Smart Rodent Tracking System Allows Fast Extermination

When rodents move into New York City commercial buildings, the toughest part of extermination is figuring out how they’re getting in. Mice can squeeze through an opening the size of a dime, and rats can enter NJ buildings through small holes the size of a quarter which can make these disease-carrying vermin difficult to exterminate. An innovative product called Track & Trap mouse and rat control system takes the guesswork out of finding and eliminating all rodent ingress and egress points, allowing Stern’s knowledgeable rodent extermination experts to eliminate commercial rodent problems quickly and effectively.

How Track & Trap Works

Bait stations coated with a fluorescent chemical are placed in rodent activity areas. As mice or rats come to feed, the fluorescent chemical adheres to their feet and bodies, causing them to leave a trail as they move in and out of commercial buildings. Several days after bait station installation, Stern’s rodent extermination experts return with a special UV light that illuminates rodent trails, allowing our rat and mouse control experts to seal entry points, locate and remove nests and set traps where they will be most effective.

Protect Your Business Reputation

Don’t let rodents nibble away at your business reputation. Nip New York City and northern New Jersey rodent problems in the bud with Stern’s rodent control solutions.

Don’t Let Carpenter Ants Take Bite Out of Commercial Property Investment

If you notice large, black ants scurrying around your New York City of New Jersey commercial property, you could have a carpenter ant problem. While these ants can range over a territory the size of a football field, frequent or heavy carpenter ant activity around a structure and particularly inside a building typically indicates that a colony is located on the premises.

Ignoring a carpenter ant problem could lead to structural damage. Only termites cause more structural damage to commercial buildings than carpenter ants. Unlike termites, carpenter ants do not feed on wood; but the damage they do can be just as devastating. These ants live inside wood, using their powerful mandibles to chew lengthy tunnels and large galleries into wood construction timbers, window and door sills, flooring, baseboards, trim work and landscape trees.

Attracted by wet, damaged wood around wet building foundations or damaged landscape trees, carpenter ants will expand the galleries that house their extensive nurseries and nests into undamaged wood. In time their tunneling can hollow out wooden beams and trim, leaving a thin shell of wood to cover the honeycombed interior. Without commercial ant control services, structural collapse can eventually occur.

To eliminate carpenter ant risk, the entire colony must be exterminated. If you notice carpenter ants on your commercial property, call the ant experts at Stern Environmental for fast, reliable commercial ant extermination services.

Bed Bugs Could Become Repeat Offenders in NYC Court Room

The ongoing bed bug infestation at a Florida fire station should serve as a warning of potential future problems at Manhattan Criminal Court. Last week panic ensued when court spectators saw bed bugs crawling on a defendant. Court employees cordoned off several rows of seats which were sprayed with pesticide by a pest control company, but employees say they still feel itchy.

And with good reason. Bed bugs feed on human blood, but they don’t live on people. After feeding, these tiny insects slip off into dark cracks in furniture and burrow into tiny crevices in flooring to digest their meal and await their next victim. The odds of a repeat bed bug infestation at court is high, particularly because, unlike Cryonite which kills bed bugs at all stages of development, pesticide sprays only kill bugs, not their eggs. When eggs hatch, reinfestations occur.

That’s what happened at Clearwater’s downtown fire station. When bed bugs were initially discovered in the station’s second-floor bunk area, firefighters were moved to other parts of the building. The second floor was heat treated and mattresses removed and replaced. A week later, bed bugs were back, prompting removal of carpeting and wooden lockers to eliminate bed bug hiding places.

Several things make it likely that bed bug woes aren’t over yet for either Manhattan Criminal Court or Clearwater firefighters. We’ll talk about that next time.

Commercial Pest Control Tips: The Importance of Exclusion

You’ve heard the phrase, “prevention is better than cure”? The same goes for commercial pest control. If you can keep insects and rodents from entering your properties in the first place, you’ll have an easier time controlling their population. That “keep out” tactic is known as exclusion.

Commercial pest control companies specialize in exclusion, and the best services employ both traditional and new exclusion technology to properties where cleanliness is a vital component: food and restaurant organizations; hotels, motels and cruise ships; and hospitals and nursing homes.

Traditional tactics
Cutting off access to pests is central to exclusion. Look for your commercial pest control provider to identify and address areas on properties like cracks in the foundation and vents, and open drain pipes and garbage shoots – all places where bugs and mice might converge. Often a simple closure to such areas will help ensure exclusion.

New technology
If pests have already gotten interior access, your pest control professional combines exclusion with extermination. The innovative Cryonite® carbon dioxide snow treatment is a non-chemical formula that freezes pests dead on the spot. This nontoxic treatment is an ideal choice for sensitive areas like kitchens and electrical housing. The Cryonite allows immediate use after service, and eliminates all life stages of pests without harmful insecticides.

Exclude pests from your property
Rely on Stern Environmental Group’s commercial pest control to keep tenants comfortable all year round.

Quirky Weather Responsible for Summer Ant Problems

Ants are on the move in New York City and northern New Jersey. These pesky insects are invading apartment buildings, office buildings, restaurants and other commercial establishments at alarming numbers this summer. If your business has been the victim of marauding ants, you are not alone. Summer ant infestations are approaching record levels from the East Coast through the Midwest.

Commercial ant control experts say the quirky weather has created ideal living conditions for ant colonies. Last summer’s drought allowed ant colonies to flourish. The floods that usually wash away and drown enough ant eggs to keep colony populations under control never materialized. The warm winter exacerbated the problem, allowing ant colonies to remain more active that usual during the winter months and protecting larvae from exposure to killing temperatures. As a result, record numbers of eggs hatched this spring, swelling ant populations. The rainy spring only made life easier for New York and New Jersey ant species. Rain-softened soil has made burrowing easier, encouraging underground ant colonies to grow, expand their territory and spread.

Many NYC and NJ businesses and apartment buildings that have always been ant-free are being overrun by these annoying insects this summer. And it is more common than ever for ant exterminators to find multiple infestation sites on the same property. Stop ants dead; call Stern’s commercial ant extermination experts today.