Pest of the Week- Bed Bugs!

Bed bugs have been around for a very long, long, long, long, long time. These creatures are nasty, but they are not dangerous. They were nearly extinct in America around 40 years ago, but in the past decade they have made a dramatic comeback causing an epidemic throughout America. 


Bed Bugs are parasites that feed on human blood. Because they feed on human blood at night they make their homes in beds. A mattress is a perfect hiding place for a bed bug and provides them with a good source of food every night. They hide in the seams of mattresses, cracks in bed frame, under chairs, couches, under rugs, edges of carpets, baseboards, and almost anywhere else.

Bed Bugs find their way into your home by hitching a ride in a suitcase or on your clothing. Infestations of Bed Bugs are on the rise and have been on the rise in large cities such as New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Des Moines for the past few years. Bed bugs were irradiated by the use of pesticides such as DDT but have returned most likely thanks to the banning of those pesticides and to worldwide travel.

Can I Get Rid of Bedbugs?

Bed bugs are extremely difficult to eradicate because of how well they hide and how resilient they are. There are some steps that can be taken though to eradicate and prevent infestations. But, due to the difficulty it is often best to call a pest professional.

How to Get Rid of Bedbugs without an Exterminator?

Removing mattresses and furniture from property, vacuuming and scrubbing infested areas thoroughly, washing laundry in hot water are all steps that can be taken to eliminate bedbugs. The longer you wait to take action the more difficult it is to get rid of bedbugs. They reproduce quickly and each night they will feed in hopes to reproduce. A few bedbugs and quickly turn in to an extreme nightmare each night. But, without knowledge of bedbugs and pest control products it is best to leave the use of chemicals to the pest professionals. Visit Get Rid of Your Bedbugs for more info.

What Will A Pest Professional Do To Get Rid Of My Bedbugs?

There is a wide variety of ways that pest control operators eradicate bedbugs. Chemical, heat, cold, steam, mechanical, and even dogs are used to sniff out the location.

Chemicals are applied to locations were the pests hide; in cracks and crevices, in the seams of mattresses, in bed frames, in walls, on baseboards. To be effective often multiple chemical treatments are needed. These are the most risky because a lot of chemical is often applied in the living space. Most often however these chemicals used are a type of pyrethrins which has extremely low toxicity to mammals.

Heat treatments have become a fad in large cities such as New York, Chicago, Las Angeles, and Des Moines.  These treatments can cost thousands of dollars but they are very effective. They are often best if used in large apartment complexes where chemical treatments have proven to be unsuccessful. The chemicals are often unsuccessful in large apartments because once an apartment is treated they run to the next.

Cold treatments are used by a large pest control company that claims the treatments kill the adult bedbugs, nymphs, and even the eggs. Not much information on how effective this method is though.

Our favorite tool in eliminating bedbugs is the bedbug dogs. These dogs are able to sniff out bedbugs and find them. This helps pest control operators locate the bedbugs and kill them. Finding bedbugs is almost the entire battle in eliminating bedbugs.

Overall, the best way to get rid of bedbugs is to contact a pest professional who has proven the ability to get rid of bedbugs and integrate some of the other steps we have mentioned that will help you get rid of your bugs.  


Visit our bedbug site. 

MUD DAUBER WASPS

Mud daubers are wasp-like insects that construct nests from mud. They make a variety of nests ranging from elaborate structures (i.e., multiple tubes several inches long or small vase-like nests attached to plant stems) to merely 'plastering' up existing cracks or crevices in wood, stone, or masonry. Many mud daubers will fill holes in round openings found in equipment and lawn furniture. There are three main species of mud daubers, the black and yellow, the blue mud dauber, and the organ pipe mud dauber.

DIET

Mud daubers use spiders for prey, but other species use a variety of insects ranging from caterpillars to cockroaches to stock the nests. Some related species that burrow into the ground catch large insects such as katydids and cicadas.

