Pest Warning Signs and Prevention Tips
Home Exterior
Home Interior (coming soon)
Warning Signs for Specific Pests (coming soon)
- Carpenter Ants
- Rodents
The Home Exterior
Earth to Wood Contact
Numerous wood destroying organisms including carpenter ants, moisture ants, termites (both damp-wood and subterranean varieties), wood decay fungus (wood rot), and other pests.
Warning: Whenever wood contacts the soil it retains moisture inviting carpenter ants, moisture ants, termites (both damp-wood and subterranean varieties), wood decay fungus (wood rot), and other pests. What happens is the wood "wicks" moisture up and out of the soil and the various pest organisms thrive on the combination of wood fiber and moisture.
Signs:
When pulling soil from wood any of the above listed pests may be found. Damage to wood may require expertise in identifying what pest has been present.
Prevention: Watch out for areas where soil (including beauty bark and mulch) contact the lower edge of house siding, the bottoms of deck and porch posts, trim wood around vents or access doors, and firewood piles (see "firewood" separately.) A 6" (six inch) separation between soil and wood is ideal and may require some regrading of soil or sod next to the house.
Your Cascade technician will look for these conditions and notify you as part of your Cascade Inspect and Protect service. Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Firewood & Other Wood Debris/Piles
Carpenter Ants & other Ants, Rodents & SpidersWarning: Many pest control people say, "Move the firewood away from the house." However, since carpenter ants divide their colony population among several nest sites, simply moving firewood away from the home is not enough. But there may not be a problem and moving the wood may not resolve a pest problem. First, if firewood is stored off the ground, is properly covered from rain (kept dry), and is rotated or used up each year, there is little opportunity for pests to set in. Firewood must be kept dry, which means storing off the ground (on concrete blocks or other structure) and covered from rain. Even then, it is also helpful to not store the wood directly against house siding to maintain ventilation, etc.
Signs: Rodents – Old firewood piles that have not been moved often provide harborage for rodents. They find easy access to voids between the wood that are protected from predators and carry nest materials to create a comfortable home. These will go undetected for months or years unless the firewood is used up each season.
Carpenter Ants – During the late spring and summer look for carpenter ants anywhere near the woodpile. Importantly, carpenter ant colonies divide up their population among various nest sites, sometimes hundreds of feet apart, so a nest in the woodpile is often a sign of a colony that is spread throughout the adjacent property, including one or more house structures (& they can have multiple nests in any one house.)
Moisture Ants – These ants will only nest in very wet, often rotted, wood at the base of old, undisturbed wood piles. They will only be noticed if and when the wood is moved.
Your Cascade technician will look for these conditions and notify you as part of your Cascade Inspect and Protect service. Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Foundation Crawlspace Ventilation
Wood Rot and Rodents
Warning: Unless you have a basement (or 'slab on grade') you have a crawlspace beneath the lowest floor in your home and a sub-floor crawlspace needs to breathe in order to remain dry and pest free. That is why most houses have vents along the concrete foundation, visible outside the home.
Prevention:There are two problems to avoid with these vents:
Keep vents open and clear – It is imperative that air can flow freely through these vents so watch for grass, weeds and cobwebs that may build up against, or get lodged in, the vent screening. Also, make sure that no stored wood or other items block the air flow outside the vents. Finally, never try to save money on your heating bill in the winter by blocking these vents when they are most needed to keep your crawlspace dry!
Broken vent screens can allow access for rats and mice—or, if they’re entirely missing, larger animals like raccoons and opossums! Vent screening must be properly maintained.
Your Cascade technician will look for these conditions and notify you as part of your Cascade Inspect and Protect service. Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Garage Doors
Rats and MiceWarning: Garage Doors that do not close tightly allow rats and mice to enter freely. Rodents have extremely flexible skeletons so a small rat can squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter and a mouse can squeeze through a gap the width of a pencil! Once inside, they are known to nest in stored items, such as outdoor and camping gear, get into pet and other stored food, or gain entry further into the house structure.
Your Cascade technician will look for these conditions and notify you as part of your Cascade Inspect and Protect service. Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Outdoor Crawlspace Access
Rats, Mice, Raccoons and other animals
Warning:Some homes have outdoor access panels or doors to the substructure crawlspace. These doors are usually hinged plywood doors or plywood panels that cover a metal "access well."
Prevention: These access panels need to fit snug and securely to prevent access to rodents and other animals. (Also, no "earth to wood contact" should occur that will damage the access panels.see related article.)
Your Cascade technician will look for these conditions and notify you as part of your Cascade Inspect and Protect service. Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Pet and Bird Food
Rats, Mice, Raccoons (and other animals), Food Pests (weevils, beetles, grain moths.)Pet & Bird Food Storage
Warning: Rodents can easily chew through the paper or plastic bags used to store pet and bird food. This creates an easy food source for rats and mice encouraging them to live in or near your home and allows them to thrive and multiply causing an even greater problem over time. Also, food pests can infest pet food and bird seed creating a huge infestation of beetles or moths.
Prevention: Pet food and bird seed is best stored in metal cans with lids (rats can chew through thick plastic.) Lids must be secured tightly after each use.
Pet Food
Warning:Pet food, such as dog and cat food, is often left out in bowls for the pet to eat at their leisure. Problem is that whatever your pest doesn't eat immediately is available to rats, mice, raccoons and other animals.
Prevention: Only provide your pet the amount they need at that time of day and try to place their food where only they can access it, such as indoors or at least up on a deck, if possible.
Bird Feeders
Warning: Bird Feeders are a wonderful way to bring in and enjoy all varieties of birds. However, bird seed is also a great food for rodents, rats, mice and squirrels.
