Termites - Facts and Pest Control

Termites - Facts and Pest Control

Many think that termites belong to the family of ants but surprisingly it's not. Termite is also called white ant by some, because of the word ant in white ant. Another tricky part is -- if you look and observe termites closely, you’ll possibly speculate that they belong to the ant family. Why? Because of their physical appearance and behavior which is pretty identical to ants.

Termites march in groups and has a division of labor like ants. According to Science, termites belong to the family of mantids (praying mantis) and cockroach. 

They have worker, soldier, king, and termite queen. Did you know that ants are the most sarcastic predator of termites?

When an ant smell find swarms of termites it will recruit 20-30 other ants to make a sabotage attack, they will use their stinger to weaken their prey by biting its neck to perform an easy kill.

It is known that strong jaw or mandibles, the huge sized weapon of termites is used to fight their predators, and especially to gather food like wood wherein they mostly get their needed nutrients.

Trees and plants are their primary sources of food and diet. But sometimes they eat plastic and papers. We consider termites as a pest because they damage anything that is made of wood or has wood in it, like trees, furniture, houses and the like. They weaken the durability and hardness of wood, eating its inner and outer part leaving a messed up wood. That's why pest control is needed for controlling and eliminating termites that infest your home.

Termite problem is very common in every household. Many houses were demolished forcefully especially those that are mostly made of wood because of the infestation made by the termites. Termite damage is a serious problem therefore immediate attention must be made.

If you know and is convinced that there are already termites in your house, do not hesitate to eliminate them quickly because, like ants, they are quick to multiply because of their queen which is like a termite factory that can produce new fresh babies in just a short period of time. That's why this termite pest control methods is very essential to those who are not affected (prevention) and especially to those who are affected (prevention and elimination) by the infestation.

In termite companies or termite pest control companies like orkin.com, terminix.com and etc.. These experts have different termite treatment options depending upon the situation of the infestation. However, it may cost you a lot when you buy their service that's why do it yourself pest control is important because pest control starts with you.

Here are the tips for do it yourself termite treatment:

1. Expose your furniture into the sun
The termites cannot withstand long exposure to the sun because of the ultraviolet light. The termites are comfortable in dark places and when exposed to sunlight they will die. 

Just put your furniture outside your house for about 3 to 4 days and after this, you will see good results. This is effective and a money saver method. This is an economical way of termite removal, because you do not need to pay for sunlight and no chemicals involve in this termite extermination method.

2. Set up a cardboard trap
The termites generally like to eat wood because it contains cellulose. However, like the wood, cardboard also contains cellulose. 

It will lure the termites to eat the cardboard. Put a cardboard in spots or locations to where termites live and after hours of waiting you can see many termites feeding on it. You just need to put it into the fire and assure that no termites will escape the fire.

3. Put nematodes
The nematodes are tiny worm parasites which are not harmful to pets, plants, and even human. Their diet focuses on insects like the termites. 

You can make it as spray type to easily distribute to the affected wood. Termite inspection is needed before using these parasites, to pinpoint the right spot or the affected area. These parasites are quick to kill termites because they mostly concentrate to eat this type of food.

4. Use pesticides
Safety precautions must not be neglected when handling and using pesticide because it contains harmful chemicals. However, if you are going to use it properly, there’s nothing for you to worry. 

It is very effective in preventing termites to get near into your house and effective against killing it instantly. If there is termite nest in your house, then you must apply or spray pesticide directly and in the vicinity of that spot, so that no termite can escape. You can buy pesticides appropriate for termites in your local hardware stores.

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Cockroach - Facts and Pest Control

Facts

Cockroach is small but terrible creatures. It's because they are fast, possess a strong escape reflex and intractable characteristics.

They have the ability to feel the air in their surroundings produced by their predators. And can respond quickly by escaping and hiding from the threat. Cockroach consume any organic foods available to them that even paper and

There is a common predator for cockroach that can be found in the home, which is the lizard.

This predator can eat a whole cockroach despite of their size which is smaller than of cockroach. Lizard is a great help in reducing numbers of cockroach in your home.

