How to Keep Stink Bugs and Boxelders Out of Your House

Discover How to Keep Stink Bugs and Boxelders Outside — Where the Pests Belong

Fall and winter are prime pest seasons as many critters and creepy, crawling things start looking for warm, cozy spots to nest for the winter. Two common offenders include boxelder and stink bugs.

Thankfully, these pests are relatively harmless — but annoying.

Although many people get confused about the two insects, the two different species have unique characteristics.

How can you tell the difference between the two pests? Check out a few tips and suggestions for how to keep stink bugs and boxelders out of homes and other buildings.

Stink Bugs vs. Boxelder Bugs: What’s the Difference?

Before it’s possible to figure out how to keep boxelder and stink bugs out of a house, it’s necessary to know which type of bug has invaded the space.

Length and coloring are two easy ways to spot the differences between these two pests. Boxelders are slightly shorter with red and brown torsos with off-white, bronze, black, or blue-hued markings on their backs.

What Do Boxelder Bugs Look Like?

Boxelder bugs are approximately 1/2-inch long with six legs and two antennae.

These pesky bugs have black, oval-shaped backs with three reddish stripes behind their heads and two more red stripes on each wing. Boxelder bugs drink sap from boxelder trees’ leaves, seeds, and twigs.

Boxelders tend to be problematic during the fall and spring. In the fall months, they start moving indoors to escape the cold. When spring arrives, the pest will return to the outdoors. Many homeowners and renters also find boxelder bugs indoors in late winter.

What Do Stink Bugs Look Like?

Stink bugs are invasive insects native to parts of Asia. These bugs average 1/2-inch long with oval, shield-shaped, mottled gray-brown or sometimes greenish backs. They have antennae and six legs that extend from the sides.

Aptly named, the term “stink bug” comes from the chemical released in their abdomen, causing a smelly or stinky odor.

This odor is also released when the bugs are crushed. Stink bugs tend to make a big stink — literally, in the fall, but they can also be active in late summer.

Are Stink Bugs and Boxelders Dangerous?

Neither boxelders nor stink bugs harm people, pets, or homes. Boxelders don’t bite, but they do have mouth parts that can puncture skin and create irritation similar to an insect bite. Additionally, boxelders’ fecal matter has a red hue that can stain clothing, drapes, and other materials.

As an agricultural pest, the brown marmorated stink bug can cause serious damage to fruit and vegetable crops. Feeding throughout the summer, stink bugs puncture holes into the fruit in order to feed. Leaving blemishes and dimples, the stink bugs’ feeding habits cause seed loss, as well as possible transmission of plant pathogens.

Why Get Rid of Boxelder Bugs and Stink Bugs

Neither bug is harmful, but they can quickly become a terrible nuisance.

Over the years, the stink bug population has increased due to the ideal climate for reproduction. In optimal conditions a stink bug can reach the adult stage in as little as 35 to 45 days. Female stink bugs can lay several hundred eggs in their lifetime. This pest population is expected to continue growing, as there seem to be no environmental factors slowing their distribution.

These statistics alone can cause nightmares.

The dead bodies of boxelder bugs attract insects like carpet beetles. That’s why it’s essential to use a professional pest control company to ensure thorough cleaning after removal.

How to Keep Stink Bugs and Boxelders Out of Your House

Prevention is essential for getting rid of boxelder bugs and stink bugs permanently. Preventive measures include:

• Sealing cracks around pipes, windows, doors, siding, chimneys, foundations, under wood fascia, etc.
• Applying silicone or silicone-latex caulk around skylights, electrical outlets, light switches, and door and window frames.
• Replacing damaged window and door screens.
• Trimming overgrown trees and removing branches that hang over the house.
• Installing yellow bulbs or low-pressure sodium exterior lighting instead of incandescent lights.
• Removing boxelder trees from the property.

Professional Pest Control

Although some do-it-yourself attempts can be helpful, it doesn’t replace professional pest control efforts.

Pest infestations should be handled by licensed pest control professionals. Skilled technicians can assess the situation, remove bugs, and ensure no traces are left behind to attract other insects to the home.

Catseye Pest Control uses advanced pest control techniques and customized solutions to help protect homes and businesses from the brown marmorated stink bug.

Beginning with a free inspection, our pest and nuisance wildlife control technicians investigate the home, business, or other structure to identify the type of pest invading your space. This step is also essential in determining how and why the pest is getting inside.

Then, a customized pest control solution is created that will help rid the space of the pest. This solution from Catseye can include a variety of items, like utilizing our Exclusion Systems, monitoring systems, and pest products.

Our techniques and solutions have been perfected over the course of nearly 30 years so that peace of mind can be restored for homeowners, property owners, and business owners.

Contact Catseye Pest Control

Contact Catseye for a no-cost inspection today. Based on those findings, Catseye technicians will create a customized treatment plan to remove the brown marmorated stink bug, treat the home, and maintain a pest-free environment.

The tailored solution will leave you feeling comforted knowing that these pest — and others cannot find their way inside in the future.

