Termite Activity Found in Murfreesboro, TN

When is termite season in central TN

The Bug Man found termite activity in Murfreesboro and surrounding areas.

Termite season is in full swing here in Murfreesboro and surrounding areas.  Most of the calls we are fielding  this week are in regards to active termite swarms.  We have had calls from Mt. Juliet, Lebanon, Smyrna, Rockvale, and Murfreesboro.  The termites are swarming now that the weather is warming up, the humidity is high, and the sun is beginning to shine.  Termites swarm in order to establish a new colony.  When the termites swarm and leave the existing colony, they fly towards the sunlight in search of a mate.  If the termites swarm outside, they will drift in the wind, land, break off their wings, locate a mate, and return back into the soil to begin a new colony.  But, the termites that swarm inside will usually fly towards windows and other light sources.  They will all die if they are unable to find a mate and return to soil.  When this happens, most homeowners will usually find the swarmer termites and wings around the windows, doors, or lights.  This is an indication that an inspection and  treatment is needed.  Here is a photo of termite shelter tubes that our technician found in a crawl space at a house in Christiana that had an active termite swarm on Friday.

Swarming termites are not the biggest concern

The swarming termites are not the real problem in a home, it is the worker termites hidden inside the walls that concern us.  They are the ones that feed on the cellulose (wood) of your home and cause the damage.  The worker termites are responsible for building the tunnels, feeding the colony, and all of the general duties of the colony,  The workers are the termites that get the work done!  But the swarming termites are definitely a sign that you have a problem!  When you see the termite swarmers, it is time to call The Bug Man.  When our trained technicians arrive on site, they will inspect the home, note their findings, review the information with the property owner, answer any questions, and provide a solution for the termite infestation.  The Bug Man uses Termidor HE for all of our termite treatments.  Termidor has been proven as the best termite solution in the industry, and that is why The Bug Man has teamed up with the makers of  Termidor, BASF.

 

Tips for Mosquito Control This Summer

Tips for Mosquito Control This Summer

The Bug Man offers tips to help reduce the mosquito populations around your home.

There are a lot of different ways to approach mosquito control. You could dance if you want to. You could leave your friends behind.

A graduate student from the University of Florida Entomology program prefers the dance method. We found a video that features a ‘skeeter slap dance.’ Check it out below:

Not only is that video amusing, but it also offers a closer look at mosquitoes. Most of us slap them away too quickly to actually see what they look like.  Below we list steps you can take to help reduce the mosquito populations around your home.  While you may not achieve complete mosquito control, this will help.

Steps to help mosquito reduction and control.

  • As you saw in that video, the student was wearing long pants and a long-sleeve t-shirt. When you’re out and about with mosquitoes out, it helps if you wear clothing that covers up your arms and legs.
  • Emptying out areas of standing water is also really helpful for mosquito control. This includes kiddie pools, unused bird baths, tins in the yard, and even inside old tires.
  • Change the water in birdbaths, plant pots, and drip trays at least once a week.
  • Clean the debris out of your rain gutters to allow proper drainage.
  • Use a mosquito repellent with deet when you’re outside.
  • Check around outdoor faucets and air conditioning units and repair leaks or puddles.
  • Cover trash containers to keep out rain water.
The Bug Man also offers a seasonal mosquito reduction program. Please call our office at 615.217.7284 for more information on how we can reduce the mosquito population in your yard.

Ticks and Lyme Disease: Put the Lyme in the Coconut and Call Me in the Morning

Ticks and Lyme Disease

Now, let us get it straight, you got the Lyme disease from the ticks and now your neck hurts? Put a lime in the coconut and call us in the morning to set up an appointment to treat your yard for ticks!

Did we stretch that comparison too much? 🙂

With this year’s super-abundance of ticks, you’ve got to wonder if there will be more cases of lyme disease reported. Although only 2% of tick bites result in lyme disease, we wanted to give you a brief explanation of what Lyme disease is.

