|
I found via camera where the mice are getting into my kitchen. They are running up the hole that the gas line for my stove comes through in the floor. So I’m going to get the mouse proof spray foam, but will they just find another way in if they are in the little area above my foundation walls? I don’t have access to that area due to the layout of the floor joists. Is there something I could put down there to make them want to leave the house? Or do I just drop a couple of those poison packs down there and hope it does the trick?
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2022 03:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 22, 2024 08:49 |
|
|
AFewBricksShy posted:I found via camera where the mice are getting into my kitchen. They are running up the hole that the gas line for my stove comes through in the floor. Steel wool works just fine for this. AFewBricksShy posted:, but will they just find another way in if they are in the little area above my foundation walls? Maybe. Bait or trap. I'm not going to get into a diatribe about baiting vs trapping. I'm all about trapping at my place because I have hawks (and I like them) but sometimes trapping isn't good enough and sorry hawks, I hope you don't pick up one of those poisoned ones.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2022 03:14
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Steel wool works just fine for this. poo poo. I also have hawks and also foxes. I don’t want to kill anything that’s not in my house. So back to smells. Can I drop moth balls or something into the hole before I close it off to make the mice want to leave?
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2022 03:28
|
|
|
AFewBricksShy posted:poo poo. I also have hawks and also foxes. I don’t want to kill anything that’s not in my house. So back to smells. Can I drop moth balls or something into the hole before I close it off to make the mice want to leave? I don't know why moth balls would work. You can try your best at trapping and do the best goddamn job you can at that plus sealing up entrance points. I've gone to fast acting poisons in very specific places (mostly my barn and barn adjacent). I have also chosen a thing for that bait that can be reversed by something common (Bromadiolone which has a reported antidote of vitamin k1) but I'm not even sure how much this helps.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2022 03:53
|
|
|
Motronic posted:I don't know why moth balls would work. You can try your best at trapping and do the best goddamn job you can at that plus sealing up entrance points.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2022 12:20
|
|
|
I hadn't even considered wildlife getting the poisoned mice, but having dead rodents in your walls/under your house really fuckin stinks for about a week, especially this time of year. If you can trap them and empty the traps, it's much less smelly. When I had *something* living in the crawlspace under my house, mothballs did seem to help a little? But if it got cold enough they ignored them.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2022 15:35
|
|
|
Thanks for all of the help re: the mice. Friday night my camera saw 2 mice running around, and I caught 2 mice (for a total of 4). I re-baited the traps Friday night and they were still loaded with peanut butter saturday morning, and the camera didn't catch anything else. Saturday I stuffed the hole with both spray foam and steel wool and re-set the traps. Nothing disturbed Saturday night and nothing disturbed last night, so I think I either A) caught them all or B) caught the dumb ones but the steel wool is keeping the other ones out. I still would like to figure out how they got into the house, but I don't think I'll be able to figure that out without removing my siding.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2022 15:58
|
|
|
The little hope I had that left that my neighbors house isn't a roach hive has been completely dispelled. She had her plumbing replaced last week which required some overgrowth to be trimmed back near her house and I've found handfuls of dead and dying roaches around my house perimeter since then. I'm glad I sprayed not too long ago. If/when she sells or moves out I'm going to have hose down my property in poison to protect against the ravenous hordes of vermin that are sure to erupt.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2022 19:12
|
|
|
Last week I went from getting stung by none hornets in my entire life, to getting stung by two of the fuckers just walking around my house. The second one stung me on the arm while I was walking to my car and I didn't even see or feel the thing on me; just a sharp burning sensation that didn't go away, followed by two guys at Home Depot being able to point to the spot without me even telling them where on my body it was. The first one was in my bedroom. Where I sleep. I took one step through the door, it took one look at my foot, and it stung me. I need wasp/hornet trap recommendations, and I need them now. I don't know what exact species the bugs that stung me are but I strongly suspect they're both the same. They were very dark brown and either big wasps or small hornets. Not a ton to go on but it's all I have at the moment. I am in east/northeast Texas, and I plan to call an exterminator to take a look at several places along the outside of my house where I wonder if they might be nesting, but I'd like some trap suggestions too.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2022 19:50
|
|
|
Does anyone have recommendations for dealing with bed bugs?
