Proudly Serving Northern New Jersey, Rockland County & Manhattan

Call Us Right Now:973.839.6228

Abarb Pest Services
Get My Free Estimate

Month: July 2023

Categories
Spiders

If I See a Spider in My Home Should I Be Worried There Are More?

If I See a Spider in My Home Should I Be Worried There Are More?

Spiders can be very useful as they cut down on the insect population around your home. But having a spider in your house is not a comforting thought. Female spiders can lay thousands of eggs in a single egg sac so having one around can easily lead to a population boom. Though it is possible for all those baby spiders to stick around, without a reliable food source, most of the spiders will likely leave in search of food.

Spiders do not live in nests with other spiders. They are lone hunters. You should not be worried if you see a single spider in your home. But it is possible to have a spider infestation and there are key signs to look for to indicate that you don’t simply have just one spider creeping along your floors.

Signs of infestation

There is a big difference between a spider infestation and having multiple spiders in your home. Just because you see more than one spider does not mean you have a serious spider problem.

 Though it is important for you to keep an eye out for signs of infestation, such as:

Webs: Most spiders build some sort of web and if you have one spider in your home, you also will likely have a web somewhere in the house. But in an infestation situation, you will have multiple webs around your light fixtures, in the corners of the ceiling, behind doors, and across windows. If you take down the webs and they reappear within a few days, you may have an infestation.

Spiders: Seeing spiders when you have an infestation may seem like common sense. But spiders are expert hiders. You may have multiple spiders in your home and never see them except on the occasion. But if you are seeing several spiders every day, this should definitely get your attention that you may have a spider problem.

Egg sacs: Where there are spiders breeding, there will be egg sacs. These round sacs made by the mother spider could be filled with hundreds, even thousands, of eggs. The sac protects the eggs until they hatch. If you find a few of these egg sacs tucked away in your curtains or hanging in the mother’s web, you can expect to have a number of new spiders crawling around your home.

Molted or shed spider skins: Because spiders have to shed their skin in order to grow, you may find multiple molted skins lying around your home if you have a spider infestation. You may think they are dead spiders but if you look closely, you will see that it is just their exoskeletons.

Call a professional

Seeing a spider or two in your home does not indicate that you have a spider infestation. But if you want to eradicate any eight legged critters from your home, infestation or not, calling in a professional pest control service will eliminate every last one.

If you are in Passaic County, give Abarb Pest Services a call today.

Categories
Spiders

Spider Exterminators in Bergen County

Spider Exterminators in Bergen County

Just because spiders are known for cutting down the general pest population in your yard, garden, or woods, doesn’t mean you want them lurking around your home. The reason spiders are so unnerving is because of their menacing appearance as well as the potential for a nasty bite. While the two main types of venomous spiders are the Brown Recluse and the Black Widow, even a common Wolf Spider can cause a stinging bite if threatened. Controlling the spider population in your home is crucial  so that you and your family can relax knowing there isn’t a spider creeping around the corner.

In Bergen County, spider control is important for many reasons. No one likes the idea of a spider scurrying along the floor and possibly hiding in your shoes left in the closet. Spiders do not typically live closely with other spiders because of competition for food. But if a female spider lays her eggs in your home, it is possible that several of the babies will stay after they hatch, which will eventually lead to more eggs and more spider residents in your home.

A few spiders can develop into a full spider infestation if not exterminated.

Spider magnets

Spiders love to eat bugs and bugs love to get into your home. If you tend to leave dirty dishes in your sink or crumbs under your table, insects like cockroaches, ants, and flies are sure to come, with spiders following closely behind. You may notice that you often see spiders in the bathroom, even in the bathtub. A leaky faucet or residual water left from a shower can attract spiders.

If you are seeing multiple spiders around your home, you most likely also have other pest infestations. But if you want to eliminate all pests, including spiders, keeping a clean, clutter-free house and calling a professional spider exterminator will help you achieve a pest-free home.

