5 Most Common Types Of Bird Pests

Birds are very beautiful creatures and it is hard to imagine a world without them. These birds add beauty and color to the lives of people. Their beautiful songs could fill the air and cheer up any body. But there always come a point when birds start to become pests. They become pests with their numerous droppings and annoying caws. Whenever these creatures come in numbers, damage to property can be expected. Not all birds have the potential to be pests. There are just some of them which can really be annoying.

Pigeon

The most common bird pest, especially in North America, is the federal pigeon. It is believed to be a descendant of the pigeons which were domesticated in Europe. Pigeons come in huge numbers and are excellent in causing damage to various structures. The reason why there are so many pigeons is that they have no natural predators. That is why they breed as they like. The droppings of pigeons can be dangerous since it could carry various diseases. Some examples include histoplasmosis, salmonella, meningitis, and a whole lot more.

Sparrow

Another type of bird that could be considered as a pest in urban areas is the sparrow. They might be small but they are very intelligent. That is why they are very difficult to deal with. The top problem with sparrows is that they are very noisy. They come in flocks and could really cause noise pollution. Also, their droppings have a high acid content. Their corrosive droppings could cause damage to metal parts of buildings and other structures. Most people prevent sparrows from nesting anywhere near their properties by using bird nets.

Starling

The next most common bird pest is the starling. It is a black and muscular bird which has a slender bill. A flock of starling could consist of hundreds and even thousands of birds. They could turn the sky black as they fly. They usually hang out in trees but they could also nest on rooftops.. Because of the size of a starling flock, it is inevitable for them to leave huge amounts of droppings which could possibly cause slip and fall incidents.

Crow

Crows might be depicted as awesome and very cool birds in pop culture but they could be pests in real life. One should not forget that crows are the reason why scarecrows were invented. The diet of a crow is very diverse. It would eat almost anything including mice, frogs, insects, and even small snakes. The main problem with crows is that they are very noisy. They could also be aggressive and they sometimes attack people.

Swallow

The final pest in this list is the swallow. The problem with swallows is that once they have chosen particular nesting grounds, they would return to it over and over again. They come in huge numbers and they could really leave a huge mess in the areas where they have nested. Like the droppings of other birds, swallow droppings also cause various types of diseases.

Dealing With Bed Bugs In Your Home

One of the most irritating pests that could be found in a home is the bed bug. As a child, you might have heard that famous poem that parents say to their kids at night. You were probably told not to let these pests bite you. And if they ever did bite you, all you have to do is to shoo them and whack them till their black and blue. But unfortunately, bed bugs are a lot more difficult to deal with. If you have some kids, saying a bed bug chant would not guarantee their protection against bed bugs! Jokes aside, it is important for you to know more on how you could get rid of these pests.

What dangers do bed bugs bring?

Bed bugs do not really bring any serious threats at all. However, bed bugs can be very painful, not to mention very irritating. Bed bug bites could result to thick patches on your skin. It can be very hard to resist scratching these patches because they are very itchy. Bed bugs love to bite the legs, the neck, and arms. It would be unfortunate for anybody to get bit in the face since it takes a while for these itchy patches to go away. Bed bug bites can cause allergic reactions as well.

Where could they be hiding?

Finding bed bugs can be a little bit tough. After all, they are very small and are very evasive. Do not be surprised if you wake up one morning and you have these mysterious bite marks all over your body. Bed bugs are stealthy critters that do their nasty work in the dark. That is why they are not usually seen in the morning. Bed bugs are called by their name for one main reason – they take refuge in your bunks. They usually hide in the tight and concealed corners of the bed. That is why you have to inspect your bed carefully if you want to see these pests. It should also be noted that bed bugs love to live on the corners of your pillow. They could also be found around the mattress. Basically, they could be found all over your bed. Bed bugs also take refuge in other parts of the home. That is why even if you have made sure that your bed is bed-bug free, there is no guarantee that you will not suffer from bed bug bites any time soon. Bed bugs could also live and populate on carpet floors, behind window frames, and in various pieces of furniture.

How should they be dealt with?

Killing these tiny pests is not as easy as it sounds. Getting rid of them would take more than just whacking them till they are black and blue. One should consider raging an all-out war against bed bugs. Pillows, mattresses, and bed sheets have to be laundered regularly. Various corners in the room where bed bugs could reside should be cleaned regularly as well. It would also be practical to consider hiring professional pest control services. After all, which individuals would be better than getting rid of bed bugs than those who do it for a living?

Top 5 Tips To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs

As a child you were probably told by your parents not to let the bed bugs bite. If they ever bite, all you have to do is to shoo them and whack them. If only getting rid of bed bugs was that easy! There are a lot of people these days who consider bed bug infestation a major problem in their home. As you sleep, these bed bugs could crawl out of their hiding places and then bite you. Their bites are very itchy and could trigger irritation and allergic reactions. So how will you be able to deal with the bed bug problem?

