Pest Seasonality in Wisconsin

Stink bugs are a seasonal pest problem in Wisconsin - Batzner Pest Control

Here in Wisconsin, pests are a problem all year-long. Different weather conditions and seasonality plays a large role in what pests are most active during certain parts of the year. Some pests that prefer warmer weather nearly disappear in the winter, while other pests in the fall will overwinter in your home until spring rolls around. To better prepare yourself for a possible infestation, it’s important to know which pests are common during certain parts of the year. With information from the NPMA, we are here to share all you need to know about pest seasonality in Wisconsin.

Fall & Winter Pests

Colder weather and snow will always drive more pests indoors in the fall and winter months. In 2020, it has been predicted that a milder winter than usual will result in prolonged Asian lady beetle and stink bug activity. Tick problems may also be active for longer this season. Other pests to be wary of during the colder months of the year in Wisconsin include rodents, boxelder bugs, carpenter ants, and more.

Winter pests in the Great Lakes United States map
 
Beetles
 
Stink Bugs
 
Ticks

Spring Pest Problems

Pest activity springs back into action once winter comes to an end. Blooming flowers, warming temperatures, and heavy rainfall encourages pests of all kinds to resume activity and reproduce. The common spring pests in Wisconsin include:

  • Ants. Certain ant species will forage for food in the warmer months. Rainy weather also drives ants out of their colonies and into homes for shelter.
  • Termites Every spring, termites leave their nests to mate and start new colonies. This is called “swarming”.
  • Mosquitoes. When we experience heavy rainfall, mosquito season will burst into life. With their peak season in the months following, they start to be more active in the spring.
  • Bed Bugs. While these are a year-round problem, increased traveling in the springtime always leads to an increase in bed bug activity.

Summer Pest Threats

Summertime in Wisconsin is the busiest pest season. Summer temperatures cause many types of pest colonies to mature and grow in size. Here are the ones to look out for in Wisconsin:

  • Mosquitoes. These parasitic insects lay more eggs in the summer and tend to be our biggest pest problem this time of year.
  • Stinging insects. Wasps, bees, and hornets are at full force in the summertime. They can build nests near residential areas.
  • Flies. Summer is the peak breeding season for flies. They are infamous for being a nuisance at outdoor summer events.
  • Termites. Warm weather is when termites are able to thrive and cause the most damage.

Year-Round Pests in Wisconsin

To better prepare yourself for an infestation, it’s important to understand the pest seasonality here in Wisconsin. Our colder winters may deter some pests, but they also can drive certain pests right into our homes. To protect your property from pests year-round, contact the pest control experts at Batzner.

6 Ways to Keep Your Outdoor Space Pest-Free

Tips to stay pest-free in your Wisconsin yard - Batzner Pest Control

Are you spending more time in your backyard than ever this year? If so, you’ve likely noticed just how many insects are sharing that space with you! Mosquitoes in your pond, flies around your barbecue, or wasps building a nest on your deck can all quickly ruin your time enjoying your outdoor living space. It can be hard to avoid insects altogether outside, but there are a few things you can do to make your yard less appealing to pests. The experts at Batzner have gathered their top tips to keep your outdoor space pest-free. Read on to learn more!

Tips to Keep Your Outdoor Space Pest-Free

There are likely a number of things in your backyard that, unbeknownst to you, are attracting all types of pests. Each year, it’s important to implement a number of pest prevention methods to reduce the chances of an infestation inside or outside your property. These methods include:

  1. Getting rid of any standing water. Stagnant water is one of the biggest attractants for mosquitoes.
  2. Regularly trimming your lawn and shrubs. Ticks and mosquitoes will shelter in overgrown vegetation or tall grass.
  3. Keeping an eye out for ant hills. Even a tiny mound can contain thousands of ants inside.
  4. Inspecting all wood structures. Wood-destroying pests (carpenter ants and mosquitoes) will damage your wooden decks or porches.
  5. Applying an insect repellent. Most store-bought repellent containing DEET will help repel mosquitoes and ticks.
  6. Cleaning your patio or space regularly. Spills or leftover food will surely bring ants around.

What Pests Infest Your Yard?

Here in Wisconsin, we deal with many types of pests all year long. They are especially active this time of year, and may end up right in your backyard. Some can be dangerous, which is why it’s so important to learn how to keep them away. A few of the most common pests we get calls about this time of year include:

Need Outdoor Pest Removal?

If you’ve done all you can to prevent outdoor pests and still find yourself with an infestation, it’s important to act quickly. A professional pest control company can help get rid of pests in your yard and help you prevent future infestations from happening. Contact the residential exterminators at Batzner today to get started!

Springtime Pests to Prevent

Prevent spring pests by spring cleaning your New Berlin or Oshkosh WI home. Get tips from Batzner Pest Control!

