Pest Control Blog

Bats are useful and unique animals. They eat insects, which is especially valuable in areas with large mosquito populations, and as the only truly flying mammal, they are fascinating. However, they can also be annoying and dangerous.

Bat squeaking and the sound of their movements can be annoying and disconcerting in your home. Bat guano can contain diseases, and bats themselves are known carriers of rabies. In fact, most rabies deaths in the US are associated with bats. So, even if you want bats in the area, you may not want them in your home. Pest control can eliminate the danger and nuisance of bats.

Bat Pest Control

First, you need to identify that you have bats. See our bat pest information for the signs to look out for.

Next, know that it’s generally against the law to kill bats. Because they are endangered and useful animals, we have to remove them without harming them.

We install one-way bat doors over the entrances to their roost. This allows bats to get out, but not in. After a week, we remove the doors and seal up the entrances. If you want long-term control, we recommend that you look around for other potential entry points and seal them up.

If you want to, when we put up the bat doors you can also put up bat houses in more convenient locations that allow bats to roost in places other than your attic.

If you have problems with bats or other animal pests in your home, we can help. Please contact Animal & Pest Control Specialist today for help with bats in Denver, Boulder, Evergreen, Castle Rock, and surrounding areas.

Box elder bugs are very common in Colorado. They are black insects with red lines on their body and wings. Box elder bugs, like many insects, overwinter as adults in warm, sheltered places. If the warm, sheltered places they choose are in your house, you will notice them coming out as soon as the weather warms in the spring, which means you’ve probably begun to see them and are likely to see more as the weather continues to warm.

Here’s the good news: box elder bugs don’t generally eat your home or food vegetable matter, and they don’t carry any diseases. The bad news is that they often congregate in very large numbers and when they emerge, it can be quite unnerving. It’s also unfortunate that they are resistant to most types of pesticides we use. Direct application of pesticides will generally kill them, but the residual kill effect is minimal. You can kill them with over-the-counter aerosol pest sprays, if you hit them directly, but soap-and-water solutions generally work, too.

The most effective way to get rid of box elder bugs is to find the location of female box elder trees nearby and remove them. These trees are the primary source of your infestation, and if they’re removed, you’ll likely see a lot fewer of these bugs in your home.

At Animal Pest Control Specialist, we know the best solution for taking care of pests is not always the immediate one. Often, effective, long-term pest control involves taking a wider look at where animals come from and why they’re invading your home.

For help with any kind of pest control in the Denver area, from Boulder to Castle Rock, please contact Animal Pest Control Specialist today.

Ahh . . . there’s nothing like natural wool clothing for keeping warm in the winter. Unfortunately, wool is the material that most attracts moths. While you’re wearing them, they’re not in danger, but when it comes time to put them away for the spring and summer, there are several things you should do to protect your wool clothes from damage so you won’t have to call pest control next winter when you pull them out.

Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning is an essential step in preventing damage from moths. There are many places where moths can find stores of food that serve as a stepping-stone for their move into your closet, such as behind baseboards, under heavy furniture, or around heating vents, wherever they can find animal material to feed on. Use a vacuum to suck up all the debris in these areas, then dispose of the bag right away—you may have collected a bunch of eggs, too, and these may hatch and aid the spread of moths.

Clean Clothes, Too

It’s crucial that you give your woolens a thorough cleaning before putting them into storage. Many recommend dry cleaning to make sure all the moth eggs are dead. Others assert that a thorough washing followed by drying in bright sunlight is also good.

Storage Tips

There are many potential ways to store your clothes to keep moths away. The traditional moth balls can still be used, but remember that they are toxic, must be kept away from children and pets, and will leave an odor on your clothes. Natural repellants like lavender and cedar are promoted for controlling moths, but there is little effectiveness data and reviews are mixed. You can experiment if you like.

Probably the best way to keep moths off your clothes is to store them in sealed airtight containers. This will protect them against the moth larvae.

If you need help controlling any household pest anywhere in the Denver metro area, please contact Animal Pest Control Specialist today.