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Due to the abundance of buildings, streets, and other human-made infrastructure, cities usually support a much lower diversity of plants and animals than surrounding natural areas. However, some species have adapted quite well to city life and may actually thrive and become more abundant in cities than in surrounding suburbs or natural areas. In previous episodes we met bloodthirsty Culex mosquitoes that had taken up residence in subterranean pools beneath buildings in the nation’s capital, and red-shouldered bugs living the easy life dining on seeds of golden rain trees in Washington DC. This week we return to the city to discover another urban adapter enjoying life in the realm of concrete.

Pin oaks, Quercus palustris, and willow oaks, Quercus phellos, are two grand native trees often planted in cities throughout much of the eastern United States. These beauties deliver a bonanza of ecosystem services including sequestering carbon, mitigating pollution, enhancing water infiltration by slowing rainfall, cooling (shading streets, sidewalks, buildings, yards), providing food for wildlife in the form of caterpillars for birds and nuts for squirrels, and just looking marvelous with summer greens and autumn russets.  Ah, but as I roamed the streets of DC, I noticed oaks young and old with withered twigs, misshapen anemic leaves, some with coats of black fungus, and branches festooned with small brown bumps. These symptoms of misery are the handiwork of herbivorous insects known as scale insects.

Scale insects belong to a large group of insects called Hemiptera. They are characterized by having only three life stages – egg, nymph, and adult, in contrast to some of our more familiar insects like butterflies and bees that have four life stages – egg, larvae, pupa, and adult. In addition to this life stage difference, scale insects and other Hemiptera have sucking mouthparts used to sip fluids from plants. By contrast, caterpillars and beetles have jaws to munch leaves. The rascal waging war on the city oaks is a native pest called the oak lecanium scale. Nymphs and adults stick soda-straw-like mouth parts into a vascular tissue in leaves and stems called phloem. A tiny pump in their head allows them to suck nutrient-rich phloem sap into their bodies where it is used for growth and development and, in the case of females, production of eggs. Their feeding robs the oaks of nutrients, thereby reducing growth of branches and normal development and function of leaves.  

Oak trees lining city streets are sometimes plagued by sap-feeding insects called soft scales. Colonies of mature, bump-like female scales line branches, sucking sap and excreting a sticky waste product called honeydew. Females can produce more than 1000 eggs which hatch into offspring called crawlers. Crawlers migrate from branches to leaves in spring, feeding and robbing trees of vital fluids. In autumn before leaf-fall, they move back to branches to pass the winter before maturing into adults next spring.

An additional insult comes when excess fluids are discharged from the rear end of the scale insect in the form of a waste product called honeydew. We met another prodigious honeydew producer, spotted lanternfly, in a previous episode. Sugar-rich honeydew provides a substrate for the growth of an ugly black fungus called sooty mold that disfigures leaves, bark, and objects below the scale-infested tree. Unfortunately, honeydew also attracts stinging honeybees, yellow jackets, and paper wasps, creating a nuisance and health risk to people and pets.

Let’s circle back to the question as to why oak lecanium scales are more abundant in cities than in surrounding suburban and rural locations. The keys to these differences are found in a lack of scale-killing predators and parasitoids in cities and the warmer temperatures of cities, the phenomenon known as the urban heat island. Due to the predominance of buildings and hardscape, cities can be anywhere from a few degrees to more than ten degrees warmer than surrounding countryside. In a series of fascinating studies, entomologists at North Carolina State found oak lecanium scales to be 8 – 12 times more abundant on hotter urban trees. The abundance of egg-filled sacs was about five times greater on oak trees in hot spots than on trees in cooler locations. At warmer temperatures, survival of tiny scale nymphs was 20% greater than at cooler temperatures. Warm temperatures in the city may allow rapidly developing female scales to lay eggs before tiny parasitic wasps terminate their reproductive shenanigans. All in all, oaks and many other trees that line our streets and shade our parks have a tough go of it in the thermal refuge of a city. In many ways warmer temperatures of cities mimic larger changes associated with global climate change and a warming world. Scientists warn that if urban heat islands are the bellweather for a warming world, many of our pests may enjoy a heyday, not only in cities but in previously cooler parts of our land.

Acknowledgements

Two fantastic references, “Urban Warming Drives Insect Pest Abundance on Street Trees” by Emily K. Meineke, Robert R. Dunn, Joseph O. Sexton, and Steven D. Frank, and “Can Cities Activate Sleeper Species and Predict Future Forest Pests? A Case Study of Scale Insects” by Steven D. Frank and Michael G. Just were used to prepare this article.

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Years ago a summer microburst shredded several mature red maple trees in my backyard. Seeking a replacement for these carbon sequestering shade givers, I selected a young American elm of the Princeton clan. During the past two decades, this once spindly sapling has expanded to dominate my modest landscape. In recent weeks in the golden sunbeams of late afternoon, the airspace around my elm has been filled with a flurry of hundreds of tiny flying insects. Upon closer examination, I discovered these aerial acrobats to be none other than the sexual life stage of the elm cockscomb gall aphid, making their way from their grassy summer feeding grounds back to the elm tree that serves as their overwintering site.

On bright autumn afternoons the air near my elm is filled with a flurry of elm cockscomb gall aphids returning to their winter home, which is a Princeton elm. Watch as a female alights on an elm branch briefly before taking off, perhaps in search of another place to lay eggs or to escape my camera lens. For a much closer look, check out the aphid through the lens of a microscope. These are pretty cool insects.

