Maritime homes susceptible to more infestations after rough winter

Insects and rodents are causing more and more Maritime homeowners to call up their local exterminator.

Dave Holland,Braemar Services pest control expert,joined MaritimeNoonto discuss how to turn the tide against invading ant armies. He says the best thing to do is fix the source of the problem before you tackle the pest.

"The best thing you can do is protect your home so they can't move in," he says.

If you're seeing carpenteror winged antsin your home it may be too late.

"They've either set up a full-time nest or a satellite nest right in your home," says Holland.

He says, depending on how many you're seeing, they may have been there for years.

Track the leak, find the colony

Carpenter ants are attracted to moist, damp areas, and can dodamage to your home. But, before you can get rid of them, you need to get rid of dampness.

Holland says the trick is to follow a leak in your home: track the leak, find the colony.

"First choices would be around a leaky window, particularly on the sunny side of your house," he says.

It's when the ants set up shop in the walls of your home thatprofessionals may need to be called in.

If you still can't find out where the ants are coming from, Holland says there are tricks to tracking them down:inspect the outside of your home in the evenings when ants are more active.

"Don't forget to check where the cable TV comes in," he urges.

Holland speaks from personal experience.Ants made their way into his attic through afibre-op connection.

"They were travelling along the wire, jumping on to the house, then climbing up the house and into the attic."

His solution was to bait the ants by the apple tree they were using to reach the wire."One of the best things you can carry is a pair of binoculars," he says."Look at your house, you'd be amazed what you can see up 20 feet."

Do-it-yourself mixtures, like borax and sugar are popular for controlling ants. But,Holland says they don't always eliminate the problem. If you add too much borax, the ants might ignore it.

"When you're trying to do the baiting like that more bait, less poison ... is going to be the best solution," says Holland. "It's like, you want a one ounce drink of scotch, someone give you eight ounces, you go 'wow!'"

If your backyard is swarming with ants, Holland suggests getting your lawn in shape and leaving the ant hills alone.

"The ants go down very deep, and when you spray just the top of the colony, you're just touching the tip of the iceberg," he says."We actually have probing rods that we go down into the ground at the ants. That's the only way we ever get control of them."

By making the lawn less attractive to ants, they'll likely move along on their own, looking for a new source of food.

Upping the ant

While ants are a seasonal problem, Holland says the number of calls his company is fielding has doubled since last year.

He says the winter may have been harsh for many of us, but it was kind to rodents.

The high snow meant rats could tunnel to bird feeders normally out of reach.They were also helped along by more accessibletrash. In many neighbourhoods garbage was left outside for months,snowed under before it could be collected.

Garbage bags were also "blown apart" by passing snowplows, leaving behind a feast for hungry rodents.

Holland says they've also had an increased number of calls from people worried about ticks. Much like the rats, a heavy blanket of snow was beneficial for ticks, keeping them insulated over the winter.