Question

We just had our follow-up treatment for a bed bug infestation. Hopefully we’re done with them. Now I want to get a new bed and new bedroom furniture to make sure we don’t get re-infested from the old stuff. The pest control technician said not to do that. Why?

Answer

The technician is confident that he has eliminated your bed bug problem, in which case there is no good reason to get rid of your bed and other furniture. Unless you truly want to redecorate anyway, it would be a waste of money. If there are still bed bugs in your home (or if they were later reintroduced), your new bed and furniture is then just as likely to become infested as if you had the old furniture in place.

What Not to do if You Had Bed Bugs

Some other “no-no’s” regarding bed bugs and furniture:

• If you have bed bugs in your bedroom, don’t try to escape the problem by sleeping on the couch or in another room. You’ll just move the bed bugs into these other rooms as well, either on your bedding and belongings or when they wander looking for a new host. You’ll make control more difficult.
• There’s no reason to take infested furniture to the dump either. If you’re having a pest control professional treat for bed bugs, your furniture should soon be bed bug-free. If you’re not treating for bed bugs and you discard your furniture, any replacement furniture will soon be infested as well and you’ll just be back where you started. Bed bugs are not just in furniture and beds, but will hide in all kinds of inaccessible cracks and crevices in a room.
• If you have bed bug-infested beds or furniture, don’t take them out to the curb or the dumpster. Someone else is likely to pick up that furniture and take bed bugs to their home. If you must discard infested beds or furniture, wrap them and mark them as bed bug-infested, or damage them, to keep someone else from going through what you’ve had to go through. Slash mattresses and box springs and break up furniture before wrapping it in duct tape and plastic. Mark “BED BUGS!” on the plastic wrap. Sealing the infested items in plastic before you move them also prevents bed bugs and eggs from being dropped in other locations as the items are transported. If items are going to the dumpster or the curb, try to time your disposal with the trash pickup so they don’t sit for long.

If your pest control company hasn’t already suggested it, I recommend that you install bed bug encasements on your mattress and box spring as added insurance against reinfestation. These zippered covers keep any bed bugs in the bedding from getting out to bite you, and they make it easier to see and control any newly introduced bed bugs. Make sure you buy encasements specifically designed for bed bugs.

Photo credit: louento.pix / Foter.com / CC BY-ND

The post Don’t Discard Bed Bug-Infested Furniture appeared first on Colonial Pest Control.

When I was moving a firewood pile in my yard, I almost grabbed a round, black spider that I figure must have been a black widow. It disappeared before I could see whether it had a red hourglass. I thought we didn’t have black widows in New Hampshire. Am I wrong?

Answer

It all depends on where you’re located and who you talk to. One of the three species of black widow spiders can be found in every state in the nation, but there seems to be a lot of debate as to whether we really have black widows in parts of New England.

According to the Connecticut Poison Control Center’s website:

“black widows may be found in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the southern parts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. However, black widow sightings or bites are uncommon in New England.”

Fact is, even in parts of the U.S. where black widows are pretty common, this shy spider is rarely seen.

Although the range of the northern black widow spider includes all of New England, the reason that we are not overrun with black widows is that they are not well-adapted to survive our winters. When they are found in more northern areas, it’s usually because they have been transported there in shipments of produce or other goods, or when people have moved north and taken black widows with them. Dr. Ed Tillingnast, a zoology professor and spider researcher at the University of New Hampshire, is the guy they call whenever black widows are found in the state. So far, he says, they’ve all been southern or western species of black widows, that he identifies as stowaways. He even did an experiment to see if black widow spiders could survive the winter in an unheated New Hampshire building. They all died. But that doesn’t mean that a hitchhiking spider couldn’t survive our winters indoors.

At the risk of putting you off your food, black widow spiders in New England seem to be associated with grapes. You can find several articles online about people who found black widows in their grape bunches bought in the grocery store. The New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food reports an increase in black widow sightings in the last 10 years and attributes it to an increase in products imported into the state (black widows like to hide in shipping crates and pallets) and to less use of pesticides on grapes. Rest assured that your store’s produce manager is aware of the grape/black widow connection and makes sure the grapes are inspected.