HABITAT

They create their nests in corners on walls outside the home. They will also find any other corner, or old nests to create their new nest. They are not social wasps. Though sometimes it may seem that multiple wasps are in the same spot, they are not a colony.

IMPACT

Mud daubers are not aggressive insects and rarely sting, unless they are threatened or inadvertently contacted. Although the venom is primarily for paralyzing and preserving prey, it is painful. The yellow and black mud dauber was rated a 1 on a pain scale ranging from 1 (mild) to 4 (severe), which was the same rating as the red imported fire ant.

Source: Wikipedia

SIZE: 5/8” to 1”

COLOR: Black and Yellow

Stay Clean!

Today I just wanted to emphasize the importance of keeping your home clean of clutter and food. The main reason why bugs enter your home is to find food and water. Most insects that enter your home are actually called Accidental Invaders. Accidental invaders do not puropsely try to enter your home, they just accidentally end up there. They need to scour the area to find food, and what better place to find food than in your home or trash.

The best way to keep bugs from coming in your home is to keep your home free of food and debris. Ants are notorious in finding foods and bringing in more of their friends. They release a pheromone in a trail that leads the rest to the food source. If you see ants, then that means you have a good food source for them to be there. Keeping the area clean will help prevent them from wanting to be there. Remember that even the smallest crumb can feed multiple insects.

The next thing you might want to to is limit the hiding places for the insects. Insects love tiny cracks and crevices. They will find anywhere that is tight to protect them from dangerous creatures. If you have lots of clutter on the floor or in the basement, this is just a ample place for bugs to live. It is difficult to spray within our limits if where the bugs are hiding are in your boxes of food or clothes. The best thing we recommend is organzing what you need to keep into plastic sealed containers. This will help keep the bugs from hiding in the boxes and allow us to get a safer, better spray in your home.

Just remember that food and hiding places are the main reason why bugs come into your home. Keeping your home free of food crumbs and clutter will limit the number of bugs and the ability for them to survive.

Moles- Pest of the Week

Editor's Note: For some reason, the blog did not want to publish my entry about moles yesterday. I do not know what went wrong, but let's just try to make it work this time.

About Moles Not the cutest animal Source: Wikipedia Moles are most noticed in the spring time when they search for their food and nesting materials. During the winter, when the ground freezes, moles stay deep underground in their nests to stay warm. Moles create burrows, a series of tunnels and nesting sites, which can go as deep as 10-20 feet. Moles can grow up to 6-12”, depending on the species. They usually have a dark gray fur, a slender snout, and very sharp teeth. They have tiny beady eyes that are only capable of distinguishing light from dark, otherwise they are considered blind. Moles have very large front claws that are used for digging. Diet & Reproduction Moles live alone except for when they are rearing young. They usually have about 1-6 per litter, once or twice a year. Mole babies are hairless and blind at birth. Fur begins to appear on the babies at about ten days after birth. It takes about 6-12 months for the mole babies to grow to adult size. Moles diet consists of small invertebrates, usually worms. Moles have a very big appetite; they can eat their weight in worms and other grubs every day. To get their food they usually create new shallow tunnels to find the grubs. Finding the grubs is what usually causes the grass to die. The grubs are in the roots of the grass and cause the roots to be exposed and die off. They do not eat your plants or grasses. Tunnels Moles live most of their lives underground so it is very uncommon to see a mole, but they do come to the surface occasionally for search for water or nesting material. They can dig surface tunnels at a rate of 18 feet per hour. Moles dig two different types of tunnels: shallow and deep tunnels. Shallow tunnels are the tunnels most noticed by homeowners, because it makes the ground weak and collapsible when walked on. Shallow tunnels are also used mainly to get their food. Deep tunnels are the mole’s usual main runway, since it is usually the safest from predators. Deep tunnels are anywhere between 1 foot and 10 feet deep. Moles usually dig their tunnels in soils that are loose, moist, and that have plenty of food sources (worms and grubs). Detection The most common detection of mole is the pathways they create under the lawn. When they burrow, they tend to push the soil upwards and outwards, often killing the grass roots and therefore leaving a path of dead grass that can be unsightly. Mole tunnels are about 1-2 inches wide. If you see a mole hill, a pile of dirt surrounding a hole, then that means the mole tunnels are deep. It’s an easy inspection, walk along your yard and look for ridges or soft parts in the yard.   Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between an active mole tunnel and an abandoned tunnel. A simple way to see if it is an active tunnel is to flatten the tunnel down (step on it). If the tunnel is rebuilt then it is an active tunnel, if it doesn’t after a week then you can bet on it being an abandoned tunnel. Removal There two main ways of removing moles: baits and traps. Mole baits usually come in gel form. The moles are attracted to it, eat it and die from the poison. This method can work pretty well if you use enough bait and place it in the correct places. The only problem with gel baits are that if the mole doesn't die the first time, it will stay away from the bait from then on.   The most effective and usually cheapest method of controlling moles is through traps. Some people have tried and failed using traps. This is because they placed the traps in the wrong places. Placing a trap near the entrance of a suspected mole tunnel is not as effective as actually putting a trap in a tunnel that is used for travel. Placing a trap at the entrance is like standing there with a shovel playing the real life version of Whack-A-Mole, except no moles will stick their heads up out of the holes. Spring traps, harpoon traps, and choker loop traps are all common traps used in the business. The most common trap used, and usually the most humane, is the choker loop trap. The key in placing the traps is placing more than one trap and in active tunnels.

