Archive for the Termites Category
Posted on April 30, 2012 with 1 Comment
Appearance
Swarmer: 3/8″ dark brown body, with wings. The wigs will appear transparent to milky white.
Habitat
Termites eat material that contains cellulose, such as wood, roots, plant debris, paper or cardboard. Termites can gain entrance into a structure through any part of the wood frame in contact with the ground, through openings in the foundation around pipes and conduits or through cracks in the foundation. Termites can enter through cracks that are no wider than 1/64 of an inch. Subterranean termites require moisture to survive. They will create mud tubes to obtain access to a structure that is above ground. These tubes are created from soil cemented with secretions and fecal material. The tubes are to protect the termites from exposure to sunlight or dry conditions. Termites are able to survive in a structure without contact to the ground if there is a sufficient moisture source.
How do they affect me?
Termites will eat wood, destroying it. Termites cause over 2 billion dollars in property damage every year. Infestations that are ignored will lead to serious home damage, and in extreme cases, home have had to be destroyed.
What should I do?
Small steps make a big difference. Start by eliminating food and moisture conditions around your home. These simple steps will deter termites, making your home a less attractive target. Termites can be prevented by our guardian program, ultimate protection plan, and monitored by our Home Pest Prevention program with the termite indicator system.
Posted on April 30, 2012 with No Comments
JP McHale Pest Management Offers Solution To Help Maintain Home Sales and Resolve Termite Issues Quickly
You’ve sealed the deal and your client is anxious to sign the paperwork. It’s a New York State realtor’s dream come true. Your home buyers absolutely love the house and are already trying to figure out where to put the furniture and hang the curtains. You even negotiated a fair price with a nice commission for yourself. But, then the home inspector reveals a nasty termite problem. Your client is horrified and you need to take immediate action to keep this deal alive.
Finding termites can be a deal-breaker. And, in this housing market when you get an interested buyer, you don’t want them to back out because of termites. What can you do to maintain your sale? It can be as easy as 1-2-3. Here are the three easy steps:
Gather all documentation regarding past contracts with pest management companies (even if you are not under a termite guarantee right now). Any documentation regarding pest management can be helpful.
Be honest about any previous termite issues. Show the buyer where the known activity was and how it was resolved. You can also explain how the problem originated and where the problem area may be. Remain positive and have a solution immediately available; one that can be easily implemented. Showing your buyers that the termite issue can be resolved quickly and easily is key.
Develop a relationship with a reputable pest management company in order to negotiate a discounted price and a quick solution. JP McHale Pest Management offers a special pricing package for realtors and home inspectors.
Professional estimates find that in the U.S approximately 4 million homes are attacked by termites annually costing over 5 billion dollars in property damage making termite damage more common than damage caused by fires or storms. The phenomenon of undetected termite damage adds yet another critical factor to the current housing market decline. Trends indicate that due to undetected termite activity, damage is often discovered only in the end stages of a home sale when sellers or buyers conduct their final inspection of the house.
J.P. McHale Pest Management termite services incorporate its new ‘Go Green’ program – a company commitment to using the most progressive environmentally-responsible pest management methods.
About J.P. McHale Pest Management
J.P. McHale, serving all of Westchester County and the Tri-State Area, focuses on the most progressive environmentally-responsible methods for preventing and controlling pest manifestations for over 40 years. The family-owned business is run by Jim McHale Jr., a Cornell entomologist with Douglas J. McHale, a plant pathologist, and Richard D. McHale, who holds a BA degree in Environmental Science. The company’s website, www.nopests.com, includes consumer tips, online pest identification center and the “no pests” blog.
Posted on March 13, 2012 with 2 Comments
Pest management agencies around New Jersey are already getting reports of swarming termites and an active stink bug population as well as other pests, in many cases a month earlier than usual. Mild conditions could also give a head start to disease-carrying insects, like ticks and mosquitoes.
Len Douglen, executive director of the New Jersey Pest Management Association, said he has already received reports of mosquitoes, which Richard Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., said can multiply rapidly and quickly become a problem.
While the breeding patterns of ticks are not affected by warm winters, the spring-like conditions have brought them out earlier than usual. Worse yet, a recent national study said New Jersey is loaded with Lyme disease-infected ticks, and Ostfeld predicts the Northeast could be in for one of the worst outbreaks of Lyme disease ever.
