Download | Duration: 00:04:44

I caught up with Dovid Davis, Director of A #1 Pest Control, yesterday. Dovid is a hard man to reach. But yesterday, his home town Baltimore was having a record snow. The snow was up to his porch and all he could do was stay inside and watch football games and eat up the food he had managed to stock up before the blizzard hit. But the phone lines were working great. And although it's still the dead of winter, Dovid thought it not a moment too soon to issue a stern warning about pests that will be coming out when the weather warms up. And specifically, he wants to draw people's attention to fleas.

Flea infestations increase in the spring because they begin to breed in earnest when the weather warms up, Fleas go through a complete metamorphosis from the egg stage to the larvae to pupa and adult. During this metamorphosis, they change from what they look like as an infant to the adult stage. And all fleas feed on blood. You can have cat fleas and you can have dog fleas. Cats can get dog fleas and dogs can get cat fleas. A female flea, during her short life cycle, will lay between 4-8 eggs a day, In her entire life she can lay between 400-800 eggs.

Now regarding their feeding cycle, Dovid painted a picture of true gluttony. When a flea bites into its blood meal, if unhindered, he will drink from the victim's blood until he is so full and heavy from the meal that he simply falls off. It is actually the weight of the blood that causes a flea to fall off his victim.

Wherever the flea falls it will stay. That can be on the carpet on the floor on the sofa in the streets, Why is this important? Because, you can get fleas even without pet ownership. Just walk past a location where a flea fell off its last victim, and it may latch onto you.

Fleas rarely bite above the knee level, and they really don't fly they don't walk, rather they hop or spring. And, they can crawl, Their hoping range is from 10-20 inches. Fleas can feast on any warm blooded animal. They can feast on rats, rabbits, rodents, wild life of any type, and man. Not only do fleas increase breeding in the spring, but with more warm blooded animals and humans walking around outside, fleas find conditions ideal for spreading from one host to another.

I asked Dovid where the fleas are hanging out right now, while the weather is still cold. Dovid said the fleas go into hibernation wherever they are. If someone had fleas in an apartment, for example, and everyone was out of town, so there was nothing for the fleas to eat, they would go into hibernation. Then, when a blood meal comes along. they are aroused from their hibernation, and attack.

I asked Dovid what are the signs of an infestation that people should look for. Dovid replied that fleas are very visible and physical You can feel them and see them. You will usually fell an itching sensation where they are feeding, and when you touch the area, the flea will spring off.

White, light and motion attracts flea, so a good flea test is to put on long white socks, walk across the floor and you will see 10-200 fleas, tiny little dark specks, on your socks. Fleas looks like flat specs and they are bigger in size after a meal. But you don't need a microscope to see them.

Well folks, if you discover that you have fleas in your house, be sure to call a licensed exterminator. Because, as Dovid mentioned, there are effective treatments to rid the home of these little itchy pests.

Thanks for reading this report, and have a pest free day!

Download | Duration: 00:03:15

What to Do when Pigeons Roost on Your Property?

Hi,and welcome to another episode of Day in the Life of Dovid Davis Pest Specialist. Dovid is the most intelligent and knowledgeable pest specialist I know of, so whenever I get a spare moment, I ask him to talk about an area of his work. I like many people have
walkways and a porch that has been turned into a bathroom by noisome pigeons, so the last time Dovid and I chatted, I asked him to talk about pigeons.

Dovid told me that pigeons are rodents with wings, rodents that fly. In fact,he told me, they are called the rats of the sky, because, they go anywhere, and will eat anything. There are lots of different types of pigeons, but Dovid said he would limit his comments to urban pigeons."They are domesticated birds. People fed them, but you can't pet them,as they will fly away, but they don't bite. They will roost any where that is comfortable to them, that is weather protected and close to their food source. And their food is grain and garbage."

"Well I am glad to hear that pigeons don't bite," I said, "but what do you do if you have them on your ledge and they are messing up your porch.""Pigeon elimination," Dovid said. "To kill them you are going to use an avicide." Use with extreme caution, because it is very lethal. In America, you have to be licensed to use it. The avicide looks like cracked corn." Dovid told me that if he spreads it out at noon on the lawn of a home infested with pigeons, in ten minutes, the pigeons will be squawking and literally falling down dead, right from the skies.

"Now if you just want to stop the pigeons from roosting," Dovid said, "you have products called 'roost no more,' and "'hot foot.'" These basically are silica gel with pepper. The bird alights on the ledge, sticks its foot in the gel, and it burns them. So they leave and won't go back tothat ledge. The gel works for more than a year. It is sticky stuff that sticks around for months, and is not affected by water."