That's why it is better to drive them not away in your home. Sometimes, there are instances of cockroach flying inside your home, that may possibly surprise you and stick to your clothes or even skin.

You'll feel the texture of spikes on its legs. Then your response would be hilarious just to remove the sticking cockroach.

Cockroach is really disgusting and cause so much damage. Primarily, they infest foods that we eat.They leave their eggs or feces there and starts the infestation.

This may cause sickness to those who will eat the infected food, either human or animal. With their alien like head, spiky, dirty and stinking body, they cause infestation on somewhere they crawl in.

They are capable to quickly multiply in numbers. A female cockroach may produce 6 to 90 oothecae (egg case). These oothecae are consisted of 15 embryos.

And may hatch in the span of 24 to 38 days. Therefore, you may notice that if you kill a cockroach, another one will appear somewhere else due to their numerous count.


The Method
It is a serious problem when a cockroach achieved to mass multiply in your home because it can also produce massive mess, bacteria, and parasites that can harm human and animal’s health.

Therefore, getting rid of them is a necessity. You need to prevent them to escalate in numbers or else consequences will be a pain in your head.

These are the steps or methods to follow for controlling and wiping out their population:

1. Cleanliness is the best
The cockroach will not go near or dwell in your home if they feel that if it’s not a perfect place for them. They go where there are food and shelter. They want messy and dirty place because it’s their natural habitat.

Another reason why they go back even if you already killed other cockroach is that there is a leftover part of other cockroach’s body or juice from the body, the other alive cockroach will go back again and again because it will think that there is another cockroach on that specific place or spot.

Fast but not fine cleaning is not enough. Ensure that there is no remaining dirt, mess and foul odor in your home. Keep your home always clean to prevent the cockroach to come back.


2. Kill the cockroach with mercy
Do not ever kill cockroach barehanded, or by using slippers and shoes. By doing so, the bacteria or parasite inside their body will scatter across to were they were killed.

If the dead cockroach made a contact in your skin you’ll be infected by it. So if this happens, immediately wash the affected area with soap and with running water.

When it talks about killing cockroaches, you need to use baits. You can make your own bait or buy in the market.

You just need one part of sugar and three parts of boric acid if you want to make homemade bait. The sugar attracts the pest to eat the bait while boric acid acts as a pesticide and will kill the cockroach.

You can also use gel bait which is very effective against the cockroach. Use it near or on the very cracks and holes in your home.

The tendency would be, cockroaches will eat the gel and die quickly. And if you try to put this bait on all the possible areas where they go, later you will see dead cockroaches lying on the ground and the only thing that you need to do is to clean, wipe them out and throw them in the garbage.

There is also another inexpensive way to kill cockroach, it is by spraying soapy water to them. They will die on it because of suffocation.


3. Seal any hole or cracks in your home
The cockroach can go in or out from their nest freely. What if you try to obstruct it? Surely, these pests will not perform their daily routine.

You just need to seal all the cracks and holes in your home. So, all you need to do is to prevent them from multiplying while they are still few. Then its your chance to wipe them all with ease.


4. Repair any water leaks
Cockroach wants water and moisture. They can survive for a long period of time without food but only a short period of time without water.

Stop their source of water from flowing by repairing sources of water leaks.


5. Call the pest exterminators
If you think that you can’t handle the situation by yourself only. Do not hesitate to leave the job to experts and professionals.

They will do the job and provide you the solution you need. But be reminded that it is your responsibility to make an action early so that it will not lead you to this kind of option.

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Mouse - Facts and Pest Control

The unending gossip, story or topic about mice. Inside the house, farm and in every different country around the world, they are there. It is true that these creatures’ population dominate many places because of their ability to quickly multiply in numbers. 

The mouse is “thief” – the meaning of its Greek word. They are always caught in the act to destroy anything inside the house like papers, important documents, messing in the kitchen utensils and especially the food. 

This is not the end of the story, the most important thing to know is that they carry different kinds of diseases that can lead to death. 