Many rejoice the arrival of spring…pests included. As winter wraps up, many types of insects and pests will come out in search of food and to breed. Warmer weather encourages their activity, making it important to protect your home against the onslaught of pests now!  There are several things you can do to lessen the risk of an infestation in your Wisconsin home this time of year. Read on to learn more from the experts at Batzner Pest Control!

Springtime Pest Problems

While some of these pests are active year-round, there tends to be a peak in activity in the springtime. There are several types of pests in particular that cause property owners a lot of grief this time of year:

  1. Ants. With warmer weather comes hoards of ants in your home.
  2. Flies. In the spring and summer, flies are more active than ever and can be a big nuisance.
  3. Rodents. Although they’re active year-round, rats and mice are a problem in the spring.
  4. Stinging insects. Wasps and hornets are gearing up to build nests this time of year.
  5. Stink bugs. After overwintering, people report a resurgence in stink bugs.

Preventing Pests in the Spring

If you’re planning on doing some spring cleaning this year, it’s smart to implement pest prevention measures while you’re at it. Clean your windows and doors, and make sure there are no cracks or crevices. If there are, seal them properly. Consider deep cleaning your carpets by vacuuming, shampooing, or steam-cleaning them. Thoroughly sanitize your kitchen with a focus on your appliances. Crumbs and spilled liquids are easy bait for rodents, cockroaches, and more!

Remove debris from your yard, and trim back tree branches away from your home. Ensure your plumbing is working properly and fix any leaks. In general, tidy up your home. Clean under furniture, wipe down surfaces, and inspect areas of your home that need fixing up.

How to Get Rid of Seasonal Pests

If you’ve done all you can to prevent pests this spring but still are dealing with flies, rats, or stink bugs, it’s best to enlist the help of a professional pest control company. At Batzner, our exterminators will work with you to develop a custom pest control plan that will keep you and your family safe from pests all year long.

Get Rid of Kitchen Bugs: Ants, Beetles, Flies

The kitchen is one of the most common – and frustrating – places for homeowners to find pests. Ants, fruit flies, and pantry pests are naturally attracted to your kitchen for the same reasons people are, but you might be surprised to learn what they’re snacking on.

Thoroughly Clean All Surfaces

In many cases of kitchen insect infestations, the cause is a missed spill or crumbs rather than food being left out or improperly stored. This can create a frustrating situation for homeowners who can’t get rid of fruit flies or ants even after they have removed all food items from their countertops and cabinets. If a problem persists, then the food source still needs to be found, and that can be more difficult than moving the fruit bowl from the island to the fridge. Nick Schanz, a Batzner Pest Control Service Manager, advises, “Inspect and be prepared to thoroughly wipe down every surface in the kitchen. This includes emptying out cupboards and cabinets and pulling out the oven and refrigerator to vacuum or sweep underneath them. Any residue left behind can attract pests, so make sure you clean it all!”

Clean all Appliances Regularly

Kitchen appliances also need to be cleaned regularly. This may seem obvious for appliances that have crumbs left inside them like toasters, ovens, and microwaves, but other appliances can also be appealing for pests. For example, the coffeemaker can be an attractant for ants. Steve Counsell, Batzner’s Training and Development Manager, explains, “They’re attracted to some of the heat sources. Plus, with the kitchen, it’s a nice area for them to grab food and water is plentiful. There’s really everything they need in order to establish a colony.”

One unfortunate woman from Somers, Wisconsin experienced ants making their home in her coffeemaker. Check out her story here!

Wipe Down Bottles

One additional food source that often gets overlooked is the spillage on the outside of bottles that are kept in the pantry. Some common culprits for having residue stick around on the container are honey, syrup, oil, and peanut butter. If you are having problems finding the food source of an infestation, wipe these down along with any other containers that might be prone to residue from drips.

Removing the food source should drastically reduce the number of insects in your kitchen, but the best way to keep any pest out of your home is through a comprehensive Integrated Pest Management program from Batzner Pest Control. Contact us today to sign up for our exclusive pestfree365 program or to learn about our additional service offerings!

Batzner Solves Cluster Fly Problems Six Stories High

It’s a unique time of year at Batzner, as we are currently under way with our annual Cluster Fly Week. While no two weeks of work in the pest control industry are the same, this week is exceptional as it is the only time we offer our specialty cluster fly treatment. This service involves equipment and treatment methods different from any other service we perform; specifically, it involves a lift truck and sending a Service Specialist up to six stories off the ground!

Cluster Flies- a nuisance on many levels!

