A gecko or tarantula would better for controlling crickets than a cat.
How do you and your ilk feel about the way members of your profession are depicted in the characterization of Dale Gribble!
Also, what effect do chili peppers and oils have as deterrents for crawly creatures? Cedar?
Do things like fox urine and lion piss work for squirrels and rats and opossums?
Zhen’ka, crickets are usually controlled pretty well by judicious use of baits in crawlspaces, near boilers, in corners of the basement, wherever they seem to be congregating. Most home improvement stores would carry a granular bait that you can put it shallow containers such as paper or plastic plates and leave out for them (provided no pets or children are likely to get at it). Usually the active ingredient is boric acid, and the concentration is not high enough to create a hazard of accidental poisoning in larger animals. The granules can also be scattered around the foundation of the house on the exterior, which will help keep crickets and ants and millipedes and other crawlies out.
As always, read and follow label directions.
green_bladder, since I live and work in the northeast, we don’t really have that problem, so I can’t make a blanket statement. I especially can’t comment on what other states would consider pests. That being said, I do know that just because something annoys you, doesn’t classify it as a pest. Take ladybugs. From time to time we have a population explosion of these little beetles, and they get in peoples’ houses and annoy them. Our response? Sorry. They’re a protected species, considered a beneficial insect because they eat aphids. They don’t cause damage or injury. I cannot, according to the law, target them in an application.
j.c., you’ve hit on one of my personal pet peeves. Not just Dale Gribble, but the general TV or film depiction of pest control techs is one of a dirty, unwashed, uneducated, inarticulate Joe Six-Pack who either likes killing things or else just couldn’t do better for himself. While I do know guys like that, I like to think I’m an exception.
That being said, I enjoyed John Goodman’s character in Arachnophobia very much. He had his quirks, but he was likeable.
As far as chili peppers and such, I’m sure there’s an aversion factor there. It’s an irritant, and could act as a deterrent. I’ve seen products which claim to be environmentally friendly while still doing the job against bugs, and I’m inclined to believe they work. After all, pyrethrin, which is an active ingredient in many pesticides, is a derivative of the chrysanthemum.
Regarding urine being used to deter other animals, that’s beyond my scope. Pest control is a large umbrella, with a lot of subcategories. My area of experience and training is residential/commercial pest control and termite treatment. Such areas as trapping, bird control, water treatment, lawns and ornamentals, and wildlife are as foreign to me as they are to you.
I will say, however (and take this with a grain of salt, please), that the level of success a layperson will achieve in pest control of any kind is directly related to the level of commitment. In most cases, a regimen of applications must be adhered to for a certain time, especially during that pest’s busy season. One application will not solve the problem for good and all. People fail in their do-it-yourself pest projects because they
A) don’t apply to the proper areas in the proper ways or
B) don’t do follow up.
Dave, aren’t you afraid of any pests?
Dear Dave,
I have finally overcome the ants in my kitchen. (The little black ones that don’t bite, just crawl all over everything.) We basically lined the kitchen with plain table salt, and haven’t seen them inside since.
My question is: is there one particular thing that I should be looking for when putting something around the perimeter of the house for ants? I mean, is there one ingredient or combination of ingredients that I should look for in a product to control ants? I’ve seen them crawling up the outside of the house, but so far (knock on wood) they’re not inside any more. I would just like to prevent future attacks on the kitchen.
Thanks!
Skerri
DAVEW0071, I was gonna ask your opinion of Sentricon, but I see you already got to it!
We’ve had termite problems for 12 years, ever since we bot this house & were rather naive about the termite thing. We contracted with a pest control co. after the first swarm. The chemical barrier treatment kept getting washed away. A few years ago the pest control folks started trying to convince us to switch to Sentricon, for 3x the annual fee we’d been paying. Naturally my skeptical hackles went up. (Well maybe that’s not natural but it’s the way I am.)
At that time I couldn’t find any positive info about Sentricon on the Net that wasn’t from Dow itself, so we held off. Finally last year I ran into an online friend who mentioned he was a pest control guy, so I asked him; his opinion was that it’s very effective, as long as you can get the termites to come to the bait. So we went for it last Sept.
The little buggers took the bait, and how. The pest control folks check monthly & generally find a new “hit” or two every month & add the hexaflumeron to the tube.
I understand it can take 9-18 months for the colony to be wiped out - they swarmed in our basement as usual this spring. So we might even see 'em again next year. But that should be it.
So I guess I don’t really have a question here, other than whether the 9-18 month time frame sounds reasonable to you.
But I did want to say thanks for sharing your experience & expertise here! It’s nice to have a confirmation that I’m not simply enriching Dow & getting nothing for it.
Given personal experience, kitties do not eat crickets. they are usually deposited, covered in catspit, on the pillow of the human, several inches from said human’s face. The result is a unique awakening moment.
My query for Mr. Dave is: my home is built into a hillside such that my basement is walkout. I continue to see carpenter ants going up and down the blockwork adjacent to the door on the lower level. What can I purchase to spray on the block to preclude the little shits from going in and out? Many thanks.
BTW-I’ve already ensured that there is no moisture source-adding to my quandry.
This OP here.
DAVEW0071 what about fleas? I had a feral cat in the house a couple of months ago, and the room he was in is infested with fleas, but they don’t seem to have left that room. The dogs have all been treated, and I haven’t seen any fleas on them, but if I go in that room, my clothes get covered with them.
What would be the best thing to get rid of them? Do those lights with the sticky tape things work? I have tried a spray, and that worked for a few days it seemed, but they are back again.
skerri, I would recommend either a microencapsulated spray for spritzing on the foundation wall of the house, or else a granular bait. The microencapsulated formulae are very good for hard surfaces, such as brick and stone. It doesn’t soak in, but rather adheres to the surface, with little microscopic bubbles containing the insecticide. Much like scratch-n-sniff panels, when they’re broken by the insects stepping on them (no lie, this is what happens) the insecticide is released and the ants will absorb enough of it as they walk across it to die.