I wanted to get some more details, and Dovid told me that with the avicide, you don't have to kill all the pigeons. You can use it onetime, kill say 15/25 infesting pigeons, and the rest will stay away.Another alternative to the avicide or the gel are tiny spears which can be put in the lawn or on a roof or ledge and which deter pigeons from roosting. This is an ancient pigeon determent, however, the spears don't work 100% of the time.

I don't know about you, but Dovid's talk gave me a lot of satisfaction. If I want to pay the pigeons back with a vengeance, I can get rid of them with the avicide. If I am in a more merciful mood, I can use the gel and still keep them away from the ledge for over ayear. Of course they might move over to another ledge, whereas the avicide will keep them off my entire property for a long time.

We'll that's it for another episode of Day in the Life of Dovid Davis Pest Specialist. Thank-you for reading this article, and I wish you all a pest free day.

Download | Duration: 00:00:00

Yesterday, I talked with Dovid David, the Director of A # 1 Pest Control, of Baltimore. I asked Dovid, what he recommends for getting rid of pesty ants. Dovid started out by lamenting the fact that in America most of the really strong pesticides are banned. In other countries, he said, where they still use the good old stuff, they don't have as many problems with bugs.

 

But, in any case, he said, ants are easy to get rid of. You have three choices, sprays, gels, or powders. If you are spraying, or when Dovid does a treatment, its important to spray around the baseboards. There are all purpose sprays which can be used in cabinets as well. However, if you have ants in your drawers, or areas where yo store food, then you should uses a gel.

 

If you have a long term ant problem, Dovid recommends you go out and invest in a plastic pump sprayer. You can get one for 15 dollars, buy concentrated spray, and spray once every couple of months. The pesticides, which Dovid recommends are Combat and Max force. Actually, Dovid added, they are the same thing. The inventor forgot to patent the spray and some one else got hold of it.

 

What doesn't work, Dovid made a point of noting, are the things you plug into the wall socket, which supposedly kill the bugs by emitted electrical waves. They don't do a thing.

 

Dovid reminded me that there are two basic types of ants that invade the house, those that go for honey and those that go for salty foods. You can test which type you have by putting out a little honey and seeing if the ants go for it. The type of ant you have is important to known, because most of the gels are a combination of boric acid and a sugar. The sweet loving ants will eat the gel and die, but the salt loving ants won't eat it, and won't be affected by it.

 

The gels and powders are slow working, and the sprays are quick. One good thing, ants are susceptible to general all purpose pest control, so while you're killing the ants, you will be killing all other crawling bus infesting your house, such as roaches, spiders and crickets.

 

Dovid explained to me how the spray works. The poison is water based, and as soon as it hits the floor the water begins to evaporate leaving the poison stuck to the floor. When the bugs crawl through the poison, it adheres to their body. The bugs, as it turns out lick themselves clean much like cats do. Only now, they will get a mouthful of the poison and die. And this is why general all purpose bug spray does not work on flying insects. The treatments are really effective, Dovid emphasized. When he is called to a house, he sprays once inside and outside, and that usually gets rid of the pests.

 

Thanks for reading this report, and have a pest free day!

Download | Duration: 00:02:43

Hi, and welcome to Day in the Life of Dovid Davis Pest Specialist.Yesterday, I had a chance to talk with Dovid Davis the Director of A # 1 Pest Control of Baltimore Maryland.He asked me what I wanted to learn about, and I answered mice."Okay," he said, "We'll talk about mice.

 

Mice, Dovid noted, are generally 2-3 inches long, they weigh from half an ounce to and ounce and 1/2 generally they are brown or grey. Some of the things they prefer, food wise, include cereal, fruit, vegetables and meat. Mice are strange in their behavior pattern in that they do not eat a lot of food at once, they tend to nibble 20-30 times. But altogether, their daily consumption of food is less than 1/10^th of an ounce.

 

There are some interesting facts about mice that people should know. Mice are excellent climbers. They can climb up on walls; they can climb up on furniture. However, the range of how far they travel is less than 30 feet. So they won't go more than 30 feet for food water or shelter. Since they don't go more than 30 feet from where they're nesting, if their food source is more than 30 feet away, they'll move their nest.

 

Mice are nocturnal, which means that most of their activity, their running around their exploring and feeding takes place after sunset and before sunrise. Most people don't realize, that when mice travel and they are healthy they travel at 12 feet per second. And that's why it's so hard to catch them. And one mouse, the average mouse, makes approximately 50 droppings  a day. Ugghh!

 

So how do we catch these critters? The traditional way is with mouse snatch traps, and or placing commercial strength rodenticide, in areas that are not visible and not accessible to children or pets. It generally takes 72 hours for them to be attracted to the bait, to eat it, and to die.

