Out of all of the types of house spiders native to the United States, the brown recluse is one of the most dangerous. Its bite causes a nasty reaction and can require immediate medical treatment. As professional exterminators, we believe it’s important to be informed about all house spiders—especially dangerous ones like the brown recluse. Continue reading to learn more about these spiders, and how you can avoid meeting one this summer.
Where do they live?
Like most spiders, the brown recluse isn’t aggressive, and prefers to stay hidden in the shadows or in dark places. That’s the good news; the bad news is that you never quite know which dark space they’re hiding in. Some popular locations for their webs include underneath furniture, in boxes and outside in piles of wood. Dry and dark areas in your home, like your attic, can be hotbeds for brown recluse spiders. With that in mind, always be careful when you’re rummaging around in your attic. It’s not a bad idea to consider wearing work gloves and a long-sleeve shirt to prevent being bitten.
Keeping them out
As the name suggests, they’re reclusive creatures and often won’t come out of hiding unless there’s an abundance of food lying around. You can mitigate the need for spider removal in Bartlesville, OK (and pest removal in general) by keeping a tidy house. Always clean up any crumbs on the floor, and never keep open containers of food out for too long. Also try to avoid leaving piles of clothes or boxes around your home. Spiders and other pests are more likely to live in your home if there are places for them to hide.
Bite symptoms
Thankfully, brown recluses only bite humans when they feel threatened or when they’re scared by something, like a hand encroaching on their territory. So, the only time you’re in danger of being bitten is when you enter their space. The peculiar thing about their bites is that they don’t always show symptoms or even hurt right away. It can take hours for you to realize that something’s not quite right with your skin and overall health. Depending on where you were bitten and how much venom the spider released, symptoms on your skin can range from mild irritation to nasty looking lesions. If the bite is bad enough, you may come down with a fever and experience convulsions, itching, nausea and muscle pain.
Bite treatment
While the bite can lead to the symptoms mentioned above, there aren’t any documented cases of a brown recluse bite leading to death. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go to the emergency room to have it checked out by a medical professional and possibly given an anti-venom. A skin lesion can become infected rather quickly and lead to big problems down the road.
At the end of the day, we don’t need to be as worried about brown recluse spiders as we do about many other pests getting into our homes. But if you notice a lot of spider webs around your home, it may be time to call Excellence Pest Control for spider removal in Bartlesville, OK. We quickly take care of spiders and any other pests creeping and crawling through your house.
Regardless of where you are, you’re never too far away from an ant colony. Those little pests are everywhere! Luckily, as long as they stay outside of our homes, it seems like ants and humans can coexist pretty peacefully. The only problem is that those suckers really like being inside with us. They’ll stop at nothing to slip through any cracks in our walls, doors or foundations. What’s worse is that they’re good at getting inside, too! Thankfully, there are a few things we can do to prevent ants from getting inside and wreaking havoc. Continue reading to learn more about ant prevention and signs that it’s time to call a service for ant removal in Bartlesville, OK:
- Keep your kitchen clean: One of the top reasons why ants try to get inside is to eat food. After all, who doesn’t love a free meal? Make your home unattractive to colonies by ensuring that you don’t have crumbs on the floors or countertops. You also always need to wipe and clean up spills quickly, especially if it was a sticky beverage. Additionally, try not to leave food containers open for long periods of time, as that’ll only further entice your visitors.
- Block the entrances: Part of what makes ant infestations so hard to control is the fact that they’re so small that they can slip into your home in any number of ways. The majority of the time, when people have an ant problem, it’s because they were able to enter through small cracks in walls and doors. Take a walk around the exterior of your home and try to spot any cracks or holes and fill them with latex caulk. Although you probably won’t be able to stop all ants from entering, that caulk can do wonders to slow them down.
- Repel them: Home improvement stores sell a variety of substances that are supposed to repel pests, but you probably already have some natural ant repellents in your cupboards. Ants hate and won’t cross lines made of salt, cayenne pepper, coffee grounds, cinnamon and spearmint leaves. Spread any of those along your windowsills and baseboards to keep ants away. They also really hate the smell of lemon. Spray a water and lemon solution around the exterior and interior of your home to make your home seem really unattractive to ants. Plus, the lemony scent will keep your home smelling fresh!
- Kill them: All-natural remedies can do wonders to prevent an infestation. However, they’re not foolproof methods, and ants can still get inside. If that’s the case, you may have to resort to rubbing them out. The least-messy way to handle the situation is to vacuum them up and empty the vacuum bag outside. Pour boiling water on any ant colonies you find outside to try to kill them, or just give the pros a call. We can swiftly handle any ant infestation, regardless of its size or severity.
If you’ve tried these tips and you still have an infestation, it’s time to bring in the pros. The team at Excellence Pest Control has years of experience with ant removal in Bartlesville, OK, and we’re more than willing to take care of your pest problem. Get in touch today to schedule a visit!
