Wanted Dead: Pests and Rodents Lurking in Your Phoenix Home

There’s nothing worse than unwanted house guests in your Phoenix home, especially when those guests are pests and rodents. At Budget Brothers Termite and Pest Elimination, we’re dedicated to evicting pests and preventing them from returning.

Here are our top pests that are wanted dead:

Suspect: Bed Bugs

Crime: Biting innocent people and pets while they are asleep.

Description: Small, flat, oval, brown parasitic insects that are about poppy seed sized. May appear as pale yellow or almost transparent.

Last Seen: Hardly ever. These criminals hide in the cracks and crevices of your home, especially in and around your bed. They lurk all day, waiting for you to crawl into bed and get comfy and then they attack.

Signs of Infestation: You wake up with small red marks on your body that you didn’t have when you went to sleep, white sticky eggs, shed skins or brown spots on bedding and walls near bedding. The brown spots are most likely blood from the bed bugs’ meal last night.

Considered hungry for blood, especially at night.

Suspect: Termites

Crime: Destruction of property, primarily wood including decking, accents, framing, and flooring at a cost of billions of dollars per year.

Description: Anti-social, preferring to travel in self-made mud tubes to avoid contact with predators or the elements. Similar in size to ants, termites have a straight waist and straight antennae and wings of similar lengths.

Last Seen: Sneaking through cracks in the outside of your home, leaving wings on window sills, and near moisture in and around your home.

Signs of Infestation: Mud tubes, swarms, cracked or bubbling paint are all indications that you (and likely your neighbors) have a termite infestation.

If you see a swarm of what looks like flying ants, it may actually be termites. A swarm occurs when a colony is splitting into two or more colonies. When the termites stop flying, they’re breeding and multiplying your problem.

An empty mud tube isn’t an indication that your termites are gone, only that they’ve moved and are causing damage elsewhere in your home or neighborhood.

Suspect: Ants

Crime: General nuisance, biting unsuspecting humans and pets, destruction of wood and other property.

Description: 1/16” to ½” depending on the type of ant, pinched waist, and wings of varying sizes.

Last Seen: Near food and water sources.

Signs of Infestation: They parade themselves around the inside and outside of your home or office as if you aren’t even there.

Suspect: Bees

Crime: Gathering in a crowd, stinging humans and pets, causing a general nuisance.

Description: Yellow and black stripes, short, thick bodies covered in hair, six legs, three body parts, wings, makes a buzzing sound.

Last Seen: Pollinating flowers

Signs of Infestation: Bees are among the easiest pests to spot because they are active during the day. The most obvious sign of a bee infestation is the presence of a hive.

Suspect: Rodents

Crime: Living rent-free in your attic and walls

Description: Mice are sparrow sized with skinny tails while rats are bigger with thicker tails.

If you’re in Phoenix, the most likely rodent is a rat, roof or otherwise. They love to live in high places. Some keep domesticated rats as pets but feral rats are not to be petted.

Last Seen: Entering your home through a crack as small as half an inch.

Signs of Infestation: If your neighbors mention rats, you might have them too. Other signs include banana shaped feces in your pantry, garage, or closet, scratching noises in walls or attics, bite marks on cords.

Hire Pest Control Professionals

If you suspect you have any of these wanted dead pests and rodents lurking in your Phoenix home, it’s time to contact us or call Budget Brothers Termite & Pest Elimination at 602-253-2495 to evict your houseguests so you can sleep soundly.