Pest Library

What You Need To Know About Pests In Orange County

When pests get into your home or business, you want a pest control company that understands the biology and habits of those pests. As a local business in Orange County, Secured Pest Solutions is an expert in Orange County pests. Our Pest Library compiles some of the most important information our customers need to know about our area’s most common home and business invaders.

Eliminate ants you have discovered on your property by partnering with us at Secured Pest Solutions. In addition to our effective ant control services, the following prevention tips will help you maintain an ant-free home.

• Avoid leaving pet food out overnight.
• Remove pet food from its original packaging and place it in plastic containers with lids.
• Eliminate small gaps and holes in your home’s exterior that ants could move through.
• Get rid of any sources of standing water and excess moisture.
• Maintain downspouts and gutters, so rainwater is always directed away from the foundation.
• Promptly wipe up spills and crumbs; keep food in tightly sealed containers; remove trash from your home daily.
• Outdoor trash containers should have lids that fit properly to keep foraging ants out.
• Use dehumidifiers in crawl spaces and attics to reduce sources of moisture.

Bed Bugs

It is difficult to avoid coming into contact with bed bugs and accidentally introducing them into your home. Avoiding bed bugs is tricky because they are in the places we spend most of our time. Bed bugs are where we work, travel, shop, and live. The reason bed bugs have such close ties with people is that our blood is their preferred food source. Bed bugs are blood-feeding pests that have adapted to living with people and traveling from place to place with our help. We introduce bed bugs into new homes and businesses on our clothing, luggage, or in things like upholstered furniture, rugs, or mattresses.

Since bed bugs are such frequent visitors to our homes, knowing where they like to hide and some of their most common signs is helpful to spot an infestation before it has the chance to take over:

• Favorite hiding spots include the seams of mattresses and upholstered furniture.
• Bed bugs like to hide under piles of dirty laundry and within piles of clutter. Clutter doesn’t attract bed bugs, but it does hide an infestation.
• Wall voids behind electrical outlets will keep bed bugs hidden.
• Bed bugs also like to hide behind wall hangings, wood trim, and baseboards.

Common signs of an infestation include:

• A strong, sweet, musty odor in your home.
• Discovering dark streaks of excrement or drops of blood on mattresses, bedding, or pillows.
• Finding dead bed bugs or their shed skins in your home.
• Waking up with unexplained bug bites.

Don’t try to tackle a bed bug infestation on your own, partner with us at Secured Pest Solutions. In addition to our effective bed bug control services, the following tips will help you keep bed bugs out of your Orange Country home!

• When traveling, always inspect where you will sleep for bed bugs. Don’t bring your personal belongings into a hotel room before checking it over for bed bugs.
• In any public space, do your best to keep you and your family’s personal belongings up off the ground.
• Take care when using shared laundry facilities. Place clothing in your laundry baskets only and take it home to fold.
• Regularly vacuum your home and wash bedding on the high heat cycle the fabrics can handle.
• When purchasing secondhand items like furniture or mattresses, be aware that bed bugs could be hitchhiking inside of them. Thoroughly inspect and clean the items before bringing them inside your house.

Bees

Honey bees are fascinating, eco-important insects. Honey bees are social insects and have oval bodies covered in hair which helps them gather their food sources. When these insects are active, they work tirelessly to collect enough pollen and nectar to ensure their colony’s success. As one of the top pollinators of trees, plants, and crops, they are an important resource in the production of the foods we all eat. While you can’t deny that these insects are beneficial, they become dangerous when nesting in our yards and need to be removed. Like other stinging insects, honey bees have stingers extending from their hind end used to defend themselves. When they sting, the venom they inject is strong enough to cause serious allergic reactions and other health problems in some people and pets.

Two species of honey bees common in our area are the European honey bee and the Africanized honey bee. The European honey bee lives together in large colonies. They nest above the ground in dry cavities that protect them from predators and the elements; tree cavities, roof eaves, and under decks. The Africanized honey bee looks very similar to the European honey bee but is slightly smaller. Africanized honey bees are more aggressive than European honey bees, and though their colony size is smaller, they will send out many more bees to attack a threat, making them a bigger danger to have in our yards.

Don’t try to tackle a bee infestation in your backyard on your own; reach out to the experts at Secured Pest Solutions to remove the nest safely. Preventing problems with bees is difficult because they are outdoor pests. However, you can do a few things in your yard to make it less appealing to them. Maintain your yard by keeping the grass cut short and pruning back overgrown shrubs, bushes, or vegetation to reduce sheltered spots that they can nest in. Remove yard debris like woodpiles, brush piles, or construction materials that can also act as nesting sites. Reduce the amount of flowering vegetation on your property, especially next to your home’s entrances.

Cockroaches

Cockroaches are those six-legged, oval-shaped insects that no one ever wants to spot in their California homes, mainly due to the health risks they impose. Cockroaches spread pathogens that cause diseases like salmonella, gastroenteritis, and E. coli. As cockroaches grow, they shed their skins; the shed skins and excrement put many allergens into the air, which cause skin rashes and breathing difficulties. Having cockroaches crawling around your home is also problematic because they contaminate food and surfaces with bacteria.

