When it comes to general pest management, the key preventive actions take place within a structure’s foundational apron. The apron refers to the space within three feet upwards and ten feet horizontally from a structure’s base.

This area is important because a majority of pest problems begin when a building’s exterior is conducive to pest activity. Pests are opportunistic creatures, and when they find an environment that meets their needs, they’re quick to set up camp.

Once pests establish themselves, it threatens the structure’s exterior and increases the likelihood they’ll gain access inside. It sounds scary, but there’s nothing to fear: the experts at Janssen Pest Solutions are here to teach you how to safeguard your property’s foundation against unwanted intruders.

Moisture retention and harborage opportunities are two major conditions that attract pests. Moist environments provide pests with the water sources they need to survive, while harborage gives them places to seek shelter and breed. By addressing these circumstances, you can effectively deter pests from taking up residence. Keep reading to find out how!

Moisture Retention

Just like us, pests need water to survive. Excessive moisture provides them with a vital resource—and an open invitation to make themselves at home. Here are some factors that contribute to excess water retention:

Downspouts and splash blocks: While downspouts and splash blocks are essential for directing water away from buildings, they promote water retention if they aren’t properly maintained. When these features become clogged or misaligned, water accumulates around the building’s foundation and attracts pests.

Mulch: Mulch is commonly used in landscaping to intentionally retain soil moisture. But when mulch isn’t properly aerated, it retains excessive moisture, which encourages pest activity.

Landscape Fabric: While landscape fabric helps conserve soil moisture, it needs to be properly ventilated to avoid trapping excess water. Prolonged moisture retention beneath landscape fabric attracts pests that thrive in damp environments.

Gutter Moisture Retention: Clogged gutters lead to water accumulation along building eaves and rooftops. It creates a nutrient-rich environment that’s ideal for pests like mosquitoes to lay their eggs.

Standing Water Collection Areas: Low-lying areas or depressions in the landscape allow rainfall to collect and become stagnant over time. Areas with standing water create breeding grounds for water-loving pests, and increase the risk of infestations.

Hardscapes: Impermeable hardscape surfaces like concrete, asphalt, and paving stones prevent water from being absorbed into the soil. After it rains, water collects in stagnant pools conducive to pest activity.

By addressing these sources of moisture retention, you can help minimize the risk of pest infestations and create a healthier, more pest-resistant environment around your property.

Harborage

Harborage refers to areas where pests like to hide or take shelter. These spaces offer favorable conditions for survival and reproduction. Common harborage opportunities include:

Cracks and Crevices: Even the smallest openings in walls and foundations create ideal shelters for pests. These spaces are appealing because they provide protection from predators, weather, and human disturbance.

Roofline Overhangs: Roofline overhangs create shaded areas that give pests protection against sun, rain, and other environmental conditions. Overhangs are a very common place for paper wasps, yellow jackets, and other stinging insects to build their nests.

Overlap Siding: Overlap siding creates small, hidden spaces that pests love to hide. Gaps between siding panels or underneath siding edges can provide refuge for termites, ants, beetles, and more.

Exterior Light Fixtures: Exterior light fixtures offer harborage for flying insects like moths, flies, and mosquitoes. These fixtures emit light and warmth, which encourages pests to gather and seek shelter in nearby cracks and crevices.

Foliage: Nearby vegetation and foliage provide tons of harborage opportunities. Dense bushes, trees, and shrubs offer shelter for urban wildlife such as rabbits, possum, raccoons. These animals tend to carry fleas on their fur, which leads to additional problems.

Fleas are hitchhikers that aren’t too picky about where they lay their eggs. As wildlife critters roam the great outdoors, they leave flea eggs in their wake, including among the plants inside your own backyard.

Think about how often your beloved family pet explores these same areas. Your dog, cat, or other pet may pick up the fleas and eggs left behind. Fleas can multiply quickly once they’re on your pet and cause discomfort. They can also transmit diseases and parasites that pose health risks to both animals and humans.

