Understanding Cockroach Behavior

Cockroaches seek warmth, moisture, and food, and your home might just be the perfect winter retreat they’re looking for. These pests are nocturnal and tend to hide during the day, making them sometimes hard to spot. They can squeeze into small spaces like cracks in walls, behind refrigerators, sinks, and stoves, or under floor drains and inside of motors and major appliances. Recognizing signs of an infestation is crucial and can include seeing live or dead cockroaches, finding droppings, or noting a musty smell in dark, damp areas of your home.

Step 1: Seal Up Entry Points

Prevention starts with making it hard for cockroaches to enter your home. Winterize your home by sealing up cracks and openings:

• Inspect the exterior of your home for any cracks or crevices, and seal them with caulk or another appropriate material.
• Install weather stripping around doors and windows to eliminate gaps.
• Check for gaps around cable and utility entry points and seal them.
• Cover vents with mesh screens to prevent entry without blocking airflow.

Step 2: Eliminate Attraction Factors

Cockroaches are attracted to food, water, and clutter, which provide them with the necessary resources to survive and reproduce:

• Keep your kitchen clean: Wipe down counters and sweep floors regularly to remove crumbs and spills.
• Store food in airtight containers and never leave dishes in the sink overnight.
• Regularly empty trash in a sealed receptacle and keep it away from the house.
• Remove clutter: Reduce clutter in storage areas, as piles of items can provide shelter for cockroaches.
• Dispose of old newspapers, magazines, and boxes, as these are attractive nesting materials for cockroaches.

Step 3: Reduce Moisture

Since cockroaches thrive in moist environments, managing moisture in your home is essential:

• Repair leaky pipes and faucets to eliminate water sources.
• Use dehumidifiers in damp areas such as basements and crawl spaces.
• Ensure good ventilation in high-humidity areas like the kitchen and bathroom.

Step 4: Regular Cleaning and Maintenance

A clean house is your best defense against cockroaches:

• Deep clean regularly: Areas behind appliances and under sinks are often neglected.
• Vacuum frequently: This helps remove food particles and potential egg sacs from carpets and cracks.
• Maintain yard and exterior: Trim vegetation away from the exterior of your house to decrease shelter and breeding sites for cockroaches.

Step 5: Set Traps and Baits

In the event that cockroaches make it into your home, traps and baits can be an effective way to eliminate them before an infestation grows:

• Use glue traps: These can help monitor and reduce the number of cockroaches.
• Bait stations: Place them in areas where cockroach activity is suspected. These stations use attractants to draw cockroaches in and then poison them.

Step 6: Consider Professional Pest Control

If you suspect a serious infestation or want to ensure thorough preventative measures, professional pest control can offer more comprehensive solutions:

• Scheduled inspections: Professionals can offer regular inspections and treatments to maintain a cockroach-free home.
• Customized treatments: Based on the specific needs and vulnerabilities of your home, professionals can apply the most effective treatments to prevent infestations.

Educating Your Household

Every member of your household should be aware of the steps they can take to prevent cockroach infestations:

• Establish routines: Such as cleaning up immediately after meals, not leaving pet food out, and managing trash efficiently.
• Be vigilant: Regularly check for signs of cockroaches, especially in high-risk areas.
• Respond promptly: If you see signs of cockroaches, increase cleaning efforts and check for possible entry points that may need sealing.

The Importance of Early Intervention

Early detection and intervention are key to preventing a full-blown cockroach infestation. Regularly inspect your home for signs of cockroaches and take immediate action if any are found. The sooner you address the issue, the easier it will be to manage and eliminate.

Keeping your home free from cockroaches in winter requires diligence, but it is achievable with the right strategies. By sealing entry points, eliminating attractants, managing moisture, maintaining cleanliness, setting traps, and possibly engaging professional pest control, you can enjoy a healthier, pest-free home. Remember, the effort you put into preventing cockroach infestations not only contributes to a more comfortable and hygienic living environment but also protects your home’s value and structural integrity. Learn more by accessing our website.

The post Preventing Cockroach Infestations This Winter: A Homeowner’s Guide appeared first on Pest Control.

While the cockroach already has an uncanny “super bug” reputation, the real truth will blow your mind. Most people know that the cockroach has been around for a long time, and will probably be the last species on the planet, even after a global nuclear war. Most people know that cockroaches are hard to eradicate, and suspect that they are possibly winning the battle against humans in terms of both numbers and population growth. Certain species seem to have an almost mythical reputation. The coyote, the rat and the cockroach are good examples.

Nevertheless, some of the following cockroach facts will still surprise and shock you.

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – They’re A Diverse Species

When we think about cockroaches, we often think only of 3 species.

• German cockroach
• American cockroach
• Brownbanded cockroach

But did you know there are over 4,000 species of cockroach on the planet? And they exist on every continent except Antarctica.

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – They’re Persistent As A Species

Cockroaches are older than the dinosaurs, and have been around for 359 million years. Many species have come and gone the way of the dinosaur since then…but not the cockroach.

