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If you’ve ever had a problem with ants in or around your home, you probably know how important it is to understand how ant colonies work. Ant colonies are highly integrated networks of dozens, hundreds, or thousands of ants; and they all work on a class system, with each ant having its own specific duties and jobs. And of course, if you want to get rid of an ant problem, you’re going to need to get to the highest ant of all – the queen ant. But is there only one queen ant, and what is the queen’s job? And what do all those other ants do? All of these questions need to be answered before you set out to conquer an ant colony.

First, it’s most important to understand about queen ant. Many people think that the queen ant rules the colony, but that’s not actually true. However, the queen is the most important member of the colony and colonies could not exist without them. This is because the queen’s only job is to reproduce by laying eggs and in most species of ants, it’s only the queen that can do this. Without the queen, the colony will most likely die out because there will be no more ants to replace other ants, and take over the important functions of the colony.

When you’re dealing with an ant problem in your home, it’s true that if you get rid of the queen, you get rid of the problem. It’s also important to know that while many think that one queen exists in each colony, this is not always the case. Sometimes colonies can have multiple queens and some, such as the European wood ant, may have hundreds of queens. Queen ants also live the longest, usually about ten to twenty years.

Other than the queen, the other most important members of ant colonies are the worker ants. Worker ants are most likely the ants that you see scurrying around and carrying little bits of food on their back. Worker ants have many different responsibilities, and they work incredibly hard. Worker ants hurry around finding food, taking care of the queen by sheltering and feeding her, taking care of the young in the colony, also by feeding them, building chambers and walls within the nest, and taking care of nearly everything else that the colony needs.

In most ant species, worker ants are always female, though they rarely develop into queen ants. Very large worker ants are sometimes called soldier ants because they defend the nest and fight off enemies. Worker ants don’t live very long, usually only one to five years.

The last class of ants in a colony are the male ants. Male ants live the shortest time, and it’s not very long at all. Male ants don’t work, and they only have one purpose – to fertilize the queen’s eggs. However, the male ant is still very important to the colony because without them, the colony would die out. As soon as mating season is over, the male ants will die out, with more being reproduced for the next mating season.

Ant colonies work on a very basic system of classes, with each class having its own specific job and function. Without one of those classes, the ant colony will die out. And when you’re trying to get rid of an ant colony in or around your home, knowing how to get rid of the most important class – the queen – is the most effective step.

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258 or go to our website.

If you have an ant problem in your home, then one of the first things you need to do is identify what type of ant you’re dealing with. This will help you understand whether or not they bite, if they have more than one queen in their colonies, and other important information that will help you prepare better strategies to get rid of them.

When it comes to the different types of ants, there are about 10,000 in total. However, there are thousands of different species that are rarely ever seen by humans, because they forage at night or live completely underground. So, when you’re trying to identify a certain type of ant, it’s best first to search among the most common types of ants.

Carpenter Ants: These ants can be thought of as the termites of the ants world. They do not eat wood, but they do plough through it building nests and tunnels and can tear apart large wooden structures as they do so. Sometimes they can enter your home, which can be a great problem as they can cause great damage to walls, furniture, and other wooden items in the home.

Driver (Army) Ants: Driver ants are mostly found in Africa and tropical areas of North America. They can also be seen in some south-western states in the United States and these species are largely known as legionary ants. Driver ants are mainly predators and they are almost constantly on the move, moving their colonies every two to four weeks. They are not known for entering homes but they do eat a lot and they feast on things like insects, lizards, and even animals as big as chickens.

Fire Ants: Fire ants were originally only found in South America, but they have found their way to the United States and reside mostly in the southern states. Fire ants don’t bite, as many people think, but they do have a sharp little stinger that is very painful. Large armies of fire ants can cause such damage with their stingers in fact, that they can kill livestock.

Fungus-Growing Ants: These ants are found only in the Western hemisphere, and are known for their unique way of feeding. These ants, as their name suggests, grow fungus so that they can then eat it. They grow the fungus using leaves from trees and bushes, which they cut off with their teeth, and then chew down to mulch when they get to their nests. The mulch will then sit until it grows a fungus, which the ants will then feast on. You can identify these ants easily because they’re the only kind that can be seen carrying entire leaves over their head.

Harvester Ants: Harvester ants are so named because they do exactly that – spend their lives harvesting. These ants wander around looking for seeds and grains that can be found in the grass or fallen from trees. They then store them in their underground nests for sunny days, when they then come up and spread the seeds out to dry. These ants also have a stinger that can be quite painful.

