Springtime is the Perfect Time to Get Your Yard Looking Fantastic

Springtime often ushers in a frantic rush of yard work, landscaping and other exterior efforts to make your home look its best. Rentokil will get your lawn looking fantastic this spring and your yard will be the envy of the block in no time at all. There are specific steps you can take yourself to help improve the look and health of your lawn this spring. Do not waste your time doing chores that produce little to no results, focus on the important aspects of your lawn to get an excellent looking yard this spring.
 

Avoid Starting your Year Work Too Early

One of the biggest mistakes that homeowners make when it comes to lawn care is starting much too early in the season. While an itchy green thumb is not always a bad thing, it can become dangerous to your lawn if you begin caring for it too early. Fertilizers and other materials that are put on your lawn too early in the season can backfire quickly and leave your lawn over cared for, dead and unable to grow this coming spring. The best way to treat your lawn with the love and attention it deserves is to hire Rentokil to get your lawn looking fabulous this spring and summer.
 

Early Spring Lawn Care Tips; Raking your Lawn is a Great Way to Start

Raking your lawn is probably how you ended your fall last year and it should be the way you start your lawn care this spring. Raking is a great way to wake your lawn up, remove any foreign materials and get off on the right foot. Raking allows you to pull up any thatch that may have accumulated over the winter months when your grass was less springy. It also gives you a chance to find any dead areas of your lawn that may require a little more attention than the other areas of your lawn. So pull your rake out and go to work this spring to get your lawn started off right.
 

Spring Lawn Care, Weed Control, Troubleshooting, Insect & Disease Treatments, Tree and Shrub Deep Root Fertilization in Northern Utah and Southern Idaho

The absolute sure-fire way to get your lawn looking its best this spring is to hire Rentokil. We know exactly what it takes to get your lawn growing strong and healthy this spring and last throughout the summer months as well. Rentokil is skilled and experienced in producing the most beautiful lawns and will make your home much more attractive this spring.

Getting a good night’s sleep is almost impossible if you are worried about the presence of bed bugs in your home. Bed bugs are becoming more and more common for homeowners in Utah and across the country to deal with and they can be extremely difficult to remove without the assistance of a professional pest control service. Bed bugs often go unnoticed for quite some time in a home due to their small size and their ability to hide during the day time. They are small insects shaped like an oval and are usually brown in color. Bed bugs that are inside of your home survive and feed off of the blood of humans and household pets.

Bed Bugs Hide During the Day

There are many different avenues in which a bed bug can take to gain access to your home. Bed bugs can enter into your home undetected through luggage, used furniture, clothing and other items that you bring into your home. The body of a bed bug is extremely flat, making it almost impossible to notice them at all. Bed bugs are known to hide in areas like the mattress of your bed, box springs, bed frames, headboards, sheets, and pillowcases. These areas are the most popular for bed bugs to hide because they can easily feed on humans at night.

How Long do Bed Bug Bites Last

Bed bugs typically bite humans at night time when humans are sleeping. Bed bugs feed on human blood by piercing the skin of a human and withdrawing the blood through an elongated beak. A bed bug will feed on a human anywhere from three to ten minutes at a time. The bed bug will stop feeding on human blood once it becomes engorged on the blood and crawls away back into its hiding place until it becomes hungry once again. The bite of a bed bug will not typically wake up a human, as it is not very painful or noticeable. It does become painful after the fact when it turns into an annoying welt that is extremely itchy. Bed bug bites are typically found on areas of the skin that are exposed when you are asleep.

Signs that Bed Bugs Are on Your Mattress & in Your Home

There are common signs that bed bugs leave behind that can alert you that you may have a bed bug problem. If you wake up in the morning with small welts on your skin that were not there when you went to bed, then you may have a bed bug issue. Bed bugs will also leave bloodstains on your sheets and pillowcases. Inspect your mattress for rust-colored spots, this is a stain left behind from bed bug excrement. Bed bugs are also known to leave behind an offensive, musty odor from the bug’s sweat glands. If you suspect that you have bed bugs inside of your home, contact Rentokil today.

A successful and reputable business requires a great deal of hard work, faithful employees and dedication. Keeping your business running properly also takes a certain amount of attention to the small details. Keeping your place of business free from annoying pests, spiders, bugs, and rodents is an essential part of running a successful and reputable company. An office building, warehouse or storefront all provide the perfect environment for insects and rodents to thrive, and if not addressed properly, these nuisances will quickly take over in the form of a nasty infestation. Professional commercial pest control is the best and more effective option when it comes to keeping your business pest-free.

