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Borrow a neighbor’s Labrador 
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Jun 5, 2021 14:27
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I haven't tried ultrasonics on rabbits but in my experience they do nothing to mice. If only mousetrap monday had been posting years ago I could've saved some money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW8FbXRCF9U
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Jun 5, 2021 15:53
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Platystemon posted:This is from months ago, but it’s still on the page and it’s the lead‐in to something I want to ask. I'm sure there are a bunch, but nothing that I commonly use for pests and plants around my area. I do use a few systemic pesticides, most notably Boxer, which you inject into the base of the tree you're treating. Those are probably the oddest class to me, and really have the tightest compatibility requirements for obvious reasons. I know that's not terribly helpful, but as always is comes down to reading the label. And sorry to those asking vertebrate questions. It's really not my thing. I was hoping someone who does that would start lurking/answering. Motronic fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Jun 8, 2021 |
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Jun 5, 2021 16:03
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My 13 year old lazy cat likes to lay on the back deck and watch the rabbits. The pretend to chase them if I come outside. She does munch the occasional Vole and will sometimes bring me and the kids a baby rabbit if we have been on vacation. Trying some product from Spartan Mosquito for the backyard. Tubes of stuff you activate with water and hang in trees. Reviews were good. My youngest is a magnet for big bites got 9 bites a few weeks ago, and this is after spraying Cutter earlier in the week which does nothing. If this doesn’t cut them down I’ll be exploring chemical treatments recommended earlier in thread.
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Jun 5, 2021 17:55
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Man, I’m kinda just coming here to vent but I’m a renter so if there’s advice for renter’s rights in Oregon that would be helpful... I moved in mid-late March, would notice one or two pantry moths around the apartment nearly everyday with no discernible source. Kill on sight, not my first rodeo so was careful about grains/dry food/etc. Weather warmed up, problem got worse and alerted landlord at beginning of May. By the time pest control comes (mid-May) I have several-to-a-dozen every day (this escalation happened FAST). I’ve emptied my cabinets 100% (not even canned food or Tupperware) and stash everything in the fridge. It’s now obvious they are coming from inside the cabinets, which at this point have had no non-canned items for a month. I tell pest control guy they’re coming from the cabinets and I suspect they’re festering behind the drywall (because where the gently caress is their food source?). He sprays, that kills 2-3 dozen adults but after less than a week I start seeing live adults. Also pissed that I’m left cleaning up moth corpses from an infestation that shouldn’t be my problem... 2 weeks after pest control sprayed I’m back to dealing with a full-on infestation and I spend the 3-day weekend cleaning the cabinets with bleach and caulking the seams in the shelves. I see lots of larvae and cocoons and general nightmare imagery I want to unsee; infestation is worse than I expected. I go over everything with vinegar and peppermint oil and lay down diatomaceous earth. Still seeing moths inside the cabinets, presumably I missed cocoons but idk where/how. Friday I’m seeing larvae again. First photo shows how out-of-reach this cabinet is (I have to straddle the counter and stove to reach it)  Second photo is 5 larva on the ceiling, some of them mid-cocoon.  Sent photos and logged what’s happening with property manager and filed a work order Wednesday morning (so before I saw the new larva) but haven’t heard poo poo from the company. Building manager is out of town but is resistant to letting me move to a different (not infested) unit. I have so much anxiety entering my kitchen, I loving hate this.
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Jun 6, 2021 06:02
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Motronic posted:And sorry to those asking invertebrate questions. It's really not my thing. I was hoping someone who does that would start lurking/answering. well poo poo in that case I may have to check with the Fix It Fast thread or go back to one of the plant threads
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Jun 7, 2021 03:53
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Does anyone have some advice about what to do about millipedes invading the house? I'm in Texas and the things have taken over the place. It also happened last summer. I know it's not an infestation per se since they all come from outside. I just want to stop that from happening, and I can't even really tell where they're getting in. I called a pest control place and they guy who ce out basically said that the only option was nuking the outside walls and ground around the house about ten feet out. Im not ready to go that far quite yet though.
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Jun 7, 2021 16:58
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They're probably getting in through cracks in your doors or windows so I'd say start there and replace any worn out weatherstripping. Specifically check the bottom of your door. Turn off your lights during the middle of the day, put your head to the ground, and see if you see light coming in under the door. You probably can and that's how they're getting in.
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Jun 7, 2021 17:26
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As an anecdote I used to have millipedes get in under the sliding glass doors that were even with ground level for years. The doors were replaced a few years back and the new ones set into the frames of the old ones, raising the bottom up for the new tracks an inch or so and providing better seals. I rarely see them any more. It seemed like the old way to keep them out was a barrier of insecticide but that was really just massacring them and causing piles of dead millipedes to stack up in the door tracks. I think the previous owner used Liquid Sevin, but I switched to ortho home defense max. Neither killed them instantly so it was always just about killing them eventually.
