Yearly Pest Service Vs. One Time Service

Yearly Pest Service Vs. One Time Service

Everything breaks down and, at some point, everything needs to be fixed or maintained. But there are some things in life you can do one time, and you’re good for a while; like weatherproofing your back deck or getting your driveway repaved. For most of us, getting a health check-up is not something that has to happen on more than an annual basis, and, if you’ve replaced old, leaky windows with new windows, you probably don’t have to revisit that issue for several years. These are problems that can be solved with a one-time fix–or at the very least–a once in a while fix. So, what is pest control? Is it a once in a while fix sort of issue? Or, is it something that has to be done yearly? The truth is, it is worse than you think.

Fully excluding bugs and wildlife from a home isn’t even a yearly issue. It requires year-round effort. These creatures never stop reproducing and they never stop encroaching. Your home is just another tree to build a nest in. The area under your deck is just another cave to make a den in. Your walls are food for termites and the soil around your home is no different than the dirt in the forest. Those critters don’t know that it belongs to you.

In fall, yellow jackets often come to overwinter in your eaves, and dozens of other bugs will slip through holes in your exterior walls–holes you don’t even know you have. In winter, rodents and cockroaches hide from the cold and forage in your pantry. In spring, a whole host of bugs seemingly come back to life in and around your home. Then, of course, there is summer, the time of year when every living creature is most active, searching for food and reproducing. Pests don’t take a season off.

Can’t I just seal my walls? If only it were that simple. Wouldn’t it be nice to just take care of all those holes once and for all? The problem is, holes that are letting pests into your home this winter might not have been there last winter. Homes decay and pests nibble. Worse than this, bugs don’t need much of a hole to get in. Sealing exterior walls may be an essential part of keeping pests out, but it is far from effective in and of itself.

If you want to fully exclude pests from your home, you need specialized knowledge, experience with the creatures that you are trying to keep out, and access to products that will protect vulnerable areas. You need a knowledge of pest habits and habitats, and you need to continually monitor pest pressures. That is why most folks turn to a professional pest control company.

Keeping pests out is not a one-time fix. It requires year-round service from someone who is educated in the field of pest control. If having a pest-free home is your goal, we can help. The expert team here at Russell’s Pest Control is trained and certified to get pests out and keep them out. When you’re ready to see how great life is without bugs and wildlife in your home, give us a call. We’d love to help you with that.

 

Insect Pests And Winter Weather

A good portion of the United States, including East Tennessee, went through a bout of unseasonably cold weather, with thermometers barely hovering above zero. But what does that have to do with pests?

You may have observed people speculating in conversation or on Facebook about what the cold temperatures will mean for insects in the spring and fall. A popular opinion has been that this weather means we will see fewer insect pests in the spring and summer. Is this true? The answer is “it depends.”

Some insects, such as stink bugs, lady bugs and certain types of ants, tend to invade homes during the fall. These pests look for warm places in preparation for winter, so they are less likely to be affected by any climate fluctuations since they’re already inside.

Pests like beetles, box elder bees, wasps, hornets, crickets, fleas, ticks, mosquitoes and others, are more likely to be sensitive to temperature changes. That’s because these insects burrow during the winter and lay their eggs in the ground. Extreme cold can kill off these eggs, which means fewer bugs in the spring and summer. However, the extent to which the polar vortex affected next season’s insect population is impossible to determine, as it depends on how deep the larvae are in the ground.

To sum it all up, there is little doubt that the unseasonably cold weather will have an effect on the number of insects we’ll face in the spring and summer. However, it’s impossible to tell how pronounced that effect will be.