Queens winter over and begin new nests by themselves each spring. These Queens almost never build a new nest near an old nest.

From time to time in the winter, they wake up and wander around. These wasps are very sluggish. If you leave them alone they will try to find a new place to go back to sleep. Sometimes that place could be in your bed or clothes.

The best way to deal with these pests is to suck them up with a vacuum. The vac kills them nicely. Don’t bother to do expensive treatments, organic or otherwise. There are not very many and the vac is your best green solution.

Your natural choice when looking for organic green residential and commercial Pest Controls for Ants, Rodents, Wasps, Hornets, Spiders, Grain Beetles, Bats, and more. We need no ‘long term contracts’ to be the elimination experts. Serving Portland, Beaverton, Tualatin, Tigard, Sherwood, Wilsonville, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Milwaukie, Gresham, Hillsboro, Canby, Oregon City, Forrest Grove, Portland, and all of Washington and Multnomah Counties.

House sparrows were introduced from England into the United States in 1850. There are many naturally occurring species of sparrows also in the U.S. but they are not considered pests.

House sparrows have been implicated in the transmission of more than 25 diseases to humans and domestic animals including psittacosis, salmonellosis and several forms of encephalitis.

The house sparrow is a small but stocky bird 5.5 to 6.5 inches in length. The male can be distinguished from all common native sparrows by its black throat and upper breast and ash gray crown as well as a chestnut colored cape extending from the eyes along the side and back of the neck.

House sparrows are a social bird, nesting closely to one another and flying and feeding in small flocks. Nests of almost any easily obtained material are built on almost any conceivable elevated place.

Sparrows raise at least two and up to five broods per year. Three to eight eggs are laid per clutch taking an average of two weeks to hatch. The annual mortality rate of mature house sparrows has been calculated at 54%.

Sparrows feed on a wide variety of cereals and seeds and their diet includes young seedlings, buds and flowers and small soft fruits. The house sparrow has become almost dependent on humans for both food sources and nesting sites.

In addition to messy nests and the contamination and defacement caused by droppings, sparrows damage soft insulation in warehouses and in livestock raising facilities. Their nests have been known to cause short circuits and fires.

House Sparrows also carry bird lice which can bite humans.

Nature First Pest Control does not do Sparrow Control,. However, we can recommend several good companies.

Your natural choice when looking for organic green residential and commercial Pest Controls for Ants, Rodents, Wasps, Hornets, Spiders, Grain Beetles, Bats, and more. We need no ‘long term contracts’ to be the elimination experts. Serving Portland, Beaverton, Tualatin, Tigard, Sherwood, Wilsonville, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Milwaukie, Gresham, Hillsboro, Canby, Oregon City, Forrest Grove, Portland, and all of Washington and Multnomah counties

Greet your traveling family member in your garage with a bath robe. Tell them to strip and put their clothing immediately in the washing machine. or bag it up for the dry cleaners.

Set the luggage outside and take everything out. Get a can of pest spray and spray the inside of the luggage or get some pest strips, put them in the luggage, and leave it outside for 24 hours.

Put electronics, toiletry cases and alarm clocks and wool clothing in a garbage bag with a few mothballs or pest strips. Most professionals use Nuvan Pro Strips. Leave them in the tightly sealed bag or the luggage for several days.

Some folks put pest strips in their luggage to use when they travel.

Many  of my clients do not care how ‘Natural” a treatment is when It comes to Bed Bugs.

Your natural choice when looking for organic green residential and commercial Pest Controls for Ants, Rodents, Wasps, Hornets, Spiders, Grain Beetles, Bats, and more. We need no ‘long term contracts’ to be the elimination experts. Serving Portland, Beaverton, Tualatin, Tigard, Sherwood, Wilsonville, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Milwaukie, Gresham, Hillsboro, Canby, Oregon City, Forrest Grove, Portland, and all of Washington and Multnomah counties

Bed bugs bite between Midnight and 5 a.m.

They will travel many yards.

Bed bugs feed every three to seven days.

Bed bugs are stimulated to search for hosts by the rise in CO/2 in a room.

Bed bugs must be inches away to sense body heat.

The exact method they use to find a host is unknown.

Bed bugs do not feed in lines and they do not bite in threes.

Bed bugs feed for five to ten minutes, then leave quickly.

A  Bed bug can live for seventy days at room temperature.

In optimal conditions, the population doubles every sixteen days.

