you can keep a roach-free home is implementing some effective DIY prevention measures! Let’s review the reasons roaches infest and the ways you can deter them from your home.
How to Keep A Roach-Free Home
What Attracts Roaches?
There are several, everyday factors that will attract roaches inside your home, including:
- Food Sources: Cockroaches are drawn to any food source they can find. Crumbs, spills, and even pet food can attract them. They are also known to prefer sugary and starchy foods too.
- Water: To survive, roaches need water and will go looking for it in our kitchens, bathrooms, and crawlspaces. These pests only need a small amount, making leaky pipes and standing water a major attraction.
- Shelter: Roaches seek out dark warm places to hide and breed, like our storage closets. You will often find them in clutter, cardboard boxes, and pules of paper to hide.
How Can I Stop a Roach Infestation?
Roaches contaminate surfaces they touch and can trigger allergies and asthma, so stopping them before they even enter your home is important for the health of your family. Here are some easy, roach prevention tips that every Florida homeowner can utilize:
- Seal Entrances: Ensure all openings in doors, windows, and foundations are sealed. Likewise, replace old weatherstripping and make sure there are no holes in windows or screens to help stop these pests.
- Limit Moisture: Since roaches need water to survive, it’s crucial to remove any standing water throughout your property. Dripping faucets and leaky pipes will attract them inside your home, so look to repair them as soon as possible. Consider enclosing your crawlspace to ensure no moisture is found.
- Declutter Your Home: Cockroaches will find hiding places during the day, but at night emerge to seek out food and water. Decluttering and cleaning out unnecessary items in your home will help limit their hiding spaces and prevent them in the future. Remove any old newspapers, use plastic containers over cardboard, and make sure clothes are not piled on the floor.
- Tidy Your Kitchen: Your kitchen can be a paradise for roaches if it is not pest-proofed! To avoid roaches in your kitchen, clean up any spills or crumbs immediately and regularly take the trash out. When storing food in your pantry, look to use plastic or glass containers with lids on them.
While prevention can help keep cockroaches away, sometimes it’s best to get professional help! Call a pest control company near you to inspect your home and provide you with the best treatment and prevention plan to make sure you have a roach-free home.
Aug 8, 2024 | DIY Pest Control, Fire Ant, Florida Pest Control
Living in Florida offers plenty of sunshine and beaches, but it also means dealing with fire ants. These pests thrive in our humid, warm environment, quickly taking over yards by creating mounds and delivering painful stings. Reducing and preventing fire ant activity is easier than you think. Let’s breakdown everything you need to know about fire ants.
Understanding Fire Ants
Fire ants are known for their painful stings and aggressive behavior if they feel threatened, often stinging multiple times. If stung, these pests will inject venom that causes a burning and itching sensation, and in some cases will cause allergic reactions.
Fire ants can vary in size, ranging from 1/8 to ¼ inch and have reddish-brownish bodies. You’ll often see fire ants building their large, dome-shaped mounds in areas that are open and sunny, such as lawns, pastures, and along roads. These mounds can reach up to 18 inches in height!
Preventing Fire Ants from Your Yard
Deterring fire ants away from your property is the first step to avoiding an infestation. Consider these DIY fire ant prevention tips:
- Keep your lawn maintained by mowing the grass and removing debris regularly to reduce fire ant activity.
- Avoid over-watering your lawn, as fire ants are attracted to moist environments.
- If you’re eating outdoors, make sure to clean up any food crumbs and drink spills as soon as possible.
- If you have fruit trees, make sure to remove any rotten fruit or fruit that has fallen on the ground.
- Repair any leaking faucets, hoses, or irrigation systems in your yard.
- Consider applying insecticide barriers around the perimeter of your property to deter fire ants from entering.
If you’ve spotted one too many fire ant mounds on your property, call a pest control company near you. These experts will provide you with an inspection, fire ant control plan, and prevention tips to avoid an ant infestation in the future.
