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Carpenter Ant

Successfully controlling carpenter ants requires certain skills, knowledge and experience. Carpenter ant control involves tracking down and treating as many satellite colonies as possible inside and outside of the home as well as attempting to find and treat the parent colony. Accessing the parent colony may be difficult because it might be located high in a tree or on a neighboring property. In such cases, your service professional may use carpenter ant baits, but these may have varying results because of the carpenter ants’ finicky feeding habits. If conditions on your property (such as a large number of trees) create a high risk for reinfestation, your service professional may recommend regular pest management services to help prevent new infestations. These tips will help you limit carpenter ant infestation:

• Store any firewood away from your home and remove any dead wood or wood scraps from around the foundation.
  
• Trim dead limbs from trees and remove stumps. Rid your yard of these potential nesting sites.
  
• Make sure that all plumbing or roof leaks are sealed, and check crawl spaces for excess moisture.
  
• Water from rain gutters should be directed away from your home and not be allowed to accumulate close to the foundation.
  

Pavement Ant

Individual pavement colonies can often be controlled using ant baits, but perimeter inspection and treatment are commonly necessary for long-term relief. Pavement ant colonies are controlled by direct treatment of nests in the soil. Where colonies are located under slabs, ant baits may be successful in controlling an infestation. If baits are unsuccessful, the slab may need to be drilled and treated underneath. These tips will help prevent a pavement ant infestation:

• Seal cracks and holes in the exterior of the home to prevent ants and other pests from entering.
  
• Keep vegetation cut away from the foundation of the home.
  
• Avoid using items such as stones and landscape timbers next to the home's foundation. Pavement ants nesting under these items are likely to infest the home.
  
• Keep layers of mulch in landscape beds less than two inches thick and at least 12 inches away from the foundation.
  

Oriental Cockroach

Eliminating or minimizing potential harborages outside is the best way to limit infestations of these cockroaches.
Sealing cracks in the building's exterior helps prevent these pests from entering.
Installing screening in all vents is important.


House Spider

Regular removal of spider webs is the best way to limit these spiders.
Sealing up cracks around windows and doors helps prevent their entry.
Switch exterior lights to the yellow "bug" light bulbs which attract fewer flying insects on which spiders feed.
Treatments to exterior spider nesting sites can help reduce the numbers of spiders when combined with an overall pest management program.