Ant facts

• Ants belong to the insect order Hymenoptera and are close relatives of bees and wasps.
• More than 12,000 species occur throughout the world.
• Ants are common pests in homes, restaurants, hospitals, and warehouses.
• Ants enter buildings seeking shelter, food, and water.
• Established ant colonies are difficult to control.
• Ants feed on most types of food especially those with high carbohydrate and protein value.
• Ants utilize 2 ways to establish a new colony

a) swarming the male and female ants performing the nuptial flight will mate and after that, the female ant will try to find a suitable place to lay eggs and start a new colony

b) budding one to several queens with a group of workers carrying the brood leaving their original nest in order to establish the nest at a new location

The mating ants are often referred to as flying ants, and can emerge from early spring in swarms that may last up to three hours. The males die after mating but the females shed their wings, dig into the soil to start new nests.

Ants feed on a wide range of foods but are particularly attracted to sweet substances such as sugar or honey, and will often invade homes, kitchens and cupboards in search of such food. For prevention it is therefore important to make sure all food waste and spillages are cleaned up immediately, foods are stored in sealed containers, especially sweet foods like sugar, rubbish bins are emptied regularly and that pet food is not left out for long periods.

While ants are not dirty insects, they do walk across unclean areas, leading them to be considered unacceptable. In cases of invasion, all cracks and crevices should be sealed and a residual insecticide can be used. Successful ant pest control using insecticides takes a great deal of time and effort as nests are frequently inaccessible and difficult to destroy, and therefore may require a pest control specialist.

Dark brown to black, shiny and very flattened, leathery front wings, long flexible antennae. These cockroaches measure between 1 and 1.5 inches in length. Oriental cockroaches can be distinguished from others as they are shiny dark brown or black in color. One feature that this type of cockroach has that may distinguish it from others is wings, though they are not functional. They are usually found in damp areas.

Cockroach facts

• Cockroaches have been around for more than 300 million years, they are one of the oldest groups of insects on the earth.
• Cockroaches are nocturnal by nature
• Prefer to hide in dark, warm areas, especially narrow spaces where surfaces touch them on both sided
• Adult cockroaches can hide in a crack 1/16 inch or 1.6 mm wide.
• Nymphs (immature cockroaches) tend to stay in smaller cracks where they are well protected.
• Cockroaches tend to gather together in corners and generally travel along edges of walls or other surfaces.

Proper Sanitization is the best way to ensure this problem doesn’t reoccur

With Health & Safety being paramount at Shield, our bait stations will be tamper-proof where necessary to minimise ingress from non-target species. Some rodenticides also contain the chemical Bitrex, which deters non-target species from the poison if they did access it, due to its foul taste.

Rodent facts

• Rats are considered as some of the most troublesome and damaging rodents found in urban and suburban area.
• Common rats in Malaysia are the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) and Malayan house rat/roof rat (Rattus rattus diardii).
• An average life span for a rat is about 1-2 years depending on conditions such as food source, harborage and predator.
• A female rat could give birth to 6-12 pups, in which they will reach sexual maturity at about 3 months.
• Rodents may cause damage to products,goods and health
• This pest also consistently follows the same path while foraging for food, usually along the fence, wall, stacked merchandise, piping and sewage system.
• Sign of infestations include droppings, foot prints, dark marking trails, burrows and urine.
• Rodents are opportunistic feeders and practically feed on almost any type of food.

more effective.

Cimex lectularius, more commonly known as bed bugs, are small insects that feed exclusively on the blood of warm-blooded animals. Humans can be perfect hosts for this hematophagy (feeding on blood), so bed bug populations can thrive and quickly become an infestation.

Bed Bugs facts

• They are nocturnal insects and become active during night.
• they often hide inside cracks and crevices during daytime
• They take blood as their main meal and they obtain it by piercing into blood vessels and taking the fluid. Human are their preffered host as they tend to feed while the host is sleeping.

Bed Bugs

Bed bugs can live in any area of the home and can reside in tiny cracks in furniture as well as on textiles and upholstered furniture. They tend to be most common in areas where people sleep and generally concentrate in beds, including mattresses, and bed frames.

Bed bug bites

Bed bugs are most active at night and bite any exposed areas of skin while an individual is sleeping. The face, neck, hands, and arms are common sites for bedbug bites.

Feeding takes about five minutes, after which the bug returns to its hiding place. Bites are not noticeable by the host until at least a few minutes or some hours afterwards. Hosts, for example humans, will be aware of a bite after scratching it. Often bites may not be noticeable for several days.

