A-Z with A B Pest Control & Insulation: Encapsulation & Earwigs

At A B Pest Control & Insulation, we offer multiple services for your convenience. From pest control to lawn maintenance and turf management to insulation services, we can handle all of these tasks for you! This week, we'll be continuing our series by discussing two different sectors of our business with A-Z with A B Pest Control & Insulation: Encapsulation & Earwigs.

Encapsulation

When it comes to insulating your home, there are 3 primary spaces that you should focus on: the attic, the main living area, and the crawl space. For the purpose of this week's insulation talk, we're focusing on the crawl space. Since up to 50% of household air can flow up from your crawl space, it’s important to keep it as clean and dry as possible. Adding a crawl space vapor barrier and dehumidifier is a great way to improve indoor air quality and make energy improvements more efficient inside your home.

Encapsulating crawl spaces is a popular solution for avoiding indoor moisture issues. Encapsulation can be compared to the lining added to swimming pools to avoid leaks. A heavy-duty polyethylene barrier is added to completely cover your crawl space - usually the floors, foundation walls, and sometimes even ceiling.

Once your space is completely sealed, the final process of encapsulation is controlling the air to maintain a healthy humidity level. The most common way to do this is by adding a dehumidifier to regulate your crawl space’s moisture level. This barrier and dehumidifier combination protects the crawl space from excess moisture and all the problems that come along with it.

Here are some problems you could face by not having your crawl space properly encapsulated:

• Mold
• Mildew/musty smell in basement
• Soft or separating floors
• High cooling costs
• Wet insulation
• Condensation on windows
• Insect problems

If you'd like to learn more about crawl space encapsulation, or would like to schedule one of our techs to come out to see if yours has been properly encapsulated, give our office a call. 

Earwigs
A very common insect we get calls about are earwigs. Earwigs are medium-sized insects that have flat bodies and are usually black or brown. Some have stripes or reddish coloring on their heads and limbs. These bugs can be anywhere from one-fourth of an inch to one and one-fourth inches long, including the length of their pincers.

Earwigs are nocturnal feeders that dine on other insects, as well as vegetation like moss, fungi and lichens. Additionally, they do eat decaying organic material and may also feed on greasy food items that may be left out in the kitchen. So, while they may be a little startling to see in or around your home, these insects are actually super beneficial to the environment.

Earwigs prefer cool, moist, dark places. They hide under leaves, rocks, bark, stacked lumber, bundles of newspaper, and so on. When earwigs enter homes, they do not cause damage or pose threat to humans. But if you can't stand to see them indoors, caulk and seal cracks around your home, weatherstrip doors, keep decaying plant matter away from your house, clean up any clutter where they may hide, and reduce moisture in your basement. If you're still finding these little pincers in your home and want to get rid of them, give us a call.

Give A B Pest Control & Insulation a Call!
At A B Pest Control & Insulation, we pride ourselves on our exemplary service, because we stand behind all our work. We offer flexible service schedules to meet your pest control, insulation and budget needs. And of course, we couldn't do what we do without the awesome customers that trust us for their pest and insulation needs! So, we just want to give a quick shout out to our loyal customers who've kept us going all these years!

If you have unwanted pests around your house or would like a free estimate on your insulation needs, give your Lake of the Ozarks pest control company a call! From pest control to lawn maintenance and insulation services - A to Z, we cover it all!

LAKE OF THE OZARKS
PEST CONTROL COMPANY

Visit Our Website:
www.abpest.net

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Thank You to Our Quality Employees and Our Loyal Customers!

What is a business really made of? When you think of a business, you typically think of the products or services they provide. Do you ever take the time to think about the driving force of the business? For some businesses, it might be a thriving economy. For others it could be return/profit. For A B Pest & Insulation, there are several aspects to this formula. But there are 2 key internal forces that have shaped the future for our business: our quality employees, and our loyal customers!

