Category: Pest Control

Paper Wasps

What do paper wasps look like?

Paper wasps have a pinched waist and long thin legs that dangle below their body when flying. Adults grow to be between 1/2 and 1 inch in length. Their bodies are black or brown in color and have yellow or orange markings or markings that are a combination of both yellow and orange. Their wings are grayish in color. Paper wasps are semi-social and live together in small colonies. They are often identified by their umbrella-shaped nests that they create from a paper-like material.

Are paper wasps dangerous?

Paper wasps are considered beneficial because they help reduce nuisance insect numbers by hunting them to feed their colony’s developing larvae. They also feed on nectar and pollen and are responsible for pollinating a variety of crops and plants. Despite their benefits, if paper wasps decide to build a nest in or near your home, they can become a danger to you and your family. They are not an aggressive species, but will sting if they feel they are in harm’s way, are being threatened, or are being directly handled. Their venom is strong enough to cause an allergic reaction in some people which can be severe and require immediate medical attention.

Where do paper wasps nest?

Paper wasps make their nests out of a paper-like material that they create by chewing on bark, plant stems, and leaves, mixing plant material with their saliva. Paper wasps typically place their nests up off of the ground. Their nests can be found hanging from trees, shrubs, utility poles, porches, or under rooflines, decks, and door frames. If they find their way inside a home or other building they may create a nest inside the chimney, behind exterior walls, or inside a crawl space.

Why do I have a paper wasp problem?

Paper wasps have the potential to choose any property that offers them a place to nest (trees, shrubs, buildings) and easy access to food (insects, flowering plants) and water sources (areas of standing water). Paper wasps are difficult to control and prevent because almost any property can become home to a paper wasp nest.

How can I prevent future problems with paper wasps?

Preventing problems with paper wasps can be a difficult task, but there are some things you can do around your home to deter them and keep them from becoming a danger to you and your family. Trim shrubs and trees away from the exterior of your home and limit the number of flowering plants and gardens that are planted near the exterior of your home. Place tight-fitting lids on all outdoor trash cans to prevent paper wasps from foraging for food sources in them. Remove or turn over any containers that are not in use that could collect water

A COMPLETE PEST CONTROL GUIDE FOR ELIMINATING THE MENACING WASP

Did you find a wasp’s nest? Are you worried about wasp stings? Looking for a professional pest controller for wasp removal in Surrey? Here is a pest control guide to help you get rid of wasps for good.

Types of Wasps

You are most likely to encounter common wasps (Vespula vulgaris) and German Wasps (Vespula germanica) in the UK. Both these species are striped in yellow and black. Their stings cause allergic reactions with severe pain.

Why is it necessary to Control Pest?

Wasps are one of the most aggressive pests feared by all. They attack you when they feel threatened. Whenever in distress they release a pheromone alerting the defensive colony of wasps to a singing frenzy. This is the reason one should always have a backup plan ready while in a mission to eradicate them.

Treating Wasp Stings

If after a sting someone develops the following symptoms, then it is necessary to rushthem to a medical facility immediately.

Difficulties breathing

Dizziness

Swollen face

The typical household first aid to treat wasp stings are as follows,

Wash the area around the bite with soap and water.

Apply a cold compress with an ice pack for at least 10 minutes.

Keep the affected area in an elevated position if possible.

Avoid scratching the affected area.

Don’t try out any random home remedy being unaware of the consequences.

How to get rid of wasps this summer

Hot weather, warm evenings, picnics outside and al-fresco dining – the perfect conditions for one of the most annoying pests

The current heatwave is perfect for the black and yellow insects as it provides better breeding conditions. As such you may be encountering more wasps than usual at the moment, particularly if you’re spending lots of time in your garden. If you’re seeing considerable numbers of wasps in your home or garden, however, it could be that you have a nest.

Get a professional in

The quickest and most effective way of treating a wasps nest is to get someone in to deal with it. Try to get the nest removed as soon as you spot it, or spot lots of wasps returning to a particular spot in your brickwork or roof.

Do it yourself

You may choose to treat the next yourself. There are plenty of spray, foams, and powders available that can be used to kill the wasps. Apparently, one all-natural solution can be made using one part peppermint oil with four parts water. The solution is said to kill off eggs and larvae and be so unpleasant for wasps they’ll leave their nest for good.

What about the nest itself?

