May is National Lyme Disease Awareness Month

Spring time brings out all kinds of pests. Some of them are 'good'. Some of them are only 'pesky' because they make themselves welcome in our homes and lawns. Others can actually be hazardous to our health. Ticks that transmit Lyme disease can be found everywhere you go outdoors, be it the yard, the soccer field, running around the playground, or simply walking the dog.  In fact, we are observing more and more types of disease-carrying ticks out and about this year. So, in respect to May being National Lyme Disease Awareness Month, A B Pest Control & Insulation wants to share some tips on how to prevent Lyme and tick-borne diseases.

Tick Prevention Tips
Increased tick activity combined with unreliable diagnostics and limited treatment options makes diligent tick prevention for the entire family, including pets, of utmost important. The risk of a potentially debilitating tick bite is too great. Here are 5 easy steps to remember:

Avoid areas where ticks live.
Ticks thrive in places like wood piles, leaf litter, long grass, beach grass, bushy areas, stone walls, and perimeters where the lawn meets the woods. So, avoid these particular breeding grounds if you can. Also, make sure your lawn doesn't provide any havens for them to camp out - such as leaf build up along your home's foundation. Keep your lawn clean and well-manicured to prevent ticks from getting too comfortable.

Wear light-colored clothing to spot ticks more easily.
When you do venture outdoors, make sure you dress in light colored clothing. Long-sleeved shirt tucked in at the waist, long pants tucked into high socks, closed-toe shoes, and a hat with your hair tucked in, if possible, provide better protection from tick bites. Avoid walking in the grass barefoot or in open sandals.

Apply tick repellent before going outdoors.
Apply EPA-approved tick repellent (such as DEET or picaridin) and insecticide (such as permethrin) to skin, clothing, and shoes as directed. If you prefer a more natural topical repellent solution, here are a few essential oils that have tick-repelling properties: lavender, eucalyptus, cedarwood, garlic, and geranium. Just put a few drops of your favorite oil into your favorite carrier oil or dilute into a spray bottle mixed with a little water, and apply generously.

Remove clothing upon entering the home.
Before you track ticks throughout your house and they potentially drop off of you as the cooler air hits them, remove clothing when you first enter your home. Toss them into the dryer at high temperature for 10-15 minutes to kill live ticks. Putting them in the washer will not kill them.

Examine yourself and your pets for ticks daily.
Anytime you spend any amount of time outdoors, you should examine yourself when you come back in. Feel for bumps paying close attention to the back of knees, groin, armpits, in and behind the ears, belly button, and scalp. Check everywhere. Ticks love to hide. Be especially diligent when it comes to examining your kids and pets, as they may not be able to tell you if they think they have a tick.

Schedule Your Tick Control Treatment Today!
Not all ticks carry diseases, but during these next few months, A B Pest Control & Insulation knows that it’s important to keep your eye out for them. You should always check your pets when they come inside and you should never walk through the woods or tall grass without making sure you are covered and protected. To schedule a tick treatment for your home and lawn, give your pest control company at the Lake of the Ozarks a call today.

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PEST CONTROL COMPANY

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Treating a Flea Infestation

Has your pet been scratching incessantly lately? If it's not caused by ticks or dry skin, it could be fleas! Even if you have found that your pet does have fleas and have treated them, the problem may persist because the fleas still have a proximal advantage to your home. And remember, fleas can live on your blood, too, not just your pets. This can mean your "minor" flea issue could be much worse than you realize! So, this week, A B Pest Control is sharing with you some information about what is entailed in treating flea infestations.

Where are these Fleas Coming From?
Flea infestations often come from pets bringing them in from outdoors. The pests attach to your pet when its outside, and then infests its fur and the places it sleeps indoors. Other animals such as rodents, raccoons, or feral cats venturing into your yard may be the culprits bringing these pesky pests into your yard. So, the most effective ways to keep fleas from getting inside the home is to eliminate outdoor flea habitats and outdoor hosts. While you can't always prevent these animals from entering your turf, you can be proactive by treating your lawn and pets with flea control products. However, in order to effectively treat for fleas, you'll first need to understand their life-cycle. Let's take a look.

Understanding the Flea's Life-Cycle
There are four stages in the life cycle of a flea: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Depending on the environmental temperature and humidity levels, the total life cycle will take anywhere from a couple weeks to several months, or even years.

1. A single adult female can lay about 40 eggs every day. Eggs take anywhere from two days to two weeks to develop, hatching when environmental conditions are just right for them. Larvae then emerges as the next life stage. 
2. If conditions are favorable, the larvae will spin cocoons in about 5-20 days of hatching from their eggs. This leads to the next life stage, called the cocoon or pupae stage. 
3. This cocoon stage is the last developmental stage before the adult flea emerges. The cocoon protects the pupae for several days or weeks before the adult flea emerges. If environmental conditions are not right for emergence, the cocoon can protect the developing flea for months, and in some cases, years. 
4. The adult flea will not emerge until the presence of a potential host is made obvious - by vibrations, rising levels of carbon dioxide, and body heat. This can be caused by your pet walking by and brushing against the cocoon, or even from you moving around your home.

