Gnats vs. Fruit Flies: What’s the Difference?

There are hundreds of thousands of different insects living around the world, yet most people are only familiar with a few varieties that they encounter on a regular basis. Two insects that we have here in Northern New Jersey are gnats and fruit flies, which have some similarities but are distinct species with unique qualities.

Here is a look at the differences between gnats vs. fruit flies to help you determine what type of small, flying insect you’re dealing with in your home.

All About Gnats

Gnats are usually black or dark gray in color and have long bodies with dangling legs. A common type of nuisance insect is the fungus gnat. In general, gnats have small eyes and often live in the soil of potted plants inside homes.

Gnats are found in various rooms throughout the home, not just the kitchen. They love finding mold, grime, warmth, and moisture in a home. This is one reason why you should not leave standing water around your house or delay fixing moisture damage. Rotting animal carcasses and sewage also attract gnats.

Understanding Fruit Flies

Meanwhile, fruit flies are tan or black in color and have big, red eyes. They have rounded bodies and live around ripe fruits and food scraps in trash cans. You’ll most commonly find fruit flies in your kitchen and gathering in groups.

They rarely go too far away from potential food sources, and the females lay eggs in fruit that is turning from peak ripeness to rotten. However, you may also find fruit flies inside produce that is growing in your garden, which is why it’s important to check fruits and vegetables that you harvest on your property before bringing them inside to wash and eat.

Similarities Between Gnats vs. Fruit Flies

Both gnats and fruit flies are tiny, flying insects that can be very annoying to have buzzing around you. They tend to be more of a nuisance than a serious health or safety concern.

Prevention strategies for both gnats and fruit flies involve making sure that window screens don’t have holes. For gnat prevention, use a yellow porch light instead of a white one to attract them less frequently. For fruit flies, take your garbage out frequently and make sure that trash cans have tight seals so that these insects don’t start lingering around.

Professional Help with Pesky Insects

Both fruit flies and gnats reproduce quickly, so if you notice a few in your house, chances are that you may have many more of them in the near future. Therefore, it’s a good idea to call a professional exterminator when you first notice a problem with either of these types of insects. A gnat issue that isn’t addressed may lead to damaged and unhealthy houseplants, while a fruit fly infestation can lead to the spread of disease through contaminated food.

After the long winter season, many pests start to become more active and cause big hassles and headaches for New Jersey homeowners. Precise Termite & Pest Control can help you get rid of many different kinds of insects and rodents so that your home is a clean and safe place that you enjoy spending time in.

For your free pest inspection or to learn more about how we can help with gnats or fruit flies, give us a call at 866-971-2847. Identifying the type of insect, such as gnats vs. fruit flies, is the first step to taking control of your pest situation and preventing them from coming back again anytime soon.

How to Get Rid of Mice Outdoors on Your Property

In the past, most of our blog articles about mice have been focused on how to get them out of your house. But what about mice that are living outside and haven’t yet found their way indoors just yet?

Here are some tips for how to get rid of mice outdoors so that you can have mice-free yard and garden areas.

Keep Your Yard Clean and Tidy

Mice love good hiding places in yards, so you can deter them from your outside area by making hiding places harder to find. Mow your grass, pull weeds, and keep compost materials far away from your house. Also, eliminate wood and brush piles in your yard to keep mice away.

Set Mouse Traps or Repellents

If you notice mice activity on your property, you can set some traps to catch them. It’s typically best to place traps along the perimeter of your property, but even this can be dangerous if you have kids or pets playing in the yard.

As an alternative, you can set humane DIY traps that won’t harm your little ones or plant natural mice repellents in your garden, such as lavender, sage, and basil. There are also devices that you can buy that make an audible sound that mice hate and that can serve as an effective deterrent without harming people or pets.

Eliminate Food Sources

To get rid of mice outdoors, you’ll also want to get rid of any exposed food that might entice mice to linger around. This includes bird food in bird feeders, pet food in outdoor kennels, and open trash cans. Instead, keep trash secure in cans with lockable lids, and take away leftover food that your pets don’t eat after meals.

Seal Up Potential Entry Points

The biggest risk of having mice outdoors is that they might find their way indoors and cause an infestation in your house. To take control of the situation, cover up any holes in the foundation of your home and seal up entry points, such as cracks in doors and windows.

