MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) - It's that time of year again--bug season!

"Just like the trees are leafing out now, everything starts growing in the springtime," says Dr. Daniel Suiter, associate professor of entymology at UGA-Griffin.  "So the life cycle of many insects is that they begin growing in the springtime, and their populations will reach a peak by mid-summer or fall."

There are two types of bugs in particular that might want to come inside your home.  The first is called the Smoky Brown Cockroach.

"The most common Palmetto bug-type roach that we have here in Georgia is called the Smoky
Brown cockroach," says Suiter.  "It's a large, inch and a half-long chestnut brown cockroach."

Smoky Brown roaches can be found both in and outside your home, but another type of roach lives its entire life indoors.

"The German roach lays an egg-sac, and in that egg sac is 24-48 roaches," says Dan McCown, owner and operator of Bibb Exterminating Company.  "It takes about three months and all of those roaches have matured, and they begin to lay egg sacs."

Now that's a lot of unwanted pests! Any living organism needs just three things to survive: food, water and a place to live.

"German roaches--for instance, they'll show up in a kitchen first," says Suiter.  "You'll find them underneath the sink.  They'll get into the bathroom, but typically they're there for the food and they're there for the water, so just general forms of cleanliness--doing the dishes before you go to bed at night; making sure the garbage is taken out on a routine basis--will prevent fly problems and cockroach problems."

If there's still a bug problem in your house after you clean up the clutter, experts recommend staying away from aerosol sprays.  Instead, baits are better for killing off those unwanted pests.  You can find them at your local hardware store.

"You want to put as many as ten of those in a kitchen," says Suiter.  "Put them in a drawer, put them beside the garbage, put them in out of the way places where the cockroaches will come out, find those, feed on it and it will slowly get rid of them."

"Any time you're using baits, it's very important that you use small amounts of baits in a lot of different areas," says McCown.

You should also cover any holes on the outside of your home and fill all cracks in walls and in the home's foundation.

"I use a product called 'Great Stuff'", says McCown.  "You can pick it up at any builder's supply.  It's about $3 or $4 a can. I do recommend you get a little pair of latex gloves, because when it gets on you, it doesn't come off easy, but one can will seal up just about all the holes that you have in your house."

If you follow all these steps and still have a problem, it might be time to call your local exterminator.

You should also be on the lookout for any rotting materials in your home--that could be a sign of termites.  Bed bugs and fleas also come out in full force in the warmer months.

Dr. Dan Suiter with UGA says it's okay to handle roach and flea problems on your own, but you should seek professional help to get rid of bed bugs and termites.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - An ethanol plant on the Columbia River that was built with the help of $36 million in Oregon state loans and tax credits is now being used to store and ship crude oil from North Dakota. The plant's switch came with little public notice.

It was built at a cost of $200 million for Cascade Grain at the Port of St. Helens' Port Westward Industrial park near Clatskanie. The owner filed for bankruptcy in 2009, less than a year after startup. It produced little ethanol and is mothballed except for the storage tanks. Global Partners LP of Massachusetts bought the plant in February and renamed it the Columbia Pacific Bio-Refinery. It takes oil that arrives by train from North Dakota's Bakken oil field.

CHICAGO (AP) - A one-time suburban Chicago official has been convicted of lying about drawing water for residents for decades from a well tainted by a cancer-causing chemical. Jurors spent two days deliberating Theresa Neubauer's case before returning with the verdict on Monday.

Prosecutor Tim Chapman said Neubauer - the former water department supervisor - and other Crestwood officials mixed contaminated water with pricier clean water so they could boast about keeping water rates low. Neubauer is the first and only Crestwood official to go to trial in a scandal that shocked observers because of village officials' apparent callousness. Defense attorney Thomas Breen claimed she was set up by people higher up the chain of command. She faced 11 counts of making false statements. Each count carries a maximum five-year prison term.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate Energy Committee has overwhelmingly endorsed the nomination of physicist Ernest Moniz to lead the Energy Department.    
The energy panel voted 21-1 Thursday to endorse Moniz, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

   
Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina was the only lawmaker to oppose Moniz. Scott says he opposes the president's plan to cut funding for a project to turn weapons-grade plutonium into nuclear reactor fuel.    
President Barack Obama's budget would cut about $200 million from a plant being built at South Carolina's Savannah River nuclear site.    
Moniz has said he supports Obama's all-of-the-above approach to energy and that a sharp increase in natural gas production is nothing less than a "revolution."

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) - Opponents and supporters of the Keystone XL oil pipeline are converging on a Nebraska town for what could become a pivotal moment for the project. The U.S. State Department hearing Thursday in Grand Island is expected to draw at least several hundred people from Nebraska, as well as out-of-state activists from both sides who consider the state a key battleground.

After months of quiet, a State Department report has cleared the way for a final decision on the plan to transport oil extracted from Alberta tar sands more than 1,700 miles, to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Opponents are now focused on the new Secretary of State, John Kerry, who will make a recommendation to President Barack Obama on whether to green-light the project.