Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pestcontrol

Yellow jackets are eating our house

mccarty.tim — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:07:52 -0800

Yellow jackets, or some other form of wasp, have formed a nest inside our roof through a tiny hole in the shingles. Spray and powder hasn't worked yet. Any ideas? Yellow jackets have built a nest in the soffit overhanging the porch of my home. The wasps are entering a small hole between the shingles of the roof along the edge of the eaves.

I have tried wasp spray and have also inserted a powdered product in the hole (Bonide Spider and Ground Bee Killer using a snorkel tube applicator). I think the nest may be built in a void at a distance from the entry hole so the products I've tried are not reaching the nest.

The owner of a local farm supply store suggested I knock a hole in the eaves and throw a pesticide fogger inside the area. I was hoping there might be a less destructive way to alleviate the problem.

Our concern is that the wasps may dig inside to the home in the winter, when it gets colder and they want the warmth indoors. I considered using foaming epoxy to seal the hole, but I'm worried that would just encourage them to dig inside sooner.

Thanks for your help.

Need to get rid of roaches fast

Ikazuchi — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:44:53 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good pest control company in Tampa, FL? The roaches in my kitchen must DIE DIE DIE. I'm out of town for three days and walk into my kitchen to find four of the not-so-little bastards crawling around. I can't use my kitchen until they are gone.

What are these jumping flies?

miniminimarket — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:42:20 -0800

Fly identification question: we've got little black flies hanging around our fridge, garbage, and sink drain. Don't think they're drain flies because they don't have furry wings. They hop when you try to smack them. We've tried pouring bleach and hot water down the sink, keeping dishes clean, taking out the trash more often, without luck. Any trapping / killing ideas are welcome, but mostly I want to know what I'm dealing with first. Thanks in advance.

Are these termites?

alms — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 17:44:57 -0800

Are these termites? If so, what should I do about them? I found a very active colony of bugs under a flag stone in my back yard, about 25 feet from my wood frame house. They look like termites to me. Are they? Any idea what kind?

I live in the Boston area, and have heard that neighbors have had termites. When we purchased our house about four years ago, the inspection didn't show any signs of termites in the house.

The back yard is pretty damp.

I have a big jar of boric acid in my cabinet. Should I just dump that on the nest? I'm am generally not the kind of person to use chemical pesticides, but this is a case where I would be willing to go for the full-strength toxic chemical treatment in a spot in my backyard if it will help prevent termites from getting into my house. Please let me know if there are specific termite poisons that you recommend.

Or should I call in the cavalry, i.e. hire an exterminator?

We do not generally have much plant growth immediately around our house, i.e. the house is surrounded mostly by cement paths and there is a cement foundation for the first three feet or so before the wood siding starts. Should I make extra sure that there are no botanical pathways connecting the yard to the physical structure?

Any other tips greatly appreciated.

(I can try to take some better pictures tomorrow if that would help the ID. These photos don't reflect the activity of the nest, as most of the bugs had scurried underground by the time I got these shots. There were many many more of them.)

Get Off My Lawn!

Danf — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:40:49 -0800

Does anyone have experience with repelling geese from public property? I have one school that some resident Canadian geese have decided seems pretty homey. The result is one pile of goose poop in every three square feet of a field that is as large as three soccer fields put together. It seems clear that to have kids running around such a field would expose them to E. coli, among (probably) other pathogens.

I have looked into biological control, chemical control, and a variety of mechanical controls.

Each of these has a significant downside for use on a piece of open, accessible, public land. The downside of the chemical repellent is that this is a town where stuff is perceived to be toxic that is toxic nowhere else.

But doing nothing would turning this asset over to wildlife, which, on the face of it, is not all bad but we lose 2 soccer fields and two softball fields, which we can't really lose.

So, dear Metachans, is there a silver bullet out there that I am missing?

