Bed bugs have made a huge resurgence worldwide over the last few years.  A recent survey of pest control companies found that a staggering 95% of companies encountered bed bugs within the last year, a huge increase over the past decade.  According to the survey, bed bugs were most commonly found in

• Apartments
• Single family homes
• Hotels / Motels

Other less common places bed bugs were found included college dorms, homeless shelters, nursing homes, office buildings, hospitals, schools, public transportation, laundries, movie theaters, day cares, libraries, summer camps, restaurants, locker rooms, prisons, fire and police stations, moving vans, ambulances, funeral homes, and doctors offices.  Read about how beg bugs even shut down Jay-Z and Rihanna's recording studio in Manhattan.  We have also noticed increased call volume for bedbugs at the end of holiday season when people return home from vacations. 

Follow these tips to increase your chances of avoiding these annoying pests.

1.       Check any bed you stay in during your travels.  Look for bed bug fecal stains (black dots or smudges) and bed bugs themselves along mattress seams, where the mattress rests on the boxspring and where the boxspring rests on the bed frame.  Bed bugs are about the size of a tick and are fairly easy to see with the naked eye.  Don’t put your suitcase on the hotel bed until you check out the bed thoroughly – just in case.  That’s the main cause of bed bug infestations, traveling in your luggage!

2.       Bed bugs are not more likely to affect economically disadvantaged people.  The economically disadvantaged are less likely to hire a professional pest company to get control, thus they are more likely to not be able to get rid of bed bugs, but are not more likely to get them. 

3.       Bed bugs are not more common in unsanitary conditions.  We have personally treated several very nice, very clean hotel rooms for bed bugs.  All a bed bug needs to live happily is a bed (or other shelter) and a live body. 

4.       Bed bugs feed mainly at night and generally do not hurt when they bite.  Many people do not have any skin reaction to the bite.  For those that do have a skin reaction, it is so similar to many other insect bites and skin conditions that they can’t be diagnosed as bed bug bites just by looking at them – even by a physician.  You have to find a bed bug to know that you have bed bugs.

5.       Bedbugs have never been shown to transmit any diseases. 

6.       Bedbugs can move from one room or apartment to another, but it takes 6 to 8 weeks.

Bed bugs are very difficult to control, even by professionals.  Treatment costs can be more than $250 per room, so use these tips to prevent bringing home unwelcome hitchhikers!

Lloyd and Harry from ‘Dumb & Dumber’ wanted to name their pet store “I Got Worms” because they were going to specialize in worm farms, much like ant farms of course.  They were talking about earthworms, but today I want to talk about something a bit more annoying, and certainly not cute like a worm farm.  These are worms that are not fun to look at and can be damaging to your plants and trees, they are web worms. 

Sometimes called silk worms, web worm caterpillars are a common pest of trees.  They attack around 90 different kinds of plans, including many fruit, nut, and ornamental trees and shrubs.  Their feeding preference varies depending on location.  We’ve been seeing them primarily in pecan trees recently, but they are also attacking maple, mulberry, poplar, willow, oak, and hickory trees around Texas. 

The web masses these pests produce are quite unsightly and they kill or consume the leaves and branches that they inhabit.  Although rarely fatal to the tree by themselves, infestations that reoccur over several years can stress the trees and make them more susceptible to drought, disease, or other insect pests which can be fatal.

There are a few pesticide free tactics that can be used to get rid of webworms, but they all require being able to reach the web.

• Ripping open the web makes the worms available for meals for birds, wasps, and other animals that might feed on them if made accessible.
• Cutting the branch off will eliminate the live webworms feeding on that branch (You might miss some though…read on).
• Lighting a torch and placing it inside the web will kill or force out any webworms present.

Of course, if you can’t reach the webs, none of these tactics will help you.  Also, webworms lay their eggs on the underside of leaves or on nearby branches.  Just cutting out the branches with heavy web infestations leaves you at risk of missing many other budding infestations or conglomerations of eggs in different places.

Trees and shrubs can be treated effectively by a professional pest control company and can rid your trees and shrubs of any webworm infestations.  The combination of a professional treatment and pruning the infested branches will give you the best chance of completely ridding yourself of these pests.

