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Pest control blog: page 15

Identification guides, what treatments cost, and what the public records say about pests and the companies that deal with them.

Articles

Water sampling station on a riverbank with plain instrument housing and still waterOriginal data

Hidden Non-Detects Inflate Stream Pesticide Rates Up to 90-Fold

Hidden non-detects in the US water-quality record inflate insecticide detection rates up to 90-fold. Permethrin: 39.3% naive, 1.3% corrected.

October 2, 2026Agricultural equipment yard with parked sprayers and bare soil fields beyond in dry California lightOriginal data

Who Actually Does the Work: A Concentration Census of California Pest Control Licences

4,737 California pest control licences: the top 10% made 79.2% of 18.3 million structural applications in 2022. Fumigators and route operators barely overlap.

October 2, 2026Suburban back lawn in early spring with raised soil ridges and a small conical mound of earthWildlife

Moles and Voles: Telling the Lawn Damage Apart

Moles push soil up and eat earthworms; voles eat plants down. Killing grubs does not remove moles, and castor oil is the one repellent with trial...

October 1, 2026Roofline soffit and fascia junction of a suburban house with a gnawed gap at the cornerWildlife

Squirrels in the Attic: Timing, Gnawing and the Law

They enter through a 1.5 inch hole and enlarge anything smaller. Two breeding seasons set the exclusion windows, and relocation is illegal in much of the...

October 1, 2026Empty bird nest tucked into the soffit and eave of a house exterior seen from belowFleas and biting bugs

Bird Mites: The Problem That Starts When the Birds Leave

Exclude the birds without removing the nest and the starving mites disperse into the building. They bite people but cannot breed on them.

October 1, 2026Dim attic space with exposed rafters and blown insulation lit by a shaft of daylight from a ventFlies, moths and pantry pests

Ground Beetles, Larder Beetles and What They Tell You

A larder beetle usually means something died in the building. A ground beetle means a porch light. A foreign grain beetle means the place is damp.

October 1, 2026Rows of seedling trays in a bright research greenhouseFor pros

Biological Pest Control: What Is Actually Registered

The EPA has registered 457 biopesticide active ingredients by our count of its own list. Three of them matter indoors, and classical biological control barely exists.

October 1, 2026Galvanised steel hardware cloth mesh and sheet metal offcuts on a workbenchRats and mice

Steel Wool, Copper Mesh and What Actually Stops a Rodent

A quarter inch is the working standard for mice and juvenile rats alike. Steel wool rusts and fails at the edges, and no gnaw-resistance test data...

October 1, 2026Hand sprayer resting on a potting bench beside leafy green plants in a greenhouseLawn and garden

Does Neem Oil Work? What 153 Field Trials Show

Azadirachtin averaged 46.1 per cent control against 73.9 for spinosad, and many products sold as neem oil have had the active chemistry removed.

October 1, 2026Sunlit pale clapboard wall on the south face of a house in strong low autumn lightAutumn invaders

Asian Lady Beetles: The Ladybugs That Bite and Stain

They bite, their defensive fluid stains permanently, and they are a documented seasonal indoor allergen. The M mark on the white pronotum is the identification.

October 1, 2026Grey papery wasp nest under the eave of a wooden house in summer sunWasps and bees

Wasp and Hornet Identification: Which One Is It?

The European hornet is the only true hornet in the country, the bald-faced hornet is not a hornet at all, and the biggest wasp in the...

October 1, 2026Stainless steel commercial kitchen floor drain and wet tiled floor under overhead lightingOriginal data

Flies Outnumber Rats Four to One in Restaurant Inspections

Flies were cited at 24.7 per cent of 27,050 inspected New York food businesses, against 6.5 per cent for rats, and the seasonal swing is bigger...

October 1, 2026