It is said that there are 35 types of disease that it carries, so proper hygiene is necessary, by keeping the house clean to prevent them to dwell inside it. All the diseases that they carry is not a joke, they are all true and most of it is deadly. 

There is a proverb that says, “Prevention is better than cure”, if you can prevent the disease when it's early, do it and do not allow to plague your body that will lead to unwanted consequences.

Mice radically ruin our homes, they do not put anything into an exception, all the things that they want to destroy, they will destroy. 

How are we going to deal with this kind of creatures? You do not need a lawyer to file charges against pests which seems impossible unless they become human. 

We do not need to have a degree or call pest control at all times to solve the infestation because it is expensive and it is not logical to call pest control to eliminate 2 – 7 pieces of mice in your house which you can do the job by yourself but if it's not the case then business services like pest control is your best option.

There are different kinds of mouse trap in the market. One example is the glue trap. 

This is a disposable type unlike others which are not, not the disposable type which is made of plastic, that can trap mice mechanically while other are electrical, traps that use high voltage electric shock. 

You can also make your own homemade trap, to those who are the hobbyist and want to know much homemade something and to save money. 

I’m going to tell my brief story about trapping mice inside our house. I am using the glue trap, like what I have said earlier.

For a very long time, we were with the mice in our home. The degree of damage is so intense wherein I always think of a plan of how can I get rid of them because my anger tells me to do so which is inclined with reason on how they plague us. 

Our house is small which gives me a big chance to eliminate those crawling pests by myself only. 

There are times that I exterminated them all, as in 0 in the count, from baby to adult and from skinny to furry adults. I’ve realized that they will come back again and again if you do not clean your house or your place every day because they want to dwell in places which are dirty and messy. 

One other thing that gives me a problem is the migrating mice, from our neighbor going to our house. I can’t believe what I saw that there is an instance wherein mouse stuck on walls like Spiderman. 

Sticking on the walls and going down until they reach the floor. There are times that I laugh at them and it is so funny when you see a mouse sticking on the wall then when you surprised them by clapping your hands they will definitely fall and bounce like a ball. 

The same as when I saw a mouse ascending and descending on the ladder then it jumps and falls when surprised! What a funny story of mine!

I always make an action to prevent them to get inside our house. My experience taught me so many things on how to deal with it.

So my advice to you would be this:

1. Ensure that you always clean and organize things inside your house every day

Mice naturally live in a place which is dirty and messy. They want a place full of scraps as well as paper wherein they build their nest and nurse their young. 

Unorganized things inside the house as their hiding place. If your house is clean and well- organized then mice will possibly doubt to dwell in or not.

2. There must no exposed food anywhere in your house for a long period of time

Mice can live without food and water for a long period of time. They are creatures that can withstand harsh conditions. 

But on the other hand, they crave for food. If you have a pet mouse and feed it, you will see that it consume large amount food, keeping it in their cheeks. 

They find food to nourish themselves and the whole family for the continuance of their race.

3. Cover the holes or tunnels with metal screen

to be sure that it can withstand the sharp teeth of mice

Mice want holes and tunnels. They want a hiding place on which they are comfortable of. 

You must know that if there are holes and tunnels in your house which are a possible entry and exit, do not hesitate to block it or put a ready trap.

4. Use a trash can with closed lid

You must always keep the trash can lid closed. The reason for this is that mice conduct their feast here because of mixed garbage especially the leftover tasty food from fast foods which is their apple of the eye. 

I discerned that if they are sustained by food, there is also a sustained life and a sustained pest attack.

5. Set up a mouse trap if you are convinced that there are already mice inside your house cause they can quickly multiply so you also must quickly eliminate them also

If you really have no choice because of the infestation, all you need is to do an offense against them. 

Put mouse trap on strategical locations like holes in your house, kitchen (favorite place), edges on where they pass through, and all the places you know where they appear consistently.