Many species of aphids, including the elm cockscomb gall aphid, live complex lives. To this you might respond, well, don’t we all.  Yes, but not like these tiny sap suckers. For much of the summer these aphids have been living underground sucking sap from the roots of grasses in my lawn. With the onset of cooler temperatures and shorter days, these grass feeders produce a generation of vagabonds that take to the air in search of their winter refuge, which is my elm tree. Having consummated a relationship with a male, females of the sexual generation move to the tree and deposit a single large egg in their winter hideout beneath a bark flap. In this protected location, the egg passes the wicked winter. When the warmth of spring causes leaf buds to burst, tiny nymphs hatch from the surviving eggs and trek to rapidly expanding leaves. As nymphs feed on undifferentiated leaf tissue, they secrete compounds that co-opt the leaf’s genetic machinery and cause it to produce a strange looking structure called a gall. This gall bears a striking resemblance to the comb of a rooster, hence the name elm cockscomb gall. 

After reaching maturation in the hollow space within the cockscomb gall, the nymph completes her development and begins the task of reproducing asexually, meaning without the usual interlude with a male aphid. This parthenogenetic female is called a stem mother and she will give birth to hundreds of young within the confines of the gall. During spring and early summer, the inside of the gall is a riotous mass of aphids large and small sucking sap and producing honeydew. These nymphs develop into winged adults that exit the cockscomb gall through a slit on the undersurface of the leaf. By now the exhausted stem mother has perished, as her progeny depart for their summer feeding grounds. If you have a moment on a bright autumn afternoon, visit an elm tree and you may have a chance to witness an unusual migration by one of the interesting members of the aphid clan.

Acknowledgements

The fascinating article “Gall aphids on elm” by Edith Patch was used to prepare this episode. Special thanks to Bob Rabaglia for sharing his amazing image of elm cockscomb galls on what must be the most sought-after elm tree for these aphids.

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Spend the Week Learning How to Protect Your Property and Prevent Rodent Infestations

Fall is filled with exciting holidays. Although most people are familiar with the well-known days like Halloween and Thanksgiving, some of the lesser-known holidays in October include National Do Something Nice Day and National Get to Know Your Customers Day.

And now there’s another “holiday” to celebrate — Rodent Awareness Week. This event runs from October 16th through October 22nd. Timed perfectly to coincide with the season when rodents are finding shelter for the colder months, this week is the ideal time to learn about rodent treatment and prevention.

Raising Awareness About Rodents and the Harm They Cause

As temperatures drop, rodents like mice and rats start looking for warm, cozy spots to nest. This also makes it the perfect time to put measures into place to protect homes, businesses, people, and families.

The National Pest Management Association’s (NPMA) Professional Pest Management Alliance founded this annual event in 2014. The goal is to teach homeowners how to spot rodents, prevent infestations, and the importance of working with a skilled pest and nuisance wildlife professional.

After all, rodents carry dozens of diseases and parasites like fleas, ticks, and mites. They also commonly gnaw on everything from insulation to wooden structures to electrical wires, creating substantial damage when the problem is left untreated.

The costly damage to health and property emphasizes the importance of effective, efficient prevention and professional rodent control. Catseye Pest Control handles all aspects of proper pest and rodent control, including removal, monitoring, cleanup, and exclusion services.

Rodent Awareness 101

Millions of Americans deal with rodents in their homes or businesses every year.

Some rodents can squeeze through gaps and cracks as small as a dime. And once they’re inside, they can quickly breed, making a full-blown infestation a likelihood unless owners act quickly.

Signs of Rodent Infestations

Rodent Awareness Week 2022 is the ideal time to learn how to spot signs of rodent infestations.

Many rodents sleep during the day and are active at night, making it less likely to see them in action. Common signs that can help identify a rodent invasion include:

• Chewed food packaging.
• Shredded paper, plant matter, or fabric.
• Rodent droppings, particularly near food or in cupboards and drawers.
• Sounds like squeaking, scratching, and scampering in walls, ceilings, and floorboards.

Rodent Treatment and Prevention

Rodents are renowned for breeding quickly. A single female mouse, for example, often gives birth to up to six babies at once. Then, after having babies, she can mate again and have another litter as quickly as 25 days after the first.

That’s why calling a professional is always the best course of action. The faster and more effectively an infestation is eliminated, the quicker it will be to return the space to its previous condition.

Catseye’s treatment process includes four main steps: inspection, removal, cleanup, and exclusion. The free, detailed inspection allows our technicians to evaluate the property for damage, assess potential entry points, and develop a customized plan to get rid of rodents for good.

The most effective prevention strategy is sealing off potential entryways, effectively excluding the rodent from regaining access. Cat-Guard Exclusion Systems provide a safe, chemical-free, permanent barrier to keep rodents and other critters out for good.

Our state-of-the-art Cat-Guard Exclusion Systems are designed to target each level of the home, business, or other structure.

• Upper Cat-Guard: This system protects structures from the top of the first-floor windows to the peak of the roof.
• Lower Cat-Guard: This system has been designed to protect buildings from the first-floor windows down to the ground.
• Trench-Guard: This system has been designed to protect low-clearance areas like sheds and decks.

When installed together, the home or business can experience total protection from rodents like groundhogs, skunks, squirrels, birds, and so much more.

