Are you planning to move into a new home? Contact JP McHale today! We offer a home inspection service that surveys the property for any wood destroying organisms, such as termites and carpenter ants that could be causing damage to the property you are interested in.
Wood destroying organisms can decrease the property value and you should be aware as the new owner!
If you’ve recently moved into a new home, you may not be aware of pest issues right away. Rodents, insects, spiders and many more could be lurking in your newly bought residence, and you may not enjoy their company!
Be sure to maintain your home year round with pest control services. It’s always better to purchase a service program before pests make their way into your yard and home. Our services can not only save you time and spare you of stress, but can save you money by preventing pest damage that can become quite costly.
JP McHale offers a year round pest control service called the Home Pest Prevention Program which covers a multitude of critters.
Be sure to contact us today if you are interested in any our pest control programs or inspections!
I still remember the first time I saw the 1950’s movie about nuclear-mutated ants threatening to take over the world. I was quite young and impressionable, and I’ll admit the movie was a little scary. Think about it, GIANT ANTS! A hard, bulletproof exoskeleton, the ability to carry many times their own weight, and huge mandibles that could squish little humans! Yikes.
Well thank goodness we don’t have to worry about giant nuclear ants. Instead, we are faced with countless miniature ants that infest our homes and structures (some tradeoff!). Judge them not by their size, ants are considered to be the most successful of all insect groups with approximately 12,000 species worldwide. They occur in all terrestrial habitats around the world and outnumber many animal species. They are closely related to bees and wasps, sharing both physical characteristics and social organization with these groups. That is, ants exist in eusocial (truly social) societies that provide cooperative care for young, maintain a reproductive division of labor and have overlapping generations.
A common ant example in the minds of many homeowners is the carpenter ant. A black or otherwise dark bodied species, carpenter ant workers vary in size from about 1/4 to 3/4 inch (3.5 to 13 mm) in length. Like all insects, they have three body parts and six legs. They have a diverse diet, feeding on many kinds of plant and animal foods that are either living or dead. During the hot summer months (right about now!) they tend to forage for food at night, making their presence unknown to unsuspecting homeowners.
Carpenter ants nest in a number of different locations: stumps, hollow logs, telephone poles, fence posts and structural wood. Indoors they might target windowsills, doors, roofs, porch columns, or other hollow structures such as pipes. Nests in a home could be a satellite colony, a smaller collection of ants that do not have an actively reproducing queen and are instead a break from the larger parent colony.
Contrary to popular belief, carpenter ants (and carpenter bees for that matter) do not actually eat wood, but use it strictly for nesting. In order to feed and derive nutrition from wood, insects such as termites require a symbiotic relationship with microorganisms to digest cellulose. Not having this mutualism prevents ants from eating wood, but not from destroying it! In fact, ants can be a little picky when it comes to the wood they infest. They specifically target moist wood that is partially decayed and easy to chew through with their mighty mandibles. This means that carpenter ants are a product or indicator of a structural problem (water damage), and not necessarily the initial cause of the damage. The first thing to do when you suspect a carpenter ant infestation is to identify sources or moisture: clogged gutters, roof leaks, cracked pipes, etc.
As a kid (before the trauma of Them!), I enjoyed watching ants follow their strictly defined paths. Although carpenter ants sometimes diverge from this behavior and forage randomly, somehow they always find their way home and use pheromones, chemical communication signals, to navigate. When they arrive home, they kindly share the bounty of their harvest with others in the community via a process known as trophallaxis. It’s a fun word, say it out loud: Tro-pha-laxis. This term describes the exchange of nourishment between two insects, and in ants occurs mouth to mouth (indeed there are other ways this happens in the insect world…). This behavior has been targeted by scientists, successfully reducing the amount of product necessary to control damaging ant species. Regardless of whether baits (sugary or salty depending on the time of year) or sprays (with particles ingested during insect grooming) are used, our products make their way into the ant digestive system. Back at the nest, these products are spread throughout the colony via trophallaxis, eventually killing not just workers, but the larvae and queen. Control of the entire colony is therefore possible by strategic placement of baits, eliminating the need for wholesale spraying of large areas to wipe out a nest.
North India police reported that termites ate 10 million rupees ($222,000) this morning, said Yahoo News. This money was sitting in a steel chest that has not been opened in months. The bank said that termites were known to have damaged bank property in the past.
Termites are known to cause over $2 billion dollars in property damage every year, I guess that number doesn’t cover actual government currency
Today I tagged along with a technician who installed the Sentricon Termite Systems we use to monitor and treat termites. Check out the album on our Facebook for all of the pictures!
If you have a termite problem and would like to have JP McHale talk to you about your customized termite control plan, give us a call! Contact us by phone 800-479-2284, email, live chat, twitter, or facebook for an inspection!
In past years, termites have been a big factor in the real estate industry. Depending on a home’s past history, the pests could make or break a deal. But now there is another pest new homeowners have to worry about; bed bugs. An outbreak of bed bug cases have been seen recently throughout the country in major cities, hitting New York City hard. Not only have apartments and homes been infested, but the pests have made their way to public structures. Clothing stores, movies theaters, office buildings, and even hospitals have been shut down due to bed bug infestations. Although bed bugs are not a health threat, they are a hard pest to get rid of and the emotional strain of having them is unbearable. People want to sleep well at night but if they suspect bed bugs, they can easily be traumatized or lose sleep over it. Nobody wants these pests to hitch a ride into their home, so people are becoming more aware of how to prevent getting bed bugs. New York City has already passed a law requiring landlords to provide the bed bug activity within the last year to tenants who want this information. It is only a matter of time until more cities adopt this law and it is enforced in all homes throughout the US. A potential buyer could love a house but turn down the deal because of prior bed bug infestations.
Luckily, JP McHale Pest Management can help. We offer a human and canine inspection that can detect exactly where the bud bugs are located. We will treat accordingly and leave your home bed bug free. We offer a canine and human inspection to detect exactly where the bed bugs are located. We are the leading Westchester pest control company and serve the tri-state area. Contact us by phone 800-479-2284, email, live chat, twitter, or facebook for a canine or human inspection!
Here is a great article on the top 5 pests to watch out for in the summer. The article explains the behavior and how to prevent mosquitoes, tick, termites, carpenter bees and carpenter ants. If you have a problem with any summer pests, give us a call! JP McHale is a Westchester Pest Control company. We are licensed in pest extermination for your home and business and would love to help you with your problem! Contact us by phone 800-479-2284, email, live chat, twitter, or facebook with any questions or to hear about our services.
Are you planning to move into a new home? Contact JP McHale today! We offer a home inspection service that surveys the property for any wood destroying organisms, such as termites and carpenter ants that could be causing damage to the property you are interested in.
young and impressionable, and I’ll admit the movie was a little scary. Think about it, GIANT ANTS! A hard, bulletproof exoskeleton, the ability to carry many times their own weight, and huge mandibles that could squish little humans! Yikes.