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Rat - Facts and Pest Control

Rat on its appearance is a big mouse, with a bigger body, bigger ears, and bigger tail. This rodent is big in size and huge in damaging capability. Rat is a pernicious rodent because it damages and infests homes. Rat commonly appear in tunnels and canals, when the rain starts to fall and flood they go out on it.

The most common type of rat that appears is the brown (Rattuss Norvegicus) or black (Rattuss Rattuss) rat. It brings lots of damage to humans. 

I remember a news when a rat bites a newborn baby inside an incubator that caused wounds to the baby. 

Rat do not care for someone, especially those that were the undomesticated type. If they feel hungry or when there is a threat, they immediately respond to injure or damage anyone.

Rat brings many diseases that make a human's body to weaken, to be bedridden or even death. From contact to its body, urine, and feces, to where diseases may acquire. Like leptospirosis, murine typhus, sodoku, Lassa fever, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, bubonic plague, rat bite fever, diabetes Miletus, Haverhill fever, and immunosuppression. 

See, not so few diseases but many, as in many. Required action and extermination are very necessary. We need to make a move to exterminate those big crawling pest rat before it's too late. They are fast so we must be much faster to make an action. 

There are plenty rat in the vicinity of our house because of auntie’s eatery business. I always see one in canals but sometimes in corners of our house. 

This is truly a big problem on each of us because of the health risk and property damage it makes. 

Logically, these rat are very dangerous to my auntie’s eatery because of the food they always serve to their customers which are subject from infestation. It is like a circle of rat in an eatery. 

Like mouse, rat also quickly multiply in numbers. Reducing them in numbers is a must until it goes down to zero to eliminate the infestation. 

Now, I have some tips that is truly effective for eliminating and preventing to spread those crawling creatures. Here are the list of tips:

1. Keep your place clean
This the first step to prevent rat entering your house. The reason why the rat goes in a specific area is that it go there with a purpose. 

It maybe the food, mess(as their home), or shelter. Cleaning is very necessary and putting things into right order.

2. Put rodenticide bait
This is simply a bait with rodenticide. An easy way to eliminate those creatures. Rat naturally seek for food. 

Catching or searching for them is not anymore needed. You just need this type of bait, when they eat it, they will automatically go out because of blindness, seeking for light and will be dead. 

Just dispose and bury it if it is dead and you’re good to go for some other action. Be sure to wear gloves when handling rat.

3. Use rat trap
Obviously, rat trap is much bigger and is different in design than a mouse trap. You can make your own or buy at your local market if you can’t make one. 

Put some food bait like peanut butter and let it sit for hours. Be sure to put it near holes or tunnels wherein rat go in and out. If you have a catch, set it free in the forest.

4. Put repellant or barrier in holes or corners of your house

• Mothball – tried and tested to repel rat because it contains chemical and scent that makes rat uncomfortable.

• Pepper – rat generally don’t like smelly and sneezy powder. As it leads to nose irritation and difficulty in breathing.

• Bay or laurel leaves – rat do not know that this leaf is deadly for them when ingested, the tendency would be that they will eat it because they considered it as food.

• Steel wool or metal screen – Metal is a perfect barrier against rat, blocking their way. It is more hard and durable than the teeth of rat which are (just made of calcium). 

5. Call for a pest control
If you are incapacitated to handle the situation, lend a hand to experts. Allow them to handle the situation because they are professional exterminators.

Remember:

• Do ever made a contact with rat barehanded because of the possible contamination.
• Do not hurt it, otherwise, if they survive or escape from your attack, chances are they will recompense resulting into more damage to your home.
• Don’t put bait with chemicals near your food because of the risk of contamination( this bait is for rat and not for human).

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Ant - Facts and Pest Control

We cannot deny the fact that pest brings so much damage to us. Among other pest ants are the strongest and most organized. Ants are little creatures that have big part to the ecosystem. We can see them anywhere, on every place, marching, working and carrying foods for the colony and especially for the queen to continue their life. 

According to studies ants have the strongest body that it can carry 20 times more than its body weight which seems impossible for humans unless you are super human and possess extra ordinary power. 