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 22:07
|
|
|
NotNut posted:Does anyone have recommendations for dealing with bed bugs? Fire. Seriously though, it's a whole thing that is sold in various ways based on how much money you want to spend and how much soft stuff you have. So really, how much money do you have? Because they can be gone tout suite if you throw out everything soft that can't be put through the laundry (yes I'm talking sofas, chairs, mattresses) and pay someone to come in and run heaters in your house/apartment for a few days to cook them all off by heating every room to 140 degrees for 8 hours or so.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 22:22
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Fire. I have about a hundred bucks, and I think they're in my upstairs mattress and my downstairs mattress.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 22:25
|
|
|
NotNut posted:Does anyone have recommendations for dealing with bed bugs? NotNut posted:I have about a hundred bucks, and I think they're in my upstairs mattress and my downstairs mattress. They are actually everywhere. A roommate and I got bedbugs in college because they came through the walls in my apartment from my neighbor(s). I threw away most of what I owned, and stuck the remainder of my things except, freshly laundered clothes, in a storage unit out in the Texas sun for a year to starve/bake them the death. The neighbors that had them didn't care because that was a way of life for them so there was no hope we could ever stop them. In our desperation, we tried removing outlets and filling wall cavities and lining the perimeter of all the walls with diatomaceous earth. We wrapped plastic around our box springs and taped them shut. We put our beds on metal risers to try and stop them from climbing. We even put diatomaceous earth under the couch cushions. Literally nothing slowed them down. If I got them again today I would invest in every chemical under the "Bed Bugs" section of DoMyOwn.com and apply them all religiously in every possible spot of my house. I'd also pay to have my house heated up for 12 hours to try and bake them to death. I still wouldn't sleep at night for months. SpartanIvy fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Jul 2, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 22:32
|
|
|
drat. I don't think I'm ever gonna be able to get rid of these. There's too much stuff in my house
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 22:43
|
|
|
Actually maybe they were just chigger bites. They were primarily around y ankles and crotch and happened after I was outside, and they didn't come in clusters like bed bug bites supposedly do, and I haven't found blood on my sheets. God I hope to loving christ
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 09:58
|
|
|
NotNut posted:Actually maybe they were just chigger bites. They were primarily around y ankles and crotch and happened after I was outside, and they didn't come in clusters like bed bug bites supposedly do, and I haven't found blood on my sheets. God I hope to loving christ Take the sheets off your bed and inspect the corners of the fitted sheet and covers. Check all the seams of the mattress and the box spring. Check the bed frame as well. Find nothing? You at least don't have a major infestation, but you might still have them! They can hide in gaps as thin as a business card and can spread out to hide after feeding. They could be under the floor, in outlets on the wall, nearby furniture. Anywhere! I sincerely hope it's only chiggers or fleas or anything besides bed bugs. Bed bug bites typically have a 3 dot pattern to them. Googling will give you lots of info to try and identify them and their bites.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 21:23
|
|
|
I could not imagine having bed bugs I sure hope you solve that or get the hell out of there. It would break me. Me and the kids went out of town for a little trip last year, and having all the money in the world and points I still picked a cheap hotel because that stay would trigger earning a poo poo ton of more points through a promotion. My youngest got bug bites but me and oldest didn’t. Never again we were driving to the beach a few weeks ago and about reached our limit but the town we stopped at had nothing good available…we kicked it two more hours to stay at a palace on the beach got there at 10 pm. I’ll never subject my kids to a cheap place again. And yes…I’m well aware the money doesn’t matter when it comes to bed bugs. I know. If I’ve posted about it already I apologize but Cyzmic has changed my life. $27 bottle on Amazon, 1/4 of an ounce to my couple gallon sprayer. The yard was unbearable for my youngest with mosquitoes before unless we used deet lotion…now there are none. It’s an oasis now. I fell for Spartan mosquito and stuff last summer it literally made them worse. We have no more mosquitoes. And I’ve barely used 1.5 ounces if even that probably one ounce. Sparingly with my sprayer behind bushes and stuff. It really seems too good to be true
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2022 03:00
|
|
|
everdave posted:If I’ve posted about it already I apologize but Cyzmic has changed my life. $27 bottle on Amazon, 1/4 of an ounce to my couple gallon sprayer. The yard was unbearable for my youngest with mosquitoes before unless we used deet lotion…now there are none. It’s an oasis now. Hmm good to know. Any idea how wide of an area needs to be sprayed to be effective? I live in a city in a row home and at least my back deck doesn't have flowers for pollinators, but I'm not sure if just spraying there will be enough. For that price it might be worth trying anyway. Would kill for something that destroys mosquitos but leaves the nice bees 
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2022 16:25
|
|
|
defmacro posted:Hmm good to know. Any idea how wide of an area needs to be sprayed to be effective? I live in a city in a row home and at least my back deck doesn't have flowers for pollinators, but I'm not sure if just spraying there will be enough. For that price it might be worth trying anyway. Would kill for something that destroys mosquitos but leaves the nice bees I would go read lots of Amazon reviews on use. I spray all along the house around the trees and brush, trampoline and swing set. I don’t spray the lawn and such really. It looks like it’s not so easily available at the moment lot of sellers charging up to $99 it looks like I see one for $35 but over a week to ship. It has worked for me but I am no expert…I hope it continues working. Again I’ve only used a tiny amount diluted
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2022 18:19
|
|
|
Mosquitos in my yard are already worse than ever (or maybe I'm just noticing them more since I'm outside with the dog more than I used to be) and I've been considering getting it treated by one of those 'mosquito-free yard' companies. Do they just blast everything with pyrethroids or somethin and kill the butterflies and bees just as much as the mosquitos or are there more selective mosquito-only herbicides they use?