Pest of the Week-Bees

Bees are very beneficial to our environment. We need them to pollinate plants, and they make tasty honey. Honey bees are well-known for their honey making. They have been important for thousands of years for human food consumption. Also, honey bees create bee’s wax that is also collected by humans. There has been a severe decline in bee population in the last decade and this is not good for our farmers or our food products. without the population of bees pollinating our plants, the plants will not grow as strong and healthy as they should.

Bees come in all shapes and sizes, the biggest being bumble bees. Here are three of the most common bees found in Iowa:

TYPES OF BEES

HONEY BEES
Honey bees are social bees; they live in extensive colonies that have thousands of bees in it. The colony consist of one queen bee, hundreds of drones (fertile male bees), and thousands of worker bees (infertile females). The queen lays all the eggs and is the most important bee in the colony, without the queen the colony will collapse. The drones are created from unfertilized eggs, the drone’s job is to grow and leave the colony to mate with queen bees. Drones cannot sting. The worker’s job is to care for the nest. They leave the colony for food (nectar) and take care of the eggs, protect the queen, and protect the nest.

Honey bees’ nest stay around all year. During the winter, the hive stops flying around and huddle together. They can keep the center of the huddle at a constant temperature of 85

degrees throughout the whole winter. The colony usually begins working again once spring begins. Honey bees are important, but are facing a type of disease that is killing them off in large numbers. No one seems to understand why this is happening, though. The honey bee is so important to farmers that some usually rent colonies of bees to pollinate their crops from beekeepers. CARPENTER BEES Carpenter bees are usually solitary bees, but they have been known to live in very small colonies consisting of their sisters or daughters. Carpenter bees look very similar to bumble bees, but the main difference is the lack of hair on carpenter bees compared to bumble bees. Carpenter’s abdomens tend to have a shiny black abdomen. Carpenter bees are also important to pollinating flowers. Carpenter Bees will drill holes into exposed wood. The usually will drill on the bottom side of the wood. Often in Iowa they are found drilling holes and tunnels into the wood on the bottom side of decks. The hole goes about 1/2 inch then makes a 90 degree turn below the surface and goes with the grain up to 1 foot. Carpenter bees are usually not a threat to sting. They do not eat the wood; they get their food from nectar in flowers. BUMBLE BEES Bumble bees are probably the most recognized type of insect by every one of all ages. Bumble bees are easily recognized by their yellow and black body that looks to be soft because of the hair-like pile covering their bodies. They also tend to have a louder “buzz” compared to other bees, just because of their size. Bumble bees live in small colonies of about 50-100 bumble bees. The colony is like most other social bees. They consist of a queen and workers. The queen chooses the location of the nest every year, and who lays all the eggs. The workers tend to the nest and eggs and are not able to lay eggs. Their nests are usually built in the ground and only stay around for a year at a time. Unlike the honey bees, the bumble bee does not have barbs on their stinger, so bumble bees can sting more than once. Bumble bees are protective of their nest and will only attack if their nest is threatened. This can be dangerous, because their nests are usually very hard to find and can easily be stepped on without realizing it. Bumble bees also are very good pollinators. Since their bodies are fuzzy, pollen from the anthers of flowers gets stuck on the “fur-like” pile, when they collect nectar. Bumble bees tend to go to the same flowers every day, as long as it keeps producing enough nectar. Once they collect the nectar they take it back to their nests, and put it in wax cells for food storage. Nothing to the sorts of honey bees, though.

