With Valentine’s Day soon approaching you may have a special night planned, but your valentine might be upset when the romantic night results in bed bug bites. Bed bug bites can lead to severe itching and welt-like bumps, not to mention the high cost of eradicating bed bugs if they hitch a ride back to your home. Research has linked financial distress, anxiety and social isolation with bed bug invasions. The instances of bed bugs in hotels are on the rise. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to greatly reduce the chance you’ll bring them home.

How Can You Avoid & Prevent Bed Bugs & Their Bites When Sleeping in Hotels

1. Wait to check out the view. While you check out your room put your luggage in the bathroom. The last place you’re likely to find bed bugs is in the bathroom because they don’t like tile floors and there aren’t places for them to hide. They will hide in areas close to where you sleep.
2. Check the bed for bed bugs. Pull the linens back and thoroughly check the mattress. All the way around it, under it and behind the headboard. Look for blood stains or small specks that look like ground pepper. You should also look for any bed bugs. They are the size and shape of an apple seed and you will most likely find them in the corners and the seams of the bedding or mattress. If you are at all suspicious, contact a member of the hotel staff right away.
3. Inspect the room for signs of bed bugs. After you’ve finished checking the bed, look at the rest of the room, especially around the bed. Look behind the picture frames, under the alarm clock and the phone. Research shows that bed bugs are usually located within 15 feet of a bed. This doesn’t mean they’re not further away than that though. Check the sofas or soft chairs in the room and the closet before you unpack.
4. Don’t keep luggage on the floor where bed bugs can crawl in. If you want to avoid bringing bed bugs home, it’s a good idea to keep your luggage off the floor and the spare bed. They can travel from room to room. If they aren’t in your room, to begin with, they might travel there when they locate a food source. Keep your luggage on the desk or the dresser instead.
5. Bring bed bug proof plastic bags with you. Purchase a plastic bag that zips up and bring it along with you. You can keep your luggage in it during your trip to protect your bag.
6. Educate your kids about bed bugs. Tell your children why you’re looking through the room. They need to be educated on bugs other than bees and mosquitoes.
7. If you happen to find signs of a bed bug problem, ask to be moved two floors away. Bed bugs are good at moving through wallboards and electrical sockets
8. Don’t sit quietly. Don’t put your family at risk of bed bugs because you’re worried about making a big deal. Hotels should have no problem moving you to another room. They don’t want to pass bed bugs along or leave problems untreated.

Bed Bug Inspections, Prevention & Control

Make sure your Valentine’s Day or other travel plans go smoothly and take steps to prevent a bed bug nightmare. Before planning your romantic getaway or other trips, take a little time to read reviews. You can look for reported bed bug problems in the hotel you’re planning to stay at. Rentokil are experts at bed bug issues in hotels. If you are a hotel owner or manager, contact us today to learn how to keep your guests bed bug free in your accommodation facility!

When we go out to a restaurant, it’s meant to be an enjoyable way to spend time with our friends or family as we eat good food. Finding a pest in your food or seeing one scurry past can turn your night out into a nightmare. There’s a lot of competition in the restaurant industry, so it can be detrimental to your business if pests are spotted. Owners of restaurants need to be on top of possible threats to their business from pests. It’s easy to prevent these issues if you have regular pest control services giving you the upper hand.

Common Pests Found in Restaurants

1. Cockroaches. Cockroaches are notorious in commercial kitchens. They are always looking for sources of water and food, so large scale kitchens are ideal. Cockroaches are very bad for business because inspectors can close your business down if roaches are spotted. They are scavengers and a health risk to humans as they crawl everywhere and will contaminate food. They are also vectors of disease. Signs of roaches are droppings that look like coffee grounds, odor, and physical sightings.
2. Flies. Flies can be found anywhere and are a nuisance. Their feeding habits are dangerous to our food as they will vomit or defecate on your food in a split second, spreading dangerous bacteria and viruses. To prevent them from getting into your restaurants you need to caulk cracks and holes from the outside, clean the restaurant including storage areas regularly and use properly fitted screens. Regular sightings are cause for inspecting your business.
3. Ants. Ants love anything found in kitchens, from grease to sugar. Spills need to be cleaned right away. This can be hard in tight spaces and you won’t know you’ve missed spots until you see a trail of ants in the kitchen. Cleanliness and garbage removal are key. Sightings of ants mean you’ll need to step up your cleaning practices.
4. Pantry pests. Pantry pests will invade flours, cereals, grains, baking mixes, nuts, and pasta. They are the most common problem in commercial establishments. They are common in dirty kitchens but can get into clean ones too by hitching rides with packaged food. They will contaminate food with their feces and fluids. Sightings and holes in packaging are signs you have them.
5. Rodents. Rodents don’t care if your establishment is squeaky clean or dirty. If there’s food, water, and shelter with entry points, they’ll come right on in. Their destructive feeding habits cost millions of dollars each year. Scarier is the number of viruses and disease-causing bacteria they carry and transmit to humans. Droppings, sounds, nests, smudge marks, and gnawing are signs you need to address a rodent problem.

