Fall and cold fronts

As we move into the fall of 2008, we are blessed with the recent cooler temperatures. A sure break from the summer heat and a welcome change, fall brings with it rain in most cases, but so far not this season. As weather changes, pests that once enjoyed the great outdoors are now acting from their strong instinct to head for shelter. Rodents as well as bugs are looking for warm homes to occupy to survive the impending cold and freezing weather.

If you are under a pest control contract, you’ll likely have another quarterly service this year. Because pests are on the move now, most people are experiencing a more active bug problem than in recent weeks. Again, if you are using pesticides, consider closing up the gaps in your home to prevent pest access instead of toxic pesticides. See Pest Lock for more information. Make sure to check your garage for critters as well. They tend to sneak in around the bottom garage door seal or the open corners. Rodents will sneak into your garage and attic to hang out. They get into your attic through damaged screening or open roof lines. Rodents only need an opening large enough to fit their skull into and their whole fat body will follow. They can squeeze into a hole not much larger than 1/4″.

In addition to pest being on the move with intent to infest our homes, the cooler weather brings with it drops in atmospheric pressures. When a front moves in, the pressure changes which effects double pane windows sometimes by breaking the seal and fogging between the panes. If you notice this fog effect, the pane is ruined and will need to be replaced. You might also notice in the colder months accumulation of moisture inside the window and on the frames. This moisture will often pool on the sill so make sure the sill is painted and sealed to prevent damage. The moisture comes from the very cold aluminum window frame condensing like the outside of a soda can. Hot on one side and cold on the other side attracts the moisture.

If you house was built before 2002, your double pane windows are probably lacking high efficient low E (E=emission) large dark solar screens. Now is a good time to remove these screens to allow the extra heat load from sunlight to warm the house over the cold winter months. Store your screens away in the garage or attic in a safe location to avoid damage. If your screens are screwed on, make sure to mark their location since they will only fit that particular window. When spring arrives, you can pull them out, clean the up and put them back on the windows till next fall.

Now is also a good time to check your door weather stripping for leaks and seal the outlets and switches on all your exterior walls. Doing this will help reduce air loss and lower your heating bills over the winter. however, remember that Pest Lock does all this for you.

Enjoy the nice weather and remember to conserve energy.

Water conservation made simple

Ah water. It makes up most of our human body so without it, we die. Drought and contamination are serious considerations when it comes to thinking about water and how we will use it in the future. This year in Austin, rainfall has been very low. Area lakes like Lake Travis provide very important power, recreation and water to our community.

To put rainfall into perspective, Austin’s total rainfall for 2007 was around 43 inches or almost 11 inches over the annual average. Our average rainfall for Austin is 31.88 inches. To the date (11-01-08) the total rainfall for 2008 has only been 12.94 inches or almost 18.95 inches below the annual average. In 2006 our beloved Lake Travis was at a 42 year low of 25 feet below normal levels. The last time it was this low was 1964. At the time of this post the level of Lake Travis is 23.92 feet below the full level.

The importance of the low modern-day levels is the simple fact that the local population today is substantially greater than 1964. In addition, this natural resource has been in an emergency state two of the last three years.

Any of the following things can be done to contribute to conservation of this precious and limited resource:

• Low flow or dual flush commodes
• Low flow shower heads – available from the City of Austin
• Turn off your lawn irrigation system till springtime
• Turn off the water as your brush your teeth or shave
• Hand wash dishes
• Monitor your laundry load and wash only what is necessary

Conserve water now and lower your household cost of this resource. You will also reduce the enormous amount of green house gases and the chemical additives that go into the production of our water supply.

For more information click on the LCRA site