Cluster flies merit this extra effort due to their ability to enter the upper floors of multi-level buildings. Similar to boxelder bugs and Asian lady beetles, cluster flies gather in large numbers around the sun-exposed sides of structures in the fall, and seek entry to spend the winter indoors. Once inside, they are a major nuisance pest, emerging from void spaces inside of walls and buzzing around windows on sunny winter days. They can also be problematic as dead flies will attract other pests.

Our Solution Goes Right Up to the Source
To combat them, Batzner applies a preventative treatment around a building’s windows, which are the cluster flies’ main entry point. For larger scale clients with buildings too large for treatment from the ground (most commonly hospitals and office complexes), the lift truck is necessary to reach the upper floors. Service Specialists performing treatment with the lift truck work in pairs, with one operating the basket from the ground and the other doing the actual application. The Service Specialist on the ground is also in charge of several safety precautions, like warning the applicator if anyone is walking underneath the basket or if he or she is approaching power lines.

A Service Specialist’s Perspective from High Up

Some Service Specialists love the thrill of being sixty-plus feet in the air on a small platform. Service Specialist and Cluster Fly Treatment expert Brandon Myer says that, “I’ve never had a problem with heights, so I thought I’d give it a try, and found that I really enjoy it. Our work always varies from week to week, but no other treatment gives me the opportunity to go eighty feet high.” For others, the experience is not as exciting. Quality Assurance and Safety Manager Karl Rowell was one such individual, and said, “I made sure to show the Service Specialists how to operate the machinery and do the job safely and effectively, but after being up in the basket for five minutes I realized that I’m very glad we have other professionals to take care of this job.”

Odd Hours/Hectic Schedule
To make the treatment as convenient as possible for our clients, the Service Specialists work around normal business hours, with Cluster Fly Treatment shifts going from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., or immediately after the business closes for the day. These odd hours and hectic schedule are well worth it, as Training and Development Manager Steve Counsell explains that, “Cluster Fly Week is a great way to maintain integrity with our large scale clients, and proves that we are willing to go above and beyond to solve their pest control needs.”

If you are experiencing any pest issues at your home or business, please do not hesitate to call us at 866-591-3519 or contact us online. We can’t wait to prove to you as well that we will go to great lengths, and heights, to keep you living pest free!

Bioremediation: Commercial Drain Line Maintenance Solutions

Odors of rotting garbage and drain back-ups are two issues that can quickly become a manager’s worse nightmare. Many commercial businesses face the problem of drain line and grease trap back-up every year. Grease and organic matter can takeover inside of the drain lines, which can be unpleasant for employees and customers as well.

To solve these problems, don’t reach for an over-the-counter drain cleaner. Solvents, acids, and heavy surfactants can eat away at pipe linings and PVC pipes can become brittle. Instead, consider bioremediation.

What is Bioremediation?

It is an innovative technology, which uses live microorganisms injected into drain lines to maintain and ensure proper function. These live microorganisms digest fat, oil and grease and convert them into water and carbon dioxide.

The process helps to keep your drains clear and save your business from common problems that can develop from badly maintained drains. Specifically tailored for the food service industry, bioremediation is a part of Batzner’s innovative Integrated Pest Management program that will help save time and money.

Bioremediation saves time, money and protects your reputation by:
  • Reducing drain-related odors
  • Reducing small fly (fruit fly, moth fly, phorid fly) breeding sites
  • Eliminating drain problems that can lead to pest problems
  • Increasing drain flow capacity
  • Reducing outdoor grease interceptor pumping frequency by at least 50%
Flexible Service Options

Batzner offers flexible service options, including drain line injection, floor and beverage drains, small fly, and full-service bioremediation services. Learn more about our bioremediation services.

Phorid Flies Cause Problems in Food Plant

Batzner’s superior knowledge and expertise has helped us provide effective pest control for many clients who had limited to no success with a previous pest control company. Here is one such occurrence, where our thorough inspections and interviewing led to the identification of the source of a phorid fly infestation in a food plant facility after their prior company failed to do so.

If you operate a food plant, you know the importance of pest control. Not all pest control companies provide the same level of protection, however, as one of our current clients discovered. While many companies can offer the basics like putting out bait stations and fly lights, they often fall short in trickier situations that require a more resourceful solution. Fortunately for this client, Batzner was able to step in and use our knowledge and experience to help them pass the high audit standards of the food plant industry.

The Issue

Brenda Borgman, Batzner’s Commercial Sales Manager, describes the problem that the client was experiencing: “The main issue facing this food plant was an abundance of small flies in a few of its production areas. Their old company provided the standard procedure of putting up fly lights and treating in the sump pump area, where the flies were breeding. However, when this proved to be ineffective and not the source of the infestation, they were at a loss for what to do next. This turned into a major problem for the client when a customer audit was nearly failed and they were put on a warning status.”