Prevention: For this reason bird feeders should be on poles or otherwise out of reach of rats and squirrels. Furthermore, whatever bird food that gets spilled is not only available to those birds who forage on the ground level, but also available to rats, mice & squirrels. Whatever can be done to contain spilled bird seed or clean it up will avoid attracting and maintaining a rat population in and around your home!
Your Cascade technician will look for these conditions and notify you as part of your Cascade Inspect and Protect service. Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Rockeries
Rodents and Wasps/Yellow Jackets
Warning: Stone rockeries add beauty to our landscaping and serve as great retention walls on slopes. What must be understood in terms of pests is that as stones are stacked there are spaces left between them, often underground, where pests can nest. Also, plants growing amongst the rocks (particularly ivy) provide great cover to help them hide. Even when these are filled with soil or gravel rodent and insect pests can excavate between stones for nesting. We don't recommend that you alter your rockery or landscape plants within the rockery.but there are some things to be concerned about:
Rodents, particularly rats, will tunnel between the rocks for nesting. From there they can multiply, forage on or in your home, or move into house attics, crawlspaces and interiors.
Your Cascade technician will look for these conditions and notify you as part of your Cascade Inspect and Protect service. Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Roof Gutters/Downspouts
Warning: Roof Gutters can get clogged from leaves and pine needles. When that happens two problems can result:
- A backup of water that overflows the gutters, possibly creating an excessive moisture problem to rafter tails, house siding or wood decking below. This can cause wood rot or attract insects that prefer moisture, like carpenter ants and moisture ants. Rafter tails are the ends of roof rafters that the gutter attaches to and can rot if the gutter is spilling water onto them. Rotted rafter tails are an expensive repair.
- The debris that builds up in a gutter turns to mulch, which is a perfect breeding ground for earwigs and other insect pests. Birds are often found pecking through the mulch in gutters to find and eat these insects. But the insects also have a way of moving into the home.
Downspouts carry water from the roof gutters safely down to the ground where the water should be diverted away from the house foundation. Look for any downspouts that are disconnected from the gutters or that leak during a hardy rain-they need repair.
While your Cascade technician does not access roof areas within the normal course of pest control servicing, they will do his/her best to watch for gutter and downspout problems as part of your Cascade Inspect and Protect service. Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Standing Water
Mosquitoes
Warning: Now that West Nile Virus has been found in Western Washington we have more than just the nuisance of mosquitoes to worry about. These flying insect pests are more than annoying, they carry disease.
Prevention: While mosquitoes may easily fly from adjacent properties it is important to make sure that no buckets, plant pots, old toys, old tires, or tarps that have folds where water can collect are on the property such that small puddles or pockets of "standing water" remain in them after a rain. Such small quantities of water can harbor hundreds or more mosquito larvae, resulting in an increase in adult populations right where you live. Also, dirty roof gutters can hold water for extended periods of time allowing mosquitoes to breed very close by, yet out of sight! (See tips on Gutters, above.)
Your Cascade technician will look for these conditions and notify you as part of your Cascade Inspect and Protect service. Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Stumps, Logs and Railroad Ties
Carpenter Ants & other Ants, Yellow Jackets, Termites, & Rodents
Warning: Stumps, logs and railroad ties can make beautiful landscape features, however you need to be watchful, particularly of carpenter ant nests. See "Warning Signs for Carpenter Ants". Although these features constitute "Earth to Wood Contact," it can't be helped without compromising your landscape theme.
Railroad ties are no longer used for landscaping due to the creosote content. However, they are particularly attractive to carpenter ants and wasps/yellow jackets being that, even though the outside is treated with creosote, the interior is untreated leaving a perfect space for carpenter ants to tunnel and nest. Also, railroad tie interiors often rot out leaving hollow spaces for wasps and yellow jackets to nest in the summer.
Rodents also sometimes nest in hollow railroad ties and stumps or in tunnels beneath them.
Prevention: Avoid these features too close to the house and never allow them to touch siding or other wood of the home.
Your Cascade technician will look for these conditions and notify you as part of your Cascade Inspect and Protect service. Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Vegetation Against House
Rodents (Rats or Squirrels), Carpenter Ants, Raccoons and Spiders
Vegetation "against a home" falls into 3 categories: Branches (often against the eaves or roof), Ivy and other vines (that cling to siding or brickwork), and Bushes (tightly brushing the siding.)
Branches
Warning: Branches that touch eaves and/or roof allow Rodents (rats, mice or squirrels) and other animals, such as Raccoons and Opossums, access to nest in attics. They also give Carpenter Ants trail access to nest in our homes, enter and exit near the roof area and forage for other insects on the adjacent trees.
Prevention: Make sure that all tree branches are cut back 24" (about 2 feet) from eaves and roofs.
Ivy and other vines
Warning: Ivy and other vines against the house siding and brickwork allow rodents (rats, mice and squirrels) access to nesting in house attics and provide a perfect breeding ground for spiders. While such vines against the home are beautiful, it must be understood that they are also a compromise in terms of pest prevention and control.
Prevention: From a pest prevention and control standpoint it is best to keep vines from growing directly on the siding or brickwork, and even more importantly, that they don't creep up near the eaves or roofline of the house.
Bushes
Warning: Bushes tight against house create an environment where spiders thrive and multiply resulting in both unsightly cobwebs over windows and eaves and the encroachment of spiders into the home.
Prevention: Bushes should be trimmed to maintain at least a 6" clearance from the house.
Your Cascade technician will look for these conditions and notify you as part of your Cascade Inspect and Protect service. Contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