Perform Regular Property Inspections

Mice reproduce very quickly and can easily take over a property if their presence goes unnoticed for too long. On a regular basis, walk around your yard and keep an eye out for any suspicious activity, such as gnawed wires, burrowed holes in the dirt, or fecal droppings left behind in outdoor areas.

Call Precise Termite & Pest Control

However, the best way to get rid of mice outdoors is to enlist the help of a professional who knows where to look for signs of mice activity and can quickly remedy the situation before it gets worse. It’s also a smart idea to have an exterminator perform an annual inspection as a preventative measure just be proactive if you live in an area where mice are common. Northern New Jersey is an area that is notorious for mice living both outdoors and indoors, and Precise Termite & Pest Control has been keeping our region mice-free for over three decades with effective, prompt, and affordable pest control.

For your free inspection or to learn more about the signs of outdoor mice activity, call us at 866-971-2847 or contact us online. This is a great time of the year to have an inspection done, so schedule yours today and enjoy peace of mind for the rest of the year.

How Do You Know When All the Mice Are Gone?

If you’ve ever dealt with a problem of mice in the house, you know the desperate feeling of wanting to get them out as quickly as possible. But after you’ve caught one or more mice, is there any way to tell if that’s it or if more are lingering behind?

This article answers the question of how to know when all the mice are gone and also make sure that they stay away for good.

Trust Your Sense of Smell

Mice leave a certain foul odor behind that comes from their urine. When you have a mice infestation, you may smell this odor throughout your house. But when all the mice are gone, the smell should dissipate as well.

Inspect for Mice Droppings

Mice droppings are a sure sign that you have mice in the house. But are these new droppings you are seeing or old ones that you never discovered until now?

If you found mouse droppings but no mouse in a frequently used part of your house, chances are that you still have mice in the house that need to be taken care of. Also, keep an eye out for newly gnawed food containers in your cupboards that weren’t chewed through the last time you checked.

Listen Closely for Sounds

Turn off your stereo and TV periodically to listen for continued sounds of mice activity. It is much more likely that you will hear mice than actually see them. This is because mice scurry behind walls, under floorboards, in attics, and in closets. Your home should be silent once the mice have officially left your property. Mice are more active at night than in the day, so listen especially closely in the evening hours.

Leave Out Some Bait

There are also some clever ways that you can test if mice are still living in your home or if you have finally accomplished a mice-free residence. One simple trick that you can try is to sprinkle some flour on the floor where mice would likely travel before you go to bed. If you see tiny footprints in the flour the next morning, mice are still living in your home.

You can also leave out a sweet treat, such as a cookie, to see if any lingering mice find it and gnaw away at the delicious surprise. Setting mice traps with peanut butter or cheese can have the same effect.

Call a Professional to Check for You

While all of these mice investigation techniques can be effective as an amateur, the only real way to see if you still have mice in the house is to enlist the help of a professional. Precise Termite & Pest Control’s expert exterminators know exactly where to look for mice still hiding in your home and get them out so that they stay away for good. We’ll help you figure out how mice are coming into your home in the first place and the type of mice you’re dealing with. Then we can take the best course of action to get the remaining mice out of your home quickly and effectively so that you no longer have to worry about germs, disease, or unsanitary conditions.

Do You Have Just One Mouse or a Full-Blown Mice Infestation?

Having any number of mice in your home is not a good thing, but there is a big difference between just one rodent resident versus an infestation with dozens of mice or even more. Obviously, getting control over just one mouse is easier than if you have many of them. But it can be very difficult to tell how many mice are in your house unless you are a trained professional and know what signs to look for.

From your local pest control experts, here are some tips for how to know if you have just one mouse or a mice infestation, and then how to deal with problem regardless of how big it is.

The Situation of Just One Mouse

Although it is rare, it is possible to have just a single mouse living in your house. A lone mouse could wander inside your home in search of food, shelter, and warmth while staying mostly hidden during the day. If you have a single mouse, you’ll likely only see a small trail of fecal droppings rather than many droppings in multiple locations.