All of this doesn’t really answer your question, however. Wood piles are probably the number one outdoor site where people run across black widow spiders. And, it seems that if you are in southern New Hampshire, black widows could survive the winter. However, keep in mind that there are other round, black, shiny spiders that are not black widows. They are usually smaller than the widow and they don’t have the characteristic red hourglass shape on the abdomen.

Black widow spiders are not aggressive and bite only if provoked. Their venom is toxic and bites can be very serious, especially for young, ill, or very old individuals, but bites can be treated. There have been no deaths from black widow spider bites in the U.S. in the last 10 years—but wear heavy gloves when handling that firewood!

Photo credit: michaelmcd / Foter.com / CC BY

The post Do We Have Black Widow Spiders or Not? appeared first on Colonial Pest Control.

I was up in my attic yesterday and found a nest of baby squirrels. I didn’t see any mom around and I don’t know what to do with them if I remove them. I don’t want to kill them.

Answer

Chances are very good that mom is still around. She was probably just taking a food break. Obviously, your first concern is getting the squirrels out of the attic. Then your next concern has to be making sure that it doesn’t happen again.

You have options:

• Wait until the babies are old enough to fend for themselves (5 to 8 weeks from birth), when they will leave the nest on their own, then seal up openings into the attic. A professional can install an excluding device over the opening that will allow squirrels to leave but will keep them from getting back in.
• Get the mother to move the babies out herself by making the attic undesirable, either by using loud noises or ammonia, or other harassment. Often squirrels have an alternate nest site and mom will move the babies there. This method doesn’t always work.
• Have a professional humanely trap mom and then relocate mom and the babies to another location. Some states do not allow relocation and the squirrel will be released on your property.

DO NOT

Seal up any openings into your attic that you might find. You will either be sealing the family inside to die, or you will be sealing mom out. If mom is blocked from getting to her babies, the babies could die (and smell), or more likely, mom will chew a new and bigger hole to get back to her babies.

DO NOT

Place poison in the attic. If the mother squirrel dies where you can’t reach her, you will have an odor problem, and you will still have babies to deal with.

Colonial is licensed in MA and NH to do nuisance animal control and we have many years of experience in dealing with squirrels in homes. Different states have different laws regarding squirrel removal and we know what’s allowed by law, and what is not. We adapt our squirrel removal to your situation. Let our specialists take a look and choose the best option.

An important part of a squirrel removal project is squirrel exclusion for the future. This means squirrel-proofing your home by looking for and sealing up any openings, reinforcing weak areas, and screening or caulking possible entry points. We can do that, too, and our work is guaranteed. Give Colonial a call and let us handle your squirrel problem.

Photo credit: gorbould / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

The post Baby Squirrels in the Attic! appeared first on Colonial Pest Control.

Question

I manage a small apartment property, just 60 units. We don’t have many pest problems but I occasionally get a complaint about cockroaches. My problem is that I can’t get my tenants to cooperate by emptying out their kitchen cabinets so they can be sprayed. They just won’t do it and so we can never do a thorough treatment. Any suggestions?

Answer

Yes, my first suggestion is that you try a cockroach baiting program. Routinely emptying cabinets and spraying them with insecticides is old practice. The cockroach baits that we use today work so well that we rarely have to spray inside cabinets anymore.

Our technicians apply tiny dots of gel bait into cracks and crevices in various places in the kitchen. Many of the applications are made inside cabinets, in corners and around hinges, but the cabinets don’t have to be emptied. There is no vapor or liquid that could get on food or dishes. The bait applications shouldn’t even be noticeable when the technician is done.

There are some situations where we still may ask a tenant to empty kitchen cabinets. If there is a really bad cockroach infestation, it can take more than bait to get the cockroaches under control. Sometimes when we are treating an apartment, or a building, for the first time, we do what we call an “intensive” treatment that might require emptying cabinets. Once we have a cockroach infestation knocked down, we can usually continue to manage it with baits and insect growth regulators.