General Rodent Prevention Tips

It is always the perfect time to guard against rodent invasions and infestations, but especially as we begin to experience cooler temperatures. Rodents are active year-round but tend to move indoors during cold weather.

To minimize the threat of rodent infestations, pest control professionals recommend starting by examining outdoor spaces. Keeping the grass trimmed and pruning trees and shrubs that overhang buildings can help eliminate hiding spots and ways for rodents to hop onto structures.

Other tips include:

• Containing garbage in cans with tightly fitting lids.
• Removing yard debris and clutter, particularly near buildings.
• Removing dropped fruit from fruit trees.
• Switching to husk-less bird feed or stopping feeding birds.
• Storing food items in tightly lidded containers (including pet foods).
• Repairing cracks, gaps, and openings on the outside of homes and buildings.
• Installing door sweeps on exterior doors.
• Regularly cleaning floors and counters.

Schedule a Free Inspection from Catseye Pest Control

Catseye provides detailed, thorough assessments that can give you valuable information about the risks of a rodent infestation. It’s the first step we take in any rodent control program because it gives us the information needed to tailor the treatment plan to each customer’s unique needs and circumstances.

Contact us today to schedule your free inspection. We’re also always happy to provide more prevention tips or information during Rodent Awareness Week 2022 and beyond.

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Last week I received an inquiry from a concerned mother of two children who encountered a large and somewhat imposing spider apparently suspended in mid-air on her front porch. Hanging upside-down with striped hind legs raised, and a pair of dark eye-spots staring at her, this mom wondered if this arachnid was a “death spider”, a reasonable question with curious youngsters about. Late summer is a time when many spiders reach maturity and maximum size, having devoured nutritious prey throughout the growing season. We visited large and colorful orbweavers, the black and yellow garden spider and the marbled orbweaver, in previous episodes.

A few years back at the far end of my front porch, I also had the pleasure of a visit from a spotted orbweaver. She had taken up residence beneath the overhang of my front porch. Her web was no tiny affair like webs of cellar spiders or common house spiders we met in previous episodes. This web spanned almost two feet across. Her web was a masterpiece and a rapid chill on a humid night spawned a fine mist perfect for decorating the threads of an orbweaver’s web. What a delight. In more natural settings, the spotted orbweaver is often encountered in woodlands where it builds its web amongst the twigs and branches of trees and shrubs. Interesting studies of their web placement revealed that these spiders are creatures of the light. Webs are strung in relatively well lighted areas where the density of flying prey is greater.

During the day, my orbweaver hides out in a silken redoubt beneath the eves, but at sunrise she can be found feasting on an unidentified morsel or tidying up her web.

This scenario surely fit with the location of my orbweaver’s web. It was cleverly constructed in a light gap between shrubs and my home on the southern exposure of my porch. During the daytime, the orbweaver hid in a small silken refuge attached to the overhang of my porch. At night, after constructing a new web, it hung head down in the center of the web awaiting hapless victims to entangle themselves. Spotted orbweavers use powerful fangs called chelicerae to pulverize their prey. The protein in these morsels is turned into eggs, as many as a thousand of them, deposited in a spherical egg sac placed near the web. Eggs pass the rigors of late autumn and winter and hatch the following spring. And yes, just as E. B. White described it in ‘Charlotte’s Web’, shortly after hatching the spiderlings will stand on tiptoes, release strands of silk, and balloon on a warm breeze to establish webs of their own.  

Watch as this orbweaver wraps its prey and delivers occasional paralyzing bites to the victim.  

Acknowledgements

The wonderful web site “Neoscona crucifera (Spotted Orbweaver)” at www.spiders.us and the article “Choosing Hunting Sites: Web Site Preferences of the Orb Weaver Spider, Neoscona crucifera, Relative to Light Cues” by M. R. Adams were used as references for this episode. The inspiration for this episode came from Erin Kollins who shared her image of a “death spider”, and to several Maryland Master Naturalists who inquired about large orbweavers they recently encountered.   

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A few weeks ago, we visited stinging saddleback caterpillars as they bedeviled my attempts to weed a flower bed. Recently, an insect aficionado sent me a beautiful picture of a caterpillar resembling Cousin Itt, the gibberish speaking who-knows-what from the classic 1960’s television series, The Addams Family. Like Cousin Itt, the puss caterpillar, a.k.a. the southern flannel moth, is cloaked with strands of long blondish hair with no other features clearly visible (unlike Cousin Itt, the puss caterpillar does not wear a bowler and dark sunglasses). According to some sources the moniker “puss” stems from the caterpillar’s semblance to a rather tiny and very hairy cat. Ah, but this little puss packs a punch in the form of stinging spines concealed just beneath the cloak of attractive hairs. These barbed spines are described as urticating, from the Latin meaning “nettle.” Urticating spines can break off, embed in skin, and deliver a potent dose of venom. Venom from puss caterpillars and others in this episode can produce instant and building pain that has been described as burning, stinging, and “white hot”. Localized swelling, redness, and blisters may form. In some cases, systemic allergic reactions occur and medical attention should be quickly sought. Contact with mucous membranes in eyes and nasal passages are particularly serious and should be dealt with immediately. Despite these dire reactions, some say they have handled these stingers without sustaining stings or irritation, but why take a chance? Puss caterpillars are found here in the DMV and south to Florida and Texas. Oak is one of their common hosts but apple, birch, hickory, pecan, persimmon, and rose are also on the menu.