Don’t let pests take shelter around your property. Eliminating harborage sites disrupts pests’ ability to survive and reproduce, making it one of the most effective strategies in pest control. Minimizing hiding places makes it harder for pests to find shelter, breed, and multiply.

Additional Control

Don’t wait until pests become a problem—take action now and protect your structure from infestation. A Green Guard Pest Management Program from Janssen Pest Solutions may be the answer to your residential pest prevention needs.  
Our Green Guard services utilize an integrated pest management (IPM) approach. We employ a combination of techniques that promote long-term pest prevention. Our technicians will thoroughly inspect your home’s foundation for conducive pest conditions. Then, we’ll develop a customized solution to address them.

Our Green Guard services come in a variety of packages and price points, and we’re happy to help you choose the plan that’s right for you. Contact us today to learn more about our comprehensive pest control solutions!

Are you waking up to itchy bites and suspicious red marks on your skin? You might have unwelcome guests in your bed.

Bed bugs turn peaceful nights into sleepless struggles. These nocturnal pests are notorious for causing discomfort and irritation with their awful bites. The mere presence of bed bugs brings a myriad of troubles, including health anxiety and infestation concerns.

However, there’s no need to suffer in silence. We understand the challenges of bed bug infestations. At Janssen Pest Solutions, our team of experienced exterminators in Des Moines is here to provide you with fast and effective bed bug services so you can enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep once again.

How can I prevent bed bugs?

Understanding how bed bugs operate and implementing preventative measures is crucial for minimizing infestations. We believe that employing preventative measures is the most effective way to keep these pests at bay.

Where do bed bugs come from?

Bed bugs are adept at finding their way into homes through a variety of means. This makes them a challenging pest to deal with. Though avoiding bed bugs entirely may be out of your control, understanding their habits is a crucial step in minimizing infestations.

It’s important to recognize that bed bugs are expert hitchhikers. They can attach themselves to luggage, clothing, and other personal belongings. This means that even a brief encounter in an infested environment, such as a hotel room or public transportation, can unintentionally introduce bed bugs into your living space upon your return. 

To minimize this risk, we recommend that frequent travelers thoroughly check hotels prior to booking. Research customer reviews and inspect online resources for any reports of bed bug incidents. Upon arrival, conduct a brief inspection of your hotel room. Focus on areas like the mattress seams, headboard, and furniture. These precautionary steps significantly reduce the likelihood of bringing bed bugs back home.

Secondhand items are another potential source of bed bug infestations. Used furniture, like mattresses, sofas, and upholstered chairs, can harbor bed bugs. Second-hand clothing and bedding pose the same risk.

It’s important to thoroughly inspect secondhand items before bringing them home. When purchasing used furniture, carefully examine all seams, crevices, and joints for signs of bed bugs and their eggs. If you purchase secondhand clothing or bedding, be sure to wash and dry these items at a high temperature before using them. Being diligent about checking secondhand items helps avoid the potential hassle of dealing with a bed bug infestation later on.

There are countless ways for bed bug infestations to occur—these are just two common examples. Infestations can happen to anyone, regardless of their cleanliness or the state of their home. Understanding some common risks and taking preventive measures helps minimize the risk.

What are the signs of bed bugs?

The first step in dealing with a bed bug infestation is confirming their presence. Some common signs of bed bugs include:

Bite Marks: Waking up with red, itchy welts on your skin is a common indicator of bed bug bites. These bites often occur in a linear or clustered pattern

Blood Stains: Bed bugs feed on blood. They may leave behind small blood stains on your sheets or pillowcases prior to feeding.

Dark Spots: Bed bugs leave behind fecal spots, which appear as tiny dark spots or smears. Keep an eye out for these marks on bedding, mattresses, walls, or furniture.

Eggshells and Shed Skins: Bed bugs shed their exoskeletons and leave empty eggshells as they progress through their life cycle. These objects are a telltale sign of their presence.

