Pest Control OKC

Pest Control OKC: More Plants to help keep pests away

/in , , , , , , , , /by

Pest Control OKC: Some more plants to keep pests out of your garden

Last week, pest control OKC talked about some plants you can add to your home or garden to help keep away pests while adding some color and nature to your home. But those are just a few of the examples of what you can add to your garden. There’s still quite a few more options to help keep your home pest free!

Mint: Mint is best grown in separate pots. It looks nice and smells great but it also grows aggressively. Planting mint in your garden could mean you end up with a really nice smelling weed ravaging your garden. Mint leaves mostly repel mosquitoes but can work on other insects. And, much like basil, mint is a great plant for the kitchen. Use it to flavor iced tea and added to many recipes. The mulch of a mint plant is also great for vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, and turnips.

Rosemary: Rosemary is a much less invasive option to repel mosquitoes and a slew of other insects. It can be grown in pots but it does just fine in gardens or landscaped beds. The plant itself or it’s clippings both repel insects and it can even be boiled and turned into a repellent, making it one of the most flexible plants you can pick. And of course, Rosemary oil is great for cooking!

Alliums: Not one specific plant, but the family of plants known as Alliums are all effective natural insecticides. Repelling everything from slugs to aphids to cabbage worms. Putting an Allium near plants like tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, and carrots can ward off many of they’re natural pests. Alliums also include small herbs like chives, leeks and shallots!

If your home has some uninvited guests, call The Bug Guy, Pest Control OKC, today at 405-973-5522!

Pest Control OKC

Pest Control OKC: Plants to keep away pests

/in , , , , , , /by

Pest Control OKC: What to plant to drive away pests

Gardens are a great investment in your home and your health. Gardening is a great way to get exercise and can leave your home looking beautiful. But all those beautiful plants can also attract not-so-beautiful pests…or can they? The Bug Guy, pest control OKC, has a few plants you can add to your home or garden to drive away pests!

Basil: Planting some basil in containers in your home near entrances to the outdoors can help keep away flies and mosquitoes. It also has the added benefit of letting you grow a herb that had many uses in cooking! Basil can be added to salads and used to enhance other vegetables like tomatoes.

Lavender: Lavenders smell great to humans but moths, fleas, flies and mosquitoes hate the scent and will avoid it. Lavender had been used for centuries to add fragrance to homes. Keeping bouquets in your home will drive away the flies and putting one in your garden will help keep pests that might be attracted to other plants away.

Lemon Thyme: A more adaptable solution to repelling mosquitoes, Lemon thyme can be planted in rocky or shallow soil and still thrive. It just needs to be in a sunny location. There is some more maintenance to keep it repelling mosquitoes though. To release it’s chemicals you have to do what’s known as bruising the leaves. Simply cut off a few stems and rub them between your hands. Make sure you’re not allergic to this plant though, you can test your tolerance by rubbing a few crushed leaves on a small part of your forearm for several days and watching for adverse effects.

If your home is hosting some unwanted guests, call The Bug Guy, pest control OKC, today at 405-973-5522!

Chiggers- Pest Control OKC

Pest Control OKC Answers Questions About Chiggers

/in /by

Pest Control OKC: Informative Responses To Customer Questions

Over the last weekend many people celebrated Labor Day festivities in various ways. Some enjoyed their time out at the lake near woodsy areas. Others had their usually backyard BBQ. Of course, being outdoors near grass and trees can invite a lot of insects or other unpleasant things to take advantage of you. One such problem in areas like that are chiggers and our pest control OKC team is answering a few questions regarding these “red bugs”.

Are chiggers insects? 

As our pest control OKC expert, The Bug Guy, will tell you chiggers are not actually insects although many have referred to them as bugs. Instead, they are the larva of mites which belong to the family called Trombiculidae. 

What do chiggers look like?

Chiggers are very small in size. In fact, they are less than 1/50 of an inch in length. These tiny critters appear to be a reddish-orange color and they have six legs.

Do chiggers like to feed on people? 

Primarily, chiggers prefer to feast on reptiles, amphibians, birds, and other small mammals. Chiggers usually don’t seek out a human host, but will when coming into contact with them. Since chiggers normally live in patches, this is the reason people often notice several bites rather than just one or two. 

How can something so small bite people?

Many people make the mistake of thinking that chiggers burrow into the skin like scabies, but our pest control OKC team is here to tell you that chiggers do not behave this way. Instead, they attach themselves to the skin inject digestive enzymes into the bite location. This causes a hardened tube of dead cells called Stylostome. Then, they proceed to suck up the digested tissue with their tiny, little mouth parts called Chelicerae.

What happens to chiggers after they bite?

When they do attach to humans, chiggers usually die off within 72 hours, because they cannot obtain adequate nourishment from a human due to the human immune system reacting to the bite.  

If you discover a chigger problem on your home property the best prevention would be the following:

  • Keep grass short
  • Keep small animals out of your yard which could be possible hosts for chiggers
  • Remove wood debris which could be home to mites
  • Continue with pest control treatments 

Our pest control OKC team hopes this information answered a few questions you may not have previously known the answers to and we’d love nothing more than to help you keep your yard safe from pests like these. If you require our pest control OKC services, please feel free to contact The Bug Guy at 405-973-5522.