How To Keep Ticks Away From Your Mountain Brook Property
Who knew that an innocent walk in the park with your dog or going for a much-needed hike to connect with nature could bring about such chaos in your home? Surprisingly, many people don’t think about ticks when going outdoors. However, once these pests enter your yard or home and engage in blood meals, you’ll quickly realize just how important it is to protect yourself and your pets when there’s a potential to encounter ticks.
Most ticks don’t make their way into your home due to the need for moisture and conducive reproductive environments, like deer ticks. However, brown dog ticks have no problem making a home in your home. So the moment you see a single tick in your home, there’s a good chance there’s more.
Keep these tips in mind when looking to keep ticks away from your home:
- When going out in nature, always wear long pants, long sleeves, and tuck your pants inside your socks.
- Inspect yourself and your pets after being outdoors.
- Avoid areas of high grass.
- Repair any cracks or crevices in your home.
- Regularly vacuum.
All of these efforts will go a very long way in keeping ticks away from your home, but, of course, at the first sign of a tick, you will want to call EnviroCare to prevent a potential tick infestation. Even if you just saw one tick, it’s always better to prevent ticks than eliminate an infestation. If you suspect ticks in your home, call to treat your home correctly.
The Dangerous Truth About Cockroaches In Your Mountain Brook Home
You may see one cockroach in your home and immediately reach for the can of roach spray to kill it, which is fine. The only problem is that you only killed a single roach. What about all the other roaches hiding out? That’s why cockroach control is so important.
The longer the cockroaches are in your home, the higher the risk it is to make you and your entire family sick.
Here’s why they’re so dangerous:
- Cockroaches Aggravate Respiratory Issues: The saliva cockroaches secrete allergens that can trigger asthma, sneezing, watery eyes, and a host of other allergic reactions.
- Cockroaches Contaminate Food And Surfaces: While cockroaches are eating, they’ll defecate on the same food source they’re eating. Their feces contains all kinds of bacteria, empty eggshells, and dead skin, so anything a cockroach touches is practically contaminated.
- Cockroaches Spread Diseases And Bacteria: They spread everything from E. Coli and typhoid to salmonella and sepsis and are major vectors of diseases, bacteria, germs, and pathogens. Their urine, feces, and regurgitated saliva contain the agents that transmit harmful diseases to humans.
Keeping your counters clean, sinks clean and free from dirty dishes, and floors vacuumed and swept will go a long way in preventing cockroaches from entering your home. But these efforts will only be effective with proper cockroach control services first. Call the expert technicians at EnviroCare to set up your appointment.
What Crickets Look Like In Mountain Brook
Crickets benefit from their many positive depictions in popular culture. In real life, crickets are often brown or yellow in color, have dark bands that run the width of their heads, and have a set of pronounced, straight antennae. Crickets also have several sets of angular legs, which make them very skilled at jumping.
While crickets are still considered a nuisance because they don’t spread health issues, they do have the ability to eat away at fabrics, chirp incessantly, and populate at rapidly high rates. For more information on cricket control, call EnviroCare today.
Is It Dangerous To Have Centipedes In My Mountain Brook House?
Centipedes are perhaps one of the most intimidating pests that you might spot in your Mountain Brook home. Fortunately, these pests look much scarier than they actually are. Centipedes have been deemed a nuisance pest, which means that they do not pose a serious health risk to humans. Centipedes are venomous, but it’s not known to cause any issues with people, only the pests that they eat. If you have any cats or dogs, then you should note that it is possible for a centipede to bite an animal. These bites are not usually serious but you might want to consult your veterinarian if they occur.
It’s also worth noting that there is a variety of pests that eat centipedes, such as beetles, spiders, and ants. One of the spiders that preys on centipedes is the brown recluse, which is local to the Mountain Brook area. Because this spider is venomous and can attack people if it's provoked, it’s worth addressing centipedes at the source. At EnviroCare, we provide environmentally sensible pest control services for homeowners throughout the year. Each treatment that you receive will be customized to your needs and the specific pests that are present in your home, including centipedes. For more information on centipede control, call us today.
What Attracts Mosquitoes To My Mountain Brook Property?
When you live in Mountain Brook, you likely enjoy the local climate and environmental factors that not many other communities experience. These factors also play a direct role in the appearance of mosquitoes on properties like yours. Mosquitoes across the country are considered seasonal pests that are usually active between spring and fall. In Mountain Brook, that season usually begins in the early days of March and can last throughout the warm weeks of late fall.
