Fleas: More Than Just an Aggravating Pest Infestation

After a long winter, and a few more weeks to follow, most of our pets have spent a significant amount of time indoors. Many times, this means that pests may be brought into the home after your morning walk and take up residence in your home—a common one is a flea. 

Fleas are external parasites, meaning they feed off the blood of humans and animals from outside the body. They like warm blood and will go after it. They can also carry diseases. While the biting and scratching acrobatics of your pet may seem a bit funny, fleas are definitely no laughing matter.

Your vet can offer a variety of ways to deter a flea infestation for your pet—from flea collars to medications and treatments, but often these diligent parasites find a way to enter and multiply. This is a problem for both your pet and for you and your family. Not only will you notice your pet biting and scratching their skin, but you may also notice small bite marks on yourself or your children. This means there is a flea infestation and you will need professional pest remediation.

Fleas can quickly take over a space—the eggs and resulting flea larvae develop in a short amount of time. You can try some home remedies, but to ensure the problem is truly solved once and for all, you will want to contact a Long Island exterminator. Once they take care of the flea infestation, make sure you incorporate preventative measures to keep them at bay.

About DQ Pest Control:

DQ Pest Control is a family-owned and operated New York animal control and wildlife removal company serving the New York metropolitan area and Long Island. Specialist David Quinn is a New York exterminator with many years of experience in the family business.

There's Nothing Romantic About Bed Bugs: Call Barney

It’s almost Valentine’s Day and our thoughts are turning to wine and roses, snuggling with our special someone, maybe popping the question, and…bed bugs?

Yeah, that’s not the first thing that comes to mind when thoughts stray toward the bedroom, and rightly so. These nasty little pests are hard to see, cause itchy bites, and generally give most people the creeps. If you are looking for a romantic February 14^th, you may want to get any potential bed bug problem resolved with professional pest control services.

The best way to detect, and therefore implement bed bug remediation, is with a detection dog. We have Barney here at DQ Pest, and his nose is heads and tails above any other means of finding bed bugs. Consider this:

• The basset hound’s nose is quite a bit more sensitive than ours and can find small infestations before other methods can
• A detection dog has no allegiances—he sniffs out the bugs if they are there. Period.
• This method saves our customers time, money, and headaches simply by providing the earliest detection possible

Detection dogs are the preferred method of sniffing out drugs with airport security, searching for missing persons, and helping forensic scientists find evidence—even in the harshest conditions. With these stamps of approval, you know you can trust the dog’s nose to reveal your bed bug problem.

So, get some help from Barney the Detection Dog and move forward with more important matters for the most romantic day of the year. You have some shopping to do and plans to make. DQ Pest Control and Barney will make sure you have only guests you want in the bedroom.

Silverfish Infestation

Most people wouldn’t know what to call the skinny brown bugs that they find in an old box of books or in the cupboard making their way through a bag of flour. Luckily, we do. These unwelcome guests are called silverfish or firebrats on occasion, and they are, for the most part, just annoying. A silverfish infestation can become serious if the population is large enough and the infestation persists for  New York exterminators to take care of the problem before any significant damage is done.

But, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So here are some tips to avoid silverfish problems:

• Store books and fabrics in plastic, sealed containers
• Clean closets, attics, basements, and other storage areas routinely
• Vacuum carpets regularly
• Check boxes or parcels that come into your home for signs of silverfish or firebrats
• Reduce the humidity in storage areas and repair any plumbing issues

Basic cleaning and home maintenance should be enough to keep a silverfish infestation from happening in the main areas of your home. It’s the areas that go unused for long periods of time that pose the potential for a problem—a musty attic or a leaky basement, for example.

Typically, you will need to have a professional remediate the problem if you have a silverfish infestation, then you’ll need to take these steps to prevent a recurrence. Depending on the way your space is used, you may want to consider routine pest control treatments—for example, if you keep a lot of old books or operate a home office and store paperwork.

Making Resolutions: Keep pests Out

It’s that time of year again! 2010 begins a new chapter, a fresh start, and the opportunity to make this year better than ever. Making New Year’s resolutions is a pretty standard practice of many Americans—some casually taking stock in the year before and determining in their mind what they plan to improve upon, and others making formal lists and plans. Maybe you want to get in shape or take extra initiative in your career to get that promotion. Maybe you want to improve the quality of the relationships in your life or get organized in your home.

A Nassau County exterminator can’t do much about the big resolutions for 2010—we can’t help you too much at work and we certainly can’t help with your workout routine. But we can play an instrumental role in getting your home organized and keeping it pest-free all year.

Here are some suggestions for keeping pests away this year:

• Be particularly cognizant of your kitchen habits. Keep food properly sealed and stored in cabinets and do not keep dirty dishes out or crumbs on the counter any longer than necessary.
• Do cursory checks of your floorboards from time to time. Pests, bugs, and small rodents like to hide out in nooks and crannies
• Take some time to weatherproof in the spring and fall. Look around the attic, foundation, and windows for any portals to the interior of your home.
• Consider quarterly pest control services from a trusted company.