Our Quality Employees
When you think of A B Pest & Insulation, you may think "Oh, Bert & Lisa Westbrook own that." Sure, that's true. But we couldn't continue to do what we do without our loyal and dedicated staff. They are our work family and we cherish them.

Without the dedication of a quality loyal employee, the services we offer simply can't be provided.  Many times employees are not thanked enough for their efforts in the business. But truly, they are the driving force making things happen each and every day. They're the ones showing up on your doorstep to make sure your pest control and insulation needs are met.

Our Loyal Customers
The other part of the equation is customer loyalty, word of mouth, etc. We are proud of the relationships we've built over the years. We find ourselves very fortunate that we can say there are customers whom we've been taking care of since our first year, and still today!

That trust and reliance in your services speaks volumes, and gives us reason to keep doing what we're doing. Our best advertisements come from our customers. We all know that we can't please everyone, but we definitely try our best. We continue to grow every year due to our awesome customers. So, we just want to give a quick shout out to our loyal customers who've kept us going all these years!

We just wanted to extend a heartfelt thanks to the driving forces of our business: our awesome employees and our cherished customers.

Give A B Pest Control & Insulation a Call!
At A B Pest Control & Insulation, we pride ourselves on our exemplary service, because we stand behind all our work. We offer flexible service schedules to meet your pest control, insulation and budget needs. And of course, we couldn't do what we do without the awesome customers that trust us for their pest and insulation needs!

If you have unwanted pests around your house or would like a free estimate on your insulation needs, give your Lake of the Ozarks pest control company a call! From pest control to lawn maintenance and insulation services - we cover it all!

LAKE OF THE OZARKS
PEST CONTROL COMPANY

Visit Our Website:
www.abpest.net

Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on LinkedIn

3 Tips for Checking Your Home's Insulation

Here at the Lake of the Ozarks, we're experiencing high temperatures and lots of humidity. If your home is poorly insulated, your AC could be working overtime. An insulation inspection with A B Pest Control and Insulation could help you determine if the quality of your home comfort could be improved, and even save money on your energy bills. But if you're not quite ready to call in the experts, your favorite Lake of the Ozarks pest control and insulation company has a few tips to use to determine if your home might need more insulation.

Check Your Walls
A quick way to determine if the walls in your home have enough insulation is to do the touch test. The interior ceilings, walls and floors in your home should feel warm and dry. When drywall and paneling inside a home feels damp or cold, there is not enough insulation. Alternatively, when touching an exterior wall, it should feel cold because insulation is keeping warm air inside a home.

For a more detailed check, you can check the insulation levels around the outlets. Make sure the electricity is turned off before you start your check. Remove the outlet cover and shine a flashlight into the crack around the outlet box. You should be able to see if there is insulation and how thick it is. Check outlets on all floors, even new parts of your home. Just because there is insulation in one wall, it doesn’t mean the whole home is insulated properly, especially if there are newer additions to your home.

Check the Attic
To check the insulation in your attic, you need to inspect the condition of the insulation, and calculate the current level of insulation. Your attic should have a certain amount of insulation in it, and the recommended level of insulation for your attic is dependent on where you live. For Mid-Missouri, the recommended insulation level should be at 4.

Check to see if the insulation levels are at or below the attic floor joists. If so, you may need to add more insulation. If you cannot see any of the floor joist because the insulation is well above them, you probably have enough insulation and adding more will not be cost-effective. It is also important that the insulation is evenly distributed. Sometimes there is enough insulation in the middle, but the edges have very little. You can also measure the insulation levels. Either read the R-value printed on the batts of your existing insulation or use a measuring tape to measure the depth of the insulation.

Check Your Basement/Crawlspace
Many crawlspaces were designed with ventilation in order to prevent the buildup of moisture and, therefore, mold and mildew growth. This type of crawlspace foundation should be insulated with fiberglass. Insulation should be placed between the floor joists underneath the subfloor.

