Pest Control Services

You spend a lot of time treating your grass and taking other steps to keep your yard in good shape, but you can’t seem to get your weed problem under control. A lot of people face this issue and don’t know what solution they should try to overcome it for good. 

Weeds will harm the look of your lawn if you don’t find a way to get rid of them, but they can also steal nutrients and water from your grass and the plants that you want to keep. If you would like to contain weeds before they get out of hand, learn about the most common ones and how you can address them. 

Crabgrass

Learning how to handle crabgrass is a wise step if your mission involves keeping your lawn at its best throughout the year. This weed will be a challenge to control if you don't eliminate it right away, but spotting and removing it in the spring will help. You can pull them up by the roots if you don't have a lot of crabgrass, but you can use an organic herbicide to treat large areas. 

Pigweeds

Pigweeds are a problem that your lawn will probably face in the late spring and early summer because they prefer a warm climate. Promptly pulling these weeds up from the root as soon as you discover them will make your job much easier. If pigweeds keep popping up in your garden and you need a viable solution, sprinkling some winter mulch will work wonders. With a little effort and a lot of vigilance, you should not have trouble keeping pigweeds at bay. 

Dandelions

Of all the weeds that you will battle in your quest for a green lawn, dandelions are among the most formidable. By the time they become visible, they have already established strong roots underground, so you will need to pull them up by the roots if you want to prevent them from coming back. 

While most dandelion seeds only travel about 30 feet from their source, ideal conditions will allow them to float for nearly a mile. You can make a lot of progress when it comes to reducing the number of dandelions in your yard, but getting rid of all of them is next to impossible. 

Pest Control Services

Dealing with weeds in your lawn can take a lot of time, and you won't always be able to handle the problem on your own. When you need to improve your results and take your lawn to the next level, you can't go wrong when you enlist the help of Pest Control Services. When you turn to our trusted team, we will provide you with a lawn of which anyone would be proud. We offer a number of specialty services, so be sure to give us a call and see how we can help!

Trying to identify an insect pest can be difficult at times, especially when looking at species as similar as termites and carpenter ants. The two groups are of similar size and shape and both tend to swarm around the same time of year, spring. Perhaps most importantly, both can cause significant structural damage to the home by wearing down wooden structures. However, there are several physical and behavioral characteristics that can help one distinguish between the two groups, making it easier to determine the best course of action for removal. 

Physical Differences

Color is often a helpful identifier, as carpenter ants tend to be some shade of red-brown, while worker and soldier termites are predominantly a very light cream color or even transparent. Color is not always helpful, however, as swarming termites tend to be similar in color to ants. Another way to tell the difference is the overall body shape of the insect. The last two segments of an ant’s body are clearly separated by a narrow area, often called a “waist”, while termites lack this obvious delineation. 

Other characteristics can be subtler but still helpful in identification. Both carpenter ants and termites have four wings during swarming, which are not present the rest of the year. Termite wings are all the same size, while the back pair of wings on carpenter ants are smaller than the front pair. The antennae are also distinct with ants having a clear bend in their antennae while those found on termites are straight.

Behavioral Differences

Perhaps one of the most apparent differences between these pest animals is what they are doing to damage the wood. Termites are capable of digesting wood products, which is relatively uncommon among animals, so the damage is caused by them eating the material. Carpenter ants do not ingest wood but cause damage by burrowing into it to create their nests. Small piles of wood shavings near holes are a sign of carpenter ants, since they push out the wood scraps rather than eating them. The wood chosen by the two groups can also vary, as carpenter ants typically seek out wet or rotting wood, while termites will even eat strong, fresh materials. 

The nest designs themselves are substantially different. Ants create very clean, smooth tunnels, but termite tunnels usually have a less finished appearance with some debris found inside. Another clear indication of termites is the presence of small tunnels of dirt and wood debris around the nest called mud tubes. Termites use these tubes to protect them when venturing outside the nest, as they must avoid drying out and typically stay out of direct light. Ants, however, can often be seen foraging in the open, even in bright rooms.

Bedbugs continue to plague the country as they spread out of control. It's difficult to keep them confined to a specific area since they're adept at hitchhiking to new locations. Once they're indoors, it doesn't take them long to move throughout a building and to infest every room. Bedbugs have a bad reputation, and we're here to bust certain myths that have spread over time.