Apartment residents love cockroach baiting programs, not just because they don’t have to empty cabinets. Cockroach baits have virtually no odor, there are no vapors left in the air. Since baits are placed in cracks and crevices and hidden areas, and since they are designed specifically for cockroaches, there is less hazard to children and pets than with standard insecticide sprays. Baits are very effective and last a long time unless the cockroaches eat it all first. That’s why we routinely visit our accounts to inspect and replace bait as needed.

Photo credit: Escalla / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

The post With Cockroach Baits, no Emptying of Cabinets appeared first on Colonial Pest Control.

Question

Our daughter just graduated high school and will be going away to college in just a couple of months. She’ll be living in the dorms and it seems like I’m reading all the time about college dorms being infested with bed bugs. What can she do to help prevent bed bugs in her dorm room? Are there sprays or something we can buy?

Answer

The best thing your daughter can do is to be proactive to prevent bed bugs in her room, and in her bed, in the first place.

1. Inspect the room before you ever move her in

You will find easy instructions on the internet for how to inspect a room for bed bugs. Use the same procedures that you would use for a hotel or motel room, basically inspecting the bed, mattress, and box spring and any furniture already in the room.

2. Be careful if you add a bed or furniture to the room

College students are always looking for a bargain. If your daughter buys furniture from a thrift shop or is given furniture or a mattress from a friend, she needs to be sure that furniture doesn’t come with bed bugs. Inspect any furniture, rugs, or electronics added to the room if not brand new.

3. Invest in a mattress and box spring encasement

This is something that you can purchase now for your daughter’s room, as long as you know what size bed she has. These zippered protective covers completely cover the mattress and box spring to seal any bed bugs already on the bed inside the cover and away from your daughter. The encasements also make it easier to spot new introductions. There are encasements for pillows as well. Make sure you buy an encasement specifically designed to protect against bed bugs; not all zippered covers will work. Bed bug encasements can be ordered on the internet; Protect-A-Bed is just one brand name. See Do Mattress Encasements for Bed Bugs Really Work? for more information.

4. Be wary of introducing bed bugs to the room

If your daughter takes short trips, or stays overnight at friends’, or has friends visiting her, she should check her belongings afterwards to make sure bed bugs were not brought in from another location. Bed bugs are notorious hitchhikers and can be transported in backpacks, tote bags, and similar items. Any suspect clothing or other dryable items can be placed in a dryer for 20 minutes on high. Heat for that length of time will kill all stages of bed bugs.

5. Clean the room and change linens regularly

Your daughter should change bed linens weekly and should periodically wash or dry clean blankets, comforters, pillows, and bed skirts. Regular vacuuming helps and keeping clutter to a minimum will help if the room does require bed bug treatment.

6. Report bed bugs immediately

If your daughter even suspects that she has bed bugs, or hears others in the dorm mention that they have bed bugs, she should contact dorm officials right away. Bed bugs can move from room to room and once a dorm is infested, getting rid of the bugs can be a real challenge.

As for trying to use insecticide sprays on your own, I don’t advise it. There are really no over-the-counter products that are very effective against bed bugs. Even the products that professionals use are not a sure cure and bed bugs usually require followup treatment before they are completely eliminated. Let the college housing officials and the pest control professionals deal with any bed bug problem.

Photo credit: ColorblindRain / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

The post Keeping Bed Bugs Out of Dorm Rooms appeared first on Colonial Pest Control.

Question

I just moved into a new apartment and now I have cockroaches for the first time in my life. I thought they were big black beetles but my neighbor said they are oriental cockroaches. She’s had a problem with them, too. The manager had my apartment treated but I still see them occasionally. What else can I do?

Answer

I bet anything that you are in a ground floor apartment. Oriental cockroaches are not normally a problem in residences… unless you are on ground level or basement level. There are two reasons for this: the cockroaches live outside around the foundation, and they like the higher humidity found at ground level. Once inside, they are usually found on lower levels near leaky pipes, floor drains, dishwashers, washing machines, or sinks. Their love for humidity is why some people call them “waterbugs.”

