Mice Eek! A Mouse in my House?

Lately I have had several friends, relatives and acquaintances talk about, post about, blog about, or call about mice.  Mice are a common pest.  The term common does not indicate welcome- in fact a mouse is often greeted with a shriek of terror.  Mice are attracted to homes, apartments, businesses, etc because of the available food source as well as the cozy environment and nesting material available.

The stereotypical assumption is that mice infest only messy homes is false!  Clean homes have all of the makings of an environment in which mice can thrive.  A clean home most often still has water, food and some sort of nesting materials (insulation, towels, blankets, clothes, material, paper, etc).  It can be harder to deal with a rodent infestation in a messy home, but clean homes and messy homes alike are susceptible to mouse infestations.  Mice are not a reflection on the cleanliness of the human inhabitants of a home.  That said, the earlier mice are dealt with the better.

Mice can cause a number of problems:

• The first problem is sanitation of food and food preparation areas.  If mice are getting into food, it is no longer a safe food for people to eat because of the bacteria associated with mice as well as feces.
• Another major problem mice can cause is compromised electrical wiring.  Mice can chew on and through cords and wires in a home putting the home at a greater risk for fire.
• Mice can tear up insulation and duct work.  The insulation can be a big mess to clean up and the duct work can be costly to repair depending on the extent of the damage and how easily the damaged areas can be accessed.
• Mice can ruin clothing, blankets, towels, papers, and keepsakes.  They will shred cloth and paper to make their nests.  Rodent feces and urine can also stain and contaminate many different types of items.
• Mice generally make a mess of the area they are nesting and can leave food and food trails around attracting other pests, such as cockroaches.

Now that you know what mice can do, you might be wondering, "What can I do to get rid of mice, or prevent an infestation."  There are a number of steps you can take.

1. Store all open food in sealed containers.  This goes for food of the human and pet varieties.
2. Keep important documents in a document safe or other sealed container that will be difficult for mice to get into.
3. Keep unused or keepsake clothing and linens in air tight storage.
4. Regularly check (or have someone brave check) your crawlspace, garage, etc.  If you hear scurrying or munching sounds I'd go with a professional inspection.
5. Bird feeders and bird food can encourage rodents.  I recommend not using bird feeders-- or choosing hummingbird feeders instead of typical bird feeders.

The steps listed above are not a guarantee that you won't encounter rodents in your home, but it will make it less likely and easier to get rid of mice if you do find them.

Micah Wood
peak-pest-management.com
Micah@peak-pest-management.com
503-998-4322
360-607-1933

Bees- Spring Has Sprung, Don't Get Stung!

It's spring and spring means flowers and trees start to bloom bringing allergies, bees, wasps and a number of pesky pests we said goodbye to for winter back into our lives!  Here in the Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR and the whole northwest, spring rain welcomes buds and blooms to flowers and trees.  Buds and blooms attract bees, caterpillars, aphids, and plenty of other pests to be sure.  If your backyard veggie patch or prize winning roses are attracting bees, here are a few tips to keep you from getting stung.

• Know your bees and wasps!  It doesn't hurt to have knowledge about the local bees and wasps so you know how to respond when you encounter them.  Bumble bees are fuzzy, lonely, cute and relatively harmless: yellow jackets (technically a wasp not a bee) are bare, travel in colonies, ugly and readily sting repeatedly.
• Don't panic!  Becoming fearful and swing your arms at bees makes you and those around you more likely to be stung.  If one person has been stung and it appears that bees are swarming move away from the area and indoors if possible.  When a bee or wasp stings, it releases a pheromone that can attract other bees and wasps to come to their aid to protect the territory.
• If you notice a bee nest in, on, or near your home or business, contact a pest control professional.  A pest control professional will be able to identify the bees/wasps and help you get rid of them.  A pest control professional will often have contacts in bee keeping for relocating honey bees and other beneficial bees to a safer place for the bees and for your family.  A trained professional is also skilled in getting rid of bees and wasps that are invading your home or business and nesting in areas that encroach on peaceful family life.

Here are some helpful safety tips for kids:

• Don't throw rocks at bees nests, even if they appear to be empty.
• Do not climb trees with bees nests in them.
• Don't swat at or flail your arms at bees.
• Don't panic and run around in circles when you see a bee.
• Avoid playing near garbage cans that are swarming with bees.

Remember a bee sting is painful to some and medically serious to others.  If you have a known bee allergy please follow your doctor's safety advice and carry the appropriate medications during the spring, summer and fall months.  If you have been stung and have significant swelling consult your doctor.  If you have severe swelling and/or difficulty breathing call 9-1-1 immediately.