Detecting bed bugs
 


Well, the first thing that you would have to do is to look for these bed bugs. Look for places where they are hiding. There are a number of clues that could help you look for bed bugs. These clues include their molten skins, their eggs, and their fecal remains. These things are usually seen in mattress seams, at the corners of the pillows, and at t he edges of the bed. They could even be found in the less obvious places which include the back of picture frames and electrical outlets.

Exterminating the bed bugs

Once you detect the bed bugs and their hiding places, it is practical for you to take offensive action. Here are a number of bed bug control tips that you might find very useful.

• Spray them

 


One of the best and easiest ways to deal with bed bugs is to simply spray them with rubbing alcohol. Use a rubbing alcohol with more than seventy percent solution. That will kill them on the spot. If there are a lot of bed bugs then you might need more alcohol.

• Bag them

Small items that are infested with bed bugs such as stuffed animals and pillows could simply be bagged. Bagging them and then placing them under the scorching sun would result to the death of the bed bugs. The lack of air plus extreme heat is very effective in solving your bed bug problem.

• Launder them



Another way to get rid of bed bugs is to simply launder the items that they have made as their breeding place. Your extermination attempt would be more successful if you use a lot of detergent and hot water. Bed bugs would not be able to withstand those.

• Steam them

Another way to get rid of bed bugs is to simply steam them. As mentioned earlier, bugs could get killed with extreme heat. Use a steaming device which could be purchased in most hardware stores. Not only would steam be able to kill the bed bugs but it could also destroy their eggs.

• Vacuum them



An option that you should consider is vacuuming. This option is ideal if there are a lot of bed bugs taking refuge underneath your carpet. After you have finished vacuuming, make sure you clean your vacuum storage and get rid of any surviving bed bug and egg.

Waging A War Against Ants

A lot of people suffer from an army invasion almost every day. We are not talking about an army of people but an army of ants instead. These critters, though small, can arrive in huge numbers. You leave a piece of cake or pie on the table and the next thing you know it has been conquered by the ant army. Ant problem is common. If you suffer from the 'plunder and pillaging' of these little soldiers, it is important for you to know a number of tips and tricks in dealing with an ant invasion.

Barricade your home

No ants will be able to enter your home if you barricade it well. Thus, you have to inspect your home and look for possible entryways. Most entryways are very easy to identify. However, there are those concealed entryways that will only be visible once you see an entourage of ants marching from there. Seal off the entryways and block the critters. In this way, the ants will be kept where they should be -outside.

Use defensive substances

Aside from barricading your home, it is also practical to use some defensive, deterrent substances for extra protection. Deterrent substances are those that are very repulsive to ants. Some examples of good deterrent substances include vinegar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and peppermint. Spray these substances in strategic areas in your home such as areas near your food and suspected entryways. They could really help a lot in thwarting an ant invasion.

Launch an offensive attack

Extreme ant invasions call for extreme measures. If you are getting tired of defending your home over and over again, it might be time to be on the offensive side. You can start attacking these ants by squishing their scouts. These scouts are the tattletales since they inform their colony about food sources. If in case, a scout gets back home and pass information to the other ants, you can prepare launching an attack against their main army.

This is when it gets fun. Choose your weapon. Kids usually kill ants with a magnifying glass. Of course, if you would kill an army of ants, you would need bigger and more effective tools. Some examples of tools you could use include a water hose, a vacuum cleaner, or simply an insecticide sprayer. Watch them scram and go towards various directions.

Attack their base

In order to prevent future invasions, it is a good idea to end the war. How would you be able to end the war? Well, you could strike where it would hurt most – their colony. Find their colony. Find the place where they breed and where they stock their food. Once you find the nest, exterminate the ants. You can use boiling water. Pour it over the entrance of the ant's nest. An alternative would be a fumigator but this would require you to leave your home for several hours. Now when you launch an attack against their base, make sure you eliminate their leader, the queen ant!

Is A Cat The Right Solution For Protecting Your Home And Family From Rodents

There’s an old saying that you own a dog but you feed a cat! There’s some truth to this as cats are truly fascinating animals with a high degree of independence. Many cat owners freely acknowledge that their pet is the one calling the shots; cats come and go as they please and often return home to be fed! Cats have flourished alongside humans for thousands of years precisely because they have resisted domestication. Their skill at killing disease-carrying rodents is unmatched, so the question is, are they the right solution for your rodent problem?

Why Cats?

Farmers can suffer terribly from rat infestations; they can destroy wood, tunnel under buildings and wreak havoc. When poisons, traps and baits have failed, most farmers turn to cats. Before long they have lots of cat and no more rats! Homeowners commonly suffer from mice as they are one of the hardest rodents to protect against because they can squeeze through the tiniest of gaps. If you look around your home and can fit a pencil into a nook, crevice or crack, a mouse can squeeze through there too. Cats are expert mouse and rat catchers but their skill depends on how they are raised. You see, the window of opportunity for domesticating a cat is very brief. If a kitten receives no human contact between 2 and 8 weeks old, it will be almost impossible to domestic the cat. You need to bear in mind that farmers get excellent results from their cats as they never domesticate them.

