Carpenter ants are some of the most aggressive wood destroyers found in nature, but it’s incredibly important to know that carpenter ants don’t eat wood for food. Rather, they simply tunnel through wood to enlarge their nest — but this excavation can be extremely costly and expensive to homeowners. In order to get rid of carpenter ants, you should only use bait or non-repellent insecticides. Read on to learn more about how to get rid of carpenter ants in the house.

Don’t spray without thinking

Simply spraying exposed ants without thinking about the consequences may actually exacerbate the problem. Many chemical repellents and insecticides will force the ants to simply avoid the sprays. If you find the nest and spray close to the nest, the queen may actually split the colony into multiple satellite nests, making ant control very difficult.

You also want to make sure that your problem is actually carpenter ants, rather than termites. You can find this out by checking the frass, or small piles of excavation material. These small piles should have dead ant material and small wood chips and should not be confused with sawdust or drywood termite fecal pellets.

Baiting the ants

Bait is one of the most effective carpenter ant solutions. You should apply these baits in small quantities (like a teaspoon) near the nest and then check it periodically to see whether or not the ants are still eating it. As long as the ants keep on taking it, keep on replacing the bait since the colony may have thousands of ants.

Alternatives to bait

You can also use non-repellent spray insecticides or dusts. The ants will crawl through the dust or spray without realizing it and eventually, within a week or two, die off.  It’s imperative that these alternatives are non-repellent so that the carpenter ants aren’t forced to begin satellite colonies.

Ultimately, if you have a significant problem with carpenter ants, you should professional pest control company to get rid of your carpenter ant problem. TalkLocal can connect you with a high quality local pest control expert in just minutes, so you can have this ant problem wrapped up as soon as possible.

A common question asked when dealing with termites and infestations is “Are pest control services worth the money?”  Although pest control service costs can be high, sometimes they are necessary.  If you’re experiencing significant pest problems, we recommend you hire a professional and get the job taken care of as quickly and easily as possible.

Considerations

–  Infestation

If you notice a small infestation occurring in a specific region of the house, you can probably take care of the problem at home on your own.  A small infestation can be treated by pest control products sold to homeowners.  These are usually sold at stores such as Home Depot or Wal-Mart.  With a huge infestation, or if the pests are in multiple areas, a pest control professional is your best bet.  To completely eradicate a huge infestation, time and expertise is needed.

–  Risk

A lack of expertise when it comes to pest control can put your children and pets at risk.  Pest control products are usually not suitable for children or pets.  Without knowing where or how to apply the product safely, this could end up being a danger to your household.  Pest control services know how to apply pest control products safely.  Another risk can be allergies.  With children who suffer from allergies, hiring a professional is the best way to go.  These professionals know how to accommodate your  family in these specific situations.

–  Product Access

Pest control services have access to stronger pest control products which can be dangerous when applied by a non-professional.  Like we said before, home products are OK for small infestations, but usually do not have the strength to tackle large ones.  Pest control services also have access to better equipment to apply pest control products such as high powered sprayers.

Pest control may be costly, but may actually save you money in the long run by efficiently and quickly exterminating your home.  If you decide to hire a pest control professional, use TalkLocal.  TalkLocal can connect you the best professionals in your area within minutes.

So, you’ve discovered that your poor feline friend has fleas. You may be asking yourself  “What should I do if my cat has fleas?” Unless you favor natural flea remedies (that are not always successful), it is important to make a visit to the vet. The veterinarian will be able to provide potent flea medicine for your cat, so your pet can start feeling better in a few days. In the meantime, you can use some of these at-home methods to relieve your cat.

Treat Your Cat

–  Fill a spray bottle with equal parts vinegar and water. Spray your pet to temporarily relieve them of fleas (be careful around your pet’s face).

–  Put your pet in the bathtub and administer hydrogen peroxide to your cat’s coat. The fleas should drop off your cat and into the tub.

–  Brush your cat with a flea comb and kill the dislodged fleas by placing them in a bowl of detergent mixed with water.

Treat Your Home

The fleas can jump off your pet and onto furniture and carpet, so it is also important to follow up with cleaning even after your pet has been treated. Fleas that have infested a home can bite the humans that live there, so it is important to treat your home as soon as you discover the fleas.

–  Thoroughly vacuum your home and car. Vacuum under everything including rugs, furniture, etc.  Throw out the vacuum bag immediately after cleaning to ensure the critters don’t crawl back out. You can even hire a reliable carpet cleaning service directly through TalkLocal!

