Rational Environmental Solutions Tree

Pest Solutions

Bugs And Weeds,

Lawns To LakesTM

Rational Environmental Solutions:

Blogs And Weeds

Add Your Ad Here!

Blogs And Weeds

TEXPEST, Pest Control From Rational Environmental Solutions (903) 216-1408 james@texpest.com

Our New Blogs And Weeds

Bug prevention, Control, Weed Prevention, Control, Horticulture and Environment.

12/5/07

Got moles?

I was asked about the tunnels in home lawns no less than 5 times today. It is almost always the same. I say: "You probably have moles!" I assume from what I am hearing and seeing, that the little guys are getting pretty active.

I know something else that is also true about this in 99.9 % of the cases where moles and armadillos are present. They have grubs! It is showing up in the patchy spots in fall lawns all across East Texas. The problem with them, is that unless you do a little pest investigation, you won't know you have them until now, and it is more difficult to kill them now than it would have been in the spring. Difficult, but worth the trouble, to thin the population.

As with any pest, weed or bug, it is easier to kill them when they are young. The grubs are the larvae of various types of beetles. Around here, it is usually the June beetle, or June bug. They swarm around lighted areas during the late spring and summer, and deposit eggs that go through several growth stages. They go deeper as the summer draws to a close, then buzz off into the summer nights to produce more of their progeny to eat your lawn at a later time. It is like a fiesta for moles and armadillos!

11/1/07

It is that time of year. With the cooler nights and mornings, you will begin to notice an increase in rodent activity. They are sensing the change in season, and will be looking for a nice, relaxing warm spot with lots of food for a winter vacation spot. By the way, your home looks a lot like a tropical paradise to them!

It would be a good time to check all potential points of entry into your home. Keeping them out, is much better than dealing with them once they get in. Learn more about doing this with our 22 Prevention Tips.

10/31/07

Millipedes. Have you seen them in your home?

Check your gutters, and landscape beds, they love decaying mater, they probably both need to be cleaned out!

I can tell you something else as well, you probably have a tree or vine making contact with your abode. You probably need a little trimming done.

Check for them around your weep holes, they come from an area with decaying plant parts, that may be your groundcover mulch. There is a reason why I tell folks to keep it and their shrubs, a foot or more from their house. Three feet is better!

Treatment is possible, but there may already be a significant number inside your walls, so the migration may continue for a while after treatment.

Note: Conventional wisdom says they come from the ground, up to a hole, inside your wall, and out into any opening they can find inside. I have had them drop from trees onto my head, and pulled them from gutters by the hand full, so I know that the ground is not the only point of entry!

10/30/07

If you have been reading this blog, you know that we like to get back to the root of a problem and try to solve it instead of just treating it or controlling it. We are almost obsessive about prevention, but there is a good reason for this: It has been almost ignored! We have a lot of information on prevention, and you can find it for free, on almost every page of this site. Our prevention directory is growing almost every day!

I was trying to move this blog to my word press blog, but it still seems to have a life of it's own!

Well, as long as this is still listed in the top ten of "bug prevention in Texas", number 1 (at the time of this writing) in "bug and weed prevention", and in the top 20 for "bug prevention", among others, I will continue to post here and on the word press blog as well! On that note, I should mention that we are going to provide ad space on this site. There will most likely be an affiliate page, and page sponsor ads available. If you are involved in a horticulture related industry, Nursery, Real Estate, Lawn Care...it might be something to consider. Advertise! Here!

We have done quite a bit of updating since my last post here, and have added a lot of articles that we were working on, and have just now had time to finish. We added a Directories page, which lists each category on this site, along with a short description of each. It lists a number of different sub directories, each with a link and a description of the information in each article. A lot of great information on pest prevention in the Pest Prevention Directory, our tutorials page got so big that we made it into a Tutorial Directory , which lists all the tutorials with a short description of each. It is very easy to use, and the site was getting so large, that I had to do something.

I want to revisit the brush control issue again. I am not sure that the importance of this issue can be over stated! While watching those brush fires rage in the Western part of the country, and listening to politicians who try to make it a political issue, it sort of brings home the fact that it is a real, and growing (get it?, brush, growing?) issue.

While trying to make it a political issue, these folks should remember that the "Santa Anna Winds" have been around a lot longer than the people who now inhabit the area, and that one of the main reasons that it the brush is now a problem, is that concerned, but somewhat poorly informed environmental groups opposed the removal of the brush in the beginning.

On a practical level, this is one of those "don't let it happen to You" issues. If you have an area on your property with a lot of brushy undergrowth, do something about it, for your own safety, brush reduces property value, it is a fire hazard, as well as the fact that it breeds all sorts of undesirable pest life.

10/22/07

This blog is gradually being archived into separate pages, and my on site word press blog is coming on line! Rational Environmental Solutions WordPress Blog. This will make it easier to post, users can post comments, and a lot of other cool stuff. Check it out, and tell me what you think. The blog that you are currently reading will remain here, with possible occasional posts, but the other one will become the main site for blogging, and of course the archives from this blog will remain listed on this page.

10/21/07

Realizing that people read a page like this one with varying levels of interest, and varying needs, some of the material will be repeated from time to time in a variety of formats. keeping pests out of your home., is a short concise way of looking at the idea of keeping them off your property, out of your lawn garden, and landscape, and how this is the best method for keeping them out of your home. Each step is another barrier for the pest. Lawn, Garden And Landscape Care As Pest Prevention looks at the various activities in lawn, garden, and landscape care, and how they either prevent, or promote pest populations, depending on how they are performed. How fertilizing and irrigating will either discourage pests, or encourage them to come to your property. It is a bare bones, just basics, short article. For the same ideas covered In greater detail go to our: Pest Prevention, Pest Control, Alien Exotics Directory it has a lot of pages, looking at prevention and control from a lot of different perspectives, (home owner, home buyer, someone building a home, detailed discussion, like; Indoor, Outdoor Pest Prevention Guide, and short quick lists like: Indoor Pest Prevention) I am sure you can find one right for you. If you can't, let us know, and we will fix that too!

We are gradually beginning to archive our blog for the month. The archive links will be listed here, in the sidebar, by date. Just look for the word Archive.

Just a reminder, to call your tree company to schedule any magor trim jobs, to give them a little lead time, and assure that you get on their list.

Home

Services

About

Site Map

Prevention. That is what I would like for people to think about. We spend most of our time managing and controlling pests when we should be preventing them by good forward planning, design and preparation!