But a situation to be aware of the pregnant female mouse who comes inside alone to find a safe place to give birth but then produces up to 12 babies per litter in just a short amount of time. What starts out as just a simple mouse problem could quickly evolve into something much bigger without you even realizing what’s going on.

Signs of a Larger Mice Infestation

There are various kinds of mice that live in New Jersey and that tend to stick together and gather in households. You might have more than one mouse and a mice infestation if you see many droppings, hear loud scratching noises, or find large quantities of nesting materials.

Lots of items chewed through in your house could be a sign of an infestation as well, such as packaged food boxes and wires. Larger mice problems may cause your household pets to act strangely, especially in the evening hours when mice are more active.

What to Do with Mice in the Home

Whether you have just one mouse or many mice, it’s important to find where they are coming in from the outside world. It is common to see holes chewed through walls, smell urine, or notice greasy streaks on the walls in areas where multiple mice are getting inside.

Chimneys and holes in siding are other common places where mice enter a home. A professional exterminator can seal up mice entry points so that more mice don’t get inside and join the ones already living in your home.

Your Local Mice Infestation Experts

Being faced with a mice infestation is an unsettling experience because of the dangers mice pose, such as damaging electrical wiring and carrying diseases that make humans sick. Therefore, the best way to determine how many mice you have in your home is to call a professional to do a free inspection and assess the situation.

Precise Termite & Pest Control provides effective, prompt, and affordable mice control solutions to keep your home mice-free now and in the future. Contact us to schedule your inspection and take advantage of our discount on new annual contracts for mice control.

Is Pest Control Necessary in the Winter?

During the warm months of the year, New Jersey residents tend to see more insects and other pests in their homes and around their yard because they spend more time outside. However, pest control in winter is also very important because troublesome critters don’t just disappear when the weather gets cold.

Here is why winter pest control is necessary and how you can keep your home free from pests all season long.

Common Winter Pests

Here in Bergen and Passaic counties, there are lots of different pests that our customers need our help with during the winter. Mice and rats are rodents that invade homes during the winter months, while raccoons start to move into attics, garages, and sheds when the temperature drops. You’ll often see spiders in New Jersey homes in the winter, as well as moths in places filled with light and cockroaches and beetles if you leave crumbs behind after holiday parties.

Winter Habitats for Pests

In the winter, insects commonly move inside of homes where it is warm and a food supply is nearby. Some of the insects that move indoors in the winter are spiders, ants, ladybugs, cockroaches, stinkbugs, and termites.

Pests like to find firewood, cracks, holes, and moist areas of houses to live in. Basements and crawl spaces are typical areas to check for pest activity. Some types of houses are more prone to pest control winter issues, such as cabins in the forest and older houses that need structural repairs. Insects and rodents are more likely to cause you problems in the winter if you have dirty garbage cans or plumbing leaks that cause damp areas.

Pest Control Winter Tips for Prevention

One of the best things you can do to prevent a winter pest infestation is to inspect your home for damage and potential entry points. Area to check include the roof line, firewood storage area, vents, window screens, door cracks, and gutters.

Remove debris from around your property so that you don’t entice pests to come find shelter near you. Other preventative tips include installing door sweeps, fixing leaky pipes, replacing loose mortar, and adding screen vents to chimneys. The winter season is also an ideal time to call a professional exterminator to take a look at your property and identify pest-prone issues that you may be unaware of.

Professional Help for Winter Pest Control

As you can see, pest control in the winter is absolutely necessary as part of a year-around maintenance strategy for keeping your Northern New Jersey home free of pests. Even during the busy holiday season, it is important to make pest control a priority so that a small pest issue doesn’t turn into a full-blown infestation that puts your health at risk and that becomes costly to remedy.

Now is an excellent time to schedule a free pest control winter inspection with Precise Termite & Pest Control to make sure that there aren’t any unwanted guests living in your home. Four-season pest control is crucial in New Jersey because of the large pest populations that are native to our area. We offer 10 percent off on new annual contracts to help you start the year off right with a winter inspection and pest assessment.

What You Should Know About Deer Mice

There are many different kinds of mice in the world, including quite a few distinct species right here in New Jersey. One of the common types we encounter is deer mice, which mostly live outdoors but can also find their way into homes.

