Carpenter Ants

       Once the weather broke this spring the carpenter ants became real active. These are the big black ants that can be seen crawling around inside or outside. If you have them inside, more than likely you have a nest of them somewhere in the structure of your home. These ants do damage because while they don't eat wood for food the way termites do, they tunnel out an area for their nest. When they start tunneling out the area for their nest they throw out the wood chips they have removed. This will sometimes be thrown out right into an area where it can be seen, resulting in a big pile of sawdust similar in consistency to what you might find under a table saw. If you have a sawdust pile like that, it is a guarantee that you have carpenter ants and the nest is right above the sawdust pile.
       Depending on where the nest is they can do very little damage or a significant amount of it. They can be treated, but "over the counter" type products that put a barrier around your home can act as a repellent and if the nest is inside it can make the situation worse because if the ants are inside, now there is a barrier preventing them from getting outside where they prefer to forage. All of the ants will now have to forage inside making the problem that much worse. They also don't respond well to "over the counter" ant baits.
     Because of the damage carpenter ants are capable of, it is best to hire a professional company to get rid of them. This is one of those "don't try this at home" things.
       Below is the link to the carpenter ant page of our web site which shows some of the incredible damage they are capable of.

http://www.nfpestcont.com/Carpenter_ants.html

Things Are Starting to Move

      At the middle of March, we mailed out fliers, with return post cards, to existing customers offering flea, wasp, and carpenter ant prevention treatments. We have gotten a lot of them back, and are doing those treatments now.
      We're starting to get calls for ants of all varieties, carpenter ants and the small household ants people typically call sugar or grease ants. Small household ants do no damage. They are just a nuisance. Carpenter ants however, can do serious damage depending on the location of their nest, because, while they don't eat wood for food, they tunnel it out for an area for their nest. If it is in the weight bearing structure of the house they can cause thousands of dollars of damage. If you ever run across a pile of sawdust somewhere in your house, this is normally indicative of a carpenter ant nest right above the sawdust, however, most people just see ants crawling around inside the house and never see any sawdust.
       Squirrels are becoming active in attics, but at this time of the year there may be young present. Never close up a hole where squirrels are entering, unless you are absolutely sure the squirrels are not inside, because they will chew a new hole to get out, and that hole might be in the ceiling, with the squirrel winding up in your lap.
       As soon as we get a couple of consecutive days with temperatures around 70 degrees, the phone will start ringing off the hook for people with wasps. If they are yellow and black, they are not yellow jackets, but Mediterranean wasps. True yellow jackets don't usually become a problem until late July.
    

"Squirrel" in the Chimney?

      I received a phone call yesterday morning from a gentlemen here in Woodbury, who told me he thought he had a squirrel in his chimney. He had heard noises early in the morning, but had not heard anything after that. It was an old house, so I told him his chimney might not have any flue liner in it which could prevent the squirrel from climbing out and maybe he had gotten out. I told him to call me after he got home from work if he heard any more noises. About 7:00 PM he called, and said his wife had heard noises again. I told him I would come over this morning and get it out for him.
      When I got there I discovered that there were two fireplaces back to back, on an interior wall, which shared a common chimney, so the critter was going from one side to the other. This was going to be difficult. If I set up at one fireplace, the critter would go to the other side. I was debating what to do when the customer said to me, "If we light a fire in this side, won't that drive him to the other side". Customers are really smart. I never thought of that. So that's what we did. We lit a fire in one side and as we were watching, the customer went to the other room and I heard him say, "Oh, it's a..........................

Scroll down to see what the "squirrel" looked like.



It was a screech owl. I picked him out of the fireplace and took him outside. I let him go and he flew about 50 feet and fell into the snow. I went over, picked him up, and put him in a cage trap. He was probably exhausted and dehydrated from about 24 hours in the chimney. I called a wildlife rehabilitator, explained the situation, and she said to bring him over. I delivered the poor little guy, She said she would give him some raw hamburger and fluids and release him in a couple of days. A nice interesting call ended just fine.

The picture on the left is him sitting in the fireplace, and the one on the right is him sitting on the rehabilitator's hand.

Great Year!

      The ants, bees, wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets have all gone to Florida for the winter (not really, they just go dormant). Bats have left their summer attic roosts and gone to their winter hibernaculas (caves and mines where they hibernate for the winter), hopefully free of white nosed syndrome. Woodchucks are hibernating and skunks, raccoons, and possums are hunkered down, but will come out occasionally. Squirrels, and mice are always active. The squirrels are getting ready to breed and as soon as that happens (late December - Early January) they will start investigating attics, soffits, and chimneys for a place to build a nest. If they fall down chimneys, they can't get out and will die unless they are rescued. Mice will continue to move into homes for a warm place to spend the winter.
      2010 was another banner year. For the 15th consecutive year, gross revenue was up from the previous year. This year by almost 10%, and we still have 2 weeks to go. Recession, what recession! Here's hoping 2011 continues the trend.
      To all our loyal customers, friends, and family we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mowing the Lawn? Trimming the Hedges? Be Careful! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

       Remember the fairly mild winter we had, and all that nice warm, sunny weather we got back in April, and May. Well, that was the perfect storm for all those yellow jacket and white faced hornet queens that left their nests last fall and went dormant for the winter. They came out of winter dormancy about a month early to start their new nests for this year and we have had no cool weather to slow them down. I have already been getting calls for them. The nests are already about the size of an orange or grapefruit. They normally don't get that big until the end of July, so they seem to be about 4-5 weeks ahead of schedule. I mentioned mowing the lawn because yellow jackets will nest in the ground, and a lot of people find them (very painfully) with the lawn mower when they run over their nest. They will also build gray paper enclosed nests in shrubs, trees, and on houses, and can also nest within the structure of a building. White faced hornets build the same type of nest in the same places as yellow jackets except they never nest in the ground.
       Don't confuse yellow jackets with Mediterranean wasps which are totally different. The differences can be found at our website:    www.nfpestcont.com

I Saw a Bat!

Most people have heard or read about "White Nose Syndrome" which is killing off thousands of overwintering bats. Well, it didn't get all of them. The other day I was doing a mouse job at a house, and as I was poking around the attic, I told the customer that he had bat droppings on the floor around his chimney. He said "I know and there it is now". I looked up and there was a bat flying around the attic. I asked the customer if he wanted to get rid of it, and he said, "Nah, it's up here all the time and I don't mind having it around". How many people do you know who would be screaming, barricaded in their bedrooms, with a towel over their head? While I wouldn't want bats or any other animal in my attic, it was refreshing to see this kind of attitude towards them.