Summer. Ant, Ants And More Ants!
Ants during the summer are foraging for food to store up for the leaner months. They are a huge nuisance and an insect world favorite. Highly organized and efficient, you can chase them around all summer and never get rid of them. You only see about 10% of the ants that make up a colony. For every ant you see looking for food in your house there is 9 more back in the colony working and making more ants. Remember this when you are killing them on the kitchen counter. Chances are the rest of the colony will not even miss them.
Not all ants are simply a nuisance, some can damage your home. Carpenter ants in Virginia are wood destroying ants. They get into soft, damp or damaged timbers and hollow them out to make galleries to live in. Queen carpenter ants have been known to live as long as 20 years. Certain species of ants build colonies inhabited by as many 100,000 or more. The four most common ants in Virginia are Carpenter Ants, Little Black Ants, Odorous House Ants and Pavement Ants. Carpenter ants are the biggest threat as far as doing real damage to your home although they are all a huge nuisance when they are living in your home. Ants baits can be effective but can take weeks to work as a colony may actually take the bait and store it instead of eating it right away. Also ants are highly sensitive to chemicals and avoid many of them. Brown exterminating can use non deterrent barrier chemicals in conjunction with liquid baits they eat immediately to provide an effective treatments for most ants. Call today for a free inspection and quote.
Yellow Jackets And Other Aggressive Wasps And Hornets
 There are more than a couple types of Yellow Jackets in Virginia and none of them are friendly. They are aggressive and typically in a bad mood and in pretty good numbers. There are varieties of Yellow Jacket that live in the ground and another that will build a hive in a bush, tree or your home. There are few things worse than finding yellow Jackets the hard way. The sting is quick and painful.
Other paper wasps are the Bald Face Hornet, which is actually a wasp. They are black and white and pretty much sees the world that way. Another very aggressive insect. They also build paper nests and could locate them in a tree or on the side of your house.
The only true hornet in Virginia is the European Hornet, also called a Brown Hornet or Giant Hornet, because they are both. They are large, up to 1.5 inches, and can be active at night unlike other wasps native to the area. They will, and often do, strip the bark from trees and shrubs to build their nests. If they are really active a European Hornet colony can kill a tree or shrub by doing this. They build their nests in hollow trees but will also inhabit wall voids, voids in porch posts or attics.
The Brown Umbrella Wasps and Mud Daubers are also very common in Virginia. Umbrella wasps are aggressive when approached and will sting. Mud Daubers typically will move on when disturbed but certainly can sting. If you need help in getting rid of these painful pests please give us a call. If we can get at them, we can take care of them. Please contact at the number above to schedule an inspection and quote for treatment.
Mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes are insects belonging to the order Diptera, the True Flies. Female mosquitoes' are the ones that bite. Male mosquitoes have feathery antennae and mouth parts not suitable for piercing skin, they prefer sugary snacks. The word mosquito is Spanish for Little Fly. That is the good news.
There are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes on the planet and there are over 750,000 fatalities reported each year do to mosquito bourne disease. Mosquitoes are the planets most deadliest animal. They can carry Malaria, Dog Heartworm, Dengue, Yellow Fever, Encephalitis, West Nile Virus and Zika Virus to name a few. They spend their first 10 days in water and then emerge to ruin your evening. Brown Exterminating can control obnoxious mosquitoes with the use of a pest management program. First we will assess the environment to see where the mosquitoes are coming from, then we will limit as much of that environment as possible. The final step is treating areas which are prone to mosquitoes to cut down the populations. A typical mosquito treatment will also have an adverse effect on ticks as well as cluster flies and to an extent stink bugs.
Mosquito treatment may need to be ongoing depending on the environment they have available around your property. Call today to see what can be done to limit the mosquito population around your house so you can get back to enjoying your yard.
Fleas
One of the peskiest of pests. Small, reproduce quickly and they bite. By the time you realize you have fleas you have them everywhere. In August, September and October in Virginia is flea season or at least when people start realizing they have them. Your pet probably picked a couple up walking in tall grass and in a couple months you have many more fleas.
The life cycle of a flea (egg > larva > pupa > adult) can take anywhere from a couple weeks to several months depending on the environment and a mature female can lay up to 40 eggs a day. Integrated pest management techniques require the home owner to prepare the home or apartment prior to treatment to ensure success. During the initial treatment the pet, if you have one, needs to be treated for fleas as well. This is best done at the veterinary clinic.