A Better Mousetrap?

kensch — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:13:06 -0800

I live in a communal dorm in an urban city, and have a bit of a mouse problem. Standard hall procedure is to put in a request for an exterminator to place poison and glue traps. I'm looking for an alternative to these that will allow me to safely, ethically, and humanely dispose of the mice. I consider the glue traps used to be inhumane regarding the pain and stress that it places the mouse under, as well as the resulting starvation. As well, I question the effectiveness of poison in this situation. Snap traps would not work in my room, and no-kill traps would cause a problem for me to release the mouse.

Given this, I've been researching alternative pest control measures to solve this problem. From what I've read online (as well as on this site), the effectiveness of ultrasonic devices is questionable. It seems as if the electronic traps that "zap" the mouse may be the closest, however, I don't know if this type of device will achieve what I'm looking for. What has your experience been with the electronic-type device, or do you have a different recommendation to approach this problem?

How can I stop whatever is chewing my basil plants?

teem — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:02:47 -0800

My outdoor basil plants are being chewed away by something that leaves behind tiny black grains. Who is the culprit, and how can I stop it? Whatever it is chews holes in the leaves of my basil plants, either straight through or leaving a thin clear membrane behind between the veins of the leaves. There are also tiny black dots on some of the leaves (as in, sitting on the leaves, they're not a part of the leaves or a discoloration). I have a feeling the two are connected.

Bonus points if the solution doesn't involve heavy-duty pesticides.

Mice don't pay rent, so they can't live here any more.

brina — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:44:34 -0800

How do I choose an exterminator who will make this episode of Tom and Jerry end once and for all? The brownstone I live in is infested with mice, and our exterminator up to this point has been unhelpful. They spray and leave bait (the kind in those plastic packets), and the mice run around our home like it is a playground.

My landlady has given me free rein in choosing a new pest control company, and I'm wondering what questions I should ask regarding the strategies and chemicals the companies use.

Note: No one in this house owns a pet or has small children. At this point, all the tenants are at their wits' end and would be happy to cooperate with a good pest control expert, even if he asked us to stand on our heads for three days straight -- as long as we knew it would put an end to the reign of the mice.

Another note: We're not into glue traps or other slow torture devices. In fact, we're all of us pretty squeamish.

Help me dispose of this sad little corpse

Planet F — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:54:10 -0800

So, I found this dead squirrel outside my house this morning. It looked as if it got electricuted overnight, and it's right on my front path. I called pest control, and they said they would remove it, but it was still there when I got home this afternoon. I'm guessing pet control doesn't operate over the weekend, so I'm wondering what I should do in the meantime? Is there someone special I can call? Should I just push it to the side grass with a stick (I don't want to do this... it's kind of seriously gross)? For what it's worth, I live in Ontario in a small-ish city, and I'm renting a flat in the house so I'm not the owner of the place. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do, and I work every day until wednesday so I can't do anything terribly special myself.

Too many spiders!

pdb — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:26:24 -0800

I need spider control options, please! We have a backyard that's almost completely deck. In the middle of the deck is a very large evergreen tree, that predates the house and around which the deck was built. It's a great tree, but it's also, not surprisingly, a haven for bugs and things.

The tree has a ton of spiders and those spiders build webs that come down off it and join up with our table and chairs - and if we get rid of the webs, they're back the next day (I am not surprised by this, I know that's how they work, I'm just stating the facts). it's to the point where my wife refuses to use the deck, even on these beautiful Portland summer nights, because there's too many spiders out there.

I understand that spiders are part of the outdoors, and I know I'll never get rid of them, but I still want to try to thin their ranks as much as possible.

So, my question is, how do I control the spiders? I know this is a very anti-Portland thing to say, but I'm not looking to coexist with the spiders and their webs - I want them gone, as much as possible. I'm also not opposed to using noxious chemicals if necessary - I'd rather not, but if that's what it takes to make our great deck usable by my wife again, that's what I'll do.