    • Lyme disease is most common in boys between the ages of 5 and 19. It’s also common with people over 30 years old.
    • 80% of the people with lyme disease develop a rash around the tick bite
    • Lyme rash is often confused with spider bites. The rash enlarges in size over time, and is usually red in color
    • Lyme disease must be diagnosed by a doctor
    • 20% of people with lyme disease have flu-like symptoms, but not a rash
    • A cough and runny nose are not symptoms of lyme disease
    • Fever, aches, and fatigue can be signs of lyme disease
    • If lyme disease is left untreated, it could lead to temporary paralysis, and numbness in the face and limbs
    • Over time it could also lead to short-term memory loss, migraines and dizzines

If you’re in an area that has lots of ticks, be on the lookout for any signs of a rash or these symptoms. Just because you wake up with a sore neck doesn’t mean you have lyme disease, though. Put a lime in a coconut and call your doctor in the morning to discuss any symptoms.

If you’re in Rutherford or Wilson County in Middle Tennessee and you’d like to get your yard treated for ticks, please give us a call at 615.217.7284. You could also call us to sing us the lime and the coconut song, if you’d like. We’re all about random times of amusement throughout the day.

Murfreesboro Main Street JazzFest is May 4 and 5

Main street

April showers brings May flowers and Murfeesboro’s own Main Street Jazz Festival on May 4 and 5.

Admission is free to this popular event in downtown Murfreesboro. Watch local bands as well as some of the best live jazz music out there, including the 129th U.S. Army Jazz Band Ensemble. The YouTube clip we posted features the U.S. Army Band.

Other notable ensembles are: Music City Swing, MTSU Jazz Ensemble, The Kelli Cox Collaborative, MYJO, Everyday Magic, Connie Florance, and Denny Jiosa.

Our owner–Dan Cassidy–has been volunteering for the Jazz Festival for over 11 years.

If you’re in the area, it would be worth your while to make a trek out to see Jazz Fest. Maybe you’ll drive by our new building on 606 S. Church Street along the way!

Vote for The Bug Man as Best Bug Zapper in the Murfreesboro Post’s Besties Awards

The Bug Man in Central TN

Please vote for us as Best Bug Zapper in the Murfreesboro Post’s Besties Awards. We won the award in this category last year and we’d love to keep the tradition going! Here’s a link to where you can vote: Vote for The Bug Man as Best Bug Zapper.

Please note that in order for your vote to count this year, you have to vote for at least half of the categories on the form.

Thank you so much for your vote! We appreciate the time you invested in filling out the form. Please vote daily.

How Acorns are Contributing to More Ticks This Year

How Acorns are Contributing to More Ticks This Year

Did you know that 2010’s acorn crop is contributing to this year’s increase in ticks?

It’s not the early hot weather that we’ve had. It’s acorns!

While browsing Twitter the other day, we came across a story that the National Pest Management Association (@PestWorld) tweeted. To read their full article on the topic, you can follow this link: Acorns, Not Weather, to Blame for More Ticks.

Basically, the increase in the acorn crop led to an increase in mice eating the acorns. And with more mice, come more ticks. The science of pest control has a lot to do with the predator and prey food chain. One pest affects another pest.

The Bug Man serves Rutherford and Wilson County in Tennessee. We have a specialized tick service. For more information on how we can take care of your tick problem, please call us at 615-217-7284 or email us at service@thebugman.us.

And, we’re active on Twitter and Facebook. We frequently post updates about pest issues in our area, as well as funny photos and videos. Join us there!

Lots of New, New, New in Our Company News

The Bug Man in Central TN

We really are growing a lot here at The Bug Man! In early February, we moved into our new office at 606 S. Church Street. At the end of March, we added two new trucks to our ‘bugged’ out fleet of bug-busting, technician-toting work trucks. And here we are, already in April, and we even have a few new employees.

