Carpenter ants are one of the most destructive pests in the U.S and like Termites destroy wood. Carpenter ants are black and red in colour and have a curved "thoracic dorsum" that is located at the rear of the insect. These ants are often found crawling along in lines around trees, fences and firewood.

Carpenter ants damage houses by establishing nests in the timber which leads to structural damage. They cause this by burrowing out tunnels in the wood expand their nest. A Carpenter ant infestation in a home is usually a satellite colony, with the main colony located within a hundred yards, usually in a stump or other decayed wood.

There are several ways to prevent Carpenter ants entering your home. They involve the following:

*Store firewood correctly as this is a favorite nesting place for Carpenter ants. To store wood correctly always keep wood off the ground and protect it from rain. As damp firewood piled up on the ground is an ideal nesting location. Old Stumps are common locations for nests.

*Always make sure that plants are not in contact with the house. As trees and plants provide paths for Carpenter ants as well as foraging sites.

* Like we mentioned earlier never allow wood to be in contact with soil. Wood should be stored on concrete. The only time that wood can be in direct contact with the ground is when it is pressure treated timber.

* Ventilation is necessary in attics to keep the moisture level of the room low as biogrowth (mold, mildew or fungus) thrive in rooms with lots of moisture and creates conditions that encourage Carpenter ant infestations.

*Always check for holes in the exterior of the house, especially doors, windows, foundation cracks, siding doors and pipes.

In conclusion, Carpenter ants are a huge wood destroying pest in the U.S. However, there are ways to prevent them from entering your house. Such as: storing firewood and timber on concrete, keeping plants and trees away from your house, ventilating rooms and checking doors, windows and holes in the wall.

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These little creatures get cold just like we do, and in the fall, start looking for a warm place to spend the winter. They really love old houses, as the wood frames and many cracks and other openings offer very little resistance to their entry.Field mice are resourceful, small, and very fast. They are surprisingly intelligent. And they prefer to ponder a solution to a problem, such as how to get into your house, if they are afforded enough time to do so.

They are loosely related to rats but are much smaller; about 4 inches long with a hairless tail which is as long as the body. Their fur is usually gray, white, black, or brown. They are named field mice because their natural habitat is found in the grass of the rolling fields.They have much smaller teeth than Rats and they have extremely sharp claws. As mentioned, they can move very fast and people often report that they first realized that they had a field mice infestation when they happened to see a blur out of the corner of their eye.

The common field mouse prefers a moderate climate and the fall season signals to them that it is time to find inside accommodations. They are often motivated to burrow inside your home by the smell of food.They are notorious scavengers and will live in the walls of your home, coming out only to eat. They have many natural enemies, including: wolves, bears, cats, dogs, snakes, and owls. Their nocturnal nature helps to keep them safe as a good number of their enemies sleep while the field mouse is awake.

So now, how do we get rid of these unwanted visitors? Below are a number of home remedies to get rid of field mice. We will first approach the problem looking at non-poisonous solutions:

Steel Wool - Field mice are very small. They can insinuate themselves into the smallest crack or crevice. An opening as small as 2 inches wide is large enough for a field mouse to enter. Use steel wool to stuff into any holes, cracks or crevices that you see outside your home, in your basement, walls or in your attic. A particularly favorite haunt of these small creatures is under the kitchen sink, so be sure to put steel wool into any openings under there.

Soda Pop - Amazingly, these little guys love soda pop. Put a saucer of the sweet stuff where they are likely to get at it. The mice will drink the soda and die. Apparently, it is the carbonization that does them in.

Mashed Potatoes (instant variety) - Place instant mashed potatoes near where you suspect the mice are hiding. They will eat the potatoes which will swell up in their tiny stomachs before they can be digested, thereby killing the mice. Unfortunately, they will probably die in the walls which may produce a smell.

Plaster of Paris with Chocolate - Mix dry chocolate powder with dry plaster of Paris. Place it where the mice live. The mice will eat the chocolate plaster and then go out in search of water. The plaster will kill them but, unlike the situation with the mashed potatoes, there is a good chance that they will die outside of your house while searching for water.

These low-cost solutions may prove to be all that you need to rid your home of field mice. If these treatments do not work, you may need something stronger. Look for part 2 of this article for stronger solutions to your field mice problem.

Author: Stephanie McIntyre

Stephanie McIntyre and Wendell Bryant are Internet developers. Visit their site at http://pestcontrolbugfreezone.com/organic-pest-control

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stephanie_McIntyre

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Rats are a scary and dirty home invader. When you have a rat in your home all you want to do is get rid of it. Rats are dirty and carry disease. You do not want them in your home. They can also be quite damaging and will chew on anything.

If you end up with a rat in your home you should make it top priority to learn how to get rid of rats.

Find Where they Live

The first step in rat removal is finding out where they are living. Rats will live in a number of places both inside and outside. Here are some top spots you will find them:

- wood piles

- bushes

- tall grass

- rock areas

- large trash items, like furniture

- abandoned cars

- insulated areas

- crawl spaces

- behind cupboards

- under bathtubs

- by hot water heaters

- by furnaces

- in basement areas

- in attics

Rat Attractions

There are many things that attract rats. You will find that they are mainly attracted to food sources, such as:

- garbage

- pet food

- fruits and berries on trees and bushes

- compost areas

- dog dropping

Inside the house they will try to get at any food that is available. They will get into boxes and bags of food.