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – They’re Survivors

No food, water, air? Not a huge immediate problem for a cockroach.
A cockroach can go without eating for a month. They can survive without water for a week and when water is scarce they retain it longer by holding their breath. In fact, cockroaches can hold their breath for 40 minutes at a time, which means they can also survive under water for that long. So, the drain and the toilet are not necessarily barriers to cockroaches seeking entrance into your home from the sewers.

No head? Not a problem!
Cockroaches breathe through holes, or spiracles, in their body segments, so do not need to use their mouths to breathe. However they do need their mouths to drink water. For this reason, a cockroach can survive for a week without its head! It only eventually dies due to lack of water.

Nuclear disaster? Not a problem!
Since their cell cycles are slower (they molt only once a week), cockroaches can tolerate high levels of radiation and have been found at nuclear disaster sites (Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl) living as if nothing happened.

Sub-freezing temperatures? Not a problem!
At least it’s not a problem for the Japanese cockroach, who hibernates under the winter snow down to 8 degrees below zero, then emerges in the spring ready to continue on with life, even if he has spent the entire winter frozen!

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – They Eat Just About Anything

If it’s organic, cockroaches can eat it. This includes dead insects, paper, cloth, soap, wood, glue, and hair. Speaking of hair, they have been known to eat people’s eyebrows and fingernails at night! They also love beer.

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – They Have Reproductive Stamina

Since the female cockroach can store sperm, she needs to mate only once, and then can reproduce for the rest of her life without a male. These females just don’t have much of a need for men!

And, their babies grow fast! German cockroach eggs hatch and grow to adulthood in as little as 30 days! They’re ready to breed in 120 days.

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – They’re Dangerous

Cockroaches, which you’ll remember can hold their breath as they move through the sewer and drain pipes, carry bacteria and viruses on their bodies that cause such diseases as tuberculosis, cholera, leprosy, dysentery, and typhoid. Some studies have found up to 45% of children are allergic to cockroaches and suffer asthma as a result of cockroach exposure.

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – They Fit Into Small Places

Cockroaches like to wedge themselves into tight places, and curiously, have been reported by some doctors, to be the most common foreign objects removed from children’s ears, up to 50% of the foreign object removals.

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – They’re Fast

What’s the fastest land moving creature? Most people would say it’s the cheetah at 60-70 mph. That’s fast…freeway fast. But the cockroach, once size is taken into account is 3 TIMES AS FAST AS A CHEETAH! A cockroach can move 50 times its body length in just one second. That’s the equivalent of a 1 second 100 yard dash, or 200mph. We’re lucky they’re not the size of a cheetah! We’d all be doomed!

A baby cockroach, the size of a grain of sand can run almost as fast. And, they run vertically up walls just as fast! One species, discovered in South Africa in 2009, can even jump like a grasshopper.

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – They Do Get Bigger!

As we just said, we’re lucky the cockroach is not the size of a cheetah. However, there is a large version in South America that is six inches long with a wingspan of one foot!

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – They’re Sensitive

We have not yet discovered the limits of what a cockroach can sense, but it goes way beyond human and animal ability. Cockroaches can sense changes in barometric pressure and know when it’s about to rain. In Bermuda, thousands of cockroaches have been seen running across roads shortly before a downpour.

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – They’re Many

The sensitivity of the cockroach also includes the ability to signal others as to the presence of a food source, so cockroach infestations can grow to huge proportions. One record is over a million cockroaches discovered in a New York home in 1979. There were 24 dogs, 20 cats, 2 mice and a parrot in the same home, so the presence of pet food most likely contributed. The story demonstrates the cockroaches ability to grow their population to match the local available food source.

On the Good Side?

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – Some Make Great Pets

The Madagascar hissing cockroach makes a great pet. It’s odorless, and, like all cockroaches is hard to kill and lives a long time. Tired of little Johnny’s heart being broken every time his favorite pet fish dies? Get him a cockroach!

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – Some Make Great Snacks

As long as cockroaches are fed a diet of food and vegetables, and raised in sanitary food quality conditions, they are edible. In China, cockroaches are deep fried and sold on sticks on the streets.

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – They’re Used by the Cosmetic Industry

Cockroaches are farmed and sold to some cosmetic companies to be ground into powder and used in cosmetic products. Can that cockroach durability last longer and make people look younger? You may already have found out, and not known it!

Cockroach Facts Beyond Belief – How to wrap this article up?

We guess that when you’re through being thrilled and amazed with these interesting cockroach facts, and see a cockroach running across the kitchen floor, you’ll forget all the cockroach trivia and have just one thought: “How do I get rid of this cockroach that I see, and the many that I don’t see?”

Call ApolloX Pest Control
(888) 499-7378

We believe that even through cockroaches are pretty amazing creatures, they don’t belong in the house, and we know how to safely and quickly remove them from your home!