Here is some information about deer mice so you can understand these pests and prevent an infestation in your house.

Why They’re Called Deer Mice

Deer mice got their name because their coloration actually resembles that of white-tailed deer. These mice have brown backs and white underbellies, legs, and tails. They also live in wooded areas, just like deer.

Where Deer Mice Live

You will mostly find deer mice in outdoor habitats and rural areas, and they are typically less likely to inhabit homes than other types of mice. However, it is very possible to find deer mice living in farmhouses, rural vacation homes that are seldom used, barns, and sheds.

In the winter, you can even find deer mice in residential neighborhoods looking for warmth in attics, basements, crawlspaces, and garages. Hollow tree stumps, old fence posts, and piles of debris are also favorite places for deer mice to take up residence.

What Makes Deer Mice Unique

The appearance of a deer mouse is very small and about three or four inches in length. They often go unnoticed because of their camouflaging colors and ability to move quickly and hide in the forest. Other characteristics of deer mice are large ears with minimal fur, black beady eyes, a pointed nose, and short tails.

Their favorite things to eat are nuts, seeds, berries, and insects. These are nest-building mice that forage for food and build nests out of fur, weeds, seeds, paper, and other debris they find in their habitats. They live between two and 24 months out in the wild, and have two to four litters (of usually three to five babies each) per year during the warm months.

Risks of Deer Mice

One of the biggest concerns about deer mice is how they carry Hantavirus and can spread this disease to humans. People can get Hantavirus by touching a dead deer mouse body or even just by breathing in air that contains urine droplets of Hantavirus-infected deer mice. The feces, saliva, and contaminated dust in the air can also cause Hantavirus in humans, which can be fatal.

Lyme disease is another concern when you have deer mice on your property. It is caused by a deer tick and transferred between mammals to cause flu-like symptoms, rashes, and joint issues in humans. Beyond transferable diseases, deer mice can cause structural damage in a home and also damage your garden as you prepare to grow vegetables and flowers for spring. Preventative measures are best for avoiding costly repairs due to damage caused by deer mice.

Get Professional Help with Deer Mice

Because of the serious disease risks and the elusiveness of deer mice, it is highly recommended to call a professional exterminator if you suspect these pests living on your property. We offer safe, effective, and humane mouse control solutions to rid your home of deer mice and keep it mice-free.

If you think you have seen deer mice on your property or noticed droppings or damage around your house, contact Precise Termite & Pest Control at 866-971-2847. We offer free inspections and have over 30 years of experience with rodent control in Northern New Jersey.

The Most and Least Effective Solutions for How to Get Rid of Mice

Once you notice evidence of mice activity in your house, there are a few different approaches you can take to get rid of them. But when comparing mice traps, mice poison, and all-natural mice repellents, it can be confusing to know which tactic will work the best. This is an especially important topic to discuss in the winter when mice seek shelter indoors.

Here’s an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of various mice control solutions and some tips for which ones to try based on your level of mice infestation.

Tactic #1: Mice Traps

Mice traps can be quite effective when you have only a small number of mice in your home. It’s important to place the traps close to walls, in dark corners, and other places mice like to hide. Snap traps, live-capture traps, and electrocution traps are all options if you are fine with killing the mice instead of removing them alive.

Tactic #2: Baits with Mice Poison

People use mice baits to lure mice to specific locations so that they can eat poisonous foods mixed with enticing treats and eventually die. Mice baits can be dangerous to have around the house if you have small children or pets around who might get into them. Baits with poison are only effective as a supplemental pest control method, and the need to continuously use baits indicates that better sanitation is needed in the home.

Tactic #3: Glue Traps

Glue traps work in a similar way as mice traps or flypaper that hangs to catch flies. Mice get caught in glue traps and die, but you’ll need to have plenty of them set in strategic locations in the house and garage to be effective.

Tactic #4: Mice Exclusion

The most effective approach for how to get rid of mice is exclusion, which means blocking entry points in your home so they can’t get in. This includes closing up gaps and cracks, checking for openings around pipes and vents, and making sure that doors and windows fit securely in place.