The oriental cockroaches are probably not breeding in your apartment, they are just finding their way in from outside. That brings me to the first thing you can do to help your situation:

1. Check for openings around your doors and windows where cockroaches could enter

Make sure that your sliding patio door has a tight seal around the bottom and sides. Look at the foundation walls around the outside of your apartment for any openings where pipes, cables, or electrical lines enter. Cockroaches can follow those lines and enter walls if there is a poor seal around the line. You might need to have management caulk spaces where these utilities enter.

2. Ask management to have the foundation treated by a pest control company

Oriental cockroaches scavenge on garbage and decaying materials. They have a high moisture requirement and are found outside in damp areas under mulch, in piles of leaves, under stones, in wood piles, under splash blocks, or around dumpsters or garbage cans. It’s probably more important to treat around the outside of your apartment. If oriental cockroaches are eliminated outside around the foundation where they live, there may be no need to treat inside apartments. Make sure that the pest control company also treats outside around your patio door or other door into your apartment.

3. Change the conditions around the outside of your apartment

If there is a lot of mulch around the outside door of your apartment or if you are near the dumpster, you are more likely to have oriental cockroaches nearby. Maybe you can get management to remove, or reduce, the mulch around your apartment. Mulch that remains wet from frequent watering is more likely to be home to various pests, including cockroaches.

4. Decrease the humidity in your apartment

It’s possible that your ground floor apartment has a higher humidity level than it should. You can use a dehumidifier or fans to lower the relative humidity inside. Oriental cockroaches are less likely to move from a more humid outside environment into a drier indoor environment. Although it’s not common, if indoor humidity is high enough, oriental cockroaches can breed and survive indoors.

Photo credit: K Schneider / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

The post Control Oriental Cockroaches Outside First! appeared first on Colonial Pest Control.

Some houseplant pests remain exclusively on the plant and will not be seen unless the plant (especially the underside of leaves) is examined. Below are pests associated with houseplants that can move off of the plant, causing concern for homeowners who can’t figure out where the pests are coming from.

Fungus gnats

These tiny, dark gnats are probably the most common pest associated with houseplants indoors. And they are always associated with overwatered, too wet potting soil. The fly larvae live in the upper layers of the soil where they feed on decaying organic material. The black adult flies that emerge from the pot can be seen running on surfaces in a jerky manner or flying to lights or windows.

The Fix?

Repot the plants in fresh potting soil and cut back on watering, letting the soil dry out completely in between.

Leaf Feeders

There are several pests that infest houseplants, sucking the juices from the leaves and gradually causing the plant to decline and eventually die. Often these pests are already on the plant, either when purchased or when received from a well-meaning friend. Tiny spider mites (often mistaken for bird mites or ticks) will occasionally leave the plant and roam across surfaces. Whiteflies look like very tiny, white moths and will leave the plant and fly weakly if the plant is disturbed.

The Fix?

There are different treatments for pest-infested houseplants, including insecticidal soap, but they don’t always work. If you don’t particularly value the plant, or if it seems too far gone to save, it’s best to simply throw it out.

Ants

When potted plants are kept outside, small ants will often nest in the soil or between the pot and the saucer. They are sometimes forced out during heavy rains or watering, or when the plant is moved inside to a drier environment. Sometimes plants that have never been outside can get ants if they are also infested with whiteflies or aphids or other plant-feeding insects that excrete a sugary substance called “honeydew.” If ants find a source of honeydew, they will trail to the plant to feed on the sticky secretions.

The Fix?

Before moving houseplants back inside, remove the saucers and water them thoroughly to flush out ants. When ants are seeking honeydew, either discard infested plants or treat them with a product that kills the plant-feeding pests.

There are other unique situations where leaf chewers like caterpillars or grasshoppers may hitchhike inside on potted plants. Outdoor pests like sowbugs and millipedes may use plant pots as temporary homes. Mosquito larvae can even develop in water standing in plant saucers or water trapped inside a non-draining outer pot. Fortunately, most of these outdoor pests will die or vacate the houseplant once plants are brought indoors to a drier environment.

