A Helpful Guide To Common New Jersey Pests
Toms River and the surrounding area is home to many different insects, rodents, and other pests, but some are more likely to get into your home or business than others. Knowing what pest problems you may come up against will help you to identify the pests and be able to call for help as soon as possible. In our pest library, you’ll find information about the pests that you are most likely to deal with, including how to identify them, the problems they cause, and how to get rid of them.
Bed Bugs
What's worse than not being able to sleep because you are overthinking your day? Not being able to sleep because you are worried that bed bugs have found their way into your home and are biting you and feeding on your blood as you sleep. Bed bugs are pests that plague homes and businesses throughout the entire year. These indoor pests are hard to avoid and are a frustrating pest problem. These apple seed shaped pests live wherever there are people because we are their favorite source of food. Bed bugs prefer the blood of humans over any other host. They use a proboscis (elongated mouthpart) to pierce our skin and feed on blood. Bite marks produced by bed bugs create a linear or zigzag pattern referred to as "breakfast, lunch, and dinner." Some people will experience no reaction to bed bug bites, while others will develop a severe allergic reaction. Excessive itching at the bite sites may even lead to secondary infections that require medical attention.
A major pest problem throughout New Jersey, the large number of people moving through our state each day allows them to move from place to place with ease. Bed bugs are exceptional hitchhikers, crawling onto people, or our belongings where they move into businesses and homes. After moving into a new home, they typically take up residence in sleeping areas, giving them easy access to their favorite food (people). The seams of mattresses, box springs, cracks in wood furniture and walls, or areas behind wall hangings are popular hideouts. It is a common myth that they only stay in bedrooms. Bed bugs will move throughout a home or other building by traveling through walls or floors. These champion hide and seek players hide in upholstered furniture, behind wood trim and baseboards, in wall voids behind electrical outlets, in electronics, and inside cluttered areas.
To help prevent bed bugs from invading your New Jersey property, we want to offer the following prevention tips. When working, at school, or in any public place (airport, hotel, library, movie theater, hospital), always keep your personal belongings up off the floors and away from other people's belongings. Keep your living space as clutter-free as possible to help limit the number of hiding spots they have in your home. Place bed bug proof covers on mattresses and box springs to again help reduce hiding spots. Vacuum your floors, upholstered furniture, and mattresses regularly to remove stray bed bugs. Be careful when purchasing used furniture, rugs, or other used items for your home, that bed bugs could use to hitchhike home with you. Repair cracks in your walls, place covers over outlets, and fix damaged baseboards to help stop bed bugs from easily traveling throughout your structure. For home or business owners looking for exceptional bed bug control, reach out to the pest control experts at Resolve Pest Management, and learn more about our bed bug control solutions!
Cockroaches
A common invader of New Jersey homes and businesses, cockroaches will take advantage of any property that offers them shelter and easy access to food. The German cockroach is a small roach that has adapted to living indoors and is a major pest inside homes, restaurants, and other businesses that store and serve food. Their tiny bodies allow them to easily hide in dark and hard to reach areas, and their brown or tan coloration makes them difficult to spot. Helping to identify these roaches are two dark black marks found between their head and thorax.
German cockroaches are difficult to control, have a short reproductive cycle, and cause a lot of damage and danger inside homes and businesses. The biggest problem with German cockroaches is that they can spread bacteria, human pathogens, and parasites that they carry on their body and legs. After moving into a structure inside of things like boxes, appliances, or electronics, they do quick work of contaminating surfaces and food. As cockroaches move throughout a home, they get into ventilation systems, and air ducts, which allows allergens from their shed skins and excrement to travel throughout your home. The presence of cockroaches increases allergy symptoms and asthma attacks in people, especially young kids. Also, large populations of German cockroaches cause an unpleasant musty odor to develop. They also damage walls, floors, fabrics, and other personal items by staining them with excrement or chewing on them.