3 Bedbug Myths

They only come out at night.

Though bedbugs are active mostly at night, they will look for a blood meal during the day. If these pests are in couches and other places where people sit, any movement could draw the bugs from where they're hiding. They'll feed day or night depending on when they ate their last meal.

They're only found in beds.

Bedbugs are found in many different places, such as in couches, between bus cushions, in carpets and behind baseboards. They can even hide behind the picture frames on the walls in a hotel. These bugs are great at hiding and will use most any crack and crevice to conceal their presence.

They don't transmit diseases.

Bedbugs have never been known to transmit diseases through bites. In most cases, people with insect-bite sensitivities only develop large welts and rashes. Other people may not develop any symptoms whereas others develop itching and sleeplessness. According to a recent study, Penn Medicine researchers found that bedbugs could spread a parasite that causes Chagas disease. This disease occurs mostly in Latin America and is spread through the bug's feces. This news makes the bedbug as threatening as the kissing bug, which is responsible for spreading the same disease.

Professional Bedbug Control

Bedbug infestations cause problems for businesses and residences across the country. They can infest everything from a house to a taxi and multiply by the hundreds in a few months. Without professional bedbug control, these pests will continue to infest your living space, increasing the risk of you carrying them to other locations. Pest Control Services provides residential treatments for bedbugs and will eliminate them from your home once and for all.

You're guaranteed one thing for certain every year: Pests will always try to invade your home. The pest population rises and falls each year depending on the weather. Increased rainfall means a boom in mosquitoes. Drier conditions mean more rodent infestations. If you're sure about one thing going into the New Year, it's that pests will be a problem in our area and across the country.

A 2018 Forecast for Pests in Our Area and Beyond

South and North

Warm temperatures and wet conditions will give rise to mosquitoes, ants and termites in the summer. During the winter, rodents and crawling insects will seek shelter indoors to escape from the cooler weather. These pests will linger indoors during 2018 and cause severe infestations toward the summer.

Midwest and West Coast

These regions experienced a warm and wet summer, which led to an increase in ticks, rodents, crawling insects and mosquitoes. Both regions are forecasted to have wetter and cooler winters. The residents who live here should be on the lookout for rodent infestations and higher mosquito populations, especially as the weather warms in 2018.

Pests in Our Northwest Service Area

The summer here in Idaho was hot and brought severe heat and drought to some places. The warmer weather and drier conditions increased the rodent population and sent the pests looking for new places to find water and shelter. The dry weather is expected to continue into the winter but bring about cooler temperatures overall. Mice and rats that have invaded homes will stay indoors through the winter and breed in the crawlspaces, the attics and other hidden places in your home.

Protect Your Home from Pests in 2018

You don't have to suffer through another year with pest infestations. A drier winter may send more rodents inside looking for water, food and shelter. As the temperatures drop, they'll stay inside where it's warm and they have protected areas in which to build nests. Pest Control Services in Idaho Falls has pest protection plans to keep insects and rodents out of your home. Our technicians can kill existing infestations and prevent recurrences throughout 2018.

It's the Thanksgiving holiday again, and that means it's time to put on the feed bag, to turn on the game and to relax for a long weekend. If you want to enjoy your holiday, you need to make sure that nothing ruins your special dinner. Pests are always on the lookout for food, and Thanksgiving is the perfect time for them to show up and cause problems.

5 Steps to Pest-Proof Your Home

Start with the lawn

Pests belong outside, but once their numbers have expanded, they spread out and invade your living areas. You'll want to mow the grass, to pull the weeds and to cut back the shrubs if you want to take out the pests' breeding and hiding spots. Maintaining your lawn goes a long way to keeping pest populations low and preventing insects from coming inside your home.

Seal cracks around your home

After maintaining your lawn, you'll want to seal up any cracks and crevices around your home. After all, those insects will look for places to go. Invest in some tubes of silicone or foam sealant, and plug up the cracks and crevices along the foundation and around windows and doors. Hard-to-spot gaps like those around dryer and attic vents should also be plugged.

Relocate the trash bins

Although it's great for you to keep your trash in covered bins, you should move them farther away from your home. If you keep the bins next to your house, it's easier for ants and other insects to find ways inside your home. Setting the bins near the road puts added distance between the trash, the bugs and your house.