Some Ways to Get Rid of Rats

Here are some things you can do to get rid of rats:

- Stack wood 18 inches off the ground.

- Put pet food and bird seed where it is not easily accessible.

- Keep lids on garbage cans.

- Keep bushes trimmed to at least 3 feet away from your home.

- Do not allow junk to pile up.

- Do not put animal products in your compost pile.

- Keep food stored in plastic containers.

- Trim branches away from house.

Taking away hiding spaces and food supply will likely drive the Rats away form your home and make it less inviting for them.

Taking good measures to keep rats away is the best way to keep them out of your home. However, when they get in you need to get rid of them as quickly as possible. You can try traps, but if they do not work then you need to call a professional in to help you so that the problem does not get out of hand.

Learn how to get rid of pests today! It is easy when you know how! Visit us at http://www.howtogetridofpests.net and learn how to get rid of pests and learn more about Natural Pest Control

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joseph_Then

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What's older than your grandfather and most likely to be here long after you've gone? The answer: the lowly cockroach

Believe it or not, cockroaches have been around for 400 million years and they're a lot more productive than humans. There are 57 known species in the United States alone.

But you don't have to go there to meet one. The most common type Blatella germanica can be found in almost any kitchen or bathroom.

You'll seldom find roaches in the day; most species are nocturnal. However, you can be sure your home is infested if you find what looks like little grains of pepper or oval, brown egg cases.

The former are the roach's feces while the egg cases are carried by the female under her body until the eggs are ready to hatch. Although the female cockroach lays only one or two eggs in its entire lifetime, each egg contains about 40 eggs.

The nymph or young roach becomes an adult in two or three months. Roaches normally live for nine to 10 months but some species can survive up to three years depending on the environment and food supply.

"Cockroaches thrive on warmth and dampness and show a distinct dislike for lighted rooms. These insects can feed on anything, including paper, leather fabrics, and foodstuff. They cannot withstand long periods of starvation and usually die within two to four weeks under such circumstances," according to the editors of 'Health Alert', a publication of the Health Action Information Network (HAIN).

Like flies, roaches can transmit serious diseases like typhoid fever and cholera. The germs responsible for these diseases are picked up by roaches from filth and carried to the food you eat.

Roaches also transmit dysentery, the inflammation of the mucous membrane of the large intestine caused by bacterial or viral infection. This disease is characterized by abdominal pain, cramps, diarrhea, and bloody stool, mucus or pus in the stools. If the patient doesn't get help immediately, he or she may die from dehydration or other complications.

"The cockroach is a very significant threat to public health as it is a mechanical carrier of germs and diseases. It may also pass on parasitic worms, the viruses of poliomyelitis, and other microorganisms such as those carrying hepatitis A and leprosy," warned the editors of 'Health Alert.' (Next: Get rid of roaches.)

To strengthen your body against diseases that bugs bring, take Immunitril - your first line of defense in maintaining a healthy immune system.

By: Sharon Bell

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Sharon Bell is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and published author. Many of her insightful articles can be found at the premier online news magazine www.HealthLinesNews.com. For details on Immunitril, visit www.bodestore.com/immunitril.html.

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If you or one of your children gets infected with lice, it can be a frustrating problem to try to eliminate.  Many families try to use shampoos and other popular treatments and they think they have killed off all of the lice only to find a resurgence of the lice treatment in the hair within a week or two.  The reason for that is that once lice get into the hair, they basically live to reproduce.  That means that female lice will be laying eggs in the hair twice a day and those eggs will gestate and begin to produce new lice even if you killed off the first generation that has taken up residence in the hair.

The eggs that female lice lay are called nits get attached to the hair and that adhesion is quite strong.  Any one adult female lice can lay down dozens of eggs a week and if you have many lice in your hair, that means that thousands of nits may become part of the structure of the infected hair and each of them will hatch out into another generation of lice that are ready to reproduce and start the cycle all over again.

The first job is to kill the adult lice that are getting the process moving.  You can use natural remedies or more severe lice shampoos which will destroy living lice.  One important note about applying these remedies is that light application of the treatment is not going to be sufficient.  You must work the treatment into the scalp deeply and in many cases leave it in place for a while to assure that all adult lice are killed.  Many treatments even call for putting the application in and then sealing the head in a plastic bag to allow the treatment to work over night.  In the morning the lice killing substance is thoroughly washed out. 

No matter what treatment you use, you should plan to comb the infected hair at least twice a day and for as long as half hour to an hour with a quality lice comb.  A good lice comb has tiny enough teeth that it can reach the individual hair follicles to begin the process of removing the nits.  The eggs that are in the hair are the reason for all of our frustration because even with a all out effort to kill off the lice, the eggs will survive to hatch out in a week or two and then you have more adult lice and then more active eggs.

There is no high tech solution other than persistence and home treatment.  By sticking with the treatment every day for 2-3 weeks, you kill off the first generation and get them out of the hair.  Then each time a new batch of lice are born from the eggs, the daily treatment kills them before they can reproduce.  No eggs will last longer than 15 days so if you stay with the process for 3-4 weeks, you will kill all of the lice and stop the spread of eggs.  Then and only then will you be able to say for certain that you have cured that infected head of lice.  

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