We treat these common pests and more!
Rats & Mice
Spiders
Ants
Silverfish
Cockroaches & Box Elder Bugs
Bedbugs
Scorpions
Wasps & Yellowjackets
Centipedes, Millipedes, and Earwigs
Ants
Yakima has several varieties of ants. Most common around the house are pavement ants and odorous ants.
Pavement ants are small and dark brown, and scurry in short bursts when they are traveling. Odorous ants are similar in size and color, but they tend to travel in straight lines. Like all ants, these little pests like heat and moisture.
They usually live outside your home when it is warm, but come inside when it is cool and damp, looking for a warm spot to make their nest! They tend to go for hot water pipes, under sinks and around electrical outlets.
Bedbugs
Bedbugs are very common these days! They travel easily from one place to another and settle into houses where it is nice and warm and they can feed. They are attracted to the carbon dioxide exhale while we sleep, so they mostly hang out in bedrooms.
They like the warmth of the electrical outlets near our beds and come out at night while. Sometimes you won’t even know they are there except for their bites and the stains they leave behind on the mattresses.
Cockroaches
There are many different varieties of cockroaches, and around here we mostly see German, Oriental, and Brown Banded roaches.
The German roach likes to live indoors, particularly in kitchens and bathrooms. It’s larger cousins, the Oriental and Brown Banded roaches, mostly live outdoors in damp, cool places like mulch, leaves and wood piles.
They will sometimes come in looking for water – and then they like attics and basements.
Rats & Mice
Humans have always had a love-hate relationship with mice and rats. They are so cute, right? Except when they're not – like when you find their droppings on your floor and stay away all night listening to them chewing the wood in your walls.
Both mice and rats have an incredible sense of smell. This helps them to find food, and during the cold months it is the food from your house they smell.
Did you know that it takes a small hole the size of a dime to allow a mouse to enter the house? And only a nickel for a rat? They are creatures of opportunity and will take advantage of the tiniest morsel they can find. And they move in.
Spiders
Spiders, like most pests, come inside when the weather becomes cool and damp. While there are hundreds of types of spiders in Washington state, the main kind that cause concern around here are the yellow sac, hobo, and black widow spiders. All three of these have venom.
The yellow sac spider is the kind that typically makes its home in ceiling corners of rooms. They look yellow and slightly transparent. A bite from one of these can cause a skin lesion that takes a while to heal. Unless you are pressing a hobo spider to your skin they probably won’t bite, but their venom can cause skin irritation. So no hugging a hobo spider! And no, they won’t chase you.
The black widow, on the other hand, can deliver a nasty bite. Untreated, the venom can reach the person’s heart and cause some real damage. Spiders bite for hunting (you are too big a prey for them), and self-protection. Most people are bitten when they accidentally brush against one of them, or while they are trying to rid their house of the interloper – so call a professional!