You Have to Be More Careful With an Island – Please reconsider using those pesticides. They aren’t necessary.
If you live in San Juan County, WA, my blog topic today is for you. I’m seeing some posts on social media lately about pest control that I’m not too crazy about. We have so many people moving to our island now, many bringing with them the mainland suburbia mentality of spraying insecticides all over their yards and homes. Can we help folks understand the slogan, “You Have To Be More Careful With an Island?”
If you know someone who is concerned about caterpillars, ants, termites, wasps, mosquitoes, or spiders, and they are willing to talk to someone (me), I am more than happy to take a phone call or email to answer questions on how to AVOID use of unnecessary chemicals that can pose health risks to humans, pets, wildlife, and contaminate soil and water. Most , if not all, use of pest control services are completely unnecessary. Instead, learning about these organisms can go a long way to reducing fear and being able to coexist and/or tolerate living with them around our homes and properties. Some species of bugs are extremely critical to keeping our ecosystem healthy and balanced. ALL of them are part of the greater food web. With the intense development and land use changes happening in the islands, we need to remember to landscape with intentionality towards keeping our island healthy and oriented towards providing habitat for native species instead of displacing everything.
How to spread the word? You can message me here. I will respond. You may also reach me on Facebook at Bugs of the San Juan Islands. It’s a great spot to learn about the amazing bugs we have living alongside us.
Thanks for reading!
Bugging You From San Juan Island 
I would love your help… I have a house on Decatur island and suspect carpenter ants have invaded. What can I safely do?
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Hi Naomi,
Could you describe what makes you suspect carpenter ants? Is your home mostly a cabin-like wood structure? Damp area? Carpenter ants like rotting wood. Ruling out any areas with rotting wood would be my first recommendation. IF you find an area that is decaying due to prolonged wet/damp conditions, then replacing the rotten wood and fixing all leaks typically fixes the issues. We had them build a colony in the rotten wood trim around our skylight. When my husband removed the wood, all the ants fell out on him. We used shop vacuums to get them up and then he replaced all the wood trim and repaired the area where the roof was leaking around the skylight. That’s been almost 10 years ago now and we’ve not had any further issues. When they were in the skylight, the reason I found them was from hearing them chewing. Since then, we are diligent about cleaning all gutters around the house, not stacking any wood or leaving anything next to the siding of the house, and we trimmed back any overhanging tree branches, so they don’t go from the tree onto the roof. I also tell people to avoid overly fire-scaping their property and to leave snags, stumps, or downed woody debris. Leave as much of the landscape as natural as possible. This provides habitat for the ants. When we remove all their natural habitat, it’s easy to see why they move into our homes. Plus, the diet of our beautiful Pileated Woodpeckers is 98% carpenter ants. Hope this will help. Please do reach out if you have further questions.
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