Effective Ways to Pest-Proof your Home

You can expect cozy flannels, delicious Maple Pecan lattes and messy pumpkin carving this season, but what you won't expect is the influx in pests in and around your home!

Pests often will seek shelter during the Fall and Winter months, particularly rodents, if you aren't adequately prepared. There are many effective ways to pest-proof your house without doing too much. Aside from maintaining your regularly scheduled pest control visits, some of these preventative measures can be as easy as general maintenance. Here's our advice: 

1.) Remove excess clutter, boxes or trash on the outside your home. Ensuring the lids on outdoor trash bins are closed at all times is also helpful. 

2.) Rake up leaves or excessive foliage that may have gathered around planter boxes and bushes overtime.

3.) Cut or trim back overgrown bushes and trees to help alleviate nesting from happening. Branches that lay on the roof are ideal for rodents to crawl onto your home! 

4.) Close up doggy doors, patch holes and/or fix loose piping that all serve as access points for critters. 

5.) Properly store dog food or cat food, preferably in metal bids with a lid that can't be chewed through such as plastic or cardboard. Rodents love nothing more than automatic feeders that are left outside!

All of these are effective methods to deter critters that are looking to escape from the cold and raise their families. If you find that you are hearing scurrying in the ceilings, there is a possibility that rodents are simply running across the roof of your home from the outside. However, if the scurrying persists or you simply would like to know for sure, give Black Knight a call and we can come out to perform a free inspection of your attic or areas of concern. Simply, Black Knight is here to help no matter what your pest problem is! Stay cozy, our friends.

Subterranean Termites

Subterranean Termite Time

Mud Tubes

Example of working Subterranean mud tubes

Have you seen some mud like tubes in or around your home, and wondering what they are? They could be Subterranean Termite mud tubes or shelter tubes, and having a Termite Professional identify them is extremely important before they cause costly damage to your home. Subterranean termites maintain their living space underground and build mud like tubes that connect from the nest up to the food source which is wood. The mud tubes that you see are made up of a mixture of soil, feces and saliva. The tubes follow irregular patters that can seem to be working up, dropping down from the food source or seem to be exploring the wood going off into different directions. You can break open the tubes to check if there are any active termites. Subterranean termites can rebuild damaged tubes which is an indication of continued activity. It is important that you have them identified by a Professional Termite Inspector and have them assess any damage that may have already been caused by the swarm of subterranean termites.

Black Knight Termite Control Service

Black Knight offers many options in termite and pest control services, start off with a free quote today. Black Knight Termite offers a free termite inspection for concerned home owners. At the time of your one on one inspection you are able to have any questions or concerned answered by a professional. They can assess the damages and offer you an estimate on what it would be to treat or repair the damage to your home. They can let you know if a heat treatment or fumigation would be the best option for you. What ever your need in eradicating the termite infestation Black Knight Termite can help. At Black Knight we do all the work ourselves.