Photo credit: danielfoster437 / Foter.com / CC BY-SA

The post Insect Pests Associated with Houseplants appeared first on Colonial Pest Control.

Question

I just heard on the news about a guy who was killed by killer bees when he disturbed a nest while on his tractor. Do we have killer bees here in the Northeast and how can you tell them from regular honey bees?

Answer

We do not have killer bees (the proper term is Africanized bees) here in the Northeast. The bees first moved into Texas from Mexico in 1990. Since then, Africanized bees have gradually moved northward while interbreeding with our European honey bees. They now occupy most of the Southwestern U.S., including parts of southern California and Nevada, and parts of southern Florida. The bees move north at about the rate of one mile a day but almost certainly will never make it this far north. Africanized bees aren’t able to overwinter in cold regions like European bees, so winter temperatures will limit their northward range.

After lots of media hype when the bees first entered the U.S. many years ago, they have failed to live up to the fearful expectations. There have been Africanized bee and human encounters and there have been occasional deaths as a result, but most people in Africanized bee areas are unaffected by their presence. Most beekeepers in Africanized bee areas have learned how to handle the temperamental bees even though they are much harder to maintain than the more docile European honey bees.

Africanized bees look like our regular European honey bees, but are slightly smaller. Their venom is no more toxic than European bee venom, it’s just that a person or animal is much more likely to receive multiple stings when Africanized bees are involved. Most people can tolerate 15-25 bee stings without requiring medical treatment, unless they have a systemic allergic reaction. People that have died from Africanized bee stings typically receive hundreds or thousands of stings. The incident you mention involved a Texas man who was using his tractor to push an old chicken coop off of his property. The Africanized bees nesting in the coop attacked, quickly stinging the man thousands of times on his face and arms.

Why Africanized Bees Are So Scary

Honeybees, whether they are European or Africanized, only sting defensively. They sting when there is a perceived threat to the hive. But, compared to our native honey bees, Africanized bees are much more protective of their hive and require less provocation to attack. They guard their hive more aggressively with a larger alarm zone around the hive and a higher proportion of guard bees in the hive. They also pursue people and animal threats for up to 100 yards from the hive, compared to a distance of 20 yards for other honey bees. Since a person running from Africanized bees will be chased for a greater distance by more bees, he will almost certainly receive more stings than if the bees were European honey bees.

Photo credit: Thiago Gama Oliveira / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

The post Do We Have “Killer Bees” in our Region? appeared first on Colonial Pest Control.

Question

How can you tell a carpenter bee from a bumble bee? We’ve been seeing lots of big, black and yellow bees around our house and I’m concerned that they might be damaging the wood somewhere. We can’t find any kind of nest.

Answer

While carpenter bees and bumble bees do look somewhat alike, you can tell them apart. Both collect pollen to feed to their young, but their nest sites and habits are quite different.

Look at the abdomen

Both bees are about the same size (almost 1 inch) and both are black and yellow. The easiest way to tell the difference is that the top of our eastern carpenter bee’s abdomen is black, shiny, and hairless, while the bumble bee’s abdomen is fuzzy black, often with a yellow band.

Nest sites are different

Carpenter bees nest in pairs in soft, weathered, unpainted woods like cedar decks, soffits, eaves, and wooden siding. The hole into the nest gallery in the wood is about the size and shape of a shirt button. Inside the gallery, the female provisions several cells with pollen balls and lays an egg in each. The male aggressively guards the nest during spring construction; after construction and egg laying, both bees leave the area.

Bumble bees are social bees that live in a colony. A new queen starts a new colony in the spring. She lays eggs and raises the first brood of worker bees. The new workers then take over nest duties, collecting pollen to feed to the larvae in the nest, and rearing the next brood of workers. Nests continue to grow until late summer. Nest entrances are usually a hole in the ground, but nests can also be in old equipment, in logs, in sheds, in building voids, or in other unusual places.

There may be a good reason why you can’t find the nest. Carpenter bees often make their nest openings on the backside or underside of the wood, where wood is unpainted or unfinished. On fascia boards, for example, the entrance hole is likely not even visible from the front. And bumble bees often hide their ground nest opening under a tuft of grass or a plant, or they will use an abandoned rodent’s burrow.

