Independent Pest Solutions

We use non-repellent insecticides that ants track through unbeknownst to them. They take it back to the nest for us so we don't necessarily have to track the nest down. This works for wasps as well. It can be tempting to spray where you see pests with contact-kill insecticide. The idea of this pest dying the minute your spray touches it may sound very appealing, but it can actually make the problem worse. Contact-kill insecticide is typically inert within 4-6 hours, meaning that you literally need to apply it 4-6 times a day to get the coverage non-repellent insecticides give you. Since these insecticides take a couple of days to take effect, the pests will have it spread around the nest before they start to die. They will try to escape it, but in most cases, this is in vain. They have already been exposed to it. Ants salivate on their feet to use them to clean their antennae and touch antennae to communicate. That means they end up ingesting the product they walked through.

Absolutely, we have ant removal success stories! An ant colony can be eliminated with proper identification and with permission to do proper treatment. However, the treatment must be done within established timelines at the same time as the customer assists with preventing conditions that are conducive to their removal and if competing food sources are eliminated. And with ants, nature hates a void. Eliminating an existing colony and preventing another from expanding, relocating or simply establishing a new one, are two different projects. If a colony is able to survive and thrive in a given environment, it is obviously a suitable habitat for them. Eliminating a colony does not prevent another from moving into that ideal location. And they often do. This is where we have found preventative pest control to be most effective. It keeps a new problem from moving in.

Yes

As with most pest problems, proper identification is as important or more important than the actual treatment. Identifying the type of gnat will direct us on where to look for their breeding sites. It may require anything from new caulk around the tub, deep cleaning a drain or pantry, dehumidifying a garage, or even locating a deposit of organic material from a leaking drain. Without eliminating the source of the problem, it can only be managed rather than eliminated. We liken it to bailing water from a boat without ever plugging the leak.

No, not just in beds. They live in chair cushions, sofas, behind electrical outlets, cracks and crevices around baseboards, and even behind picture frames. In other words, bed bugs can live anywhere.

While having your pet treated is essential in wiping out the problem, that alone will not do it. Fleas are just as happy to feed on human beings, other pets, or even commensal rodents. Taking one tray off the buffet table won’t starve the guests.

That fogger is wiping out the adults and giving you some instant relief but it is not affecting anything in the egg or pupal stages. The fleas are not really “coming back”, it’s just that the earlier stages are developing into adults and continuing the process of infestation.

Bait treatments offer consumers peace of mind if they prefer liquid chemicals not be applied in their home. The type of pest, the severity of the problem and other factors determine the type of treatment we implement.

Pests are always trying to find their way into my home to find food, shelter, water or all three! When the bugs return, just give us a call. Independent Pest Solutions and our experts will assist you

Yes, we are proud to serve the entire area of Puyallup, Washington.

Hi, the best way will be to visit this URL https://independentpestsolutions.com and choose the most convenient method.

Yes, we are proud to offer pest control in Puyallup, WA.

Yes, we are proud to offer rodent control in Puyallup.

Hi, the best way will be to go to this URL https://independentpestsolutions.com and choose the most convenient method.

Yes, we are proud to serve the entire area of Puyallup, WA.

Hi, the best way will be to go to this URL https://independentpestsolutions.com and choose the most convenient method.

Yes, we are proud to serve the entire area of Puyallup.

Yes, we are proud to offer bird control in Puyallup, Washington.

Hi, yes we do. All of our specifics can be found here https://independentpestsolutions.com/contact-us/

Spiders have little claws on the ends of their feet that are like walking on high-heels. They do not groom themselves, do not communicate with a colony the way ants do and do not forage like many other pests. Thus, the mode of action on most insecticides will have little impact on them unless they were sprayed directly. Spiders are better controlled by modifying their environment.

Keeping the grass and foliage trimmed back from the house will deter most of the spiders' presence due to a lack of harborage. If you add in regular applications of a repellent insecticide to further eliminate their food supply and dusting down the eaves to remove their webs, you can get control of the spider population. Just understand that it did not get that bad overnight and will not get that much better overnight. It takes a little time.

Unless you have a major ant or fly infestation from a food source inside, the spiders are wandering in by accident or chasing the structural warmth since they are cold blooded. Interior treatments for spider control are largely ineffective compared to the exterior treatments that will impact their food supply.

Unfortunately, mice and rats exist in nature. We can secure your home to prevent their entry, but outside is another story. We cannot prevent them from coming onto your property. We can do something to help manage the population. Rodent bait stations can be placed on-site and refilled or refreshed as part of a regular service program. These will give them something to eat while thinning their population and will take the rodent pressure off your property.

With plumbing, electrical and interior walls, there really is no feasible way to seal rodents out of the house while allowing them access to the crawl space. The rats can chew through most of the materials that the interior of the home is constructed with. Immense property damage can be done by them from chewing on water and electrical lines. Sealing them out of the crawl space and attic is the most effective course of action in dealing with rodent remediation.