Tactic #5: Household Pets

Some people rely on their dogs and cats to keep mice populations under control. While these pets may occasionally kill mice, this is not an effective long-term solution because they can rarely kill all of them during an infestation. Meanwhile, mice often feed from the food bowls and dropped food from pets around the house.

Tactic #6: Professional Mice Control

But by far, the most effective solution for how to get rid of mice is to call the professionals at Precise Termite & Pest Control. We specialize in mice control and know which tactics to use for every kind of infestation situation. Every home and mice population are unique, and our extermination professionals have tools and techniques that go beyond any standard DIY attempt.

What Does Mouse Poop Look Like: Identification Tips from Pest Control Experts

No one wants to think about mouse poop or rat poop in their house, but it’s important to know what rodent waste looks like so that you can address the problem early-on. From the extermination experts at Precise Termite & Pest Control, here are some tips for identifying mouse poop and also tips for getting mice out of your house.

Identifying Mouse Droppings

Mouse droppings are best described as small, pellet-shaped objects that are dark brown in color and have pointed ends. The fecal droppings of mice are usually around ¼ inch in length. While newer droppings will be darker and shinier, older droppings are drier and chalkier in appearance.

However, there are different types of mice that exist in our region, such as house mice, deer mice, and white-footed mice. There are slight differences in the poop of these types of mice, but they all look pretty similar to the untrained eye and can be accurately associated with mice when addressing a household infestation.

What Does Rat Poop Look Like?

Although rat poop resembles mouse poop in some ways, it also has distinctive characteristics that you can see as a homeowner. Since rats are larger than mice, rat poop is larger too. It is more like a ½ inch long and even up to one inch in length.

The droppings from rats are cylindrical in shape and usually found in groups. They can even resemble raisins or coffee beans, versus mice poop that looks more like chocolate sprinkles. Yes, these things are gross to think about but very helpful when trying to figure out what type of rodent has taken up residence in your home!

Why Understanding Mouse Poop Is Important

If you can identify mouse poop in your house and even determine how old or new it is, you have a much better chance of figuring out how mice are getting into your home. It is common to find mouse fecal droppings around entry points, along with holes chewed through walls, greasy marks on walls, and the smell of urine.

The appearance of mouse poop can help you know if the droppings are new or old, which is useful to determine whether mice are currently inhabiting a certain area or it’s been a while since they’ve been in that location.

Get Extermination Help for Mice and Rats

Whether you have mice or rats, Precise Termite & Pest Control can help you identify the pests that have taken over your home and get rid of them for good. We have been providing excellent pest control services for more than three decades and pride ourselves on our quick, efficient, and affordable service provided by top experts in the extermination industry.

Since mouse poop and rat poop carry risks of spreading disease, we recommend having a professional exterminator handle fecal droppings left behind in your home. Not only will we clean up the mess, but we’ll also use various techniques to get existing mice out of your house and deter them from coming back in the future.

To learn more about our rodent removal processes or to schedule your free inspection, please call us at 866-971-2847 or contact us via online form.

How Does Bug Spray Work?

Summers in New Jersey can be hot, humid, and filled with annoying insects. In order to spend as much time as possible outside, many people turn to bug spray products that can be applied on the skin to keep insects away.

Here’s a look at how bug spray works so that you can enjoy the rest of the season without being bitten or itchy. And if bug sprays aren’t getting the job done, Precise Termite & Pest Control can help.

Different Types of Insect Repellent

Insect repellents come in various forms, such as sprays, creams, and oils. These substances are designed to protect the body from insect bites because those bites can result in skin irritations and even the transmission of diseases. There are chemically-based repellents and plant-based repellents sold on in stores and online today. Chemical bug sprays often contain DEET, while plant-based repellants use natural ingredients that are less toxic but perhaps not always as effective.

How Bug Sprays Affects Insects

Contrary to what some people may think, insect repellents do not kill bugs. Insecticides are products that are made to kill bugs, while insect repellents only deter them from landing on your skin. Insects are attracted to humans by carbon dioxide, and bug spray masks the scent of carbon dioxide so that insects can’t find us.

Mosquitos are the most common insect that we use buy spray to deter in our part of the world. Mosquitos are attracted to the scent of carbon dioxide, as well as lactic acid and odors emitted from moist, warm skin. When you use an insect repellent, you create a vapor barrier that tastes and smells bad to mosquitos. This makes them less likely to land on your skin and bite you.