It takes two to three days to have bites show up.

Typically, there is no blood left on the bedding.

Some non toxic treatment methods are:

Diatomacous earth dust,

Anti climbing device for your bed legs,

Slow Low pressure steam treatment,

A GOOD mattress encasement is mandatory.

Nature First Pest Control does not do Bed bug treatments at this time.

We Service all other pests in Tualatin, Tigard,  Beaverton, Greater Portland,

Hillsboro and Gresham

Nature First Pest Control does not do mole trapping at this time.

There are five different species of moles in Oregon.

The most common and troublesome species in the Willamette Valley and Beaverton is the Townsend Mole.

Mole Facts:

The Townsend mole is the largest and most common species found in this area.

Moles are very territorial and defend large territories.  You usually do not have as many as you think in the Beaverton and Tigard areas.

Moles follow and eat earthworms. Worms go up and down in the soil based on the moisture supply. When the worms go deep in the late summer due to lack of rain, we see many more mounds than in the spring.  The moles have a much harder time digging in the deeper soil and must move more dirt up to the surface to make their tunnels. You can bring the moles up to the surface (thereby causing them to make fewer mounds) by watering the lawn. This watering will also attract more moles. Trapping moles is much easier when they are working just under the surface.

Moles are not rodents. There are in a separate classification of mammals.

Moles live on earth worms and grubs, they do not eat plants.

If you have a dead lawn with no insect life (no worms), you will not have moles. Many companies offer this toxic solution, however we do not offer chemical lawn treatments.

Moles can run in their tunnels faster than you can walk.

Mole skin is unusual because the hair has no ‘set or grain”. It can be brushed in any direction with equal smoothness. This fur has been used for centuries to cushion injuries caused by rubbing and friction, such as a blister on your foot.

Moles have  ‘Main’  tunnels and ‘feeding’  tunnels, and you need to be able to tell the difference to catch them.

Moles make sounds when courting.

Moles can hear you talking and walking.

Moles have a large amount of hemoglobin in their blood. This makes them very susceptible to bleeding to death from a small injury. On the other hand, they can breath when advancing through the dirt. This ability allows them to avoid most attempts to gas them in their holes.

Moles have good eyesight and will travel above ground at night.

Nature First Pest Control believes that the Organic, ecologically friendly and natural way to control moles is with traps.

With the new awareness of Bed Bugs, comes increased  concern about bumps, bites, and welts on the skin, especially those found upon arising in the morning.

There are typically two reactions to flea bites. Some folks get no reaction at all to either Fleas or Bed Bugs. And some folks are made miserable with redness and itching.

As a Pest Control Company we suspect that there may be a connection between the increased numbers of coyotes, raccoons and opossums in Beaverton and Tigard and the increased flea problems with our pets this year.

How do you know if you have fleas or bed bugs or something else that needs to be exterminated?

As a Pest Control company, we always take our shoes off to enter a suspected flea infested home.  With white socks on, we slowly walk around the home looking for fleas to jump onto the white socks. If there are even a few fleas present on the floors, you will clearly see them jump onto the white socks. We tell our clients in Beaverton and Tigard to do the same thing and spend extra time near the pet or infants bedding and play areas.

This method of finding the fleas may help you decide if you need to call Nature First Pest Control.

When you call Nature First Pest Control, we  will offer several treatment options. A residual spray or a non residual spray. In either case, we always educate out clients about ways to prevent future infestations.

Throwing the cat or dog out of the house is often the worst thing to do.

Please feel free to call, if only for more tips.

Cockroaches and other insect infestation are a common problem in new homes because of the development of the land around the community. Workers and their eating habits also contribute to cockroach infestation of new homes. This is because workers often leave open containers of trash and left over food through out the house during the various construction phases.

Once these insects breed, they multiply in number, causing bad odor and structural damage, wherever they live. They can easily infest your stored food and even clothing and the result is a very bad living environment. Cockroach infestations are known to cause health problems such as allergies, asthma and other bronchial disorders. Cockroaches are known to carry bacteria and other disease carrying organisms with them.

You can judge if a cockroach elimination service is professional, if their approach to extermination is holistic and if they emphasize on following less toxic methods for eliminating the problem. The first step that a professional cockroach elimination service will carry out is to find which species of cockroach has infested your living environment, as this is a major factor that helps to decide on the control method to follow. Extermination Service Professionals like Nature First Pest Control are aware of the nature and working of these species and will apply the least toxic method to remove them.