Honey Ants: These can also be found in south-western states and are also known for their unique feeding habits. These ants spend their lives collecting nectar and other sweets which they feed to worker ants, whose only job is to collect this nectar from other ants. They collect this nectar until they are more than twice their normal size and can no longer move. The other ants in the colony then hang the worker ants from the nests. The worker ant will begin to regurgitate the nectar that it’s been storing, which the other ants then eat. This process is only done in the dry season, when other food sources are difficult to find.

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258 or go to our website.

Flies can be a nasty problem if they find their way into your home. Not only can they be an irritating nuisance, but they can also carry many diseases, which can spread around your home. The most important step you need to take when getting dealing with a fly infestation is to find the area where they are breeding. A fly can lay as many as 100 eggs a day. These eggs will develop into maggots, which are disgusting and you don’t want around your house, and they will then develop into adult flies, adding to your problem with the infestation. Find the breeding area, eliminate it, and clean it, and you can likely be sure that your fly infestation will go away.

In the meantime, fly insecticides can be purchased from nearly all major department stores. Keep in mind that these sprays will only kill the flies that are in the direct area that you spray, at the time you spray. If you still haven’t located their breeding area, you’re going to be spraying for some time to come. Also keep in mind that these sprays are usually toxic and so, should not be used when there are pets and children nearby.

Fly swatters may be useful when you’re dealing with a fly infestation; but you have to make sure that you always have it on hand and that you also have a good aim! Fly papers can also be hung and when flies are attracted to it, they will then stick to the paper and die. These papers can be very effective in getting rid of the flies that are there, but they won’t stop flies from coming back.

The best thing to keep a fly infestation out of your home is to make sure that there are no potential breeding grounds for flies. Keep large areas of debris and garbage away from your home and make sure that any garbage left outside is covered and out of the way where flies will not be able to get to it. Inside the house, make sure that any food is either put away in the refrigerator or tied up tightly in the garbage cans. Clean up after pets after they eat, and clean the area around their feeding dishes. Also, make sure that litter boxes and pet waste is cleaned up and disposed of immediately.

Flies can be a real pain to get out of your home once they’ve found their way inside, and a nice place to breed. Keep the areas in your home free of anything that would attract flies, and you should find your home fly-free too!

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258 or go to our website.

Finding the odd spider around the home isn’t pleasant for everyone, and can be a downright nightmare for others. Truthfully, most spiders aren’t harmful and can actually do a lot of good, doing things like killing other insects, especially the nasty mosquito. Finding one here and here around your home is really nothing to concern yourself with, although you should try to catch spiders and release them outside rather than kill them. This is especially true if you have a garden, where spiders can be especially beneficial. Here are a few other tricks to keep spiders out of your home.

The first thing you need to do is make sure that there are no homes for spiders to reside in around your home. With a vacuum, clean out all cobwebs that you see, even if there are no spiders in it. Many people think that these are vacated webs, and sometimes that’s true. But even still, there could be eggs in the web that will hatch into new spiders. And besides, who wants a home full of spider webs anyway?

Keep in mind that spider webs aren’t only present inside of your home, but outside of it too. Be sure to hose off the sides of your home, effectively destroying any cobwebs and spiders that may be perched there.

Also, discourage spiders from entering your home by keeping their food sources out of your home. Things like flies, insects, and moths are a spider’s favorite menu so if they’re in your home, there’s a good chance that spiders will be too.

In addition to keeping things away from your home that spiders like to eat, you should also try to keep potential nesting places away from spiders. Many different species of spiders like to live in places like piles of wood, debris, and other large areas of bush. Removing these breeding grounds can be a great preventative measure in keeping spiders out of your home.

While many people have a fear of spiders, there’s nothing harmful about most of them. Seeing the odd spider may be here and there may mean that you’ll soon see a lot fewer of the other insects you might expect to find in your home. But, if you find that there are too many in your home, these tips may help you get rid of your problem.

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258 or go to our website.

Fruit flies are odd little creatures. They suddenly appear from out of nowhere and if you’re not careful, you could soon find yourself dealing with an infestation – and battling fruit flies everywhere you turn. Here’s how you can get rid of fruit flies when they’ve taken over your kitchen, your yard, or any other place around your home.

In a shallow dish, place a small amount of wine, apple cider vinegar, or a small piece of banana. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and secure it tightly with an elastic band. Poke holes in the plastic wrap with a fork and place the dish in the area infested with fruit flies for several days. The fruit flies will be attracted to the “bait” within the dish and will fly through the holes to get to it. They will then however, not be able to get back out.

