Mouse Tips

• Store food in enclosed containers such as Tupperware.  You may also opt to store foods in the refrigerator.
• Trash containers are often the favorite feeding spot of mice.  It doesn’t take much to feed one mouse each evening (just 2 to 4 grams).  Food crumbs, scraps, and wrappers are vital to their survival.
• Check all doors in your home (garage, basement).  If you can insert a finger under the door, you may need to install a door sweep to prevent mice from entering your home. 
• Rodents cannot survive without food, water, and shelter.  If you observe any conditions which may promote their ability to survive in your home, please take appropriate measures to correct.
• Remove any piles of debris around your home.  These areas can serve as harborage areas for mice.
• Do not keep pet food outside at night.
• Mice feed on bird seed so do not place bird feeders near or around your home.

Top of page

---

Carpenter Ants

• Seeing several ants frequently could indicate an indoor colony.  If you only see the ants occasionally, they may be random foragers coming in from the outside.
• Make sure that poorly sealed windows or door frames are sealed properly.
• Inspect wooded structures that are conducive to high moisture, where there may be water damage that produces softened wood.
• Inspect in the evening or early morning.  Carpenter ants are more active at night, so you’re more than likely to observe foraging activity during these times.
• Inspect trees and dead wood.  Carpenter ants tend to nest in tree holes and dead wood on the ground.
• Inspect “lines”.  Foraging ants like to travel on fence lines, roof lines, railings as well as driveway & sidewalk borders.
• Check for small piles that look like sawdust.  This is called frass and are usually found close to the nest sites.
• Trim back any overhanging trees around your home.  Also, keep bushes and shrubs approximately 12 inches away from home.

Top of page

---

Cockroaches

Easily transported from infested dwellings to new places.

• Assess the situation.
• Most obvious way of detecting the cockroach is with a visual “night watch”, which involves observing live cockroaches when the lights are turned on or by inspecting areas suspected of cockroach activity with a flashlight.
• Look for empty or intact egg cases, cast skins, dead cockroaches or cockroach parts and fecal pellets.
• Since cockroaches need food, look for any exposed food, for example fresh fruits or pet food.
• Look for food spills or buildup of food material on or under countertops, stoves and refrigerators.
• Since cockroaches need water as well as food to survive, check for any leaks they made provide a water source. 
• Inspect fixtures made of wood, for example, storage shelves, tables and cabinets.

(Cockroach Control Manual, University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

Top of page

---

Termites

• Please visit our termite control section of our website, found under “Our Services”.

---

Create a Tick-Safe Zone

Use landscaping techniques to create a tick-safe zone around homes, parks, and recreational areas.  Ticks that transmit Lyme disease thrive in wooded areas.  They die quickly in sunny and dry environments.  Here are some simple landscaping techniques to help reduce tick populations:

• Remove leaf litter and clear tall grasses and brush around homes and at the edge of lawns.
• Place wood chips or gravel between lawns and wooded areas to restrict tick migration to recreational areas.
• Mow the lawn and clear brush and leaf litter frequently.
• Keep the ground under bird feeders clean.
• Stack wood neatly and in dry areas.
• Keep playground equipment, decks and patios away from yard edges and trees.
• Discourage deer. Do not feed deer on your property.  It may be necessary to remove bird feeders and clean up spilled birdfeed.
• Check with garden centers or nurseries to learn about deer-resistant plants.