Category Archives: General Pest

Remember when playing with bugs was fun? A DIY bug habitat can provide free entertainment for the kids along with a little entomology education. A homemade bug cage is also a fantastic way to keep insects to feed pet lizards or frogs.

Whatever your goal, you can make a bug environment with a few supplies that you might already have at home.

If insects are more of a problem at your house than a fun observational opportunity for the kids, then give us a call at 1-855-275-2563
or request a pest removal quote online.

Related Topic: Where Do Mosquitoes Live?

DIY Bug Cage Craft

To begin creating the homemade bug habitat, gather the following supplies:

• Large, empty, clean plastic jar with a screw-on lid, such as economy-sized peanut butter or nut jar
• Safety razor knife with a good handle
• Hot glue gun
• Fiberglass window screen material from the hardware store
• Pencil
• Scissors

To make the bug cage, take the following steps (adult supervision is recommended to use the knife and hot glue gun):

1. Use the safety razor knife to cut a circular shape out of the jar lid. Use leverage and move the knife in a circular motion to cut the opening all the way to the lid’s edge.
2. Use the safety razor knife to cut another circular or rectangular opening on the side of the jar. Depending on the thickness of the plastic, you may also use scissors for this cut.
3. Take a section of the window screen and use scissors to cut a piece the size of the lid opening.
4. Use the hot glue gun to apply glue beads around the inside of the lid next to the opening.
5. Place the window screen circle inside the lid, using the pencil to press the screen into the glue to adhere.
6. Cut out another section of the window screen material to fit the opening on the side of the jar.
7. Use the glue gun to apply beads of glue to the outside edge of the plastic cutout.
8. Place the window screen section over the glue to cover the side opening. Use the pencil to adhere the screen to the glue.
9. After the glue has dried, use scissors to trim away any excess window screen material.

Now your homemade bug cage is ready to use and features plenty of ventilation for insects to breathe.

These environments are ideal for crickets, millipedes, stick insects, mealworms, praying mantis, and caterpillars. Of course, some bugs, like mosquitoes and ticks, are better off dealt with by professionals!

There’s No Need for Homemade Bug Cages with Mosquito Joe

While a DIY bug cage can be a safe and secure way to bring invited insects into the home, no homeowner wants a mosquito or tick problem on their property.

For help dealing with unwanted pests, call your local Mosquito Joe for safe and effective barrier spray treatment. Our pest control professionals provide year-round protection to keep you and your family safe. Give us a call at 1-855-275-2563 or schedule an appointment online today.

 
Basements are meant to be extensions of your home. Whether your basement is a home office, home gym, or your own relaxing theater, you deserve to enjoy the space without unwanted company. It’s possible to create a bug-proof basement or reclaim your space from insects. We have a few tips for kicking them out of your basement for good.

Why Do Some Insects Like Basements?

Bugs that love living in basements thrive in spaces that are dark, out of sight, and damp. The dark allows them to avoid predators when they search for food, which is often at night. They hide in crevices, which is why homeowners are less likely to spot signs of pest infestations until it’s too late—especially in unfinished basements. Damp basements are a haven for mold, which is a favorite of many bugs. Humid spaces can also produce more bacteria and soften organic materials that are staples of the insect diet, like dust, dead skin, and hair.

Luckily, you can make your basement less appealing—and less accessible—to insects.

Prevention: How to Keep Bugs Out of the Basement and Crawl Space

• In the middle of the day, turn off the lights in your basement and look around. If you can see any natural daylight coming through walls and other areas, these are the most likely entry points for bugs. Look for signs of cracked seals, gaps, or crevices around windows, doors, or external vents.
• Next, walk the exterior of your home and look for signs of cracks or gaps outside. Pay close attention to laundry exhaust vents and basement windows.
• Indoors and out, fill the gaps you discovered with steel wool or caulk to prevent bugs from using these crevices to enter your home.
• Outdoors, consider rethinking your landscaping to remove plants growing within 2 feet of your home. This can reduce the number of insects frequenting your exterior walls, looking for food, and happening upon a point of entry.

