Our Pest Library

Common Pest Identification & Prevention In Deming, NM

At Snowden Exterminating, we want to help you protect your New Mexico property from pests, and most importantly, your family from the pests that call our area home. Our climate provides a suitable habitat for many different insects and rodents. Knowing a bit about the pests living in our area, including how to prevent them, is key to protecting your family and property from their dangers and damages. Refer to our pest control guide to learn more about the pests that call New Mexico home.

Ants

Why are ants a seemingly never-ending pest problem for New Mexico property owners? We regularly see these tiny insects walking around our yards and homes because they offer them the resources they need to survive. Our yards provide them with multiple places to search for food, including trash cans, gardens, and outdoor eating areas. As they move around our yards and come across cracks and crevices in the exterior of our homes, they move through them to explore the interior, searching for food and water sources. Once ants discover what they are looking for, they alert the rest of their colony by laying down a pheromone trail. A few ants exploring your property can quickly become hundreds or more

In New Mexico, many ants nest, feed, and breed on our properties. Some of the most common species are the black ant, red ant, and odorous house ant. Ants move onto our properties uninvited, and once there are extremely difficult to eliminate. Social by nature, ants work together to seamlessly care for their nest(s) and all their colony members. Though ants are generally nuisance pests, they should never be allowed to live on your property rent-free. You should take steps to eliminate them as soon as you notice their presence. Some of the many problems ants cause include contaminating food sources and spreading bacteria to surfaces. Some even cause structural damage. In our area, red ants are very problematic and dangerous to people. Red ants are small but aggressive and can deliver painful bites and stings; when these ants nest in your yard, they make it impossible for you to enjoy your yard safely.

Avoid problems with ants by implementing the following prevention tips:

• Always keep tight-fitting lids on trash cans and recycling bins. Food odors from those containers are just too much to resist. 
• Maintain outdoor eating areas and gardens, eliminating easy access to food.
• Remove possible nesting sites from your yard like fallen trees, tree stumps, woodpiles, and leaf piles.
• Use caulk to seal cracks in the foundation, install door sweeps, and place covers over vents.
• Get rid of water sources by fixing leaky pipes and clogged gutters.

Centipedes

Suddenly seeing a creature with many long legs, an elongated body, and long antennae darting across the floor of your home will make anyone jump. Centipedes are pests that regularly move from our yards into our homes, usually in an attempt to escape hot, dry weather. Centipedes are typically harmless to people; however, they have specialized claws to capture and inject venom into their prey. These claws are strong enough to puncture a person’s skin and cause pain similar to a bee or wasp sting. The good news is that centipedes aren’t aggressive towards people, so as long as you don’t try to handle them directly, they pose minimal threats to us.

Since centipedes have high moisture needs, they often end up in our New Mexico yards and homes, seeking water sources. Outside they gather under piles of vegetation, fallen trees, rock piles, garden areas, and under containers like trash cans. As they move around, it is common for them to wind up inside your home as they move around it, crawling through spaces under doors or cracks in the foundation. They also move inside purposely if it becomes too dry outside for them to survive. Once inside, they travel to areas of our homes that mimic their damp, dark outdoor spaces. How and why centipedes have ended up in your home is usually more of a concern than the centipedes themselves. Excess moisture attracts these pests and, over time, will cause damage to your home. It is also important to seal the spaces in your home’s exterior that allow centipedes inside because if centipedes can move into your home, so can other pests that have the potential to be dangerous and destructive.

Refer to the following prevention tips to help you make your New Mexico property less attractive to centipedes.

• Remove from your property things like fallen trees, landscaping ties, and rock piles that centipedes could gather beneath.
• Store outdoor trash cans and recycling bins up off the ground.
• Repair leaky pipes.
• Make sure your kitchen, bathrooms, and crawl spaces have proper ventilation.
• Seal cracks in the foundation and install door sweeps on all exterior doors. Make sure weatherstripping is intact and repair any damaged door trim.

Cockroaches

There are several different species of cockroaches that have come to live near people. Through trial and error, they have learned how to obtain food and water from our properties and have discovered our structures provide them with ample space to hide safely during the day. Some of the most regular visitors to our New Mexico homes and businesses are the American cockroach, German cockroach, brown-banded cockroach, and oriental cockroach

Cockroaches are medium to large-sized insects that have oval-shaped bodies, long antennae, and six legs. Though some cockroaches are winged, most don’t fly or only fly short distances; most run from place to place. Since cockroaches are nocturnal, they hide during the day and emerge at night while we sleep; this provides cockroaches with the ability to remain undetected for some time. When cockroaches are freely moving around our homes, they are spreading bacteria, parasites, and pathogens. They are also contaminating your family’s food, staining surfaces with excrement, and spreading allergens that trigger allergy symptoms and asthma. Cockroaches are pests that don’t belong in our homes or businesses for even a single day.

Use the following prevention tips to help make your New Mexico property less attractive to cockroaches.

• Cockroaches in New Mexico are always in search of a water source. Repair leaky pipes, drains, faucets, and hoses that could provide them with a water source. 
• Install door sweeps, place covers over vents and drains, and seal areas around wires and utilities entering your house.
• Lower humidity levels in your home by using air conditioners or dehumidifiers.
• Keep cockroaches out of your home by inspecting the exterior and sealing any cracks and other openings you discover.
• Cockroaches are expert hitchhikers so inspect things like used furniture, appliances, boxes, and plant pots for these pests before bringing them into your home.