If it hasn't yet, it will. Bird feeders are rat magnets. They are billboard signs advertising a steady supply of free food.

Aside from keeping plants trimmed back from the house, the best defense for these ants is regular application of a repellent on the exterior of the home to prevent their intrustion.

Our primary treatment is a delayed-effect, non-repellent. The way this works is that insects track back and forth through it without realizing it. They drag it into the nest and spread it around the colony. Since only a portion of the nest is exposed during foraging at any given time, this treatment exposes a greater portion of the colony. The treatment is brought home before it takes effect and the insects fragment to try to get away from what is killing the nest.

In most cases, these sugar ants are actually odorous house ants and they don't actually go away. Over-the-counter treatments end up causing their primary nest to fragment into multiple smaller nests, which scatter and later build in population until they appear again in a new place. It's all the same problem. It just never went away.

No. While having your pet treated is essential to wiping out the problem, that alone will not do it. Fleas are just as happy to feed on human beings, other pets, or even commensal rodents. Treating your pet is just like taking one tray off of the buffet table.

Yes. Adult fleas may die, but developing fleas will stop at the pupal stages and wait for signs of a host to feed on. Depending on how long people stay away, there can literally be nothing but fleas in the pupal stage waiting to emerge as adults. Upon re-entry, these will pop like popcorn, ready to feast.

As a general rule, if you see one, there are hundreds more. If you are seeing them during the day, that likely means there are so many that they are out of hiding places. They prefer nocturnal settings, being in tight spaces and are very sensitive to light and movement.

Cockroach control is a team effort. Sanitation actually plays more of a role than insecticidal treatments. Good sanitation combined with eliminating food sources is enough to stress cockroaches to the brink of death. Add insecticide treatment and a baiting program and the problem should go away. Without customer cooperation in daily sanitation activities, no amount of pest servicing will elminate the problem. Fun fact: cockroaches can live for a week without a head.

Cockroaches are a health hazard and can cause food borne illness or even respiratory problems like asthma.

Find and eliminate the source of the infestation and use a residual chemical to wipe out any stragglers. Eradication is possible as long as the source of the problem is removed from the site. If you cannot find and remove the source due to location, there is no amount of chemical that will get rid of them until their food source is consumed. At that point, regular treatments can manage the population and attempt to prevent the spread.

Adult carpet beetles don't do any damage, but in the larval stage, they eat and destroy anything organic. They're known for demolishing anything from wool suits to stored products. They can often be an indicator of a carcass in a crawl space, wall or attic space.

The adults are pollinators and are often brought in on fresh flowers or by a gust of wind while flying past an open window.

Yes. Wings are a huge red flag. The workers do not have wings and do not fly. However, the reproductive castes do. If you are seeing a few carpenter ants with wings, they may be swarmers looking for somewhere to start a nest. If you are seing a lot of them, you have a large, mature nest nearby that is producing them. Either way, that is a sign that you need to call for help.

Elimination of any wood-to-soil contact goes a long way in regards to prevention. Railroad ties being used as retaining walls or landscaping barriers are a huge red flag. Carpenter ants seem to love them. Keeping grass, beauty bark and soil down away from the siding or fence line will prevent the moisture building up in these materials which make them appealing for carpener ant infestation. They can and will attack sound wood, but moist wood is easier to chew into so they will go for that first.

Technically none. Carpenter ants don't eat wood. They simply tunnel through it. This is helpful in being able to discover a problem before it gets too far along, since they push "sawdust" out of the galleries they create along with waste and other materials.

With the exception of parasitic ones, they all make nests including solitary wasps and hornets. However, the solitary ones will have a very small, unprotected nest as opposed to the larger aggressively protected hives of colony-based wasps or hornets.

No. Both bees and wasps have species that are solitary and do not live in colony or hive structures. In general, these solitary wasps and bees are rarely aggressive, possibly because they have no hive or queen to protect.

A hornet is a specific type of wasp, typically a larger variety. Fun fact: All hornets are wasps, but not all wasps are hornets.

No. They are reported throughout all 50 states and due to their natural ability to spread, they are not limited to metropolitan areas. You could get bedbugs from any of the following: visiting family members, second-hand furniture from thrift stores or online listings, staying in hotels (motels, etc.) no matter how upscale.

No. Unlike their bloodsucking partners-in-crime (looking at you, mosquitoes), they do not have wings to fly or the incredible jumping capacity of a flea. They are bound by gravity and crawling to reach their host.

If a doctor has ever "identified" bed bug bites on you or a loved one, s/he is likely just speculating. It is not scientifically possible to distinguish between bites from different insects. Not to mention, everyone reacts differently.