What does summer smell like? Fresh cut grass, burgers on the grill, corn on the cob?Memorial Day is literally right around the corner so we’re gearing up for our annual BBQ with friends, family, food and fun. What are your weekend plans?

The weather is heating up and flowers are in bloom. You may notice an increased number of bees buzzing around your yard, pollinating your plants. There are about 20,000 species of bees in the world!

Use caution this weekend when playing outdoors and always wear your shoes! Ground bees, such as solitary bees, wasps or yellow jackets, make nests in the ground and will sting when aggravated. Another type of bee, the Carpenter bee, is a wood boring insect, drilling holes through soft wood in order to lay eggs and protect their larvae. Keep an eye out for them around your deck as they could harm the structure.

Have you noticed either of these types of bees at your house? Don’t let them ruin your Memorial Day BBQ! Call Catseye Pest Control today to protect your home and your family.

As nuisance wildlife professionals, it is our job to safely trap and remove wildlife that are damaging your property or nesting in your home. Catseye’s goal is to humanely remove the animals in such a way that ensures their survival in the wild once released. There are also state laws that we need to follow, as well as our own company policies and moral standards.

We were recently called to trap and remove some sort of wildlife that was nesting in a chimney. Upon further inspection, we noted that a mother raccoon and her almost juvenile babies had indeed moved into the space. When the trapper arrived it was a struggle to get to the animals. The location of the raccoons was too remote for the trapper to successfully catch the mom and babies at the same time. If we caught the mom, the babies would perish in the chimney as they were not mature enough to return to the wild and forage for food. We could not suction out the babies as they were too small to withstand the force and would not survive.

Based on this information, Catseye decided to walk away from the trapping job. However, we continued to monitor the chimney each week to see if and when the raccoons were able to leave on their own. Ultimately, the mom and her young left the chimney without aid and we placed a chimney cap over the opening to ensure that no other wildlife could venture in.

Have you ever experienced wildlife living in your home? Tell us about it!

Catseye Pest Control provides safe and humane trapping and release for all wildlife that begins to make your home its own. Our goal is never to kill the wildlife, but remove them safely and bring them back to their natural habitat, miles away from residential properties. There is one story in particular that we’d like to share with you, displaying Catseye’s professionalism and sympathy for the animals.

A new customer called us after hearing noises in the attic crawl space of their home. As with all new clients, we sent out one of our state certified inspectors to assess the situation. During the inspection it was clear that a mother raccoon and her young pups, approximately a week old, had moved into the customer’s home. The babies’ eyes weren’t fully open and they were still nursing. The inspector discussed the course of action with our wildlife trapper and the customer. Before service could begin there were a few important points to make.

1. Because the babies were so young, they wouldn’t be able to survive if we trapped and removed them separately from their mom.
2. The mom would abandon her babies if we trapped and released her into the woods separately from her babies.
3. The mom would abandon her babies if we handled them too much during the trapping process.

The decision was made to trap and remove the mom and babies at the same time. We also found a New York State rehabilitation center carrying a Rabies Vector Species license that would take the animals. The facility offered protection for the raccoons while allowing them to experience the outdoors. This way, the mom could continue to nurse her young and teach them how to forage for food. The raccoon family now had a great chance of succeeding in the wild and the customer could go back to living without any wildlife nesting in their crawl space. This proved to be a win-win situation.

Let Catseye detect the Carpenter Ant colonies in your home. Colony detection is an important step in eliminating the worker ants and finding the Queen. You see, the Queen will continually lay eggs, producing worker ants to grow her colony. Once she and all of her eggs are eliminated, the colony will suffer. The key is to detect the colony before any major structural damage has occured.

That’s right. When the weather heats up, you may notice Carpenter Ants. Carpenter Ants inside your house may indicate that a colony is present within the walls of your strucure. Call Catseye today for a full inspection.

One thing I have learned over the past thirty years of pest management that the average person doesn’t appreciate is that the average person sees a pest management professional simply as the bug man (that being one of the nicer things we may have been called). For example if I were say first responder, what comes to your mind? No doubt you would say courageous and self- sacrificing and you would not be alone. These are individuals that run into dangerous situations while the rest of us are running in the opposite direction.

Bubonic plague, hanta virus, murine typhus (comparatively mild, acute, endemic form of typhus and characterized by fever, headache, and muscular pain) typhoid fever, cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, tuberculosis, salmonella and parasitic worms. What do all these diseases have in common? They are transmitted by either an insect a rodent or both. This reality has made this point clear early in my career that as a pest management professional I have been on the front lines protecting the public’s heath.

Like the first responders, the pest management professional runs into situations that the rest of us run away from. How many times have we heard someone say “it’s a dirty job but someone has to do it”. That may be true in some cases unless you’re referring to heading into a room infested with bed bugs. The idea of heading into an insect or rodent infested condition is the things of nightmares. It takes a special kind of person to be willing to run into that kind of situation. Who knew.

During economic downs we all look for ways to reduce our expenses.? We examine our budgets and we start to eliminate those items we believe are not essential. Eating out a little less as well as not going to the movies as often.? But you would never think of eliminating the business, home or auto insurance would you?? Why not?? Because they are items you can’t afford to go without.? Why would you then discontinue your pest management service after considering the investment you have already made?? Pest management is nothing more than a specialized insurance policy that protects your home and business from wood destroying insects as well as those nasty stinging ones and don’t forget rodents.?
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