Different life styles, different habits

If your bees are carpenter bees, the adults should be pretty much gone now. The developing larvae emerge as bees in late summer but they won’t construct new nests until next year. If your bees are bumble bees, that nest should just be getting going about now and the number of bees will increase all summer.

You said you were seeing “lots” of bees. It could be that you were seeing the same pair (or two, or three) of carpenter bees. Although they are not social bees, more than one pair often nests in the same area and they are very active during nest building. You also could be seeing worker bees that are foraging from a growing bumble bee nest.

Let the pros help— give Colonial a call. Our technicians should be able to find evidence if there have been carpenter bees nesting on or around your home. They can also inspect for foraging bumble bees and can track the bees back to their nest site. Bumble bees are beneficial pollinators and control is usually not recommended unless the nest is in a location where children or pets might disturb the bees and get stung.

The post Is It a Carpenter Bee or Bumble Bee? appeared first on Colonial Pest Control.

Do you have mice in your apartment and or house? Find out why by Colonial Pest Control expert Zack Ciras.

Transcription:

Interviewer: Why do I have mice?

Interviewee: The “Why me?” question, right? Mice need three things. They need food, they need shelter, and they need heat. Food, they can bring in. Nuts and berries, acorns, seeds from the outside. They can survive on very little that you have around the house they might have access to.

Heat. Your house is a lot warmer than a New England winter and shelter is very easy to come by within a home — insulation in the wall and attic, underneath the Christmas decorations. They don’t need a lot of space for their shelter.

Why do you have mice? They had access to these things. You may have holes around your house, around the foundation, around the roof line. Some place for them to come into your house from the outside.

Interviewer: Is treating for mice safe?

Interviewee: Safety is our top priority, of course. The way we approach a mouse situation is uniquely comprehensive. We want to find the holes where they’re coming in. We exclude them from entering the house in the first place. Any existing population, we eliminate with a various amount of controls. We can use mechanical controls, snap traps, glue boards, and we use a lot of anticoagulant baits. The baits are kept in child and pet resistant cases. We keep them out of reach, secured down, no access that your children or pets would have to these items.

The types of bait we use are among the safest in the industry. There’s no secondary poisoning so therefore if your cat happens to have a mouse that’s had some poison, the poison doesn’t transfer to your pet.

Interviewer: When mice are exterminated, will they smell?

Interviewee: When mice die in your house, there’s a chance they might smell. It’s on the rare side. Typically, when a mouse dies, whether it’s from natural causes or from our baits, they’re going to die near the nest. They spend most of the time near the nesting sites. After they eat our baits, it takes between three and five days for them to fully expire. Most of the time is going to be spent near the nest. Now, if they’re nesting outside, beautiful. If they’re nesting on an exterior wall, likely not to smell on the thing, the attic, some place that’s really tucked away from any airflow to you in your living areas, probably not going to notice anything.

After a couple of weeks, fully dehydrates, no smell remains after that, anyway. Sometimes, if they’re on an interior wall or on the floor in the basement, some place that’s accessible, you might be able to smell it, if you could find them. We can get rid of them for you. But like I said, a couple of weeks, fully dehydrates, and that should be the end of it. But it is on the rare side.

Interviewer: What concern should I have if I have a mouse infestation?

Interviewee: Mice might look cute to you, but they do come with a lot of problems — chewing the wires within the walls from the attic. It’s a leading cause of fire dangers in homes these days. Mice are commensal rodents — they share our tables, what commensal means. They’re bringing everything they ran through right to the table with us. They’re getting into our food supply, damaging the food supply. They carry a lot of diseases. A lot of diseases — LCMV, Hantavirus, Lyme is carried by mice as well. There’s a lot of diseases they carry. How do they transfer the diseases? Everywhere they go. They could drop a little of urine, a little of poop. They’re nasty little buggers. They’re always using your house everywhere they go as a restroom.

The post Why do I have mice? appeared first on Colonial Pest Control.