Month: February 2021

Possums are the only marsupials of North America, and they actually help us by eliminating unwanted pests. It’s been estimated by scientists that in just one summer season, a single possum wanders through its environment, collects, and then eats about 5,000 black-legged ticks, which are the carrier of Lyme disease.

Despite their benefits, nobody really wants them invading their home or property. In addition, they do carry disease. A possum could be a carrier of leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, salmonella and tuberculosis. Contact with a possum could expose you to diseases carries by anything living on the animal: fleas, ticks and lice. Your pets and family can also be at risk if they come into contact with a possum’s urine or feces. By allowing an opossum to set up camp underneath your home or in your crawl space, you could be exposing your living environment to contaminants that can harm you or your family.

Possums are fairly slow, and instead of running away when scared, they will often bare their teeth and hiss at their attacker. They have been know to get into fights with pets.

If you see a possum on your property, it will normally leave on its own. But if it keeps returning, there are some things you can do to make your property more inhospitable to possums.

• Make sure there is no food lying about: possums will eat just about anything, including your compost, garbage, pet food, fruit fallen from trees, etc
• Eliminate hiding places – possums need to hide from predators and are always looking for little nooks and crannies to hide in
• Possums are nocturnal creatures – they dislike light. Leaving the porch lights on can help deter them.
• Use ammonia – possums dislike the smell of ammonia. Leaving a few ammonia-soaked rags around can help drive them away.

If you have any questions or you need some help getting rid of unwanted possums, call DM Pest Control

A raccoon is a medium-sized mammal native to North America, and common throughout Texas. The original habitats of the raccoon are deciduous and mixed forests, but due to their adaptability they have extended their range to mountainous areas, coastal marshes, and urban areas, where some homeowners consider them to be pests.

The most common complaints include the following:

• Raccoons living in the attic
• Raccoons living in the chimney
• Tipping over garbage cans
• Stealing pet food or bird seed
• Sick, potentially rabid raccoon
• Presence is alarming dogs/pets

Trapping and relocating is a good option. However: if you have a raccoon in the attic, 90% of the time it is a female with a litter of babies. simply you have to follow of Raccoon trapping and removal steps trap the mother and remove her. The young in your attic will slowly starve to death over a period of up to two weeks, then decompose and cause an odor problem. A properly licensed trapper, who knows wildlife and has experience, is vaccinated against rabies, and who can do it safely and legally, is the best option.

There are some things you can do to prevent raccoons becoming a nuisance to begin with:

• Secure your garbage can and strap the lid down with bungee cords
• Don’t leave out pet food
• Lock your doggie doors
• Make sure your house is secure, with no holes or openings into the attic
• If they are getting under the house or under the deck, you can install an exclusion barrier of steel mesh

Raccoons are actually very intelligent creatures, well adapted to survive in both the forest and city. They can cause trouble with people because they are so adaptable and clever. As with all animals, they are usually just doing what they need to do to survive.

If you have any questions about raccoons, please call DM Pest Control at (512) 905-4984.

• Cockroaches are older than dinosaurs. They have been around longer than we have! That’s a strange thought.
• There are more than 4,000 species of cockroaches in existence. And they live on every continent except Antarctica.
• Some cockroaches can get very big: over 3 inches long.
• Cockroaches can eat just about anything. And even though they can eat whatever and will never run out of food, they can also live for weeks without it! This is because they are cold-blooded, which means they can keep their metabolism rate low. Cockroaches can’t live very long without water, though – two weeks at most – and most dead cockroaches you see probably died of thirst (unless a human or pesticide got to them first).
• Cockroaches can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes! So flushing them down the toilet won’t necessarily kill them…
• A cockroach can live for a week without its head! This is not because they don’t have brains. It’s just that their brains do not control all their functions. The organs that control the vital functions can be found in the thorax which is in the midsection of their body. It won’t be able to drink, though, so it eventually will die of thirst.
• Cockroaches can survive a nuclear explosion. Studies have shown that cockroaches can tolerate high radiation levels, far beyond the levels that we humans can live with. In fact, cockroaches were found in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the US dropped atomic bombs, and in Chernobyl, where the worst nuclear accident happened. Scientists aren’t entirely sure how they survive.
• Cockroaches are fast runners. Anyone who’s ever tried to chase a cockroach knows this for a fact – cockroaches are racers. They can go up to 3 miles per hour, which is really fast for the size of their bodies. Their back legs are built for speed, and can move 27 times per second. Cockroaches can also move up walls by running faster than they do on flat surfaces and the spines on their legs help them stick to slippery surfaces.
• Cockroaches prefer to live in groups. When a good source of food is found, they leave chemicals that signal other cockroaches to join.
• Some cockroaches are kept as pets. To many, cockroaches are hated. To some, though, they are beloved pets. The Madagascar hissing cockroach and the true death’s head cockroach, for example, are popular pets since they are odorless and require minimal care. As mentioned before, cockroaches are not picky eaters and they do not get sick easily. They only need a terrarium with a lot of hiding places.
• Cockroaches are edible. In China, cockroaches are deep fried and sold on sticks on the streets. Although that practice is not common in the United States.

Flies are two-winged insects that typically have short bodies and are associated with decomposing things. Some types of flies are the common house fly, flesh fly, horsefly, and the black fly. Dragonflies, mayflies, and fireflies do not fit in this category. Flies do not bite or sting like some other insects do, but they can spread disease and are really annoying to have flying around trying to eat your food all the time. A female housefly can lay up to 600 eggs in their short lifetime, so it’s best to get rid of them quickly.

Since flies live such short lifespans, if you see one buzzing around your house, you’ll most likely find it dead somewhere in your house, and that can attract more insects and rodents into your home. You can use many different methods for flea removal from invading your home. Sanitation is critical – this removes or prevents any medium where fly larvae will develop. It’s also important to remove things that are attractive to adult flies such as garbage and waste. Good drainage is important in prevention as well, since moisture is an important factor for breeding.

• Keep garbage cans and dumpsters clean.
• Repair window screens and doors. Openings to buildings should be tightly screened with mesh screens. Where doors must be kept open for customers, trucks, etc., outfit the doors with air curtains. Air curtains can prevent fly entry if the velocity is 1,600 feet per minute or higher.
• Pick up pet waste in the yard. Flies love to breed and lay eggs on this material because of the moisture content.
• In home kitchens, restaurants and commercial kitchens, drain flies can become a problem. It’s important to keep the drains clean.
• Contact us for more information on that.
• Dead animals can increase a fly problem. Remove the carcasses, because flies lay eggs on decomposing rodents and fowl. The eggs become maggots (larvae) and the maggots become adult flies.
• Do not over water indoor potted plants. The wet soil will provide a perfect breeding area for gnats. Keep the pots well drained.
• Keep outdoor areas clean. Clean up any decaying plants or other matter.

For more information, contact us!