Ingredients in Insect Repellent

Insect repellents are synthetically made in labs to use the power of chemicals to keep insects away from people. In addition to DEET, man-made insect repellents often contain methyl anthranilate, benzaldehyde, and dimethyl carbate. Picaridin, permethrin, and lemon eucalyptus oil are other common ingredients that you’ll find in insect repellents.

Natural insect repellents typically contain botanicals that are more environmentally friendly and safer for humans to use, compared to synthetic and non-biodegradable products. These types of insect repellents often contain citronella, lavender, pine, catnip, cinnamon, rosemary, basil, garlic, and peppermint.

What to Look for in an Insect Repellent

The type of insect repellent you choose is a personal choice, but there are a few things you might consider looking for when you are shopping for a new insect repellant product. It is beneficial to choose a bug spray that works against multiple types of biting insects and not just mosquitos. You’ll also want a product that does not irritate the skin and that lasts for at least several hours after application. Many people also choose repellents that are non-greasy and odorless.

Get Help with Biting Insects

Sometimes it takes more than just spraying yourself with insect repellent to keep bugs away. For those times, Precise Termite & Pest Control can offer professional extermination solutions for your home, business, and property. We are Northern New Jersey’s specialists for fast, effective, and affordable pest control, and we’re here to help you make the most of your time outdoors.

Call us at 866-971-2847 or contact us online to schedule your free inspection.

Understanding the Difference Between Venomous and Poisonous Insects

Although insects in the wild are fascinating to watch and learn about, some of them pose hazards to our health because of their natural abilities and defense mechanisms. For example, there are poisonous bugs and venomous insects that you’ll want to steer clear of when you encounter them. To help you understand these creatures better and how they can affect you, here’s the difference between venomous and poisonous.

What Does Venomous Mean?

A venomous insect injects another animal or human with venom. This is typically done through a bite that releases venom through the mouth and into the victim. It takes a variable amount of venom to kill prey depending on the insect. Venom is important to these insects’ survival because it is used as a defense against predators. This includes humans, as well. If you are bitten by a venomous insect, you could suffer from pain, low blood pressure, hemorrhaging, and even death.

Examples of Venomous Insects

There are venomous insects that exist and also other larger animals that are venomous too. In general, spiders, scorpions, bees, wasps, and ants are considered to be venomous because of how they inject a toxin to transmit the substance.

Here are some examples of creatures that can directly inject you with a toxin:

Brown recluse
Black widow spider
Fat-tailed scorpion
Funnel-web spider

H2: What Does Poisonous Mean?

Poisonous differs from venomous because of the method of toxin delivery. While venoms are injected, you can be affected by poisonous bugs by simply touching them. Poisons from insects can be transmitted though skin contact or even by accidently eating them or inhaling poisonous fumes. Poisons can be passively deployed without you even realizing it. If you come into contact with this type of poison, you could suffer from pain, skin irritation, and vomiting.

Examples of Poisonous Insects

Some creatures can be both venomous and poisonous at the same time, such as the Asian tiger snake, which can transmit a toxin through its bite and that also maintains poison on its skin. Some caterpillars, moths, and butterflies are considered to be poisonous because their bodies emit toxic chemicals that are dangerous if eaten or touched.

Here are some examples of creatures that are poisonous:

Cane toad
Poison dart frog
Rough-skinned newt
Blister beetles
Pufferfish
Japanese Oriental wasp

Professional Help with Any Insects

Regardless of whether an insect is poisonous, venomous, or both, you probably don’t want to be anywhere near it! If you have discovered an insect infestation in your home or on your property, Precise Termite & Pest Control can help. We’ve been in the business of pest control for over three decades and have dealt with every kind of bug that you’ll find here in Northern New Jersey.

Our services include the safe and effective removal of beetles, wasps, bees, mosquitos, and many other kinds of insects that have the potential to put you in harm’s way. Don’t let yourself be a victim of poisonous or venomous insects. Contact us at the first sign of a pest problem or for a free inspection to take a preventative approach.

To learn more, call us at 866-971-2847 or fill out our online form.

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