Elimination: How to Get Rid of Bugs in Your Basement

If bugs are already in your basement, it may take a combination of cleaning, house upgrades, and professional pest removal to clear invaders from your home.

• Deep clean. Both as a preventative and removal method, consistent cleaning removes potential food sources like dust, reduces the number of hiding places available to bugs, and increases the odds that you’ll spot a nest.
• Use vinegar water. In a spray bottle, combine a mixture of approximately 3 to 1 water and vinegar. Spray the basement liberally, focusing on potential entry points to prevent bugs from trying to go out or come in.
• Try a dehumidifier. If your basement is damp, it’s far too appealing to insects.
• Contact Mosquito Joe. Working with a professional pest control company can eliminate outdoor populations of basement-loving pests as well as mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks. We can apply a perimeter treatment around your foundation or complete a barrier spray treatment on your whole yard. Call our experts at 1-855-275-2563 or request a quote today!

Common Basement Bugs

The types of insects found in basements vary by location and climate. Some of the most common basement bugs include:

• Spiders like Brown Recluses
• Pillbugs (also known as rolly-pollies),
• Centipedes (also known as the basement bugs with lots of legs that you’re tired of finding)
• Cockroaches
• Silverfish
• Termites
• Earwigs

Knowing what creatures you’re looking to remove can help you continue your research to get rid of basement insects once and for all.

Enjoy Your Basement Again

By cleaning regularly, addressing infestations immediately, and working with trusted pest control experts like Mosquito Joe, you can reclaim your basement without worry. For more helpful tips on how to deal with common pests, check out our Learning Center. And to make the outdoors fun again, give us a call at 855-275-2563 to request an estimate for services.

While your garage is the perfect space for your vehicle, bikes, and tools, it’s also an ideal shelter for pests looking for protection from the outdoors. If you’re wondering how to keep insects out of your garage, you’ve found the right resource. The best way to keep bugs away is to keep your garage clean and free of temptations such as food, water, and nesting spaces.

How to Keep Bugs Out of Your Garage

Declutter: Keeping your garage organized and clean is the best way to avoid and spot pest infestations. Use plastic storage bins or other weather-tight containers, rather than cardboard, to keep critters and bugs from nesting in your belongings. Make sure you check your items and storage containers for pests before putting them away.

Reduce water and humidity: Most bugs are attracted to water lingering around your garage. Make sure you don’t have any leaky pipes, standing water, or condensation. Get a dehumidifier for your space, if necessary.

Remove food: Cleaning out any loose food removes a major temptation for bugs in the garage. Sweep up crumbs immediately after they’re dropped, tightly tie your garbage bags, and use sealed containers for pet food and birdseed.

Weatherproof: Seal up cracks around your windows, doors, and garage door to prevent pests from making their way into your garage, especially during seasonal transitions when bugs seek a warmer or cooler place to live. You may use silicone caulk, weatherstrips, and rubber seals for this project. The local professionals at Mr. Handyman® can help you weather strip your garage door to not only keep the bugs out but also keep the temperature of your space comfortable all year long.

Contact the professionals: Our Mosquito Joe® professionals can help you find and remove existing pests, as well as identify conditions that may be attracting pests to your space. We offer perimeter pest control services, applying a specialized spray around the garage to keep insects away. Contact a Mosquito Joe near you today to get a quote, or call us at 1-855-275-2563.

Related Topic: Preparing for Winter Pests

Common Garage Pests to Look Out For

Pests in your garage can range from a few buzzing flies to a complete rodent infestation. Some of the most common garage dwelling pests include:

Deer mice: These small rodents are notorious for nesting in boxes and wall gaps during cold months. This can pose a threat to your property, as the mice may also find their way to your vehicle and chew through wires while attempting to find the perfect space.

Spiders: The garage is ideal spider habitat, as other bugs become confined to the space, and spiders feast on them. Keeping your garage free of other pests is the best way to avoid spiders, as their food source is diminished. Frequently sweep along baseboards, doors, and windows to remove spiderwebs.