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2023 03:18
|
|
|
Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Mosquitos in my yard are already worse than ever (or maybe I'm just noticing them more since I'm outside with the dog more than I used to be) and I've been considering getting it treated by one of those 'mosquito-free yard' companies. Do they just blast everything with pyrethroids or somethin and kill the butterflies and bees just as much as the mosquitos or are there more selective mosquito-only herbicides they use? Depends on where you are and who you hire. Around here garlic extract takes car of them and that's what the bulk of the companies use. "Around here" being lower northeast/eastern PA. You should absolutely ask. And if it works in your area you can just buy the garlic stuff and a backpack sprayer.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2023 03:25
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Depends on where you are and who you hire. Is there a particular garlic extract you’d recommend? I’m on the gulf coast so conditions may be very different here, but it seems worth a try.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2023 04:03
|
|
|
Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Is there a particular garlic extract you’d recommend? I’m on the gulf coast so conditions may be very different here, but it seems worth a try. This is what I've been using: https://www.domyown.com/mosquito-barrier-p-3893.html Not because I tried a bunch and this was the best. Because this was the first thing I ordered 5 years ago when I wanted to try it out, it worked, so I kept ordering it. Someone in one of the threads said something about this not working on banded(?) mosquitoes which is not what we have here. In any case, it's worth a try. I think Amazon still sells pint or quart bottles so it's not much of a commitment.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2023 13:48
|
|
|
Where do you typically apply it? When I was running experiments I found that establishing a perimeter (15' away from the deck/patio) seemed to work just as well as in the whole yard. Live several states away now so I'll probably have to see if that still holds true.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2023 16:56
|
|
|
Hed posted:Where do you typically apply it? When I was running experiments I found that establishing a perimeter (15' away from the deck/patio) seemed to work just as well as in the whole yard. Live several states away now so I'll probably have to see if that still holds true. I apply it on the entire back yard, on the landscape shrubs surrounding the patio and a swipe or two around the sides and front of the house. But I'm applying it with a tow behind spray cart so it's not exactly difficult or time consuming enough for me to try to optimize.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2023 17:12
|
|
|
Yeah, nothing seems to work on tiger mosquitoes, except spiders and bats. Little assholes.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 01:18
|
|
|
Well the mosquito people I talked to seemed nice and knowledgeable and at least pretended to care about the bees and the lady said she didn't have any bees in her yard but she hadn't noticed them before spraying and she still had lots of butterflies and dragonflies and they try to avoid spraying around flowers etc. so I guess I signed up for some chemical warfare and we'll see how it goes.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 01:32
|
|
|
For tiger mosquitos, I've found this trap works pretty well: https://us-shop.biogents.com/products/bg-mosquitaire You will need to buy the odor packs each year too: https://us-shop.biogents.com/collections/mosquito-attractants/products/bg-sweetscent-season-pack Definitely do a thorough examination of your yard to find anywhere even the tiniest bit of standing water can occur. Mosquito dunks can help for larger bodies of water. Your town/county may very well have people that will come do the inspection for you, and offer advice.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 01:50
|
|
|
devicenull posted:For tiger mosquitos It was that. Not banded. That's what I couldn't remember the name of. Thank you. Reportedly this garlic extract does not work on them.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 02:00
|
|
|
Well, I live in a swamp between the Woodbury Creek and the Delaware River, so I'm basically screwed.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 02:01
|
|
|
Hmm I can't say I know the names of the types of mosquitos have. I'm in SW Ontario. Anyone able to shed some light? What I've found on Ontario mosquito species: quote:The most commonly identified mosquitos are: Also it sounds like we don't have those tiger goes yet (aedes albopictus?). I'm leaning to this garlic sauce of yours a try, Mo.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 02:19
|
|
|
PainterofCrap posted:Well, I live in a swamp between the Woodbury Creek and the Delaware River, so I'm basically screwed. Dunno, you have the same mosquitoes that I do so it's probably worth a try.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 02:24
|
|
|