Professional Commercial Pest Control

People would rather eat at home than with pests. These pests can ruin the reputation of your establishment as well as pose serious health risks to your customers. Having effective pest control is vital to a restaurant’s continued success. If you already have an infestation, it’s not an easy task to take on yourself. If you want to ensure you won’t have issues with any of these pests, contact Rentokil to take proactive steps with regular monitoring to keep your restaurant’s reputation glowing!

The Yellow Sac Spider is also known as the Black-Footed Spider because their black feet make it easy to spot them on your walls and ceilings. They are very common in the United States and are slightly more aggressive than most other house spiders. The yellow sac spider is the cause of many spider bites and other issues such as weaving webs that block airflow fuel tank hoses in Mazda’s! It’s an albino-looking spider that ranges from light yellow to pale yellowish-green in color and can also have an orange-brown stripe on its abdomen. The head and thorax are orange-brown to reddish and the abdomen is pale yellow. The color of their body can change in hue depending on the insect they have most recently consumed. The size, including its leg span, can be up to an inch for females. The males are more slender with a slightly larger leg span. The first pair of legs are longer than the fourth pair and they have eight eyes that are all about the same size in two horizontal rows.

Yellow Sac Spider Preferred Habitat Locations

Yellow sac spiders do not build webs. They live in flattened silk tubes during the day and will emerge at night to hunt. The silken tubes they create can be found within leaves, under landscape logs or timbers and where walls meet the ceiling. They will hunt spiders larger than themselves and even their own eggs and will search foliage like leaves and stems of plants, grass, shrubs, and other vegetation. They will make their way into homes, more so in the fall when their food supply starts to drop off. They will also come inside during the winter months to escape the cold and frost. You can often find them in your home crawling on the walls or other vertical surfaces.

Are Yellow Sac Spiders Venomous or Poisonous?

The terms venomous and poisonous are often used interchangeably by many people but they do not mean the same thing! The difference between them is in how the toxin is delivered. Venomous organisms such as spiders and bees inject their venom using their fangs or a stinger for example. Poisonous organisms like some caterpillars and butterflies deliver their toxins when they are simply touched or eaten. Yellow sac spiders and obviously venomous as opposed to poisonous.

What Does a Yellow Sac Spider Bite Look Like?

No consensus has been made on how toxic the bite or a yellow sac spider is, but it’s not known to be deadly. If the yellow sac spider is disturbed or threatened it has no problem biting you, whether it’s on purpose or accidentally, with fangs that can penetrate human skin quite easily. We are likely to get bitten when we’re gardening or taking care of outdoor activities. The venom contains a mild and local cytotoxic that can affect cells and a neurotoxin that is poisonous to nerve tissue. Many times, a suspected brown recluse spider bite may actually be from a yellow sac spider. You may develop a small red bump that will fade away after a couple of weeks while others may have swelling, burning, and pain with a pustule developing that will heal on its own over the same time frame. If you happen to get bitten, you should try to catch the spider for identification.

Yellow Sac Spider Infestation Prevention & Control

Sealing holes, cracks and gaps around windows, doors and the foundation where they can enter will do a lot in the way of prevention. You can also remove clutter inside and out (that yellow sac spiders like to live in) and remove any egg sacs with a vacuum cleaner. Contact a pest control specialist, like Rentokil for any assistance in controlling yellow sac spiders or other pests. We will perform an inspection and come up with a management plan to effectively deal with them.