Business Pest Prevention Tips

For employees to be an effective workforce and accomplish their tasks in an efficient matter, a clean and pest free work environment is essential. No employee will be able to focus on their assignments if they are worried about a roach crawling across their toe, or a mouse nibbling on their lunch in the break room. To have effective employees a clean and pest free work environment must exist. Keeping your workspace clean is the number one way to keep insects and rodents away from your place of work. Food left out in the break room will attract all sorts of pests, while work areas can become hiding places for roaches and other filthy insects.

Commercial Pest Management

When you hire a professional commercial pest control service you will greatly improve the environment of your place of business, creating a pest-free and rodent clear workplace where your employees can feel comfortable and more focused on their specific duties. Some businesses choose to take care of pest control on their own, even assigning existing employees to perform the task. This never produces positive results. Hiring a professional guarantees that the most effective methods are being used to target whatever type of pest is attempting to infest your office.
Avoid spending extra money on chemicals and other materials you know nothing about, their effectiveness or how much to use. Avoid paying an employee extra wages to get this job done only half of the time. When you hire a professional commercial pest control service, you can be sure that your office will be pest-free and you will keep the positive reputation you have among your peers. Contact Rentokil today for the best commercial pest control service available.

The most prominent mammal within most cities, other than humans, is the common house mouse. Homeowners will experience the presence of house mice at least once in their lifetime. House mice live close to humans and rely on some of the same food sources as we do. Although they will eat any type of food, house mice actually prefer seeds and grain over other options. A lone roaming house mouse can be taken care of easily and cause little to no damage if caught quickly. However, if house mice are breeding within the walls of your home, you may be dealing with a serious infestation that can cause damage to your home and health risks to you and your family.

Identification of Nocturnal House Mice

House mice are normally nocturnal and are rarely seen throughout the daytime. It is not unlikely to see some activity from them during the day; however, this may be an indication that there are quite a few house mice present within the walls of your home. House mice rely heavily on their sense of smell, taste, touch, and hearing. They have very poor eyesight and are believed to be color blind. House mice are generally a brown grayish color with no hair on their skin-colored tails. They have larger ears and protruding black eyes; some have been known to have white feet as well.

Preferred House Mice Habitats and Breeding Nests

House mice do not only find shelter inside of homes. They have been found nesting in and around farms, commercial establishments, open fields, and agricultural lands. Sometimes house mice actually live quite far from humans, especially in a mild climate. Once temperatures begin to drop, house mice will start looking for warmer shelter in other places to build a new nest and begin breeding. Litters of five to six mice are born nineteen to twenty-one days after mating. When mice are born, they have no hair and their eyes are shut for days. After about two weeks they have a full body of hair and their eyes and ears are fully developed and functioning.

Structurally Damaging and Disease Transmitting House Mice

House mice have the ability to cause a significant amount of structural damage to your home. They will gnaw on almost anything and will search your home for materials to use in their nest building. House mice are also known to eat into food storage and ruin stored grains, cereals and more. This can cause a serious health risk as the mice may leave urine or fecal matter on your food. Mice can transmit diseases to humans, such as salmonellosis, rickettsialpox, and lymphocytic choriomeningitis. Mice have also been known to cause ringworm and tapeworm among humans they come into contact with. If you suspect that house mice have invaded your home, it is time to contact a professional. Rentokil will eliminate your house mice problem and leave your home free from any rodent related health risk or structural damage that mice can cause. If you suspect mice or rodents in your home (or have a problem with any other kind of pest), give us a call today!

Now that winter is officially over, it’s time to start thinking about getting your yard in shape for the warmer months ahead. Winter can take its toll on your yard, and you most likely won’t notice most of the damage that has been done until your first-yard cleanup of the spring season. Winter weather can compact your soil as well as create conditions that are friendly to weeds and disease. It is essential that you thoroughly clean, fertilize and mow over-grown lawn early in the season. Winter may have left some bare spots on your lawn or invasive plants growing in unwanted areas. A healthy summer lawn starts with proper spring maintenance. Spring is a prime time to get your lawn in shape when the sun is shining bright but there is still a cool breeze in the air.