How to get rid of ants bees wasps ladybugs etc

Chamunks — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:04:23 -0800

My house has the odd bug problem throughout the year I'm looking for quick and concise solutions that can be made out of house hold products and the best bait to use for these solutions (traps poisons etc). I get the odd problem inside and outside of my house so ill try to mention them separately. These semi random infestations happen on and off for example one year it was ladybugs and another it was ants but they only repeat the odd time. I know this question may seem broad but im looking for some solutions that can be relatively universal yet i can make them for pennies... We keep the house an average sense of clean. Clutter sometimes happens but is usually dealt with in order to isolate problems.

So for the list of things we get in strangely large numbers at random times along with some thing's I have tried to eliminate them.

Carpenter ants along with other random types of ants. (Indoors and outdoors) We used a jar with sugar water and a piece of wool draped from the outside of the jar to the bait to help them drown. [this seemed to work well but it would be awesome to have something outside to stop them before they come in]

Ladybugs - (indoors mainly) I have no idea where these come from but when they come there are at least 20 a week i have to deal with - usually dealt with via vacuum

Housefly's / gnats (Indoors) usually a swift cleanup will help but some times inexplicably we get hundreds of them throughout a relatively short period of time [If this occurs i usually attack them with a vacuum hose for a while till I've significantly diminished their population]

Wasps Bees Yellow Jackets. (Outdoors [my neighbor is an avid gardener which attracts hundreds of flying stinger equipped demons that I'm mildly allergic to]) I've tried making a sort of bee trap out of a pop bottle but I need to find the best bait to put in it advice please.

That covers it keep in mind this is over a period of several years not all happen at once but next time one of these things happen i wish to deal with it swiftly with the proper tactics / weapons available to my arsenal :P

There is a mouse living in my stove. He was not invited.

serialcomma — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:56:34 -0800

There's a mouse in my stove. At least, I hope it's a mouse. I've heard something clanging around in there for the last couple of nights. (It's perfectly silent during the day.) I've been able to keep the noise to a minimum with the occasional sharp rap on the stovetop, but I haven't actually seen the pest myself. There are no signs of mice elsewhere in the house, at least that I've noticed.

What are my options for getting rid of it?

1. Set traps, open the oven door, and hope the intruder finds its way out into a trap.

2. Leave it in the oven, where it will eventually die due to lack of food, and I won't have to deal with a living creature. Then remove the coprse. (Actually, is there any potential harm to it being in a gas stove, provided I don't turn the stove on?)

3. Call the landlord, ask them to send an exterminator, and let a pro deal with it.

Any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

There are rats in the kitchen, what am I gonna do?

mygothlaundry — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:53:12 -0800

Several questions about rat infestations, including this one: If I use poison on the giant rats who are suddenly infesting my house, what are the chances of a poisoned rat deciding to die where my dogs can get it and then, if they do get it, will they die too? I have a sudden and horrible rat infestation in my house. I've read all the other AskMe rat threads and, based on their advice, I purchased and used a RatZapper. So far I have killed three giant, huge, enormous rats in my kitchen - we're talking like 8" to 10" long here and that's not counting the tails. I got two with a black plastic snap trap and one with the Zapper. I don't know where they're coming from although I suspect from somewhere under the refrigerator. It's been two or three days since the last rat died and I haven't seen any evidence of more rats in the kitchen since.

Question 1: Is it possible the rats are gone?
Question 2: How can I tell?
Question 3: How can I figure out where they're coming from?
Question 4: Any other trap recommendations?

I called my landlord, who said he was going out of town and, "yeah, whatever, I'll leave a package of rat poison in your mailbox, you had better put it in the basement crawl space, that's the thing to do." I have two dogs, a Springer Spaniel and a collie mix, both about 50 pounds and I've been afraid to use poison for fear that they would get into it. (They are big friendly floppy worthless wusses who are apparently afraid of the rats and they have been absolutely no help whatsoever in the continuing rodent crisis, by the way.) The dogs can't get into the basement BUT the locked door to the basement is located in the fenced part of my yard where they have free all day access.