Bites? Maybe not

One thing I have noticed with people today worrying so much about bed bugs, is that any red bumps found on their bodies must be a bug bite.This is not always the case. Red bumps and rashes can come from all sorts of things not related to bugs. It is not within our authority to look at your skin and determine whether it is red from bugs.

If you notice red marks or rashes on your sin, one thing you should do is see a dermatologist and have it professionally looked at. The job description of a technician is to thoroughly inspect for insects and spray pesticides accordingly. The job of a dermatologist is to determine what is causing problems on the skin. Most of the time, it is too hard to distinguish a difference between bug bites and other causes. If it is sometimes difficult for dermatologists, who go through years of schooling, to determine the real cause of bites, it is definitely not within our authority to confirm any suspicious ideas a customer may have.

Family safety is of the utmost importance

People's reaction to bites are different. Some people never have any signs of bites, some people skin is so sensitive that it causes heaps of troubles from the smallest encounter. This is why it can be difficult to pinpoint any problems with the skin, everyone is different.

Here at Downs Pest Control, we believe that the customer's safety is most important. We will not spray for bugs you think are biting you without any hard evidence of insects. So, if you think you have bugs biting you, do not expect us to start spraying here and there. We need to follow our prcedours and keep your safety forefront.

For more information, read this.

Pest of the Week-Cockroaches

Cockroaches are found worldwide, especially in the Des Moines area. Cockroaches are nasty and very difficult to control. If you have cockroaches the best thing you can do is call a professional to help you eradicate this problem from your home. Most often these bugs travel into your home as stowaways. Cockroaches hitch a ride in to your home in a grocery bag, or in with cardboard boxes. Once they are in your home they are very difficult to control.

What makes these pests so difficult to get rid of is their ability reproduce and survive. They crawl into the smallest little spaces and hide themselves. Often they are very good at hiding and do not come out in daylight. Proper treatment depends on a thorough inspection and accurate identification. Once it is known where the roaches are hiding and feeding they can be treated.

The only way to eliminate a cockroach infestation is to use an integrated approach to pest management. There must be multiple methods taken and the home owner must work with our Downs Pest Control technicians to eliminate the roach infestation. Sanitation combined with baits, insect growth regulators, insecticides and knowledge of different cockroaches and their eggs cycle can eradicate these nasty infestations.

Cockroaches are nasty and can carry a disease into your food. The best thing to do is to eradicate them as soon as possible! Call Downs Pest Control today for a free quote- (515) 309-2089!

Why Choose Us?

Downs Pest Control

Downs Pest Control is a Des Moines, Iowa company dedicated to helping you live pest free. We are a company that strives to put their customers first. We try and work with you and your budget on what you really need. We love helping people, and we can never imagine taking advantage of you. Downs Pest Control is a family owned company. We offer very competitive and affordable prices.

