Yellow Jackets and wasps are more active in the fall while mice and rats are very active during the winter months. Yellow Jackets are distinguished by their signature black and yellow striping. Also known as meat bees, they are abnormally attracted to sweets during the fall months and are very aggressive. The most common wasp during the fall is the paper wasp. The honeycomb type nests you see under your eaves are the first sign of a problem. Although these wasps are very docile compared to yellow jackets they will sting to protect their nests.

Nesting is a common theme during the winter when little four legged creatures move into your home, sheds and play structures. Winter is most definitely rodent season. These little guys are looking for warmth and food and if they can find both it is very hard to get them to leave. Rats can fit through a hole the size of a quarter while mice can fit through a hole the size of a dime! Small bits of paper, scampering in the attic at night and chewed up seed shells are a sign of rodent activity.

Rodent activity also has unforeseen consequences. Take for instance the winter of 2010. If you remember, it was especially wet and warm. These conditions caused rodent breeding to go through the roof…pun intended! As a result, the snake population skyrocketed that spring. The snakes had more food, which caused them to breed more. We were averaging 3 snake calls a week for a few months!

So as you can see, pest season is year round. This is why at NAHS, we inform our potential customers that a pest control maintenance plan is the best value for them. We cover everything, no matter the season.

Forget viruses, look out for ants in your motherboard!
Travis Andrews | dvice.com | Sunday, May 19, 2013 – 2:56pm

Though this probably isn’t the first thing that occurs to you, next time your computer stops working unexpectedly, take a peek under the old hood to see if there’s an enormous, horrible nest of ants.

Because, according to researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, we’ve got a new type of ant on our hands, lovingly nicknamed the “Tawny Crazy Ants” and actually named Nylanderia fulva. Found in the southeastern United States, these crazy ants are displacing the horror-ridden fire ants.

For all practical purposes, this seems like a positive thing, considering the crazy ants don’t sting the way fire ants do. But it’s not a great thing for electronics.

“[The crazy ants] nest in electronics and create short circuits, as they create a contact bridge between two points when they get electrocuted they release an alarm pheromone,” said UT research assistant Edward LeBrun. That pheromone attracts more ants, who begin creating a larger nest inside the electronic in question.

There’s no explanation yet as to why they love electronics, other than the confined spaces. They’ll pretty much nest in anything, and they’re not susceptible to your everyday ant killer, making these guys a grade-A pain-in-the-bum.

Luckily for everyone who doesn’t live in the southeastern United States, they’re mostly confined to the southeastern United States.

Over time, though, our electronics may have a stronger enemy than viruses: ants. Maybe we can harvest them and offer the buggers to folks with digital ant farms before that happens.

Photo Credit: Joe MacGown/Mississippi Entomological Museum

Source: DVICE: Forget viruses, look out for ants in your motherboard!

North American Home Services is considered a structural pest control company, meaning that we treat structures and outbuildings for pests. We cannot and do not however treat fields or food commodities for pests. That is considered Agricultural pest control. After 15 years in this industry and being familiar with pesticide regulations for our state, it is my opinion that the structural portion of the industry is much more regulated than the agricultural side of the industry. Their use of pesticides is less noticeable and therefore less scrutinized than our applications.

Earlier today I came across an article with a very telling story about agricultural pesticide usage in California. If you compare the information in the story to the information from our structural pest control experts at www.pwg2pmp.com you can see a major difference in the focus of our legislators. Pesticides can and should be used in a responsible manner no matter what the application site. I encourage you to view both of these websites and come to your own conclusions.

Earth Justice Article: Stories On Pesticide Drift: Pesticides on the Playground

Pest Control is much like insurance. You are paying a “premium” every other month or quarterly or monthly in order to protect your home or business from pests. You are not paying for one service. Most companies offer free re-treats for problems that continue past your scheduled date. We are spreading our “risk” over a large number of customers. The smaller the company the greater the risk!

This fact is what keeps us focused is customer service and keeping you happy. At North American Home Services, we are very aware that we would not have a job if it wasn’t for our “policy holders”. For every customer we lose to moving or any number of reasons we must get 2 more to take their place. This keeps our risk down and allows us to provide our technicians and staff with better equipment and more training to better serve you! So, next time you are upset about paying that bill when the guy was only there for 20 minutes, remember you are paying for 60 days of coverage and we will come back anytime for FREE!

In a nut shell, the new regulations restrict our usage of some of the most widely used materials in our toolbox. Gone are the days of soaking a property to keep the critters away. Now the treatments have to be targeted to certain areas and in certain amounts. Training and thinking outside the box have never been more important. The technicians will now have to work even harder to rid your property of unwanted pests. But I do believe, as an industry, that we are up to the challenge.

For more information, go to the Pyrethroid Working Group’s website at PWG2PMP.com, and watch the video regarding the new EPA regulations.

Look before you leap:

Although they can be found inside homes, black widows typically are outside, around the home and in clutter. In the garage, they usually make webs by doors, near vents, and in other places where they are guaranteed lots of insect traffic for food. Because most people don’t tolerate large numbers of insects in their living spaces, widow spiders usually won’t find sufficient prey to survive inside homes. Black widows are shy spiders that seek retreats such as a hole between two bricks or a pipe hole in a wall where they can hide during the day and then come out at night.

Be very careful when moving those boxes, bikes and clutter around your garage. Having a year round pest control maintenance program will reduce your risk of a bite in the spring!

If you are bitten look here: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/first-aid-spider-bites/FA00048

Thank you,
Nathan Cleaver
Keller Williams Realty