Centipedes, millipedes, pill bugs, roaches, crickets, ants, beetles, spiders, wasps, squirrels, opossums, raccoons, bats and mice are just some of the pests that manage to find their way into homes. It’s just about impossible to keep all of them from getting in, but there are several things that you can do to significantly reduce the number of pests that make it inside your home. Most have to do with blocking the ways they can enter. Furthermore, there are also some things you can do outside to make your home less attractive to pest invaders.

Every summer we receive calls about small flying insects making holes in the exterior surfaces of logs. They are usually described as tiny flies, bees or flying ants, but in fact these insects are small parasitic wasps that are about the size of a fruit fly or large gnat. There are literally hundreds of parasitic wasp species and some of them specialize in parasitizing beetle larvae including wood boring beetles. They can be seen going in and out of existing beetle emergence holes looking for live beetle larvae to lay their eggs on.

For many years oxalic acid has been one of the most commonly used products for brightening and preparing wood surfaces for a coat of stain. Why? Prior to the introduction of organic solvent finish removers in the late 1990s, the most popular paint and stain removal products were caustic chemical strippers which contain sodium or potassium hydroxide. They are still sold at most paint stores, and although quite caustic and somewhat hazardous, they have been used for over 100 years and are relatively inexpensive.

While we call our pigmented finishes “stains,” in reality they behave more like water-based paints than traditional oil-based stains. The word stain itself implies that the wood fibers become stained with the pigments contained in the product, whereas water-based finishes form a film that covers the wood fibers without actually coloring or “staining” them.