On leaves on a redbud tree in my front yard, I bumped into another stinger, caterpillars of white flannel moths, Norape ovina, which also find black locust, hickory, and other woody plants delectable. White flannel moths range from the DMV to the Deep South where two generations occur annually. In previous episodes of Bug of the Week, we met another clan of moths with urticating hairs, a large and beautiful Io moth caterpillar (Atomeris metzil) from Costa Rica and our home- grown Io moth (Automeris io) here in the DMV.  These remarkably beautiful caterpillars feast on a wide range of woody and herbaceous plants including trees, shrubs, and grasses. The Io moth found in the DMV ranges from Canada, where but a single generation happens each year, to the Gulf of Mexico, where three or more generations occur.

Our next stinger in this quintet of pain and itch is the buck moth, one of many spiny rascals in the genus Hemileuca. Buck moth caterpillars favor oaks as a food source and they can be found from Maine to states along the Gulf of Mexico. Caterpillar guru David Wagner reported their stings to cause small hemorrhages lasting several days. The beauty in this episode was seem marching along a fence pole overlooking Great Falls in Potomac, Maryland. One late summer afternoon at the marvelous Catoctin Creek Nature Center, I was treated to a marvelous performance by a waltzing hag moth caterpillar, a.k.a. monkey slug, as it toted its strange furry adornments along a branch of a redbud tree. Many other common woody plants are also eaten by this caterpillar, which can be found from southern Canada to the Gulf Coast. These caterpillars are among the most interesting and attractive of all to be found in the summer and autumn, but please don’t handle them yourself or let youngsters handle them. Let’s avoid a nasty surprise that could develop into an unwanted fear of these remarkable creatures.

This quintet of pretty caterpillars packs a wallop delivered by stinging, urticating spines. The puss caterpillar looks like Cousin Itt from the Addams Family to me. Next up are attractive caterpillars that turn into white flannel moths, but their sting does not feel anything like flannel. Io moth caterpillars are relatively common throughout much of eastern North America. Just look at their long spines. The buck moth caterpillar is in a hurry, perhaps to find oak leaves, a favored food. They too can give a nasty sting. And my favorite of the five is the very strange and adorable hag moth caterpillar. What are those wavy arms about?

Acknowledgements 

We thank Jo-Ann Chason for providing the nice image of a puss caterpillar that served as the inspiration for this episode. Two excellent references, “Stinging and Venomous Caterpillars of the Southeast” by Rebecca Perry and Adam Dale, and “Caterpillars of Eastern North America” by David Wagner provided details on these interesting stinging caterpillars.

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Learn About the Damage Mice Can Cause to Insulation & if it Would Need to be Replaced After an Infestation

More than 14 million homes and businesses experience rodent infestations every year in North America. Not only do mice and other rodents spread dozens of diseases, but they can also wreak havoc inside homes and other buildings.

Mice are among the most common pests found throughout the Northeastern United States, particularly during cool weather when these small critters make their way indoors.

Once inside, they create nests in quiet, dark spots, chew holes through walls, and burrow into insulation, leaving droppings and urine in their wake. Damage to insulation doesn’t always occur, but it’s not uncommon after a mouse infestation, particularly if the mice have nested in the home or building for a significant length of time.

Signs of Mice in Attic Insulation

Mice are often found in attics, where they can often nest undisturbed and undetected. These tiny rodents can cause significant damage, including gnawed wires, chewed woodwork, and contaminated surfaces.

That’s why it’s essential to rely on professional mouse control from a trusted expert like Catseye Pest Control once the infestation is discovered.

Mouse infestation signs to look for include:

• Noises, such as scratching, skittering, and scurrying, in the attic or wall — especially at night.
• Gaps and cracks that seem to get larger in walls, trim, or flooring.
• Wood chips or insulation material on the attic floor.
• Gnaw marks on wood, food items, cartons, and other objects.
• Droppings or urine stains on floors, walls, and other areas.
• Greasy-looking tracks along floors where mice run back and forth, creating a path, and leaving oil deposits behind from their fur.
• Strong, musty smell in the attic or throughout the home.

In addition to these signs of infestation, a glance at the insulation may also provide clues. Mice often burrow into the insulation to create nests inside. They also use the material to build their nests.

Do Mice Eat Insulation?

Mice tend to chew through almost anything, including wires, cardboard, wood, and insulation. But what do mice do with the discarded remnants and debris?

Occasionally, mice may ingest small bits of insulation. Fiberglass, loose-fill, and batt insulation are particularly appealing because of its warmth and softness.

Although these small, fleet-footed pests may eat small amounts from time to time, it’s more common for them to burrow and tunnel into it. Mice primarily use insulation to add fluff and coziness to their nests.

With their sharp teeth and claws, mice will cause significant damage. Not only do they pose a health hazard, but the critter can also cause moisture and draft problems in homes as the insulation is destroyed.

Complete control is needed to get the situation under control and prevent further damage. The Rodent Plus Program from Catseye can offer peace of mind by locating the source of the infestation, removing all mice, and then keeping them out.

How to Keep Mice Out of Insulation

To keep mice out of insulation (and out of the attic), a multipronged must be taken.