For crawlspace foundations that are not ventilated, the walls of the area should be completely insulated. This prevents pipes and ductwork from requiring their own insulation to improve energy efficiency or to prevent freezing since they will lie within the insulated crawlspace foundation area.

To determine whether your home's crawlspace has been properly insulated or not, take a peek underneath your home. If you see damp or loosely hanging insulation, this means the crawlspace insulation is either outdated or wasn’t installed properly in the first place.

Request a Free Quote from A B Pest Control
The easiest and most efficient way to ensure that your home has the proper insulation levels is to call a professional. A B Pest Control and Insulation can evaluate your home and make the proper recommendations for the best insulation to meet your needs. With proper insulation, your home can easily stay cool when it’s hot outside. Your Lake of the Ozarks insulation company has team members with many years of experience in the insulation business, so you can trust that we will get the job done right at a fair price.

LAKE OF THE OZARKS
PEST CONTROL COMPANY

Visit Our Website:
www.abpest.net

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June Bugs: Are They Really Harmful to Lawns?

Every morning, you step out onto your porch, and without fail... CRUNCH! Another June bug just became the victim of 'wrong place, wrong time.' But let's face it, it just wouldn’t be early summer in Lake of the Ozarks without June bugs flying around your porch light at night and then meeting an untimely ending the next morning. 

These beetles are common throughout the state of Missouri, but how much do we know about these interesting creatures? Are they dangerous to humans? No. Are they harmful to lawns? Absolutely! A B Pest Control and Insulation is here to help you learn more about these beetles with a few interesting tidbits that can help you protect your lawn and garden:

What do June bugs look like?

June bugs, also known as May beetles, get their name from emerging in large quantities in June. They are a blackish or mahogany-colored beetle. Although they are called a bug, they are not technically a bug, but actually part of a different insect order, a beetle. They are part of the scarab beetle family. Scarab beetles are a large family of heavy-bodied, oval beetles with about 30,000 species. The larvae are whitish with heads that are often brownish. They are C-shaped with three pairs of legs. They are typically between ½ - 1 inch as adults and between ¾ - 2 inches as larvae.

What stages do the June bug go through?

June bugs have four different stages of development: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Eggs are laid in the ground and can live for two to three years underground as a larva before surfacing to become an adult. Their total life span is up to four years.

Where can June bugs be found?

During the day, they tend to hide out in trees and other vegetation. At night, they can be found flying clumsily around bright lights, or feeding from the leaves of trees or bushes. As larvae, also known as white grub, they remain burrowed underground until they become adults.

What do June bugs eat?

The larvae live underground and feed on the roots of grasses and other plants. As an adult, they eat the leaves of deciduous trees, such as walnut and oak, and many other plants and bushes. These bugs, although harmless to humans, can damage your grass and trees, which is why it's important to target the grubs early on.

Signs of a June bug problem

There are a few indicators that let you know that you may have a problem either with adult June bugs or their larvae:

• You have brown patches in your lawn.
• Small holes are being dug in your lawn overnight. These holes are often made by skunks searching for grubs, which are a food source for them.
• Moles also eat grubs, so, if you have a mole problem, the source of it may be a grub problem.
• Holes are being chewed in the leaves of some of your plants.
• Monitor your landscape for such signs and follow up upon their detection by confirming the presence of these insects.

How to get rid of June bugs.

June bugs are harmless to people, but can damage your garden or landscaping. There are several DIY ways you can reduce the population, such as inviting predator type animals (birds, toads, snakes) into your lawn or turning out the lights at night to avoid attracting them. If your problem is more than a natural DIY option can contain, applying an insecticide to the soil will help control grubs and in turn, prevent high numbers of the adults. A B Pest Control and Insulation can help you avoid the hassle of dealing with June bug infestations. Call 573-964-1100 today or visit our website to request a free quote.

LAKE OF THE OZARKS
PEST CONTROL COMPANY

Visit Our Website:
www.abpest.net

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