Yes and no. Sticky traps can catch most cockroach pest species, especially those common in Colorado, mostly the small but robust German cockroach (about an inch in length, identifiable by the two “racing stripes” on its carapace just behind the head). Here are some tips for effectively using sticky traps.

Effective Sticky Trap Placement

Sticky traps have to be placed where cockroaches are likely to run. If you unfortunately already have a bad infestation, you can tell where they run by the trails of cockroach feces, which look like small black dots that run along the wall or floor between food sources and harborages. If you can’t find trails, place them along the wall or floor in warm areas (behind the stove and fridge are popular), and places where there is water. Cockroaches need water more than food, so target pet water bowls, leaky faucets, and the water tray under the refrigerator.

To Bait or Not to Bait?

When it comes to sticky traps, it’s really not necessary to bait them if you place them effectively. Cockroaches will naturally walk across the traps and become stuck. Some traps advertise that they are pre-baited to lure cockroaches in, but if they’re not placed along regular cockroach runs, they’re not going to attract many cockroaches.

To Monitor, Not Control

Although sticky traps can effectively catch cockroaches, they are not really an effective control method. Cockroaches breed prodigiously, and the odds of catching all the cockroaches in your house are very small. If even a few cockroaches escape, they will quickly breed up to their old numbers.

What sticky traps are good for is to help you know whether you have an infestation. They can be used either before contacting pest control to identify the problem, or after to tell whether the professional has been effective in controlling your problem.

If you have cockroaches, the best way to get rid of them is to contact a pest control professional. At Animal & Pest Control Specialist, we have experience with helping rid homes of cockroaches and other pests. Please contact us today for help in the Denver metro area, including Boulder, Evergreen, and Castle Rock.

Cedar oil is advertised as a natural alternative to chemical pesticides. Many plants produce natural insect repellants or pesticides to prevent insects from eating them. Cedar oil is one of the few that has been produced on a significant scale for commercial sale. Many people have questions about cedar oil, and, unfortunately, there aren’t any really clear answers. However, here’s what we do know about cedar oil in pest control.

Is Cedar Oil Really Safe?

It’s always important to remember that just because something’s natural, it doesn’t mean it’s safe. We all know that some plants are just not safe to eat, and others (like poison ivy) are skin irritants. So you always need to ask whether a natural product is also a safe product.

Cedar oil, it seems, is truly a safe product. According to a recent assessment by the EPA, cedar oil is generally recognized as safe, and there haven’t been many incidents that would lead us to believe otherwise. In a 2010 assessment, the EPA noted a few incidents of eye irritation for humans, and some serious incidents associated with cats. This included the death of a cat shortly after exposure. However, it noted that all the products associated with these incidents are no longer on the market.

Is Cedar Oil Effective?

Here’s where things get really murky. Because the cedar oil products evaluated by the EPA didn’t make public benefit claims, the EPA didn’t evaluate their effectiveness. There are no good scientific studies on the effectiveness of cedar oil, so we have to rely on people’s personal experience, such as reviews.

Overall, reviews of cedar oil in pest control are mixed, with more negative than positive reviews. Cedar oil doesn’t provide consistent pest control results that would make us want to adopt it for use.

At Animal and Pest Control Specialist, Inc, we stake our reputation on successful resolution of your pest problems. We don’t make promises we can’t keep and don’t use products that we can’t stand by.

For detailed consultation about your pest control problem in the greater Denver area, please contact Animal and Pest Control Specialist, Inc today.

Most of the time, snakes are not a major concern. Nonvenomous snakes are beneficial because they eat rodents and other pests in the environment, so if you know a snake is not venomous and you can live with it, let it stay around.

However, if you cannot live with a snake, you should contact a professional animal control specialist. We can come out and remove the snake safely. Otherwise, you might try to remove the snake yourself with a snake trap. The effectiveness of these traps is hard to judge. Some people have good results with them, others not.

The next question to ask is whether you have a yard or environment that attracts pest animal species like snakes. If you have a lot of debris in the yard, or places that can look like attractive dens to snakes, it may be time to make your yard a less attractive environment for snakes by filling up areas where snakes are denning (but make sure the snakes are not inside first).