Knowing that you have reliable pest services in place, those you perform yourself, and those scheduled with a quality pest services technician is a small but important step in improving your home maintenance tactics this year.

While the big resolutions take time to realize, taking small steps to improve your home can make you feel a whole lot better this year.

Mouse in your Long Island House ? Not This Holiday Season

It's the night before Christmas when all through the house, 

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The famous poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” also called “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” was written by Clement Clarke Moore in 1822 and has been a holiday tradition ever since.

Hopefully, there are no mice in your Long Island home now, stirring or otherwise, and hopefully, the festivities are underway, with family traditions in full swing. As a family-owned and operated business, we know the importance of taking time to celebrate this time of year.

An important side note to remember, however, is that rodents can sometimes infiltrate the home this time of year, as temperatures drop and our furry friends seek shelter. Your home may be particularly critter-friendly with all of the lighting wires for chewing and perhaps a tree to climb. And let’s not even mention all of the cookies and treats.

As you tidy the house, wrap your gifts, and make all the other holiday preparations, just take a brief moment to take special note of anything amiss that may indicate an unwelcome guest and the need for some  Long Island rodent control measures:

• Chewed wires
• Bedding, perhaps with wrapping paper or other soft materials
• Scurrying sounds from walls and other small spaces
• Droppings

Take care of your mouse in the house before he causes any problems that may impede your holiday traditions, which can be as minor as stealing a cookie or gnawing on wrapped gifts, to as major as damaging electrical wires, which poses a real fire hazard.

But for now, Barney the termite dog is enjoying a nice holiday retreat nestled in front of the fire and the whole family is gearing up for the festivities. From our family to yours, we hope you are doing the same.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Why You Need A Professional Bed Bug Exterminating Service

Bed bugs have been a problem for landlords, hotel and motel operators, and other business owners for years.  But in recent years, because of widespread knowledge, media, and other conditions, this little pest has been brought to the attention of the public. You can have bed bugs in your home and you may not realize it until there is a bigger problem. There are bed bug remediation products available on the market, but you should be reaching for the phone to call a professional bed bug detection or pest control company when you consider the following points:

• Bed bugs are very small and hard to detect with the naked eye. They naturally head for cracks and crevices, making them hard to find from an untrained peek or even a professional inspection.
• Bed bugs can and will bite humans and pets. This can cause a pretty severe reaction, so it is important to have an inspection performed regularly or if there is any suspicion that an infestation may be occurring.
• Like many pests, bed bugs carry disease.

“Over-the-counter” remediation products include powders and fogs to kill these little menaces. There are several problems with these DIY home remedies. Primarily, there is no guarantee (and not even a reasonable likelihood) that you can entirely absolve the problem. Bed bugs have had centuries of practice at evasion and can hide out until the coast is clear. Another problem is that pesticides are poison—you want to kill the bugs without harming pets, children, or other human inhabitants. A pest control professional will know the proper steps to get rid of the problem without any issues. Finally, not only can these pesticides be dangerous for people, they can have adverse effects on your belongings, such as mattresses and other bedding that need remediation.

Trust the experts to effectively get rid of your bed bugs and keep your family safe. Here, Barney, the bed bug detection dog, helps us find bed bugs wherever they are on your property. This means of detection is nearly foolproof and 100% safe. He’s part of our family—so we know keeping your family safe and free from bed bugs is important to you.

Honesty and Efficiency in the Long Island Home Buying Process: Trust the Termite Dog

The process of purchasing a home can be a bit intimidating. It is one of the biggest investments of your life and you want to be sure that you are getting truly the home you want. Once you’ve got an accepted contract, you begin the inspection process to give yourself some peace of mind that the home is safe and sound. One of the inspections you will likely obtain is a termite inspection. Using a company that utilizes the services of a termite detection dog is the best way to ensure that there are no termite infestations or that any issues can be effectively resolved.

Why is a termite dog better than a routine inspection? In a word—honesty. The termite detection dog has no concerns with contracts, timelines, ulterior motives, or human error.  They simply sniff out the problem or confirm that none exists. Their noses, designed by Mother Nature, never fail and are believed to be more precise than advanced instrumentation or other human detection methods.

Find a New York exterminator that uses this service to have this additional layer of security in your investment. Here, Barney, the Detection Dog helps homeowners find termite problems early so that they may take care of the problem more quickly and more cost-effectively.

Think about this:

• A termite detection dog can find termites in areas that are inaccessible to their human inspector counterparts, such as inside walls.
• The dog is trained to find termites, period. There is no room for error or subjectivity.
• Finding termites before they have caused damage that would be evident to the human eye will save all parties money and headache.

The results found by a detection dog are instant, a critical piece of the puzzle when working in the real estate escrow cycle.

Dogs have been used for many years for their natural abilities and superior sense of smell. Police and law enforcement officials have been using dogs for decades to sniff out evidence, cadavers, drugs, and more. Organizations around the world have been instituted to offer the training these dogs need to become masters of their skills. Now, you have this expertise that no human technology can match to help you make wise decisions for the biggest investment of your life: your home