Creepy Crawlies

by John Raabe

With Halloween around the corner I am sure everyone will be putting up their scariest decorations; fake spider webs and spiders will take over Toscana. To make sure some real spiders (or other unwanted insects) don’t get mixed in with those decorations I would like to go over some pest control items to help out some residents.

To start, the Association has a contract with Burns Pest Elimination and they are on property three times a month, twice to spray for pests and once for rodents. They spray all the exteriors of all buildings and in hallways and inside of the amenity areas. They do offer Toscana residents a discount for using their services inside your units.

For inside the units, the most common complaint is cockroaches. These annoying pests can get in to your unit several different ways but the most common is through the pipes. If you have sinks or tubs in the guest bathrooms that don’t get used much, or your unit is being left unused for a week or two at a time, they can crawl up the dry pipes into your unit, this can easily be remedied by turning on all faucets at least once a week and letting the water run for at least 30 seconds. This will fill your P-trap with water, blocking that access point. If you’re leaving the unit I have heard of some people that will place plastic cups or bowls over the drains so they cannot enter the unit.

Another common complaint is ants. The Burns technician is pretty good at looking for ants crawling up the sides of the buildings and spraying them, but sometimes they are hard to see and they can travel all the way up to the fourth floor, if they find something they like. The easiest way to not have to worry about ants is to make sure there is nothing on your patio that will attract them. Once they get up there, they will continue searching and could find ways into your unit. If you do notice them on your patio, or maybe around a window, please notify us and we make sure he stops the problem on the ground.

I haven’t heard too many complaints about mosquitos this year, probably because the lack of water but make sure you do not leave standing water on your patio because that is where the larva thrives and you could quickly have a swarm of mosquitos on your patio and your unit. in

Last, but not least, we have spiders. The most common one I see around is the daddy long legs. They are completely harmless to humans, but they sure do make a mess with their webs. There are several of different kinds of spiders around, though, and the easiest way to avoid them is too keep out all the other insects. Spiders tend to hang around areas with large amounts of insects for food, so a good idea could be to keep insect repellent devices on your patios. They have battery-operated devices that omit a high frequency noise that keep insect away as well as a wide variety of scented decors to keep them away or just spraying down your patio once a month with insect repellent will definitely help.

Hopefully this helped a few people with some ideas on how to keep those nasty critters out of your units and just like with everything else if you see an issue with insects or pests in the common areas please notify someone on the management team ASAP so that we can get it taken care of.