Pest Control in Rolling Hills Estates
The City of Rolling Hills Estates is situated on the northeastern side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
The "City" is mainly a residential community of thirty neighborhoods with six parks and 25 miles of trails.
The weather for this inland city is mild during each season with temperatures ranging from 67 degrees in winter to just 80 degrees in the summer.
All this beautiful weather coupled with large areas of open space can attract insects and undesirable wildlife such as rats and mice.
The City of Rolling Hills Estates is noted for its open areas of native habitat, equestrian trails, hiking and bicycle paths.
Both insects and rodents come marching into your home in search of food and/or water, and in the case of rats, shelter.
Some homeowners are surprised when they find they have infestations of various types of pests but even newer homes can have gaps from wiring, pipes, and air conditioning units, where mice, rats, spiders, ants, and water bugs are able to make their way indoors.
Going Green with Hearts Pest Management
Although Rolling Hills Estates is considered Los Angeles County it feels like being in the middle of the country; especially with all the horse trails!
Our approach is more than getting rid of insects and other pests, it’s finding out why they are invading your home.
Hearts works with you to find the right solutions to your pest problems.
It’s a team effort between homeowners and our service professionals to ensure the health of family is foremost while treating pest issues.
Organic Pest Control Solutions
Hearts Pest Management offers organic solutions for keeping pests at bay.
Many Rolling Hills Estates customers prefer our “Greenthumb” pest control program.
This plan is recommend as a monthly service especially during spring and summer with the option of choosing every other month during the winter.
Organic pest management helps eliminate ants, spiders, earwigs, and big water bugs (Oriental roaches).
Hearts understands the importance of beneficial insects. Our Service Professionals are EcoWise Certified in organic applications.
Ant Control in Rolling Hills Estates
Often, when homeowners are overrun with ants, they use whatever means they can to try to get rid of them. Then they wonder why the problem seems to have gotten worse, not better!
Argentine ants are an invasive species that has created a huge supercolony up and down California’s coast.
Spraying and do-it-yourself methods are ineffective when treating for certain kinds of ants such as Argentine ants. These types of ants respond best to slow-acting baits which is carried back to the nest and shared with the colony.
Argentine ants have become a major year-round problem for Californians.
Besides sweets, Argentine ants will eat meat, eggs, oil and fats. Also, when foraging for food, Argentine ants leave pheromone trails everywhere they go, not just from the nest to the food source.
As excellent communicators, leaving trails of pheromones ensures the Argentine ants don’t waste time visiting the same area twice.
Argentine Queen Ants
Most ant species have just one queen who stays with the nest and relies on her worker ants for food but not this species!
Argentine ants search out protein as well as sweets.
Not only do Argentine ants have more than one queen, Argentine queens also assist in foraging for food. In summer, they’ll come indoors looking for water but then in winter, the ants come indoors to get away from the water!
Hearts Pest Management service professionals are experts at identifying ant species and ensuring the best means of treatment, be it organic or traditional, we can help.
Landscape Pest Management in Rolling Hills Estates
Have you been wondering what’s eating your garden? Before your Hearts Service Professional treats for landscape pests, he/she will provide you with a full inspection to determine the types of pests and the nature of damage to your plants and landscape.
Here are some of the most common garden pests that we treat:
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- • Whitefly and sooty mold
• Aphids and other scale insects
• Leafminers
• Gophers and squirrels
• Powdery mildew
• Springtails and Earwigs
• Rats and mice
• Clover and spider mites
• Bird mites.
• Fleas and ticks
• Fungus
Aphids are green in color, depending on the species, with long slender mouthparts that they use to pierce and suck out the fluids from tender parts of a plant, usually the leaves. Large populations of aphids will cause leaves to discolor, turning them yellowish-brown.
Another way plants are damaged by aphids is from the honeydew an aphid emits from its rear. Honeydew is a sticky substance that causes black, sooty-looking fungus, to grow on the leaves and stems of plants.
Aphids (bottom left) will cause leaves to turn a yellowish-brown.
Ever notice a plant covered with ants or an ant infestation at the base of the plant? It’s because of the aphids. Ants will protect aphids from predators in exchange for the honeydew they emit.
Spider Control in Rolling Hills Estates
Spiders are predators and almost all carry venom but their purpose is to use it on insects, not humans. Whether spiders create webs for catching prey or dig burrows with trap doors, or hunt by chasing insects over short distances, their goal throughout the day (like some of us humans) is to eat!
This Green Lynx is pretty harmless just hanging out on the rose waiting for some insects to pass by.
If you have a lot of spiders, most likely you have some insect infestations happening in and around your home.
Once the insect population is treated and under control, you’ll have fewer spiders. Because spiders are solitary, you have to see them to get them.
Hearts Pest Management will treat and de-web the areas around your home and discuss with you the types of hiding places spiders like to reside.
Some places you may not think of spiders hiding are under patio furniture and around playground equipment.
Many spiders are beneficial outside of the home where they eat ants, crickets, flies, sow bugs (roly-polies), aphids, and other insects.
Indoors, spiders will help eliminate termites but most people prefer not to share the same living space with arachnids!
The main spiders of medical importance for Rolling Hills Estates residents are black and brown widow spiders. Widow spiders create messy, Halloween-looking webs.
It’s easy to identify the brown widow by her cream-colored, spiky egg sac. Brown widows tend to hide under patio furniture whereas black widows are often found in dark corners of closets, garages, under woodpiles, etc.
Your Hearts professional will identify and eliminate spiders on contact.
However, it’s not uncommon to see webs a few days later because spiders are solitary and hide; unlike ants in which you can give them a bait to share with the colony.
Hearts will find and treat for as many spiders as we can see and will check for their hiding places.
At the same time, however, leaving the garden orb-weavers alone to do their own natural pest control of your garden landscape.
Rodent Control in Rolling Hills Estates
Roof rats use tree branches for access to homes.
Rats need an opening just ¼ of an inch in diameter to gnaw and widen until they can squeeze through and make their way indoors.
Both old and new homes have openings where rats can get in.
These include areas around drainpipes, cables, power lines, and air conditioning units, just to name a few.
What Rats Want
If you live near open areas of natural habitat, rats will become pests very quickly. They enter the home in search of food and water. A female rat can have several nests at the same time, all within close proximity to water.
Pet food is a favorite of rats and they can smell it from long distances. Leaving dog or cat food out at night will definitely attract them. If you have a dog, it’s important to clean up their poop on a regular basis because rats will find the little bits of food in dog feces quite nutritious!
Water; rats need water to survive. Leaky sprinkler systems and outdoor faucets provide water for rats.
Garbage cans overflowing or with loose lids is an easy target not just for rats but other wildlife in search of food.
Openings around pipes are an easy entry way for rats and mice.
Another source of food is fallen fruit. If you have fruit trees of any kind, it’s a good idea to pick up any fruit that falls to the ground. Rats can smell rotting fruit from a distance.
Nesting places: Attics, crawl spaces, corners and rafters of a garage (especially if there’s newspaper around for bedding) are all shelters for pregnant rats to set up home and make your casa their casa.
Hearts Pest Management provides free rodent inspections for Rolling Hills Estates. We will block off any access points where rats and mice have entered, perform attic clean-outs and provide a reasonable monthly rodent baiting service.
To schedule a free inspection or learn more about our organic solutions to pest management, please call today for a caring Hearts Pest Service Representative at:
1-800-986-1006
You may also fill out the form below and a representative will contact you with information on our services.