Leaving the nest where it is is an option but you must make sure all of the wasps have left. Once the nest is empty, if it has been treated professionally with insecticides, the poison will remain in the nest for months. That means if other wasps decide to raid the nest they too will succumb to the insecticides. This also means, however, that you should not touch the nest either.

Wasps

Being stung by a wasp or bee is a painful experience and can be life threatening to anyone who may be allergic to stings. However, it is possible to reduce these risks by taking sensible precautions when outdoors and ensuring that wasp or bee nests are properly managed.

Honey Bees

Wasps can also be confused with bees, in particular Honey Bees – however these vary in color from golden brown to almost black and are furrier than wasps. Only female wasps have a sting which they can use repeatedly, if they feel under threat. In most cases a wasp sting causes no long term harm, but it can be life threatening if you are allergic to stings. Treating a wasp nest is often the most efficient way to control a wasp problem and reduce the threat of stings.

Wasps have the potential to attack in large numbers if their nest is disturbed. It is best to treat a nest earlier in the year before numbers increase and the wasps become more aggressive, increasing the threat of stings during treatment.

Wasps can build nests outdoors under eaves or, if they can gain access, they can find sheltered areas inside your home, such as wall cavities, roof spaces and attics.  If a nest is discovered you shouldn’t attempt to get rid of it yourself

How to Get Rid of Bees

Pest Control strongly recommends you to contact a pest control professionals if you have a bee infestation. Attempting to remove a bee hive by yourself can be dangerous, especially if you or someone in your family is allergic to bee stings.

Removing Bees from Your Home

In addition to the threat of insect stings, bees can also attract secondary insects to invade your home due to the honey they produce. Considering bees are highly beneficial to the environment, they should only be controlled when they pose a direct threat to your home or family.

If a bee hive/nest represents a high risk to humans, pest control professionals should be contacted to remove the bees. will only destroy a bee nest or colony if it is considered a threat to people. When possible, we will try to find a beekeeper to remove the hive.

Identifying a Wasp Nest

Wasps make their nests from chewed wood pulp and saliva, giving them distinctive papery walls. Nests are usually built in sheltered spots with easy access to the outside. You can often find wasp nests in wall cavities, roof spaces, under eaves, in bird boxes, sheds or garages.

How to Get Rid of Wasps

The most effective way to get rid of wasps or hornets is to treat the main cause of the problem – the nest. Removing a nest can be very dangerous. Wasps inside the nest will feel threatened and often become aggressive. This could cause them to sting you and others as they defend their nest and young. To reduce the risk of stings to you and your family, arrange for a professional wasp nest treatment. This effective solution will eliminate the wasps and keep you safe from the threat of stings.

Micro bats: The insect terminators

Flying mammals

Bats are the only group of mammals that are specifically adapted for flight. There are two types of bats: the micro bats and the mega bats. The micro bats (also known as insectivorous bats), are small to medium-sized bats, weighing from 3g to 150g, and with wingspans of around 25cm. The mega bats (also known as fruit bats) weigh up to a kilogram and some have wingspans over one metre. These two groups of mammals are thought to have evolved separately and are regarded as two distinct groups

How do they see in the dark?

Micro bats are nocturnal, and rely on echolocation and, to a lesser extent, eyesight, to find their way and locate insects at night.

Echolocation is a technique used by bats to ‘see’ their environment through sound. The bats create a pulse of high-pitched sounds, which are normally at frequencies beyond the range of human hearing. The sound waves are created in the bat’s voice box, and are emitted from the mouth or the nostrils. The echo that comes back to the bat can tell it how far away the object is, as well as it’s size and texture, and if it’s moving! In this way they are able to sense their environment, avoid flying into objects, and find their prey. Using an ‘ultrasonic bat detector’ can help to identify the bat as well as tell us whether the bat is navigating or feeding.

Micro bats do make some sounds that humans can hear, but these are usually social chatter, alarm calls and communications between mothers and their young at the roost. There are a couple of species that have echolocation calls that people with sharp ears can hear; these are the yellow-bellied sheathtail bat and the white-striped freetail bat

Micro bats rely on echolocation to find insects while flying quickly through the air. They do this with startling efficiency. Under controlled conditions a Myotis bat (a small insectivorous bat that lives near waterways) has been recorded capturing 1200 tiny fruit flies in one hour, one every three seconds, while navigating in the air.