Unfortunately, this life-cycle means that getting rid of fleas can require more than one treatment to effectively eliminate the problem once an infestation has occurred.

Flea Control Services
Flea prevention for both the home and yard can be difficult, and eliminating them once an infestation occurs is even harder. Without a proactive approach, any homeowner is vulnerable to an infestation. But don't worry, you don't have to face this battle on your own. If you do experience a flea infestation, call on the Lake of the Ozarks pest control company to send those fleas packing. We can help you be victorious in eliminating and preventing those pesky pests in the future!

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Tick Season is Here. Here's What You Need to Know!

The weather is really warming up and more and more people are spending their days outdoors. If you’ve spent any amount of time outside within the last few weeks, you’ve probably noticed how bad the ticks are already this year. A B Pest Control & Insulation knows that tick season will soon be fully underway, but it seems as if this tick season is starting early and already pretty bad. Protect your pets and your home from ticks and give your pest control company at the Lake of the Ozarks a call today. Here's what you need to know about ticks and their tricks!

Types of Ticks in Missouri

Deer Tick or Blacklegged Tick

These ticks are extremely small and are only the size of a sesame seed. Deer ticks are the best known for transmitting Lyme Disease. Their lifespan is about two to three years and requires at least three blood meals to survive each phase of life. In order to transmit Lyme Disease, a deer tick must be attached to their host for at least 24 hours. Luckily for us, rodents and deer are the preferred hosts for deer ticks. These ticks are usually found in the woods and in areas with overgrown vegetation.

Lone Star Tick

You can distinguish a lone star tick by its white dot or star in the center of it’s back. These ticks are the most active from April through the end of July. Lone star ticks are aggressive feeders and are often found on dogs and cats. This tick can transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever and ehrlichiosis. Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness (STARI), can occur after a lone star tick bites. Those symptoms include rash, headache, and fatigue, and are similar to the symptoms of Lyme Disease. Luckily, STARI can be cured with an oral antibiotic.

American Dog Tick

The American dog tick is a 3-host tick. They target small and large mammals. These ticks are normally found on dogs, but they will attack larger animals like cows and horses. These ticks are usually brown or a reddish-brown in color and they have gray/silver markings on their back. American dog ticks are the most active from mid-April to early September.

Reduce Ticks in Your Yard

While you may not be able to fully prevent a single tick from entering your yard, there are steps to make sure you don’t have an invasion of them.

Keep your yard tidy – it’s important to remove all leaf litter and keep your grass trimmed short. If you live near a wooded area, you can place gravel or woodchips between the edge or your grass and the wooded area to help create a barrier.

Keep deer away – making sure deer don’t come on your property is a great way to help keep ticks away. Remove plants that attract deer and create physical barriers that will discourage them from entering your yard.

Give A B Pest Control & Insulation a call – it’s important to have your home and yard regularly sprayed for ticks and other pesky bugs. This will be one of the most effective ways to protect your pet and home from ticks and the diseases they may be carrying.

Your Lake of the Ozarks Pest Control Company

While ticks may sound terrifying, there are ways to help prevent them from entering your home or yard. Not all ticks carry diseases, but during these next few months, A B Pest Control & Insulation knows that it’s important to keep your eye out for them. You should always check your pets when they come inside and you should never walk through the woods or tall grass without making sure you are covered and protected. For all of your pest control needs, give your pest control company at the Lake of the Ozarks a call today. 

LAKE OF THE OZARKS
PEST CONTROL COMPANY

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Win the War Against Weeds this Spring

For a beautiful lawn this season and to win the war on weeds, now is the time to apply a fertilizer and pre-emergent lawn care treatment. Feeding your lawn will keep it healthy while keeping the weeds away. Timing is everything to prevent seeds from germinating. Prevention happens in the spring. Before your lawn gets engulfed in unsightly weeds, you should contact a lawn service at the Lake of the Ozarks. A B Pest Control and Insulation offers a turf management program tailored just for your lawn.

Why You Should Fertilize Your Lawn
If you want a healthy lawn, it takes more than mowing and watering it. Fertilizer provides the proper nutrients for your lawn to grow lush and green. Optimal results occur when the fertilizer is applied accurately and evenly across your lawn. Inconsistent coverage can make your lawn grow uneven. Too much fertilization can cause havoc too. Thatch buildup can harbor large populations of insects, causing an increase in pest problems in your yard. Fertilization is generally most successful if applied using a slow release product that contains nitrogen, which is responsible for green growth and optimized health. It also reduces the risk of disease and fungus. It is best to address individual lawn care at Lake of the Ozarks, by factoring in location and the type of grass you have.

