For tried-and-true New Englanders, memories of fall and early winter are often deeply tied to just-starting-to-get-chilly evenings sitting around a nice fire. Whether it’s a sunset around a blazing fire pit or winter nights spent gathered with cocoa around the hearth, fire (and firewood ) have always been there - and so have the bugs it can bring with it.
There’s an old bit of wisdom that says there is strength in numbers - and for flies of all sizes, the numbers game plays a huge role in their continued success. But for one particularly troublesome fall invader, this strategy carries exceptionally well right out of summer and into the colder autumn and winter months: the cluster fly.
You may have noticed wasps, hornets, or yellow jackets buzzing around all summer long, generally keeping to themselves and not causing much trouble. The truth is, even these fearsome flyers are relatively laid back through the early spring and summer, focused mostly on nest-building and colony-raising and not all that interested in humans. Late summer, however, is a different story - and it only takes one off encounter with an especially-active hive to know the difference.
Finding a bat in your house can be a frightening experience, but in reality the bat is likely more scared than you are in that particular situation. But while the bat is highly unlikely to cause the occupants in your home any direct trouble, the presence of a bat in your home can bring on a host of other potentially serious issues - and that’s why it’s critical to remove and prevent bats before the problem gets out of hand.
No restaurant, not even the best in the world, can escape from reports of a mouse infestation unscratched, and once the cat (or mouse) is out of the bag, the damage seems to only snowball as news spreads through the press and through word of mouth. These days, it only takes one quick flash of a cellphone camera to confirm a mouse problem, and eatery owners need to be more vigilant than ever.
