Many older homes have cracks and holes that lead to mice and rodent.  This is especially the case during the winter.  This post offers a simple solution on how to close up those cracks and keep your home rodent free this winter.

Keeping rodents out is as simple as blocking those holes.  Copper Mesh can be used to seal off holes, cracks, and open spaces through which birds, bats, rodent would otherwise have an opportunity to enter through.

Parsons Pest Control offers Copper Mesh by the foot, so you can order as much or as little as you need.  Copper Mesh is perfect for sealing cracks in basement, roofs, and dryer vents.

Seal those holes up and make certain your home remains private to you and your family and free of disease carrying rodents like rats and mice.

It can be difficult and time consuming to control scorpions in and round a house, however it can be done. The first thing that must be accomplished is completely cleansing the inside of the house. Rigorously pickup all laundry and debris cluttering the floors. Clean the toilet and kitchen cabinets out, as well as, the closets and other rarely used spaces. It’s smart to deal with these areas whereas the are empty with insecticidal dusts equivalent to Drione Dust or sprays akin to Demon WP.

So what do scorpions eat? They eat bugs, so preserve the house insect free with indoor pesticides and with glue traps such because the EcoSafe Sticky Bug Trap. Glue traps are great at capturing bugs and likewise beneficial. Whereas they won’t kill scorpions, they will catch them. Scorpions feed on small spiders and smooth bodied insects. They will eat different species of scorpions and even small people of their own species. They have poor eyesight, so do not stalk or chase prey, however lie in waiting to seize it with their pincers. Small bugs are eaten instantly, however larger prey are stung and eaten after they stop to struggle.

To successfully management indoor scorpions, it’s essential to manage the scorpions outside the home. Sealing off the entire out of doors cracks on the home with caulk or one other sealant is very important. Additionally, lowering the variety of outside hiding places for scorpions is important. Remove particles resembling loose rocks, wooden, trash and other pointless things from the yard and across the home. It’s also beneficial to maintain the grass mowed quick and all shrubbery properly pruned.

Out of doors areas can then be handled with a residual insecticide of Demon WP, Demand or Talstar. Indoor areas such as crevices in woodwork, closets, round plumbing, doorways or windows, and different areas the place scorpions may hide should also be fastidiously handled with the same spray or dust. Non-residual or contact purposes of CB 80 may be helpful when rapid control is needed indoors.

Fruit Flies are most commonly found in kitchens.  They are those tiny flies you see flying around the sink area of your kitchen.  Here are some practical solutions for getting rid of fruit flies.

Remove standing liquids and any wet fabric or soft material.  Flush your drains and garbage disposals with drain cleaners (see recommended products below). Do this once every few hours for a while or partially plug the drain and fill the sink so the cleaners trickle down slowly and stay present in the pipes.

Empty your trash before it overflows and invest in trash cans with secure lids.  Check your dishwasher for grime collecting in the bottom and the filter. Refrain from storing dirty dishes in there until you’ve eliminated the incursion.

Search your cabinets and pantries for exposed foods.  Bags of potatoes, grains, and legumes that have become moist are all common culprits. Store fresh fruits and vegetables in the fridge until the fruit flies are eradicated.

Check under your refrigerator and other movable appliances and furniture for hidden spills and messes.  If you have an electric stove, lift up the burners as well as the entire top surface and check for spills inside.  Dry the surfaces in the sink when you are not using it.  Clean underneath your sink, look for leaks and soft, moist or rotting wood caused by leaks.

If the weather permits, relocate any potted plants or herbs outside and/or apply an insecticide that is safe to use on houseplants and edibles.

Dispose of or clean old towels and sponges.  Check the cracks between your kitchen appliances and the cabinets for anything that may have fallen between them.

Fruit Flies are annoying little guys, but by following the above recommendations you can rid your home of fruit flies pretty quickly.

Recommended products available at Parsons Pest Control to aid in the extermination of Fruit Flies include:

Catchmaster 100FF Fruit Fly Traps
Draingel
Invade Bio-Drain

Do you know there is a way to get rid of slugs in your pond naturally?  Frogs eat slugs.  Therefore, getting rid of slugs naturally is simply a matter of populating your pond with frogs.

The first step to protecting your pond from slugs is to find a source for frog eggs or tadpoles.  If you find frog eggs, you want to wait until they hatch into tadpoles.  It takes about a month’s time for frog eggs to turn into tadpoles.  If you don’t know how old the eggs are, I suggest you check back weekly.

Once tadpoles are present, capture as many as you can in a mason jar.  Make sure the mason jar has a little bit of water in it.  Take the tadpoles back to your pond and release them.

You don’t want fully developed frogs.  Frogs always return to the place where they developed from tadpoles into fully developed frogs.  Therefore, if you were to relocate fully developed frogs, they will only leave and go back to where they developed.

On the other hand, with tadpoles, you can count on an abundance of frog slug eating frogs to protect your pond for the long haul, because it will be their home and not only will they always return home, but they will multiply in numbers thereby reducing the number of slugs as they feed on them.

Step by Step Summary:

1. Find a habitat where frog eggs have been laid or tadpoles are present
2. If frog eggs, wait until they hatch into tadpoles
3. Once tadpoles, get a jar with water and catch as many as you can
4. Pour the tadpoles into your pond

This method of course takes a little time, because you have to wait for eggs to hatch, and then you have to wait for the tadpoles to develop into frogs before you can expect the slug eating to begin.

As far as getting rid of slugs in your garden, Parsons Pest Control has several products that are safe for eliminating slugs.  Click here to see what we have.