Sealing cracks and openings where mice can enter and investing in exclusion systems can help keep mice out for good.

Additionally, disinfection after an infestation can work to restore healthy living conditions and help prevent attracting mice in the future.

The scent of mouse urine attracts more mice. Researchers have found a protein in the urine of male mice that marks their territory and can attract mice to the area. This underscores the need for complete rodent control and clean-up after an infestation.

If mice have contaminated or damaged insulation, replacing the insulation is a must. Otherwise, debris and excrement may be left behind. Also, holes and gaps can create moisture, leading to mold and mildew.

It can also leave a home or building vulnerable to temperature swings due to compromised insulation.

Some insulation materials are less attractive to mice and rodents.

For example, blown-in foam and cellulose insulation may not be rodents’ first choice for burrows and nests. However, no reliable rodent-resistant insulation is available on the market.

The only sure way to keep mice out of insulation is by using a reputable rodent control program and an exclusion system that acts as a safe, natural, permanent barrier.

Catseye can facilitate this need through our state-of-the-art Cat-Guard Exclusion System that is comprised of three parts.

• Upper Cat-Guard: Designed to shield homes and structures from bats, birds, squirrels, raccoons, mice, and rats. Upper Cat-Guard is perfect for homes with chimneys that are more easily infested by wildlife.
• Lower Cat-Guard: From the first-floor windows to the ground, Lower Cat-Guard defends structures from critters like mice, rats, chipmunks, squirrels, and many others.
• Trench Guard: Ensuring low-clearance structures like decks and sheds, Trench-Guard protects against woodchucks, skunks, opossums, and other critters.

Once the infestation has been professionally handled and the exclusion system is in place, the next step is to clean up the area and replace the insulation. This process is vital in restoring the building to its rodent-free condition and eliminating the threat of possibly spreading rodent-borne illnesses.

Contact Catseye for Complete Control & Peace of Mind

With decades of experience providing pest control throughout Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, Catseye has the expertise needed to remove mice and restore your peace of mind.

With our comprehensive exclusion services, cleanup and restoration program, and Platinum Home Protection, we can get mice out and help keep them out of your home, attic, and insulation.

Contact Catseye today for more information about how we can help mitigate an infestation or to schedule a free inspection.

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Discover Restaurant Pest Control Solutions to Eliminate & Prevent Rodent Infestations

As people throughout the New England area and the rest of the world continue recovering from the pandemic, rodent activity has increased.

Mice, rats, and other rodents have taken advantage of the brief lull in activity in commercial spaces to move in and nest. As a result, restaurants have seen an uptick in mice and rat activity, making restaurant rodent control even more critical.

Safe food storage and cleanliness aren’t the only issues that can derail a health inspection. Evidence of mice and rats in a restaurant can be the difference between passing or failing. Professional restaurant pest control, such as the rodent control services offered by Catseye Pest Control, can eliminate these critters, and prevent them from returning.

Importance of Restaurant Rodent Control

Professional pest and rodent control can help restaurants avoid equipment damage caused by rodents while ensuring guests and employees remain safe, healthy, and happy.

Mice and rats in a restaurant can cause a ripple effect that can ultimately impact the business’ bottom line. If a customer sees a mouse or evidence of rodent infestation, it will undoubtedly leave a bad impression that spreads throughout the community and beyond.

Not only will rodent infestations drive those customers away, but it will also increase the odds of getting negative reviews, which can have a lasting effect on business. 

Health and safety are significant pressing issues. Rats, mice, and other rodents carry more than 35 diseases that can spread to humans. Common rodent-borne conditions include leptospirosis, hemorrhagic fever, and hantavirus, a common rodent-borne illness that affects the lungs and causes symptoms like fever, muscle aches, and shortness of breath.

Many common diseases spread through human contact with mice and rat saliva, urine, and feces. In addition to carrying pathogens that can directly cause human illness, these critters can also introduce ticks, fleas, and mites into interior spaces. The pests add a menu of additional problems to the mix. 

How to Prevent Mice & Rats in Restaurants

One of the most effective ways to get rid of rats in restaurants is to prevent them from getting inside in the first place.

Start by conducting a thorough walkthrough of the kitchen, dining areas, and exterior. Mice and rats can enter buildings through cracks as small as a dime, actively gnawing tiny openings as needed. Proactive, preventive steps include:

• Filling holes, cracks, and gaps in exterior walls.
• Sealing spaces around windows and doors.
• Promptly repairing roof damage.
• Moving dumpsters as far as possible from the exterior of the building.
• Trimming vegetation and branches away from the building.
• Repairing damage to sewer pipes.

When restaurants call Catseye for a free inspection, trained pest and wildlife control professionals walk through the space, completing a through inspection.

In addition to looking for evidence of rodents and other critters, they look for entry points mice and rats can exploit, along with other potential problems. But identifying these issues is only part of the solution.

To prevent these critters, and many others like bats or squirrels, from accessing the building, Catseye’s state-of-the-art exclusion system will need to be installed.

The Commercial Cat-Guard Exclusion System offers a natural, safe, humane, long-term solution to rodent problems. Cat-Guard provides a barrier that protects common entry points like exhaust vents, rooflines, spaces behind appliances, sanitation lines, and more.