–  After cleaning, spray the house with flea spray.  Follow the instructions carefully and make sure to remove all pets and family members until it is safe to return.

–  Remember to treat your yard, especially the areas where your cat has roamed. Using a professional flea spray, treat your yard according to the instructions.

If you don’t want to remove the pests yourself, TalkLocal can connect you to a local pest control specialist within minutes!

Is mouse poison safe for dogs? Generally speaking, no, but it depends on the type you use. Regular mouse poisons are usually harmful for pets. Commercial rat poison leads to internal bleeding and death when ingested by a rat. For humans and dogs, ingestion of these poisons can also cause internal bleeding and death without treatment. However, there are some safe poisons that can be bought or homemade. There also some alternatives than using rat poison.

Safe Mouse Poison

There are commercial rat poisons on the market that are safe for all pets and humans. Eradibait is a natural rat poison which is safe to non-rodents due to its plant material composition. It kills rodents by capitalizing on their unique digestive system. The poison causes dehydration, which induces blood thickening and circulatory collapse. The mouse will then go into a coma and die. This particular poison is only sold in the UK and must be bought online. There are also other all natural, non-toxic rat and mouse products out there that you can purchase in the United States. You can find different types of safe mouse poisons on Amazon and have them shipped overnight starting at $10.95. There is also a homemade poison you can try that is made with baking soda. The homemade concoction kills rodents by causing an internal carbon dioxide build-up. Make this pet-friendly mouse poison following these instructions:

1.      Mix 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of baking soda in a bowl

2.      Place small amounts of the mix onto small plates

3.      Spread peanut butter or other food around the edges of the plates

4.      Put places into highly active rodent areas of the house

Alternatives

There are also many alternatives that can eliminate the mouse infestation without the use of potentially harmful rodent poisons.

1.    Live Traps- Live traps allow you to capture the mouse and dispose of it on your own. The downside, however, is that with large infestations, this may not be effective and may slow the process of eliminating them from the house. You can find and purchase mouse and rat live traps on Amazon and have them shipped overnight starting at $9.97.

2.    Kill Traps- Glue and snap traps can be used to kill rodents with only a minor risk of injury to your pets. Once again, the downside is low effectiveness and efficiency. You can find and purchase mouse and rat kill traps on Amazon and have them shipped overnight starting at $7.98.

If you’re still experiencing rodent problems after trying all of the methods listed above, you should consider hiring a trained professional. TalkLocal can connect you to several highly rated pest control professionals in your area within minutes. Simply enter a brief description of your service needs along with your location and availability, and TalkLocal will do the rest.

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Fruit flies don’t just happen. Chances are that you left out something, and that “something” has created an environment in which fruit flies can thrive. Fruit flies are small, but they come in large quantity — the sooner you take measures to stop them, the more effective will the treatment will be. This guide includes many ways to get rid of fruit flies.

What to Do

The most obvious, yet most effective, way to get rid of fruit flies is to get rid of exposed food — after each meal, put everything in the fridge or seal everything air tightly. Needless to say, flies will fly away and look for a new place to move if they don’t have a food source. Empty your trash can often to avoid flies getting there, too.

Wait a couple days to a week in order to see significant improvements. If you find that that there are still flies in your house, find the area in which they hang around the most — just keep a track of the particular places in which the flies bother you the most.

Backtrack to the locations and identify the problem — why would the fruit flies be hanging around there as opposed to other places around your house? Is there a rotten fruit between the gaps between the furniture? Something under the sofa? A trash can that needs to be taken out? Identify and fix the problem.

There is another easy and effective method you can use to move the flies out of your home, as well as limiting the supply of available food to the flies: place an appealing “bait” away from your home (outside the door).

This way, fruit flies will spot the fruit outside your house in the open but will have trouble finding food inside since you have limited their access to a food source. That means that the flies will move outside and take up nest outdoors — away from your home.

Gradually move the bait further and further away from your house until you feel as that you are safe from all the flies – in which case you will stop feeding the flies and leave them out for good. Although this is not a quick fix, it is effective.

Additional Help

You may find that you want to consult a professional on ways to get rid of fruit flies. TalkLocal can help with finding the correct local experts in this case, saving you time and energy in what may be a stressful situation.

Spiders are often despised creatures. They have four times the amount of legs that humans have, they can crawl faster than some people can run, certain species have poisons that are extremely harmful to humans, and they find ways to put their spider webs everywhere. So it’s easy to see why few people like spiders.

