Flower Planting 101: Simplifying Your Planting Maps
Tiny Black Or Brown Bugs In Your Home? It Could Be Pillbugs
Juanita Douglas
If you notice tiny black or brown bugs in your home that appear to have suits of armor on their backs, you might think that you have something dangerous on your hands. Those little insects are called pillbugs, or roly-polys. Pillbugs generally live outside the house but can enter your home if it's damp. You can get rid of your pillbug problem with the facts and tips below.
What Are Pillbugs?
Pillbugs are crustaceans that live in wet, organic trash and vegetation. The pests' outer shell resembles a knight's suit of armor and protects them from predators. When threatened, poked, or approached, roly-polys roll into tiny ball.
Unlike spiders, German cockroaches, and fleas, pillbugs don't harm humans. Most pillbugs die from a lack of moisture once they enter human dwellings. But if you have plants, organic trash, or wet items lying around, pillbugs can thrive and create more bugs. These types of conditions mimic the natural habitat of pillbugs.
You can take on the armored pests and win with the right steps.
How Do Treat a Pillbug Problem?
The first thing you might do is go around your home and look for places that could potentially hide pillbugs. You want to look under piles of old food containers, beneath your kitchen sink, and near your indoor AC unit for pests. Also, examine any place that has puddles of water or wet spots, such as beneath your refrigerator and near your washing machine.
If you find the conditions above, use towels to soak up the moisture and cleanse the areas with vinegar. Remove all organic matter from the locations as well. You want to make the locations as inhospitable to the pests as possible. You can use a high-speed fan to dry out the areas if the towel method doesn't yield fast results.
Be sure to repair every leaky faucet, sink, and drainage line in your home. After the repairs, monitor the places regularly to avoid problems in the future. If you have plants in the home, place pest control bait around the bases of your planters. Avoid spraying insecticides, or any poison, directly on your plants and soil unless directed to do so by the products' packaging.
If the bugs come back after you've followed the tips above for a week or so, contact a pest control specialist at a company like Ace Walco & Sons Termite & Pest Control for help. You may need to use stronger treatments to eliminate the pillbugs in your house.
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One of the things that I always loved about spring as a kid was watching all of the flowers my mother planted suddenly come up from the ground and then bloom into vibrant, beautiful colors. When I bought my own house, one of the first things I wanted to do was plant flowers. What I didn't realize was how hard it could be to figure out what to plant where. From the sun demand to the companion planting guides, it was complicated. I created this site to help others just like me create the flower gardens they always wanted without the struggles that I faced.