Timely Lawn Maintenance

One of the most important aspects of spring lawn care is to make sure that your lawn has as many opportunities as possible to gently come back to its full potential during the early spring months. If this is done correctly, the sun and soil will do a lot of the work for you. However, starting lawn maintenance too early can have a negative effect on the outcome of your lawn. It is best to let your lawn begin to slowly awaken on its own. If you happen to start yard maintenance before your lawn becomes fully green, you run the risk of compacting the grass or even killing new grass before it has a chance to mature. It is important that you wait until your grass has turned mostly green before you even begin to think about mowing or treating it in the spring.

Raking and Dethatching

Raking is an essential part of preparing your lawn for spring maintenance. Your lawn needs a thorough and deep raking before you begin to mow or treat the grass. Raking up your lawn will allow you to pull up any thatch that may have accumulated over the winter. Raking will also give you the opportunity to find any dead spots or compacted areas that will require special attention once you begin your lawn maintenance.

Tackling spring lawn care on your own can be an overwhelming task. Hiring a professional to come in and do the dirty work has many benefits and will leave your lawn looking beautiful and totally prepared for the warm months ahead. Rentokil will clean your lawn up from any damage the winter did and get your yard in tip-top, spring shape; looking beautiful and welcoming for summer. Contact Rentokil for the best lawn care service available.

During the summer, pests are a lot more active than during the cooler months of the year. But with the heat comes the increased presence of pests that can threaten your family. Ants, stinging pests and other bugs can be annoying if they get into your home, but mosquitoes and ticks pose the greatest threat. Along with being a nuisance like other pests, mosquitoes and tick are known for spreading diseases to people and pets. Mosquitoes spread numerous diseases such as malaria, West Nile Virus, and dengue fever and ticks are known to carry and spread Lyme disease. Although not all of these diseases are common in the United States, cases of West Nile Virus and Lyme disease have increased in frequency in recent years.

To prevent bites from mosquitoes and ticks, make sure to wear bug spray when spending excessive time outdoors. Ticks are especially prevalent in woodsy areas and in tall grass so be careful to wear bug spray on hikes and especially when camping. After hiking, check for ticks and don’t forget to check pets after hikes and before bringing them indoors, especially inside their ears. Maintaining your own property can also help to prevent ticks from taking up residence in your yard. Although mosquitoes are essentially ubiquitous, maintaining your yard, especially by removing any standing water, can help prevent the spread and reproduction of mosquitoes.

Although these steps and more can be taken to prevent pest problems, mosquito infestations and the spread of ticks is still possible. If you suspect your property may have any pest infestation or have questions about how Rentokil can resolve your pest control needs, call us today for a free evaluation!

Keeping Insects at Bay in My Home

So how can you prevent having insect problems in and around your home?  There are several things you can do to help prevent insects from becoming a problem in your house.

Start Outside

Carefully inspect the exterior of your home.  What type of shrubs or plants do you have up against your home?  Are they touching the home or are they neatly trimmed back away from the house.  Are they plants that will attract aphids which will then attract ants and wasps, or any other type of pest that you would like to keep away from your home?  Are there shrubs that provide great cover for spiders around your house and bring them in close proximity to your home?  Evergreen shrubs like Pfizer’s are often a real hot spot for spiders and were very common in landscapes years ago.  If you do have issues with the shrubs planted against your house, pull them out.  By making a permanent change you can get rid of an ongoing problem for good.

Also look at what type of ground cover or mulch you have up against your house which can be a popular hangout for earwigs, millipedes, and a great breeding ground for many insects.  Products like bark, that are found around many homes hold moisture well and can be a great breeding place for a variety of insect problems and hard to treat because of the very porous and absorbent service.  Consider putting a river rock or another type of rock there instead to provide a better option for insect control.

The next thing to look at is the home itself.  Are all of your exterior door sweeps tight?  Can you see daylight coming under the door?  Is all of your exterior caulking around trim, windows, siding, or other areas in good repair?  Caulking can shrink over its lifespan and create gaps that need to be repaired.  Do you have any holes around utility lines coming into the house like power, gas, exterior hose bibs, and air conditioning lines?  Also inspect crawl space, cold storage room, and attic vent screens to make sure there aren’t any holes in these allowing insects to enter easily.  Make sure if there are any large holes that allow insects the chance to get inside that they are sealed with an appropriate product.  Also, inspect your window screens and make sure they are in great shape and won’t allow insects to enter if you open the windows to get some fresh outside air.