The Benefits of a Pre-Emergent Lawn Care Treatment
You have probably spent countless hours pulling weeds or spraying weed killers from your local home improvement store. This can be frustrating, but there is a way to improve the appearance of your lawn with less hassle. A pre-emergent lawn care product should be applied in spring which will help throughout the majority of the growing season. Various weeds germinate at different times, so repeated applications of the right chemical can eliminate most of the weeds in your lawn. Below are some of the benefits:

• It stops the weeds from growing
• A minimal amount of labor is involved 
• Dealing with remaining weeds is easier
• Each successive season, the need to spray a post-emergent weed killer is lessened

Let A B Pest Control and Insulation Treat Your Lawn
A B Pest Control and Insulation can offer an evaluation to customize the best fertilizer to fit your lawn's needs. Once weeds appear in your lawn, it could indicate more serious problems in your yard. Weeds do not produce unhealthy lawns, unhealthy lawns produce weeds. We will develop a turf management program tailored just for your lawn. This is the first step in an effective, environmentally sound weed-free yard. A B Pest Control and Insulation also offers pest control services at the Lake of the Ozarks, to prevent pests from invading your plant beds and gardens. Let us help you keep your outdoor space beautiful and pest-free!

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PEST CONTROL COMPANY

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A-Z with A B Pest Control & Insulation: Dung Beetles and (Insulation) Density

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 new series by discussing two different sectors of our business with A-Z with A B Pest Control & Insulation: Dung Beetles and (Insulation) Density.

Dung Beetles
Sure, the thought of anything (bug or not) feasting on feces, is a pretty disturbing thought. But, dung beetles do more than make short work of cowpats littering pastures. They improve soil structure, help control flies and other livestock pests, and recycle nutrients that otherwise would be lost. Without dung beetles, parasitic worm loads in livestock would increase as a result of an over abundance of excrement lying around. Dung contains parasite eggs, and can these re-infect livestock if they eat contaminated grass—causing considerable morbidity, and extra veterinary bills for farmers.

Ultimately, dung beetles are nature's pest control, and a helping hand for farmers. By cleaning pastures of manure, dung beetles reduce pests and flies while hastening the return of nutrients to the soil—which improves pastures. Their work saves the US cattle industry hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Insulation Density
Maintaining comfortable temperatures in buildings can use uses a lot of energy consumption, especially if the insulation in the building isn't of good quality. When well insulated, a building will provide more uniform temperatures throughout the space when outside temperatures are extremely cold or hot.

One of the parameters to pay attention to when choosing insulation, is the density. Denser insulation products have more fibers per square inch and, therefore, give you greater insulating power through higher R-values. Installing more insulation in your home increases the R-value and the resistance to heat flow. In general, increased insulation thickness will proportionally increase the R-value.

While density is an important factor, insulation performance is influenced by several factors, the most prominent of which include:

• Thermal conductivity ("k" or "λ" value)
• Surface emissivity ("ε" value)
• Insulation thickness
• Density
• Specific heat capacity
• Thermal bridging

It is important to note that the factors influencing performance may vary over time as material ages or environmental conditions change.

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!

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PEST CONTROL COMPANY

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How to Make the Most of Easter

Easter is this Sunday, April 12th, and we're excited to celebrate such a wonderful holiday! What are your plans for this glorious day? If you're struggling to come up with some fun ideas, we've got you covered. A B Pest Control & Insulation has several fantastic ideas and ways you can celebrate Easter and make the most of this joyous holiday. Check it out: 

Stream Easter Sunday Services Online

Since this holiday is all about celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, what better way to celebrate than participating in Easter Sunday mass through a variety of streaming services?! A popular streaming service is Catholic TV which offers a variety of masses, and posts a daily schedule so you can choose which mass works best for your schedule. Other websites, like Streaming Churches Online and Christian World Media, offer the same kinds of services at a smaller level, and all three are free of charge. Also, check with your local church. Many are jumping on board with streaming services on Facebook and YouTube! 

Have a Virtual Family Gathering

Many of us enjoy spending this holiday with family, complete with a delicious meal and Easter games. There's nothing stopping us from keeping that family gathering tradition going! Jump online and do a Zoom meeting, get on Google Hangouts, or make a Facebook video call. This is the perfect solution for letting families celebrate from a distance throughout the day to allow them to participate in many fun events virtually! 