Here’s another concoction for getting rid of fruit flies: 1 pint of milk; ¼ pound raw sugar; and 2 ounces of ground pepper. Place these ingredients in a saucepan and simmer on the stove for 8 – 10 minutes. After it’s simmered, pour this mixture in a shallow dish. The fruit flies will be attracted to the sugar, and the rest of the ingredients will suffocate the fruit flies.

There’s also another mixture that you can create that will kill the fruit flies. This is ¼ cup of white vinegar and a drop or two of dishwashing liquid in a glass. Slowly fill the glass with water until bubbles begin to form and rise to the top. The fruit flies will be attracted to the vinegar and will fly inside the bubbles, where they will then become trapped and die.

Of course, just like you would kill common household flies, you can kill fruit flies with fly strips. Just hang these up in your kitchen, or wherever the fruit flies are congregating in your house, and the fruit flies will stick to these strips. It can also help to attach orange or lemon peels to the strip when using these to attract fruit flies.

Spraying lemongrass oil around your home can also be a great way to keep fruit flies out of your home. You can find this oil at health and naturopath stores and to use it for fruit flies, you only need to mix 10 drops of this oil with 2 ounces of hot water. Mix well and place it in a spray bottle. Spray it in the air around your home and not only will you find that your fruit flies are gone, but also your other flies, spiders, and insects.

Fruit flies can be a real pest around your home. But with a few simple items from your pantry, and some determination, you can get rid of those pesky fruit flies once and for all!

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258 or go to our website.

Spending time outside in the warm summer months is great. You can cook on the grill, spend time in the garden, and watch as your kids frolic in the sprinkler or kiddie pool. But, if you have an ant problem in your yard, you’ll quickly be finding things to do inside, or outdoors – elsewhere. Don’t let ants deter you from enjoying your own yard; get rid of them and use your yard however you choose!

One of the best and safest ways to keep ants out of your yard is to shake baby powder along the trail. This will block their path and they will have to find another area that isn’t as blocked. Ants travel a great distance, so the chances of this alternative location being out of your yard are good. Black pepper is another great way to keep ants of your yard, but can be a bit more dangerous when children are playing, as if it were to get into their eyes or open wounds, it could be quite dangerous.

Another great, non-toxic trick to try is to place some vinegar in a spray bottle and just spray along the entire path. The ants will be gone a day or two after this application. Windex, Ivory Soap, and a multi-purpose cleanser with orange oil will also work well but always be careful when using a chemical-based product like, especially if pets or children go out into the yard frequently.

If you want to actually kill the ants, and not just get them out of your yard, you can try using Terro, which is basically a mixture of borax and sugar water. Place it along the trails and the ants will be attracted to the sugar, and the mixture of borax and water will kill them when they eat it. It takes a little while to work and the ants are sure to bring some of the sweet treats back for the whole colony to eat.

If you see a large number of ants in one area in your yard, boiling water and then pouring it on them will immediately kill the ants. Keep in mind however, that this will not kill the colony or the queen, so you probably won’t be rid of your problem for good.

Dealing with ants outside is not difficult, but some of these applications may need to be done a few times. And it doesn’t hurt to always remember that unless they sting, ants really are generally harmless, even though they can be awfully annoying.

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258 or go to our website.

Have you ever wondered what spiders you’re likely to come across in California? Or are just trying to identify one that you’ve found in your home? Here’s a list of the most common spiders found in California.

Tarantula: While tarantulas are pretty common in California, they can’t kill you like many people think. They do have venom, but it’s poisonous only to small animals. Tarantulas are sometimes found in pool filters and in gardens. Male tarantulas come out most often in the fall, when they go on the search for females.

Sow-Bug Killer: As their name suggest, this spider kills sows bugs, or pill bugs, and can be found in trees and under bark, where these bugs live.

Daddy Long Legs: Most people have encountered a Daddy Long Legs in their life, and can recognize them immediately. Their webs aren’t the distinctive spider webs that you would normally think of but rather, draping long tangles of web. Daddy Long Legs, while very common, are perfectly harmless.

Black Widow: Black Widow spiders are present in California and are the only spiders whose venom humans should fear, as it can be very dangerous and even life-threatening. Black Widows are known for the hourglass shape their body has, which in a true Black Widow will be orange or red. However, the body isn’t always a perfect hourglass shape.

American House Spider: These spiders as the name would suggest, are very common in America and like to camp out in people’s homes. The scientific name for them is the Achearanea tepediorum.

Cross orbweaver: These spiders are more commonly known as garden spiders, and they can become quite large and intimidating in the late fall. They’re usually seen hanging from their orb-webs, which they constantly work on, throughout the year but are more prominent in the September – November months.

