Unlike termites, carpenter ants do not ingest wood, they hollow out large galleries in foundation timbers, building trim and wooden structures to house their massive nests and nurseries. Frass, the sawdust-like by-product of their excavation activity, is sometimes found where carpenter ants are active. More often the ants themselves are spotted as they forage for food.

The largest ant species in New York and New Jersey, carpenter ants are typically black and grow to 5/8 inch long. Due to the prodigious numbers, a colony of carpenter ants can cause considerable structural damage to commercial buildings over time. In fact, carpenter ants can be expected to attack 1 in 4 New York and New Jersey buildings. If you notice large black ants in or around your property, you have carpenter ants. Call Stern Environmental for effective commercial pest management.

Unlike honey bees which live in large social colonies, carpenter bees are solitary bees that live in mated pairs. They chew long nesting tunnels into unpainted or weathered woods where they lay their eggs and overwinter. They have a preference for the soft woods typically used to build and shingle homes, such as redwood, cedar, cypress and pine.

Carpenter bees tend to remain in one location throughout their lives, overwintering in nesting tunnels. Multiple pairs frequently colonize the same site and can cause significant damage to wooden porch roofs and eaves, cedar siding, picnic tables and backyard play sets over time. Their presence is distinguished by the perfectly round entry holes these bees drill into wood as they begin each tunnel. Sawdust-like remains of chewed wood under entry holes is another telltale size of a carpenter bee problem.

While only the female bees sting, aggressively attacking males make carpenter bee extermination a job for experienced New Jersey pest control professionals.

A number of the schools took responsible action and received passing marks when reinspected, but a few schools (NBC singled out Bensonhurst and Far Rockaway)  actually fared worse on repeat inspections. When interviewed by NBC, parents of students expressed “shock” and “horror.”

Mice, rats and cockroaches are persistent problems in large metropolitan areas like New York City. These noxious pests carry and spread dangerous diseases and their feces and dried droppings can cause serious health problems, including childhood asthma and deadly Hanta virus.

Stern Environmental provides expert commercial rat and mouse exterminating services and superior  commercial cockroach control services. Introduced to fight bed bugs, our cutting-edge Cryonite insect treatment system has proved to also offer extremely effective, non-toxic extermination of cockroaches and other insects.

When pests invade, call Stern Environmental for fast and effective action.

Unlike termites, carpenter ants do not ingest wood; but they do tunnel into wood to excavate large galleries where they live and raise their young. Carpenter ants may be hiding in plain site. These ants will frequently hollow out a window frame, baseboard or structural timber with their tunneling, leaving a thin veneer of wood in place. Carpenter ant colonies frequently go undetected until a worker inadvertently punches a hole through hollowed wood trim while performing maintenance or cleaning tasks.

Taking a do-it-yourself approach to pest control of any ant species, including carpenter ants, is typically counterproductive. In fact, non-professional ant control products, while they may kill the few ants that come into direct contact with the poison, will usually force the colony to relocate or split, making it that much more difficult for licensed carpenter ant exterminators to identify and exterminate your commercial carpenter ant problem.

Complicating the issue for commercial property owners is the fact that termites typically go unnoticed until colonies reach maturity and produce winged reproductives to expand the colony, a process that takes about 5 years. By the time business owners notice puddles of what look like winged ants milling around foundation plantings, termites may already have caused extensive damage to the wooden studs, joists, subflooring, door frames and trim of the commercial building. Termites will attack any wood they come in contact with, including concrete framework.

Including termite inspections in your annual commercial pest management services is the best way to protect your New York or New Jersey commercial property from termite damage. If you notice signs of termite activity — flyers, mud tubes on concrete walls or floors or piles of scale-like wings on windowsills — call Stern Environmental immediately for expert commercial termite extermination.

Once the ground warms in the spring, both termites and carpenter ants produce winged reproductives. These specialized insects crawl from their underground nests to the surface where they pair up and fly off to mate and establish new colonies. Poor flyers, the females frequently land on the same or nearby properties. Biting off her wings, the female tunnels into the ground to establish a new nest. It takes about 5 years for a termite colony to reach maturity which means that considerable damage may already have occurred by the time winged reproductives are observed.

In their reproductive phase, both carpenter ants and termites look like winged ants. Both have 4 wings, 2 on each side; however, termite wings are all equal length and longer than their bodies while carpenter ants have longer forewings than hindwings.

If you see winged ants on your property call the termite specialists at Stern Environmental for a positive identification and prompt extermination.

According to Scientific American on March 14, 2013, scientists are probing for any weakness that the little vampires could potentially have.  Their recent research has shown that the current arsenal of pesticides that are approved by the Environmental Protection Agency is ineffective on many strains of bed bugs.  But researchers are hoping that the new information that they have discovered will help them in developing new pesticides that will destroy the bloodsuckers in the near future.