 

I wanted to know what happens to the mice when they die, because no one wants dead smelly mice lying around their house or kitchen. But Dovid assured me that the poison makes the mice thirsty so they tend to go outside and eat grass and drink water, and die outside. But if they do die inside the house they are only odorous for no more than 72 hours. Then they start to disintegrate. Well I don't know about you, but I am not crazy about the idea of smelly decaying mice in my house, even for less than 72 hours. However, it does beat having live mice.

 

My thanks to Dovid Davis of A # 1 Pest Control of Baltimore Maryland for another Day in the Life of  Dovid Davis Pest Specialist, Folks, I wish you a pest-free day..

 

 

 

Download | Duration: 00:00:00

 

Welcome to a Day in the Life of Dovid Davis Pest Specialist. Yesterday, I had a chance to talk with Dovid Davis, the owner of A#1 Pest Control. I asked Dovid what he wanted to talk about, and he said Bees, hornets and wasps.

According to Dovid, the end of the summer brings an abundance of stinging insects, the bees hornets and wasps. The three stinging insects have different characteristics but several things in common.When they detect aggressive behavior, they will defend themselves. They may interpret your waving your hand to swap them away as a sign of aggression. They may determine your trying to douse them water, alcohol or other liquids as a sign of aggression. Or, they may interpret your trying to cut out their nest from a tree or the ground as a sign of aggression.

Stinging insect home colonies are always guarded by quick response soldiers. Stationed outside to repel any outside  invaders, they can quickly call in reinforcements within 20 seconds, in large numbers. If the colony is small, approximately under 25, or less than the size of a tennis ball or a baseball, then the home owner can attempt to remove it himself. Of course, while removing the nests, he should be wearing protective clothing and should have suitable replant

close at hand. If the nest is anything larger than a tennis ball or baseball, Dovid recommends that you call a professional

It should be noted that the home colonies of the stinging insects are not only paper nest hanging from a tree. Quite commonly, bees will make their homes in the ground and can make their home in the crack or a crevice of a concrete or brick wall, or, in dead or hollowed out dead tree trunks. Extreme caution should be used in trying to eradicate them yourself. And a home owner should get rid of the small nest in the evening,when the stinging insects are less ferocious, whereas a professional can properly irradiate them during daylight hours.

I was amazed to hear that these insects live in hives made of paper, and I asked Dovid to clarify that point.He told me that indeed, Bees make the paper hives. They chew anything made of cellulose and they spin into a large paper ball with many layers and many cells in it. Dovid also cautioned that home owners should  not attempt to rid a bee hivewhile standing a ladder larger than 6 feet tall,. as the bees always win. And also,if someone is allergic to bee stings, he should call a professional immediately.

I asked Dovid how much it costs to remove stinging insect hives. He told me the cost depends on the difficulty. Heusually charges 50.00 -70.00 to remove a hive on the ground. If the hive is in a tree, or otherwise located above ground, the cost varies on the height. A beehive in a tree, higher than the first floor of a house, for instance, might run125.00 or more.

We'll that's it for another episode of day in the life of Dovid Davis, pest specialist. And I wish you all a pest free day.

Download | Duration: 00:01:59

Hi

 

And welcome to a day in the life of Dovid Davis.

 

I asked Dovid what we are going to talk about today, and he said we are going to talk about mites.

I asked him, are Mites pests? And just what are they?

He replied that they are pests. Mites, he said, are associated with the spider class, but they are very small. They have 8 legs, and there are three types. Dust mites are found in cluttered dusty and dirty houses. Paper mites are found if you are storing a lot of paper and binders and books. And there are bird mites that come out of bird nests. Mites feed on dead decaying matter such as your skin. Regarding the dust mites on your pillow, it would not be uncommon if you were to professionally inspect your pillow and find 250,000dust mites. Mites do bite, and cause allergic reactions. And all three classes of mites do infest the person.

 

I asked Dovid how we can get rid of mites. Regarding the treatment of mites, he replied that bedding should be cleaned in hot water and dried and the  house should be treated with an insecticide under the bed and over the carpeting area. You should keep the floors clean if there are no carpets.

Some of the symptoms of mites could be wheezing at night, rashes on the body and bite marks.

Bird mites come from bird nests, which are highly contaminated. They will appear as little spiders. Smaller than a pin head.

One treatment is usually sufficient to get rid of them as long as the householder follows instructions.

 

I had one last question for Dovid, I wanted to known how you could tell the difference between bed bug bites and mite bite.

He replied that bed bug bites are bigger and leave blood on the sheet.And mite bites appear like a little insect bite, and they also itch.