Step 1- Identification

Once the client realized that their provider at the time was unable to solve their problem, we were asked to examine the situation. Our team of Service Managers and Service Specialists arrived and performed an inspection of the entire production area in order to find the source of the infestation. David Kusnierek, District Manager, recalls that, “Almost immediately, we recognized that the previous company had misidentified the flies as black-eyed fruit flies. They were actually phorid flies, and while the two look very similar, their preferred environments and behavior are very different. Correctly identifying the pest we were dealing with was crucial to discovering where the problem was coming from.”

Step 2- Interview and Inspection

Our team then interviewed the facility maintenance staff to get a history of the building. They discovered that the plumbing ran underneath the floor of several areas that were heavily infested, and that a pipe had burst years ago. This information, combined with the phorid fly identification, made the contaminated soil around the pipe a prime suspect for the source of the infestation. To test their hypothesis, the team drilled strategically-placed holes through the floor slab and discovered that this was indeed where the flies were living and laying their eggs.

Step 3- Treatment

The last step was the treatment itself. Our team recognized that the extent of the infestation would necessitate multiple treatments, and that leaving the holes open would result in many more of the flies entering the production area. To solve this problem, PVC pipes were fitted into the openings in the floor slab with capped ends so that the insecticide could be injected into the infested area without leaving opportunities for flies to escape between applications.

Result

This creative solution not only solved the immediate infestation, but also proved to the client that Batzner is able to go far beyond simply setting and monitoring traps. They recognized the value of our expertise, as our service team had an organized plan of attack ready within a few hours after their inspection. Beyond the treatment, they were also impressed with our documentation processes. Our Client Portal, detailed service and trending reports, and Client Care Binder all vastly exceeded what their previous company had offered, and made the entire pest control process more structured and client-friendly. They have experienced an increased level of service through all aspects of a pest control provider.

Paul Matusiak, the Operations Manager in charge of the account, said that, “More than anything, this client was impressed with the level of partnership we strive to create. Initially, they weren’t used to the level of communication necessary for the best possible results. At first, they thought we were just there to apply products and leave, but they soon saw the benefits of our consultative and partnership approach; for example, we explained to them that some of their maintenance practices, like flooding the floors to clean them, were creating conditions that allowed pests to thrive. After listening to our recommendations, their pest issues have declined dramatically.”

Our partnership with this client continues over three years later. Our experience in all aspects of pest control has proven valuable in multiple ways since our initial visit, from small pest issues to handling the transition of part of their plant to organic processing. Most importantly, the client has not come close to a warning or failed audit since.

Moth Fly Infestation at a Food Plant

The Issue

A food plant, serviced by Batzner, discovers a moth fly infestation in and around their plant. Never having experienced a moth fly infestation to this extent, the plant was forced to shut down for a week. As the moth fly population increased, so did their need for a solution. That’s when they called in Skie Gierach, one of Batzner’s Operations Managers, to perform a thorough inspection of the property and to locate the source.

The Inspection

Since moth flies are typically associated with sewage beds, where their larvae feed on sludge and organic matter, Skie first performed an inspection of the septic tank. Upon discovering the septic tank was not responsible for the massive swarms of flies, and knowing the facility used a lagoon down the road to hold water, Skie headed toward the water source. As he drove, Skie noticed the density of the moth flies increased as he closed in to the proximity of the lagoon and a nearby farm field.

The Surrounding Area

Holding more than 500 million gallons of water, the lagoon consisted of waste water from the plant. This water was recycled and used to irrigate the nearby farm field. Combined, the lagoon and farm field were approximately 600 acres.

The Issue Discovered
It was discovered, that due to a lack of aeration in the lagoon, organic matter began to buildup on the surface. The combination of stagnant water and warmth from the sun encouraged the organic growth, and in return, provided the ideal environment for the moth flies to flourish. However, the lagoon wasn’t the only site. The lagoon water used to irrigate the farm field, which was already saturated with water, provided even more organic buildup, creating a second location for the flies to reproduce.
Problems for the Food Plant

At night, the lights from the food plant attracted the flies to the building. The lights, in combination with strong winds, caused the flies to settle on the outside of the building, breeding in any organic water they could find, including puddles on the roof. Moth flies on the roof were sucked inside through the HVAC system.

Solution

In order to eliminate this infestation in the quickest way possible, two treatments of larvicide were applied to the lagoon to prevent hatching. A treatment, using a gas granular spreader, was evenly applied around the perimeter of the lagoon. The nearby farmers also contributed by treating their field, weekly. Eight insect light traps were added to the existing 20 that the plant already had. The weeds and organic buildup on the roof were treated and daily exterior treatments were applied around the doors to reduce the number of flies on the building and to prevent them from getting inside. The moth flies were eliminated in 30 days.