Micah Wood

503-998-4322

360-607-1933
Micah@Peak-Pest-Management.com
peak-pest-management.com

Bed Bugs Bite in Portland, OR

 Pest Control might not be the first thing you think of if you ever heard the children's nursery rhyme growing up, "Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite...."  You may not have known that bed bugs are a REAL pest and bed bug bites are a cause for concern even here in Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA.  Before beginning my journey as a pest control professional I had a vague understanding that bedbugs were real but not a problem here in the northwest.  Growing up that might have been true for people my age (30-somethings) but Bedbugs have come back and they've come back with a vengeance.  Please be on the look out for my up coming horror movies Zombie Bedbugs Strike Back and Vampires vs Bed Bugs.  O.k.well honestly I won't likely be filming a movie, I'm helping people get rid of real live bed bugs.

Bed bugs are not cute!  And their bite is not funny!  Here are some facts about bed bugs:

• They are flattened oval shaped reddish brown insects.
• They have 5 life cycles and leave a molt of skin behind with each new stage.
• Adult bed bug are 4.5-5mm in length, nymph bedbugs are smaller and also lighter in color.  Bed bug eggs are white and tiny and very difficult to see without magnification.
• Blood Sucking Vampires Common bed bugs (Cimex lectularius)  feed on the blood of warm blooded humans and animals.
• Bed bugs commonly infest areas people sleep or spend long periods of time such as beds and couches or chairs.
• Bed bugs often infest in AND around furniture.  In some cases they are found infesting wall voids, baseboards and other areas.
• Bedbugs infestations and bites can cause physical and psychological reactions.
• Pest Control Professionals are capable of getting rid of bed bugs.
• Newer pest control methods are gentler on humans and harder on bugs.

Armed with information-- be on the look out.  If you stay in a hotel (or anywhere away from home really) look for bedbugs in and around the bed and other furniture before bringing your bags in.  Look for the bugs described above, as well as molts of bug skin, brownish/blackish circular stains and blood stains.  If you see bedbugs or signs of bedbugs talk to the hotel management about it and avoid staying in an infested room.  There are many other preventative measures you can take in traveling, but that is another post for another day.  For more information on bed bugs please visit Peak Pest Management's Website.

Here is a picture of a bed bug from bedbugs.org credited to Dan Wylie-Sears:

Courtesy BedBugs.org

Contact Micah
micah@peak-pest-management.com
503-998-4322
360-607-1933
peak-pest-management.com

Spiders: 5 Tips to Reduce Spiders Indoors

Spiders, let's face it, these creatures are creepy!  Spiders are a common pest control issue.  Pest control professionals in the northwest see and treat for spiders regularly about 10 months out of the year.  While there are far more virtually harmless spiders than there are deadly ones, the deadly ones give all spiders a bad name!   There is a reason this pest is featured on a specifically creepy holiday.  I don't know about your house but in mine, if a spider goes zipping across the wall (or floor, or ceiling) someone is shrieking at the top of their lungs (and no, it's not me)!  Luckily for my family, dad/husband is a pest control professional, so it is a rare occasion that a spider has the opportunity to enter my home!  Here are a few tips to keep your home free from spiders.

• Keep laundry and clutter off of the floor.  The longer a pile of laundry, toys, papers etc. sits untouched, the more likely it is that it will become home to a creepy crawly eight-legged beast spider.  Keeping laundry rotating through and up in laundry baskets or hampers is one way to minimize the draw.  Keeping toys in bins and papers filed also decreases common indoor dwelling areas for spiders.
• Regularly sweep and vacuum especially areas with less traffic.  Most people are pretty good about keeping regularly trafficked areas of the house swept and vacuumed because there is a constant reminder that it needs to be done.  It is also important when sweeping and vacuuming to make it to the dark forgotten corners of the hallways and closets, behind and under furniture, and any place that can be dark and forgotten for a long period of time.
• Regularly dust and remove cobwebs.  Regularly dusting and removing cobwebs and dust from furniture, in corners etc. much like sweeping and vacuuming is a way to keep under-trafficked areas of the home from becoming forgotten welcoming homes to spiders.
• Regularly go through and purge items that are sitting unused and keep stored materials in air tight containers.  Keeping stored materials loose or in bags and boxes is inviting not only to spiders but a wide variety of other pests.  Purge unnecessary items and papers on a regular basis. For those things that need to be stored for much of the time, choose air tight storage containers that are more difficult for spiders and other pests to inhabit and infest.
• Have a regularly scheduled spider and or general pest treatment indoors.  You may want to treat both indoors and outdoors if you live in an area prone to spider infestations.  If you have an array of unwanted pests and or spiders it is a good idea to have a regularly scheduled spider or general pest treatment with a local pest control company. Click here for coupons in Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA

With these few basic tips, you should be able to keep your home free from spiders.  Most professional pest control companies can schedule regular maintenance for spiders and general pests.  A maintenance is a good option for preventing future infestations from happening and keeping a maintenance schedule is often a much more cost effective option than waiting for a problem to get bad before making the call.