Silver garden spiders: These spiders have a very silvery look to them and also build orb webs. They are distinctive with their eight legs that are paired together, giving the look that they actually only have four legs.

Money spiders: These spiders build large, flat webs from which they hang. These spiders are especially prominent in the Bay Area in the spring.

Salticidae: These spiders are distinctive because they do not make webs and because their most familiar characteristic is that they jump. They are usually black with white specks.

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258 or go to our website.

While you may not want to think about cockroaches at all, learning about them and how they live can be a great help to you if you’re dealing with a cockroach problem in your home. When it comes to the different kinds of cockroaches, there are three main types: the brown-banded cockroach; the German cockroach; and Oriental cockroach.

Brown-banded Cockroach
The brown-banded cockroach is a smaller type of cockroach and is found in most areas in the United States. This type of cockroach has a wide band across its abdomen and it’s quite recognizable by this stripe, even if the stripe appears to be broken or disjointed. The male also has wings that cover most of his abdomen, while the females’ wings are much smaller.

This type of cockroach is likely to infest homes and apartments but they are not often found in restaurants. They can also spread out throughout the entire home and reside in areas like the living room and in furniture because they do not need the large amount of moisture that other types of cockroaches do. This type of cockroach will eat just about anything, but it does prefer organic matter.

German Cockroach
The German cockroach is the most commonly found cockroach throughout the United States. In colder climates especially, these cockroaches are more likely to live near human habitats because they do not generally like the cold weather. These cockroaches range from brown to black in color and have two parallel streaks running down its back. They look very similar to Oriental cockroaches and the two are often mistaken for each other.

These types of cockroaches can be very difficult to control, mainly because they have such a fast maturity rate and because they are so small and can easily hide in many different places. The German cockroach will eat just about anything but they are particular to sugar, starchy foods, greasy foods, and meat. Although they might be seen occasionally during the day, especially when there is a large amount of them and they’ve been disturbed, the German cockroach is most active at night.

Oriental Cockroach
This type of cockroach is the largest of these three and is another common type of cockroach. The body of the Oriental cockroach seems to have a glossy shine to it, and its usually dark brown or black in color. The male has two very prominent wings, while the female has two very small wings by her head, which serve no function and often can’t even be seen at a glance.

Oriental cockroaches like to live in dark, moist places such as in decaying organic matter, sewers, drains, basements, and porches. The Oriental cockroach is known as being one of the more difficult types of cockroaches to get rid of.

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258 or go to our website

If you’ve ever seen a large and usually, but not always, yellow winged creature flying around your house, you may have wondered if it’s a hornet or a wasp. If you’re dealing with a nest, you’ll definitely want to identify the creature you’re dealing with but otherwise, it doesn’t really make a difference, because all hornets are wasps, but not all wasps are hornets. Because of this, you should treat any wasp you see as what it is: a predator that does not care about their prey and will sting, sometimes repeatedly, regardless of what the prey is, regardless if they’re hornets or not.

The terms hornet and wasp might be used interchangeably, and that may not necessarily be wrong, although scientifically, there are some slight differences. One of the main differences is in their aggression towards people. Wasps will have no trouble invading a picnic or feasting on people’s lunch when they’re eating outdoors in the warm summer months. Wasps like to spread out from their nest and attack during the late summer and early fall months. It’s during this time that they’ll most likely look for sweets and be found around garbage cans and other sources of food that can be found outdoors. Hornets however, will usually continue to stick to a protein diet and will continue feasting on smaller insects throughout the entire year.

Another difference can sometimes be found in their appearance. Wasps are commonly also referred to as yellow jackets, because they have the bright yellow and black striped markings. However, the most common type of hornet in North America is the bald-faced hornet, and this hornet has black and ivory coloring that is very different from that of a wasp. All hornets are also usually quite larger than common wasps.

Wasps and hornets also often build their nests in different manners. While they both use chewed tree bark to build the paper nests and combs found within them, yellow jackets often like to build subterranean nests. While this doesn’t mean they build them close to the ground of course, they will often be built along the side of the home, actually being attached to it, or to the side of a tree. Hornets on the other hand, like to have aerial nests that usually hang off of branches or high areas and that are not attached to anything.

When it comes to whether or not the flying insect you’ve spotted is a hornet or a wasp, it doesn’t really essentially matter. And even if you are dealing with an infestation, getting rid of them is pretty much the same too. But scientifically, there are a few notable differences between a hornet and a wasp, and they can often be seen just by looking closely – or as closely as you want to get, anyway.

For a free pest control inspection in Los Angeles or Orange County, give us a call at 888-675-0258.