Bees are amazingly active insects, and they seem busy all year in preparation for the brutal months of winter. Once the temperatures begin to drop, these insects seem to vanish from sight. Our clients ask questions about the hives they leave behind, and these questions are well-founded. Many hives appear to be empty or abandoned, so we get calls about these nests whenever the temperature begins to drop. People who observe this pattern year after year often wonder what happened to the bees, so this article will attempt to shed some light on the subject. 

As a general rule, we discourage anyone from removing them from the property before the hives can be disposed of in a safe and sanitary manner. Attempts at moving a beehive without professional assistance could be dangerous. It is clear that the bees have to go someone during the winter, and it is also clear that they are able to survive. Since they appear every spring, it is certain that most of the colony was able to withstand even the coldest months. The answer to this interesting question has to do with the unique ability of bees to survive as a group. 

Bee Clustering

Bees are able to survive the coldest months through an organization practice known as clustering. They will retreat to the innermost areas of the beehive and cluster around the queen bee in order to keep her warm throughout the winter. The survival of the entire hive depends on the ability of the worker bees to keep the queen from freezing to death, so this becomes the highest priority. The bees will also rotate in order to minimize the rate of death for the worker bees. The cluster must be able to keep this up for months at a time in order to survive. In regions where the temperatures drop far below zero, this requires a tremendous amount of energy. 

Energy sources for this activity are essential for the survival of the entire colony. As the bees move around, they will also produce body heat by shivering. This is an intense motion that also requires a lot of energy. To maintain the temperature necessary for survival, the bees will rotate and shiver throughout the winter. This also requires huge amounts of energy, and this is supplied by the honey collected all throughout the year. 

The summer is without a doubt the busiest time of the year for pest infestations. But just because football season is back doesn't mean the pests have gone away for good. In fact, because of the cooling temperatures, many pests start to seek shelter to protect themselves from the winter ahead. And that means scurrying into your warm and cozy home. 

With that said, here are three pests to look out for this fall in Idaho Falls.

Bed Bugs

If you travel often and stay in hotels, a bed bug is a pest you need to worry about. That's because you can easily bring one home with you on clothing or in luggage. And it only takes one bed bug to turn into a major infestation. 

The bad news: Bed bugs will bite and drink a few drops of your blood while you're sleeping. The good news: You won't feel its bite, and you don't have to worry about a bed bug transmitting any type of disease to a human. 

When a bed bug bites, it might cause swelling and redness. But nearly half of the homeowners who suffer a bed bug bite report not seeing any evidence of it. To relieve itching, you can use antihistamines or corticosteroids. 

Although the most common spot to find bed bugs is in or around your mattress, you can also find them in sofas, chairs or behind wall paper. When trying to eliminate bed bugs, you need to search through every corner and crevice. Simply throwing an infected mattress away won't help; you need to contact pest control for complete extermination. 

Cockroaches

OK, so everyone knows what cockroaches look like. It's likely you've seen a cockroach at one time or another. Once your home becomes infested with this pest, it can take a prayer and a miracle to get rid of it for good. That's because cockroach populations multiply quickly, and they're also extremely adaptable to any environment.

Although there are more than 4,000 species of cockroaches, only 30 of them can live among humans. In Idaho Falls, there are four species that homeowners need to worry about: American, Asian, German and Oriental cockroaches. 

Cockroaches are nocturnal pests that can live up to a month without food. If needed, they can survive by eating everything from booking bindings and furniture to glue and shoe linings. Each egg case includes 30 to 50 eggs.

Hobo spiders originated from Europe and derive their name from the method that they use to travel to new places. They are an aggressive species of house spiders. These spiders are common in Idaho and throughout the Northwestern part of the U.S., and their reach is spreading. If you see one of these spiders in your home, you may want to schedule an inspection with Pest Control Services Inc. so that we can help you to rid your home of these spiders and to take preventative measures to keep them from coming back.

What Hobo Spiders Look Like

Hobo spiders are brown and are between 11 and 14 millimeters long. Male spiders have an appendage that is swollen, and females have slightly larger abdomens. They have oblong abdomens with posterior spinnerets that you can see from above. These spiders have a dark band down their midline, and they are sometimes confused with brown recluse spiders.

