Jacksonville Pest Control Services

Archive for July, 2010

Organic Pest Control – Is It Worth It?

You’ve got some bugs in your garden – what crop you’ve gotten has insect damage. Or some birds that won’t leave your tomato plants alone. Or deer that have discovered how sweet your roses taste. What can you do?

What The Masses Do For Pest Control

“Organic” is a word that the vast majority of people doesn’t think about much – though they should. Instead, they spray chemicals on their gardens to kill the aphids, whitefly, and other “nasty” bugs – not knowing they’re also killing the good bugs (like praying mantis, and ladybugs, etc.) – which only makes the cycle worse.

Their fruits and vegetables are tainted with the chemicals, and must be thoroughly washed before they can eat it or sell it. No more eating a tangerine or a cherry tomato while they’re out harvesting – they miss out on that delicious experience. There’s nothing fresher than that!

They also cannot claim to be an “organic” garden. While it must not seem like much to those who don’t want the certification, many of us do want to be known as “organic” and “chemical-free”.

Using chemicals is also often less effective than using a more natural method. The natural world has been effectively controlling pests organically for many thousands of years – them we come along and think we can do it better? I think not! While the natural world may need a bit of help from us humans, that doesn’t mean polluting their natural world with chemicals – instead, use organic pest control in your garden to help the natural world along. Pull weeds instead of spraying them, and mulch your plants to avoid getting weeds in the first place. Spray off plants with white fly with a strong blast of water from a hose – and you might be able to totally control the white fly naturally. There are many organic methods for pest control.

What The Rest Of Us Do For Pest Control

“Organic” isn’t just a word to the rest of us. We love by the maxim that “organic is best for us and our planet.” And so, we continually look for ways to control the pests – whether animal or plant – in our gardens.

We learn about the uses of beneficial bugs – the ladybugs and butterflies and praying mantises. We encourage them in whatever ways we can – growing their favorite flowers, or using natural products with pheromones to attract them to our feeding ground.

We use barrier methods – like fences (sorry, deer, eat outside the garden) or nets (or red Christmas balls in a garden with unripe tomatoes so the birds will learn that those red things aren’t edible – and they’ll leave the ripening fruit alone) or Liquidambar pods (on the ground around our plants that we want to protect from snails with soft underbellies).

We focus on sprays that aren’t harsh chemicals – using white vinegar to kill slugs within a few inches of where they are sprayed, and water from the hose to kill off white fly from our hibiscus.

When the focus is on finding organic methods of pest control, we can do it. You can, too.

Bugging the Bugs: Pest Control Services Review

Depending on the problem you may need to consider hiring a professional to control pests around the house and garden. Then again, you may not. What you may need more than anything is a pest control services review. This will help you to assess the problem and determine the best solution. After that, you can get on with your life.

Why Do I Need Help

In a pest control services review you can begin to understand the reasons for why you need the services. Many pests are not pests at all, but creatures that are beneficial to the environment. Spiders are wonderful at controlling insect populations. They can be the salvation of a garden, but when they get in the house, people get crazy. Your pest control services review might find you are reacting out of fear and possibly out of unnecessary fear. In the case of a genuine health risk a pest control services review may lead you to use organic pest control, the most effective solution with the fewest environmental effects.

What Kind of Help Do I Need

Prevention may be the best thing. If you are worried about pests around the house there are a few things you can do to make the house an unattractive option. First and foremost you should make your house as sanitary as possible. Garbage should be removed regularly and not allowed to sit out in the open. Open containers of garbage attract everything from ants to rats and can be very unhealthy.

A pest control services review may lead you to find sources of moisture such and leaky pipes and repair them. Moisture attracts roaches and making the house drier will make it less likely they will take up residence.

Outside it is better to use gravel or stone instead of wood chips to mulch around trees and flower beds. Wood chips attract beetles and termites that can make a move to get inside the house.

If you do need some kind of help besides prevention, you should go with natural means. Pheromone traps, sticky tape and spring traps are better for the environment and will not harm pets and children like poisons can. If you must use some sort of chemical means, try red pepper for ants, soapy water for other kinds of bugs and even garlic to prevent infestation.

Whatever you do be sure to complete a thorough pest control services review. It will prevent you from spending unnecessarily in an economy where every dollar counts. Natural remedies are cost effective and may work just as well as their more harmful counterparts so be sure to know exactly what pests you are combating and the best strategy for combating them. This way, you can be pest free and able to by groceries at the same time.

The Never Ending Bug War: New Weapons for Natural Pest Control Service

The struggle between humans and pests is an eternal fight for dominance. Human beings, being the smarter of the two opponents are constantly coming up with new methods for pest control. Yet the pests, no slouches in smarts themselves keep adapting. Since there is no one control that works on all pests methods have been developed for natural pest control service. By conducting a pest control services review you can see the variety and scope of both the problem and the solution.

Insect versus Insect

One of the most natural pest control services is to introduce pest’s natural predators. Wasps and spiders are natural enemies to many pests and introducing them into a garden or field can greatly reduce the number of pests devouring precious crops. Even if you don’t use the insect itself you can use pheromones and other chemicals to mimic their presence, thus creating the illusion of predators in the area. This natural pest control service is the equivalent of the modern day scarecrow.

Traps and Tricks

Various versions of sticky tape used to bait and trap ants and aphids is another natural pest control service. Cards covered in motor oil to trap insects is an effective method. Also yellow cards with sticky tape attract insects that feed on your garden. The color mimics plants and traps the insects.

Another trick to prevent certain flies is to place plastic water bags around the field. The compound eye of the insect gets confused by the reflections and this prevents the flies from staying around very long. In using natural pest control services tricks may be as good as traps.

Spray and Spritz

Natural pest control services can also employ spraying methods. For instance, some gardeners use a soap spray to kill larvae and even adult insects. This is a safe way to spray. Also natural sprays such as hot pepper spray, garlic spray and vegetable oil and water sprays are natural pest control services that can be employed.

In controlling pests it is important to understand that what we eat is easily contaminated. The various food scares of the past year such as the peanut butter scare should alert us to that. And if we can be damaged by natural threats such as salmonella, imagine what we are doing to our bodies using harmful pesticides. We are not designed to ingest these chemicals.

That is why it is so important to discover more ways to destroy pests naturally. Natural pest control services are not a luxury in this world, they are a necessity. The more we can do to save our environment will ensure our own survival.