Rodents are a year round problem, but they become especially problematic during the winter months.  A warm home with food is their number one objective and they do not discriminate.

Your home can be neat and clean, but if the opportunity is there, mice will enter and it won’t be a problem for them to seek out a food source in the form of crumbs and accessible storage areas.

There are many preventative products that will help keep mice away or capture them before they gain entrance into your home.  For example, there are ultrasonic rodent deterrent devices that repel rodents as well as rodent bait stations that you can place around your home to cut mice off before they make their way into your space.

Those are just the tip of the iceburg.  there are many rodent control solutions, and the appropriate one for you will depend on your situation, concerns, and personal preferences.

In any case, there is something for everyone out there and you can begin your search at Parsons Pest Control.  We’ve been around for over 20 years.  Give us a call if you don’t know what’s best and we’ll be happy to lend you our expertise.

Winter is within sight, and it’s a good idea to start preparing for those pesky mice now.  Get the edge on them before they get the edge on you and start having babies in your walls and attics.

Parsons Pest Control has a wide variety of mice problems to suit your preferred way of controlling those little guys.  We understand that not everyone is keen on the idea of exterminating mice, and we have made sure to stock products that will allow you to remove mice without harming them.

On the other hand, we know that many people have such a hard time controlling mice that they must control their numbers in order to remain a sanitary environment.  Therefore, we stock products for such intentions.

Visit our rodent department at our online store and you will find what you need to keep your home mice and rat free this winter.

It is a pretty safe bet that any outside garden will have a Skunk stop by at some point.

A few ways you can tell if you have a skunk is of course the smell, a few others being sprayed pets or you find little funnel shaped holes in your yard. You can bet you probably have skunks. What they are looking for in the ground are grubs, and other sub terrain pest to eat. Skunks have the ability to hear them in the ground and they dig right where they are.

The best way to get rid of skunks is to deny them food. If you are feeding your pet outside, skunks are drawn to kibble.
Then you want to kill all of the pest that are living in the ground. The best way to do that is release beneficial nematodes. They will go down and eat the grubs, flea larva, beetle larva, termite larva. That seems to work very well.

If that doesn’t work and the skunk comes back and ends up spraying your pet. There is a sure fire way to get the smell out of your pet fast. All you need is 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide, a quarter cup of baking soda, and any grease cutting dish detergent, and mix it up so that it becomes like a shampoo. The mixture will cut through the grease that makes the smell, and your pet will be free of the skunk smell. Please make sure that you don’t store the shampoo the baking soda and peroxide will blow the lid off of any container.

If you have a skunk living under your house make sure you close every possible entrance under your house except one. Then at night sprinkle some wheat flour in front of the one remaining entrance and wait a little while. One you see little skunk prints leaving from under the house. Seal the remaining hole and that should make you skunk free.

Even though bats are good for the environment they can very quickly become a problem in your home.

Bats are good for the environment. They feed on the bad insects, on the mosquitoes and other bugs. But unfortunately the bats guano or feces is very dangerous

Bats sometimes get into our houses, all they need is a small opening normally a chimney or a vent of some kind will do. If bats do get into your home make sure that you screen everything up except for the whole where they came in. A funnel trap would be the best way to get them out aside from calling a pest control company to get rid of them for you.

The funnel trap is simply made of hardware cloth and at one end of it is a trapdoor. The door opens out and it’s a bit oversized so it will open out and it doesn’t open back in. You can make this very easily. Make it into a cone, open at each end, the small end should not be bigger than a quarter, then take a small circular section of hardware cloth that is cut a little bit larger than the small opening, wire that in so that it is a hinge, put that in your opening. Now you have a one way exit. They can only get out, they can’t come back in.

Make sure there are no bat babies because they will die and that will be a whole other problem.

Cleaning up from bats can be a chore, make sure you either have professionals do it or make sure you are wearing the appropriate attire to safely protect yourself.

Raccoons can cause many problems in your home. They can get into your attic, chimney, sheds and garages, and under your porch and are difficult to remove.

In your yard they can destroy gardens, steal pet’s foods and raid your garbage cans.  You can’t keep then out completely but you can eliminate reasons for raccoons to be on your property.

Fortunately there are many cost effective deterrence that you can use to get rid of Raccoons.

Sense Raccoons are primarily after food and shelter, removing those two things from your yard will prove to be very effective.

Using chicken wire to block off trash cans, gardens and small spaces that raccoons can get into (under porches or decks). It is much easier to prevent raccoons from getting in, then it is to get rid of them once they have found a comfortable place to live.

Even though these are good methods to preventing raccoons from living on your property. It is best to hire a pest control professional to rid yourself of these animals.

Cockroaches are the most disgusting creature that you can have in your home. The worst thing in the world is to see a Roach in your kitchen or your home period. And getting rid of then as fast as possible is ideal.

Here are a few less toxic baits, please make sure you put them away so your children and pets cannot get into them.

Dry bait is equal part sugar and boric acid. Put it in a cut up cup or dish that the roaches can get to, make sure you mix the two dry materials together as to mask the boric acid scent with sugar. The Roaches will find it, eat it, and they will die.

Sometime Roaches prefer a more starchy greasy bait opposed to a sweet bait, for that you will need a half cup of boric acid and an eighth of a cup of granulated sugar, to that you will add enough bacon dripping to make  a kind of dough. With that you make little dough balls that you can place under the stove, refrigerator, kitchen sink, any place you might see a roach. Again keep then away from children and pets.