In Orange County, we regularly deal with three species of roaches: American cockroach, German cockroach, and Oriental cockroach. A quick description of each is listed below:

• American cockroaches: Large cockroaches that are brownish-red in color, American cockroaches have fully-developed wings and can fly short distances. In California, these roaches live successfully outside but regularly find a way into our homes.
• German cockroaches: Small, fast-moving cockroaches, German cockroaches are the most common species. They have a light brown body with two darker horizontal black stripes behind their heads. These cockroaches quickly develop large populations and have adapted to living indoors with people in our homes or businesses.
• Oriental cockroaches: With dark, black bodies that are shiny or greasy appearing, Oriental cockroaches are beetle-like in appearance, slow-moving, and have high moisture needs. While not aquatic, they like to live near water sources, like drains, sewers, and poor drainage areas.

Get rid of roaches from your Orange County home with the help of the professionals at Secured Pest Solutions. In addition to our effective pest control services, the following prevention tips will help you maintain a cockroach-free home.

• Control the moisture in your home that will attract roach activity. Repair leaky pipes, ensure proper ventilation, and repair dripping air conditioners.
• Remove trash from your home regularly and place it outside in containers with lids.
• Maintain a clean kitchen.
• Vacuum regularly to pick up the crumbs that will allow cockroaches to thrive in your home.
• Always inspect secondhand items and deliveries for cockroaches before bringing the items into our home.

Rodents

Rodents are no stranger to Orange County homeowners because they are one of the most common groups of house pests to find a way into our homes. Rodents living in our area include the Norway rat, roof rat, house mouse, and deer mouse. All of the rodents mentioned have developed a close relationship with people. They have identified that people and our property offer them safe shelter, food, and access to water. Rodents can find a way into our homes through multiple entry points at either ground level or roof level, making it difficult to exclude these pests completely.

Rats and mice can very quickly overwhelm your home. You need to remain vigilant and do your best to keep rodents away from your yard and out of your home because they are dangerous. Rodents all have front incisors that continuously grow throughout their life. They gnaw day and night on objects to keep their teeth worn down. When in our homes, rodents and their sharp teeth will cause damage to things like wires, pipes, electrical equipment, and structural elements of a home.

Other problems they cause include contaminating surfaces and food with urine, excrement, and the bacteria they carry on their bodies. They also make noises, chew holes in boxes, and damage personal items like clothing, shoes, and furniture. Rodents are destructive pests, and though they may want to live with us, they have no business doing so!

Keep rodents from easily being able to move into your home by partnering with us at Secured Pest Solutions. In addition to our effective rodent control services, the following prevention tips will help you maintain a rodent-free home.

• Place mesh covers over vents and drains entering your house.
• Install door sweeps on all exterior doors.
• Cut back tree branches from your home’s roofline.
• Repair cracks and holes in your foundation.
• Cut back overgrown vegetation from your home’s exterior that could camouflage rodents moving in or out of your home.
• Store all trash in containers with lids to help keep food scraps away from hungry rodents.

Spiders

California is home to many different spiders. Some, like the black widow spider and brown recluse spider, are dangerous; and others, such as the brown widow spider, wolf spider, and orb-weaver spider, are harmless. No matter the species, all spiders have eight legs, produce silk, and have venom that they inject into their prey. Dangerous spiders have venom powerful enough to harm people, while harmless spiders only have venom powerful enough to affect their insect prey. Luckily, it is much more likely to come into contact with a nuisance spider than a dangerous spider!

Spiders are such a common sight in our yards because they provide them with many places to live and forage for food. Tall grass, shrubs, wooded areas, woodpiles, gardens, and secluded spaces like under decks provide them with shelter and access to prey. When spiders live in your yard, know that they will eventually find a way into your home. They don’t enter your house to search for food stored in your kitchen; spides enter houses when following the insects that eat the food stored in your kitchen.

Keep spiders from easily being able to move into your home by partnering with us at Secured Pest Solutions. In addition to our effective pest control services, the following prevention tips will help you maintain a spider-free home.

• Keep your home’s outdoor lights off whenever they aren’t necessary. Lights attract insects to your home that spiders like to hunt.
• Cut back shrubbery and other landscaping plants away from the outside of your house.
• Make sure gaps around windows and doors are sealed using weatherstripping or other appropriate material.
• Reduce standing water in your yard that attracts insects that spiders like to feed on and provides them with water.
• Cedar mulch helps to deter spider activity. Use cedar mulch in garden areas that are near your home.
• Maintain a clean kitchen to deter insect activity in your home.

Local Pest Protection You Can Count On!

If you discover you are sharing your home with pests, immediately reach out to us at Secured Pest Solutions. We will offer you effective home pest control and commercial exterminator solutions that will provide you with the peace of mind that comes with living in a pest-free home or business. To learn more about ridding your property of unwanted guests, please reach out to us today!