Today we are going all in.

We are going to kill every roach, mosquito, ant, flea, tick, and spider that lurks outside and keeps us from enjoying our lawns or even worse, wants to come inside our homes.

Here is some good Metallica to get you in the mood.

Nothing here is sponsored FYI, but sometimes I go down a deep rabbit hole of research and feel like giving you tons more detail on stuff than you expect.

This is one of those emails, so feel free to forward this to a friend who is fighting bugs at their house and isn’t afraid to wipe them out with chems.

There is nothing organic, gluten free, or non-GMO about this post - it’s all about spraying and praying!

Click here to view the video. (it is time-stamped to go right to the comparison)

You can also view it here on Instagram if that is easier for you.

My History with Roaches

I live in Florida and we have cockroaches here big time. In fact, we have roaches of multiple ethnic origins.

German Cockroaches are what I have been seeing here in early summer. I’ve seen some Australian cockroaches out back too.

Being raised here in Florida, I have also come in contact (usually at night) with American Cockroaches (pictured above).

These are the ones that will fly at you when you flip the lights on in the kitchen at 2AM. When you stomp on them, yellowish goo squirts out. Gross.

Back to the little Germans: I’ve found a couple-two-tree in the house over the last couple weeks.

We have had construction going on outside and I think it’s stirred them up.

Fortunately, the ones I’ve found were already dead, but still, finding them just freaks me out.

It’s a good thing I find them in the morning before my wife gets up, so I can flush the corpses and not have to hear any chatter about my bad pest control skills.

But I do use this as a sign that I need to take some drastic action.

Now I have always used Combat Roach Bait disks inside the house and they work very well. I change them 3x per year.

When these Combat roach baits were invented in the 80s, they changed the game for DIYers.

Before that, we had the “Roach Motel” which attracts roaches and traps them inside, hence the marketing slogan “Roaches check-in, but they don’t check out.”

But it wasn’t until better tech (better active ingredients) came along inside the Combat disks that I felt like we homeowners were actually gaining ground.

The way it works is that it tricks roaches into taking poison back to their nest and killing their entire family.

The active ingredient in Combat roach baits is Hydramethylnon and here is how it works:

“Cockroaches eat the feces of other roaches and they feed on each other.

After consuming a lethal dose of a residual bait insecticide known to have delayed toxicant activity, cockroaches return to the harborage where they excrete feces.

The insecticide-laden feces, fluids, and eventual carcass, can contain sufficient residual pesticide to kill others in the same nesting site.”

So as you can see, it uses their nasty nature against them!

Seriously though, putting these baits inside your kitchen and garage a few times per year works wonders against roaches.

However, when I start finding a few dead ones here and there, it lets me know that it’s also time to go outside and take care of the problem at the source.

Here is this weekend’s video where I show you all of the ways that I am killing roaches, and all of the other bugs around my house, in the planting beds, and out to the lawn.

I’ve leveled up this year in my treatment strategy, as well as active ingredients.

So this strategy is going to get rid of a whole lot more than just roaches around the house.

It will kill both nuisance, and damaging insects in the lawn, shrubs/trees, and create an effective barrier against any of them trying to get inside your house.

Mosquitos, ants, fleas and ticks, spiders, and the dreaded “no-see-ums” that leave red bumps on your ankles -- they will all be killed with these applications and future generations will be wiped out too.

Damaging Insect - Sod Webworm

So first off, if you live in Florida or anywhere along the Gulf Coast, sod webworm are VERY bad this year.

I’m seeing more and more posts come into our groups, mostly in St Augustinegrass.

The trop storm that went through Texas over the weekend is going to carry them further inland, and this strategy will kill them too.

In fact, this is my second app against them, here is video showing the first app I did a few weeks ago called How To Treat For Bugs In The Lawn :: Liquid and Granular Options.

It usually takes a couple of apps to eradicate sod webworm (army worm too) because of the multiple generations they go through.

However, in this app I just did this past weekend, I have an additional active ingredient working for me that should clear them up for good, and this is one of the new parts of my strategy for 2020.

Insect Growth Regulator

I use Bifen I/T as my killing and repelling insecticide. It’s been around for a long time and works great against many insects.

But this year, I added Tekko Pro to the mix to give me some better residual control and to also wipe out multiple generations all in one shot.

Tekko is an insect growth regulator. Here are the details:

Active Ingredients: Pyriproxyfen and Novaluron

From the manufacturer:
Tekko Pro Insect Growth Regulator Concentrate disrupts the life cycle of listed insects, preventing them from developing into adults. Contains a Juvenile Hormone Analog (JHA): 1.3% Pyriproxyfen and a Chitin Synthesis Inhibitor (CSI): 1.3% Novaluron.

• Pyriproxyfen - Inhibits insects from becoming reproductive adults
• Novaluron - Blocks insects ability to molt due to inhibition of the synthesis of a new cuticle
• Inhibits re-infestation of fleas for up to seven months

Essentially, it does two things.