An ant infestation is never welcome in your home. Not only are they unsettling, but they are often difficult to remove. Ant removal in Bartlesville, OK is a challenging venture because the unique qualities of ants make them a resilient species. If you kill 100 workers, it is likely the queen will simply produce more! Here are six fun facts about ants that will help you appreciate the complexities behind controlling them:
- Ants have a complex social structure: The ant colony is based on hierarchy and specialized labor. There are three types: the queen, workers and males. Worker ants are always female and they do not have wings. They gather food and build mounds or underground tunnel systems. Male ants exist to mate with the queen, and once that is accomplished, they die shortly thereafter. The queen sustains the colony by laying eggs. Some species also have soldier ants, which defend the colony, gather food and attack competing colonies for food and nesting space.
- Ants are strong: A worker ant can lift 20 times her body weight. That is the equivalent of an adult human lifting a Ford F150 pickup truck. As you can imagine, this is a big advantage when gathering food or building material for the colony!
- They create trails: As ants travel, they leave a pheromone trail to signal to other ants where they went. If you leave a bag of sugar exposed or spill soda on your back porch, you will see a swarm before too long. This occurs because the ant that discovered the new food source used pheromones to signal others to join the feast.
- Ants have unique anatomy: There are two body parts missing with ants: lungs and ears. Rather than hear as we do, ants feel vibrations through the ground using their feet. As for breathing, ants have holes all over their bodies that allow oxygen to enter and carbon dioxide to exit. It is almost like breathing through osmosis!
- Ants are peaceful—until they are not: Since colonies are highly structured, there is not much room for disputes. Every ant has a job and does it with few questions asked. However, just as with any living creature, conflict is a possibility. Males may fight to mate with the queen, or workers may wrestle over food. When this occurs, the fight is usually to the death. Also, some species take over the nests of competing colonies, kill the queen and steal the eggs. The stolen babies become “slave” ants once they hatch.
- The queen is it: A queen ant can live for years and have literally millions of babies. Without her, there is no colony. If she dies, the colony only survives a few months because the other females, the workers, cannot reproduce. There is usually not a replacement queen except under very rare circumstances. Most extermination efforts focus on killing the queen, and even if successful, it will take a little while to notice the results.
Excellence Pest Control offers ant removal in Bartlesville, OK and the surrounding areas. Call us today for a free estimate!
When we provide pest control in Bartlesville, OK, customers frequently ask us if mosquitoes like some people better than others. After all, many households have one member who sustains so many mosquito bites they look like they contracted a disease, while the rest of the household is barely bitten. It is true that mosquitoes like some people better than others, and science continues to research why this is. Here are six known factors that attract mosquitoes to certain people:
- Genetics: Eighty-five percent of the factors listed here can be attributed to your genetics. While some of these traits may be controllable, chances are your best hope is to find a good bug spray and an extermination service. You just may have been born with a propensity to attract mosquitoes and need to take additional precautions.
- Chemical makeup: Your overall body chemistry may be appealing to mosquitoes. Steroids or cholesterol in your skin is especially favored. You do not need to suffer a high cholesterol level to harbor this condition. If you process cholesterol efficiently, it will build up on your skin more and provide an exciting scent to mosquitoes. The same is true of uric acid, another mosquito attractant.
- Carbon dioxide: This is likely a favorite with mosquitoes since they can smell it from 50 meters away! Mosquitoes bite adults more than children because they produce more of it. Pregnant women are in the same category. If you are exercising and breathing heavily, that continuous supply of carbon dioxide will get you bitten before long.
- Movement: In addition to enjoying the increased carbon dioxide production, mosquitoes simply detect movement easier. When you are out running or playing yard games, the insects sense your movement and swarm to you. As an additional attractant, the lactic acid from your sweat glands provide an additional incentive to feast on you!
- Size: If you are overweight, you are more likely to attract mosquitoes than your slimmer friend. This is linked to the amount of carbon dioxide you produce. Also, if you are out hiking with slimmer people, you will likely sweat more, and that produces additional lactic acid that draws the mosquitoes to you. However, if you are in the company of those with genetic components that attract mosquitoes, the insects will likely swarm to them and hopefully overlook you.
- Use of bug spray: If everyone in your party bathed themselves in a DEET-based bug spray, while you are an exception, naturally the mosquitoes will move in your direction. The same is true if you use a less effective bug spray; if you decide to use an untested organic brand while everyone else decides to embrace the chemicals, you may emerge from your outing with bites. If you want to provide equal opportunity mosquito protection, arrange for an exterminator to spray your yard and add citronella torches around your porch for extra reassurance. You can also take torches and candles to campsites to control mosquitoes on the go.
Excellence Pest Control in Bartlesville, OK is available to address your pest control needs, whether they involve insects or rodents. Call today to take advantage of our current discounts!