Musty Odor: Bed bugs release certain pheromones that produce a distinct smell. A strong, musty odor can be a sign of a large infestation.

Live Bed Bugs: While bed bugs are nocturnal and usually hide during the day, you may spot them crawling on your mattress, furniture, or walls, especially in the seams and crevices.

How to get rid of bed bugs?

Every bed bug issue is unique, and there’s never a one-size-fits-all solution. While there are DIY methods for dealing with bed bugs, they’re often ineffective and can even make the problem worse by causing the bugs to scatter and spread. Professional exterminators have the expertise, tools, and knowledge to effectively eliminate bed bugs from your home, ensuring a thorough and lasting solution.

At Janssen Pest Solutions, our team works with you to understand your problem and develop a customized treatment plan. We offer a variety of treatment options to address bed bug issues of all sizes.

One treatment option is our convective bed bug heat system. Our system effectively eliminates unwanted bedmates without the need for harmful chemicals or pesticides. This tool is a game-changer in the battle against these persistent pests. It utilizes controlled heat to target bed bugs in all their hiding spots.

Our convective bed bug heat treatment works by gradually raising the temperature of the treatment area. The temperature becomes lethal to bed bugs without affecting the surrounding area, meaning your belongings stay safe from harm.  
What sets our convective heat treatment apart is its ability to penetrate deep into furniture, walls, and other hard-to-reach areas where bed bugs may hide. This helps ensure thorough eradication of the infestation.

Moreover, this method is safe for both humans and pets, as it does not involve any toxic substances or residues. Our convective bed bug heat system is highly effective and incredibly efficient, allowing quick treatment times and minimal disruption to your daily routine.

Remember that bed bugs are a common issue, and their presence does not indicate a lack of cleanliness. We want to emphasize that there’s no shame in seeking help! Our team of friendly Des Moines bed bug exterminators will assist you and provide discreet, professional services. Don’t let bed bugs take away your peace of mind. Contact us today for a free estimate and take the first step toward a bed-bug-free home.

Have you been looking for how you can eliminate bed bugs? At one time an afterthought, such pests have recently made quite the comeback. The more you understand about bed bugs, the better your opportunities of avoiding them.

Basics of Bed Bugs

Bed bugs derive their name from the truth that they’re typically discovered in close proximity to beds. That is because these pests require the blood of warm-blooded animals in order to survive. Unfortunately, they may mature in around 35 days. Then, they live around 7 – 12 months. It’ll make removal of bed bugs challenging to do without the assistance of the professionals.

Bed Bug Bites

Bed bugs mainly feed on human beings sleeping in bed overnight. Their bite is painless, and its blood meal takes around ten minutes.

The Hunt

How will bed bugs find a host while they’re asleep? The CO2 from exhaled breath, body heat, and additional biological signatures assist in focusing the bed bugs on snoozing, unsuspecting hosts. Bed bugs feed, then retreat back to their place of harborage for days or perhaps weeks before returning back to the surface. It might make detection hard until the infestation is highly established.

On the Move

These pests are knowledgeable hitchhikers. As a matter of fact, they’re mainly transported by human beings and humans’ belongings such as suitcases.

Be on the Lookout for Bed Bugs

The smaller an infestation, the easier extermination is to perform. That is why it is vital that you spot any potential infestation as early as you can.

What does their Skin Look Like?

The shed skin of bed bugs appears almost identical to live bed bugs. The difference between the skin and the actual bug is that its exoskeleton will look translucent and empty and obviously can’t move. As an infestation continues and mating is ongoing, immature bed bugs start making up most of the population. During this time, every adult bed bug already has molted multiple times. As shed skins don’t decompose at the same pace, they’ll begin building up over a period of time.

That means you’ll stand a better opportunity at spotting the clear exoskeletons than actual bugs, particularly since its skins are going to be discovered in larger clusters along a mattress seam, headboard, box spring, baseboards and even trapped to your pajamas and bedding.