How to exterminate spiders

By calling a spider exterminator, you can relax knowing that you won’t have to cross paths with a spider any time soon. A spider control expert will carefully inspect your home for spiders, egg sacs, and exoskeletons to determine where best to treat for spiders. The technician will also treat for a number of other pests so as to not attract more spiders in the future. Even if you occasionally see a new intruding spider, you can rest knowing that it won’t be around for long.

For the best spider control and prevention in Bergen County, call Abarb Pest Services today to have your home inspected and treated so you can be sure you won’t suffer a nasty bite or fright from an unexpected spider. Our highly trained technicians will work hard to get rid of every spider on the premises.

Categories
Ants

What are Signs I Have a Carpenter Ant Problem?

What are Signs I Have a Carpenter Ant Problem?

Like termites, Carpenter Ants infest the wooden frame, beams, and floor of your home and can cause serious damage. In severe infestations, the structural integrity of your home may be compromised, requiring hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of repairs. Knowing how to identify a Carpenter Ant problem is essential for protecting your home. Ants are often a pest when they get inside the house, but knowing that a relentless, hard working colony of Carpenter Ants is actively destroying your home can be devastating.

Identifying Carpenter Ants

Carpenter Ants, as well as other non-destructive types of ants,  may be seen crawling around your home in search of food. While you should on alert when you see any ant, Carpenter Ants can be distinguished from other ants, and even termites, by:

  • Their size: Carpenter Ants are a larger ant and can even be as long as a half of an inch. These ants won’t sneak in your home unnoticed along the grout of your tile or along your baseboards without getting your attention.
  • Their color: Common types of Carpenter Ants in the NorthEast of the United States are solid black. While Carpenter Ants can also be half black and half red, or even solid dark brown, the distinctive solid black coloring should immediately alert you that you may have a Carpenter Ant infestation.
  • They are distinct  from termites. To many people, bugs are just bugs but if you look closely, you will see that ants are very different from termites. While termites have a head, thorax, and abdomen all about the same width, ants have an obvious head and pinched waist.

Carpenter Ants also have elbowed antennae on their heads unlike the straight antennae of a termite.

Signs around the home

Carpenter Ants burrow into the wooden structure of your home, leaving behind evidence of their infestation. A few signs you may notice around your home are:

  •  Small piles of sawdust: Much like when digging a hole in the ground where you remove dirt from the hole while making a pile of recently excavated dirt in a different place, as the ants chomp and claw through the wood, they have to kick out the sawdust-like wood they have created from their tunnels. They will create a small opening in the wall and shove all the new sawdust out of their tunnels and into your home. 
  • Highly humid areas in your home: Carpenter Ants do not infest bone dry wood. If you have an area in your home that takes on moisture either from some sort of leak or simply from humidity, you can begin looking for weakening boards in these areas.
  • Trail of Carpenter Ants in your home: Because Carpenter Ants do not eat the wood in the tunnels that they make, they will still need a food source. While they may be going outside to find plants to eat or suck up the honey dew produced by aphids, they may also be drawn to drips and crumbs left in your kitchen.

If you see any signs that indicate that you have a Carpenter Ant problem in Passaic County, give our experts a call at Abarb Pest Services today!

Categories
Spiders

Where Do Spiders Like to Hide?

Where Do Spiders Like to Hide?

Although spiders can seem like they are out to get you, they actually want nothing to do with you. Spiders often hide because they do not know what you will do to them. The difference in size alone is enough to frighten a spider.

Spiders are also hiders because this is how they often catch their food. They lay a trap by spinning an ornate sticky web or by creating a funnel structure with their web. They hide nearby so they can be right there if their trap nabs a meal.

Though spiders may look menacing, they will only bite if they feel trapped or threatened.

However, most people do not welcome spiders into their homes. In fact, the most spiders you have around your home can increase the likelihood of getting bit because they could be hiding in a place you don’t suspect.