Posted on March 1, 2012 with No Comments
Termite season does not have a set beginning and end, as termites are active year round. The season when termites are most visible typically coincides roughly with the Major League Baseball season (March to November). While termites typically are not visible year round, they can damage your house any month of the year. Regardless of the season or the outside temperature, if you see signs of termite infestation, contact your pest control professional. A qualified termite specialist is trained to identify signs of a termite infestation, even when activity is not very visible.
What do termites look like? Swarmer: 3/8″ dark brown body, with wings. The wigs will appear transparent to milky white.
Habitat
Termites eat material that contains cellulose, such as wood, roots, plant debris, paper or cardboard. Termites can gain entrance into a structure through any part of the wood frame in contact with the ground, through openings in the foundation around pipes and conduits or through cracks in the foundation. Termites can enter through cracks that are no wider than 1/64 of an inch. Subterranean termites require moisture to survive. They will create mud tubes to obtain access to a structure that is above ground. These tubes are created from soil cemented with secretions and fecal material. The tubes are to protect the termites from exposure to sunlight or dry conditions. Termites are able to survive in a structure without contact to the ground if there is a sufficient moisture source.
Termites will eat wood, destroying it. Termites cause over 2 billion dollars in property damage every year. Infestations that are ignored will lead to serious home damage, and in extreme cases, home have had to be destroyed.
What should I do?
Small steps make a big difference. Start by eliminating food and moisture conditions around your home. These simple steps will deter termites, making your home a less attractive target. Termites can be prevented by our guardian program, ultimate protection plan, and monitored by our Home Pest Prevention program with the termite indicator system. Read more about termites on our blog.
Posted on January 30, 2012 with No Comments
Termites outweigh humans on earth and cause more than $2 billion in property damage each year. Termite damage is more common than storm, fire or earthquake damage, yet it’s rarely covered by homeowners insurance!
Solution: JP McHale Pest Management Inc. can employ preventative or curative initiatives and even assist you in early detection of these unwanted creatures! Stopping Eastern Subterranean Termites BEFORE they cause significant damage to your structure is the most cost effective means of control!
CALL TO ARRANGE AN IMMEDIATE APPOINTMENT FOR YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS TO BE EXAMINED FOR THE PRESENCE OF WOOD DESTROYING ORGANISMS!
Posted on January 12, 2012 with No Comments
Before Demolition
After Demolition
Don’t let termites take over your residence like they did to Tiger Wood’s ex-wife, Elin Nordegren’s home. According to an article in People Magazine, Elin recently had her $12M mansion in North Palm Beach, Florida demolished reportedly because is did not meet hurricane safety codes and because it was infested with termites. JP McHale Pest Management Inc. has termite solutions:
Termite Problem:Termites outweigh humans on earth and cause more than $2 billion in property damage each year. Termite damage is more common than storm, fire or earthquake damage, yet it’s rarely covered by homeowners insurance!
Termite Solution: JP McHale Pest Management Inc. can employ preventative or curative initiatives and even assist you in early detection of these unwanted creatures! Stopping Eastern Subterranean Termites BEFORE they cause significant damage to your structure is the most cost effective means of control!
Posted on July 21, 2011 with No Comments
Are you planning to move into a new home? Contact JP McHale today! We offer a home inspection service that surveys the property for any wood destroying organisms, such as termites and carpenter ants that could be causing damage to the property you are interested in.
Wood destroying organisms can decrease the property value and you should be aware as the new owner!
If you’ve recently moved into a new home, you may not be aware of pest issues right away. Rodents, insects, spiders and many more could be lurking in your newly bought residence, and you may not enjoy their company!
Be sure to maintain your home year round with pest control services. It’s always better to purchase a service program before pests make their way into your yard and home. Our services can not only save you time and spare you of stress, but can save you money by preventing pest damage that can become quite costly.
JP McHale offers a year round pest control service called the Home Pest Prevention Program which covers a multitude of critters.
Be sure to contact us today if you are interested in any our pest control programs or inspections!
Photo Credit
Posted on June 20, 2011 with No Comments
I still remember the first time I saw the 1950’s movie about nuclear-mutated ants threatening to take over the world. I was quite 
young and impressionable, and I’ll admit the movie was a little scary. Think about it, GIANT ANTS! A hard, bulletproof exoskeleton, the ability to carry many times their own weight, and huge mandibles that could squish little humans! Yikes.
