Insect Removal & Extermination Grants Pass

There are several of types of insects that can takeover your home and quickly become a nuisance, along with causing potential harm and damage to your home. Here at A-One Exterminators we treat them all. Below is a bit of information of how to identify and treat some of the more common.

SPIDERS

There are over 35,000 described species of spiders worldwide, with about 3,000 occurring in North America. Many species of spiders are household pests. Wherever their food is available, spiders are likely to be found. All spiders are predators, feeding mainly on insects and other small arthropods.

Black Widow

Description: Black widow spiders are most recognized for the red hourglass shape on the back. Contrary to legend, female black widow spiders rarely devour the male black widow spider after mating.

Habits: Black widow spiders spin their webs near ground level. They often build their webs in protected areas, such as in boxes and in firewood.

Habitat: Black widow spiders are often found around wood piles and gain entry into a structure when firewood is carried into a building. They are also found under eaves, in boxes, and other areas where they are undisturbed.

Threats: The venom of a black widow spider is a neurotoxin and is used as a defense. Black widow spiders do not bite humans instinctively. The black widow spider bite can cause severe pain. Young children and the elderly are especially susceptible to a severe reaction to a black widow spider bite.

Prevention: Avoid black widow spider bites by wearing heavy gloves when moving items that have been stored for a long period of time. Spiders often hide in shoes, so check shoes and shake them out before wearing. When spider webs are visible, use caution before putting your hands or feet in that area.

Hobo Spider

Description: Spiders, including the hobo spider, vary considerably in appearance, and identification can be difficult. Identification relies on an examination of the spider’s anatomy using a microscope.

Habits: Black widow spiders spin their webs near ground level. They often build their webs in protected areas, such as in boxes and in firewood.

Habitat: Hobo spiders construct a funnel-shaped structure of silk sheeting and lie in wait at the small end of the funnel for prey insects to blunder onto their webs. Hobo spiders sometimes build their webs in or around human habitations. Empty warehouses and dirty toilets are perfect places for a Hobo’s mating grounds.

Threats: Although this species of spider has a reputation for aggressiveness, they will normally avoid contact with humans. Most bites occur when the spider is accidentally crushed or squeezed by a human. The spider’s venom is strong enough to cause considerable local pain and, purportedly, necrosis.

Prevention: Avoid hobo spider bites by wearing heavy gloves when moving items that have been stored for a long period of time. Spiders often hide in shoes, so check shoes and shake them out before wearing. When spider webs are visible, use caution before putting your hands or feet in that area.

BED BUGS

Bed bugs are found all across the U.S. – including here in Oregon. They are most likely to occur in urban areas where population size, apartment living and increased mobility fuel their rapid spread and breeding.

Bed Bug Identification:

Adult bed bugs are brown to reddish-brown, less than 1/4-inch long, broad and nearly as flat as a sheet of paper.
After feeding, the adults become bloated and dark red.
Nymphs are very tiny and almost clear.
Eggs are pearly white, and only 1 mm long, making them very difficult to see with the naked eye.
Bed bug bites usually look like a row of red welts. They may be itchy or irritating, especially for those who are sensitive or allergic to the bed bug bite. But some people have no reaction to or physical evidence of a bed bug bite.

Bed Bugs: The Problems

Bed bugs enter on people, bags, furniture or other items that have come from an infested area. Once inside, they are most often found around beds, thus their name, but they will seek shelter in other areas as well, such as in couches, behind picture frames, on night stands and under carpeting.
They mature very quickly, lay hundreds of eggs, and can live up to a year.
Bed bugs bite! Although they are not known to spread disease, their bite can be itchy and irritating.

How do you know if you have bed bugs?

You may …

See a bed bug crawling on your bed, couch, walls, floor, etc.
Wake up with bed bug bites.
See blood drops or lines from the bed bug feeding.
See bed bug fecal matter, which looks like small black dots or smears where the bed bugs shelter – in the seams of the mattress or box spring, behind the headboard, etc.

A-One Bed Bug Management

Because bed bugs can hide in so many places, they can be difficult to detect, an infestation can build (or rebuild) from a single reproductive pair of bed bugs, and control is intensive and requires the use of professional products. So it is critical that you contact A-One immediately if you find any signs of bed bugs.

To treat your residence or place of business:

First we inspect thoroughly to confirm the presence or absence of bed bugs.
If bed bugs are found, we treat all areas
We will provide guidance and recommendations to help you to prepare for our service, enable us to access all needed areas, and reduce the chance of re-infestation.
We will treat all areas in which bed bugs are found, returning as many times as it takes to achieve control.
Unfortunately a single service cannot eliminate bed bugs. A typical program includes an intensive initial service followed by follow-up visits over several months.
We can also provide preventive treatments to help keep infestations from occurring or from spreading.

COCKROACHES

Cockroaches are among the most important pests of households and commercial establishments. Not only is their mere presence a nuisance, but they are known to be capable of carrying many common disease pathogens as well as causing allergic reactions in many people. Of the approximately 4,000 living species of cockroaches in the world, about 70 occur in the United States.

One of the oldest insects — fossil remains date back 200 million years.

Crawl around on six legs, have wings and two antennae.
Like dark, damp places with a plentiful food supply; hide during the day in warm, dark places, such as under sinks, behind dishwashers, stoves and refrigerators, and inside cupboards.
Feed on a variety of foods, especially starchy and sugary materials, including book bindings, photographic film, linens, leather goods and numerous food items; usually forage at night.
Can survive a month or more without food, but less than two weeks without water.
Have an acrid odor that may permeate items with which they come in contact.
Can transmit bacteria and organisms responsible for diseases in humans including food poisoning, cholera, dysentery, salmonellosis and strep.
A study by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a report in the New England Journal of Medicine indicate that exposure to cockroach allergens is a major health concern for asthmatic children.
Under optimum conditions, cockroaches can produce two million offspring in one year, with an average breeding season resulting in 350,000 offspring.
Found around the world. Two species are prevalent in the United States, the American cockroach and the German cockroach.
The American cockroach has reddish-brown wings and light markings on its thorax and reaches lengths of up to 1.5 inches.
The German cockroach is between one-half and five-eighths inches long and is light brown with two dark stripes down its back.