Flies: These bugs are attracted to strong odors. The best way to avoid a fly infestation is to keep your garage free of pungent smells and food.

Crickets: In warmer and dry months, these loud bugs are often drawn to a cool and shaded garage. Their jumping abilities allow them to make their way to even your highest storage containers.

Silverfish: These small bugs easily make their way under doors and through small cracks. Food temptations and loose clutter will easily attract these pests, as they feed on anything from meat to cloth. Garage insect repellent can help deter these pests.

Sowbugs: Sowbugs are crustaceans more closely related to shrimp and lobsters than to insects. They’re attracted to cool, damp, and wet spaces because they’re unable to retain moisture in their bodies.

Related Content: Mosquito Control—Even in the Winter?

When to Clean Your Garage to Deter Pests

Keeping your garage clean and sealed throughout the year is the best way to keep pests away, no matter the season. However, in colder months, bugs are especially attracted to your garage because they want an escape from the cold. Cleaning your garage in the fall will prevent pests from finding small and hidden spaces to hunker down in throughout the season. It’s also a good idea to clean your garage in the spring as the new year can bring on more pests.

If you live in a cold climate one of the advantages is that when colder weather arrives, many insects disappear. Many of the flying, buzzing, stinging insects that harass us during warm spring and summer days are gone. But this is not true for all insects, there are a few that are still active, even during the colder months of the year.

One is an arthropod. The other is an annelid (a.k.a. segmented worm). Both are excellent at surviving icy conditions, and one even lives inside glacial ice! Here are some cool facts about a few bugs that aren’t bothered by cold weather.

What Is a Snow Flea (aka Snow Bug)?

Snow fleas, also known as snow bugs or springtails, are tiny hexapods (an arthropod subtype) that are particularly active when there’s wet snow on the ground. These creatures are not really fleas at all. They just got that nickname because of their habit of jumping around enthusiastically like kids on a snow day! There are two different species of snow bugs, Hypogastrura nivicola, and Hypogastrura harveyi.

What Do Snow Fleas Look Like?

When you see these small black bugs in the snow, you might mistake them for specks of dirt because they’re so small: only about 2 millimeters long. When you look closer, you’ll see that a snow bug has an oval-shaped body with small antennae and six legs, as pictured in the Farmer’s Almanac. You typically see them in clusters.

Do Snow Fleas Bite?

Not at all. They’re completely harmless to humans, dogs, and other animals. They have two favorite activities: jumping around and eating decaying organic matter in the soil. These little winter wonders help the environment by breaking down organic matter, which helps nourish and replenish the soil faster. So, when spring arrives, you can thank the Snow Flea for that rich, well-nourished soil.

How Could Snow Fleas Make Ice Cream Better?

This might sound crazy, but those tiny black bugs that like to frolic in the snow actually produce a special antifreeze protein that, when replicated by scientists, can benefit humans in many ways. One of the potential benefits is improving the texture of ice cream by preventing those unsavory ice crystals that can develop when you leave them in your freezer for a while.

How to Get Rid of Snow Fleas: Should You Bother?

Since snow fleas are harmless to people, animals, and houses you shouldn’t concern yourself with getting rid of them (if you can find them). However, these bugs do sometimes multiply in large quantities, which might concern some of your neighbors. If so, there are perimeter pest control treatments available that can help keep them controlled.

Related Topic: How to Reduce Bugs in Your Yard after Heavy Rain

What Is an Ice Worm?

The other winter wonder for down under (no, not from Australia) is actually a worm, an ice worm (Mesenchytraeus solifugus). This is an annelid, or segmented worm, that spends its entire life on (and in) glacial ice. It’s only about 6 millimeters long and very thin. The worms thrive on ice due to the antifreeze protein they produce and the insulative properties that snow cover provides. Glacier ice worms have been observed on about 20 different glaciers in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, and British Columbia.

What Do Ice Worms Eat?