While calling a cockroach extermination or pest control company may be necessary, there are steps that you can take to prevent them from even coming in and staying your house.

Dust under all appliances and drawers with a light coating of Boric Acid dust. This dust is usually labeled Roach Pruff or similar and is available in stores.

Visitors from other areas of the country can bring roaches and Bed Bugs along with them in their baggage

• Dry Drain Traps are quick entry points for cockroaches, and drain flies. You can avoid this by running water in unused bathrooms and toilets that connect to these drains on a regular basis.

• Packaged food purchased from cockroach infested locations can bring the problem into your living environment. Ethnic food?

• Empty out indoor trash containers regularly and keep them clean on the inside and the outside.

• Wash dishes immediately after meals because cockroaches will get attracted to residue food lying around dishes.

• Regularly vacuum up areas where people sit down to eat because such areas will be frequented by cockroach for food smell and food particles.

• Eliminate hiding places in your home by picking up paper, lumber, and other debris next to your home.

Nature First Pest Control Inc. Your natural, Child and Pet friendly, organic,

residential and commercial, Ant, Rat, Mouse, Spider, Squirrel, Yellow Jacket,

Hornet, Termite, Silverfish, Flea, Pest Control, extermination, and Green

practices experts. Serving Portland, Beaverton, Tualatin, Tigard, Sherwood,

Wilsonville, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Milwaukie, Gresham, Hillsboro, Canby,

Oregon City, Forrest Grove, Portland, and all of Washington and Multnomah

counties.

The technicians, researchers and everyone else involved in cockroach control need to care and not be satisfied with anything less than total elimination. (3/3/2008) Austin Frishman

Too often I heard a complacent “researcher” at a comfortable university state they are happy to report that XYZ performed at an 85 percent or 90 percent level. How can you be happy with leaving some cockroaches? We must — and can — go to l00 percent elimination of existing population. New ones may enter, but can be prevented from re-establishing. Even in public housing, this is important. The technicians, researchers and everyone else involved in cockroach control need to care and not be satisfied with anything less than total elimination. Here are just a few important reasons why:

1. We now know that the persist ant presence of cockroaches in confined living quarters can result in increased, severe asthmatic attacks. In some areas, asthma is the primary reason why a child misses school.
2. In poorer neighborhoods, I have witnessed children and adults believing that they “deserve” cockroaches. Their life and surroundings are in misery. They have given up. The least we can do is remove one burden from their lives.
3. Physical abuse by cockroaches, both the larger peridomestic and smaller German cockroaches, does occur. Bites on the body, chewing off of eyebrows and feeding on body sores or eye mucus are more common than we like to think about.
4. When cockroach numbers are high, they turn cannibalistic on whatever there is to eat. Crawling into an ear and requiring surgery to remove them does occur, but it is a accidental invasion. Feeding on sores and eyebrows is not accidental. It is intentional.
5. Knocking out smoke detectors, setting off mouse snap traps, dropping a computer, defacing photos, curtains, walls, etc., occurs every day somewhere in this country as a result of a cockroach infestation.
6. We are all aware of a new highly resistant strain of Staphylococcus. It is nicknamed MRSA, short for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It is most prevalent in nursing homes and healthcare surroundings.What does this have to do with cockroaches? Back in l980, I co-authored a paper in the Journal of Environmental Health. Our publication verified that both American and German cockroaches are capable of carrying Staphylococcus. Because pest management professionals (PMPs) search out cockroaches and touch contaminated surfaces, it is a very wise idea to wear chemical-resistant gloves when doing inspections and treatments. With an increase in cockroaches comes the increase of the spread to people. As a side note, veterinarians are reporting that persons who take their pet dog to nursing homes for pet therapy are at an increased risk of contacting MRSA. The dog picks it up from the care center, shows signs of sores on its body, and transmits the MRSA over to family members.

Grain beetles, Grain wevils, as well as moths and their larvae are frequent pantry pests. You usually get them from the grocery store. They thrive in pet food, and bulk foods. Some of them can chew through some of the plastic wrappings. There are non toxic methods of getting rid of them, including freezing, repackaging and vaccuming and certain traps.

Your natural organic residential and commercial Ant, Rodent, Wasp, Hornet, Grain Beetle, Bats, and more. Pest Control and elimination experts. Serving Portland Oregon and the surrounding areas.

Nature First Pest Control

Telephone
503-579-3680