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Jun 7, 2021 18:14
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Manager Hoyden posted:I called a pest control place and they guy who ce out basically said that the only option was nuking the outside walls and ground around the house about ten feet out. Im not ready to go that far quite yet though. I mean, this is what you should be doing in general in my opinion. Just as preventative. Something like a Talstar. It's a really, really standard pest control contract thing.
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Jun 8, 2021 18:48
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Motronic posted:I mean, this is what you should be doing in general in my opinion. Just as preventative. Something like a Talstar. It's a really, really standard pest control contract thing. I use so many different pesticides that I joke with my girlfriend that they're going to have to turn my house into a Superfund site after I move out, but you can't argue with the results. I still have plenty of bugs outside but nothing really gets inside. And yes I follow the labels, I'm not being a jackass with them. I also have been sealing up every crack, hole, and gap as I find them for 3 years now and it pays off.
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Jun 8, 2021 19:16
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SpartanIvy posted:And yes I follow the labels, I'm not being a jackass with them. I also have been sealing up every crack, hole, and gap as I find them for 3 years now and it pays off. Right, this is the current trend in pest management, called IPM/Integrated Pest Management. It's considered best practice if you actually want results. Depending on the target species it may also include things like managing landscape/mulch around the house, insuring there are no low spots/standing water, etc.
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Jun 8, 2021 19:58
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Motronic posted:Right, this is the current trend in pest management, called IPM/Integrated Pest Management. It's considered best practice if you actually want results. Depending on the target species it may also include things like managing landscape/mulch around the house, insuring there are no low spots/standing water, etc. Definitely all important things to do. Controlling moisture in general is huge for pest control. Every bug wants a moist environment so getting rid of sources of moisture near and within your home is very important. It's a constant battle and I think most people expect a one-and-done solution for pests which just isn't realistic if you live in a home that's either old or near any sort of nature.
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Jun 8, 2021 20:25
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SpartanIvy posted:It's a constant battle and I think most people expect a one-and-done solution for pests which just isn't realistic if you live in a home that's either old or near any sort of nature. I think I should probably just put this in the OP, which I haven't looked at for a while. Because, yes. I think a lot of people have no idea what this takes and think there are magic solutions to keeping a house from falling down around you and being infested with the bugs that are going to eat it/your food. Even a quality new build home doesn't buy you much time on a lot of this. And zero time on a decent amount of it.........you're alway maintaining gutters and shrubs, not just for pest control reasons, and you should probably always be doing perimeter treatments either yourself or have a pest control contract. Even though I can easily do it myself, I keep a pet control contract. That way I have documentation of it being done for future purposes (insurance claims, home sale, etc). They deal with the house treatments, I deal with the rest of the property.
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Jun 8, 2021 20:33
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I can hear mice crawling around in my walls at night. As far as I can tell they aren't coming into the house and eating our food or anything. I called a pest control guy who got rid of the squirrels for me and he said its likely white footed mice and they will either go away or it will get out of control as they multiply aggressively. his treatment would be bait, traps, and sealing up the foundation level with xcluder (brand name steel wool, I think). All for $495. Any thoughts? Seems like a lot of money for pretty simple measures. The upside is for that price he keeps coming back until the mice are gone (for 6 months) and I don't have to stress about it. If I go on it my own anyone have traps/bait that is particularly effective?
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Jun 9, 2021 00:35
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Price sounds right for a 6 month guarantee with mitigation measures out of the gate.
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Jun 9, 2021 00:47
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Yeah, the more I think about it the better I feel about the peace of mind I get from this now being someone else's problem.
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Jun 9, 2021 02:25
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Had a crew in to prune trees the house’s previous owners had let go for probably decades and found a relatively large maple is a hollow fuckin carpenter ant colony. It’ll come down later this year as it’s now a safety hazard but for now I put about a 2 foot barrier of lambda-cyhalothrin spray around the trunk of it and the other trees in the yard—does that sound reasonable as a mitigation method? It seems like carpenter ants don’t have huge colonies compared to other species so I’m hoping this will thin them out. The house had no sign of wood destroying pests when we bought it but we’ll hafta budget to get a pro to do a barrier treatment just in case as there is a lot of old dry wood in there—I could probably manage but as you mentioned, for the sake of documentation and all. the yeti fucked around with this message at 13:48 on Jun 10, 2021 |
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Jun 10, 2021 13:43
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I use Taurus SC on my home and trees and it hosed up my carpenter ant infestation very well.