It would seem logical that ice worms eat ice, but they actually have a varied diet that consists of snow algae, bacteria, various fungi, and other tiny organic matter they find on and in the glaciers. Typically, they feed on the surface of snow rather than within the ice itself. They drink from pools on the ice. And like the snow flea, snow worms are considered beneficial worm that is an important part of natural carbon and nutrient processing within their environment.

Can I Go See Some Ice Worms?

If these little tidbits about the snow flea and snow worm have piqued your interest, by all means, check them out for yourself. Although it’s easier to see and observe snow fleas within your area, if you travel to a glacier that is known to harbor ice worms, you’re bound to see them in large numbers—up to 900 worms per square foot. However, an escapade to see ice worms should happen in the afternoon or early evening, since ice worms like to hide beneath the ice when the sun is out.

Can I Go See Some Ice Worms?

Once the warmer weather returns so will many of the insects that can make the outdoors less fun. When that happens it’s time to call the local pest control experts at Mosquito Joe. We offer natural perimeter pest control services that help protect you and your home from pests. Schedule online or call 1-855-275-2563 for an appointment.

Many of us take enjoying a playful evening with the kids, BBQing with family and friends, or just spending a quiet evening relaxing in the backyard for granted. Until uninvited guests show up to spoil our good time. Nothing throws ice water on outdoor fun faster than mosquitoes, flies, and ticks. Even an annoying relative is more welcome than those buzzing, biting pests who show up and crash the party. However, if you’re among the many thousands who use Mosquito Joe to keep mosquitoes, flies, and ticks from ruining your outdoor activities, you’ve been enjoying the great outdoors without missing a beat.  

But have you ever really thought about why Mosquito Joe is so effective at keeping bugs away from your family fun? What’s the science and research that makes Mosquito Joe work so well? To learn more about how Mosquito Joe continues to make the outdoors fun for so many people we spoke with David Price, Entomologist, and the man behind the science and research at Mosquito Joe.  

In this first of a series of articles, we interviewed David to learn more about how climate change, the global economy, and other factors are impacting insect populations, migration patterns, habitat, and disease transmission. Also, how research is influencing various treatment options that are designed to control mosquitoes, flies, and ticks in order to reduce the transmission of potentially harmful diseases. 

Related Topic: Do Mosquito Repellant Plants Really Work? 

A Lifetime Studying Bugs 

For those who don’t know, an Entomologist is someone who studies insects and arthropods (an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages). And although it’s not everybody’s cup of tea, David developed an interest in bugs at a very early age. This fascination only grew as David got older. After graduation from Purdue University as a Structural/Urban Entomologist —someone who studies insects found in structures and insects of medical importance found within urban environments that potentially carry/transmit various diseases (mosquitoes, ticks, flies, rodents that host insects)—David spent the last 35 years working in the pest control industry.    

Today, David helps Mosquito Joe test new treatment products, tracks the number of applications applied throughout various regions, develops operational strategies, trains field personnel, and participates in the Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program (a program focused on integrated pest management). The PESP considers insect biology, behavior in their environment and looks at available products and how best to apply them with the least risk to people, pests, and the environment.   

 The Impact of Climate Change 

You don’t have to look too hard to find information about how our changing climate is affecting the world around us. Changes in weather patterns, intensity, and rising sea levels have been well documented. A lesser-known effect of climate change is the impact on insect migration patterns and habitats. Since temperature and moisture (relative humidity) are two of the biggest factors related to insect breeding and expanding populations, even a slightly warmer climate means big changes for insect populations.  

Recent studies have discovered insects once confined to specific southern regions establishing seasonal habitats much further north. For example, ticks have now migrated as far north as Maine. And with them an increased potential for transmission of Lyme disease to people and pets. Insect samples have also identified new, invasive species of disease-carrying mosquitoes in states like Florida, Texas, and Louisiana. So, what are David and the team at Mosquito Joe doing to address some of these migratory and habitat changes? Find out in our next article: Battling Bugs: How Science and Research Are Influencing Pest Control.