Welcome July, with your fireworks, heat, humidity, and long summer days filled with the memories we are making. Mid-Michigan has so much to offer and we are lucky to be smack in the middle of this beautiful state. Summer brings many people to and through our area as this is the perfect midway point. Being only a short drive from many of the tourist features that our state has to offer makes this a great place for that summer cottage or second home. Many of you already know this and have been traversing the area for generations, others are new to the area and just beginning your journey. Either way, we are here for you.
July begins what we call bee season, not the cute, fuzzy honey bees, or the plump bumblebees, no, not those. Instead, we are referring to yellow jackets, bald face hornets, and paper wasps. You know, the ones who show up to the picnic uninvited and aren't in any hurry to leave. They've been busy building their nests since it first started to warm up, way back in March. While we were still dreaming of these warm summer days, the queens were busy, making nests and creating their colonies one layer at a time, so to speak. We humans, give little thought to the solitary bee we see frequenting unpainted/finished wood in the Spring, but these bees are gathering wood fibers that they mix with water to build their nests. As the nests grow, the number of bees we see increases, but our brains don't often register this because we aren't seeing them in large numbers all at once. Not yet.
As the temperature and humidity rise the numbers in those colonies multiply at a staggering rate. Nests can go from fist-sized to softball size or even head size just between trips to your cottage and not all those nests are visible. Many are hidden in soffits, behind siding, in the ground, or high up in the foliage of trees. Please bear in mind a couple of things, first, not every bee's nest needs to be treated/eliminated as all these insects are great pollinators as well as predators that keep your other insect populations in check. Secondly, ineffectively treating a bee's nest is one of the leading causes of them becoming immune/tolerant to certain pesticides. If you can't see the nest, you can't be certain that the correct amount of pesticide is actually where it needs to be to treat that nest and eliminate them.
If you are prone to having bee issues, you probably did the smart thing and called us in the Spring to get on our schedule, if not we're sorry. Most pest control companies experience an influx of phone calls from people plagued with pest issues during the middle of the summer and unfortunately 99% of the time their routes, just like ours are full. This is not an industry that has techs just waiting for the phone to ring so they can go out on a call. We are not like other members of the service industry, we are hard-working, dedicated techs that see the same customers every month, month after month. We know your pest issues and treat them typically before you even know you had an issue and we pride ourselves on that.
If you aren't on our list and you want to be for next year or for rodent service later this year, feel free to give us a call and we will add you to the list.