If you have more soil around your house than sidewalk or blacktop, you might want to use a granular bait formula. Just spread it around like chicken feed and as the ants are foraging for food, they’ll find it.
For danceswithcats, I would recommend similar treatment and add a spray or dust formula to apply into the cracks and crevices around the door frame. Eventually the ants will get the idea that this isn’t such a great place to be, and look elsewhere.
ghostrider, 9 - 18 months is a perfectly reasonable time frame for the Sentricon system to work.
Keep in mind, also, that the swarmers are formed in the fall, and develop and mature throughout the winter. Thus, even if the colony is in trouble, the swarmers themselves can actually survive, even the colony proper is dwindling. Depending on when the colony was baited, and how much bait is consumed by September or October, you might still experience swarming the following spring, just not on the same scale as in prior years. Not to worry. If you see dozens of swarmers where before you saw hundreds, that’s a good sign. And if you’ve been experiencing swarms for 12 years, you got a big honkin’ colony on your hands, which could take longer than usual to eliminate.
Actually, from what you’ve said (multiple baitings, living in New Jersey, etc), I wouldn’t be surprised if you had more than one colony there. Not unusual.
js_africanus, it sounds like the mouse in question was either sick or poisoned. I’ve come across rodents that behave this way, not running even when noise is made, or even when they’re picked up.
Keep in mind that an animal’s foraging will take it to more than one venue, and it may have come across poison someplace else, then made it to your property before it was affected by it.
Or it may just have been sick or ready to die from natural causes. Tough to say. Odd behavior, yes, but not necessarily aberrant or inexplicable.
magayuk, I wouldn’t recommend trying to treat for fleas by yourself. Not because do-it-yourself products may not work, but because it requires a little more experience and training and follow-up to take care of the problem. Sometimes it’s just better to go to a pro for the peace of mind.
Thing is, fleas are a difficult problem to handle, even for a pro. In the wild, flea eggs can gestate for a long, long time.
Fleas are constantly jumping around, and their host animals are constantly brushing up against foliage, so the eggs can get transferred. Survival depends on the eggs not hatching until another host is found.
Thus, flea eggs sit dormant until stimulated by motion, such as an animal brushing against the shrub their on and picking them up.
The same thing happens in your home. You may be able to eliminate a lot of the adult fleas with one spraying, but whenever you move around in that room, sit on the furniture, or vacuum (especially vacuum) the eggs are stimulated to hatch, and the problem starts all over again.
What is needed is something that will kill the adults and break the life-cycle. I don’t know if pre-emergent flea control products are available over the counter, or if you have to be licensed to purchase them. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere in this thread, individual states vary, and it’s your responsibility to check out your local laws.
The prescribed professional method is to have the homeowner vacuum every floor of the house, even hardwood and tile floors, and then vacate the place for a good three or four hours. Every living creature has to be out of the house, people, pets, everthing, especially birds and fish.
Then the pro sprays the insecticide with pre-emergent control over every inch of every floor. The pre-emergent stuff is a hormonally-based insect growth regulator, which does not allow any surviving nymphs to sexually mature. This is done even in rooms where fleas have not been seen, because you don’t know if they’ve been carried from one place to another, especially in the egg stage.
Then, after the necessary waiting period, the homeowner can return to the house and must vacuum every floor again. All this vacuuming stimulates the eggs to hatch, whereupon the nymphs are exposed to the toxins and die, or else to the IGR and remain sterile.
Here’s the kicker, though. Sometimes it’s necessary to do this about three or four weeks later. Yes, the whole vacuuming, vacating, spraying, vacuuming thing again.
If you wanna try to handle all this yourself, be my guest, but sometimes it’s just better to let the people who really know what they’re doing handle certain things for you.
Because there are some new (to me at least ) critters around that I can’t seem to identify.
When I was at a barbecue 2 weeks ago, they were swarming all of us outside, and I just happened to notice some on my white shirt.
They are orange and tiny (I mistook one for a freckle) and about the shape of an apostrophe '. Actually, they are about the same size as that apostrophe. And they BITE.
Last week, I noticed them in my yard too, just not as many as at the BBQ. It’d be great if you could tell me what they are and how to get rid of them. I have a 1 year old neice that loves to go outside and I don’t want to let her til I get them under control. I live south of Houston on the Gulf Coast.
Thanks Dave!
What flavor of beastie B gone should I look for? A chemical name would be appreciated. I’ll read the directions and go from there.
Thanks.
danceswithcats, that’s a little vague. You need to examine the label and see what pests the product is labelled to treat.
For insects, pyrethrin, or some form of synthetic perthrin (anything ending in “rin”) should be adequate in dealing with your average type of creepy crawlies.
But the formulation is important, too. Aerosols are only one way of dealing with insects. Other liquid solutions, sprayed from compressed air sprayers, are also useful for widespread applications. And baits have their uses as well. Ditto dust formulations. Depends on where you need to treat, what the area is like, how much space you need to cover in an application, and how bad the pests are.
It’s a mistake to think that one is as good as the other, or that the same thing should be done regardless of the circumstances.
bunnymom, I’m not familiar with Gulf Coast bugs, alas. And you guys got so many more than we have up here.
It almost sounds like a spider mite, but unless you have a biting species down there, I dunno. I didn’t think they were biters.
I would suggest you either get a sample and take it to your local co-operative extension, or else as a lawn guy. Sounds like something that is more treatable by a firm that does lawns and ornamentals.