Question 4: If I put rat poison in the basement, where will the rats go to die? Out in the yard?
Question 5: What if my dogs find and play with (I doubt they would eat it) a poisoned rat?

Any and all further information on getting rid of rats is very welcome. I don't know where they came from and I don't know why they suddenly appeared - I've lived in this house for over a year and never had a problem before.

Help me de-vole my garden. Humanely.

chowflap — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:44:52 -0800

Help! I have voles! How do I get rid of them? Do those repellent sprays work? How about those sonic things? I have a small (about 15-foot-square) vegetable garden with raised beds. It was covered with mulch all winter, and I put landscape fabric on it a few weeks ago to keep down the weeds. I also used to have a nice, healthy poppy plant -- until I visited the garden yesterday, and noticed that my poppy plant was now just a handful of shriveled-up leaves. There was a perfect hole where the root used to be, and a tunnel leading to it (I felt this with my hand -- it's all under the plastic). I had high hopes for a row of tiny carrot seedlings I planted weeks ago, but now I fear that they are doomed. How do I vole-proof my garden, while keeping my vegetables organic and safe? And can I do it without mass varmint carnage? Do those various chemical sprays work? How about those sonic posts?

Trapped bat: good if you're The Joker, bad if you're me

gnomeloaf — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:48:17 -0800

There is a small brown bat trapped in my window...is there any way I can get it to leave of its own accord? He's stuck between my storm window, which is about 1/3 of the way down, and my screen window, which is all the way down. The main window is closed, and the window itself is about 20' from the ground. Flickr photo here.

Every ten minutes or so, he shifts from upside down to right side up and back again. If he moved down a couple of inches, he'd find his way out.

Is there anything I can do, either now from where I am or later from a ladder, to lure him in that direction? Even if my state didn't impose gigantic fines for bat murder, I'd really just like to see the poor little guy make it out of there alive.

How to achieve the silence of the crows?

jgt246 — Thu, 03 May 2007 19:24:00 -0800

How can I silence the crows that have moved into the tree outside my window? I need to deal with a murder of crows without actually murdering them. We recently moved into a new apartment in Tokyo with a couple of lovely big trees next to our 2nd-floor balcony. Now our peace is being destroyed by the incessant cawing of a bunch of crows that have taken up residence in the trees. If you've never seen the Japanese version of these birds, they are enormous, aggressive, Hitchcockian nightmares that are not easily scared. Short of buying a pellet gun, how can I get rid of them?

Are mosquito lamps effective and do they pose any health risks to pregnant humans ?

matholio — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 20:21:06 -0800

Are mosquito lamps effective and do they pose any health risks to pregnant humans ? I have a mosquito problem and I have friends coming round for dinner.

If I use a mosquito lamp such as...
http://www.scjohnson.com.au/prd_02_Raid_FIKLamp.html
http://www.offprotects.com/mosquito-repeller/

Are they harmful to humans ?
I have a couple of pregnant friends and would like to be sure they will be safe.

(I'm looking into long term solutions too)

How to deal with book mites?

waxbanks — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 09:17:24 -0800

Help! Book mites! I think I saw one today on a book and I fear that there are A while ago I noticed tiny little beasties, about a dozen of them over days, wandering over my desk and the little speaker on my computer. I hadn't cleaned my desk in three years; it was covered in books, papers, dust. No food, luckily, just awful awful clutter.

Research online suggested perhaps book mites: I own hundreds and hundreds of books and had them in my room, which is dusty and warm and not un-moist (I sense). Many of the books are rarely moved and so probably a goddamn marvelous place for bugs to live.

I've moved house this month to a new place with a clean new library and no preexisting bug condition, but today I saw a little creepy crawly in one of my hardcover books. When I was done flipping out and smashing him to bits, I came to you, hive mind, for help. I think I brought him with me! I left my Scrolls of Genocide behind at the old place, so how to cope?