Order Carry-Out for Easter Lunch or Dinner

Having a delicious meal is always part of holiday gatherings. Why not save yourself some time and order curbside carryout for this year's Easter dinner? Call in your Easter dinner order ahead of time and pick it up the day before. It’s a good way to support local businesses and saves you a lot of work. Plus, there are several local restaurants who are planning Easter dinner specials that you'll definitely want to take advantage of. It's a win-win for both you and the local restaurants!

Bring on the Easter Games

There are so many fun activities you can do with your family to really bring out the fun on Easter day! Here are a few of our favorite Easter games that are fun (and funny) for all involved or watching from the sidelines: 

1. Spring Showers

Players divide into teams. One member of each team puts shower cap on their heads and shaving cream/whipped cream over a shower cap. The other team member(s) needs to throw as many Cheetos on on shower caps as possible. Each Cheetos is 1 point. Team with most points (Cheetos on head) wins the game.

2. Easter Egg Toss

This is one the kids and adults can all enjoy. Like a water balloon toss, have each pair throw a plastic egg filled with jellybeans back and forth. If you're especially bold, you could try playing this game with real eggs — just make sure everyone's changed out of their Easter best.

3. Easter Eggs-ercises

For those overactive kids who just can't stop moving, a little game of Easter eggs-ercizes will have them ready for a nap in no time. Just fill your plastic eggs with a little note with an exercise on each, and send the kiddos on an Easter egg hunt! Anytime someone finds an egg, they must perform the exercise on the note!

Happy Easter From A B Pest Control & Insulation

Everyone at A B Pest Control & Insulation wants to wish you a happy Easter! We hope you are able to spend time with family this weekend and enjoy the holiday as it's meant to be celebrated. Make sure your Easter and spring are pest free. Give your pest control company at the Lake of the Ozarks a call today!

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PEST CONTROL COMPANY

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Get Your Dock Ready for Summer

Spring is here and that means bug season has just begun. Soon, we'll be trying to get out and enjoy all the Lake has to offer. But your dock's been sitting unoccupied all winter long... and it's going to quickly become a prime location for spiders and other pests if you don't take action soon. A B Pest Control and Insulation can help with all your pest needs to get you ready for the coming summer season, including for your dock.

Spiders are the number one pest problem when it comes to docks. The lake area is in the midst of its rainy season, which brings out a variety of different spiders. A variety of spiders are adapted for life on and around water. Many of these are commonly called fishing spiders or water spiders. Several have the ability to run across the water’s surface. Some build webs, while others do not. Most commonly, we run into two different types on our docks: the Spotted Fishing spider and the Longjawed Orbweavers.

The Spotted Fishing Spider
The spotted fishing spider lives in aquatic habitats and can run across the surface of water. This long-legged, dark-colored running spider is also distinctive in that the oval abdomen is smaller than the broad head. A whitish-yellow stripe surrounds the dark carapace and sometimes also the abdomen. On top of the dark brown abdomen, pairs of minute white spots create a connect-the-dot pattern or run down the middle of the back. The legs are robust and brown, dotted with white hairs. This spider runs quickly.

Fishing spiders live around ponds, slow-moving streams, swampy areas, and other damp places. They are able to run across the surface of water much like water striders and will dive for prey, including small tadpoles or aquatic insects. A spider in this group can encase its body in an air bubble in order to submerge itself, often for several minutes.

Longjawed Orbweavers
Longjawed orbweavers are often called “stretch spiders” because they often rest with their two front pairs of legs stretched straight out in front of them, and the last pair outstretched behind. Combined with their slender bodies and drab, variably marked coloration, they can hide easily while clinging to a blade of grass. They spin circular webs that are usually positioned fairly horizontally within a few feet of the water’s surface.

Longjawed orbweavers typically live in vegetation along a water’s edge — in shoreline shrubs whose branches overhang ponds, lakes, rivers, and streams, usually in shady places. They often live along the sides of docks and piers, too. They spin circular (orb) webs that are usually positioned fairly horizontally within just a few feet of the water’s surface, making them perfect nets for catching aquatic insects that have just emerged in their winged adult forms: mayflies, midges, stoneflies, and so on. When not in their web, many longjawed orbweavers hide under branches, railings, or other sheltered locations nearby. If they are startled, they typically drop immediately down. If they fall into the water, they can run across the surface like fishing spiders and water striders do.

Contact A B Pest Control & Insulation for Your Dock Treatment Needs
Spotted fishing & Orb spiders are nonaggressive and will try to hide if they feel threatened. The best way to avoid these dock dwelling spiders and prevent an infestation is to have a professional Lake of the Ozarks pest control company come spray your home and dock.

Looking for Natural Pest Control Options?
Essential oils can help get rid of these unwanted pests while providing a safe pest control option for aquatic life. Want to learn more about our essential oils treatment? Call 573-964-1100 today to request a free quote.

LAKE OF THE OZARKS
PEST CONTROL COMPANY

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