If you want to get rid of a population of spiders, there are a few different ways of doing it, some more humane than others. Some people prefer searching for the nearest can of chemicals, killing the spider while also littering your home with toxic chemicals. If you want to know how to kill spiders naturally, keep reading.

The first step in killing spiders naturally is to first start the prevention process to ensure that additional spiders don’t make their way into your home. Clean any spider-prone areas such as garages, closets, under beds, along door frames, and any place with cardboard (spiders LOVE cardboard because of its wood component). Also make sure not to leave anything like towels or clothing where a spider could find refuge. Next, try and seal any cracks into your home where spiders may be able to enter your home. Next, use citrus-scented anti-bacterial spray in places where spiders may enter your home. This is an additional prevention step to ensure no spiders make their way into your home.

Now that the prevention step is taken care of, the next step is to start eliminating any spiders that remain in your home. There is a naturally occurring ingredient called diatomaceous earth that is safe for both humans and animals to ingest, but is extremely harmful to bugs and spiders. When bugs or spiders walk through the diatomaceous earth, their skeletal structure starts to disintegrate. So to get rid of the spiders in your home, sprinkle this ingredient around places where spiders seem prevalent or where they may be. You can also place some of this outside your home to keep them from coming in. You can find these ingredients at most home improvement stores, typically within the gardening section.

Glue boards and sticky traps are also an effective way of capturing and killing these spiders. Place these all around your house where spiders seem to be the most abundant. Another tactic is to purchase an electronic bug repellent that sends out a high-pitched tone to repel spiders and bugs. These can also be found in home improvement stores.

If you have attempted all of these methods and still find spiders entering your home, it may be a good idea to call in a pest control specialist to take a look for you. If you need help finding such a specialist, consider using TalkLocal to find a capable pest control specialist for you. TalkLocal is a free service that will connect you with top-quality, pest control service companies in your neighborhood within minutes. Just enter in your specific problem, location and availability, and up to three companies will call YOU directly, saving you the time and stress of finding one yourself.

Bed bug infestations seem to come out of the blue, so you might be wondering where do bed bugs come from? You are a happy sleeper one night, then you are covered in bites the next night. They dwell in dark places, so this may explain why you have more bites where your clothes fit tighter, such as your pants waistband. You may be wondering how the bed bugs were able to invade your home in the first place, but there is not necessarily someone to blame. Bed bugs are transported from other infested locations into your home, so this means a bug latched onto a member of your house and entered your home. There is not a practical way to avoid bed bug infestation without closing yourself off from the outside world. Bed bugs tend to infest public places like hotels, motels, and even movie theaters. Public sitting areas are a prime spot for bed bug transportation because they can live on furniture and jump from person to person!

The best way to keep bed bugs away is to examine your surroundings when staying at a new place, such as a hotel. If there are rust-colored spots on the sheets, this is a sign of bed bugs. During the day, bed bugs are usually within five feet of the bed, so keep your luggage and clothes elevated. Upon returning home, inspect your clothes to make sure you are not bringing any home. Stick your clothes in the dryer for fifteen minutes to kill any bed bugs you may have missed. To keep your home clean, wash your sheets regularly and tidy up. The less clutter you have, the fewer places there are for bed bugs to hide. When inspecting your home, remember to check cracks and crevices that do not receive much light. If you need help finding an exterminator in your area, TalkLocal will help you find a qualified exterminator in minutes!

If you’ve ever been stung by a wasp, you know that having a wasp’s nest in your yard is a big problem. Wasp removal can be tricky, but knowing the correct strategy for the right type of wasp will help you successfully remove these pests. Learn how to get rid of wasps with the tips we’ve provided for you below.

It is important to distinguish the two types of wasps: solitary and social. The solitary wasp is usually very docile with a very long, thin body and waist. These wasps are not territorial and rarely sting. They are actually considered beneficial in the gardening sense because they prey on garden pests such as aphids and beetles. To remove solitary wasps, simply fill a spray bottle with citrus oil extract. A quick spray will kill these pesky solitary wasps on contact.

Social Wasps

The United States has three common types of social wasps: paper wasps, bald-faced hornets and yellow jackets. Social wasps have nests and are usually the kind of wasp that people want controlled.

– Paper Wasps: These are the most docile of the social wasps and are usually only considered pests in high traffic areas. They build intricate nests, much like the honeycomb, without an outer shell like most bee and wasp nests. To remove paper wasps, purchase a can of pressurized wasp killer and spray the nest in a sweeping motion during the night.

