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Donning on the iconic yellow and black jackets, one look and most people can identify them from a visible distance. They are not too be confused or related with ants or bees. Wasps have a specific target of pests that they feed on and they do not specifically target humans to sting; unless they are provoked by one, they may retaliate in numbers! They are also pretty territorial, so stay clear away from their homes, even if they have a makeshift one near your home! If you are curious and want to learn more about them, read on to find out the top 5 things you just got to know about them!

Can a single sting be fatal?

There are some individuals (usually a minority) who suffer an anaphylactic shock after being sting, and that may have fatal consequences. For a majority of individuals who were once sting by a wasp, it wears off within 24 hours and the venom from the wasp have no serious effect on them. It is very unusual that one dies from a wasp sting. The fact is amplified when a sting is compared to a lightning strike.

Treating a sting if there are no allergies

The first thing you have to do is not to panic. If you were sting close to your home, calmly head back in and wash the affected area with soap and water to remove the venom. Wash it as much as possible. Proceed to ice the affected area to reduce the initial pain and swelling. Always remember to keep the wound dry to prevent an infection from taking place. After applying calamine lotion to soothe the discomfort, bandage it up to keep that area clean. If the pain is more than you can handle, you should consult a doctor immediately.

What to do if you stepped or accidentally disturbed a wasp nest

Never stay in a single position and try to swat them off. They are already in a full-on attack mode, and doing the aforementioned will only make things worse. Instead, you are recommended to find somewhere safe to hide. If you are driving, stay inside and fully wind up the windows. If you are running into your home, make sure all possible entry points to reach you are blocked out. If necessary, jumping into water will also help to alleviate the situation, until help arrives.

A wasp’s habitat

Their nests can be in a tree, underground or even within the walls of one’s home! Garbage and rotting food that are left unattended may also attract wasp. Food items such as sugary drinks with high sugar contents are an inviting source for wasp. Sugar prolongs their lifespan and enhances their reproduction functions. Keep away such items and make sure the area is clean before trouble arrives!

Are they completely harmful to mankind and nature?

Surprisingly, the answer is no! They actually do more good than harm (unless you provoked them). In farms, they help to protect the crops by killing off any pests such as caterpillars and pesky flies. Pests being part of their food source definitely aids farmers in their pest control efforts.

If wasps start to cause more harm than good, affected individuals should not hesitate to seek help from pest control companies. A problematic situation needs to be solved before it spirals out of hand!

Skunks can be seen as harmless and the cutest little critters around, however, they can deliver a strong odor-filled spray in defense. The delivered odor-filled spray makes any animal or human halt in its or his or her tracks. Unfortunately when sprayed, the odor tend to take long to clear off your clothes or from the animal fur, making you or your pet quite smelly and unwelcome, even at your own place. This makes skunks a problem when they invade a place. This means that they have to be eradicated from the place one way or another; otherwise, you and your pets will continuously smell of their strong odor after being sprayed. Here are some proven ways to get rid of skunks from your yard.

Start by eliminating their source of food

This is the most effective way of getting rid of wild animals from a give place. Simply put, if you have a skunk issue at your place, then chances are that they have enough food from somewhere around. These small animals enjoy left out foods in the garbage. Apart from this, they enjoy dog and cat food, meaning that it should be left inside the house rather than outside it.

Get rid of their dwelling

If you have skunk issues at your place, then chances are that they are living somewhere nearby. These cute little animals love living under things like outside porches, sheds, etc. Apart from this, they will happily dig holes and live under your house. So if you notice any recent holes around your home, then it is recommended that you have then filled in.

Use appropriate traps to help capture them

Those who desperately want skunks living near their homes gone should consider having them trapped professionally and then relocated accordingly. Accordingly to those who offer professional wildlife and control services, the traps work by luring the animal inside with some strategically placed food. Once it gets inside the trap to gobble up the seemingly free food, the door simply snaps shut. The skunk is trapped inside and can then be safely and humanly removed and released elsewhere where it can’t cause havoc.

Make use of the right repellent

These work by containing smells that are disliked by the animals in question.

Lighting

As skunks are nocturnal animals, they prefer roaming around your yard when dark. By keeping the house well lit from the outside, these animals are less apt to find it appealing. Though not a very good way to conserve energy or even most effective, it will boost your skunk control efforts.

Making use of automatic sprinklers

There is a type of motion activated sprinklers in sale today that can be used to scare off animals that you do not want in your yard. When any of these types of animals walk near it, the sprinkler gets set off and sprays water around. This scares away the majority of small animals, causing them to run away.

When all is said and done, it is still best to let a professional wildlife removal and control agency to come to your place and try and help you get rid of problematic animals when they invade rather than attempting to do it by yourself for the obvious reason. We come armed with the right equipments and have the pest removal and control know-how to help you stop the skunk problem from reoccurring again.

Although considered by many people as cute and fluffy animals, squirrels quickly become a nuisance when they take over your yard. These small animals are notorious for entering gardens and stealing foods like tomatoes, pecans, sweet corn, freshly planted seeds, walnuts and many others. Not only this, they are known to destroy the wiring system in a house by gnawing on it and eating the exterior siding of homes that they invade. The sound of squirrels roaming the attic of a house quickly becomes annoying. Fortunately, you can easily and humanely capture these annoying animals and relocate them using appropriate squirrel traps.