We can see ants as super ants because of their strength, hard working ants because of their diligence( march in columns to gather food without overseer), and engineer ants because they can design and build an efficient and beautiful home for them.

However, in contrary, ants bring damage to homes. They tear and eat not just food but things that they considered food. Even humans or animals were subject to their attack. They bite someone or something on which they considered food and that brings threat to them. 

We can see these little ants were truly obsessed with so much biting. There are times when an ant made a contact, crawl and bite your skin, then you will experience painful feeling because their bite consists formic acid which irritates the skin.

Ants cause good and bad things. They carry dead insects, sometimes alive but wounded exposing its ripped flesh. 

The nature of ants is to clean any mess (body of dead insects or animals) but that mess is considered food for them. 

On the other hand, ants also bring damage to human property. That's why we think of ways on how to stop them doing it.

Our house is like a town of ants because my mom said that it was a forest before. I always see ants marching from the floor and every corner of our house. I think it is because we are standing on a ground which was once a forest. 

These ants bring pain in the head because they do not really care what they eat or tear. There was an instance when I slept, ants crawled on my skin, bit me and interrupted my sleep. 

I turned on the light with ants still sticking on my skin so I rubbed it and killed the ant. This is one of the most terrible experiences in my life which forced me to think of ways on how to get rid of them.

There are some simple tips on how to get rid of these ants. These tips helped me so much to completely destroy those crawling buddies. Here is the list of methods:

1. Keep your house clean
The first thing that you must prioritize is the cleanliness. The most common reason why ants go, march and attack because of water, food, and shelter. 

Clean and wipe the floor and every corner of your house. Establish a daily routine to clean.

2. Find the queen
The queen is the factory of ants. Its function is to eat food, produce and groom ants. Target this royal ant in order to easily kill the whole colony. 

Find the main nest by tracing the trail of ants and when you found it pour very hot water to reach and kill the queen. Another option is to dig and search for the queen (if you’re desperate).

3. Splash ant-repelling powders
To prevent ants from marching, splash some powder, it could be pepper, talcum, cinnamon, or chili powder. 

You can buy this at local supermarkets. After splashing these powders, you will see ants gradually fade in numbers on a certain area.

4. Put a bait with boric acid
Put boric acid in food bait. Boric acid can damage ant’s digestive system leading them to death. It’s a pesticide for them. You can buy boric acid at your local pharmacy.

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Silverfish - Facts and Pest Control

Silverfish is an uncommon household pest. To those who are bookish, you may sometimes see a silverfish crawling on a book that is old. The Latin family name of silverfish is Lepismatidae. The English name which is silverfish is derived from is because of its silver light gray and fish-like appearance. The natural diet of silverfish focuses on sugar, starch, and carbohydrates. 

They feed on adhesives which are on book binds, papers, books, glue and all other starchy or sugary materials. The most common meal of silverfish is the book. 

That if you go to the library and open a book, you will possibly notice some silverfish escaping in your sight leaving the pages of the book tore down. 

Silverfish is truly hard to exterminate because of its ability to escape with high speed and capability to hide unnoticeably. 

The lifespan of silverfish seems very long because it can last for 2 to 8 years. They have multiple molting processes which are 60 times in their entire life. These small and short creatures ha a very long lifespan.

However, even if silverfish is an uncommon pest, this is not a valid reason on not giving attention to it because of huge infestation that it cause. 

You can find a silverfish in different locations of your house, they can be found maybe in attics, bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry area. They are less unnoticeable because of their size and the amount damage produced by them. 

However, if you try to join each little damage they make, piece by piece, you will realize that it is very severe that’s why they are considered as pest. Here are the tips on how to get rid of silverfish:

1. Proper sanitation
Do not allow any food crumbs sitting anywhere in your house. Silverfish wants a place where there is plenty of food because they know that in that place they can replenish their population and continue their long life. 

So, do not hesitate to clean your house to discourage not just silverfish but any other type of pest to dwell in your house.

2. Avoid a paper mess
As we know about the silverfish, to where they always go, paper is the most common among it. 

Assure that there are no paper hanging around in your house like newsapers, books, notebooks, and any other thing that uses paper, just put all of these on its respective place. 