The other day a client of ours told me we were their “Summertime Saviors.” You see, they have a beautiful backyard with huge trees and lots of landscaping, it really is very aesthetically pleasing and relaxing to be back there. That is, of course, until the mosquitoes took over!

• Swimming Pools
• Beer
• Baseball Season
• Hot Dogs & Hamburgers
• Jetskis
• Fishing

What else is there?

Venus Pest Company was recently awarded a Newman 10 award for being one of the 10 fastest growing businesses in the Brazos Valley. The Newman 10 awards are presented by the Bryan chapter of Rotary International and aims to promote local businesses and highlight their successes.

• Brazos Technology
• The Ground Crew LLC
• Brazos Valley Hearing Services
• Chrome: A Salon Experience
• Ed Slovacek CPA
• JB Knowledge Technologies, Inc.
• Fifth 'C' Fine Jewelry
• Expressions Dance and Music
• Ashford Square Realty LLC
• Venus Pest Company

As summer rolls in to full gear it brings a lot of “fun” things to watch out for in the pest world.  One in particular is swarming fire ants.  As we enter extended periods of dry weather, fire ants really begin to take hold around our homes and businesses.  We all get lulled into a false sense of security because we haven’t seen a bunch fire ant mounds around, or seen them inside our homes yet.  That’s when a big rain storm blows through and all those feelings of security disappear.

After a long stretch with no rain followed by a storm, you may start noticing some really large ants crawling around on your patios and swimming in your pools, some have wings and some don't.  No need to panic just yet as these are fire ant re-productives.  After a spring or summer rain, fire ant colonies often send out winged potential kings and queens hopeful of finding suitable mates.  The reason for a coordinated swarm is to help make sure these unions form between mostly non-related individuals: hybrid vigor, the same as in most of the animal kingdom.  

The male will quickly die while the female chews off her wings and tries to start a new colony.  In the beginning, she will lay both fertile eggs and non-fertile "trophic" eggs, which are for feeding the developing colony.  This will go on for about 6 weeks before the colony starts to forage and becomes noticeable to you, a good time to apply fire ant bait. 

*  Another interesting fact is that during flight, these females are very attracted to reflective surfaces.  That is why so many end up in pools and on shiny patios. 

*  You’ll also notice a slew of new fire ant mounds and active fire ants after it rains as they are attempting to repair their fallen tunnels and rebuild their colony.

*  Watch this video of fire ants invading a home...ignore the cheesy commentary.

Venus Pest Company offers a very affordable fire ant control program.  Of course there are many types of ants that will send out winged reproductives, so if you’re unsure of what you see, call a pest management professional.  Also, keep your eyes on the puddles left behind by rain as they will soon let loose deluges of hungry mosquitoes.  Call us and ask about our guaranteed mosquito control programs.

Most people don’t look closely enough at ants when they see them to discern what type of ant they are.  Well those people are missing out in my professional opinion because there are some crazy ant species around, not to mention actual “crazy ants” which are becoming more prevalent in the States.  Today though, we’re talking about the Acrobat Ant, how to identify them, and what dangers they pose to your home or business.

Why are they called acrobat ants?  As you can see in the image above, they have the ability to carry their abdomen above their heads.  Typically performed when agitated, this gives them the appearance of an acrobat walking on their hands.  When viewed from above, their abdomen in heart shaped, which gives you two very easily identifiable traits if you come across these ants.  If you can’t tell, mess with them a bit and see if they lift up their abdomens in frustration.

What Threats Do They Pose?

• Wood Destroying Insects:  While acrobats don’t eat wood, they do live and nest in wood much like carpenter ants.  They are particularly attracted to old rotting or decaying wood as it’s obviously easier to excavate.  They feed on sweets and proteins and as their colony grows they will destroy more wood. 
• If you have an infestation of acrobat ants, you will often see piles of “frass” or sawdust, and also dead ants that have been removed from the colony and dropped out of an exit point.  These ants are very clean and meticulous, always removing any clutter from their homes.
• The inside of your home or attic provides these ants with all the shelter and comfort they need and thus if an infestation begins in or around your home, it can grow incredibly fast if not treated accordingly.
  

How Do You Protect Yourself?