New Research: Bats Harbor Hundreds Of Coronaviruses, And Spillovers Aren’t Rare

Olival, who is with the nonprofit research group EcoHealth Alliance, was there to trap bats and collect samples of their body fluids. He and his collaborators would then test the samples for viruses. Bats are known for carrying some dangerous ones, particularly viruses that have the potential to kick off global outbreaks through what’s called “spillovers” — instances of an animal virus jumping into a human.

The results of their work put the current coronavirus outbreak in China in a wholly new light. Scientists say it was caused by a spillover event. And the findings from the sample collection project suggest these kinds of spillovers have actually been quietly taking place in China for years.

Swabbing bats

The evidence comes from hours of painstaking sample collection sessions

“So we’re getting the oral swab in the back of the throat,” Olival explains. “And I’m just holding her head between my two fingers.”

A direct path to humans

It gets worse: Scientists had thought spillovers were rare — that bat coronaviruses weren’t generally capable of infecting humans, so it took complicated steps. Step one: A bat coronavirus would have to infect some animal species that had closer contact with people than bats do. Step two: While in that other animal’s body, the virus would need to pick up new genetic code.

Why are bats blind?

Bats are not blind and can in fact see quite well using their eyes. While most bats do have advanced ears that give them a form of vision in the dark known as echolocation, these good ears does not require them to have bad eyes. Bats use their good hearing to find food in the dark of night, and their good eyes to find food during the light of day. The vision of bats is tuned to low-light conditions such as is present during dawn and dusk. While some bats may not have as good color vision as humans, their overall vision may be better than humans during dawn and dusk

Both megabat and microbats rely on vision during social interactions with one another, to watch for predators, and for navigating across landscapes. Megabats have large eyes and depend on vision to orient themselves during flight and to find food. Most microbats use echolocation to navigate and find food, and they tend to have smaller eyes, although they, too, use vision during their daily activities and to detect objects outside the effective range of echolocation, which is about thirty-three to sixty-six feet (ten to twenty meters). Some bats are also capable of visual pattern discrimination, which may assist fruit or nectar bats in finding food.” Taken literally, the comment, “you are as blind as a bat,” should mean that you have excellent vision in low light conditions, although it is usually meant to imply you have bad vision overall. This phrase perhaps originated from the fact that bats have rapid, erratic flight patterns that look like a blind person bumbling about.

Attract Bats for Organic Insect Control

Bats are the most misunderstood of our garden residents. Do these critters send a chill down your spine? If so, read on. Bats have an undeserved reputation for being bloodsucking, disease-carrying, dirty little rodents. Don’t let these myths about bats scare you — embrace them (not literally, of course) and attract them to your garden!

Why You Should Attract Bats

These little flying mammals are great hunters of mosquitoes and other annoying insects. In fact, research reveals that a single bat can eat more than 600 mosquitoes per hour. They’re a fantastic, organic pest-control method.

By creating a bat-friendly yard, you’re also doing good on a grander scale. Like many species, bat populations are declining due to pesticide use and habitat loss.

How to Attract Bats

Like birds, bats prefer a source of shelter and they’ll often hang out in old trees and large shrubs. Bats nest in abandoned buildings, hollow trees, under a building’s eves, in loose tree bark, and in bat houses. Bats also enjoy water features, such as ponds, where insects may congregate.

Bat Myths

Like any mammal, bats can catch rabies. But they’re not as likely to catch the disease as many other animals — and even if they do, you’re less likely to come into contact with them. (That said, never handle a bat or any other wild animal in your yard.)

Cleaning of an environment contaminated with bat droppings

Bat droppings, also called guano, sometimes contain microscopic fungi that can cause health problems in humans.

If bats have taken up residence in your home, you will notice their droppings. They are shiny, crumble easily and give off a foul odour. When they dry out, they turn to dust.

The contaminated area must be cleaned to prevent health problems. Take precautions to prevent the dust from droppings from becoming airborne and contaminating other rooms in the house.

To clean up large quantities of droppings or to clean areas that are hard to reach

Sometimes, there is a very large quantity of droppings to clean up or there are many contaminated areas and they are hard to reach.

Hire experts

If there is a large accumulation of droppings or they are hard to reach, it’s best to leave decontamination to the experts. Some pest control professionals offer this service. An experienced pest control professional will have a thorough knowledge of the measures that must be taken and the procedures to follow to remove bat droppings and clean contaminated areas.