Pest Identification Be aware of exactly what is invading your home so you know the risks. Source Pest Control in Temecula, California, offers this pest identification guide complete with treatment options. Argentine Ants, Odorous House Ants, Pavement Ants, & Crazy Ant Damage: Ants become pests when they forage in/around homes for food or water and when excavating nests because they displace soil. Additionally, several species of ant pose health risks to humans, such as stinging bites from fire ants or the disease carried by the Argentine ant. Habitat: Ants are highly social insects and exist in colonies with a social order. Nests can be found under objects in the soil, in cavities in trees or buildings, in mulch, or indoors in potted plants. Feeding & Breeding: The majority of an ant's life is spent looking for food. Depending on the species, ants will eat meats, sweets, fats, or oils. The colony has one queen that lays all the eggs. When the queen is killed, the colony will die. Treatment: Ants are one of the most common, but one of the most difficult, pests to manage. Our preventative maintenance plan will protect your home and property from ant infestations. Fire Ants Damage: Fire ants are active and aggressive, swarming over anyone or anything that disturbs their nest, be it wild animals, domestic animals, pets, or people. They inject venom with a stinger like a wasp creating a burning sensation followed by tiny, itching pustules. Fire ant mounds interfere with farming and mowing operations and turn recreational fields into disfigured moonscapes. They have caused sections of roads to collapse by removing soil from under the asphalt. HOME GUARD Proactive Pest Protection Three Scheduled Services designed to control pests when they are most likely to invade, at approximately four-month intervals, eliminate existing problems and prevent them from reoccurring. Proactive Control and Prevention against invasive and destructive pests. Being proactive with pest control is a smart decision for every homeowner. Emergency Call-In Services, should any covered pest problem arise, are also provided at no additional cost. Peace of Mind that comes from knowing the most important aspects of your life –your family and home – are protected from pests. HOME GUARD PLUS Proactive Pest Protection + Termite Control Early Warning System that finds termites before they invade your home. We install monitoring stations around the perimeter of your home and other structures to detect termite activity BEFORE they cause costly damage. More Precise Treatments are applied, because we pinpoint activity where it begins. This allows us to be proactive, using less material and creating less potential disruption to the environment than a reactive, full scale treatment. Guarantee that, if our monitors indicate activity at any point, THERE WILL BE NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE FOR THE TREATMENT DONE! Habitat: These pests prefer open, sunny areas, such as pastures, parks, lawns, meadows, and crop fields. They also build mounds in rotting logs, around stumps and trees, in or under buildings, and in almost any type of soil. Breeding: Winged male and female ants couple and mate during a nuptial flight. After sperm is transferred to the female, the male soon dies. Females land, locate a suitable nesting site, lose their wings, and begin laying eggs. The first brood of larvae is fed and cared for by the queen and develops into sterile female worker ants. Thereafter, her sole role responsibility is to lay eggs. Worker ants care for the queen, eggs, larvae, and pupae; construct and maintain the nest; defend the colony; and forage for food. Treatment: Because of their painful sting, leave treatment up to professionals. Our preventative maintenance plan will protect your home and family from fire ant infestations. Black Widow Spider Venom toxicity - the Black Widow Spider can inflict a painful bite which can be fatal, especially to the young and elderly. An effective anti-venom was developed in 1956. Damage - Only a small amount of venom can cause serious illness, as the poison attacks the nervous system. Systemic envenomisation usually results in headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, pyrexia and hypertension. Spider Identification - the body of an adult black widow is about 1/2 inch long. The female black widow is normally shiny black, with a red hourglass marking on the underside of the abdomen. The marking may range in color from yellowish orange to red and its shape may range from an hourglass to a dot. Habitat - prefers woodpiles, rubble piles, under stones, in hollow stumps, sheds and garages. Indoors it can be found in undisturbed, cluttered areas in basements and crawl spaces. Cockroach (German) Damage: The German cockroach is by far the most important and usually the most common of the cockroaches. They adulterate food or food products with their feces and defensive secretions. This species is found worldwide. Damage: German cockroaches have been associated with outbreaks of illness, the transmission of a variety of pathogenic organisms, including at least one parasite protozoan, and allergic reactions in many people. In extremely heavy infestations, they have been reported to bite humans and feed on food residue on the faces of sleeping humans. Some scientists suggest that German cockroach infestations may cause human psychological stress and alter human behavior, like avoiding the kitchen at night for fear of encountering a cockroach. Breeding: The German cockroach has three life stages with incomplete metamorphosis: the egg, nymph, and adult. They breed continuously with many overlapping generations present at any one time. Under ideal conditions, population growth has been shown to be exponential. Actively growing field populations are comprised of 80 percent nymphs and 20 percent adults. Treatment: Keep human and pet food securely sealed. Serious cockroach infestations should be treated by a pest management professional. Our preventative maintenance plan will keep your home free of cockroaches. If you have a preexisting roach problem, we will treat your home until the pests have been eradicated. Wasps & Yellow Jackets Damage: Most species of the bee family have some ability to sting. Some people are allergic to the sting, and it may even be fatal. For this reason, it is important to keep bee nests away from buildings. Habitat: Wasps and yellow jackets usually build nests in areas that are protected, such as tree hollows, under eaves, underground, or in the walls of buildings, sheds, or attics. Feeding & Breeding: Some insects from the bee family forage for nectar and others for protein. Bees and wasps are a very important part of the ecological food chain, pollenating plants and controlling insect populations. Breeding occurs during the spring months. The queen lays eggs, and her daughters feed the larvae. Later in the season, some of the larvae develop into males and some into queen bees. Treatment: Because of the potential danger of bees, leave bee treatments to a professional. Our preventative maintenance program guarantees control of wasps and yellow jackets.