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Put simply, pantry moths destroy food. They rapidly multiply and as their larvae eat through the food in a container whether it be a bag of flour, a cereal box or a box of oatmeal, they leave grow, molt and leave old skin casings, fras and waste on the top 2 inches or so of the food container. The food inside is no longer edible.

Pantry Moth Extermination – Signs You Have Pantry Moths

The first sign you have pantry moths will often be sighting one or more moths flying around the kitchen, mostly at night seeking light or a mate. The moths are about a half inch long with a 5/8 inch wingspan. The two main types of pantry moth are the Indian Meal Moth which is gray with a redish tint on the rear area, and the Mediterranean Flour Moth which is alternately gray and buff white with no coloring.

For every adult moth you see flying around the kitchen, there are likely hundreds of eggs and larvae somewhere living in one or more food containers. Any open food source like a bag of flour or a cereal box is suspect. Dry food that has been sitting around in the back of your shelf for a long time is especially susceptible to pantry moth infestation. The sight of cocoon webbing around the edges of cupboards and food storage areas, or worm-like moth larvae verify the presence of the moths. You may even notice a moth flying out of a cereal box as it is opened.

Closer inspection may reveal the presence of moth eggs which are only 1 to 2 hundreths of an inch and grayish white in color. The larvae are small ½ inch long 5 legged caterpillars and are off white, depending on the food source. They may vary in color to green to pale pink or brown.

Pantry Moth Extermination – Their Life Cycle

It takes from 30 to 300 days for one moth to multiply to 400 moths. The cycle goes faster if it’s warmer, and there is a good food source. Do the math: Let’s be conservative and say the cycle takes 150 days. In six months you might have 400 moths, and in a year 200 X 400 = 80,000 moths (only the females lay eggs)! Your kitchen is completely trashed!

The Eggs: The pantry moth life cycle begins when an adult female lays up to 400 eggs, typically directly on the food source. The eggs hatch in about 7 days and the larvae emerge.

The Larva: The larva is the only stage of pantry moth development that eats. Their one goal in life is to eat and gain bulk. It takes them about 42 to 56 days and 5 stages of development, each stage ending by shedding their skin which collects at the top of the food container along with their waste.

The Pupae: The pupae are from ¼ to 1/3rd inch long. You’ll see them in the open or in cocoon webbing. Look especially in tight spots such as crevices in pantry shelves or doorway seams. The pupae continue to develop to adulthood for about 15-20 days.

The Adult: Adult moths emerge from the pupae looking for a mate and having a mission to reproduce about 400 moths. The female releases a pheromone scent to attract the male. At this stage you’re likely to see a few moths flying around the kitchen at night. The adults live for up to 2 weeks.

Pantry Moth Extermination – Seek and Destroy

You can be a meticulous cleaner and still get a pantry moth infestation, because the tiny moth eggs may already be in the dry foods you bring home from the grocery store. So, be easy on yourself and focus on the solution which begins with seeking points of infestation.

Pull all food containers off your pantry shelves, so that the shelves are completely empty. Then inspect each container one by one.

What to inspect? Check every box, bag or package of food, whether sealed or open. All edible food is suspect. For example, inspect dried flowers, children’s macaroni art, pasta, pet treats, dog biscuits. Inspect every can and jar in the kitchen. Look for moth webbing under the lips of jar lids and on the rims of cans.

As you discover infested food, dispose of it immediately. Tightly seal all infested food items in trash bags and get them out of the house and garage. Don’t even think of saving part of the food in an infested container. The whole container is infested.

If webbing is found on an unopened can or jar, wash it thoroughly with a 50/50 mixture of white vinegar and warm water.

Now, before returning the cleaned, non-infested food containers to the pantry, vacuum the pantry out (and dispose of the vacuum bag in one of those sealed trash bags as noted above). Then, wash down the pantry shelves with that 50/50 water vinegar mixture. Also, wash down every surface in the kitchen from walls to floors and even in places like door jams – a favorite hiding place for moth eggs. Don’t forget to wash the garbage containers and pet food dishes and containers.

Finally, tightly seal all food. Remember, female moths lay eggs directly on food. If they can’t find exposed food, they have no place to lay their eggs.

Pantry Moth Extermination – Moth Control Techniques

Pheromone Traps:
If you’re following all of the above suggestions and thoroughly cleaning everything, yet still have a moth problem, you might try pheromone moth traps. This is safe and completely non-toxic. The pheromone scent in the trap attracts the male moths, and the stick surface traps them. With the male moths out of the picture, reproduction can’t take place. This gives your pantry cleaning efforts (above) a better chance of success.

Bay Leaves:
Place a few bay leaves in your cleaned pantry shelves to help deter any moths that might be lurking about the house.

Pantry Moth Extermination: Hire a Pest Control Professional

If your pantry moth problem persists, or if you simply don’t have the time or desire to conduct the thorough measures outlined above, we understand completely. That’s a huge task.