Scientific American reported that researchers from the University of Kentucky have been studying bed bugs that were collected from infestations.  According to reports, the genes were sequenced in “21 pesticide resistant bed bug populations”.  A comparison was made between the lab-bred’s active genes and those that were found in the field.  What was interesting to find is that the scientists “identified 14 genes in the collected DNA having variants associated with pesticide resistance. Different populations carried different combinations of the gene variants. The team reported on March 14 in Scientific Reports they found as well that each of the bed bug populations tested carried at least two resistance variants.”

The conclusion to their findings is that the resistant genes occur in the outer epidermis, not the digestive tract which occurs with other insect species.  Researchers further believe that bed bugs that are exposed to many types of pesticides are able to detoxify the chemicals before they are able to penetrate their outer shell and reach nerve cells. The findings are considered to be groundbreaking as it can help pesticides that will be created that will work around the bed bugs current ability to detoxify and avoid pesticide exposure.

It’s springtime once again and the release of the new “Bugs Without Borders” from the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky will have some folks in the United States scratching their heads, if not their entire bodies.  The new reports show some daunting statistics for the battle against bed bugs in the United States for 2013.

While some states like New York have seen a decline in bed bug reports this past year, others have experienced an increase in bed bug reports.  This upswing proves that bed bugs continue to spread from state to state via human transport.  In fact, according to the new Bugs Without Borders report, 99.6% of all pest control professionals surveyed reported that they treated bed bugs in the past twelve months!

According to Forbes on April 27, 2013, the Bugs Without Borders report states:

• “75 percent have been called to hotels to treat bed bugs

• 47 percent have found bed bugs in college dorms

• 46 percent have been called to nursing homes

• 41 percent have treated schools and day care centers

• 36 percent have been called to office buildings

• 33 percent have found bed bugs in hospitals

• 21 percent have treated taxis, trains, or buses

• 10 percent have been called to movie theaters”

Bed bugs are able to travel up to 100 feet each night to feed upon their intended victim/s so it is important that a pest control professional be called as soon as the pests are first sighted.

Some states have taken the bull by the horns and have developed laws that spell out the exact responsibilities that landlords and tenants must follow when bed bugs are present in a home.  Some states, such as New York, have seen their bed bug population drop tremendously.  Some states, such as Illinois and Ohio, have seen their bed bug population increase tremendously.

Many strains of bed bugs have proven to be resistant to pesticides that are currently available.  Keep in mind that many pesticides that are currently used for bed bugs and other insects have been re-purposed from pesticides that were once developed for agricultural use.  Despite the widespread availability, store bought bed bug pesticide products have proven to be completely ineffective against killing bed bugs.

Bed bugs are known to carry approximately 50 pathogens on their body.  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) state that bed bugs are a public health concern, but they remain steadfast that bed bugs do not transmit any diseases to humans.

According to Infection Control Today on April 25, 2013, an interesting study was done by scientists at the University of Cincinnati.  There, the DNA of bed bugs in the Cincinnati area were collected and examined from various residences. The scientists are hoping that their findings about the bacteria that were found on the bed bugs will help to develop pesticides that will one day kill the bloodsuckers.

Entomologists across the United States want more funding for bed bug research, but the reality is that funding will likely still be limited until bed bugs are considered to be more than just a nuisance pest.

The carpenter bee is often confused with the fuzzy bumble bee because of their similar shape and size.  Carpenter bees are very different in how they look and behave.

Bumble bees have beautiful yellow and black markings on their body.  Bumble bees are considered to be social insects. Their nesting site can be found in the ground with a small opening.  They are not considered to be aggressive bees, but they will sting if they are being mishandled or threatened.  Bumble bees collect pollen on their fuzzy legs and body hair and transport it back to their nesting site.  These social bees will typically avoid human contact unless provoked into battle.

Carpenter bees can be all black or they are black and yellow depending on the species.  Their black and yellow markings however are the opposite striping of the bumble bee markings.   Carpenter bees are not considered to be social insects.  The carpenter bees are known for their hovering patterns near humans, can be annoying and intimidating.  This hovering is the way that the male carpenter bee shows his dominance during the mating cycle in the springtime. Male carpenter bees are completely harmless however as they have no stinger. Female carpenter bees are responsible for creating the nesting site where she will lay her eggs.  Female carpenter bees are considered to be docile as well but will sting if threatened.

Carpenter bees differ from bumble bees in that carpenter bees bore holes on the underside of exposed wood sources.  One carpenter bee will not cause massive destruction, but repeated use and expansion of the original nesting site will cause considerable damage to the wood areas used.

For help with nesting carpenter bees, contact Stern Environmental group.