Rodents

In New Mexico, most pests, including rodents, are active throughout the entire year, whether in our yards or inside our homes. Rodents like mice and rats spend most of their lives outside, but sometimes our homes provide them with easy access to food and a temperature-controlled environment that they just can’t pass up. Opportunistic pests, rodents have learned over the centuries that when people are around, we provide them with their basic needs.

Rodents are prey animals, so to survive, they have learned to stay hidden; this makes it easy for them to be in our homes or yards for long periods before we finally notice them. Having rodents calling our property home is dangerous for many reasons, including spreading diseases, bacteria, and parasites. They also contaminate our food sources and damage our homes and personal property. Rodents are prolific breeders, and just a couple can turn into many in the blink of an eye. If you ever notice the following signs, seek immediate professional help to eliminate them as quickly as possible.

• Discovering holes in food containers
• Experiencing unexplained electrical shorts
• Finding rodent droppings on the floors or in drawers or cabinets
• Seeing gnaw marks on flooring, furniture, walls, or cabinets 
• Hearing scratching or running sounds behind walls 
• Noticing a strong, musty odor within your home

Guard your home and family against rodents by ensuring your house isn’t providing them with their basic needs. Keep their access to food to a minimum by keeping lids on trash cans, maintaining gardens, and keeping outdoor eating areas free of food debris. Get rid of water sources from your property that attract rodents by repairing leaky hoses and dripping pipes or faucets. Rodents love to hide in clutter; remove as much clutter from your yard and home as possible. Prevent nosy rodents from moving into your home by sealing spaces in its exterior, placing covers over vents, and sealing openings around utilities.

Scorpions

Scorpions have unique features making them quite easy to identify. They have a segmented tail that curves over the body and a stinger at its end that delivers venom to their prey. They also use their stinger as a means of defense. Other physical features include two claws, eight legs, and many eyes. Water and food are the two main reasons scorpions find their way into our homes. Despite living in the desert, they have high moisture needs, and our home’s leaky pipes, faucets, tubs, and sinks provide them with the water. As they follow their insect prey, they often wind up inside our homes, moving in through spaces around windows and doors, cracks in the foundation, or vents or torn screens.

Refer to the following prevention tips to help you make your New Mexico property less attractive to scorpions.

• Repair dripping faucets and leaking pipes.
• Fix areas of poor ventilation in your home.
• Clean up leaves, brush, and the like from your yard where scorpions can hide.
• Cut back shrubbery and dense vegetation from your home’s exterior walls.
• Keep closets, cabinets, and your crawl space free of clutter.
• Seal entry points by repairing gaps around windows and doors, sealing spaces in the foundation, and placing covers over vents and chimneys. 
• Keep lids on trash cans and remove areas of standing water from your property that attract the insects scorpions like to eat.

Scorpions are arachnids and live throughout New Mexico. They thrive in our desert habitat, and the water our yards and homes provide help them to survive. In addition to water sources, scorpions like properties that offer them hiding spots and prey to hunt. Trees, mulch, leaf piles, rock piles, and gardens are common spots to run into scorpions in our yards. Our sheds, garages, and houses also regularly become home to scorpions.

Spiders

New Mexico is home to many spiders. Some like the black widow spider and brown recluse are dangerous, but most others, like the wolf spider, daddy long legs, and tarantula, are harmless and don’t pose significant threats to people. Dangerous spiders are those that have venom potent enough to paralyze their insect prey and powerful enough to cause harm to people. Avoiding contact with dangerous spiders is always important, and you should never ignore them. It is also important to control spiders, no matter the species, as their presence often indicates large numbers of insects on your property. 

Spiders are predatory and spend their lives hunting insects, finding their way onto any property that provides them with food or shelter. Unfortunately for us, our New Mexico yards often offer the perfect habitat for spiders using gardens, trees, and landscaping as a place to hunt, feed, and breed. Other things that attract insects include standing water, outdoor lighting, and trash containers. When insects decide to move into our homes to escape harsh weather, spiders will follow to stay near their prey. Spiders also like to move indoors to find a dark, quiet place to lay their eggs. Once indoors, spiders adapt easily to an indoor lifestyle, staying as long as they have access to food and water.

Refer to the following prevention tips if you want to reduce the number of eight-legged spiders lurking around your New Mexico property.

• Create a barrier between any landscaping plants and your home’s exterior.
• Avoid attracting insects to the outside of your house by keeping outdoor lights off when possible and placing trash cans a distance from the exterior of your home.
• Repair entry points. Seal cracks that you find in exterior walls and the foundation of your home.
• Place mesh covers over vents and drains leading into your house.
• Install door sweeps on all exterior doors.
• Reduce standing water around your property that spiders and their prey will take advantage of. 

If you are looking for pest control services that you can count on, turn to the local pest control experts at Snowden Exterminating. We are trusted community members, and our family-owned business is dedicated to providing each of our customers with top-notch pest control solutions. To learn more about working together to protect your Deming area home or business from persistent pests, give us a call today!