Carpenter Ants can prove to be one of the worst ant species Northern Utah and Southern Idaho locals face. They are not only a difficult pest to treat but they are also one of the most destructive species of ant. Rentokil will share some insights of the carpenter ant, how you can tell if that is the species of ant you’re under invasion by, and the best treatment methods of ridding your home of these troubling pests.

Carpenter Ant Identification

The carpenter ant is one of the largest species of ants found in the U.S. Worker carpenter ants grow up to a half an inch in length, the swarmers a little larger and the queens measuring the longest at about an inch. They are most commonly black in color however occasionally their color may vary from reddish to yellowish as well. Worker carpenter ants are easy enough to identify due to their larger mandibles. A queen carpenter ant can lay up to 16 eggs per year and live up to 25 years. The cycle from egg to adult is about 12 weeks. Carpenter ants will live in both outdoors and indoors; favoring moist, decaying or hollow woods for nesting sites. The carpenter ant doesn’t actually eat the wood, unlike termites. They prefer meats and sweet food left by people. However, even though they don’t eat the wood they do cause serious damage by cutting galleries into the wood for their nests.

Signs of Carpenter Ants

Some of the common signs of carpenter ant activity are, of course, the presence of worker ants. Their larger mandibles and coloring makes them easier to see and identify. Another sign of carpenter ant activity is the winged ant, also called swarmers. Like termites, future carpenter ant queens leave the colony to establish a new one. Seeing these winged ants means there is a current colony nearby and a new one will probably begin. You may also want to look for signs of current activity where the worker ants are digging galleries. You will see piles of sawdust often mixed with dead ants. When searching for any signs of a colony, make sure you look both inside and outside of your home. Of course, look for any dying plants or trees where they might begin their first colony.

Carpenter Ant Control

There are chemical treatments you can use, but first, you must find the nest. It may be difficult, especially if the colony is inside your home. You will likely need the assistance of a professional pest control company. With our experience, we will be able to locate the nest or nests, and properly deal with them. Rentokil will customize treatment and use various control methods until you no longer have carpenter ants in and around your home. Carpenter ants are best treated right away. If left unchecked for a long period of time, they can cause major damages which can be rather expensive to repair. If you have found signs of carpenter ant activity or have been struggling with removing a current carpenter ant infestation, don’t delay. Rentokil has a great deal of experience with this species of ant and can help you remove this problem from your home and yards. Call us today to make your home pest-free!

American cockroaches are about 1.5 inches long and they fly clumsily which makes them quite unnerving. The adults are reddish-brown or mahogany in color and have a yellow band that outlines the area behind their heads. American cockroaches spend most of their time outdoors and prefer warm, damp areas like flowerbeds and under mulch. They come into our homes when they search for food and water. Once they are inside, they will eat spilled food, table scraps, crumbs and whatever else they can find. If pet food is left out overnight they will eat that too.

Signs of an American Cockroach Infestation

1. Cockroach Fecal Droppings. This is the biggest indication you have cockroaches. These droppings resemble flakes of pepper or coffee grounds. Higher amounts of fecal matter mean a larger infestation with higher traffic areas having more fecal matter.
2. Roach Egg Casings. The casings that cockroaches produce contain multiple eggs. The unhatched eggs or casing indicate that roaches are around. They are long, roundish-shaped and brownish in color.
3. Musty Odor. Large numbers of cockroaches will emit a distinctive smell. If you smell them you’ve already got a big problem as a few roaches will give off little odor. The smell is described as oily and musty and can linger in the air and even affect the taste of food!
4. Dead Roaches. If you find dead roaches, then you can there are others close by thriving and infesting your home. You can find roach under sinks, in the cabinets, under your stove, and around the fridge.
5. Cockroach Sightings During the Day. It’s uncommon to see cockroaches during the day unless you are experiencing a bug infestation. They are nocturnal and therefore more active at night. They only come out to look for food and water when you are asleep. You may also see them during the day if they get pushed out of their nests as the numbers increase.

Cockroach Prevention

Preventing cockroaches is much easier than getting rid of them and sanitation is the best way to prevent them. Even the cleanest of homes can get infested if sanitation steps get sloppy. This leaves roaches the resources they need to survive so keeping the kitchen free of food for them is very important. You can always try adhesive-based traps, roach baits or sprays. Cockroaches can be killed but will always come back if you don’t take care of the root cause: the nest itself. Which is why you need the help of professionals.