Where to get a live squirrel trap

There are a number of places, both online and offline, where you can get appropriate squirrel traps. The best place however is online stores as the have a wide variety of traps to select from. These traps are made of wire mesh and have one spring-loaded door. If you can’t get a trap that is specifically designed for squirrels, then a rodent or rabbit type will work just fine.

Which is the best spot for placing the trap?

The best spot to place the trap is near or at the source of food. For instance, if the squirrel is stealing your tomatoes on a regular basis, then place the trap near the tomatoes. Note however that it is recommended that you set out multiple traps to help improve the chances of capturing the said pests.

How do I go about it?

Start by catching the attention of a squirrel in question by baiting it. Don’t set the capturing device at this time. The best bait in this case is the same type of food the squirrel is regularly stealing or eating. You can drastically improve the results by baiting it with some of its favorite foods, for instance, peanut butter, unsalted walnut meats, sweet corn and the likes. Place these in the back of the trap so that the rodent has to enter all the way inside to access it. The baited trap has to be left in place for a number of days to allow the animal to get used to its presence.

After observing the animal get into the trap on a regular basis, it is the time to set the spring so as to capture it. Regularly check the trap to see if it has caught the animal. If captured, the squirrel should be released at a place far away from your place, for example, at a park or a rural location.

What about if there are too many squirrels invading my place?

In some instances, the squirrels may be too many to capture with strategically placed traps. If this is your situation, then it is best to call a professional wildlife removal service to help you out. These service providers specialize in trapping and removing captured animals from homes, business properties and so forth. Not only this, they are most suited in the removal of trapped pests as they have the knowhow and come armed with the right equipments.

All in all, do not attempt to use repellents to help eradicate squirrels from your property as most of these chemicals are also dangerous to your pets. Not only this, they have been proved ineffective where squirrel control and eradication is concerned.

One of the commonest pest control problems that people have these days is the presence of house mice in the home. Unfortunately, the fact that this is one of the commonest pests means that when people notice that they have a problem with them, they rarely think of getting professional help in getting rid of them.

Most people simply try to get rat traps or even buying a cat to try and keep them under control. However, you are much better off working with a pest control expert who is more likely to offer holistic services to get rid of them and keep them under control. It might seem like overkill to do this, but it is very clear that the magnitude of the problem warrants this. Some of the justifications for this include:

Mice do a lot of damage

One of the major problems with mice is that they tend to do a lot of damage to most materials, and getting rid of them should therefore be treated as a priority. There are many times when people lose important documents and clothing courtesy of the mice. In some cases, this amounts to a large amount of money, especially in the setting of a commercial building. In such cases, using methods such as simple traps to get rid of the mice is not a good idea, and should be avoided.

They can transmit disease

Though this is not as prevalent as it was in the past, there is still a risk of having mice transmitting diseases from person to person. This is usually in the form of droppings, some of which you may end up unknowingly consuming if they contaminate your food. If you opt to get rid of mice through methods such as the use of homemade traps, you may not get rid of all of them at once. This means that you will be continually at risk of this.

They reproduce rapidly

One of the major reasons why it’s so difficult to keep mice under control is the fact that they reproduce very fast. If you use low quality control methods, it means that some of the mice might not be gotten rid of, and this gives the rest an opportunity to multiply. This is why there are times when people will use traps to catch mice, but then keep on having to set the traps because the problem doesn’t just seem to go away.

These are just some of the problems that you are bound to face when you try to get rid of mice. When you work with a contractor who has enough experience on the subject, they are likely to come up with a comprehensive method of both getting rid of all the mice that are present, and also reducing the risk of the problem recurring in future. In the end, it might seem too expensive to ask a contractor to do what is seemingly a very simple job, but this is one of the instances where you will definitely benefit from doing so.

Birds are usually very graceful creatures, especially in the wild. However, there are times when it might be a good idea to get rid of them, especially when they infest your property in large numbers. Some of the disadvantages of having too many birds in your property include the fact that they may end up making the structures in the property dirty, since they will leave their droppings all over.

In addition to the negative aesthetic effects, this also has an impact on your health as well. Birds such as doves tend to have droppings that have either fungal spores or other parasites which when inhaled would cause respiratory problems that are normally very difficult to treat.

The problems you are likely to encounter when trying to get rid of them

There are a few challenges that are specific to getting rid of pests in the form of birds. One of the most important of these is the fact that you need to use specialized methods to get rid of them in order for it to work. For instance, simply getting bird traps and putting them around the property might not work well, especially if you get a trap that is not suited to the type of bird you are trying to get rid of.

Ideally, you need to understand the habits of the species in question, and also try to find out why they prefer infesting your property as well. This way, you can then come up with a tailor made method of getting rid of them.

The issue of recurrence

One other major problem you are likely to encounter is recurrence. You may get rid of the birds for a few days, only to find them back in the property later on. This is usually the case when the methods used in getting rid of the birds are not specific to the type of bird in question.

Legal issues

When you have a bird infestation problem, you also need to keep in mind that the methods you choose might be restricted by the local regulations. An increasing number of cities in the world are coming up with laws regulating how pests should be gotten rid of, and also provide guidelines on how to do it in order to ensure that the process is as humane as possible. Failure to follow such protocols might lead to a number of problems including facing huge fines.

Using a pest control expert is your best bet

With this in mind, it’s easy to see that the best bet you can have when trying to get rid of birds from your property is through the use of a pest control expert’s services. The high quality ones tend to have all the technical details in mind, which means that not only will they do a thorough job, but will also follow the law when doing it. This means that you will end up having more peace of mind when it comes to pest control in such instances.