Vote for us!!
We’ve been nominated for a Top Choice Award!
The Top Choice Awards recognize outstanding local businesses in a wide range of fields, and we’re proud to say that Active Pest Solutions has been nominated as the best pest control company in Edmonton! This is of course a huge honour for us, and we’re deeply grateful to everyone who nominated/voted for us.
Voting is open until July 15th. Currently, we’re in the lead, but it’s a close contest, and we need all the help we can get. So if you’re a previous customer who has benefited from our outstanding customer service, please consider taking a few moments to register and vote for us. Just click the link below – it’s easy!
Thanks Edmonton!
Even our competitors recommend us!
It’s great to hear positive feedback from our customers. But recently, Active Pest started working with a client who was previously with another local pest control company. I’m not going to name any names, but the client told us an interesting story.
She was the manager of a multi-unit apartment building that had been having trouble with bedbugs, and her existing company was struggling to get rid of them. Exasperated, she asked the technician in question if she should be using another company. Apparently, this technician replied to her, “You should try Active Pest Solutions. They’re cheaper than us and they do good treatments.”
Well, thanks! We’re pretty confident that we are the best pest control company in Edmonton, but hearing one of our competitors agree was unexpected!
Spring is coming, hopefully!
Winter is traditionally a quiet time in pest control; pests such as wasps and ants disappear entirely, and mice populations are lower at the end of the colder months. Only indoor pests, such as bedbugs and cockroaches, carry on bothering people all year round.
These indoor pests have been keeping Active Pest Solutions extremely busy over the past few months; our steam-based bedbug treatment has become very popular with homeowners and building managers throughout Edmonton. While the snow has been falling outside, we’ve been staying warm inside with the bedbugs and roaches.
But Spring is almost upon us. The clocks have gone forward, and we’re preparing ourselves for an even busier season. The long, warm days bring the wasps and ants that survived the winter out of hibernation, and our furry friends, such as mice, gophers, skunks and squirrels, will soon start looking for places to call home – even if it’s already your home!
For now, we’re preparing ourselves while it’s still (relatively) quiet. We look forward to helping Edmontonians with their pest problems in the coming months!
Trade show fun!
Thanks to everyone who visited our booth at the Alberta Foodservice Expo. We had a lot of fun, and the edible insects were insanely popular – we ran out long before the show was over! Who’d have thought mealworms would be so popular?
Our booth
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Real edible mealworms!
Alberta Foodservice Expo
The Alberta Foodservice expo is opening in ten minutes, and Active Pest Solutions is there! Come see our bug launcher or try some of our edible insects. For the squeamish, we have non-bug candy too….
Should be lots of fun!
Active Pest Solutions – as seen on TV!
We got a call last night from the CBC, asking for an opinion on the recent rat sightings in Alberta, a province that’s supposed to be rat-free. Before we knew it, we wound up on the 11 o’clock news! You can see the clip on our media page, featuring yours truly and some very big traps.
You can also watch it on the CBC’s website here.
New bedbug video
We uploaded our first video to youtube today, starring everyone’s favourite pest, the BEDBUG. Hopefully it’s the first of a series, but making videos is time consuming work. Have a watch, but be warned: this video is not for the squeamish…
Ants!
Stumbled across this article on ants in Edmonton. Every year seems worse that the last…
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2012/07/30/ants-invading-capital-region
Cockroach Facts
Cockroaches have been around a very long time. It is believed they predate humans by 300 million years!
About 4500 species have been identified and described and scientists estimate there could be 5000 more still to be discovered. The origin of house-infesting cockroaches is unclear. It is believed they arrived in North America as stowaways on trade vessels.
Cockroaches are considered serious health pests. They can carry numerous pathogenic organisms including many responsible for food-borne illnesses. In homes, cast skins and feces become a component in house dust and can be a major allergen, being particularly hazardous for asthma sufferers. In restaurants, cockroaches may result in closure by public health officials.
Did you know?
Cockroaches produce odorous excretions from their bodies which can affect the flavour of food!
Cockroach behaviour
• they are not social insects but they do aggregate into groups. Their droppings contain an aggregation pheromone that draws them to each other.
• They are most active at night
• They usually prefer moist environments
• Most species found inside buildings are scavengers, feeding on a variety of food
• They are extremely fast, can walk on the ceiling and can climb a smooth glass surface
• Because they tend to hide in cracks and crevices during daytime, they are frequently transported from place to place inside shipped products
• Cockroaches exhibit thigmotaxis – a strong preference to have part of their body in contact with another object, such as a wall, at all times
Sanitation is key to cockroach control. Good sanitation will help to eliminate food, moisture and harbourage, thereby stressing the population. Stressed populations will forage more actively, increasing the chances of the cockroaches coming into contact with applied insecticides.
Structural modifications are also useful, such as caulking cracks and crevices and sealing around pipes. Repairing leaks to eliminate moisture sources and repairing broken tiles to facilitate cleaning will also stress the population.
In recent years, professional pest control companies have moved away from chemical sprays as a method of cockroach control. Not only do such sprays involve a certain amount of risk to the public, they can also repel the cockroaches without killing them, potentially spreading the problem throughout a larger area. Cockroach treatment now centres around sanitation and the use of non-toxic bait products, which kill cockroaches without risk to other organisms, including humans. Best of all, the customer doesn’t have to leave their house for six hours after treatment; with bait products, there is no toxicity to humans and therefore no stay out time!