Online I recall seeing that pesticides and whatnot will kill the beasts. But I need practical details. How does one deal with book mites? Is fumigation expensive, dangerous? Don't nontoxic pesticides work fine on the bastards? Should I just move to someplace where it's cold all year 'round? Will just a thorough cleaning mitigate the problem?

And: what's a way of preventing bugs from borrowing my books without asking? I'm anal about that.

Cockroaches in my dishwasher. Ewww!

calistasm — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 19:11:22 -0800

I have cockroaches in my dishwasher. Help me kill the little bastards with extreme prejudice. Due to some little beasties hitching a ride in boxes that were mailed to us, we have a cockroach problem. It seems to be mostly under control now (after two sprayings, a bombing, baits, glue traps, and roach gel), but I cannot for the life of me figure out what to do about the ones in the dishwasher. They seem to be living in the door. There are droppings along the top of the door, and I have seen them crawl into the body of the dishwasher from the air vents. I have considered spraying through the vents with Raid, but it seems unwise, since I actually USE the thing. What suggestions do you have?

Relevant: I live in an apartment building, I don't want to move, I am unsure if replacing the dishwasher is feasible, and in any case I want to see if I can do anything about it first. Thanks.

I refuse to ratify the roof treaty

zaebiz — Sun, 14 May 2006 22:55:03 -0800

All diplomatic efforts at a peaceful solution have failed. I have no choice but to invade and depose the ty-rat-ical government in my roof. But I don't want to injure the canine civilians. Can I do this myself or do I need to bring in the elite forces?

How to get rid of mice

stupidsexyFlanders — Fri, 12 May 2006 08:39:43 -0800

I've got a mouse problem in my house and I need advice on ending it once and for all. We've seen evidence all over the house -- from the first floor up to the third. It's an old house and there are several gaps where mice could get in to the basement. On the inside, there's some openings from the basement up into the laundry room. I think sealing these up should help a lot. So job 1 is to fill these gaps -- what are the best materials (inside and outside) for filling so mice can't get in? On the eradication side, I've tried traps of various kinds and I don't want to have to deal with baiting them, hiding them, disposing of them, etc. I would rather use poison, which I can put in the crawl space under the laundry room. However, I've never tried it. I'm guessing I need to poison first, and seal later. True? How exactly do they die? I've heard they eat the poison and then go outside looking for water and die there. Will they even really do this? Or are they going to die in the house (basement, inside walls) and stink for a long time? How long do they take to die after eating the poison? How often does the poison have to be "refreshed?" Any brand/type recommendations? Thanks.

Ultrasonic Mouse Repellers: What's the deal?

SoftRain — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 19:03:29 -0800

Does anyone have any experience with these these ultrasonic mouse repeller things? Do they actually repel the mice? I've tried traps. I've tried steel wool. I store all my food in jars or shelves that they can't get to. The only trap that's ever actually caught anything is those battery-operated ones that electrocute them. I can't use poison because my landlords (who live on the two floors below) have cats and even though they're obviously horrible mousers, I think poison + pets = bad scene.

They disappear for awhile, but they keep coming back. The floorboards are really old and hard to block up. I have a friend coming from out of town in a couple of days and I want to make sure she doesn't have anything crawling on her in the middle of the night. I don't really think they frequent the room she'll be sleeping in, but I've seen them poking around.

I've seen these in the store and if they did the job, I'd be more than willing to buy some. So do they really work? Is there anything that does ward off the little beasts?

Ants in my Couch

ahughey — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 17:53:39 -0800

Ants in my couch! I just moved into a new townhome and I've got an ant problem. They're in the walls, under the carpets and now they've moved into my couch. I'm not sure if they're imported fire ants or pharaoh ants. I've contacted the landlord who contacted pest control, but with the 4th of July weekend, I don't expect much action until Tuesday. In the meantime, they've moved into my couch. Any ideas on some kind of stopgap solution to get them out of the couch until pest control shows up?