Inside the Home

Now it’s time to look inside your home.  Where could insects thrive inside your home?  Do you have dark un-kept corners that you haven’t looked at for a while and that haven’t been disturbed?  These types of areas are popular hangouts for spiders as they don’t like to be disturbed.  Do you have any cracks around your baseboards that could be sealed with an application of caulk?  Can you see any daylight coming underneath your exterior doors which would allow insects to easily come under?  Door weather-stripping will eventually wear out and needs to be replaced on occasion.  Do your pipes coming out from under your sinks or other areas have the trim rings on them placed right against the wall to seal these openings as good as possible?

What about the food in your kitchen?  Are all of your products like flour, cereals, pet food, pancake mix, and other grain products sealed in airtight containers?  This will prevent you from having problems with Indian meal moth, weevil, or any other pest which may infest these types of products.  Are there any spilled food items in the cupboards in your kitchen or on your floor that should be cleaned up?  The cleaner your kitchen is the less likely you will have ants, cockroaches, or other types of pests become a problem.  Taking your garbage out often is also a good idea.  If you don’t have what they are looking for they will go elsewhere!

Get Professional Help

Regular professional pest control is a very good way to prevent pest problems before they become an issue.  Professionals know what to look for and how to treat correctly to protect you and your home from unwanted pests.  With proper exterior and interior treatments, most pests can be controlled and kept out of your home.  They can also inspect your home for the items mentioned above and assist you in your quest for a pest-free home!  If you are going to apply products to control pests around your home seek the assistance of a professional who has the skills and knowledge to make safe, targeted control treatments.

Bed bugs have quickly become the pest of concern across the nation.  They are small reddish-brown insects about 3/16 of an inch in size (approximately the size of an apple seed) that feed on the blood of human hosts.  They can be in hotels, transportation like taxi cabs, airplanes, trains, and buses; even places like movie theaters and department stores.  They don’t care if it’s a five-star hotel or a one-star hotel, or how clean an area is.  They can infest any type of indoor area.

So how do you get bed bugs?  By being in any of these places you can get bed bugs, but there are tips and tricks to avoiding them that you should know.  Bed bug bites can affect all people differently but typically they are on your upper body area and look like red mosquito or spider bites and can become very itchy for some people.  If you are concerned you may have bed bugs seek the help of a professional pest management company that has experience and training in bed bug control.

Travelers’ tips to prevent bed bugs from coming home with you:

1. Travel with duffle bag style luggage. These bags have minimal seams (i.e., hiding places for bugs) and can be laundered easily if infested.
2. When checking in to a hotel, leave your possessions in your car. First, go to your room and inspect the mattress (remove bedding), box springs (top and bottom), the bed frame and where the frame meets the floor, headboards (many headboards attached to the wall are removable), baseboards, furniture, and pictures near the bed.
3. Examine all surfaces for signs of an infestation, such as tiny rust-colored spots or fecal spotting.
4. Bed bugs typically come out in the early morning hours to feed, but during the day they will usually hide within a 5-foot radius of the bed.
5. Plastic bedbug-proof encasements are available for your luggage.
6. Place your luggage as far away from the bed area as possible and avoid putting it on the floor. It is best to elevate it off the floor or put it in an area with hard surfaces such as the bathroom.
7. Upon waking, thoroughly check the pillowcases and bedding for bed bug fecal spots (will look like small, dark blotches of ink). If you see spots, assume your room has bed bugs and that they are in your possessions.
8. Carefully inspect your luggage when repacking and when you return home. Always keep luggage off of the bed and store it in an area beside your bedroom.
9. Place all your clothing and duffle bag immediately in the dryer for at least 15 minutes at the highest setting upon returning home from travel. The heat from drying will kill any bugs or eggs.

Rentokil strives each day to make good on the promise it gives to each of its valued customers and clients. To make sure we succeed in becoming the best service provider in the state, we have created the Rentokil Mission Statement.

Our Mission Statement:

“We believe that exceptional service plays a critical role in the relationships and partnerships we create with our clients. Our theory is one of building our business on great service, and by providing it at a level that you will not find anywhere else. We refuse to quit until we exceed our client’s expectations, and our greatest accomplishment is their complete and utmost satisfaction.”