Where Will You Find Scorpions?

Scorpions are opportunists when it comes to shelter. They will live anywhere where it is dark, cool, and moist. They like squeezing into places to hide, so you may find them climbing into your shoes, in a pair of gloves, amongst folded curtains, and especially near places that are moist like your flower gardens or anywhere where water drips and leaks. They will also seek out places where they can be safe AND well-fed. This makes your home’s walls especially vulnerable if you have other pest problems, such as crickets.

What Do Scorpions Feed On?

Scorpions survive on different types of bugs and, in some species, even small critters like mice. They can also feed on spiders, roaches, and other creepy crawlies, but they love crickets the most. One of the best ways to get rid of scorpions is to eliminate their food supply. When they go hungry, they will go away in pursuit of more hospitable places.

Where Do Scorpions Come From?

Most people in San Tan Valley, Arizona who have scorpion problems are seeing the Arizona Bark Scorpion. The Bark Scorpion, or centruroides sculpturatus, is native to Arizona and is classified as a venomous arachnid, a close relative of spiders. Bark Scorpions are nocturnal and use their venom to catch and kill food, as well as to defend themselves from predators.

How In The World Are They Getting In?

Scorpions have an amazing ability to flatten their bodies and squeeze through openings as small as 1/8th of an inch. Think of all the places around the exterior of your home that can have a gap that size leading into the interior of your house. That’s a lot of opportunity for a tiny venomous creature looking for food. This also happens to also be the way crickets get into a home. An excellent method of assessing your home’s vulnerability to these pests is to walk around the perimeter of the structure’s walls in search for these gaps. It’s surprising how many actually exist. You could try to fill each and everyone with fillers, screens, etc, but when it comes down to it.. if there’s food, they will find a way in.

What Are Scorpions Natural Predators?

Lizards will sometimes eat scorpions, but a healthy population of lizards will not control a scorpion population. Lizards prefer to eat bugs that don’t bite back. Scorpions’ natural predators are birds, cats, mice, rats, and you. It’s a tough world for scorpions; that’s why they are so hard to kill and so good at hiding.

Will Pest Control Services Kill My Scorpions?

Most people think of scorpion control as poisoning them, laying out irritating powders, black-light hunting, etc. These solutions may kill a few scorpions, but the only sure way to rid yourself of scorpions for good is to elliminate their current means of sustanence. Once you let up on the general pest control services, you can rest assured scorpions will find their way back to and inside of the structure.

Common Scorpions found in San Tan Valley, Arizona

A Honeybee’s Role in Our Ecosystem

Our ecosystem relies heavily on honeybees to pollinate the plants humans and animals alike need for food. Unfortunately, bees also like to make their homes in the same places we do.There are species native to Arizona that don’t actually form hives, but usually if you have a hive in Arizona, it’s either Africanized honeybees or their European cousins. Once a colony establishes a new home, they release a potent bee pheromone to mark the site in order for bees up to three miles away can find their way home.

What Kind of Damage Does a Beehive Do?

A bee’s hive can create a tremendous amount of property damage in a short period of time. Since honey is so strongly scented with pheromones and sugars, it attracts other bugs such as ants, cockroaches, and crickets, which in turn attract scorpions and spiders.

What Do I Do if I Find A Beehive?

Bees can be fascinating to watch, and sometimes folks might be tempted to see just how much they can provoke a hive before the bees are irritated. For your own safety, resist that temptation and teach your children to do the same. When you find an active beehive, give it a wide birth and call Seville Pest Control to remove the colony. Remember, it takes a trained professional to safely remove a beehive without risking painful stings or unnecessary damage to property.

How Do We Remove a Beehive?

The first step to removing a beehive is locate it within your home or commercial property. Once we establish the location of the hive, we will spray it with an insecticide formulated especially for bees. Sometimes a hive has limited access, and it isn’t possible to reach the entirety of the hive with the insecticide. In such cases,  it may be necessary to create small access points to sufficiently douse the bees.

As we mentioned before, since bees are an important part of our ecosystem, you may elect to have us attempt to remove the bees alive and distribute them elsewhere out of conflict with humans.

Once the hive is absent of bees, the wax and honeycomb is removed to prevent unsightly melting and dripping of the comb as well as the invitation for new occupants. We will submit an estimate for repair in cases where damage is done either by the bees or the need to gain access to the hive.

Common Bees found in Gilbert, Arizona

Desert Friend or Foe?

Arizona’s hot, dry climate is an inviting environment for a variety of different and interesting spider species. The presence of some of these arachnids around your home is helpful, as they eat other household pests such as crickets and cockroaches. Several forms of spiders, including the black widow and brown recluse, are dangerous because of the poisonous venom they transmit with each bite. Ridding your home of these pests is highly recommended in order to prevent an unfriendly, even fatal, encounter with a dangerous spider.

How Can Poisonous Spiders be identified?