Prevent spiders from coming inside

Spider food consists of flies, cockroaches, mosquitoes, fleas, and moths, among others. After reading that list, you may be thinking that you want to keep a spider around to get rid of these other pests. But the fact is if you work to stop attracting these other pests, spiders will no longer find food in your home and will leave as well.  Keeping a tidy, clean home is the best way to keep all pests out, including spiders. Tips to preventing spiders are:

  • Do not leave food sitting out on the counters overnight
  • When the trash can is full, take it out to an outdoor bin with a good lid
  • Sweep often
  • Keep a tidy home without clutter
  • Wipe down table and countertops with an all purpose spray
  • Contain all food to the kitchen or dining room

Not only are there scents that deter spiders from coming around, if you also discourage a spider’s food source from coming into your home, you can usually stop spiders as well.

Repel spiders by using:

  • White vinegar spray
  • Orange scent around windows
  • Peppermint essential oil
  • Cedar essential oil
  • Mint plants around your home

Signs of a spider infestation vs an occasional spider

Besides seeing multiple spiders a day, a spider infestation has a few more signs that you can look for.

In an infestation, you will see multiple spider webs popping up around your home. If you are finding spider webs around your light fixtures, behind doors, or across windows, and they quickly reappear after you remove them, you may have a full fledged infestation on your hands.

An occasional spider may have made a web, but if it receives too much attention, the spider will move on.

A spider infestation will produce several shed or molted spider skins around your home. Spiders have to shed their skin in order to grow bigger. If you are finding what looks like dead spiders around your home, you may actually have alive, and slightly bigger, spiders creeping around.

You probably will not see a single spider’s shed skin and if you do, it would only be one.

If you have a spider infestation, you most likely will have other bug infestations as well. As discussed above, spiders come in search of food. If you have a pest problem with insects that spiders love to eat, you may also get a spider infestation.

A house fly or two may attract a spider, but if there is not enough food to go around, multiple spiders will not infest your home if the competition for insects is high.

If you need a professional pest control service to rid your home of spiders and you live in Passaic County, give Abarb Pest Services a call today.

Categories
Ants

Why Does Our Ant Problem Keep Coming Back?

Why Does Our Ant Problem Keep Coming Back?

Ants do not tackle life in a casual way. They are hard-working, relentless, strong creatures, especially for their tiny size. Once they have found a food source, few things can actually deter them from getting to that meal. There are several habits you can develop to dissuade ants from coming back into your home. In addition, having a regular pest control inspection and treatment can drastically cut down on the ant population in and around your home so you do not have to throw out food covered in ants.

Ant prevention

Ants love to eat and collect food. If your home has places for ants to use as a food source, ants will find it. Keeping a clean, tidy home should be the first defense against ants. A few good habits for not attracting ants are:

  • Sweep and vacuum: Crumbs on the floor while eating, food items get dropped or spilled while cooking, and eating a meal in front of the TV after a long day at work can all be reasons why food ends up on the floor in multiple different rooms. Sweeping or vacuuming your home once a day and especially under the dining room table will help reduce the number of crumbs in your home. Sweeping the kitchen and dining room after each meal is also a good idea.
  • Wipe down surfaces with white vinegar: Not only is it important to clean up sticky spills, you can also make the surface even less appealing by using white vinegar because ants hate the smell.
  • Take out the trash: Do not leave trash, especially food garbage, in the home for long. As soon as the bag is full, promptly take it out to an outdoor trash can with a lid.
  • Try your best to contain all eating to one room: You may be very good at cleaning up after yourself, but if you have a child who often likes to eat in their room, it’s possible that you will find ants in multiple rooms in your home.

Make it difficult for ants to get inside

While ants can fit in the tiniest of cracks, you can still inspect your home for potential places these ants are getting inside.

  • Caulk around doors and window
  • Routinely spray white vinegar or essential oil solutions around your home to deter ants
  • Replace missing or damaged weather stripping

Call a professional

An ant control professional will inspect and treat your property at routine times throughout the year to keep your home and yard ant-free. Your efforts to deter ants will certainly help the situation but if a colony of ants is determined to get into your home, having a pest control expert on your side will make sure you never have to deal with ants marching across your home.

If you are in Passaic County, NJ and you have an ant problem that keeps coming back, give Abarb Pest Services a call today.