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Serving King and Snohomish Counties
  
 

 

Pest Prevention

   

Pest prevention is your answer if you want to use less pesticide, if you want the pesticide you do use to be more effective, and if you want to save money on repairing or even maintaining your structure.

We are available to perform and highly recommend inspections of your structure to look for ways to prevent pests.  The inspection is not free - but it almost always saves you money, sometimes thousands.

   
     

Reduce access

    

Sometimes this applies to finding all the possible access points for rodents, as mice can squeeze through holes as small as a dime or through gaps as small of a 1/4 inch.  It can also include instructions on how to fix these access points, information on the right materials to use, or estimates on professional grade exclusion - a specialty that most experienced, licensed, contractors actually get wrong. (Say no to steel wool and expanding foam.)

Rodent contamination can cost thousands of dollars to remedy.  Not to mention the negative emotional and health aspects of sharing your home with rats, mice, or those fluffy tailed tailed, super destructive squirrels - you know, the ones who chew on wires and cause house fires..

Sometimes this refers to another topic:

  

Exclusion

See our links to PEST EXCLUSION and RODENT CONTROL.  (coming soon)

     

Cut back your vegetation

The more you can limit or remove vegetation from your structure the better.

Pests use vegetation as a highway to and from your home.  Pests sometimes make homes in exterior vegetation and move from those nests into your home later.

Many types of pests get their food from insects that live on vegetation  - so cutting back makes them go further for food. It also makes it easier to see if you have pests and easier to control.

Vegetation against your structure traps moisture against your structure that makes it rot faster, think very expensive repair bills, and moisture in your structure is a huge draw for many types of pests (Carpenter ants, moisture ants, termites, etc....

We recommend trees, shrubs, and vines be maintained at least 3 feet from roof, gutter, and eave.  Grass is kept trimmed back from siding and decks (consider installing gravel beds), and vegetation is trimmed back and thinned out from around your siding allowing for air flow.

 

Bad vegetation

Tree limbs can provide access for ants and spiders. 

They are full of insects that ants and spiders live off of. 

They trap moisture that encourages rot and premature aging of roof systems, 

Worst of all, they allow access for rodents.  Rodent teeth are strong enough and sharp enough to chew through cedar shakes and shingles in minutes, and structural members in hours. Plus, many types of roof venting will not stand up to rodent teeth for even a few seconds.

Dense vegetation not only encourages pest and rot problems, it can hide them from view and it can hinder any type of control procedures.  Trying to get a good control barrier around a home with heavy vegetation around it - can be close to impossible.

     

Dig out your siding

   

Regardless of the type of siding you have, wood, vinyl, concrete board, or even brick - there should be 3 to 4 inches of clear concrete showing between the bottom of your siding (and any other wood of your house) and the ground or ANY type of landscaping material beneath it. 

By any we mean:  sand, beauty bark, wood chips, mulch, gravel, rock, landscape dividers, treated railroad ties, etc...  This not only keeps your walls dry on the inside of the wall, thereby rot free - it makes it less likely that many types of pests will crawl into it.

The post on the upper right completely rotted out and was infested with Carpenter ants after having been in contact with gravel - in just three years. The interior post was pressure treated and rot resistant. It rotted too.

The picture on the lower left shows 3 or 4 inches of clear concrete below the bottom of the siding.

 

EW-damage

Clearance
     
Eliminate Moisture    
Fix your leaky gutters, clean them if they're full, install splash blocks at the base of downspouts to divert the water away from your home.  Go outside when it rains and see where the water goes.  Most pests like moisture.  Moisture in your home draws pests and encourages rot. Expensive!    
     

Have a professional inspection.

For other conditions that might attract pests.