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Summer is here and fleas are back warns Dovid Davis Director of A-1 Pest Control of

Baltimore Maryland.The fleas are in the yard, and they are in the houses.

Fleas may be on people's pets, warns Dovid, but mostly fleas are biting people,-especially during the hot season.

Fleas, are pretty small, so how do you detect flea bites, I asked Dovid.. You're looking for tiny bites from the knees down reports Davis.Fleas rarely bite above the knee. If you look down at your ankle, during the bite, you will feel a little sting, and see them as they bite.  Then they will spring up if you try and touch them. If you want to see if you have fleas, walk around wearing white socks, Fleas are attracted to motion and white, and they will appear like grains of pepper on your white socks.

   Dovid emphasized that you can have fleas and not have pets. You can pick them up from just waking down the street. I asked Dovid to clarify that a little, and he explained that you could be walking down the street or across a grassy area where a dog has been playing. The fleas fell off the dog and they spring on you as you walk by.

Andfleas, Dovid explained feed on warm blooded mammals or humans so they can live for extended periods of time, even in a pet free house. And they can be dormant for 6 months. So you might rent a house that has not been in use for 6 months.As soon as you move in, the fleas wake up and start jumping around like crazy.

   Folks, if you've got a flea problem, or think you have a flea problem call an exterminator. If you happen to live in the Baltimore Md Area or surrounding counties, call Dovid Davis the Director of A-1 Pest Control He's a pest specialist with over 20 years of experience and hewill be happy to come out to your house and get rid of those pesky fleas.

   Good-bye for now, and have a great pest freeday!

Download | Duration: 00:00:00

Mod: Hi, and welcome to another episode in A Day in the Life of Dovid Davis Pest Specialist. Today, Dovid is going to tell us what steps we need to take to take to get rid of a flea infestation.

 Dovid Good afternoon, I'm Dovid Davis, and I'm an etymologist in charge of pest control for A #1 Pest Control of Baltimore.

It's hot, it's summer, and the fleas are back…One of the most important thing a person can do to prepare for the

Exterminator is to remove all unnecessary items from the floor. Shoes, clothing, baby supplies. Put them all on a bed or someplace similar.

They should vacuum all the floor areas in the house, starting with the upper floors and working their way down to the basement.  Or starting with

The floors that have the least problems and work their way to the floors

that have the most problem, and generally that's the basement. You want to vacuum all the carpet areas and all the linoleum and hardwood areas.

Fleas are very easily transported, and their mode of activity is that when they latch on to a person, in motion,  and they are attracted to light, motion and sound, they will then bite, drink a supply of blood, promptly fall off their host. They may fall off their host on a carpeted area, they

may fall off their host on the hardwood floor, or on concrete cement for that matter. Prior to extermination, vacuum those areas, regardless of the fact, that it is not carpeted. Please, vacuum first. When a light insecticide would be applied in your house it will be over all the floor areas, .If it is a 9x12 room, not just the baseboards but over the entire 9x12 room. And each room is done, underneath the bed behind dressers, wherever flea and flea eggs can be, that's where a light coating of insecticide will go. This process takes about 45 minutes, and it dries in about 45 minutes. It is a contact kill, so it will kill any fleas that are present, But the spray also leave a residual, so if you have eggs that hatch following the treatment, they will be killed off by the

light residual film that remains. Do not vacuum these floors for 48 hours after treatment has been rendered,

But thereafter, one does want to vacuum every 2-3 days, for at least a week.  This will in fact remove any of the eggs that are hatched, or any weakened fleas that might be embedded in the carpet. Vacuuming after that time will pull those out.  If all things are done according to plan, you can be successfully,

be treated for fleas in one treatment. Thank-you, have a good day.

Mod: Dovid, thank you for that very thorough explanation of what people have to do to prepare for the exterminator.

Correct me, if I am wrong, but it seems to me that compared to other types of pests

That with fleas householders have to do more on their own to prepare for the exterminator

Dovid: Actually bedbugs are the worst, because they get into every little area of the house. Fleas will hop on you when you walk into their territory, whereas bedbugs do not come out to you. But fleas can be difficult. And you actually have

Two species of fleas, dog fleas and cat fleas. And cat fleas are harder to get rid of. I would say you should wait a week after treatment

To see if all fleas have in fact been eradicated.

Mod: And I take it that if the fleas aren't eradicated with the first treatment that you will be willing to go back out to their house and retreate.

Dovid: Yes, we give a free second treatment, if necessary.

Mod: Okay, well thank-you Dovid, and that's it for another episode of Day in the Life of Dovid Davis, pest specialist. Good buy, and have a pest free day.

Download | Duration: 00:03:46