Z Pest In The News: The Gopher X

For a second time Z Pest Control LLC has been featured in the Walla Walla Union Bulletin. This time around I was contacted by Alfred Diaz, the author of this piece, who had questions about the seeming uptick in gopher, mole, and vole issues in the Walla Walla valley.

I told him that it did indeed appear that activity had increased, but that over the winter I had acquired a new tool to apply to the problem: the Gopher X.

The Gopher X in operation. Photo credit: Alfred Diaz, WW Union Bulletin

The way the machine works is pretty straightforward: after locating the burrow, a hose that vents the exhaust produced by the engine is inserted into the ground, and some smoke oil is added just before firing it up, the smoke serving as an indicator of where the carbon monoxide gas is escaping from the burrow so that it can be sealed. A few minutes later, it's done!

As I told Mr. Diaz during our meeting, this machine works well on gophers and voles, but not very well on moles. The short version of the reason for that is that moles have special adaptations for living in low oxygen environments, so pumping carbon monoxide into their massive tunnel complexes won't often affect them.

The reason that I acquired this device is that in that state of Washington, dealing with burrowing pests can be rather difficult thanks to a state ban on body-gripping traps (they are legal to buy, sell, and possess, which is why they're in local hardware stores; they're just not legal to use), and because of a decision by the EPA in 2010 to ban the use of aluminum phosphide in residential settings following an incident of gross misuse of the product, which took away one of the best and most effective tools we had for dealing with these pests.

Engine exhaust avoids both of these legal obstacles, as well as enabling me to provide a burrowing pest control option that does not leave behind poison bait in the ground that could be dug up by a pet or a child later.

If this sounds like something you would like to have done on your property, please text or email! Things are extremely busy at this time of the year and it can sometimes delay my response time by a few days, but as soon as I'm able to I'll get in touch to see what I can do for you!

Link to the full Union Bulletin article:  Walla Walla firm's gopher-eradication setup breaks new ground in pest control

Z Pest Control LLC

509-540-7946

(Text only, please.)

paul@zpestcontrol.com

Bringing 2016 To A Frozen Close

It's been some time since I last updated the Z Pest website, and I have all of my customers to thank for that: you've all kept me so busy that there wasn't much time left for anything else!

2016 marked five years in business for me under the Z Pest banner (nine years working in this industry), and it turned out to be the strongest year for the business so far.

Going into 2017, I will be making some new offerings available, things not currently provided by other operators in this area, so please keep checking back to see what's happening!

Snow is nice to look at... in photos... when they're not mine.

As for now, despite the heavy blanket of snow that we're under, some pests are still making themselves known in people's homes around the Walla Walla valley, and as such I'm still available if you need help. You may have a few spiders living with you as refugees from the cold (they may even hitch a ride on your fresh Christmas tree!), and it's not at all uncommon for ants to suddenly show up inside your house in the dead of winter, as I wrote about here around this time last year. Lately the Z Pest phone has been ringing quite a bit more than usual with calls about mice turning up in places where they're not wanted, too. These are pretty common occurrences in this region during this part of the year, so I'm well versed in getting them sorted out.

You can get in touch with me by phone, email, or text message if you need help (for texting, please provide some identifying information so I know if you're a new or returning customer). Invoicing and receipts can be handled paperlessly if you would like, and payments are accepted by cash, check, charge, and Bitcoin, whichever one or several of those methods is most convenient for you.

Z Pest Control LLC

509-540-7946

(Call or text!)

paul@zpestcontrol.com

Ants on the march!

Featured in this post - read
on to discover why!

In the last couple of days, calls for ant control have ticked upward significantly. This is no surprise after the recent heavy rains we've experienced here in the Walla Walla valley. The types making themselves known are our two most common pest ants here, the Odorous House ant and the Pavement ant. Look at it from their perspective: if you were only about a millimeter in height and had a home at or below ground level, you would probably be looking to set up shop on higher ground now, too.

This isn't the only time that these ants will make their appearance in your home or business, however, as there are plenty of other reasons for them to do so. Narrowing down those reasons and finding an extermination solution is first a matter of answering one simple question: did the ants begin turning up after the weather warmed up, or have they been present inside your home when it was cold outside (roughly 50º F or below)?

The answer to that question helps to determine if your ants are living primarily outside in the soil and wandering in looking for a snack, or if they and their queens (that's right -- plural) have made their home in the walls of your home. It doesn't make much of a difference in terms of how the ants will be treated (that's mainly a question of climate conditions at the time), but it does help to determine how intense the inside vs. outside effort should likely be.

The method is a two-part method, exclude, and sabotage:

Exclude: excluding these pests from a structure is a matter of treating the outside of it such that it's not possible for the ants to gain a foothold inside. This is done with spray applications that are not detectable by the ants, that kill the ants slowly, and that the individual ants can spread to each other through physical contact. A spray of this type "excludes" ants from a structure in that it becomes an environment that will destroy an entire colony, not just individual ants. All common over-the-counter sprays lack virtually all of these features. As such, they are the opposite, and will tend to produce the opposite of the desired result (in fact, many of these sprays can prompt the ants to defend themselves by spreading their colonies out all over your house - the problem actually gets worse!).

