Pest Control and Bug Exterminator Blog

Pest Control Forecasting

What you can take away from the pest control trends is that from February to March pest control will likely increase by 50% and that the Texas pest control season peaks in June 2010. So business should be picking up now and should increase until mid summer, June. Ant control shows no forecastable trend, but should follow closely to pest control with a June 2010 peak.

But does the forecast mean pest control companies will survive the economy? Last year’s economic downturn caused many pest control operators to close up shop. Despite the fact the the google trends only showed a 2% decrease in interest from June 2008 to June 2009. So people may be searching for pest control 2010, but that doesn’t mean that people will be buying pest control.

Reading the Trends

It’s hard to argue that pest control is a seasonal business. Further, it’s hard to argue that what people are searching for is “pest control”. The trends above are specific to the Texas region and it is interesting to see the metros within Texas that get the most searches by keyword. Exterminators are less likely to find successful traffic campaigns by ignoring these trends. Further, trying to jump in at the heat of the race without doing your off season exercise is futile. Through trial and error sites launched and dedicated to “ant control in Austin” proved to capture very little traffic. Sites launched for “pest control in Austin” beat out scorpions, ants, spiders, and roaches combined. Needless to say, “scorpion control” is less than trendy.

Back to the drawing board. Thanks for the regional pest control insights provided by google trends.

Stay tuned for more information from your online bug channel.

Fire Lt. Fred Godawa of Daytona Beach blamed a recent fire on a carpenter ant colony.  According to this fireman, the ants had build a large home around the electrical outlets in the wall.  When the ants hit an electrical wire, the electrical shock ignited the ants, shoot out of the outlet and caught the entire house on fire.

For pest control operators, though this case is rare, it is no surprise.  Ants and other pests frequently travel on the homes electrical wiring.  These wires become an insect highway.  Homes are built with the wiring passing through the framework.  Holes are drilled in the wooden studs.  These holes make it much easier for pests to travel from one wall void to the next.  If they follow the wiring they can easily travel from one end of the house to the other.  They can move freely upstairs, down stairs, into the attic, and out of the outlets into your home. For this reason, in wall treatments are highly effective against pests especially when concentrated on these outlets.

Other smaller ants are also known to travel not on the wires, but in the wires.  Certain ants are so tiny that they can slip under the protective covering of your electrical wiring and travel through the home on these wires.  They too will short out your wiring causing damage to your home’s electrical system.  A manufacturing company in Texas was closed down for a few days due to these ants destroying their electrical system.  The company would not say how much damage was done or how much productivity was lost.

As the old saying goes,

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Ants still prove to be one of the most difficult insects to control.  They are highly organized.  Some colonies will splinter off into multiple colonies when threatened. Their sense of smell is so keen that the slightest error in a mixture could render the pesticide detectable and therefore useless.  And they reproduce so rapidly that killing off  a thousand or two today, will be replaced with a thousand or two tomorrow.

So how do you get rid of ants?

Is there an effective pest control solution?

Yes. Get Ant Control.

Call a professional exterminator and Get Ant Control today!

Guaranteed Ant Control is included free with this month’s special on Bulwark’s whole house protection plan.

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Covering all of your Raleigh pest control needs.