The Little Black Ant is native to North America. It has a shiny black color. As the name suggest it is small only 1 to 2 mm for the workers but the queen can get up to 5 mm long. Each nest may have more than one queen. They are now for clear trails to food or water.
The Pyramid Ant gets its name because it likes hot claimants and has a pyramid shape on top of it’s thorax. The Pyramid ant rarely invades structures, there prefer setting up there colonies in the soil or under rocks or wood. There colonies are small (only a few thousand ants in each colony) with a single entrance to get inside.
The Thief Ant gets it name because the ants set up there nest close to other ant colonies and steals food from those colonies. The thief ant is also very small, 1/16 of an inch. Thief ants can be found to nest both inside of cracks, wall voids or brick and outside in the soil. They can be yellowish or tan in color. They do have a stinger but it is very small.
The Pharaoh Ant is one of the most difficult ants to rid of once it enters the structure. It only nest indoor in most regions of the world, they especially like to set up colonies inside heated buildings. They often choose to start colonies inside of wall voids. There can be hundreds of reproductive females in each colony. They love sweet, oily and fatty foods. Baits may work but if they are repellent baits it will fracture and split the colonies. Often the best offense is a good defense. Keeping up with a good barrier at the base of the building can stop the ants from every entering the building in the first place.
The Argentine Ant is the most common in the Central Valley. The hot dry weather can cause them to come into homes and business in search of food and water. When they invade a structure it is not uncommon to see two or three queens walking with the workers ants. Simple killing one queen does not stop the colonies ability to breed.Because of their nesting behavior and multiple queens in each colony. The wrong type of spray or application of spray can cause the colony to split and create multiple colonies. Baits are often the best way to destroy the colony from the source.
German Roaches (Most common indoor roach) can bread almost anywhere and can be brought in through a garage sale item, work laptops (they love electronics) fresh produce and countless other ways. One female hitchhiking roach will lay an outhica that holds 20-30 babie roaches, making it possible to 10x their population every 60 days. They will quickly hide in your walls, inside your fridge, behind your dishwasher. They shed their exoskeleton that breaks down and becomes part of the air you bread inside your home. This is a major cause of allergies, breathing problems and germs.
We start with a full inspection and roach clean out service. We utilize baits, sprays, dust, IGR, and traps. Then we set up a monthly service plan and rotate the active ingredients making it hard for the roaches adapt to the treatments.
American Roaches (most common outdoor roach) are the largest type of roaches’ in this region and can grow up to 1 1/2 inches. the roaches molt and shed the exoskeleton. Their color can change based on how long it has been since they molted but are usually a reddish color. It is not uncommon for a person to pick up a board and have hundreds of these roaches scatter and can often be found in garages.
For outdoor roaches we advise an every- other month service plan. We start with creating a barrier around the base of your home and work outward. We will do a full inspection of your yard to make sure you have the best protection possible.
Earwigs and silverfish are two separate spices but enjoy the same habitats. Most earwigs can flatten themselves which allows them to fit inside tight crevices such as under your door. They usually are found inside homes when the tempterature changes for any reason.
Treating earwigs/silverfish starts with a basic inspection and find the source of the problem. They love to live in damp spots around the house. It is important to do a full inspection of the property to identify all the potential spots that allow earwigs/silverfish to thrive. A proper crack and crevice treatment should drastically reduce their population in and around your home.
Adult fleas attach themselves to a host ( Alley cats, squares, dogs, rodents, possums, etc..) and drop 20-30 eggs per day, per flea. Making a single square or rodent able to drop thousands of flea eggs in your yard every day. Within a few days they can hatch into larva and then cocoon themselves for up to 2 years and wait for a host. As long as they are in that cocoon (Pupae stage) they are supper resident to any type of treatment. A regular service plan is the most effective way to have a flea free yard.
With fleas inside it is possible to get rid of them with one or two treatments if everything is prepared properly and action is taken to make sure fleas are not reintroduced inside the home. Give us a call and we can walk you through the process of preparing your home to be treated.
Ticks live off the blood of their host and spread a bacteria that can cause sickness. They engorge themselves. A single female can lay thousands of eggs in her lifetime. There has been much debate on how to slow the spread of ticks, the best defense is to be on a regular service plan.
Their may not be a lot we can do to slow down the spread of ticks across the country but we can do a lot in making sure your yards are a safe place. We make sure to treat not only the entire lawn, bushes and flower beds for ticks. With a regular treatment schedule of your yard in correlation with having your pets treated for ticks it is possible to be tick free or we will come back for free.
There are 30 different types of spiders in the central valley and some can lay up to 1,000 eggs in their lifetime.
One of the most common misconceptions people have about spiders is that creating a barrier should keep spiders away. With spiders long legs they are able to walk over barrier without adverse effects. A good spider treatment starts with the fence line and moves to the home making sure to treat the spiders directly. Then all the bushes, lawn and flower beds should be treated. Most companies have stopped including a flea & Spider Lawn treatment and those that do rarely use an eco treatment. We do both, making sure to treat spiders where they hide and removing the spiders food (Bugs) source.