What Are The Drawbacks?

Cats that haven’t been domesticated are fine for a farm but aren’t ideal for residential areas or homes. Domesticated cats can still catch mice and rats, though. The problem for homeowners is that you want to eliminate rodents because of the dirt or health issue they pose yet a cat doesn’t just eat any mice it catches. It may leave partially-eaten remains around your home, bring dead rodents into your house and transmit all manner of bacteria to your floors and furniture.

Are Cats Better Than Poison?

It’s understandable that you want to avoid poison in or around your home. You don’t want your children to accidentally come into contact with it and you don’t want your pets to be harmed either. Cats let you avoid the use of poison but it is possible to rid a home of mice or rats without compromising safety. Professional pest control firms use only tamper-proof bait boxes to keep the poison in and they use a professional grade of poison that the mice eat and their body is turned into dust when they die. This avoids the germs and mess that cats sometimes create when they bring dead or half-eaten mice into your home.

Is Rodent-Proofing Your Home Better?

Obviously this isn’t possible on large properties such as farms but you can pay pest control firms to carefully check residential properties and seal up any points of entrance. Of course, poisons will never solve a farmer’s problem as their land is so vast, but for homeowners this rodent-proofing service can be highly effective. Pest control companies will even offer a 2 or 3 year warranty when they have finished their work. It seems more sensible to try to stop rodents from entering your property than to skip this step and try to rely on a cat to catch or kill mice forever.

What’s The Most Humane Way To Keep Mice Out Of Your Home?

Many homeowners suffer from problems with mice at some point or other. You might notice their bite-marks or droppings or you may even see a mouse on occasion. The problem with mice is that they can squeeze through holes, cracks or gaps no wider than a pen so keeping them out of your home can be a real challenge. If you are concerned about causing the mice to suffer unnecessarily slow and painful deaths, you might be interested to know the most humane ways to keep mice out of your home.

Review Your Attitude To Food Storage

Mice infestations are generally caused when there is a prevalence of food. Remove the food source and you’ll usually solve your mouse problem. You should always contact a pest control specialist if you need to use bait to destroy an infestation. Standard rodent bait causes internal bleeding which makes the mice suffer unduly. A pest control company will have the most humane solutions such as effective snap traps. Once you have taken this step, look closely at how you store food in your cupboards and pantry. Food should be kept in containers with tight lids to prevent mice from being attracted to it.

Store Your Food Waste Responsibly

You should also be careful about leaving pet food out and ensure that it too is stored responsibly. Many homeowners unintentionally attract mice with old or uneaten pet food. You should take the same approach to food waste in your home by keeping it in metal or heavy-duty plastic bins with tight, secure lids. You can also try to leave trash out in the morning of the collection – don’t leave it outside for days on end. If you compost your kitchen waste to use in your garden, ensure that this too is kept in a strong plastic compost bin with a tight lid. Very often, mice infestations start outside the home and then migrate towards the property over time.

Mouse-Proof Your Home

If you are simply concerned that mice might be breeding or nesting around your home, the most humane way to keep them out is to pay a professional pest-control firm to ‘mouse-proof’ your home. This isn’t a cheap option but most firms offer a two or three year guarantee that your home will remain free of mice (or any other rodents for that matter!). How does it work? Trained specialists conduct a painstaking fingertip search of your property and professionally seal off any places that mice could be entering.

Fancy Some DIY?

If you have the time and expertise, you can do some of this work yourself by purchasing cans of spray foam from your local hardware store. Spray foam expands and fills cracks and no, mice won’t chew or nest in or around it. It’s a long and complex job but you’ll be improving your home’s energy efficiency by sealing off draughts where heated or cooled air would otherwise be lost. People use spray foam for all sorts of things, not just keeping mice out. You may have seen firms that spray foam the interior of roofs, for example. There are plenty of how-to videos on YouTube to get you started.

Pest Control Businesses in Toronto

There will be a lot of pest control businesses in Toronto for you to choose from, but you will want to make a point of looking for one in particular that you can trust to do good work for a reasonable overall amount. In order to make the right overall decision on one of these pest control businesses in the Toronto area, you will first have to take some time to go online and look into what you will have to choose from. This way you can get the very best pest control services that this area has to offer.

No matter which type of pest you need removed for your home, you will have to take enough time to where you can choose the right people for the job. In order to ensure that you hire qualified professionals for control services in Toronto you will first have to look into each one of them and get references. You should also get on-site estimates from a few of the pest control businesses you are interested in hiring so that you will have some idea as to which one can do this type of work for you at the lowest overall amount.