Failure to do so will encourage the silverfish to dwell inside your house and multiply infesting you and your family.

3. Change the humidity
Silverfish wants a place with high humidity. Areas which is dark and moist is their choice. 

So, if you can change the humidity of your house, lowering it, especially the areas like kitchen, bathroom and laundry area, these are the places where silverfish most commonly go, then you’ll discouraged them to enter your house and kill the remaining silverfish. You can use demudifier and/or fans in lowering the humidity of your house.

4.Use silverfish traps
It is hard to locate silverfish. There is a need to set up traps for them to lure them to get near and be caught without difficulty. 

The type of trap of what I pertaining to is the silverfish trap. This is trap contains delicacy for silverfish but the surface of it contains sticky glue that traps the pest that disables them to escape. You can buy it in your local supermarkets or in online shops.

Just Remember:
If silverfish has a silver skill or ability to bring damage to your house therefore, you must respond a gold type of actions to exterminate them.

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Wasp - Facts and Pest Control

The wasps belong to the family of ants and bees. They are known for its deadly stinger for fighting their predators and to easily kill their prey. The tarantula hawk wasp is known for its ability to kill and eat tarantula spider which is many times bigger and much heavier than it. The ability to fly can also give an advantage to wasps in searching and killing their prey easily. 

The wasps are a look-alike of hornet from head to body. They live in colonies which they numbered as like thousands. There are also categories of wasps, the social and the solitary wasps.

The social type of wasps is most commonly seen in the house. They have a powerful sting that can kill quickly its prey or other animals while in people it can cause diseases like having allergic symptoms. 

This was a great problem in the US because many reports say that these wasps have many victims. This type of wasps make their nests in trees and houses. Their nest was made of wood or plant fibers which includes mud as the hardener. 

They make it by chewing it, mixing their saliva with it and after drying, will become hard. The appearance of the nest of social type wasps is like of the bees like as honeycomb.

However, the solitary wasps have their own living. They have their own family, providing food for their offspring and has no division of labor, unlike the ants. Their primary food is the spiders and secondly other insects. 

Sometimes they lay their eggs to their dead prey to hatch on it in the right time to make the babies to be ready to eat their food. 

Sometimes they carry their food (dead insects) with the egg. The adult wasps mostly focus in preparing and in making of the nest for their offspring.

It is very alarming if there is a colony of wasps swarming your home because of health risk for house dwellers, the animals, and humans. 

When they sting the victim experience a very painful and stressful feeling. Wasps bite can also lead to death for people who were bitten many times. We must not ignore the potential damage the wasps can bring to us. 

Doing pest control on wasps needs to be very precautious also. Here are the tips to look for on how to get rid of wasps:

1. Put a fake nest
It is natural for wasps to make their nest and dwell on it. They are attracted to dwell in nest even if it is fake or not. 

You may need to hang a fake nest in trees or in the vicinity of your house, be sure that it is far from your house. You can make your own trap by just using just paper bag or commercial type, which you can buy on online stores.

2. Smoke the nest
It is true that humans cannot withstand a building on fire and full of smoke because of the heat and the suffocation, how much more the wasps. 

Smoke can suffocate wasps that’s why if you put a smoke on their nest they will immediately get out and escape from it. When it happened, it is now your chance to remove their nest without being stung by wasps.

3. Spray insecticide
Just spray insecticide to get rid or kill wasps. However, you must ensure to use it far from kids and animals. 

Wear a protective suit like thick long sleeve, pants and cover in your head to protect against wasp’s unwanted attack.

4. Set-up wasps traps
Another thing that will give an addition to the intensity of exterminating wasps is to put wasp’s traps. The gradual extermination of each individual until reaching a wasp's free house is not impossible. 

You can make your own trap using plastic bottle which is cut into the top. Reversely put the cut top part and put the required bait (foods that are rich in protein because it is where the wasps attracted to and include filling water to drown the trapped wasps).

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