Jul 31, 2024 | DIY Pest Control, Florida Pest Control
Miami’s warm, tropical climate is the perfect paradise for not only humans but pests too! It’s crucial for all Florida homeowners to be vigilant in controlling and preventing common household pests to avoid a full-blown infestation. Check out the common pests you should look out for and our tips on preventing them.
Common Household Pests In Miami
- Cockroaches: These pests are difficult to eliminate, often reproducing very quickly. They thrive in our humid environment and will contaminate food, spread diseases, and trigger allergies.
- Ants: Miami is home to several ant species, including fire ants, carpenter ants, and crazy ants. If these pests invade, they can be challenging to control, especially if they have established their colony in walls, lawns, or kitchens.
- Termites: Subterranean and drywood termites are both common in Florida and are a major concern for homeowners due to their potential to cause extensive structural damage.
- Mosquitoes: Not only a nuisance, but mosquitoes can also transmit diseases like Zika, dengue, and West Nile virus. Peak mosquito season is practically year-round because of our warm climate, creating an ideal breeding ground for them.
- Rodents: Rats and mice are common in urban areas, often causing various problems including damage and health concerns. Once these creatures find an area with an available food source, they will continue to come back for more.
- Spiders: While most spiders in Miami are harmless, like daddy long legs, if they’ve infested your home in numbers, they can quickly become a nuisance.
Pest Prevention Tips for Miami Homeowners
Preventing pests from entering your home is the first step in avoiding an infestation. Here are some effective pest prevention tips:
- Regularly clean your home, especially the kitchen and dining areas.
- Wipe down countertops, sweep floors, and clean up spills as soon as possible.
- Store food in plastic or glass containers with tightly sealed lids.
- Inspect your home for gaps and cracks in walls, windows, and doors.
- Seal any openings with caulk or weather stripping.
- Keep your lawn well-trimmed and free of debris.
- Remove standing water to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds and other common household pests.
- Declutter your home by removing old newspapers and magazines, storing items in plastic storage containers instead of cardboard boxes, and avoiding clothes on the floor.
By implementing and staying informed on common pests in your area, you can keep your home pest-free. If you’ve noticed an influx of the pests mentioned above or would like to get ahead of prevention, it’s always best to call a Miami pest control company near you. These pest control professionals will provide you with a thorough inspection, identify the pest, and recommend the best treatment and prevention plan.
Jul 24, 2024 | DIY Pest Control, Florida Pest Control
Stinging pests, like wasps and hornets, can turn a relaxing afternoon in your yard into a stressful experience! These pests can not only be a nuisance but be a danger to both humans and pets. Let’s dive into how you can prevent wasps and hornets from taking over your yard!
Know Which Stinging Pest
It’s important to understand the difference between wasps and hornets so you can effectively prevent them.
- Wasps: These pests have slender bodies, narrow waists, and long legs. They can have a yellow, black, and even metallic blue body color. They will often build their paper-like nests in sheltered areas like eaves, attics, and trees, though species like yellow jackets love to build their nests underground.
- Hornets: Larger than wasps, hornet bodies can have black and white or black and yellow markings. Hornets also build paper nests, opting to place them high in trees or on buildings.
Both wasp and hornet stings can be very painful and cause similar symptoms, including swelling and pain around the sting site, burning sensation, itchiness, and more.
Preventing Wasps & Hornets
Let’s review the preventative measures to place around your Florida property to avoid stinging pests:
- Seal cracks and gaps in walls, eaves, and around windows to prevent them from getting inside.
- Hornets and wasps are attracted to food sources, so make sure you keep your garbage cans tightly sealed and clean up food and drink spills immediately.
- Both stinging pests are drawn to sweet smells; consider removing fallen fruit from your yard and avoid planting overly fragrant flowers near your home’s entry points.
- Keep your yard tidy by trimming shrubs, mowing the lawn regularly, and removing any debris to reduce potential nesting sites.
If you’ve noticed an influx of stinging pests around your Florida home, it’s best to call a pest control company near you. Removing nests can be extremely dangerous, so it’s always best to leave it to a professional pest control expert who can safely remove the nest and provide you with recommendations on preventing wasps and hornets in the future.