To help prevent cockroaches from invading your New Jersey property, we want to offer the following prevention tips. German roaches are mainly indoor pests and, therefore, a problem for property owners year-round. Keep them out of your structure by inspecting its exterior and sealing any entry points located in the foundation, exterior walls, around doors or windows, and through drains or vents. Make sure that garbage inside is removed daily and stored outside in trash cans with locking lids until it is trash day. Nothing is more attractive to roaches than smelly decaying garbage. Excess moisture also attracts these and many other types of cockroaches. Repair leaky pipes and fixtures, make sure gutters are directing water away from your foundation, and use dehumidifiers to reduce humidity levels in your home. Help limit hiding spots by keeping storage areas (basements, cabinets, and drawers) as organized and clutter-free as possible. Inspect deliveries, appliances, or furniture for signs of cockroaches before bringing them into your house. For home or business owners looking for exceptional cockroach control, reach out to the pest control experts at Resolve Pest Management, and learn more about our cockroach control solutions!
Mice
Field mice and house mice are the two most common species that find their way into Toms River area homes and businesses. They live in fields, wooded areas, next to bodies of water, parks, gardens, and yards. As they move around foraging for food or to escape harsh weather conditions, they often find their way into our structures. Both are agile and can either jump or climb into our homes where they take up residence in secluded, hard to reach areas. Basements, attics, walls voids, cabinets, and behind large appliances are common points of refuge for these mice. They are nocturnal and rest during the day, emerging at night to forage for food. Hearing mice running above ceilings or behind walls is one way that people first identify an infestation. Another way is by finding their dark, rice-shaped dropping on the floor, in cabinets, in boxes, or inside drawers.
Field mice and house mice are both types of small rodents. The two biggest differences between them are their coloring and the way they store food. House mice are gray or brown, while field mice have darker fur on the top of their body and a white underbelly, legs, and feet. Also, the field mouse's tail is bi-colored, darker on top and lighter on the bottom. Field mice tend to gather and store food at or near nesting sites while house mice do not usually store food; they consume it as they find it. No matter which species is present in your home, they need to be eliminated as quickly as possible. Mice spread diseases, contaminate food, and chew through and damage structural elements and personal property stored inside your home.
To help prevent mice from invading your New Jersey property, we want to offer the following prevention tips. Use wire mesh or caulk to seal spaces that mice use to enter your house — openings in the foundation, vents, and gaps around wires, cables, and other utilities. Remove as much access to food as possible. Pick up pet food, clean spilled drinks and food, keep lids on trash cans, and store food in the fridge or containers with airtight lids. Limit nesting spots in closets, basements, and attics by keeping those areas free debris. Reduce outdoor nesting spots near your home by cutting backs shrubbery from your exterior walls, getting rid of excess woodpiles, keeping the grass cut short, and maintaining garden areas. For home or business owners looking for exceptional rodent control, reach out to the pest control experts at Resolve Pest Management, and learn more about our rodent control solutions!
Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes live and breed outside and are famous for ruining outdoor events. Your next outdoor barbecue could be planned to perfection only to have everyone running indoors after being attacked by biting mosquitoes. Mosquitoes thrive in warm weather, and mosquito season in our areas runs from April through October. Both female and male mosquitoes feed on plant nectar as their main food source. Only the females bite and are responsible for ruining our ability to enjoy our outdoor spaces. Females consume blood meals, so they can create viable eggs and complete their life cycle.
Female mosquitoes lay their eggs on top of areas of standing water. Any water collected in man-made or natural containers makes for mosquito breeding sites. Tree stumps, tree hollows, ponds, marshes, drainage ditches, clogged gutters, tires, buckets, empty cans, and wading pools are all places that collect standing water and are where female mosquitoes lay their eggs. Any property with or near areas of standing water is susceptible to mosquito infestations. While mosquitoes can travel, most stay close to where they hatch. Mosquitoes are problematic not only because they deliver painful bites that leave behind raised itchy bites but also because of the diseases they can spread. While feeding on the blood of people and animals, they can transmit a wide variety of diseases and parasites, including the West Nile virus, tularemia, St. Louis encephalitis, and Eastern equine encephalitis. They are also known for spreading parasitic heartworm to our dogs and some other pets.