Another important question to ask is whether snakes are being attracted to your property by the presence of other pest species such as rats, mice, or gophers. In many cases, removing these other pests will cause the snakes to go away on their own.

If you need help with snakes or other pests in Denver, Evergreen, Parker, Castle Rock, or Boulder, please contact Animal & Pest Control Specialists today.

There are home remedies available for practically any problem, but they are often not very effective. If you truly want to get rid of gophers, it’s best to talk to pest control professionals. However, if you want to try it on your own, you can try some of these methods.

Exclusion

Exclusion is the most effective type of gopher home remedy. However, it is time consuming and either challenging or expensive. To exclude gophers from your yard, put in underground barriers that go down straight for several inches and then curve it outward. Gophers will encounter this and stop digging.

Poison

Poison can also be effective method of gopher control, but there is also significant risk of poisoning family or pets. There are many different poisons available for use in controlling gopher problems. They include chemical poisons like strychnine and physical poisons like gum that clog up their intestines.

Flooding or Gassing

Flooding or gassing gopher burrows may be effective if you get lucky. Most often, though, the gophers are just elsewhere in their large, complex burrow system.

If you want effective gopher control, you want a professional. For a consultation, please contact Animal Pest Control Specialists, helping people with pest problems across the Front Range.

As the weather begins to cool, mice will naturally want to move into your house seeking shelter. They will also find excellent sources of food, and a comfortable place to breed. Just a few mice in September can turn into more than 50 by spring—and not all of them will leave with the cold.

To prevent this mouse invasion, you have to take careful steps to keep mice out. First, make sure air vents, such as cold air intakes, have secure grates on them to prevent the entry of mice.

Next, check for doors that never quite close, such as a garage door, broken basement window, or others.

Finally, go around sealing any miscellaneous cracks in the walls that you find. Remember, mice can squeeze through spaces as narrow as a ¼ of an inch.

If you want help identifying trouble spots, the experts at Animal Pest Control Services can advise you about the best defensive plan to keep them out this fall.

And if you want to get rid of mice, in Denver and the Metro area please contact APCS today for a consultation.

Earwigs look remarkably like cockroaches—the same flat body plan, the same color, and similar head shape—and for many people, they’re almost as bad when they’re indoors. And they can be damaging in the garden when they eat the shoots and buds of your crops. Fortunately, there are some relatively simple ways to dramatically reduce or even eliminate them from your garden.

Earwigs like damp, close places to spend their days, so you can often catch many of them with a damp rolled up paper towel or box that will draw them in. You can then just pick up the box and throw the creatures out.

Diatomaceous earth can also be used as an effective earwig barrier in the garden.

Sealing up cracks and making sure all windows have screens can keep earwigs out.

You can also use the paper towel trick indoors. Boric acid also works well to control earwigs indoors. And narrow pans with vegetable oil create effective traps for earwigs.

Not sure how to control your animal pest? The pest-control experts at Animal Pest Control Services can help. Please contact us today for more information.

When you planted your garden, you started looking forward to all the peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash you were going to harvest. Now, though, it seems like your garden is under siege. Something is eating everything in sight and if you don’t do something you won’t have anything to show for your efforts.

Don’t worry, though, we can take care of the animals eating your garden up. Most pests that eat plants in the Denver area and across the Front Range have characteristic patterns that can be used to identify them.

Plants cut off at the roots may be a sign of voles. Look for their burrows in your yard, with entrances about 1-1½ inches in diameter. Gophers may also clip off plants at the roots, but they may also pull plants down. Gopher burrows are larger than that of voles and have a characteristic “C” shape.

Skunks may dig in the garden and may eat fruit and foliage. You will likely notice the smell after a skunk visits your yard.

Rabbits will likely feed only on the foliage of plants. They move nervously through the garden, more likely to damage many plants than destroying a few completely. Look for neatly clipped leaves and stems.

If you have a garden pest you want removed in Denver, Castle Rock, Boulder, Evergreen, or Parker, please contact Animal & Pest Control Specialist today.