Sabotage: ants love a free meal. Using ant baits is the best way to deal with them indoors; it's the Trojan Horse of ant control. The advantage of a bait over a spray is that a spray will only work if the ants are in the treated spot (and only if the spray matches the characteristics I described above), but a bait will go to where the ants are because the ants themselves will take it there! Further, the ants you can see are only workers, which if killed will be rapidly replaced by the queens. Those queens are your true targets, and it is with bait ferried to them by their workers that they can be most easily attacked and destroyed. Not all baits are created equal, however. As a rule of thumb of using bait for ants, if the ants don't respond to your bait like these ants did to mine...

...then your bait does not work. Those little plastic domes with solid form baits inside that people constantly buy, they're garbage. Throw them out, or better yet return them for a refund if you can. The reason those "work" is typically that someone sees some ants feeding on something, they run to the grocery/hardware store and spend their money on little plastic domes, they put those domes out... and then they clean. Suddenly, the ants are gone and they credit the little plastic domes. What actually happened is that cleaning took away whatever it was that was of interest to the ants, so the ants hid away again. The next time one of their scouts finds a dropped crumb, however, they'll come back out in full force as they were never really gone.

There is one kind of over-the-counter bait that works. It's a liquid bait, not a solid: Terro Liquid Ant Bait: 

  This is the only OTC ant bait product I recommend to my clients as a stop-gap measure for those times I can't get to them right away, or for clearing up small ant incursions that may not warrant the cost of a full treatment. Terro is not as good as the products I use in my work, but it is adequate for keeping an ant issue down to a dull roar until the cavalry arrives.  If you are dealing with a new or on-going ant infestation, you can try the product I'm recommending, or if you would like my help getting you ahead of the ants' game, give me a call! Treatments typically run around $60 to treat an average house inside and out in the Walla Walla valley area (more if the structure is larger, of course), dropping to $40 for follow-on 30 day periods if additional maintenance is necessary. I will also point out things in and around your home or place of business that may be encouraging ants to constantly invite themselves over for a picnic. My help is just a phone call or an email away!

509-540-7946 paul@zpestcontrol.com

The Dreaded Brown Recluse Spider

I saw this article this morning and wanted to share it. I get questions from folks around here all the time about the dreaded brown recluse spider. They can be somewhat of a problem, except for one major detail: in our part of the country, except for very rare cases probably explained by modern motor and/or air shipping, we don't have them. The key piece of information, from the article, entitled, Deadly Brown Recluse Spider Coming to a Town Near You?:

"The spider's habitat is limited to the Southeast and Midwest, stretching from Kansas east to the Appalachian states."

Why then the persistent myth that we have these spiders living around us? It's generally thought that the assumption is due to the similarities between the wound a brown recluse bite can produce (but not always) and other conditions. An infection of the skin by MRSA bacteria, for example, can produce lesions that appear similar, sometimes leading physicians to reach a hasty conclusion about what they're looking at and diagnose it as a recluse bite. There are also a few species of spiders that exist locally that have a similar appearance to the brown recluse. The media frequently doesn't help the situation either, hence this excellent quote by Rick Vetter, an entomologist who works at the University of California, Riverside:

"These are distorted reports ... hyperbolic media crap."

That isn't to say that brown recluse spiders never injure people, but the truth is that the extreme injuries are relatively rare. Around here, it's all but impossible.

That still leaves us with our local varieties, most of which are not dangerous. That does not mean that they're enjoyable, however. Even a physically harmless spider in your house is harmful if it causes you distress. It's your house, after all, and you get to say what is acceptable and what is not. I can help you get the spiders you do have out of your home (which at this time of the year you may be seeing more of), but hopefully you'll feel a bit more at ease knowing that among the spiders you have seen lately, the brown recluse is not one of them.

Call me at 509-540-7946 if you have more spiders than you want, inside or outside, and I'll help you get them sorted out.

New gear!

A recent addition to the Z Pest tool kit:

With the addition of this spray skid to the Z Pest operation, nearly all types of insect pest treatments can be performed. If what's bugging you is up high, no problem! With this piece of equipment, I can treat it. If you need help with something that's just out of reach, but still too close for comfort, give me a call at 509-540-7946.

Paper Wasps

I got rid of several batches of these critters for a client recently:

These are European Paper Wasps, a flying insect with a particularly painful sting, but (thankfully) a fairly mild demeanor. Most of the time they'll leave you alone if you leave them alone, but left untreated on your house or in your yard, they can get out of hand quickly. As their numbers rise, so does the chance that you'll cross paths with one or several, and that's when the stingers come out! Fortunately, they're easy to get rid of and with regular follow-up treatments they can be kept away. If you need help with these, please call! 509-540-7946.

Let's get this party started!

Welcome to Z Pest Control LLC's web page! Things are just getting started around here, so check back often for changes, service updates (capability expansion), and special offers!

Please browse through the tabs above to get a better idea of what all I'll be up to, and if there's something you need help with, please give me a call: 509-540-7946.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to hear from you soon!