by Eric Gibson
As a native South Floridian, I don’t bat an eyelash when I see trailing ants by the sink, the occasional roach in the garage or multiple fire ant mounds in the yard. Maybe it’s because bugs don’t gross me out the way they do my wife. But it could also have to dowith the fact that living in South Florida—bugs are everywhere! The weather is always warm and humid—a bug’s paradise.It’s a simple fact that if you are a Florida homeowner, no matter how clean or new your living situation is, at some point you will find a bug in your house. And when the inevitable happens, you will probably go out to the nearest home improvement store and acquire a pesticide. You’ll give it a week or two (and you may see an improvement from day-to-day), but eventually, the bugs will come back. They always do…unless you know what to look for and how to properly treat the issue. I would be lying if I told you that the battle you are waging against the crawling invadersin your home will prevail—it won’t. A mission of that sort requires backup because fighting pests in Florida is a battle you can’t win on your own.
What kind of backup are we talking? It’s time to bring in the professionals. The good news is that professional pest control technicians are no longer the pest control technicians of 20 years ago. They don’t just come in through your garage with a sprayer and coat your walls with product. They are educated on entomology (the study of insects) and know exactly how to treat each insect species effectively while being efficient and safe to the homeowner and the environment. This smart approach to pest control is exactly what it takes when waging battle against Florida pests, whether it is ghost ants or German roaches.
My wife just moved into a house that had an issue with ghost ants. We ran the gamut of purchasing all kinds of treatments for ants at Home Depot and tried them all with no avail. After the first week of DIY treatment, it had seemed as though the ants were gone…until they came back. My wife and I got more aggressive with our treatments. We also worried that one of our two house cats would get into one of the treatments and get sick. Well, the cats ended up staying away from the treatments (smart creatures),but the ants did as well. What seemed to be effective mere days ago was no longer working at all. I had to do something because my wife was in a fit over the losing battle we were having with the relentless ghost ants. I called Nozzle Nolen.
Just in case you were wondering, the story of our battle with the ants has a happy ending. Nozzle Nolen signed us up for an annual pest control plan, and, a month later, I haven’t seen any ghost ants since. Our technician found out where the trail was coming from and sealed the entry points. She used a bait that was pet-friendly for our cats and went over the previous ant trails with soapy water, which eliminated the ant pheromones (making sure a new colony doesn’t find the same trail). Then she applied a product to the exterior to create a barrier for any possible future intruders. All of these efforts were, of course, pet-friendly.
I’m glad we ended up calling a pest professional to help solve our ghost ant problem because we weren’t getting anywhere on our own. If you have pests in your home that you’re looking to eliminate, from one Florida homeowner to another, I highly recommend you call in backup.
Learn more about the state-of-the-art pest control services offered by Nozzle Nolen at www.nozzlenolen.com and call (561) 844-3544 for a free inspection!