Going to have to try this garlic spray out. The wife is some sort of mosquito magnet. I've been using a cedarwood oil spray (https://www.wondercide.com/products/natural-outdoor-flea-tick-control-for-yard-garden) for the yard to deter ticks. I'm in New Jersey and I gather we have dog/deer/lone star ticks. Honestly no idea if it works or not. I see from previous pages the recommendation was Talstar P with a sprayer. Would the Talstar Granules work for the yard? Any suggestions for a backpack sprayer for a yard that is about 6000 sqft. I'm not spraying the woods as we don't go in there. c355n4 fucked around with this message at 14:17 on May 24, 2023 |
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 14:11
|
|
|
Glad I found this thread. We were getting eaten alive by tiger mosquitoes last year. I tried spraying with bifenthrin last year and not sure how much it helped. We have a deck that is surrounded by arborvitae trees and some other ornamental grasses so I’m sure those don’t help. I bought some garlic barrier and a mosquitaire thing. I will report back.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 14:15
|
|
|
c355n4 posted:Going to have to try this garlic spray out. The wife is some sort of mosquito magnet. Granules SHOULD work, but I use Talstar P because I've found that spraying trees/shrubs on the woodland interface and landscape plants around patios/decks is very effective when used in addition to treating grass. I most often see people using granules as a perimeter treatment to protect homes from the usual suspects that will eat or invade. E: I have a couple of these sprayers - they're fine. Amazon tell me I bought them in 2018, so this is their 5th season and they are still fine. I do make sure to drain them before winter/freezing of course. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AYHKUO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Motronic fucked around with this message at 14:26 on May 24, 2023 |
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 14:24
|
|
|
Motronic posted:Granules SHOULD work, but I use Talstar P because I've found that spraying trees/shrubs on the woodland interface and landscape plants around patios/decks is very effective when used in addition to treating grass. Ah, that makes sense about the liquid vs the granules. Liquid is probably cheaper too. Thanks.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 15:08
|
|
|
So from what I read the garlic smell is strong during application but then goes away a few minutes once dry. I think I can get my family behind that. Any deterrent effects on pollinators (bees and butterflies) or any other wildlife (birds, deer, rabbits, etc.)? Our 2 acre yard has a creek running on the back property line in Wisconsin. We get tons of mosquitoes. Is it better to spray a line if defense along the perimeter or basically try to coat the whole yard? Or perimeter, plus high traffic areas like the playset, garden, and patio.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 15:12
|
|
|
Douche4Sale posted:So from what I read the garlic smell is strong during application but then goes away a few minutes once dry. I think I can get my family behind that. Any deterrent effects on pollinators (bees and butterflies) or any other wildlife (birds, deer, rabbits, etc.)? No. Other than deer and rabbits not wanting to eat it because they don't like garlic or onions. And just to put this out there because I see WAY too much of this: even pesticides don't have any effects on pollinators when they're being used properly. If you're doing collateral damage to wildlife in your residential pesticide or herbicide applications you're doing it wrong, full stop. Douche4Sale posted:Our 2 acre yard has a creek running on the back property line in Wisconsin. We get tons of mosquitoes. Is it better to spray a line if defense along the perimeter or basically try to coat the whole yard? Or perimeter, plus high traffic areas like the playset, garden, and patio. Perimeter alone doesn't seem to do much for me. Commercial services that apply this stuff do it the same way I do, treat the areas you want to keep the bugs out of and their direct perimeter.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 15:21
|
|
|
*cross post as im freaking out a lil bit* Found this guy inside my house and trying to figure out if it is a black garden ant or a carpenter ant. I killed it before I realized I should have taken more photos and put a quarter next to it, but was wondering if anyone could help me identify it? I found one upstairs my house on a mirror and another one on my first floor walking up a wall:  
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 19:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 22, 2024 08:49 |
|
|
The good news is those pictures are really good! The bad news is that's a carpenter ant The somewhere in between news is that it doesn't mean you have an infestation necessarily. Carpenter ants scavenge over large distances and they could have just found their way into your house. With 2 though I'd be a little worried. For peace of mind, I recommend buying Taurus SC and applying it around your house perimeter and everywhere else you can. My house had a big carpenter ant infestation and Taurus SC loving wiped it out (and wasps and roaches, and other bugs)
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 22:45
|
|