While poisonous spiders are common in Arizona, they can be easily identified, making them easy to avoid. The characteristics common to a harmful arachnid are found in their color, body size, leg span, and distinct markings. For example, a brown recluse spider is, as its name denotes, brown in color. It has an unmistakable violin shaped marking on its back and is usually only one-half of an inch in size. The venomous black widow has a shiny black, or brownish black, coloring and displays an hourglass shaped grouping of red or orange dots on its belly. These spiders are also approximately half an inch in side, with the exception of the male who is smaller. Don’t get too close when attempting to identify any spider as they will attack when they feel threatened.

Where Are Poisonous Spiders Commonly Found?

Poisonous spiders can be found in a variety of locations around a home. Some, such as the tarantula, are very active and generally stay mobile in search for food. Others can be found in dry areas including wood piles and rarely utilized areas such as storage areas. The black widow will build its web in low lying places such as barbecue grills, along a home’s foundation, and in garages.

What Do I Need to Do If I Find a Venomous Spider?

It is generally best to leave the spider undisturbed and contact a professional immediately. Our exterminators are equipped with the tools necessary to rid your home of these precarious arachnids, helping you to have peace of mind that your loved ones are safe from the side effects a bite from the wrong arachnid can inflict.

Common Spiders found in Gilbert, Arizona

The Age Old Battle

Collectively, ants are referred to as a colony or an army. What an appropriate name for an insect that marches into your home bringing along thousands of comrades to invade every nook and cranny, especially those areas where food can be located and taken back to the colony. Surfaces covered with ants along with no sign of an end to their invasion in the near future is a horrific sight that instantly brings dread to the onlooker as well as the knowledge that there is a battle on the rise to successfully rid the area of these pests. The war between human and ant then begins with the ants having the advantage because of high resistance levels to man’s defenses and their sheer numbers.

What Do Ants Eat?

Ants are not consumers of solid foods. They take liquids from solids and use these to feed themselves. Ants also have the ability to regurgitate the food to share with other ants or developing larvae in their colony. Upon entering a home, ants are in search of sweets or proteins they can liquefy for theirs, or others’, consumption.

What Types of Ants Can Be Found in Arizona?

Worldwide, there are approximately 12,000 known species of ants, 700 of which occupy North America. The most common species of ants in Arizona are Fire, Carpenter, Pharaoh, Harvester, and Argentine ants. Each may be beneficial to the ecosystem, but they also have characteristics that make them a nuisance to man. For example, Fire ants have a painful bite that leaves a sting for quite some time after. Some individuals also experience allergic reactions to their bite. Carpenter ants tend to nest in wood causing structural damage to the buildings in which they take up residence. Pharaoh ants are also a pest because they will create holes in rubber and fabric based goods.

How Can the War with Ants Be Won?

The market offers a variety of “over-the-counter” solutions to ant problems. There are sprays and traps designed specifically to kill these pests. While these products are generally effective, they do not provide a long term solution to the problem. They may have to be used on a daily basis to keep the ants at bay, which is a time consuming annoyance. Obtaining professional service will quickly and effectively end the war with ants in your home, as well as provide

The Mighty Menace

Arizona is home to some of the most dangerous creatures known to man- rattlesnakes, scorpions, killer bees, and scorpions just to name a few. The deserts of Arizona are also famous for a creature that may not be deadly, but is highly unfavorable to find wandering about in your home-the cockroach. While there are many different species of cockroach, those most common to Arizona, especially southern portions, are the German Cockroach, the American Cockroach, and the Brown-Banded Cockroach. These mighty menaces can contaminate food supplies and cause health problems for those with a predisposition for breathing problems.

Does a Cockroach Infestation Result from an Unsanitary Home?

The stigma with cockroaches is that they are attracted to highly unsanitary living conditions. Cockroaches do tend to be found living in warm, dark, humid environments- the same characteristics an unsanitary home may have. Their presence in a home, however, does not directly relate to the home’s level of cleanliness. They are generally associated with inhabiting areas where clutter, filth, and dirt reign because of the amount of food they can obtain in such a space. Infestations have also been found in highly sanitary homes simply because they managed to fight their way in.

How Can Cockroaches Be Kept Out?

Cockroaches sneak into a home or other building often completely unnoticed. They are nocturnal and generally travel at night, unless otherwise disturbed, which helps their invasion go unnoticed until they have multiplied considerably. Most breeds of cockroaches find their way in by means of cracks under doors and windows and by following electrical, water, sewer, and gas lines into the dwelling. Others tend to hide out in items commonly carried into the home, such as grocery bags, boxes, furniture, and even pet food containers. Defense strategies for keeping cockroaches out include sealing doors and windows as well as open spaces around lines coming into the structure.

What Do Cockroaches Eat?

There is little a cockroach isn’t willing to consume. Along with most plant and animal life, cockroaches are also known to eat less conventional food forms such as different types of paste and even leather. Their ability to sustain life on such a large variety of nourishment makes it easy for them to adapt comfortably to many different types of environments.

Is There an Effective Defense Against Cockroaches?

Calling a professional pest extermination service such as Seville Pest Control is the most effective defense against cockroaches because we will eliminate the problem and help identify the source, thus reducing the probability of having future infestations.