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Jun 10, 2021 15:17
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the yeti posted:Had a crew in to prune trees the house’s previous owners had let go for probably decades and found a relatively large maple is a hollow fuckin carpenter ant colony. I would have used permethrin just because that's what I'm familiar with, but a quick browse of the fact sheet for lambda-cyhalothrin seems to indicate it works as well for them. The typical label instructions are to treat the colony, so the closer you can get to where they are in the middle of that tree the better. If it's already dead I wouldn't feel bad about drilling into it with a 3/4" spade bit as far up as I could get and jamming a sprayer nozzle in there for a good drench. And yes yes yes, especially with WDI, get that documentation on a home inspection/treatment for them. Edit: make sure you are following the label instrcutions on whatever formulation you got of this stuff. The big stand out I saw was that it's not really all that water soluble so home gamer formulations are probably colloidal, meaning you probably need to shake before application and regularly during application. Farmers would mix probably something like that with "light oil" (i.e. diesel). Motronic fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Jun 10, 2021 |
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Jun 10, 2021 15:19
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Ahh thanks for the tip I did shake to start but not so much during. Here’s the ant condo, it’s not dead but it had a ton of dead wood on it, hence the wonky look now.  If I can find an ingress hole at ground level I might just try to widen it and get a good spray in there.
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Jun 10, 2021 15:28
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Oh now that's just a drat shame. Yeah, see if you can do up any ingress holes and re-apply as often as possible per the label to the trunk areas where you can see them. You and your neighbors will be blissfully unaware of the bullet you dodged by identifying and treating this before they ran out of wood in that tree and/or splintered the colony from growth.
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Jun 10, 2021 15:38
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I also used Taurus SC to kill a colony of carpenter ants in my house. It induced a serious genocide and I have not seen a single ant inside or on the exterior of my house in two years. I reapply every 6 months per the label. I think this one works by having ant pick it up and bring it back to their base to infect everyone else, so it can be pretty effective even if you don't have direct access to the colony.
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Jun 11, 2021 00:04
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I recently moved into a house in Connecticut that is surrounded by woods. What kind of natural remedy can I spray inside and outside to generally kill/keep away bugs? I'm working on sealing all the cracks and holes among other things, but I hear things like cayenne pepper/citrus/lavender are like kryptonite to most common bugs, so I was thinking of throwing those things in a spray bottle with warm water. Is that stupid? EDIT: I also have apple cider vinegar.
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Jun 15, 2021 22:46
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fawning deference posted:I recently moved into a house in Connecticut that is surrounded by woods. If any of that actually worked with any significant effect or duration we wouldn't be using pesticides. Sorry.
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Jun 16, 2021 01:05
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Motronic posted:If any of that actually worked with any significant effect or duration we wouldn't be using pesticides. Sorry. That's the answer I expected. It's overwhelming to try to figure out a general pesticide - I don't have any bug problems but want to keep out the typical pests and take precautions.
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Jun 16, 2021 01:30
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fawning deference posted:That's the answer I expected. It's overwhelming to try to figure out a general pesticide - I don't have any bug problems but want to keep out the typical pests and take precautions. There are no "general pesticides". You have to treat for what is problematic in your particular area. At the right times, at the right concentration. And you need to do more than pesticides in a lot of cases. I've brought it up before, but "integrated pest management" is a thing, and it's a good thing. But that's a lot more than just spraying neurotoxins around. Your county ag extension would be a great place to start with this for information specific to what you should be doing.
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Jun 16, 2021 01:37
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I came upstairs today to find like 25 bees chilling out inside around some windows. Seemed like half dead, mostly not very energetic. Vacuumed them all up and I can definitely see where they are swarming outside and crawling behind some trim. Quick googling does not look great. I think they most closely resemble honey bees. And the random stuff I am reading is saying you have to have someone professionally remove the hive or else things get out of hand. Is there anything I can try before it comes to that? I am hoping I caught this early enough to avoid a big mess. I have some but not great exterior access to where they are getting in behind the siding/trim. Like good enough to spray stuff at it, but I don't feel great about doing anything more involved at the top of a ladder with a ton of bees flying around. 
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Jun 17, 2021 00:49
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It's really hard to tell from that. Can you take a picture from the side? On first glance that looks like a wasp, not a bee. You should also include at least what state you live in, and potentially what part of that state if it's big/biodiverse.
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Jun 17, 2021 01:23
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Tell me about mosquito control. Are those $8 Cutter sprays that screw onto a hose worth a drat? I'm not sure if I should invest into a sprayer system and get into concentrates.