Dangers Posed By Hobo Spiders

Hobo spiders will bite if they feel threatened. People who are bitten by the spiders may develop pain and redness. Some people believe that they cause necrotic lesions, but experts do not believe that they do. Instead, experts believe that brown recluse spiders are the likely culprits when people develop those types of lesions.

Signs That You Have A Spider Infestation

Hobo spiders build webs that are in a funnel shape with openings at both ends. One end will expand outward into a slightly curved sheet. Male spiders wander in a hunt for mates from June to October. Because of their wandering habits, male spiders are likelier to come into contact with humans and to bite. If you see these spiders and the funnel-shaped webs, you may have a hobo spider infestation.

Preventing Hobo Spiders

To keep hobo spiders out of your home, seal all of the exterior cracks on your home. You should also make certain that all of your doors and windows have screens. Keep clutter picked up from the floor so that they don't have places to hide. Be careful when you are moving boxes as they may scurry out. Try to keep your basement and garage as clutter-free as possible. It is also important to try to keep these areas dry.

If you have trees on your lawn or on your property that appear to be diseased, tree spraying may be a good option for helping them to survive and become healthy again. Fruit trees may be especially prone to diseases and infestations. In order to save them, it is important that you understand what type of sprays to choose. Evergreen trees may be susceptible to several types of fungus, and crabapple trees may develop tree scab. The only way to choose the right sprays is to correctly identify the disease, infection or infestation that is occurring to your trees. Getting help from the experts at Pest Control Services Inc. can help you to restore your trees' health and save them.

What Is Tree Spraying?

Tree spraying involves spraying your trees to protect them from diseases and insects. The particular chemicals that are used and their timing depend on the diseases and insects that have been identified and the correct timing for spraying. Because different botanical diseases and pests have specific life cycles, the timing of spraying is very important in order to do so during the right windows of opportunity. Some diseases or pests will require a series of sprays in order to control and eliminate them.

How Is Tree Spraying Used?

Tree spraying is used to save the life of your trees when they are already experiencing identified fungal infections, diseases or insect infestations. Our pest control experts will inspect your trees to identify the types of diseases or insect infestations that your trees are experiencing. The experts will then spray them using the correct formulations to provide immediate relief.

The Benefits of Tree Spraying

Spraying your trees may be a good way to treat diseases and infestations that have been identified. The type of spray and its timing is important, and the benefits of spraying must outweigh the potential harm of spraying the chemicals. When the right sprays are used, then they may help to save your trees by offering them immediate relief from the diseases or infestations that are ailing them.

If you have trees on your property that appear to have diseases or to be infested with insects, it is important for you to get professional help. The experts at Pest Control Services Inc. can help to identify the disease, fungal infection or insect infestation that is causing problems to your trees. They will then select the chemicals that are most likely to offer your tree benefits. Call the experts at Pest Control Services Inc. if you need help with protecting your home and property from pests.

As the summer months approach, backyard barbecues and stunning landscapes beckon. However, an unkempt, dried-out and weedy lawn won't win you any style points with your neighbors. If you want your lawn to be the envy of the neighborhood, you'll need to follow a strategy to help your grass look its best.

Use Good Watering Practices

Watering your lawn properly requires more thought than just turning on your sprinklers. Most lawns need about an inch of water each week to stay hydrated. You can use a rain gauge to monitor how much you've watered your lawn. If you notice that the grass blades in your lawn are beginning to curl or wilt, you probably need to increase the watering frequency.

Watering your lawn in the mornings or evenings will help you avoid wasting water to evaporation. If you have automatic sprinklers, it's easy to set a consistent watering schedule. If you need to manually water your lawn with portable sprinklers, use a timer so that you don't forget about your sprinklers and overwater your lawn.

Mow Your Lawn With Care

Adhering to a few basic mowing techniques can help your grass stay healthy and green all summer. Before your first mowing session of the year, make sure your lawn mower is in excellent condition by sharpening the blades. Once you're ready to start mowing, don't try to mow your yard down to your desired height all at once; mowing more than the top third of the grass can weaken the roots.

Be sure to schedule your watering so that you won't be tempted to try to mow your lawn while the ground is wet. Wet grass tends to clump together and may be uneven after you cut it. Cutting your lawn while the ground is too dry, such as in the middle of a hot summer day, can cause too much stress to your lawn.