The second treatment for the property is scheduled
for 7 to 10 days after the initial treatment as to eliminate any flea eggs that have hatched since. Treating fleas yourself is an uphill battle that you may not be able to get under control before cold weather sets in and best left to professionals. Call Brown today for a quote and to discuss your flea treatment.
Ticks
Ticks can be scary and some carry Borrelia burgdorferi, Lyme disease as well as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Virginia is home to four types of ticks; The Lone Star Tick, the American Dog Tick, the Deer Tick and the Brown Tick. Adult ticks have eight legs, but newly hatched ticks, in the larvae stage (seed ticks), only have six legs.
Deer Ticks are potential carriers of Lyme Disease. Brown Dog Ticks are not known to carry any disease in Virginia but Lone Star Ticks and the American Dog Tick can potentially carry Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Deer Ticks need to be attached and feeding for 36 hours before transmitting Lyme Disease to people. Initial signs of infection are an oblong rash about 2 or more inches in size with a clear blister like center at the site of the bite. Later symptoms are described as flu like; Nausea, fever, headache, joint stiffness. Left untreated, chronic symptoms can include arthritis and complications of the nervous system.
Lone Star Ticks and the American Dog Ticks need to be attached and feeding for 4 to 6 hours before transmitting Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever to people. First symptoms are usually a rash on the wrists and ankles (and spreads as time passes), severe headache, fever, chills, muscle ache, nausea and possibly vomiting and are noticed 2 to 12 days after the tick bite. To confirm Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever you will need a blood test. An early regimen of antibiotics will provide a high success rate of being cured.
Bed Bugs
Bed bugs are not necessarily a summer pest but bed bugs thrive in hot weather and people travel in the summer, the combination typically brings calls from people panicking about having bed bugs. Bed bugs are a manageable pest but do not wait to call. Early identification and treatment will save you the grief and stress of battling them yourself. Waiting can also allow them to move into living areas where your family spend time such as a den or living room.
Bed bugs hide in voids near where they feed and they feed on you. You may not feel a bite but you may recognize them along your body where your skin meets the sheet. You may be very sensitive and have a welt or you may not. A thorough inspection can quickly determine if they are bed bugs.
First inspect the mattress for bed bugs. They enjoy tight places so look along the seam or bead of the mattress. You may find live insects or the black spots like the one in the image of bed bugs. If you do not find this evidence start looking in the joints where the bed fits together. Bed bugs do not jump but are fairly fast moving, use a bright flash light. Adult bed bugs are not tiny and easily seen with the naked eye.
One mature female bed bug will lay between one and five eggs every day. In two weeks the eggs hatch and the newly hatched bed bugs feed. Once they feed, they molt and become bigger. They will do this 5 times in about 5 weeks before becoming mature and start laying eggs as well. If you do the math, 5 bed bugs can easily turn into 625 in 15 weeks, 3,125 bed bugs in 20 weeks. That is a bunch of bugs in four and half months. We offer treatments ranging from heat to chemical treatments. If you think you have an issue please call and we will inspect the area of interest free of charge.
Stink Bugs
Most people see stink bugs inside once the house is closed up for winter or in the spring. Stink bugs get in your house, for the most part, in the late summer as to have a nice warm place to stay for the winter. August is the month to start thinking about a stink bug treatment before they get into your home. The best stink bug prevention is to treat your structure before stink bugs begin to look for a place to winter in late summer. If they do not get in, they will not be finding a way into your living space once the weather turns cold or come out and find a there way to your interior windows in the spring. Call today as we can discuss stink bugs or any pest issue you may have.
Summer Pest Prevention Tips
Summer pests become a nuisance when they begin to make themselves at home in your home. The best practices to reduce summer pest infestations is to make the environment that they need to survive less hospitable. By removing food and water sources you can greatly reduce summer pest infestations.
- Keep gutters and roof lines in good repair.
- Keep soil away from wood and siding to reduce pest access.
- Eliminate damp conditions, increase ventilation under house.
- Seal openings at plumbing, electrical, and telephone line entrances.
- Reduce plant coverage around the foundation.
- Trim trees so they do not touch your home or business.
- Keep your grass cut, especially against your home.
Call Brown Exterminating
Call Brown if you have any pest issues in your home or business. We will schedule one of our trained and licensed technicians to inspect your property, identify the pest and provide you with options to manage your pest issue. We can provide immediate and long term solutions to keep your business or home pest free and safe from unhealthy or potentially damaging pests. We serve Rockbridge (Lexington, VA), Augusta (Staunton, Waynesboro and Fishersville,VA) and Rockingham county (Harrisonburg, McGaheysville and Elkton, VA) and provide free inspections. Call today.
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