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Jun 17, 2021 02:12
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Motronic posted:It's really hard to tell from that. Can you take a picture from the side? Luckily I did a whole photoshoot. I am in Boston, MA area.    They are definitely fuzzy, and as best I can see their faces are all black, no yellow.
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Jun 17, 2021 02:27
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mcgreenvegtables posted:Luckily I did a whole photoshoot. I am in Boston, MA area. Okay, definitely a Western/European honey bee. Call your county ag extension. They'll know how to handle this for your area.
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Jun 17, 2021 02:32
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mcgreenvegtables posted:Luckily I did a whole photoshoot. I am in Boston, MA area. If it's an actual swarm that's trying to set up a new hive in your wall an apiarist will probably come out with something like the bee vacuum to attempt to capture them and move them to a hive somewhere, similar to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppoA0OUWE7s You probably saw this in your research but a swam is half of an existing hive that got too full that is moving with the queen (leaving a new queen in the old hive) to establish a new hive elsewhere. Spring and early summer is definitely swarm season and a lot of beekeepers try to set up swarm catching boxes with lemongrass oil at an appropriate height in trees to attract them. If it's an existing hive that's built comb in your wall already then someone's going to have to remove a portion of wall to get the comb out so your wall isn't full of honey attracting bees, wasps, ants, or other pests. Definitely do what Motronic suggested and contact your area's agricultural extension, they will probably have a list of bee keepers who do swarm removals. It's not always free and they're unlikely to fix your wall if they have to pull it apart, but you don't want to leave them in there if there's established comb. If they can use the bees that benefits us all since bee numbers are declining and they pollinate a huge number of plants that are required for human life as we know it.
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Jun 17, 2021 03:18
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I just got off the phone with a local bee removal expert. He said based on what I saw 99% chance a swarm (possibly several thousand) entered my house today! So apparently it's a good thing I caught it early. Homeownership sucks.
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Jun 17, 2021 03:53
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mcgreenvegtables posted:I just got off the phone with a local bee removal expert. He said based on what I saw 99% chance a swarm (possibly several thousand) entered my house today! So apparently it's a good thing I caught it early. But hey, you caught it fast. This is homeownership 101. Can he come get them/did you get more resources to resolve this?
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Jun 17, 2021 04:04
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Motronic posted:But hey, you caught it fast. This is homeownership 101. He said I have a few weeks before it gets out of hand, and he will come by next week to check it out and give me an estimate. I emailed a few other people on a list of beekeepers I found, but most seem like amateurs only interested in easy access swarms, not cutouts.
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Jun 17, 2021 04:19
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mcgreenvegtables posted:He said I have a few weeks before it gets out of hand, and he will come by next week to check it out and give me an estimate. I emailed a few other people on a list of beekeepers I found, but most seem like amateurs only interested in easy access swarms, not cutouts. Very nice. And yeah, he's probably not gonna fix what has has to do to get them out, but even if you just neurotoxined the poo poo out of that swarm......you'd have to open up the same things he will have to do to make it right again. Sorry. But also thank you for doing the right thing. This is not only the best outcome for you but also good for <waves arms around> everyone. I may be maintaining a pesticide thread, but I'm very much all about not using them when there are other viable options and better outcomes. Pollinators are a thing that I will accept WORSE outcomes to protect (and you aren't even doing that here....it's already too far gone).
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Jun 17, 2021 04:30
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Honey bee follow-up in case anyone is interested. I have seen zero bee activity in the last two days--inside or out. I called the guy who was supposed to check it out today and he said based on that info the bees either moved out or never actually moved in, and no need for him to come over. But I might want to try to figure out what attracted them in the first place--possibly existing honeycomb from a previous colony, and definitely need to have the area better sealed up to prevent others from trying in the future.
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Jun 18, 2021 19:24
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mcgreenvegtables posted:Honey bee follow-up in case anyone is interested. I have seen zero bee activity in the last two days--inside or out. I called the guy who was supposed to check it out today and he said based on that info the bees either moved out or never actually moved in, and no need for him to come over. But I might want to try to figure out what attracted them in the first place--possibly existing honeycomb from a previous colony, and definitely need to have the area better sealed up to prevent others from trying in the future. Well that's good news. Agreed that you now know you have a sealing problem to address. I'd find it hard to believe there was an old comb in there considering they left, but I'm no beekeeper.
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Jun 18, 2021 19:31
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Motronic posted:Oh now that's just a drat shame. I haven't really seen any crawling around from casual pokes around the yard since application. I'm sure some are still in there and/or have a sneaky ingress/egress, but they seem substantively bottled up for now.
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Jun 20, 2021 01:19
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