How to Get Rid of Mice, Rats & Rodents in Restaurants

Female mice and rats can have as many as 12 babies every three weeks, which is a recipe for disaster. Therefore, complete control needs to be top priority for restaurants that attract mice, rats, and other rodents.

Getting rid of rodents requires more than setting traps or baits.

Thorough removal consists of a three-point approach that starts with rodent control.

Although restaurant owners can attempt removal and cleanup on their own, it is not advisable. Using poisons to control the population can taint highly regulated spaces that must remain free of contaminants.

Instead, restaurant owners should rely on highly trained technicians to use rodent stations to catch and remove mice and rats from restaurants.

Once removed, professional disinfection services will eliminate droppings and sanitize the impacted areas, returning the restaurant to its once rodent-free condition. In the third step, professionals seal openings to keep mice, rats, and other rodents from entering in the future.

How Often Should Rodent Control be Done in a Restaurant?

Commercial spaces cannot approach pest and rodent control as a one-and-done process.

Ongoing monitoring is needed to ensure critters don’t return, and continuous control measures are necessary to keep other nuisance wildlife at bay.

How often pest control is needed depends on various factors, including the types of pests invading the building, the conditions, and location of the establishment. Working with a professional pest control service is the ideal way to establish a customized treatment and prevention plan for ongoing pest control.

Professional pest and nuisance wildlife technicians will develop a plan to control pests to help ensure the business is safe and clean for employees and customers alike.

Year-round pest control relies on programs tailored to the business’ unique needs to getting rid of rodents, eliminating other pests, and maintaining the conditions needed to pass health inspections.

Contact Catseye for Professional Restaurant Pest Control

The question isn’t just how to get rid of mice in restaurants — it’s how to keep them (and other pests) from ruining the business.

The solution?

Professional pest control services administered by experts with decades of experience providing inspections, preventative treatments that don’t interfere with business operations, and exclusion for superior protection.

Don’t let mice, rats, or other critters become unwelcome guests in your restaurant. Contact Catseye to schedule a free inspection today.

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Discover the Signs of a Carpenter Bee Infestation, Damage & How to Have the Pest Safely Removed

When the forecast calls for warmer temperatures, the number of bees and other flying insects in the air creates quite a buzz. Some of these insects are beneficial and harmless, but others, including carpenter bees, can cause a significant amount of damage to property and even people.

All too often, homeowners see bees and assume they are dealing with harmless honey bees or bumblebees. Unlike the varieties of bees that live together in nests, carpenter bees are solitary creatures that live alone in nests made by burrowing into wood.

Their life cycle typically spans one year, with mature adults emerging from winter hibernation to mate in April or May.

Young carpenter bees hatch during the late summer months. By August or September, the bees leave their nests to feed and pollinate flowers along the way before hibernating during the winter.

How can you tell the difference between bumblebees and carpenter bees? Bumblebees have hairy abdomens, while carpenter bees are shiny and hairless. They tend to gather near wood structures found on a property — and therein lies the problem.

Even though these bees play an essential role in the ecosystem, carpenter bee damage can be serious.

What Attracts Carpenter Bees?

Wood is one of the chief elements that attracts these destructive pests, but it’s not the only thing that may draw them to a home or property. Understanding what attracts them can help when creating a prevention and control strategy for carpenter bees.  

The more wood there is on a property, the more likely the property will attract carpenter bees. Untreated, unpainted lumber, particularly soft wood varieties, is particularly appealing to carpenter bees.

The less work females must do to drill into the wood, the more likely they are to view it as potential shelter.

Stacks of firewood, wood fences, sheds, decks, wood siding, rotting wood areas in older homes, and other wooden structures may draw carpenter bees to a property. Other conditions that attract them include:

• Flowers provide pollen and nectar for bees to eat.
• Old plank ends are ideal for drilling.
• Abandoned nests can be reused, often with expanded damage.
• Sheltered spots like eaves and corners under roof overhangs are quiet and secluded.

Signs of Carpenter Bee Infestation

Holes in wood are one of the main signs of carpenter bee damage. The holes are typically round, with a diameter around the same size as an adult finger.

At first glance, the openings may appear to be only an inch or so deep, but these bees usually tunnel far into the wood. After the initial inch, most tunnels branch off and extend for another six inches or more.

In addition to the holes, other signs that carpenter bees are present include:

• Carpenter bee droppings, which are greenish-yellow or yellowish-brown.
• Wood shavings or piles of sawdust outside of holes.
• Bees flying in and out of holes or hovering near wooden structures.
• Scratching sounds coming from inside wood.

Carpenter Bee Damage

When the stinging pest builds nests, carpenter bees drill and tunnel into wood to create chambers where their eggs can be laid.

They don’t eat wood, but they do excavate and destroy wood in their quest to build their nests.

Carpenter bee damage isn’t systemic as it would be with termites or carpenter ants. However, a large infestation or one that’s been thriving for years can create significant problems, including:

• Structural Damage: If carpenter bees have been reusing the same wooden structure year after year, the large number of tunnels can start to weaken the wood. This is one of the most dangerous types of carpenter bee damage because it can compromise the structural integrity of a home or building.
• Woodpeckers: The carpenter bee larvae and pupae inside tunnels make an ideal snack for woodpeckers looking for their next meal. To get to the insects inside, woodpeckers will make more holes in the damaged wood, making the structure weaker and potentially dangerous.
• Water Damage: Water can get inside more easily when a large infestation produces several holes throughout a wooden structure.
• Stained Wood: The exterior of tunnels and other areas like siding, roofs, and more can become stained from carpenter bee excrement.

