It certainly could attract termites for more than one reason, and you’re right, it’s not a good idea. Subterranean termites live in and move through soil, searching for a wood food source. Installing those flower boxes can let termites bypass any soil termite treatment and instead gives them a direct route into your home. THAT’S
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Essential Oils (EO’s) as biologically active (bio pesticides) have potential great promise as effective alternatives to traditional synthetic pesticides. Many essential oils have been shown to have insecticidal, fumigant, antifeedant, attractive, or repellent activities (Mossa: J of Environmental Science and Technology May 2016) There are 1000’s of these compounds that have been isolated and identified
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The past ‘pest’ season (2018) seemed to be another banner year for yellowjackets. Ground nesting species and those that seem to prefer to nest within buildings were very troublesome from late summer right up until November in my territory. Wait- there are different species of yellowjackets? Actually, there are dozens of species of yellowjackets in
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Right off the bat, I have a few questions: (1) Who “determined” that they were drain flies? Was a pest management professional involved in the identification? (2) How did you clean the drain? Soap and hot water, Drano, or an enzyme drain cleaner? Did you use a scrub brush? (3) Did you check for any
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It’s a sunny, late February day, blustery and cold (barely 20 degrees) and yet there are puddles from melting snow and ice in my driveway. Even though I’m a huge fan of the winter months I’m anxiously awaiting the start of spring. Its’ getting brighter earlier in the morning and staying lighter longer in the
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I suspect that the bugs you are seeing in early spring did not just wander in from outside. They’ve been in your house all winter. It sounds like your visitors could be western conifer seed bugs. These fairly large (3/4-inch) bugs feed on pines, spruce, firs, and hemlock trees. They are reddish-brown and their hind
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What evidence do I have to support that claim? One of my monthly accounts, a manufacturing facility, was alive with pavement ants (Tetramorium caespitum) the other day. It was a mild mid-winter day and activity was noted as ants were entering through expansion joints in the flooring of (you guessed it) the cafeteria. Overwintering insects
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March is right around the corner and I can’t help but wonder if we’ll get slammed with snow storms like we did last year. Or, maybe we’ll get a break this time and have an early spring like the famous ground hog predicted this year. As per usual, I’ll have plenty of projects to do
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Are you one of those people who believes that the answer to all indoor pest problems is a good bug bomb, or two, or six? In the pest control business, we call them total release foggers (TRFs) and we’ve blogged before on the fact that they really do not work very well. Bug “Bombs” and
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