Our Gradshield Plans Keep Ants Out of Your Home

With the final days of Summer upon us, ant infestations are at their most prevalent. You might be enjoying cooler days in Western Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut by leaving windows and doors open. For ants on foraging missions, this is an open invitation. Graduate makes enjoying late summer a little bit easier with our GradShield prevention plans. We’ll cover our process and why prevention is the best medicine.

How We Do It

Our GradShield Plans focus on long-term prevention. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an effective solution for keeping ants out. The way we practice IPM is by applying experience-backed common sense. We do a thorough survey of your property for potential problems. We can identify access points, food sources, prime infestation locations, and hotspots of any current problems. Only after we’ve done our analysis do we begin treatment. Most of our treatments are preventative, ranging from monitoring stations to recommending sealing cracks in the foundation. Pesticides are used sparingly and are less effective than our IPM method.

The Usual Suspects

While not comprehensive, here are some common actions we will recommend according to our IPM principles:

• We search your surrounding property for common food sources, such as firewood, and ensure it’s more than 20 feet away from your home
• Open vents will be screened, as well as chimneys
• Common access points, like cracks in foundation or utility pipes will be caulked and sealed
• We identify poorly ventilated crawlspaces and recommend methods to keep them dry
• Leaking pipes and other places of excessive moisture will be sealed—even clogged drains
• We recommend trimming back branches and plants, so they don’t lean on the house or roof
• Finally, we provide tips for the everyday measure you can take to help prevent and infestation

Don’t Wait or Hesitate

Waiting until ants have already set up a camp can not only be costly but dangerous if allowed to continue too long. Carpenter ants tend to cause the most issues for property owners—making their nests in the wooden supports. Depending on how long they’re left to burrow, they can boast colony numbers from 10,000 to 20,000 strong. Having to replace wooden supports can be very expensive and simply removing the infestation can leave structures weakened.

What Are Your Options?

While all of our service plan tiers offer some level of protection for ants, some tiers provide more frequent treatments as well as protection from a wider array of additional pests. The GradShield Silver Service Plan includes three scheduled preventative exterior services each year. These occur during the most common pest periods, one of which is late Summer.

The GradShield Gold Service Plan includes all of the benefits of the Silver Plan but extends your preventative measures further. Your tech will provide three scheduled exterior services throughout the year, one of which includes interior rodent service.

The GradShield Emerald Service Plan includes all of the benefits of the Gold Service Plan as well as the Graduate Mosquito & Tick Reduction Program. It goes without saying that ticks and mosquitoes are as dangerous, if not more so than ants.

It’s important to note that with all our tiered service plans if you have a  problem with a pest covered on your plan in between scheduled services, our techs come out and take care of your problem at no additional charge!

Let the team at Graduate Pest Solutions help you decide which of the GradShield Plans fit with your budget. Call us at 413-566-8222 or contact us with any questions or if you are experiencing a pest problem. We have the knowledge and the services necessary to help keep your home pest-free!