Carpenter Bee Droppings

Carpenter bee droppings are another sign that these pests have invaded.

The excrement is sticky and acidic, which makes it difficult to remove. It can also eat through paint, etch glass, and damage siding if left untreated.

To remove carpenter bee droppings, spray the affected area with a water hose. Then use soap and water to remove it thoroughly before rinsing the spot a final time.

Carpenter Bee Removal & Repair

Prevention can only do so much. Finishing and treating wood can help to reduce the odds that carpenter bees will nest there, but it won’t eliminate the risk altogether.

Removing these pests without professional help isn’t recommended, particularly if it’s a large infestation. Professionals have the necessary skills, experience, and equipment to remove the bees safely.

Additionally, even though carpenter bees rarely sting, females may sting if feeling threatened. Stings can be painful, toxic, and even trigger an allergic reaction.

As such, inexperienced individuals should not attempt carpenter bee removal and exclusion on their own. Instead, the help of an experienced professional is essential. This will help to ensure the safety of those on the property and help to prevent future infestations.

Professionals like Catseye Pest Control use specialized tools and tailor-made process that can fit into small crevices to mitigate carpenter bee damage and infestations.

To effectively control carpenter bees, it’s necessary to find and remove all nests located deep within the wooden structures around the property. Any traces of nests left behind could attract bees in the future.

Once the pest has been safely removed from the area, Catseye also offers a Carpenter Bee Damage & Control program designed to repair carpenter bee damage and work to prevent infestations in the future.

To start the carpenter bee removal process, schedule a free inspection. Our highly trained pest and nuisance wildlife technicians will conduct a thorough inspection of your property.

During the process, they pinpoint factors that may attract carpenter bees and identify entry points to nests before creating a customized plan for carpenter bee removal and damage repair.

Would you like to learn more? Contact us online today or call 888-260-3980, and we’ll be happy to answer questions.

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Somewhere in my basement, a male field cricket provides a chirpy serenade, a reminder that summer has ended and fall has arrived. To his kin outdoors, chilly weather will soon end their chirps and merry-making. But one grim reaper of crickets, the steel-blue cricket-hunter, brings an even quicker end to the halcyon days of crickets. In weeks past, I watched this frenetic, dazzling blue wasp inspecting shredded bark, small twigs, and miniature caverns beneath edging stones in my butterfly garden. The speed with which this sizable hunter (up to 1 ¼ inch) dashed about the landscape challenged me to keep up as I tried to record its movements. In the case of the steel-blue cricket-hunter, prey are elusive and in this game speed is of the essence.

As field crickets chirp a farewell to summer, they are stalked by a formidable enemy, the steel-blue cricket-hunter. With wings twitching nervously, a female takes off on her quest. First stop, a patch of mulch which turns out to be not quite the right spot to find her prey. Next stop, a stone wall where crickets hide in dark rocky crevices. After disappearing briefly, she emerges with her prize, a paralyzed cricket soon to be delivered to a subterranean nursery as food for her young.

One of the primary prey insects of the steel-blue cricket-hunter is the Pennsylvania field cricket. This large boisterous troubadour often invades homes and conducts its arias from the basement in late summer and autumn. Accounts of the steel-blue cricket-hunter describe the wasp flushing the cricket from hiding, pouncing on the victim, and delivering several stings, each laced with potent venom that ultimately paralyzes but does not kill the prey. The wasp then straddles the cricket and using its powerful mandibles, grasps the cricket and carts it away to a subterranean lair. The lair of the cricket-hunter often adjoins the burrow of its larger ground nesting cousin, the cicada killer wasp, which we met in a previous episode of Bug of the Week. Existing burrows fashioned by cicada killers serve as an atrium for cricket-hunters, which construct smaller tunnels originating from the shaft excavated by the larger wasp. Within these tunnels, cricket-hunters construct multiple cells, each of which may be provisioned with as many as nine crickets. The female wasp then closes the burrow using stones, bits of wood, and other debris. However, before she leaves each cricket-filled cell, one of the hapless victims receives a lethal gift from the female wasp: an egg, that hatches in about a day. The tiny wasp larva feasts on its natal host, then consumes the larder left by its mother in less than a week. After completing development, fresh new cricket-hunters emerge from their pupal cases, escape from the earth, and begin the search for prey. 

In addition to ridding the world of crickets, other parasitic wasps like the blue-winged digger wasp, Scolia dubia, and its congener Scolia nobilitata, provide important ecosystem services as pollinators and biological control agents of insect pests, including Japanese beetles. For the past several weeks, my flowers have been bustling with wasps and bees of several varieties as they feed on the nectar and pollen. Once fueled by nature’s ambrosia, these predators dash away, seeking other insects as food for their young. The next several weeks provide excellent opportunities to enjoy these clever hunters.

Acknowledgements  

The fascinating article by David Peckham and Frank Kurczewski entitled “Nesting behavior of Chlorion aerarium” was used as a reference for this episode. We thank Dr. Paula Shrewsbury who photographed the steel-blue cricket-hunter with its prey and for providing the inspiration for this story.

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