Pest Control - springtails: pest control?

Author

springtails: pest control?

Frank

2006-05-31, 12:21 pm

I have a back yard that is now as dry as rock, and I am now getting
springtails all over my kitchen floor (at the rear of our house) and
all over my house.

Question: If there is no moisture in my backyard, why do the
springtails like massing around the rear door to my home? It is like
they enjoy basking in the sun that comes in thru the door's window.

Question: What are good ways to control these pests? We don't have
that much moisture in our home. I'm guessing that they are coming into
our home because the hot California sun as dried up 80% of our property
that we do not irrigate.

I have never sprayed a pesticide within our home, I only spray it
outside the home on the foundation and on the stucco.

Lar

2006-05-31, 9:21 pm

In article <1149087728.510698.239980@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
franklopez2000@yahoo.com says...

Question: What are good ways to control these pests? We don't have

that much moisture in our home. I'm guessing that they are coming into

our home because the hot California sun as dried up 80% of our property

that we do not irrigate.

I find Summer invasions are as you described, moist areas of mass
populations have dried up and they find themselves near the home where
there are usually flower beds and watering along with any condensation
and drippage that may be with an outside faucet. Half the time I feel
that them going away is as much as nature running it's course over me
spraying for them. Your yard treatments that you spray will pretty much
act as a contact kill and help but doubtful it will stop them. There
probably are a zillion already in the walls behind the stucco that will
continue to show up in the bathroom-kitchen areas for awhile. When you
treat outside you might try to get it at an angle that is getting behind
the bottom of the stucco and concentrate on the exterior thresholds.
--
Lar

Happybattles

2006-06-01, 9:21 pm

I've had near 0% luck controlling them. I've tried every product we
own. The best I've been able to do is caulking, but if they're coming
under a door I'm afraid you're just going to have to live with it until
that area dries up too. They're tough.

Lar wrote:
> In article <1149087728.510698.239980@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
> franklopez2000@yahoo.com says...
>

Question: What are good ways to control these pests? We don't have
>

that much moisture in our home. I'm guessing that they are coming into
>

our home because the hot California sun as dried up 80% of our property
>

that we do not irrigate.
>

> I find Summer invasions are as you described, moist areas of mass
> populations have dried up and they find themselves near the home where
> there are usually flower beds and watering along with any condensation
> and drippage that may be with an outside faucet. Half the time I feel
> that them going away is as much as nature running it's course over me
> spraying for them. Your yard treatments that you spray will pretty much
> act as a contact kill and help but doubtful it will stop them. There
> probably are a zillion already in the walls behind the stucco that will
> continue to show up in the bathroom-kitchen areas for awhile. When you
> treat outside you might try to get it at an angle that is getting behind
> the bottom of the stucco and concentrate on the exterior thresholds.
> --
> Lar

Frank

2006-06-11, 2:21 pm

Happybattles wrote:
> I've had near 0% luck controlling them. I've tried every product we
> own. The best I've been able to do is caulking, but if they're coming
> under a door I'm afraid you're just going to have to live with it until
> that area dries up too. They're tough.
>

Given my yard is dry as a rock except for the front yard, and the
springtails were coming in from the backyard, I figured it was a
moisture issue, and so I gave them some moisture and now they are 95%
gone within a week. The trick was the only moisture was pesticide.

What I did was I used Ortho lawn and garden pesticide in a watering
container and watered around my foundation (within 6 inches of it).
When I watered, and the springtails were there, more came out of the
ground or from under rocks when I watered, and those heavy areas I gave
an extra sprinkle of pesticide.

Within 4 days, 90% of the springtails I was seeing in my home were
gone. Within a week, I would say at least 95% of the springtails are
gone. In my kitchen, I would say 99% of the springtails are gone.

And so this weekend, I also put the lawn and garden pesticide on my
lawn. I have not done that for almost 5 years because I really don't
want to overuse chemicals in my yard or in my house.

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