Cockroach Infestation Control

You need to start treatment as soon as you notice the fecal matter. Don’t wait for the other signs as it may be too late. Professionals will even have a difficult time killing all of them and the visit will be more expensive. Contact the professionals at Rentokil to get rid of American cockroaches and other pests!

The white-footed mouse is a rodent native to North America and is found widely throughout. They measure half a foot in length including their tail and weigh less than one ounce. They have small, black eyes and thin ears. As their name implies, they have white feet and white fur on their bellies, with the rest of their fur reddish-brown in color. They have an excellent sense of sight and hearing and a strong sense of smell that helps them locate food. Cooler temperatures will bring them inside for food and shelter and can lead to food contamination. They can also carry Hantavirus.

Can a White Footed Mouse Spread Hantavirus & Transmit Lyme Disease?

Hantavirus, as the name, applies, to the pathogen that causes the rare and potentially deadly disease known as hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HPS). It’s transmitted via rodent feces, urine, and saliva. The most common way it’s passed to humans is through inhalation when nesting areas are disturbed and the virus becomes airborne. Avoid touching your nose or mouth after coming into contact with contaminated items. Common places that these mice are found are in vacated homes and crawlspaces. When searching your home for possible infestations, special care needs to be taken to avoid being exposed. Early symptoms of HPS include muscle aches and pains, fatigue and fever. You may also experience chills, dizziness, nausea, headaches and abdominal pain. More severe symptoms, after four to ten days, can include difficulty breathing as the lungs can be filled with fluid, coughing and shortness of breath. There is no known cure, vaccine or treatment, making early detection of symptoms key. The hantavirus kills approximately 30 % to 40% of those that become infected. White-footed mice also help transmit Lyme disease when an infected tick passes the bacteria on to them.

Signs of a Rodent Infestation

White-footed mice can be a nuisance when they feed on seeds and search for nesting areas. They will cause damage when they gnaw at siding, insulation, woodwork, packaged food, and furniture to name a few! White-footed mice can chew on electrical wires that can lead to a fire. In your garden, they will ruin the growth of new crops as they dig them up for food. You might have rodents in your home if you hear scampering and squeaking in the walls or basement, droppings in kitchen cabinets, stored food areas and around your sink. Larger amounts of droppings mean large infestations.

White Footed Mouse Prevention

Exclusion is the best way to avoid an infestation of white-footed mice. Look around the outside of the home and look for any holes or gaps mice might use to get in, and seal them off. Wire mesh or concrete should be used as they will chew through just about anything else. Place mouse traps along runways or anywhere you suspect activity. Mice are smart, so you should use different kinds of traps and continue using the traps until you’re no longer catching them.

Rodent Control

The last thing you want is mice running around your home. Removing large infestations can be challenging and professionals will be able to make a positive identification and use the best methods to eliminate the problem. Contact Rentokil to get a handle on any issues you might be having with white-footed mice or other pests.

Voles are small rodents that are a relative of the mouse. They are shorter, with a hairier tail and they have a slightly rounded head with smaller ears and eyes. They are 4 to 8 ½ inches in length, weigh 1 to 3 ounces and can be brown to gray in color.

Damage Caused by Voles

The tunneling habits of voles are what cause the most damage. They construct surface runways and underground tunnels with many entrances to the burrow that will also damage gardens and interfere with irrigation systems, damaging lawns and golf courses. Girdling seedling and mature trees occur when voles eat away at the bark in a continuous ring around the trunk of the tree. This will deprive the tree of water and nutrients and cause the tree to die. They will also girdle the roots of trees and shrubs. If voles continue to eat away at the roots of a tree, it can cause the tree to suddenly fall over without warning. This is caused by the damaged root system.

