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Hello, everyone, it’s time again for the faith pest control.com podcast with pest expert Fred Talley here on the line and we are the community service, informational podcast blog for you to know more about pests and insects and bugs and problems that you want to get rid of in Jasper, Georgia Ellijay, Georgia. And now we’ve expanded the service to Blairsville, Georgia, Blue Ridge, Georgia and really pretty much anywhere in North Georgia. Fred Talley of faith pest control is the go to guy to solve your pest problems. So Fred, you got a problem here that you say that we need to be aware of called Clover mites? Yes, are fixing to be an issue? Well, if it’s fixing to be an issue, let us know what are they why we should be concerned and what can you do to solve that problem. So Mikey Clover mites actually really flourish in early spring, which will be basically in a month from from from from now not quite to the day, but almost most people would recognize them as they’re like a dark reddish brown insect, but they’re, they’re about the size of a pinhead. You will see them in in groups He very seldom, he probably wouldn’t even pay attention to it, if you just saw one. You’ll see them kind of in larger groups. They don’t necessarily well they don’t really pose a threat to humans. And nor do they you know, cause damage to your house. They’re really just a nuisance 1.0 It just guys in the pest control industry will classify some insects as occasional invaders then as the name would imply, they just occasionally come in the house. The last few years for us Clover mites have been a more of a consistent nuisance pests, they will coast because they come in the house they’re actually a little different than most other insects in north Georgia and that they actually prefer cooler weather their activity increases as the temperature start actually to drop some so that their activities their activity will peak in the early in the in the cool early spring months. Which which time they become the greatest nuisance but that also happens in the fall. So during this time, they will be feasting on who would have guessed and clover. But they also eat on other over fertilized grasses actually in many other plants that are found in residential yards. But it doesn’t have to be residential. It could be a commercial landscape as well. Clover mites actually, in fact eat more than 200 Different plants including some flowers, I believe roses chrysanthemums, I believe gardenias are one of them. I’m not 100% sure on the on all the flowers, but the movement from outside of the house to inside of the houses is normally triggered either by overpopulation, meaning too many mites there, or the feeding conditions that normally occur during periods of drought or the onset of colder weather. Now they like cool weather, they don’t like hot weather and they don’t like cold weather, they just want cool weather. They can become a particularly serious problem. In situations where new lawns have been established or where a heavy growth of well fertilized grass is established ditches right up next to the foundation of building your house or a commercial facility. They’re considered a serious nuisance pest now to the house due to the housing boom associated with urban sprawl. And if anybody’s been to North Georgia, recently, the urban sprawl is everywhere here. The installation again of the well fertilized lawns planted right up next to the foundation of the house is another reason that they become such a serious nuisance.
Michael Stewart
They will occur in in large numbers like 1000s of of these clover, Clover mites, but you could imagine they’re the size of pinhead, it would take a vast number of them to make it look like a significant infestation. They do not by humans are past or college damaged indoors. But what they can do is if you step on them or squash them, they can leave red stains. If you crushed them, like on the light colored carpet or a light colored wall, or something of that nature, they don’t might lay their eggs inside the exterior walls, typically of your home and cracks and crevices, in concrete foundations and on the underside of bark at the base of trees. The mature mites will typically overwinter in the exterior walls of of your home. During periods of very hot or very cold extreme weather, they become pretty much inactive during even brief periods in late winter or early spring, when temperatures warm up some, that’s still cool, but to them, it’s ideal conditions the adults tend to migrate to the outside of your house, they’re pretty substantial or more substantial, I should say on the southern and western exposed sides of the house due to the warmer the fact of the sun. The mites will be more noticeable around the windows. But the potential is is there for them to infiltrate the entire home. Heavy migrations into homes are also common that you know, in early, early summer and fall, there are several measures that property owners can take to reduce the risk of having a clover mite infestation. Typically, when people see these, when we get these calls, they don’t have a clue what’s going on. They think it’s like a chigger there’s I don’t know, if you’ve ever been picking blackberries and you get a chigger it you know it’s a an irritating thing. Well, these mites don’t, they don’t bite you. They don’t, they don’t do anything to you, other than maybe they don’t they don’t even want to really be on you. That would just be an accident if they got on you. But there’s few things that homeowners can do to to alleviate this problem if it exists. First thing would be to establish a prank plant free zone around the structure. And it’s actually fairly common in a specialty food processing plants we we we serve a several of them and they have like an 18 to 24 inch band of pea gravel around the foundation of the building. This probably not going to be acceptable to most most homeowners because they’re going to want to plant shrubs and stuff next around the house. But it’s real common in commercial structures. And it’s for it’s the whole point is to keep insects out. Some other non chemical solutions or techniques to eliminate or reduce the clover my problems is closely mo the groundcover that exist there that may be supporting my populations. Now you’ll be able to see which vegetation is causing the problem. If you you know if you will look closely. Another thing that homeowners can do is avoid excessive fertilization or watering. Again, most homeowners probably don’t want to do this. Because what happens if you avoid the fertilization in watering you prevent the lush growth but the lush growth is what the clover mites want to feed on. Another thing they can do is use bark or other types of mulch below the shrubs to discourage mite populations around the foundation. And another thing is possibly move remove whatever plants are that become hosts to the excessive Clover mite population.
Michael Stewart
Again, a lot of times in commercial applications it’s easier to do these things. But I mean if if you’re not if you’re a homeowner and you don’t want to take these these non chemical measures, the only other option you have would be to call a pest control operator. It faith pest control we we do offer a free consultation for your Clover mites if that’s probably happened to have if you hire fates pest control to get rid of your clover, my problem is at the end of 30 days, you’re not 100% Happy, we’ll come back and we’ll treat your home for free. And we’ll keep on trading it for free and tea until you tell us that you are happy. That still doesn’t make you happy. We’ll give you back every penny spent on the original treatment. Plus, we’ll pay you an additional $25 Just for your time in trouble for fooling with us. The bottom line is I want you to be happy with the service that Pest Control provides. Or you pay us a penny period. If you feel like what I’ve said makes sense. Please call me today faith pest control that 770-823-9202 and asked to speak to me, Fred tally. I’ll be more than happy to speak with you and answer any questions you may have. Fred, thank you so much. You know, that guarantee helps all the fine folks in north Georgia Ellijay, Jasper, Blue Ridge Blairsville anywhere in that area, have the confidence that they can stay pest free. And we do this podcast as a public service for all the fine folks in that community. You can listen to this podcast you can read this podcast at Faith pest control.com You can listen to it in Apple and Spotify and Amazon. Anywhere you listen to podcasts, podcasts are becoming more and more popular. And this is a way to just take a few minutes and know what to do about these problems. And so until next time, this is Mike Stewart for the faith pest control podcast.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