• Most importantly, keep all trees and shrubs trimmed away from your house, especially if anything is touching the house.  This simply creates an easy access highway for these ants to crawl out of the trees and into your home. 
• Clean out your gutters!  Gutters often become filled with leaves, twigs, and other organic matter that begins to decay.  This not only attracts many insects, including acrobat and carpenter ants, but also decreasing the functionality of your gutters.  Clean your gutters often, or look into gutter protection systems to avoid having to repeat this chore in the future.
• Replace rotting and decaying wood around your home.  Treating rotting wood with an insecticide can be an effective way to kill a bunch of ants and keep them away for a short while, but replacing the wood is truly the best way to ensure they don’t come back.

Acrobat ants, while fun to look at and mess with sometimes, do pose a serious threat.  In short, they must be eliminated from your home or business to avoid future complications and destruction of your property.  If you’re not sure what kind of ants you might have running around your home, call Venus Pest Company and we can help you sort it out.

Recently, I was at one of the huge retail hardware stores here in the area and had an epiphany…why on earth do they carry so many different products to take care of your pest control needs?  In this picture above, the left side of the picture represents the pest control section at one of these stores.  Granted, there is one little section where weed control products are mixed in, but there is at least 50-75 feet of just pest control products, stacked on shelves 8-10 feet high. 

Now I would like you to view the right side of the picture.  That is a three tier shelf that is 13 inches deep and it contains everything, and I do mean everything, that I need in my van to perform every kind of pest control necessary.  What I have on that shelf can protect homes and business from ants, cockroaches, spiders, termites, scorpions, earwigs, silverfish, wasps, crickets, pill bugs, centipedes, millipedes, even rats and mice…I could keep listing them all day, but the point is I can cover anything and everything with a much smaller, more specific selection of pest control products. 

Not only that, but all of our services are guaranteed to work or we do what it takes to make it right.  Try getting a guarantee from a 30 pound bag of some granular yard spread that you buy from the hardware store, at least I don’t think you can.  Some of these products do actually work on occasion and have similar active ingredients as the products we use professionally, so I’m not saying that none of them work at all.  I guess I just love the fact that I am able to provide outstanding services to people, all fully guaranteed, using a fraction of the stuff they try to sell to consumers in big box stores.

A quick related story before I go.  Prior to moving back to town, my Mom had a pretty big ant problem at her house.  She was waiting for me to get back to town so I can treat for her ants, but the problem got bad before I was able to get there.  So, she bought a big bag of “ant killer” from one of the big stores and spread it all over the back side of her house.  The directions on the bag said to lay a line out across their path and pile it places of high activity.  These ants were all trailing along the bottom of her garage door and heading straight into one of her weep-holes into her house.  Naturally, she laid out a long line of this stuff across the garage and against the house where the ants were.

When I arrived, the first thing I noticed was the awful smell!  The product smelled so bad that you could smell it inside the house, it almost made me nauseous.  Not only that, now there are piles of stuff laying all over the place.  The worst part, upon close examination, the ants were trailing right through the stuff, not even affected by it one bit, and still walking right into her house!  I couldn’t even find any dead ones around to prove that it at least worked a little bit. 

The first thing I did was sweep everything away to get rid of the smell and the unsightly piles.  Then, with a perfect ant potion, I put down a protective barrier all around her house.  Immediately I could see the ants scurrying, trying to flee the area, some already dying.  Most importantly, no mess, no smell, you couldn’t even tell it was there after it dried.  Actually, most importantly is the fact that there were no more ants after a very short timeframe and I know the results will last for a long time, effectively reducing their numbers down to zero.

It’s good knowing the services you provide not only work, but also keep homes and businesses clean and presentable…and protected!

We’ve had an influx of calls in recent weeks regarding scorpions invading peoples’ homes and yards, so we figured we’d put some information out there for those who know little about this creature.  Since ancient days, scorpions have been the fodder for disgust, contempt, and fear.  For the most part, this is an unfair label.  First, we must consider that scorpions have been around for over 420 million years, with little change to their morphology (or body makeup).  If a species did not have a beneficial niche in this world, it could not survive for that long.