Bed bugs will feed every five to ten days. They can, however, last for several months without feeding. If there is no food around they can become dormant for over a year.

What causes bed bugs?

Bed bugs are on the rise across the UK with pest control companies reporting more call outs than ever before. An increase in foreign travel and resistance to the chemicals that kill them are being blamed.

They can be difficult to detect and complicated to get rid of. The key is to establish the extent of the infestation by consulting a professional pest controller.

Control Methods

• Residual Spray

Insecticide is sprayed at cracks and crevices, wall edges, furniture and other possible bed bug harborages. Chemical with flushing agent will drive the bug out from their hiding place and this would also increase their frequency of contact with the toxic.

• Ultra Low Volume (ULV) spraying

This application is more suitable method for large areas such as dormitories, hostel, and offices. This method creates a space filled with insecticide. The chemical droplets produced are extremely fine, and these enable the droplets to be suspended midair, covering a wide area.

• Sanitization

Make sure that the bed sheet, blanket, mattress and other textile-made furniture are clean and changed periodically as it is important to reduce or prevent bed bug infestation.

Mosquito facts

• Females are usually larger than males, and are the only ones that "bite" humans.
• The female sucks the blood of humans or animals to enable the production of eggs.
• Mosquitoes are most active in the evening until dawn. They can also be active in cool, shaded areas during the day.
• Mosquitoes have poor vision, using receptors on their antennae to sense the presence of a blood meal.
• Mosquitoes can develop from egg to adult in 10 to 14 days. They will mate soon after becoming adult.
• Mosquitoes serve as vectors of many important diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, filariasis, encephalitis and yellow fever, which could affect human health

As their name suggests, House Flies are commonly found around most homes and buildings at some time, but occasional sightings can escalate to an infestation in some cases. The House Fly will eat a variety of food, ranging from human and animal food, to carcasses, rubbish and excrement.

House Fly

When house flies are seen flying around it can be not only annoying, but also a significant risk in terms of transmitting diseases. Unfortunately, house fly control is not always straight forward, particularly as different types of fly should be dealt with in different ways.

When the place that the flies have been depositing their eggs has been identified the breeding site must be cleaned up thoroughly or removed. The elimination of the adult flies may then require fly bait, traps or the application of insecticide, but Shield Pest Control’s trained team will be able to advise on the best course of action.

Flies facts

• Fly's lifetime is usually a 30 day cycle
• Female fly will lay anywhere from 400-600 eggs.
• Each fly egg hatches into a small, grub-like, creature (larvae), which looks more like an inchworm than a fly.
• Larvae will grow to adult fly size within a few days.
• Flies have over 4,000 facets for sight in each eye.
• Flies are attracted by movement more than color.
• Flies have a smelling distance of over 750 yards.
• A fly's feeding range is usually limited to two miles.
• A single garbage can, if not emptied, can be the breeding ground for 30,000 flies.
• During warm weather, a fly can produce a family generation in less than two weeks.
• Play an important role in disease transmission such as holera, typhoid, salmonella and anthrax.

Lizard facts

• Small lizards are common pests in houses and buildings that are surrounded by vegetation or are close to areas of dense (sometimes shaded) plants.
• They do not live in or infest houses, but come in from surrounding vegetation to find insects (food).
• Usually they follow the insects that are attracted to outdoor lights.

Termite facts

• Termites are commonly known, as "white ants," they are only distantly related to the ants.
• Termites are social insects and practice caste system, which consists of queen, king, soldier, worker, alate (winged reproductive) and immature (nymphs and eggs). Each of the castes shares similar body form and specific tasks.
• They feed mostly on cellulose based material or wood by-product

How to know you have Termite Problems ?

• Mud Shelter Tubes – These mud tubes, made of small soil particles and partially digested wood.Termites build mud tubes to protect themselves as they travel from their underground colony into your house.

• Swarmers – Swarmers are winged male or female adults which usually emerge when humidity is high. These winged termites are attracted to bright light and can be found near windows; their presence can be confirmed with the sightings of discarded termite wings on window sills, floors. Swarmers are the first indication that there is termite activity in the vicinity.

• Damaged/eaten wood - As termite workers consume wood, they tunnel inside the wood. In some cases, termite infestation can go undetected for years because termites consume wood from within the wood, leaving the outer layers intact. With serious damage, the wood structure will weaken and break apart. Subterranean termite nests are made of “carton” that consists of chewed wood, saliva, and excrement. Nests can be constructed in the ground or aerially.