A quicker, alternate approach is to hire a pest control professional like ApolloX Pest Control, the pantry moth experts. We’ll thoroughly inspect your home and likely discover places you would never have imagined moths, eggs, larvae or pupae could be hiding. While we’re at it, we’ll also inspect for the presence of other pests like mice, cockroaches, ants, termites and others. Our goal is that your home and the area around your home be entirely pest-free.

Call the professionals at ApolloX Pest Control
(888) 499-7378

The post Pantry Moth Extermination – How to Identify and Eliminate Them appeared first on Pest Control.

    As the weather warms up, so does an infamous pest no one likes to see around–the cockroach. There is only one experience more horrifying than discovering a cockroach scurrying across the kitchen floor. It’s having guests discover a cockroach scurrying across YOUR kitchen floor. 

Cockroach Prevention – Famous “guests discover a cockroach” story.

If this has happened, don’t feel so bad. Here’s a story to top any “guest sees a cockroach in my home” story you can imagine. Last October at the very moment the Chicago pest control commissioner was testifying at a City Council meeting an amazing event occurred. The meeting was suddenly interrupted when what an alderman described as “the largest cockroach I’ve see at City Hall” made it’s appearance right in the City Council chambers. Evidently it scaled a white wall, boldly standing out in direct contrast to it’s background. Such an event will probably never be forgotten! Curiously, the story was even reported by a newspaper 3000 miles away! http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/chicago-cockroach-drops-in-on-city-hall-pest-control-meeting/

You don’t have to suffer the embarrassment

Fortunately, there are some rather simple actions you can take now to help prevent a public siting of a cockroach in your home. Even if you’ve seen a roach in your home, the following 7 actions will greatly reduce the problem.

Cockroach Prevention – Top 7 Ways to Discourage An Infestation

The science behind these 7 roach prevention tips is pretty simple: Create an environment that has nothing that attracts cockroaches. If there’s nothing that supports their living conditions, cockroaches will look for another home. 

What do cockroaches love? roaches are water-loving insects, and therefore love damp places. They also love just about all the types of food that we eat. Therefore, eliminate dampness and access to food, and you make your home a very unfriendly environment for cockroaches.

Cockroach Prevention – Keep Things Dry.

Sounds simple, but sometimes the obvious is not so obvious. Your home may seem dry enough, but think again.

1) Dry Out Damp Places: Is your basement a damp place? What about the crawl space under your home? Take action to see that these are well ventilated. This alone will make a big difference.

2) Remove Standing Water: When was the last time you checked the evaporation pan under your refrigerator? Is it full of water? Has it overflowed?

3) Ventilate Areas with Water Pipes: What about the area under your kitchen and bathroom sink? Are these areas dry and well ventilated. How about the wall voids that contain your water pipes? Any leaky, sweaty pipes? Is there good ventilation?

Cockroach Prevention – Eliminate Food Sources

4) Keep the Sink Free of Dirty Dishes: While it’s much easier to clean dishes the next morning rather than at night when you’ve tired, dirty dishes in the sink at night are like Disneyland to cockroaches: Both food and water! Sure, the dishes are there only for a few hours until the morning, but this alone could support a huge cockroach infestation.

5) Remove Food Particles: Cockroaches can live on food that we can’t even see. This includes the smallest food crumbs on the floor or in your carpet, and even food residue on discarded food containers and wrappers. Therefore, vacuum regularly. Eliminate any standing garbage in or around your home. Empty the kitchen garbage daily. Rinse containers before placing them in the recycling bin.

6) Tightly Seal All Food: Keep all food in air-tight containers. While food in the refrigerator is probably safe, consider the food in your pantry – potato chip bag, cereal boxes…even the dog food bag. Think Tupperware!

Seal off points of entrance.

7) Seal Any Cracks Around the Outside of Your Home: Young cockroaches can crawl through a crack as thin as a dime; Adult males can slip through a space as thin as a quarter; The largest cockroaches–pregnant females–only need a space the size of two stacked nickels. So, when we say “seal the cracks”, we’re talking about even the smallest of cracks. 

Give yourself a fighting chance.

As you can see, even a home that appears to be immaculate can be a paradise for cockroaches. The most conscientious housekeeper can easily miss quite a few of the food and water sources able to support a large population of cockroaches.

Is your home officially “Unfriendly to Cockroaches”? Call us for a professional cockroach inspection. We’ll look at all the places listed above, and more, for conditions that favor cockroaches. And, if there are cockroaches in your home that you have not yet discovered, we’ll quickly find them and eliminate them.

Let us be the only guests who ever see a cockroach in your home.

Call ApolloX Pest Control

(888) 499-7378

The post Cockroach Prevention – When the guests discovered a cockroach. appeared first on Pest Control.

It’s spring at last! Think we’re happy? Guess who is just as happy? Pavement Ants. They are cold-blooded creatures, and therefore cannot be active during the winter months. As the weather begins to warm up in March, April and May, pavement ants begin to wake up.