To help prevent mosquitoes from invading your New Jersey property, we want to offer the following prevention tips. First and foremost, it is important to remove any areas of standing water from your property. Remove standing water from buckets, gutters, the tops of tarps, and tires. Fill in low lying areas and make sure drainage ditches are clear and allowing water to flow freely through them. If you own a pool, make sure to treat it and that the water is circulating. Ornamental ponds should have fish in them to help keep the water moving and to eat mosquito eggs. Mosquitoes beat the heat in areas of dense vegetation and tall grass — keep your property's lawn and garden areas well-maintained. Keep mosquitoes out of your home by ensuring screens placed in windows and doors are secure and free of holes. For home or business owners looking for exceptional mosquito control, reach out to the pest control experts at Resolve Pest Management, and learn more about our mosquito control solutions!
Squirrels
Like mice and rats, squirrels are a type of rodent that often invades our yards and homes seeking shelter and food. Tree squirrels are the most common species found living throughout New Jersey. The Eastern gray squirrel lives in most backyards, parks, and wooded areas. You can identify them by their large size, gray fur, ears that stand up off their heads, and long bushy tails. The tail is important as it provides them with the excellent balance they need to travel across wires, fences, and tree branches. They also use their tail to help them land their large leaps from tree to tree or from building to building.
While squirrels may look cute and unassuming, the truth is that when they live near, or worse, inside of our homes, causing big problems. They can move into our homes at any time of the year, but the cold winter weather is usually what drives them inside of our warm temperature-controlled homes. Once inside, they will create a nest inside the attics, behind a wall void, in storage boxes, or crawl spaces. These pests are not just an inconvenience to deal with; they are dangerous and destructive. They use their sharp front incisors to chew through siding, vents, walls, wires, and pipes. Once inside, they move throughout the home to forage for food and nesting materials, contaminating food, surfaces, and personal belongings with excrement, disease-causing pathogens, and the parasites they carry on their body and legs. Also, while they don't look dangerous, if a female has a litter of pups inside your home and feels threatened, she won't hesitate to attack you or your pets by biting or scratching.
To help prevent squirrels from invading your New Jersey property, we want to offer the following prevention tips. Inspect your home's exterior and seal any entry points. Place weatherstripping around windows and doors; put covers over vents and chimneys, and make sure screens are secure. Repair roof damage and fill in spaces around wires, cables, and other utilities entering your home using steel wool. Squirrels love to feed on seed found in bird feeders, so remove bird feeders from your yard. Never have squirrel feeders on your property. Cut tree branches back away from your roofline that squirrels could use to gain easy access onto your roof. Place metal sheeting at the bottom of trees to stop squirrels from being able to climb them. For home or business owners looking for exceptional squirrel control, reach out to the pest control experts at Resolve Pest Management, and learn more about our squirrel control solutions!
Termites
Subterranean termites live under the ground and enter homes and other structures after finding their way inside through the soil. This species of termites often move in through spaces they come across in the foundation of a structure or through wood, making direct contact with the ground. After getting inside, they move into wooden floor joists and beams, preferring those that have been damaged by water. Water-damaged or decaying wood is easier for them to tunnel through and excavate than is sound wood. Subterranean termites feed on the cellulose in wood and other plant materials, converting it into a usable food source. While their feeding habits are helpful outside in wooded areas, in our homes and businesses, the termite's feeding habits are downright dangerous. Termites can cause billions of dollars in damages across the country each year; damage usually paid out of a homeowner's pocket as most homeowners' insurance doesn't cover the cost of termite damage.
Subterranean termites invade in large numbers, feed continuously, are active year-round, and have the ability to work for long periods before they're discovered. Knowing the signs of a possible termite infestation is important in order to prevent costly damage. Some common signs of a termite infestation are finding mud tubes running up the sides of your foundation or basement walls, blistered paint on walls, or exposed pieces of wood riddled with exit or entry holes. The most common sign of a termite infestation is a termite swarm. Winged reproductive termites swarm from the nest each spring to create new colonies. After swarming, they quickly discard their wings, where they pile up on window sills, walkways, decks, and porches.
What a great experience! Resolve provided us with a wood-chewing insect inspection for a home we are purchasing, and was very thorough! Scheduling was simple, price is reasonable, and attention to the detail was immaculate. Highly recommend!