You’ll find a variety of sizes of skins depending upon the life stage:

• 1 mm – Bed bug egg

• 5 mm – 1st-stage instar nymph

• 2 mm – 2nd-stage instar nymph

• 5 mm – 3rd-stage instar nymph

• 3 mm – 4th-stage instar nymph

• 5 mm – 5th-stage instar nymph

Bed Bugs: How often do they shed?

The bugs only shed after they finish a blood feeding at each of the initial five life stages. Depending upon food availability (that is, blood sources) as well as temperature, each stage (under ideal conditions) will last around a week. If food isn’t readily available or if conditions are too cold, each molt and shedding thereafter may take longer.

Bed Bug Shedding: What should you do with it?

As you see bed bug skins, immediately stop your search. Continuing your search or cleaning up may disturb the living bugs, and cause them to hide and scatter. It’ll potentially spread the infestation to additional areas of your house. Instead, contact Janssen Pest Solutions at 515-519-3447 to eliminate bed bugs, as well as their dirty skins.

Indications of Bed Bugs

These pests are great at hiding, yet not great at concealing evidence. The careless clues left behind are the best sign that your room is overrun with these pests. Some clues to search for include:

• Blood stains on PJs and sheets
• Fecal stains on bedding
• Shed bed bug shells, exoskeletons, or skins

Indications of Bed Bug Bites

Bite reactions in skin appear like those that are caused by mosquitoes and fleas. Telling which pest caused a bite may not be possible. Search for these indications of bed bug bite symptoms:

• Lines of several bites
• Bed bug bite rash around a localized space
• Itching and burning
• Red, raised welts

Where do you Look?

The right bed bug control will require a watchful eye. In order to feed on human beings, bed bugs desire close proximity to their host. Inside the bedroom, headboards, box springs, and bed framing are favorite areas for these bugs. They also may settle inside furniture, as well as fixtures close to the bed.

Bedrooms aren’t the only area in which these pests might be a problem. The feeding does not need to be overnight. All these pests want are human hosts who inactive long enough to offer a meal. Eliminating bed bugs is challenging. Any area which human beings sleep, rest, or sit may be a space that bed bugs feed or are introduced.

Sitting for a couple of hours inside a theater will make you a target. You might become a target riding in a cab across town. You can also make a target inside your favorite recliner in your living room.

Put Your Concerns to Rest

These pests have an uncanny capability of spreading using unsuspecting individuals and their valuables as carriers.

Following the measures below will assist in minimizing the opportunities for you running into these pests. Most importantly, it’ll help to minimize the odds of you bringing some to the house with you.

• Firstly, check all travel reviews before you visit a hotel, and be aware of the ones that have several bed bug reports.
• As you check into your hotel, check your headboard, mattress, bed frame, as well as pictures for any bed bug signs.
• Instead of storing suitcases on the floor or bed, keep your suitcases on the luggage rack.
• Don’t store clothing inside dressers and hang clothing that may be hung.

Still, there isn’t any guarantee that bed bugs will not sneak into your house some way or another. If they do, contact Janssen Pest Solutions.

For more information on our bed bug pest control services contact Janssen Pest Solutions at 515-519-3447.

Some folks think of insects or bugs as they hear the term “pests,” while other people imagine rats, mice, squirrels, or raccoons. Therefore, what is pest control? “Pests” comprise of any rodent, insect, or wildlife which is considered unwanted because it either invades people’s businesses or homes and causes damage or heightens the risk of communicating an illness or disease. Therefore, pest control is the procedure of managing (by the use of repellents or deterrents) or extracting pests from the place of business or house.

Controlling or managing pests may be accomplished with a variety of techniques. Killing them often is done (using the professional services of exterminators or DIY), but there are techniques of humane pest control available, as well. They involve the use of sound to repel or deter pests, as well as making changes around your property to prevent them from getting in. Preventing a pest problem is preferable to dealing with one which has already happened… yet if the issue already exists, there isn’t any way around it: all pest(s) must first be removed.