Family Owned, Family Care

There are different levels of tolerance for bugs outside the home, but Downs Pest Control is out to help everyone live without bugs inside the home and around the home. No one should have to worry about invasions of pests. There are so many nasty little critters out there that are searching constantly for food, shelter,and water. Your home provides all three of those for you, and little critters will try to stay at your place without paying rent. Downs Pest Control specializes in ants, bedbugs, beetles, centipedes, cockroaches, crickets, fleas, mice, rats, silverfish, spider mites, ticks, and wasps.

Downs Pest Control serves the Des Moines area and is the delivers the most value of any exterminator in the Des Moines area. We pride ourselves in providing affordable high quality pest control services. We are very prompt and take pride in satisfying our customers. We believe that our customers work hard for their money and deserve the best service possible. We are locally owned and operated and are proud to serve Des Moines, Iowa and the Central Iowa area. We serve a fifty mile radius around the Des Moines, Iowa area.

Lawn Care

We just don't control bugs from getting into your home, we take care of your lawn. We have a lawn treatment program that includes, fertilizing, weed control, grub control, mowing, and aerating. So protect your home, and all of your property with one company, Downs Pest Control.

Types of Traps

There are usually three methods of pest control: traps, baits, and sprays. It usually takes a combined effort of all three of these to control the bugs. Today we are going to go over the first of the three--traps.

Traps are useful in observing bugs. Since most bugs and rodents are most active at night, a person or exterminator will not be able to see the pest. Traps are awesome because it allows us to see what type of pest is in your home or business. Each pest has a different method of treatment. The most important thing in pest control is using the right treatment.

When it comes to traps there are plenty to go around. There are many different types of traps that come in all different sizes. There are traps made specifically for ants, roaches, spiders, rodents, and pretty much all types of pests.

Even with all these different types of traps, they all boil down to two types of traps. Live traps and lethal traps.  Live traps are usually used on larger animals like squirrels, rabbits, opossums, and raccoons. Lethal traps are mainly known for use on mice and rats, but today live traps are becoming more popular and more humane way of controlling rodents.

Live Traps

Live traps used on insects are usually not as sophisticated as live traps used on bigger animals. Insect live traps are usually just sticky traps. Sticky traps are just a paper or cardboard product covered in a very sticky glue substance, catching the insects when they walk over them. This, however does not control the insect population.

Live traps used on larger animals usually have a trap door of some sort and a large room where the animal is to be trapped. This is humane and can relocate animals away from your home. This should be done by professionals on large animals like raccoons and opossums. These animals can be very dangerous and carry diseases. Also, if there are animals in your home, more than likely there will be little babies.

Lethal Traps

Lethal traps have been used since the Dark Ages, especially on rats. Lethal traps are usually only used on small mammals, like moles, mice, and rats. They kill the pest by a mechanical blow. although, this method is highly productive in controlling rodent problems if done correctly. This method does not always instantaneously kill the rodent.

The downfall to lethal traps is that if you catch the wrong animal, it will most likely kill it, and cannot be released like live traps.

When selecting a lethal trap, be sure to know what animal you are trying to capture. The size of the trap is very important. Select the right size for mice, rats, and moles. Use the smallest possible trap pertaining to the right rodent.

Now, the smartest thing to do when setting traps is setting enough and setting them in the right places. Putting down one or two traps will not ensure the capture of rodents, putting down ten or more (depending on size of infestation) has a better chance of doing so. Remember, it may take up to two to three weeks before the traps start to work. Just be patient and check the traps regularly.

Downs Pest Control is family owned and operated pest control company that serves Des Moines and surrounding areas. We are dedicated to helping residents and businesses in Altoona, Ankeny, Bondurant, Carlisle, Clive, Grimes, Johnston, Norwalk, Perry, Urbandale, Waukee, West Des Moines, and Windsor Heights prevent and remove pest infestations. We are dedicated to safety and high quality customer service. Downs Pest Control 50309, 50310, 50311, 50312, 50313, 50314, 50315, 50316, 50317, 50318, 50319, 50320, 50321, 50327, 50391, and 50392