Summer Pest Control in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York

Summer pests are not only annoying; they also threaten our health and property.

These prevalent summer pests can cause painful stings and carry diseases, as well as become a nuisance for you and your guests.

Recommended precautions to discourage some unwanted pests:

• Plan to serve food and beverages indoors, keep any food that must be outside under screened tents and try to reserve outdoor space for eating and entertaining.  This will help with summer pest control in CT, MA, RI, and NY.
• Keep food sealed in containers whenever possible and wipe tabletops frequently. Bring utensils and dishware indoors shortly after the meal. Rinse all beverage bottles and cans and dispose of them in tightly closed garbage containers.
• Mosquitoes feed on blood, causing painful bite marks and carrying diseases such as Malaria, Yellow Fever and Encephalitis. Remove or drain any sources of standing water in your yard that could be a breeding ground for mosquitoes including birdbaths, wading pools, or garden ponds. When outside wear insect repellent on exposed skin to prevent mosquito bites.
• Wasp stings can be painful and even send guests with allergies to the emergency room. Avoid decorating with fragrant candles or planting fragrant flowers that may attract wasps will help with Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York summer pest control.
• Ensure all doors and windows in your home have mesh screens that are in good condition and keep doors closed whenever possible so pests cannot enter your home. Make sure to seal cracks or small openings around the house.
• Make sure that firewood and building materials are not stored next to the home.
• Keep tree branches and other plants cut back from the house.
• Check yourself and your pets regularly for ticks.

Not only are some of these pests persistent and annoying, they can also cause health and safety concerns. Mosquitoes can transmit both West Nile Virus and Malaria among other diseases, ticks can spread Lyme Disease and ants, spiders, wasps and hornets can produce painful bite/sting marks and pose a larger threat to those who have an allergic reaction. If a person is experiencing an allergic reaction or signs of illness from an insect bite or sting, they should seek immediate medical attention.

Five helpful tips to avoid the top five summer pests:

1. Clean out all parts of your kitchen where food products are stored to ensure that there are no crumbs or spills. Keep foods like cereal, crackers and cookies in sealed containers. This eliminates the food supply that attracts ants, mice and cockroaches. Dust and vacuum regularly to prevent cobwebs and the spider that weaves them.
2. Many pests invade from the outside by way of vegetation that runs along side your home. Make sure all tree branches, shrubs and plants are trimmed back and that an ample barrier exists between your shrubbery and your home. Check for and seal off any holes on the outside of your home that might have been caused by winter damage. This will eliminate entry points for small pests such as mice, spiders, termites and ants.
3. Eliminate all sources of standing water around the home. Still, stagnant water attracts mosquitoes that can transmit harmful viruses. Also be sure to regularly check gutters, windows, grilles, porch lights, etc., for wasp and hornets nests to help with CT, MA, RI, and NY summer pest control. These stinging insects build nests in and around most solid surfaces outside the home.
4. Check yourself and your pets for ticks regularly before coming indoors, especially if you've been in high grass or wooded areas. If a tick has latched on be sure to completely remove it from the bite mark, especially its head. This can be done using a hot matchstick or vegetable oil.
5. If your pest problem persists, contact us to professionally eliminate the problem.

STINGING INSECTS 101:
A LESSON IN PREVENTION AND TREATMENT

It's that time of year again - unwelcome pests are putting a stinger in everyone's fun. Stinging insects are most active in the summer and early fall when their nest populations exceed 60,000. Some 500,000 people are sent to the hospital emergency room every year due to stings from insects such as Yellow Jackets, Honey Bees, Paper Wasps and Hornets.

Tips for preventing stinging insects and treating stings:

• Eliminate standing water and other sources of moisture in or around the home.
• Keep trash cans covered and sealed.
• When dining outside, keep food covered until ready to eat.
• If approached by a stinging insect remain calm and quiet. Avoid swaying or swinging, as this may provoke an attack.
• Avoid wearing dark colors and floral prints, loose-fitting garments, open-toe shoes and sweet-smelling perfumes or colognes.

A licensed pest professional will be able to use an integrated pest management approach around the home to inspect, treat and keep stinging insects at bay while giving homeowners the peace of mind they need to enjoy their backyards while the warmer temperatures stick around.

Flies, how bad can they be?

"Filth Flies" are aptly named. They breed in filth such as moist or decaying organic matter or excrement, and they feed by "spitting out" saliva and former stomach contents onto their intended next meal. After a few seconds they suck up the fluid they spit out, along with anything it might have dissolved.