There are approximately 1,500 species of scorpions that have been identified, and only about 20 of those are toxic enough to cause serious injury in humans.  Parts of Africa and South America appear to have the largest concentration of potentially lethal scorpions.  Although there are a lot of scorpions in this area, I don’t remember hearing of any serious injuries due to stings.  Scorpions do eat live prey, and if they are seen at all, they are usually in search of a meal.  Humans are not part of their diet, so any problematic encounter with a scorpion is typically because they are trying to defend themselves from an obviously much larger opponent, us.  Have you ever seen those videos of guys eating live scorpions?  Go find them on YouTube if you want to be a little grossed out!

Some species of scorpions can spend up to 97% of their lives inside their burrows, only adventuring out to find meals.  Their neurotoxins are believed to target specific kinds of prey, usually different species of insects.  For humans, a scorpion sting is typically less painful and agitating than a wasp, or bee sting.  Not that we all want to run out and get stung by a scorpion to find out, but it’s important to understand they are not as lethal as some folks believe.  If you are stung by a scorpion, it is recommended that you wash the area with soap and water, ice it down, then elevate the area to minimize swelling.  If symptoms worsen, visit a medical facility where they can treat the sting with modern techniques. 

Although we are trying to dispel some of the myths about scorpions so they don’t seem so scary, we still don’t want them in or around your home.  If you suspect you might have, or see scorpions, here are some things you should consider.

• Do not stack, or pile rocks, wood, or anything else next to your house.  Scorpions love these piles and can find harborage in the many different cracks and crevices.
• Be mindful of reaching your hands into places you cannot see, especially if you have seen scorpions around before.
• Treat all the places you inhabit.

Remember, where there is one, there are usually many more.  Even if you do everything you can think of, scorpions are resilient enough to find a way, especially if you live in a heavily wooded area, or rural setting…remember 420 million years!  Luckily, there are proven methods of scorpion control to eliminate any infestations and prevent future ones around your home, just call a pest management professional. 

There once was a girl named Venus

Who couldn’t believe she had seen us.

She cleared her eyes and shook her head,

But sure enough, the shirt still read…

Venus!

Much to our own surprise as well,

Was she serious, we could not tell?

Winking her eye, her smile was rye,

Her name could no longer be denied…

Venus!

Ok, so I’m not the best poet, but it’s hard to rhyme with Venus without entering some dangerous territory! 

This poem is based on a true story however, and worth mentioning.  We recently attended an open house ribbon cutting ceremony for Red Mango Frozen Yogurt here in College Station.  Their specialty is non-fat, all natural varieties of frozen yogurt.  With our own focus on healthy, green living we like to support other companies that feel the same.  If you haven’t heard of Red Mango, or tried one yet, they have locations everywhere and are definitely worth checking out! 

They day of the ribbon cutting, they had their founder, CFO, and other managers from different locations in to help out and join the celebration.  One of the managers in from Dallas was none other than the very lovely Venus Basaran, pictured above.  When Dr. Scott and I introduced ourselves, she really did have a look of surprise on her face and finally asked if the name of our company really was Venus Pest Company.  So, of course I had to confirm whether or not her name was really Venus because I’ve never met anybody named Venus before, and I thought Venus was obviously a very unique name.  How many times can you say Venus in one sentence?

All I know is I’ve never met anybody named after millions of other companies, but Venus Pest Company has one…or are we named after her?  Either way, pretty cool!

Household pests bring with them a wide variety of health and aesthetic concerns for homes and businesses.  Cockroaches can trigger asthma attacks and are responsible for a slew of other gross bacteria and health risks.  Bed bugs cause itchy welts when they bite you to get a blood meal, and can also transmit bacteria and disease.  Rats, please, if we have to tell you how gross rats are, you’re in trouble!

Did you know April is National Pest Management Month?  For more than 30 years the pest management industry has observed April as National Pest Management Month. In honor of National Pest Management Month this year, the NPMA is raising public awareness about the risks posed by household pests and encouraging homeowners to take proactive steps to prevent pest infestations in their homes and properties.

The Professional Pest Management Alliance (PPMA), in conjunction with the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) has released a new PSA campaign to heighten awareness.  Check out this funny commercial where they’re interrogating a roach, a rat, and a bed bug. 

There are serious implications when it comes to pests in and around your homes and businesses.  Don’t let yourself be overrun and create additional problems that could have been easy to prevent by calling a pest management professional.