Well thank goodness we don’t have to worry about giant nuclear ants. Instead, we are faced with countless miniature ants that infest our homes and structures (some tradeoff!). Judge them not by their size, ants are considered to be the most successful of all insect groups with approximately 12,000 species worldwide. They occur in all terrestrial habitats around the world and outnumber many animal species. They are closely related to bees and wasps, sharing both physical characteristics and social organization with these groups. That is, ants exist in eusocial (truly social) societies that provide cooperative care for young, maintain a reproductive division of labor and have overlapping generations.
A common ant example in the minds of many homeowners is the carpenter ant. A black or otherwise dark bodied species, carpenter ant workers vary in size from about 1/4 to 3/4 inch (3.5 to 13 mm) in length. Like all insects, they have three body parts and six legs. They have a diverse diet, feeding on many kinds of plant and animal foods that are either living or dead. During the hot summer months (right about now!) they tend to forage for food at night, making their presence unknown to unsuspecting homeowners.
Carpenter ants nest in a number of different locations: stumps, hollow logs, telephone poles, fence posts and structural wood. Indoors they might target windowsills, doors, roofs, porch columns, or other hollow structures such as pipes. Nests in a home could be a satellite colony, a smaller collection of ants that do not have an actively reproducing queen and are instead a break from the larger parent colony.
Contrary to popular belief, carpenter ants (and carpenter bees for that matter) do not actually eat wood, but use it strictly for nesting. In order to feed and derive nutrition from wood, insects such as termites require a symbiotic relationship with microorganisms to digest cellulose. Not having this mutualism prevents ants from eating wood, but not from destroying it! In fact, ants can be a little picky when it comes to the wood they infest. They specifically target moist wood that is partially decayed and easy to chew through with their mighty mandibles. This means that carpenter ants are a product or indicator of a structural problem (water damage), and not necessarily the initial cause of the damage. The first thing to do when you suspect a carpenter ant infestation is to identify sources or moisture: clogged gutters, roof leaks, cracked pipes, etc.
As a kid (before the trauma of Them!), I enjoyed watching ants follow their strictly defined paths. Although carpenter ants sometimes diverge from this behavior and forage randomly, somehow they always find their way home and use pheromones, chemical communication signals, to navigate. When they arrive home, they kindly share the bounty of their harvest with others in the community via a process known as trophallaxis. It’s a fun word, say it out loud: Tro-pha-laxis. This term describes the exchange of nourishment between two insects, and in ants occurs mouth to mouth (indeed there are other ways this happens in the insect world…). This behavior has been targeted by scientists, successfully reducing the amount of product necessary to control damaging ant species. Regardless of whether baits (sugary or salty depending on the time of year) or sprays (with particles ingested during insect grooming) are used, our products make their way into the ant digestive system. Back at the nest, these products are spread throughout the colony via trophallaxis, eventually killing not just workers, but the larvae and queen. Control of the entire colony is therefore possible by strategic placement of baits, eliminating the need for wholesale spraying of large areas to wipe out a nest.
Photo Credit: Matt Frye
Tags: bee, carpenter ant, carpenter bee, movie, Termites, wasp
Category: Ants, Bees, Carpenter Ants, Carpenter Bees, Insects, Pests, Termites, Termites, Uncategorized, Wasps
Posted on June 15, 2011 with No Comments
Here at JP McHale Pest Management Inc., we provide a wide variety of services for your home or business. Be sure to check out our list in case you could benefit from one of our services!
To find out more about our services in detail, be sure to visit our website!
Tags: jp mchale, Pest Management Professional, programs, services
Category: Integrated Pest Management, K-9 Inspections, Lawn Care, Mosquitoes, NY Pest Control, Termites, Ticks, Uncategorized
Posted on April 22, 2011 with 3 Comments
North India police reported that termites ate 10 million rupees ($222,000) this morning, said Yahoo News. This money was sitting in a steel chest that has not been opened in months. The bank said that termites were known to have damaged bank property in the past.
Termites are known to cause over $2 billion dollars in property damage every year, I guess that number doesn’t cover actual government currency 
