When it comes to preventing pests in your home, it’s important not to overlook one very common source: your pets.

Of course, in addition to bringing nuisances like fleas and ticks into your home, these pests can also cause considerable discomfort and pose significant health risks to your furry friends. Here are a few tips to keep pests off your pet and out of your home.

Fleas

The dreaded flea. These tiny insects can multiply from one to 1,000 in a mere 21 days. In addition to causing extreme itching in your pets, fleas and their bites can also lead to hair loss, anemia, plague, and even tapeworms. Fleas typically hitch a ride on your pet through contact with other animals or after a romp outside. Fleas can also hop off your pets and on to you – as well as your carpets and furniture. In the DC area, fleas are most active during the late summer and early fall.

In addition to itchiness, signs of a flea problem include excessive grooming and finding flea droppings or eggs on your pet or your pet’s bedding. Getting rid of fleas begins with prevention. In addition to using a professional flea control treatment on your pet year-round, there are natural preventative controls like neem oil (a bio-pesticide) and other solutions that repel fleas using a combination of natural ingredients and essential oils.

Ticks

In the DC area, ticks are a concern for people and pets alike. That’s because more Lyme disease-carrying ticks have moved into the Mid-Atlantic region in recent years. Ticks can also spread other diseases, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Tularemia.

These tiny insects attach themselves to warm-blooded hosts, and commonly hitch a ride on your pet’s fur as they walk through tall grass and leaves or under trees. To prevent tick problems, veterinarians recommend staying on top of professional tick treatments (which are applied topically every four to six weeks).

You should also take steps to prevent ticks in your yard, by keeping your grass trimmed and the perimeter of your yard clear of tall grass and debris. If you live in a particularly wooded or shaded area, you may want to consider a professional spray, which can be applied to the perimeter of your yard to ward off ticks.

Remember, ticks like warm and humid conditions, so come summer, be sure to carefully check your pet for ticks just as you’d check yourself or your kids. If you find a tick on your pet, carefully remove it using a pair of tweezers, ensuring that the whole tick is removed from your pet’s skin. A follow-up with your vet is always a good idea to ensure that the tick bite did not infect your cat or dog.

Mosquitoes

When the heat and humidity ramp up, so too do swarms of mosquitoes. While you may treat yourself and your kids with mosquito repellant, don’t forget that mosquitoes can attack your pet, too. In addition to causing itchy red bites, mosquitoes can pass diseases like heartworm onto your cat or dog. Heartworm is particularly alarming due to its lack of symptoms and risk to your pet – though it can be treated if caught in time. Mosquitoes can also transmit diseases like Saint Louis encephalitis and West Nile Virus to your pet.

To cut down on your pet’s mosquito bite risk, stay on top of your pet’s heartworm medication and make sure your yard doesn’t become a breeding ground for these pests. Eliminate any standing water on your property and keep your grass cut short. Check out our post, Ten Ways to Fight Mosquitoes This Summer, for more tips on keeping your property mosquito-free for you and your pets.

Happy, Pest-Free Pets

When it comes to protecting your pets from pests, a little prevention can go a long way. Remember to keep your furry friend up to date on vaccines and preventative treatments, and use exclusion techniques around your home to ward off insects.

Have questions about ridding your home of problem bugs? Give us a call or drop us a note. We’re always happy to talk pests or to schedule an inspection to create a tailored treatment plan for your home.

At Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s Pest Control, our elimination solutions are rooted in eco-friendly techniques and products. But what is eco-friendly pest control? And why is it important?

Eco-friendly pest control uses a holistic approach to pest elimination that minimizes risks to people and the environment. In our business, this approach is referred to as integrated pest management (IPM). As the Environmental Protection Agency notes, IPM relies on a combination of common-sense practices and comprehensive information, including the life cycle of pests and how they interact with the environment. When we understand and manage the ecosystem, we can better achieve long-term pest control success.

For most of our customers, this begins with:

1. Identifying what type of pest is causing the problem
2. Determining the size of the infestation and the severity of pest damage
3. Creating a targeted plan to make the environment inhospitable to the pest

Our plans often include exclusion techniques, such as finding (and blocking) tiny entrances in your home or office building that let pests in, replacing worn window screens, sealing cracks or moving woodpiles and certain plants away from the structure of your house or business.