Weeds are a problem that every homeowner who cares about having a pristine lawn never seems to fully eliminate. When yards are not taken care of in the proper way, weeds will begin to appear and quickly overtake a beautiful lawn. Unfortunately, the consequences of failing to keep a lawn in good shape can be more severe than many homeowners realize. Some cities have enacted ordinances that fine homeowners who fail to maintain a specified concentration of grass on their land. Moreover, the cost of replacing a ruined lawn with new grass can be expensive since existing grass has to be ripped up, additional nutrients have to be brought in, and new sod can be costly.

How Weeds Form

Weeds often appear on their own in unusual places, so people often wonder how these weeds got there in the first place. Unlike with other plants that drop seeds near themselves, the seeds that create weeds often travel great distances before arriving at their final resting point. Seeds for common weeds, such as dandelions, chickweeds, and thistle, can move significant distances through flowing water and gusts of wind. Blades of grass can trap seeds flowing through the air, and this can result in weeds forming once these seeds touch the soil.

Consequences of Ignoring Weeds

Some homeowners live with the mistaken belief that they will not have to face any consequences if they ignore weeds forming on their lawn. It is important to remember that the land surrounding a home was originally populated with trees, ferns, and fields full of weeds. When grass is not protected from nature, weeds will gradually overtake all of the grass until they completely saturate a lawn. Even if a property is large, homeowners should be sure to take at least some simple measures, such as using fertilizer and killing off the largest weeds, to prevent weeds from taking over their lawn. If a large lawn has to be replanted, the cost of such a project can be astronomical.

Best Ways to Eliminate Weeds

One of the most effective ways to eliminate weeds is to make use of fertilizer on a regular basis. Many fertilizer manufacturers recommend using their products at least two times per year, and this can be sufficient in most cases. When there are large weeds present, weed-killing pesticides can be applied manually to an individual weed to remove it. Pesticides can be necessary when weeds with large leaves begin to crowd out grass and cause significant damage to a lawn.

Pest Control Services

Pest Control Services helps homeowners in southeastern Idaho eliminate pests that threaten to destroy a beautiful lawn. Get in touch with Pest Control Services to start taking control of your weed problems today.

A vigorous green lawn increases the curb appeal, value, and livability of your home. In addition to sufficient water and correct mowing techniques, the right fertilizer is an essential part of proper lawn care. It will help create a lush carpet of grass that is resistant to weeds and pests. There are several factors that you should consider when selecting a fertilizer for your lawn.

The three major nutrients in fertilizers are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The percentage of each fertilizer by weight is listed on the front of the container as a row of three numbers separated by dashes. Listed first, nitrogen is considered the most important of the three ingredients. It is recommended that you apply 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of lawn. The higher the first number, the less fertilizer you will need to apply. Although the nutrient is essential, too much can also cause a variety of problems. The second number listed is the concentration of phosphorus, and the third number identifies the ratio of potassium contained in the product.

Fertilizers may contain fast- or controlled-release formulas. Typically recommended for most applications, time-released particles feed your lawn for an extended period and promote a uniform appearance. They are usually more expensive. Fast-release nutrients provide a swift boost so that your lawn will become green quicker. Applying too much can burn your lawn. Freshly seeded lawns usually require fertilizers that are high in phosphorus. Fertilizers are designed for application for specific seasons. In addition to the time of year and lifecycle, the most appropriate fertilizer for your lawn depends on the type of grass and the condition of the soil. The fertilizer formula may include a broadleaf weed killer or herbicide, which also determines when they should be applied and in what quantity. A professional lawn care team will identify your needs and apply the right formula at the correct time for the best results.

Despite your hard work, pests can still damage the appearance of your landscaping virtually overnight. It is important that infestations be eradicated as early as possible. While there are several consumer-grade pest control products available, many of these agents are not effective because they use a generic approach. The best way to eradicate pests is to entrust the work to a professional who utilizes a focused strategy based upon the pests actually present. This minimizes the risk of applying too much or too little pesticide. It is also essential to know when to apply these agents. Our team of professional exterminators has the expertise to identify the pests infesting your lawn and implement an effective solution. Contact us if you would like additional information or a complimentary no-obligation estimate.