Exterminate Pavement Ants – Know Their Habitat

Pavement ants love to create nests and satellite nests in the safety of the area under a slab of stone or concrete. This is why you are likely to find pavement ants emerging from underneath a patio, or from a crack in the sidewalk or the cracks between the stones of your front walk. For this reason, they’re hard to eliminate due to the inaccessibility of their colony.

Exterminate Pavement Ants – Know Their Behavior

To successfully eliminate pavement ants, it’s important to understand their behavior. Upon waking up to the warm temperatures of spring, pavement ants are extremely hungry, having lived off their inner food reserves during winter hibernation.

Exterminate Pavement Ants – Know Their Food Needs

What kind of food are they looking for? Pavement ants eat just about any type of food humans eat: Sweet, greasy, grains, fruits, seeds, meat…you eat it, so do pavement ants.

How are they looking for the food? Pavement ants normally follow scent trails left by their scouts. The trails lead to food sources. However, when they wake up in the spring, the scent trails have long since dissipated. Therefore, the pavement ants don’t know where their food sources exist. So, pavement ant scouts will wander about seeking food sources. When they find the food source, they will head back to the colony, leaving a scent trail as the go from the food source to the colony. The ants from the colony will then travel along the scent trail, creating a major freeway between the colony and the food source.

This is why spring is the best time to exterminate pavement ants. They’re hungry, disoriented from their food sources, scattered about searching, and their colony is not yet firmly established. Eliminate them now and you’ll possibly enjoy NO ANTS throughout the warm summer months.

Exterminate Pavement Ants – What to Do During the Spring Window of Opportunity?

Successful pavement ant extermination requires destroying all the ants in the colony, the eggs, and especially the queens (each colony has multiple queens). Once they emerge, swarm in their winged version and scatter about creating new colonies, extermination can be much more complicated, so you need to act in a timely manner. 

Baits can be effective, due the the inaccessibility of the colony under some stone or concrete slab. The ants take the bait back to the queen, the bait is ingested, the ants die.

Exterminate Pavement Ants – Hire a Licensed Professional Exterminator

Since pavement ants create multiple colonies in inaccessible locations, each with multiple queens… and since they are extremely difficult to exterminate once firmly established…and finally, since the major window of opportunity in the spring is fairly brief, it’s important to call in an expert.

A licensed professional pavement ant exterminator knows the pavement ant’s habits, how to locate their colony, what bait to use, where to place it, and how to accurately assess the results. Your professional pavement ant exterminator will ensure that you don’t go through the summer months with ants appearing in the kitchen, climbing up your legs, spoiling stored cereal and pet food and contaminating your home.

Call ApolloX Pest Control

(888) 499-7378 

Additional Information:

Pavement Ants

Safe Ant Repellants

Pavement Ants In Your School

Stop Pavement Ants In Their Tracks

Pavement Ants In Our Food Supply

The post Exterminate Pavement Ants by First Understanding Them appeared first on Pest Control.

It’s Spring and ants are sprouting wings and reproducing near your home by the millions. The goal is to keep them out of your home, even though your home contains many things that attract them. A carpenter ant colony might be attracted by moist conditions. They like to burrow into moist wood to make their home. Pavement ants are attracted to just about every food that humans eat, and have extremely keen senses.

Safe Ant Repellents – Good Scenario for Their Use

If your home is ant-free at this time, safe ant repellents may be especially beneficial in keeping ants out. On the other hand, if you currently have an established ant problem inside your home, you may be better served by contacting a licensed pest exterminator.

Call ApolloX Pest Control Now

(888) 499-7378

An established colony of carpenter ants or pavement ants inside your home may not be successfully eliminated by the natural repellants named in this article. They’re already inside!

Safe Ant Repellents – How They Work

As we mentioned, ants have extremely keen senses and can sense the slightest odor of the food they crave. This is exactly why safe ant repellents work. Certain natural odors overpower ant’s senses making it hard for them to locate the food they need to survive and breed. When these odors are present, the are likely to look for another place to live.

Safe Ant Repellents – Plant Around Your Home

The great thing about the following ant repellents, is that you can plant them decoratively around your home. Basically, consider surrounding your home with beautiful herbs that smell pleasing to humans, yet repel ants! Here are a few:

• Mint
• Peppermint
• Basil
• Lavender
• Rosemary
• Thyme

Safe Ant Repellents – Bring the Herbs Inside

You can not only use the herbs as a shield around your home. Use them for cooking. And, more importantly for repelling ants, place them in sachets (small decorative net bags – about 2 inches in diameter) in places where you store food. You can place them on window sills, near doorways, basically anywhere there might be an entry for ants.

Safe Ant Repellents – A Few More Possibilities

• Garlic Cloves
• Cinnamon Sticks
• Chili Peppers
• Eucalyptus
• Black Pepper

You may find cinnamon sticks and chili peppers an attractive and even decorative alternative to the herb sachets mentioned above. If you continue to have ant issues, try eucalyptus, black pepper and garlic cloves.