Eco-friendly pest control also means that if we use chemical control (including biological pesticides), we do so only when needed and that such use is employed judiciously. Furthermore, we select products that target the pest while maintaining the safety of other organisms and protecting water and air quality.

In practical terms: If you have termites in your barn, we consider the horses that call the barn home. Spotted a mouse in your kitchen? We’ll use controls that don’t endanger your young children or pets. A few bees congregating around a play area? We may spot spray a few inviting weeds or plants rather than an entire area.

Eco-friendly pest control like IPM helps manage pests in all types of environments, from urban jungles to farms and natural lands. Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s continually refines its practices and techniques as technologies change so that we can effectively eliminate pest problems, minimize risks to people and pets, respect other organisms, and be good stewards of the environment.

Have questions about our pest control techniques? Call us or drop us a note – we’re passionate about what we do and are always happy to discuss our process.

Who doesn’t love houseplants? They’re easy to care for, add natural beauty to your home, and provide you with a living thing to talk to that doesn’t talk back! And you don’t need a green thumb to know that houseplants can improve the quality of the air you breathe.

But there’s a downside: pests.

Whether your plant resides indoors year-round or just during the winter months, it could be bringing insects into your home.  As we’ve said before, pests don’t like the cold, which makes an indoor houseplant the perfect winter destination for small pests. If you take a moment to examine your nearest houseplant, you might be dismayed and disgusted to find a teeming ecosystem of insects residing on its verdant leaves. These creepy-crawlies can attack your plant and migrate to other areas of your home. What’s a plant lover to do? Luckily, there are ways to eliminate pests from your favorite indoor plants, and we have some tips to share. But first, who are these stowaways?

Common Offenders

Here at Ehrlich Pest Control, formerly Connor’s, cultural practices such as inspection, identification, monitoring, and education serve as the foundation of our pest management approach. If you’re dealing with a houseplant pest, you’ll first want to identify the unwelcome beasties in your home.

Some of the most common household plant pests are aphids, spider mites, and mealybugs. Aphids are small, soft, pear-shaped insects that can be pale green, pink, red, yellow, or black. Adults are usually wingless and measure one-sixteenth to one-quarter of an inch. Spider mites are tiny – less than one millimeter in size – and vary in color. Many species are able to spin silk webbing to protect their colonies from predators, and this is where the “spider” part of their name comes from. Mealybugs are oval-shaped and covered with a protective waxy coating that appears grainy and dusty to the human eye.

Keep Your Indoor Plants Pest-Free

If you have indoor plants, there are common sense measures you can take to avoid introducing pests into your home. Inspect your plant before you buy it or bring it indoors – if it seems like it might be infested (see below for indicators), keep it out of your house.  Many experts recommend isolating a new plant for two or three weeks in order to discern if pests are present. Each time you water your new plant, inspect both sides of the leaves and look for signs of infection. Once you’ve determined that your plant is pest-free, you’ll be able to add it to your indoor collection with confidence.

Three Ways to Spot a Houseplant Infestation

Indoor plant pests are small, so you might not notice them right away. But they leave telltale signs all over your houseplant. Your first clue might be in the leaves – leaves that are under attack by pests often appear stippled and may have a slightly bronzed look.  If the problem is left untreated, your beloved houseplant’s leaves will eventually yellow and die. A second clue is stunted growth: if pests are ravaging your houseplant, it won’t grow and thrive the way it should.  A third indicator of a pest problem is residue or dirty spots: you may notice a sticky substance on your indoor plants, or a sooty black fungus – both of these are markers of an aphid or mealybug infestation. Mealybugs can look like fur or lint when they’re clustered on your plant.

How to Nip a Houseplant Infestation in the Bud

With just a little bit of vigilance, you can manage indoor plant pest problems on your own. When you remove the pests on a regular basis, you’ll have a better chance of keeping your plants healthy. Develop a habit of inspecting your plants’ leaves when you water them. Look for signs of infection, and wipe the leaves with a wet rag, squishing the pests as you go. Wipe the upper and lower surfaces of the leaves, as well as the stems.  You can also use an ultra-fine horticultural oil when you clean your plants, but it’s seldom necessary.

Well-chosen houseplants add natural charm to your home. Armed with a bit of education and a desire to keep them healthy, you can manage any and all pests who take up residence on your favorite plants.