Wildlife and insects enter structures mainly to search for warmth, shelter, and food. Typically, the areas affected include the roof, the basement, and the attic. Homeowners might do some things to assist in ensuring they do not offer an environment that is appealing to pests – for instance, they may keep their areas uncluttered and clean, without easy places for hiding. Similarly, in the spaces outside your home, you may ensure you do not stack firewood or additional items close to the house, and keep all tree branches trimmed. You might seal up all obvious places in which pests may attempt to enter.

Professional pest control services like Janssen Pest Solutions are able to help a good deal in controlling and preventing pests, as well. We’re able to inspect the property to see if there are pests inside (occasionally it is difficult to know for certain, as a homeowner… we just suspect there might be pests as we hear noises even though occasionally we’ll see proof like feces). Our services may:

• Discover where pests are getting into the premises
• Handle all pests already inside the house (identification of the kind of pest is accomplished first)
• Recommend whether there’s any damage caused by pests
• Regularly spray to assist in preventing insects
• Seal entry points off we do not have easy or ready accessibility to

Sometimes we use traps or bait, and we always use humane pest prevention and removal. If you have pets inside your home, let the technician know ahead of time, as some methods utilized are toxic to pets.

The objective of pest control includes basically removing any wildlife or insect from spaces in which people work or live. What kind of approach is utilized to manage pests is the option of the homeowner and also may be dictated by the circumstances themselves. Humane techniques are becoming increasingly popular yet there might be circumstances where they won’t work. Regardless, the aim includes preventing (or minimizing) structural or additional damage that is caused by such pests, and decrease the risk of pests spreading diseases or illnesses to people.

Pest Control: Is it Safe for Households that have Pets and Children?

Households with pets and young children must be careful while handling pest control. Curiosity, as well as their small size, may make it a challenge to keep them out of spaces where they should not be. Is pest control safe? Absolutely, if precautions are taken to make sure the pets and children are safe. It’s arguably a lot safer to handle rodents than to permit them to continuously live inside the home, in which there’s a risk that contamination and diseases might be passed from rodents to domestic pets and humans.

Traps

They’re a common device used to extract rats, mice, and additional rodents from a house. When pets and young children are present, traps have to be placed in spaces which aren’t accessible to them – even though that may be a lot more difficult with younger children who are mobile and fast, and also especially with cats.

Using Bait

Even if there are regular foods being used, it isn’t a good idea for the food to be accessible to pets or children in case they eat it. The food might be spoiled or might be contaminated with rodents or their feces or urine. Keep in mind, as well, that even though peanut butter is a popular bait for rodents, some folks have fatal allergies to it. Ask your pest control expert what kind of bait they’ll be using.

Regardless of the steps taken, pets and children must continually be appropriately supervised.

Therefore, is pest control safe for homes that have pets and young children? If the correct precautions are put in place, the answer is yes. Pet owners and parents ought to feel free to ask any questions about treatment or plan for rodent removal. Do not be afraid to additionally ask for a demonstration or explanation of how the company has intentions to use a pet or child-proof traps. Ultimately, it’s better to extract rodents from the house in order for the home to be properly disinfected and cleaned (and if necessary, repaired). Rodent exclusion, as well as preventive pest control measures then, should be taken to keep all rodents out of your home.

Using Expert Pest Control Services

Using an expert pest control service such as Janssen Pest Solutions may offer peace of mind. We have the knowledge and experience to handle all sorts of situations, which include households that have pets and children. Most pet owners and parents feel safer handling pet-friendly, eco-friendly solutions. Our company specializes in humane pest control and has non-poison, non-toxic options for eliminating rodents from your home. Rodenticides or poisoned bait never should be used. Customers may ask to see the safety information for any items we propose to utilize in the home.

For more information on our pest control services contact Janssen Pest Solutions at 515-519-3447.