– Bald-Faced Hornets: Hornets are fearsome looking, but are usually not looking for trouble. They live in aerial nests and tend to be less aggressive than yellow jackets. To get rid of hornets, you should also use a can of pressurized wasp killer to spray the nest from a distance during the evening. Bring a flashlight, too, if you’re not certain where the entrance to the nest is.

– Yellow Jackets: Yellow Jacket wasps are extremely territorial and aggressive. Their thick waists and bright yellow patterns easily identify them. The best way to get rid of yellow jackets is to identify the nest and then pump enough poison into the nest to kill all of the wasps in one shot. Obviously, this is easier said than done. To find the nest, you should wait until dusk when all the yellow jackets will be returning to the nest. You can pick out the high amount of flying insect traffic in the evening sun. Once the nest is identified, use a can of non-projectile wasp killer to spray the nest later at night. Spraying the nest at night means there is less of a chance that the wasps will come out to fight.

Before spraying any nests it is a good idea to wear gloves and multiple layers of clothing to avoid stings. Move slowly around the nest because sudden movements can attract attention.

Nest Removal

Once you are sure all the wasps have been killed, you can safely remove the nest. For underground nests, it is probably safe to fill the nest with dirt and gravel. You can knock down the nest if it is aerial. This should end your wasp problem until the next migration cycle.

If you’re consistently experiencing problems with wasps, you should consider hiring a trained professional to eliminate the problem. TalkLocal can connect you to several highly rated pest control professionals in your area within minutes. Simply give us a brief description of your service needs along with your contact information and times available, and TalkLocal will do the rest.

Camel crickets, or cave crickets, are often found inside homes, garages, and sheds. They are about 1/2 – 1 ½ inches in size and unlike field crickets, they do not chirp. Since they do not make noise, you may not realize the crickets are in your home until you find them or their fecal droppings. Camel crickets are not dangerous, but their droppings are unpleasant and they may chew on clothing if trapped inside a building with a limited food supply. If want to know how to get rid of camel crickets in your house, try the following tips:

– Camel crickets will enter your home, shed, or garage through holes and cracks. Walk around the exterior of the structure and fill any of these openings with caulking material. Silicone caulking will also keep out moisture, a cricket-attracting element.

– Install weather stripping material around the bottom of the baseboards of your home and your garage door. Weather stripping will prevent the camel crickets from slipping under the cracks of your baseboards and underneath your garage door.

– Use a dehumidifier in any rooms where you have previously found camel crickets. Crickets actively seek out moisture, so this will dry out the area.

– Set sticky traps in areas where you have previously found the crickets. Set that traps in the corner of room and behind furniture. Check them daily and dispose of used traps.

– Keep any mulch at least 12 inches away from the base of your home. Camel crickets are attracted to the moisture within the mulch, and they are more likely to enter your home if the mulch is close by.

– Spray the outside of your home, shed, or garage with insecticide. Make sure to spray the entire perimeter of the structure.

Need professional help? TalkLocal will connect you to reliable pest control professionals in no time!

Nobody likes to see their pets suffer from irritating fleas. Even more concerning is that fleas don’t only live on your pets, but also on the carpet, furniture, and pet bedding in your home. If you would like to avoid chemical-filled pesticides on your pets and around your home, consider trying these home remedies for getting rid of fleas in the house.

Pieces of Flea Collar

To repel fleas from furniture and pet bedding, cut a flea collar into four pieces and place them under the bedding or furniture cushions. To kill fleas inside your vacuum cleaner bag, simply cut up the pieces and vacuum them up into the bag.

Floor Washing

Wash your floor with a lemon solution to keep the fleas away. Combine the juice of four lemons (including the rinds) with two liters of water.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Combine two parts apple cider vinegar with one part water into a spray bottle. Step outside with your pet and spray its coat with the solution. This will not kill the fleas, but cause them to jump off of your pet. This a good solution for temporary flea relief for your pet. You should invest in a permanent solution for your bet though.

Stash Earl Grey Tea

Some pet owners praise the flea repelling powers of Stash Earl Grey tea. Tear open a few tea bags and spread the contents on the carpet. Vacuum up the contents after a couple of days and you should see a reduction in flea activity.

Dawn Dishwashing Liquid

Add a few drops of the blue-colored Dawn dishwashing liquid to your dog’s bath. Shampoo your dog well and rinse thoroughly to prevent skin irritation.

If these methods don’t work, contact a local pest control service using Seva Call. Just submit a request online with your service need, location, and availability to talk to a professional in minutes!