First, it makes adults sterile so they cannot reproduce. Secondly, it keeps juveniles from developing into adults. A real one-two punch!

Here are the insects that it is effective on:
Ants, Asian Cockroaches, Brown Banded Cockroaches, Cigarette Beetles, Cockroaches, Confused Flour Beetles, Crickets, Dermestid Beetles, Fleas, Flies, Flying Insect Pests, German Cockroaches, Gnats, Houseflies, Indian Meal Moths, Lesser Grain Borers, Litter Beetles, Merchant Grain Beetles, Midges, Mosquitoes, Moths, Nuisance Flies, Red Flour Beetles, Rice Moths, Roaches, Saw-Toothed Grain Beetles, Stable Flies, Stored Product Pests, Ticks, Tobacco Moths, Warehouse Beetles.

I just have to ask: “what the heck is a cigarette beetle?” and “why are flour beetles confused?” Ha ha!

Either way, you can see that this growth regulator works against a wide variety of flying and crawling insects, bugs, moths, and roaches.

Insecticide

Now keep in mind, you still need a product that will kill existing insects and that is where the Bifen I/T comes in.

The active ingredient is Bifenthrin and you may know it by the brand name “Talstar” which I used when I worked for ChemLawn.

Bifenthrin is a synthetic pyrethroid. It doesn’t kill on contact, rather, kills within a few minutes or hours by disrupting the insect’s nervous system.

Pyrethroids are similar to pyrethrins which are produced naturally by flowers from the genus pyrethrum.

One that you may know about is the Chrysanthemum or just “Mum.”

This is why you may have heard people tell you to plant mums around your garden to keep the bugs away. There is some real science to that! Cool right?

Either way, the combination of a killing insecticide (Bifen I/T) and a growth regulator (Tekko Pro) will give you a lot of killing power now and into the future.

Since this is my first time using this combination, I’m not 100% sure how long it will last, but from what I have read, I’m thinking this single application will get me through the rest of the summer.

In the video, you will see that I applied it to my lawn, trees, and shrubs and around my foundation and windows and doors.

You could also use these products indoors but I did not choose to do that so if you do, make sure you read the labeling carefully.

The Webster for Spiders

One other addition that I was very happy with this year was the Webster for getting the spider webs out of the nooks on my front porch.

In the past, I had just been climbing up on a very tall ladder and using an old broom to knock them down. This was not fun and quite dangerous.

One day I was browsing Instagram and saw “The Bug Girl” from ABC Pest Control talking about how she used “The Webster.” (you should follow here BTW, she shows lots of bugs and IDs them for you!)

So I messaged her and asked about it and she said it works great, and that they also spray the heads with MicroCare as an additional repellant.

This made sense to me because in the past, oftentimes when I would be knocking down the spiderwebs... I would literally see the spiders jumping off and swinging down to the ground, only to return a few minutes later and begin building their tangled webs again!

Microcare comes in a spray can. It kills on contact and also contains some residual. The combination of the Webster and this MicroCare did a good job.

I did have to tape two of the Webster handles/poles together in order to get high enough to get all the way up to my porch ceiling, but the Website itself was stiff/course enough that is wiped the spider webs right out.

I highly recommend it if you have problems with webs and don’t want to climb up on a ladder.

I got mine on Amazon and it came with 3 poles and 3 heads, hence the reason I had to tape them together.

Now that listing has changed and it’s just 6 replacement heads, so clearly there are some shenanigans going on there.

But I’m sure there are plenty of others that would work fine - just be sure you get one with a long enough pole!

Go on Amazon and search “Website Cobweb duster” and then get the one you like based on reviews.

You can also find a painter’s extension pole cheap at any HD or Lowes.

I can’t believe I didn’t get one of these earlier. Super simple, and VERY effective.

Mosquito Sniper

Lastly, I want to give a shout-out to the folks who invented the Mosquito Sniper.

Ryan and Kelly live in the Chicago suburbs and I love their entrepreneurial spirit! They have solved a problem and done it affordably.

Misting the bushes and trees with the mix is a really smart way to get good coverage and get underneath overgrowth.

Works much better than how I used to do it with a hose-end sprayer.

I did not get paid by them and these are not affiliate links, although they did send me the $35 hookup for free.

At the end of the day though, I’m just super happy to support entrepreneurs who make cool stuff that actually works!

Keep in mind, you have to buy a pump sprayer that works with the system, and you can choose either a handheld or backpack from their list of compatible sprayers. It works with the HDX Home Depot 1-gallon pump sprayer. Cheap and effective and that 1 gallon goes a long way.

That’s all I got for you today my friends. I hope you have a great week and if bugs are a problem for you, I hope you learned something today that will help you kill them and keep them off you, your family, and your pets.

Spray and Pray!
-AL