Safe Ant Repellents – Chemical Warfare

• White or Apple Cider Vinegar

Vinegar acts as a fungicide, and ants love fungus, they feed on the fungus in decomposing food. Fill a spray bottle with the vinegar and spray it where you see the most ants.

Safe Ant Repellents – Not Working?

If you have tried all the above means and are still seeing ants in your home, it’s likely you have an established ant colony inside your home: In the foundation, crawl space, a wall void…etc. In this case, you may be better served by contacting a licensed pest exterminator.

Call ApolloX Pest Control

(888) 499-7378

We will inspect your home for the presence of an ant colony, then safely eliminate it.

Learn more about:

• Carpenter Ants
• Pavement Ants

Credits: Repellant list thanks to http://www.greenpestsolutions.com/2013/04/natural-green-ant-remedies/

The post Safe Ant Repellents – Herbs and other natural solutions appeared first on Pest Control.

Those tiny black to brown ants, barely 1/8 inch long called pavement ants thrive in their nests under driveways, patios, sidewalks and slab-constructed buildings.

Learn how quickly they can multiply, and how to “ant-proof” a building.

Pavement Ants In Your School? What attracts them?

In the Spring, pavement ants are a particular nuisance in schools where there are lots food sources from the cafeteria, vending machines, waste containers, student lunch sacks and boxes, and food or food containers discarded by students in hidden corners that might not be discovered for weeks–at least by humans.

Those tiny pavement ants have an uncanny inner “food scent radar”, and will find the food sources long before they are discovered by even the most experienced, skilled school custodial team.

Pavement Ants In Your School? What’s at risk?

As the ants move about, they can contaminate children’s lunch boxes and even the school cafeteria. Once they’ve crawled from their hidden spaces on and under the floor, then all over our children’s food and food containers, it’s a bit like the children are now eating off the floor!

It’s no wonder that colds, flues and other sickness seems to spread rapidly in a school environment, then back home to the family. The pavement ants are helping make this possible. 

Pavement Ants In Your School? Is even the best custodial team up to the challenge?

Schools can take all the most stringent measures against the pavement ant invasion. Custodial teams can clean everything down daily. We suggest they also wipe surfaces down with vinegar–an odor that repels pavement ants. Yet, no custodial team can ensure that every hidden, discarded bit of food is located and eliminated.

Cafeteria staff can tightly seal all food in ant-proof containers, however, it doesn’t take much to attract the ants.

Grounds staff can strive to locate and eliminate every visible pavement ant colony under the surrounding sidewalks, asphalt slabs, in the foundational cracks of an aging school structure. In some cases applying a pesticide to an outdoor pavement ant colony may make the colony look as if it has disappeared when, in fact, it’s actually driven the colony into the school!

Pavement Ants In Your School? What constitutes adequate protection for children and school staff? 

Adequate protection of our children from pavement ants and the disease they carry requires a licensed professional exterminator. A professional exterminator has the experience and the tools to locate and safely eliminate the source of the pavement ants.

In addition, a licensed professional represents a new set of eyes, from outside the organization, inspecting the school building, grounds, classrooms, offices, break rooms, gym, waste containers and cafeteria for hidden food sources that will attract pavement ants. The pest control expert can even help create or review school building and grounds policy where it speaks to conditions that could attract pavement ants and other pests.

Pavement Ants In Your School? Contact a licensed pest control professional.

When a school calls a licensed pest control professional, it’s a sound investment in our children’s health and future. If it helps eliminate even a small portion of student and teacher absences due to illness, is it not worthwhile?

Call ApolloX Pest Control

(888) 499-7378

Licensed, professional pest control for schools, restaurants, commercial buildings and homes. 

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The other night before bed, out of the corner of my eye I saw a tiny black spot on the kitchen floor that caught my attention. Instinctively, my focus was attracted to that spot because it was moving! Upon closer observation, it became clear that this was a little black ant. “How cute”, I thought, as I continued on to bed.

The next morning as I entered the kitchen, no lie, there were over 1000 of the little black specks hurrying about on the kitchen floor, making a bee-line to the stove and disappearing underneath. Actually, it was a two-lane ant highway going to and from the stove. Not so cute anymore.

I quickly did the math: If 1 tiny black ant + 8 hours = 1000+ tiny black ants undertaking a massive highway project in my kitchen, then 1000+ tiny black ants + another 8 hours could become 1 million ants established in their own thriving new major metro area in the kitchen. Now it was sounding a bit science fiction. This meant war.

Stop Pavement Ants – Where do you start?

Upon doing a little research, I found that pavement ants are pretty much attracted to all the food I love. My kitchen must seem to them like a pavement ant superstore! They have an extremely keen sense of smell and so can detect the slightest odor of food.

Stop Pavement Ants – First battle tactic.