Not a pretty sight! But what's worse is that they spread serious diseases.

Filth Flies love to invade our homes during the warm summer months along with other unwanted pests such as silverfish, millipedes and centipedes, Honey Bees, skunks and bats- although, hopefully, not all at once.

No, you don't want them around to ruin an otherwise pleasant summer.

They don't really cause significant damage to your house or business, but could cause damage to your health as it's very easy for Filth Flies to transmit diseases to humans.

Filth Flies - (there are about 200 species of them) - have been proven to spread more than 65 kinds of human diseases including leprosy, typhoid and several kinds of food poisoning.

Problems with humans arise when a fly feeds on a type of filth such as dung or garbage, then a few seconds' later lands on a sandwich or dinner plate intent on eating the same morsel we plan to eat. Both their hairy bodies and the habit of regurgitating some of their stomach contents when they feed, make it easy for Filth Flies to transmit pathogens to humans.

Sanitation and mechanical controls have the greatest long-term effect on reducing Filth Fly populations.

In an integrated pest management approach, the five basic steps taken for unwanted pests are: inspection, identification, the establishment of threshold levels, the employment of two or more control measures and the evaluation of effectiveness.

Bats

Biologists have identified 925 species of the scary-looking bat, one quarter of all known mammal species. The oldest bat fossils are 50 million years old and paleontologists assume bats had been flying around for a few million years before that.

The bat most Americans probably know best in the summer is the Little Brown Bat, which roosts in attics and barns and prowls for insects at twilight. Although their eyesight is better than most people think, bats routinely depend on their sonar-like location system to hunt flying insects.

Medical concern about bats is mainly the very small, but real, risk of rabies, which is found in less than 1% of the bat population.

The main situation in which humans are at risk is when the bat is either sick or injured and falls down within a human occupied area or at least to within a human's reach.

Control of bats, within the continental U.S. and similar temperate regions, is mainly a combination of removal followed by exclusion.

Occasional summer invaders

Silverfish and their close relatives, firebrats, are small, wingless, tear-drop-shaped insects generally covered with, respectively, grayish or brownish scales. They hide in cracks during the daytime and become active after dark. They survive best in high relative humidity and at the higher temperatures of summer. Most feed on starches, sugars, and proteins they can get from book bindings, glazed paper, or similar sources, including dead insects. In the home, they may severely damage older books, papers, or other sweet or starchy materials in warm, moist, dark areas. They are often introduced into a home within cardboard or other paper products.

Another summer pest, millipedes, sometimes called "thousand- leggers" because they have 30 to 90 pairs of legs, are not really insects, but they can be pests. Their close cousins, centipedes, have fewer legs.

Most common centipedes rarely grow beyond a few inches but can grow up to six inches, which will scare young children and adults alike. Millipedes can grow up to about four inches long.

Honey Bee

While Honey Bees are among the most beneficial insects, they can be pests when they end up in our living space after they build hives in walls or in nearby bushes.

The problem is, Honey Bees can sting, and some people react violently. Worse, the much-publicized Africanized Honey Bees, or "Killer Bees," have now reached warm areas of the country and are moving further north each year.

By midsummer, Honey Bees reach very high populations. Interiors should not be fogged if Honey Bees are found because Robber Bees may reoccupy the hive, thus perpetuating the bee problem. Instead, a professional Pest Elimination Service should be called to alleviate the problem with maximum care and minimal risk to the occupants.

Skunk

An especially stinky pest in summer is the skunk. In the suburbs, skunks frequently set up housekeeping under decks and in crawl spaces where they raise their litter of four to six young, which are born in the spring. In the human environment, skunks will feed on garbage or pet food left outside.

As with all mammals, skunks can carry rabies. As always, homeowners should leave the control of skunks to a professional pest management company.

You can read more information about why to choose Guaranty on our pest advice page. We have pages about how to prepare for spring, summer, fall, and winter pests and termite elimination. Look at the service areas we cover and read our customer testimonials to see what they are saying about our services. We offer both IPM and pest elimination services. We also use Dow-Agro Science’s Sentricon Termite Colony Elimination System, now with “Always Active” baited stations. We also exterminate pests such as ants, wasps, bed bugs, rodents, cockroaches, and many other types of nuisance pests.

Contact an exterminator at Guaranty for help with Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York summer pest control at 1-800-727-4445 or use our email form and contact us today!