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3 Must-Have Patio Decorations for the Holidays

street lights

Use These To Decorate For The Holidays!

There is always so much to do around the holidays. Between gift giving, baking, and arranging plans with extended family – things can get hectic. Take something off your list early and start decorating your house! Here are a few must-haves for festive patio decorations during the holidays:

Lighting:

Lighting is the perfect way to give your patio a warm touch. You can choose LED or incandescent lights, but we recommend not mixing the two kinds as they are extremely contrasting.

There are a variety of LED colors like warm white light, which can bring you that classic, traditional feel of Christmas, or crisp whites for a clean snowy look.

If you have children, you might want to make your home more festive and fun with color combinations, like red and green.

As far as where to place lighting – we recommend the boundaries of the house, plants, and trees around the yard.

You can even string them into lighting balls for a fun DIY!

It’s hard to go wrong with lighting. There are so many options, so find what shows off your style the best and have fun with it!

Garland:

A good base to anchor those lights is garland! You can get real pine or fake, green or gold, indoor or outdoor. You can truly customize your yard with this natural jewelry.

If you get real pine garland, it will have your entire home smelling like the holidays. The downside to the real pine is that, just like a Christmas tree, it sheds pine needles much more frequently than its fake counterparts.

The plastic garland doesn’t shed and is reusable and durable! It just doesn’t have the scent (or authenticity) of the real pine.

Whichever you choose, lace it around any banisters in your home or around a reef for your doorway. You can string lights around it, sprinkle ornaments on it, or just leave it as is for the perfect holiday decoration.

Create focal points:

You’ve set the basics, determined your style, and now comes the fun part. Focal points are little extras that will add character to your outdoor space: snowflakes, Santas, reindeer are all good festive options.

Lately, chalkboards have been all over DIY websites like Pinterest. These are great in any season. We love the idea of writing festive notes on your board and keeping it on your patio to greet your guests. Sayings like ‘Season’s Greetings’ or ‘Be Merry and Bright’ are great options but have fun with it!

The holiday season creates memories your family will never forget. Decorating is half the fun, so brew up some hot cocoa and get the kids involved. Send us pictures or comment below with your great holiday ideas! We would love to hear about it!

And should any home maintenance be required this holiday season, you know who to schedule a service with.

3 Must-Have Patio Decorations for the Holidays

Bedbug inspection

How to Know if Your Hotel Has Bedbugs

Upon entering a hotel room, do you typically reach for the tiny toiletries, take a leap onto the bed, or perhaps start by inspecting for bed bugs? Knowing what to look for is essential. Anticimex Carolinas Service Manager Christian Tweed has shared valuable insights on identifying bed bugs in your hotel room and preventing them from hitching a ride back home with you. And if bed bugs do become an unexpected part of your vacation, remember that Clark’s Pest Control is here to assist!



Q&A with a Pest Professional


How do bed bugs get inside hotels?


Bed bugs are primarily hitchhiking insects as opposed to foraging ones, meaning that they get carried around on people’s clothes and belongings. Someone with an active infestation in their home can easily bring bed bugs to their hotel, but they can also be picked up during travel (airplanes, taxis, and rideshare services) and brought to a hotel room.


What do people misunderstand about bed bugs in hotels?


From a probability standpoint, all hotels will deal with bed bugs at some point in time. If you think about a bed bug’s method of travel, there’s literally nothing a hotel can do to stop them from being carried in. What I have realized is that luxury hotels are more likely to have an aggressive response to dealing with a bed bug case once it’s identified as they tend to have a higher quality of service and a reputation to protect. While this isn’t always the case, it has been my experience more often than not.

Got bedbugs? Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today!

What do you recommend travelers do when they get to their room to check for bed bugs?


Most hotel headboards hang directly on the wall. I start my inspection here before even looking at the bed itself. I have found bed bugs, their exoskeletons, and the telltale black stains they leave behind around the edges of or in the crevices of headboards. If the headboard looks clean, move on to looking over the pillowcases and comforter for any signs or stains. You can dig into the bedding as deep as you want here, but I encourage people to look over the top layer of things at the very least.


What are some lesser-known signs of bed bugs in your hotel room?


The specifics of the black stains they leave behind, which as gross as it sounds, are just digested blood as that’s all that bed bugs feed on. If the stains are on a hard surface, they will be small dots as if left behind by an ink pen and will smear into a brownish gray when moisture is applied. If they’re on fabric, they will usually bleed along the fibers making a small diamond, square or X shape.


If there are bed bugs in your hotel room, can they travel home with you?


They absolutely can, however this is easy to prevent. While staying in a hotel, keep as much of your clothing and luggage off the beds as possible. Storing suitcases in the bathroom might sound odd, but it’s an effective method of prevention.

Don’t tackle bedbugs yourself, call Clark’s at 866-781-4991!

What should you do with your suitcase if you suspect your hotel has bed bugs?


When arriving home from a trip, leave your luggage in the garage or on a porch and bring your clothes in one load of laundry at a time. If the clothes are dirty, wash them like you normally would, if they’re clean then run them through the dryer for at least forty-five minutes. Once your suitcase is empty, vacuum over it meticulously (don’t forget to empty the vacuum when you’re done), or if you’re in the right climate, expose it to heat for a few days by placing it in your vehicle (parked in the sun) or for a few weeks in your attic.


The Clark’s Solution


If you brought bed bugs back to you home, Clark’s is here to help. Our Bedbug Control service is designed to eliminate bedbugs and create a safe, comfortable environment.


A Clark’s Pest Professional will do an inspection and recommend a plan of attack to get rid of bed bugs now and prevent them from hatching in the future. Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today for more information.



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