Cockroach genocide?

loquacious — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 03:30:28 -0800

GAH! Cockroaches! Please help! Short story: I want your cockroach eradication knowledge. It can be anecdotal, scientific, folk lore, whatever. It can be poisons or traps or advice on how to seal up the apartment to keep them from getting in and moving around.

Long story:

I've moved into a new apartment with my GF. The new (oldish) apartment came with a bunch of roaches. The previous tenant was (literally) a filthy crack-ho pig. Well, meth-ho, more likely. Seriously. I met her and her posse when we were visiting the apartment 4-plex and checking it out. She was seriously one of the most offensive, assuming, and demeaning people I've ever met, and I've been around the block a few times and lived in some pretty screwed up places.

The neighbors in this four-plex are visibly not that clean, but they're mostly nice and I really don't want to be that sort of new neighbor that makes life hell for everyone.

Plus, at least two of the three neighbors have physical/medical/age issues - to the point that once I get settled in here I'm seriously considering going down and helping them clean up a bit. I do not enjoy cleaning. At all. But they can probably use the help. And if it decreases the roaches here by reducing them there, even better.

The landlord is a state away in California- and seems like a nice guy. He knocked our first months rent almost in half, after a previously agreed upon free half-month, for our patience with the hassles.

Short story on the hassles: The temporary folks he hired to clean the place before we moved in bailed out on him. We moved in three days after he said it'd be ready to find out that literally nothing had been cleaned. Not even a partially vacuumed carpet. The cupboards under the kitchen sink had a layer of roach droppings in it like a fine mulch. There were dirty dishes still in the dishwasher.

We've been sprayed - and it sucks. I can still feel and smell the fumes and outgassing. We're being extra clean. I've put down roach discs and a handful of glue traps (the kind for mice and rats, but cockroaches stick to them even better)

I could "live with" the roaches - if by "living with" we meant "terminating them with prejudice, keeping extra clean, keeping foodstuffs sealed and put away, but not generally freaking out about them and letting them run the place."

But my girlfriend can't. She's terrified of them and totally disgusted by them. I can understand that. If this place was crawling with spiders, however harmless, I'd be pretty upset.

We want to keep them to a minimum and/or eliminate them before they mature to the legendary 3-6 inch long mature ones that Phoenix, AZ is infamous for.

I'm open to any and all suggestions except for "move" and "sue the slumlord". This apartment is a frickin' huge - totally ginormous - two bedroom for under $600 a month, a welcome change from a tiny, ill-configured studio in totally ghetto LA for $800. The location and proximity to workplaces is awesome. Trader Joe's is fifteen minutes away. And the landlord seems nice - which is a huge bonus in a world of megacomplexes with faceless bearaucrats for management.

Is using an exterminator bad for my health?

bingo — Sun, 05 Sep 2004 11:23:44 -0800

How unhealthy is it (in terms of residual toxins, etc.) to have an exterminator come around? And are there any realistic alternatives? (more inside) I rent a room on NYC’s upper west side. Despite the fact that there are moths and sometimes mice, my landlord/housemate refuses to allow the exterminator (which the superintendent sends by monthly) into the apartment. His arguments are that a) the whole extermination industry is a racket, and no exterminator does a thorough job because if he does his services will no longer be needed, and that b) exterminators use chemicals that will ultimately be worse for us to breathe in over the long term than it is to have to deal with the insects and vermin.

What I would like is information I can present him suggesting either a) that he’s wrong beyond any reasonable kind of doubt, or b) alternatives that he might be willing to consider (e.g. substances that will deter insects and mice but that will not produce airborne particles toxic to humans).

To those who would react with “move out,” please note that at present I can’t really afford to, and anyway my living situation is in many ways a sweet deal that I would like to hold on to for a while if at all feasible.

It’s just that not being able to store my cereals and such in the kitchen, because that’s where the bugs are, strikes me as pretty ridiculous.