It’s clear, then that my first line of defense against this invasion was to eliminate even the slightest food odor from my kitchen. Wow! Not so easy as it sounds. I’d need to begin by thoroughly cleaning EVERYTHING. This meant, the entire inside of the refrigerator, pulling out the refrigerator and discovering everything that’s been hiding there over the years–yuk! Same with the oven–inside, outside, underneath. Then the dishwasher, the floor, all the hidden cracks.

Stop Pavement Ants – Second battle tactic.

“If no odor of food is neutral” thought I, “why not escalate the battle by providing a repellant odor?” Is there an odor that pavement ants hate, despise, makes them want to get as far away as possible? Back to the books. And, victory! There is not one, but many odors that pavement ants hate:

Peppermint oil, lemon juice, crumbled bay leaves, mint, cinnamon, citrus, cloves, cayenne pepper, onion, orange oil mixed with vinegar and rubbing alcohol, coffee grounds, sage, catnip, cucumber peel, white pepper, Windex, and chalk. Credits: Preventing Pavement Ants in Your Home | Colonial Pest Control

“That’s what I’m talking about!”, I thought. I’ll not just clean everything, but rub it down with orange oil mixed with vinegar.

Stop Pavement Ants – Third battle tactic.

But wait! I missed something important. Pavement ants have a keen, uncanny sense of smell. Yes, they’ll sniff out any food crumbs where ever they might be. But even after everything has been thoroughly cleaned, the scent of food continues to come from any unsealed containers. Consider that bag of dog food, those cereal boxes in the cabinet, the flour and sugar bags, the pancake syrup container that has a slight drip at the spout. All are huge welcome signs to pavement ants.

So, my next line of defense will be to seal all food so tightly in containers that absolutely no odor of food can escape to welcome the pavement ants. I’ll use Tupperware or Ziploc.

Stop Pavement Ants – Fourth battle tactic.

Now I’m going to take the battle to their territory, outside the house. I’ll keep the trash can tightly sealed, and move it further away from the house. I’ll also trim back any tree branches or bushes that are touching the house (these could be pavement ant highways into the house). I’ll make a thorough inspection of my home’s exterior and seal up even the tiniest crack where pavement ants might find an entrance (window seals, the foundation…etc.)

Stop Pavement Ants – Fifth battle tactic.

I just found there are plants that actually repel pavement ants. Mint is a big one, and grows so rapidly, it will be easy to plant around the house.

In addition, during the hottest days of the Summer, when pavement ants are looking to escape to a cooler place like my house, I’ll spray a hose around the outside of my home. Pavement ants will not cross over water.

Stop Pavement Ants – Sixth battle tactic.

Remember that first ant that I discovered the evening before there were over 1,000 in my kitchen. Here’s the way it works: That ant was a scout. He discovered a food source, then created a scent trail to the source. The next 999 ants honed in on that trail right into my kitchen! The moral of the story: If you see a pavement ant scout, kill it immediately, before it has a chance to send the coordinates to the home colony!

Stop Pavement Ants – Seventh battle tactic.

I’m exhausted just thinking of all the things I need to do to stop these pavement ants in their tracks. Time to call in a professional trained soldier who stops pavement ants for a living:

Calling ApolloX Pest Control

(888) 499-7378

The post Stop Pavement Ants In Their Tracks – 7 Battle Tactics appeared first on Pest Control.

Perhaps the most successful species of ant in areas where humans live is the pavement ant. They’re the tiny dark brown–nearly black–ants you see crawling about cracks in your walkway or home foundation in huge numbers.

The first indication you have a pavement ant problem might be when you see a few ants around the base of your refrigerator or  kitchen counter where you left a few crumbs of food. The next day there are hundreds of them. Follow their neat pathway, and you may discover where thousands are emerging from their nest, perhaps under a concrete slab.

Pavement Ants In Our Food Supply: Endless Multipliers

The key is that these ants won’t just disappear on their own. They seem to have the ability to endlessly multiply as long as there is a food source, and they love just about everything we humans eat.

Image Credits: Pavement Ants have Highest Level of Carbon-13 | newsmaine

“Eating human food could be an advantage for the pavement ants, allowing them to thrive in areas where their natural diet of dead insects and things might not be so prevalent”, said Clint Penick, a post-doctoral fellow at North Carolina State University.

Image Credits: Pavement Ants having Taste for Human food more than any other …

“Humans bring a ton of general resources,” he said. “The species that can take advantage of these resources the best, sort of wins.”

Image Credits: Ant Control Services in Idaho at Brax Pest Control |

Tests on insects collected from pavements and traffic islands in Manhattan show that their bodies contain the molecular fingerprint of junk food. Credits: New York pavement ants have taste of human food says Study | The …

Pavement Ants In Our Food Supply: First Line of Defense

So, the first line of defense is to keep everything very clean. Clean all food particles and residue under tables, counters, under your refrigerator, on the floor under and behind your stove–all those hard to reach places. Your goal is that all food in any form is only to be found in tightly sealed containers. Know that pavement ants have the ability to penetrate cereal boxes and sugar sacks that seem neatly sealed, so you’ll need strong ant-proof containers like Tupperware and Ziploc.