How to Get Rid of Voles in Your Yard

Voles are busy day and night and all year round but you can reduce damage by modifying their habitats via exclusion, trapping, and poison grain baits. Voles can kill as much as 50 % of a lawn over a winter! Any rodent infestation should be dealt with by using more than one method.
Habitat modification. Infestations of voles only happen when food is available to them so remove weed ground over and tall grasses by regular mowing, tilling and herbicide application. These steps will provide long-lasting control by reducing vole population numbers.
Vole Exclusion. Surround young trees and shrubs with ¼-inch mesh hardware cloth or plastic mesh. This should be 18 inches above the ground and 3 to 6 inches below the ground. This method can also be used with vegetable and flower beds.
Vole Repellents. There are some repellents that will deter voles and can be applied to trees, shrubs and vegetable crops.
Vole Trapping. Fall and winter is the best time to start trapping. This is when food sources are dwindling also when damage caused by voles is the worst. Mousetraps work to get rid of small populations. Traps need to be placed perpendicular to runways with bait like rolled oats, apples or peanut butter. Place the traps along runways, hiding places and around areas you suspect activity; and also around burrow entrances. If there’s a large infestation of voles, then trapping may not be practical. Check traps regularly, reset and re-bait as necessary until there are no more voles being trapped. You might need to cover traps to protect pets and children. You can use boxes or inverted pans.

Professional Vole Control

Voles are common which makes it hard to get rid of them. They aren’t physically dangerous to people but can be dangerous as they can spread harmful diseases through their feces and urine. They can also introduce parasites onto your property. Contact Rentokil at the first signs of voles.

Late fall is the time of year where rodents will find their way inside our homes to spend the winter, and deer mice are no exception. Deer mice are one of the most abundant and widely distributed mammals in North America. They measure 3 to 4 inches in length and have pointed noses with large black eyes. Their ears have a little fur on them and they have bicolored bodies that are light brownish-red on the top with white bellies.

Deer Mice Habitat & Diet

Deer mice like to live in forests, grasslands and agricultural crops. They are nocturnal, spending most of their day in nests or other sites of refuge. Their nests are made up of leaves, twigs, stems, and grassroots. They will also use fibrous materials, fur, feathers or shredded clothes to line the inside of their nests. These nests will be found inside hollow trees stumps, roots, under rocks and logs. They will also take advantage of abandoned squirrel or bird nests. If they find their way inside your home they won’t hibernate over the winter but will become dormant if the weather gets very cold, nesting in family groups until the spring. Deer mice are omnivores, eating a wide range of animal and plant matter that depends on what’s available. They like to eat a range of seeds, as well as fruits, fungi, invertebrates, and some vegetation. In the fall, when tree seeds and nuts are abundant, they will cache their food and store it around their nesting site. They will not reproduce over the winter but if they have large food supplies stored, they can and will.

Deer Mice Damage

The seeds that deer mice eat in the forest can prevent the trees from growing back. They will raid stored grains and other food supplies. Deer mice will gnaw at away at fabric and boxes along with gnawing through electrical wiring, and that can lead to fires. It can also lead to freezer, clothes dryer and other appliance and electrical failures.

Deer Mice Diseases; Hantavirus

Deer mice are the most common carriers out of all rodents to carry hantavirus. Hantavirus is transferred to humans from deer mice and can lead to a deadly disease known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and breathing problems that can become fatal. Transmission usually occurs through breathing the dust from the mouse’s feces, urine or saliva.

Signs of a Deer Mouse Infestation; Droppings, Chewed Boxes, Sounds & More

Know the signs of a deer mouse infestation so you can take action immediately. You can hear them at night in the walls or the ceiling above but the first indication will most likely be their droppings that are usually found on the floor, in drawers, and under the sink. You might find chewed openings in the wall, cabinets and cardboard boxes as well.

Rodent Control

Leaving these rodents unchecked can lead to trouble and danger. If they happen to make their way into your home, removal can be difficult. Professional pest control is required to take care of existing deer mouse infestations. If you think you’re having issues, you should contact Rentokil & Lawn Services today!

Boxelder bugs are insects that are black with orange or red lines on the thorax and sides. They have flat wings and are ½ an inch long as adults. Outdoors, they make their homes in boxelder, maple, and ash trees. They aren’t pests in the summer as they go unnoticed, but are a problem in the fall as they search for a place to spend the winter. They are generally inactive in the winter but if the day is sunny and warm, they can become mobile in the walls and attic. An infestation may not occur all at once at the same time, as they will be in different parts of the home and the warmth will not reach them all equally. Any boxelder bug you see inside your home in the winter and spring made its way inside the previous fall.