Sugar Ants and Pest Control in Spring

Spring in the northwest means rain!  And rain brings in sugar ants.  Sugar ants are also called odorous house ants in the pest control industry.  One way to know if you're dealing with this pest is by the smell given off when they are crushed.  Different people compare the scent to different smells-- where one person compares the smell to coconut; another may say it smells like urine.  Regardless of the scent, an ant that gives off an aroma or odor when crushed is likely an odorous house ant.

Many people wonder why sugar ants tend to appear after a rain.  The answer is simply that the rain washes away honeydew produced by aphids, which is a major source of food for these ants.  They are attracted indoors, out of the rain and often find a plentiful food source in kitchens and pantries of homes.  Sugar ants can eat a wide variety of human foods and are attracted, as their common name suggests, to foods with sugar.  Sugar ants also look for an area to nest and build their colony near food and water supply.  Sugar ants can colonize a very wide variety of areas ranging from under a piece of furniture, under/in a toilet seat, in cracks and crevices throughout a home etc.  Even outdoors sugar ants will colonize opportunistically under a rock, wood pile, alongside another ant colony, etc.  These ants are opportunistic and resilient.  A colony can be tricky to locate and can reproduce and grow pretty rapidly-- a queen ant can lay between 2-20 eggs in a day and a colony can have multiple queens..

A colony of sugar ants will range in size from 100-20,000 so you can imagine that it is probably a wise plan to seek a pest control professional right away to avoid a larger, irritating infestation.  Because sugar ants move indoors with rain, they are a very common pest here in the rainy northwest.  Often people choose to have a regular maintenance program for sugar ants simply because sugar ants are so common in many areas of Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington.  A maintenance program is a very cost effective way to manage sugar ants in the northwest.

While sugar ants do not cause structural damage to a home, they can contaminate foods in the kitchen-- nobody likes to pour a bowl of cereal, or scoop sugar into a cup of coffee with ants!  They can also be an itchy, tickle-y nuisance.

For Local coupons for Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR click HERE.

Local Pest Control: 7 Benefits of Choosing a Small Local Business

When choosing a company for pest control needs, there are several benefits for YOU when you go with a local business.  These benefits include better customer service, great attention to detail, more qualified employees, often on-call service, a business relationship, personal service, area specific expertise.  These things are important when it comes to a service that protects your home from pests and potential pest related damage.

1. You will get better customer service.  Customer service is important in the pest control industry because people have questions about services, products, pet and family safety, etc.  When you choose a small local company, not only do you usually reach a live person (as opposed to the frustrating push button menu) but you also have a higher likelihood of talking to someone who is actually a pest control expert and potentially even the same expert who will be coming to your house or business to perform pest control services.
2. Great attention to detail is something you can expect with a local small business.  A local company cannot afford to make the same mistakes that a larger company can absorb, so you are much more likely to have a pest control professional who is paying close attention to what he/she is doing throughout your service.  This means a lesser likelihood of property damage as well careful attention to the proper product measurement and application.
3. Small companies often hire and individually train employees.  Often they seek employees with more expertise and higher qualifications because the services need to be done well-- the first time.  Because of the higher qualifications and individual training, the pest control professional at your door is often highly knowledgeable and in tune with both the pest problem and the needs and wants of their customer.
4. Often with a local company you can get on-call service during hours when more corporate centered companies close the office.  Many local companies are more flexible with business hours and more understanding of your schedule and willing to work around it so that you can have quality pest control service when it is convenient for you.
5. With a local company, you can build a business relationship.  A local company is more likely to remember you when you call for another service.  A local company is also more likely to build a mutually beneficial business relationship with other local companies.  Some local pest control companies know and call local bee keepers for some jobs, as well local pest control companies often work with local construction companies, property management companies, vacation rentals, etc.  
6. Local companies are able to offer a personalized service.  To a small local company, each customer is important.  Often when you call a local company you will reach a live person who is happy and able to answer your questions and concerns.
7. It is also likely, with a local company, that training is completed locally and on the pests that are most common in the area they service.  It is also likely that the owner of the business (who is required to have specific training, education and testing) may be one of the Pest Control Professionals who goes out on service calls.

When it comes to personal, quality, affordable service-- generally a local pest control company is going to be your best solution!  Choosing local when it comes to pest control is about more than supporting the local economy through shopping local businesses.  Choosing local pest control is about choosing the service that will best suite your needs.