Welcome to fall; the time of year that the leaves on the trees start turning beautiful colours and the weather starts getting cooler.  This is also the time that certain insects start looking for where they want to spend winter.

I'm sure we have all seen the centipedes, sow bugs, and beetles around doors leading outside.  Some lucky people get to see even more lovely creatures hanging around their windows.

Lady bugs and cluster flies find their way in through cracks and crevices in the hopes of finding a nice warm place to bunker down for the cold season.  Their intention is not to breed there, it's just to hibernate in void areas and attics and then leave in the spring.  Unfortunately the warmer days and cool nights can leave them swarming around windows and lights.

CridX Pest Solutions can control these problems by treating the cracks and crevices they use to get in, and fogging in the void areas that they are in.  If left alone both these insects will habit these locations every year entering in the fall and swarming out in the spring, so call us today and we'll be happy to help.

604-BAN-PEST (604-226-7378)

CridX was called out to a house in the Mission area with complaints of sawdust in the window sill.  After a full inspection we found several hot spots of Carpenter Ant activity.  We continued our service with a flush agent in all cracks and void spaces around the house.  Carpenter Ants came running out of 3 spots:

 

1.  the front corner of the house, where activity had been seen before the treatment

2.  Under the bay window at the back of the house near where the frass was reported by the customer

3.  Out of the water shut off by the hose reel at the back of the house

 

We then turned to the inside of the house and did a full inspection but we found little activity.  We flushed the window frame where the frass was found and about a hundred ants came running out of the wall.

 

A couple of days later we were called back because the customer was still seeing activity in their bedroom.  We performed another inspection and then another treatment was done in that area but there was only a minor reaction.  We moved back to the window that had all of the activity prior and treated again in this location.  Again, there was a little reaction found.  However, as we continued inspecting and investigating, we removed an inspection plate on one of the bedroom walls and the photos below show you what we found inside the wall under this plate.  There was a lot of frass (sawdust like material) and several carpenter ants running around.  We then treated this area, and check for extensions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After treating this area I stuck my camera into the hole to see to the side, and this is what was there:  a lot of frass & a few ants (unfortunately you can only really see them as black dots in these photos - those are the ants).

 

Despite the appearance of the inside of this wall, there is actually no serious damage in this spot.  We do, however, know that the roof has been leaking, and we suspect that the moisture from this situation is an attractant and is nicely supporting the growth of this infestation.

 

 

The owner is having the roof removed on Monday, so we plan to stay close as this work is done since we anticipate that they will find some nesting sites and we'd like to get in to do a treatment right away as they are discovered.  We're hoping the damage found will not be too extensive at this point and by us getting in to do the treatment as the roof is removed and the likely harbourage areas are exposed, we hope to deal completely with this infestation before it can create more damage and expense.

 

These little creatures sure can cause a lot of damage, expense, and headache!
We'll keep you posted on the results of the roof removal.