Here are a few pictures and a YouTube video documenting our recent changes. As you can see, the video was taken before our building was repainted. You can always find updates on our Facebook and Twitter, and even on our Pinterest. Please join us there. We’d love to talk to you!

Our new, freshly painted building
Our new ‘bugged’ out trucks

Experimenting with Ants

Experimenting with Ants

Reasons why DIY Pest Control May Not Work

Experimenting with ants is interesting! If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a 22-minute-long video is worth about eleven million words. 🙂 To spread the wealth, we split the video up into two separate segments.

One of our technicians put together an impromptu experiment to show what happens to ants when different pesticides are used. He experimented with water, a repellent, a non-repellent, granular bait, and gel bait.

If you’ve ever gone to the store to buy your own spray and wondered why that spray didn’t work, this video will answer that for you. If you’ve tried a bunch of different things and the ants are still there, this will show you why.

Without further adieu, we give you Ant Experiment, Part 1:

And Ant Experiment, Part 2:

Feedback in the comments is always appreciated. Or, you can find us on Facebook and Twitter at @TheBugManTN.

Ants on a Potted Plant in Murfreesboro, TN

Ants on a Potted Plant

It’s the first day of spring! And with our warm weather comes lots of ants. Lots and lots and lots and lots of ants. And then more ants.

‘Ant’yways, one of our Quarterly Pest Control customers recently called us to see what we could do to get rid of an ant invasion at her home. Dan Cassidy, owner of The Bug Man, captured a video of the pesky ants.

If you continue to find ants indoors, there is a good chance that they may be nesting inside the house.  Many times the ant nest is relocated indoors with a potted plant.  They will nest inside the soil and when you move the plant inside, the nest of ants will move with the plant.  Always check between the potted plant before bringing them inside.  This will help deter this problem.

Ants will also be attracted to potted plants on patios, sunrooms, porches, and even indoors.  The ants like the frequent watering the plant requires, many of the plants also have aphids that the ants are attracted to.

The Bug Man Finds a Black Widow Spider in an Unexpected Location

Black Widow Spider in an Unexpected Location

A black widow spider is tricky and elusive. It invokes terror into many Murfreesboro-ans, Smyrna-ans, Antioch-ans, Lebanon-ans, La Vergne-ans, and most hum-ans in general. Let’s face it, black widow spiders get a bad rap most of the time!

In order to help our office staff become more familiar with what our technicians do out in the field, we occasionally take field trips with the technicians to see how and why they do what they do.

As the writer of this blog, I love learning more about our pest control process so I can speak to our customers in an informed, yet understandable way.

On my latest field trip with technician Daniel Lambert, I learned a lot! I’ll be sharing pictures and videos from my field trip adventure over the next several weeks. Today’s topic is: the black widow spider.

When we arrived on the scene, one of the first things Daniel did was get rid of the webs on the exterior of the home with a brush. This simple, yet effective action added quite the cosmetic upgrade to the home.

One of the bonuses of hiring a pest control professional like The Bug Man is getting the expertise of the technician.

Our technicians are trained to expect the unexpected and look for problem pests that could potentially harm our beloved customers.

As we were making our way around the house to inspect, Daniel pointed to a plastic drainage container under the gutter and said, “I bet there’s a black widow spider under there. I almost always find a black widow under those.”

As I looked on, Daniel swiftly picked up the drain and flipped it over. And, to his credit, there was in fact a black widow spider underneath it. And, wow! It was a hoss! A large, round, ugly-looking-behemoth arachnid.

Black widow spider

Here’s a closer view of the angry 8-legger. Notice how some of it’s legs are raised in an attack-like stance. Eeek!

Angry black widow spider

Shortly after this photo was taken, the angry black widow became a formerly-angry and currently-dead black widow.

Thanks for letting me re-live my field trip with you, blog reader. I’ll keep you posted on what else happened on this knowledge adventure. Check back next week. If you’ve got questions, please post them in the comments below.