Signs of a Boxelder Bug Infestation

Homes that are attractive to the boxelder bug are ones with a large and sunny southern or western exposure. Buildings that stand taller than those around them are also attractive and color makes no difference as they are attracted to all colors. Boxelder bugs will come inside through small cracks and crevices. They do not bite people and are pretty much harmless. They cannot cause damage to your home but large numbers can stain walls, curtains, and other sources with fecal matter. This fecal matter is also unsightly. Some boxelder bugs will look for moisture and be found around houseplants and windows.

Prevention of Boxelder Bugs

The adult boxelder can stay well hidden in the bark of trees with their reddish-brown color. Removing the host tree(s) that surround your home will prevent boxelder bugs from multiplying but they may still fly into your yard from neighboring trees. Exclusion is an effective treatment. They will be harder to deal with if they make their way inside, so keeping them out is imperative. They will enter your home through windows and doors so make sure they close tightly and that screens don’t have any rips in them. Door sweeps can be installed along with sealing off holes and gaps around areas where cables, wires, or plumbing enters the house.

Boxelder Bug Control

If it’s not possible to use methods of exclusion or there is a history of boxelder infestations or large numbers are currently present, then the use of professional pest control will be needed. We can treat crevices and cracks to kill them and to act as a barrier to prevent more boxelder bugs from getting in. You can also use a strong, sealed vacuum to suck them up inside your home but try not to squish them as they are stinky. You can also use traps to catch stragglers that are hiding. Boxelder bugs are more of an annoyance than a danger but you still want them gone, so if you need help controlling these pests, contact Rentokil today.

Seeing a cockroach scurry across your floor will most likely send you into a frenzy. If the cockroach you see is light brown or tan in color with two black horizontal stripes behind its head; it’s a German cockroach. They are commonly found indoors and have wings but rarely fly. They crawl around on the kitchen counters, floors and other areas that are humid and warm inside your house. German cockroaches have been called the cockroach of nightmares. They are the most destructive and hardest to get rid of. They also reproduce faster and in larger numbers than any other species of cockroach. They can trigger asthma symptoms and transmit harmful bacteria, so do not take a possible infestation lightly. Taking steps right away to get rid of them is imperative, otherwise, they will wreak havoc in your home.

What to Do if You See a Cockroach; Signs of a German Cockroach Infestation

1. If you notice activity during the day you most likely have a big problem.
2. If you’re noticing an oily and musty smell it could be German cockroaches as they secrete a variety of odorous chemicals.
3. Droppings left behind look like ground coffee or pepper grounds. The most likely spot you’ll notice them is in the drawers or on the countertops and it can even cause dark stains in the corners within your home.
4. Finding dead cockroaches means there are more around; but alive and well! Look for pieces of skin that have shed also.
5. Kitchen and bathrooms are hot spots as there are ample moisture and food needed for survival and they also eat soap and toothpaste!
6. Egg capsules will be found in areas that female cockroaches are hanging out.

Cockroach Prevention & Control Tips in Homes & Apartments

Make sure you take care of any issues in your kitchen or bathroom that might be providing them with the moisture German cockroaches need. Clean up food crumbs in the kitchen, cover the soap in the bathroom and put the cap back on the toothpaste tube! German cockroaches are most active at night so it’s a good idea to put your pet’s food away so they don’t help themselves. Because roaches do extremely well in humidity, consider using a dehumidifier to send them in another direction. You may not consider items in your cupboards edible, but cockroaches will. The tiniest crumb can invite them into your kitchen so clean your cupboards regularly to ensure they don’t have a meal in there. Make sure all your trash containers are sealed tightly because they love trash. Food items in bags should be placed in tightly sealed plastic containers once they’ve been opened to avoid cockroaches for dining on it. Before climbing into bed at night check around to make sure there aren’t any dripping faucets or standing water in bathtubs, sinks, and showers. This just gives German cockroaches what they need if you don’t.

German Cockroach Control

If you’ve taken steps to prevent these pests and they’ve still managed to make your home theirs too, you’ll need professional pest control. German cockroaches reproduce at alarming rates, making it very difficult to get rid of them. Give Rentokil a call to help you out. We have the best methods and products to send German cockroaches packing!