Pavement Ants In Our Food Supply: Finding the Nest

Look around your home or business for small piles of super fine gravel–larger than sand, looking like tiny rocks. Unlike the carpenter ant, the pavement ant doesn’t burrow into wood, and is not likely to damage a structure. However, they can eventually undermine walkways, causing them to crack.

Image Credits: Pavement ants develop taste for human food | The Silver Ink

Pavement Ants In Our Food Supply: Don’t Inadvertently Drive Them Indoors

So you’ve found the nest. The first natural thought is to spray it with an over the counter spray you found at your local home improvement center or grocery store. This may just end up driving them indoors!

Image Credits: Pavement Ants — A Serious Summer Problem – Ransford Pest Control

Pavement Ants In Our Food Supply: Call the Professionals

Pavement ants can be very persistent and aggressive. If you notice a colony in or near your home, it’s best to call a professional exterminator.

Call ApolloX Pest Control

(888) 499-7378

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The adult Mediterranean flour moth has grey fore-wings with some dark zigzag markings, and the hind wing is light grey to beige. It is distinct in its stance as it raises the front of its body, giving the wings a downward slope.  The larva is white to pink in color with a brown head.The Mediterranean flour moth infests flour, cereals, bran, beans, biscuits, nuts, chocolates, dried foods and many other food stuffs. Credits: Mediterranean Flour Moth – A and H Pest Control

Mediterranean Flour Moth Infestation – Typical Scenario

Let’s say you have dog food stored in a sealed plastic bag or the kind of dog food bag found in the pet section of your grocer. You bring it home and store it away in a cupboard. The Mediterranean flour moth can easily burrow through such a bag, even when it’s tightly sealed. In fact, it may have been there in the first place. 

One moth can lay as many as 116-678 eggs inside the bag (we wonder who counts the eggs to come up with such exact numbers). Within 3-5 days you have up to 678 Mediterranean flour moth larvae crawling about, growing to maturity, capable of further multiplying their population in just 4-6 weeks. Next stop…459,684 moths! Do the math: 3 months later, third generation, you could have… what’s 459,684 X 678??!! 

Mediterranean Flour Moth Infestation – Alfred Hitchcock Scenario

But wait, it could be worse. Imagine that a mouse chews its way into that same dog food bag and begins to transport dog food into a wall void for safe keeping. One moth locates the mouse food storage area and lays her 678 eggs there. 459,684 little moths arrive in the next generation. Again, 3 months later there are as many as 312 million Mediterranean flour moths. Since this is all happening in a hidden, inaccessible area of your home, all you see is a growing number of Mediterranean flour moths fluttering about. Things are beginning to look a bit Alfred Hitchcock!

Mediterranean Flour Moth Infestation – What to do?

Act Immediately: The first rule is that, since time is NOT on your side, don’t leave this situation untreated. If you see one Mediterranean flour moth in your home, you may be just 3 months away from “moth Armageddon”.

Immediately dispose of all food items that show any evidence of moth habitation. “If in doubt, throw it out.” Then vacuum and scrub every cabinet in the kitchen, and possibly in other rooms if there is evidence of moths. Be a good detective and clean even the smallest crevice and crack. 

These moths are so persistent, even the most thorough cleaning can still be unsuccessful. They can hide in the outer folds of a dog food bag or flour bag. They can hide in the tiniest cracks in your cupboard, or even in the holes that make up those movable cupboard shelves.

One report has a homeowner having to actually repaint his entire kitchen before eradicating the moths!

Mediterranean Flour Moth Infestation – Aftermath

So, let’s assume you have conquered the problem. Don’t let yourself become too overconfident. Keep checking for the next two months to be sure.

Don’t risk another infestation. Thoroughly inspect all food you bring into your home. Be aware of the expiration date. Watch especially the specialty grains.

Store all food in tightly sealed containers. Remember that these moths can bore holes in paper, cardboard or even thin plastic. Plan accordingly.

And, don’t store food for longer than a few weeks, unless it’s in a solid, air-tight, moth-proof container. Dispose of any food that has reached its expiration date.

“After thoroughly cleaning the pantry, use pheromone traps to stop any lingering moth problems. The traps use the female pheromone to lure the male moth to the trap where it becomes stuck. Other moth traps are the glass trap and the suppressing trap. The glass trap uses pheromones and water in the container to drown the pantry moth. Suppressing traps use both male and female pheromones and a glue strip.” Credits: How to Solve a Pantry Moth Problem | DoItYourself.com

These may seem like radical measures, but the cost of eradicating an active Mediterranean flour moth infestation can be far greater than the cost of prevention.

Mediterranean Flour Moth Infestation – Ask for help.

Make your moth problem go away the easy way.

Call ApolloX Pest Control

(888) 499-7378

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