You might see larger mosquito populations around your property if it is abundant with water sources. Mosquitoes prefer standing or stagnant water, so bird baths, flower pots, kiddie pools, grill covers, tires, and buckets all have the ability to collect water and build a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Additionally, if your yard is filled with brush and debris, it may create additional hiding spots. You may also notice increased mosquito activity during the hours of dusk and dawn.
The presence of people is a significant factor in mosquito populations. Female mosquitoes require human blood in order to reproduce, so if there are people active on your property, mosquitoes will have a feast. There are traits like blood type, presence of sweat, alcohol consumption, the color of clothes you wear, and even the type of detergent you use that can make you more appealing to mosquitoes. For more information on seasonal mosquito control in Mountain Brook, call EnviroCare today.
Total Spider Control For Your Mountain Brook Home
Spiders look for Mountain Brook homes as a place to hunt for food, take in some moisture, and find solitude. And whether you’re aware of it or not, they may be attracted to your property. If you’re looking to deter spiders and the factors that bring them to your property, try these tips:
- Tidy the yard. You can start by making sure that all firewood is stored at least 25 feet away from your home and covered with a tarp. It’s also important to keep rock piles neat and remove any cobwebs that you find amidst them. This is also a good opportunity to eliminate any yard clutter as well.
- Fix water issues. Tending to water problems both outside and inside is crucial in preventing spiders. This might entail clearing out downspouts, ventilating crawl spaces, and using dehumidifiers.
- Create a clean home. To deter the pests that spiders eat, always use a clean and secure trash bin, disinfect countertops after cooking, and make sure that your home is free from crumbs.
- Fill in the cracks. Finally, if you want to try to keep spiders out of your home itself, consider replacing worn window or door screens, filling in foundational crevices with caulk, and applying weatherstripping around doors that need it.
- Work with a professional. Because preventing spiders requires a multi-step process, the most reliable way to ensure a spider-free home is with help from a trusted pest expert.
For more information on total spider control for your home, call the team at EnviroCare today.
Fire Ants 101: Biology, Behaviors, And Problems They Cause
Fire ants are the meanest insects you could find around your Mountain Brook yard. Not only do they create unsightly mounds and muddy patches, but they’re also extremely aggressive and may inflict painful stings, leading to allergic reactions.
There are three things you should know about these pests:
- Their biology: You can easily identify a fire ant colony by their brownish-red color, six legs, and ‘crumbly’ looking ant mounds (typically with no visible entry point). They’re capable of eating both plants and animals and prefer to live in sunny areas like fields, meadows, and well-kept backyards.
- Their behaviors: There are three different types of ants in a colony: workers, queens, and drones. You’re likely to see workers scurrying around your yard as they scout for food and water. Once a scout finds a source of food, it leaves a pheromone trail for other ants to follow. This allows them to create ant ‘trains’ leading directly inside your home.
- Their problems: Fire ants are extremely territorial and may attack people and pets who get too close. Their venomous stings cause pain and itching, although in rare cases, they could also trigger anaphylactic shock (an allergic reaction).
Fire ant infestations don’t clear up on their own, and they should never be allowed to get worse. If you think or know there’s trouble with fire ants starting in your yard, don’t hesitate to get in touch with EnviroCare.
Submit an online contact form to discuss fire ant removal services for your lawn.
The Only Reliable Way To Prevent Termites In Mountain Brook
There’s a good reason they call termites ‘silent destroyers,’ especially here in Mountain Brook. By the time you discover a termite infestation, there’s a good chance you’ve already sustained damage.
The best way to ensure this doesn’t happen is to prevent termite activity long before it arrives. There’s only one method you can trust for long-term prevention – and it starts with Sentricon®.
EnviroCare is a fully licensed Sentricon® applicator with years of experience treating Mountain Brook homes. When you call, we walk you through every step of our process, including the installation of bait and monitoring stations.
Our work doesn’t stop once your termites are gone. We also provide termite prevention as well. In the event termite damage occurs after treatment, our $1,000,000 damage repair warranty should cover the cost.
You can get started with our termite control services by contacting the office today. Once you provide us with additional details, we can book a time to visit your home.
How Silverfish Get Inside Mountain Brook Homes And What Attracts Them
Of all the occasional invaders you could find in Mountain Brook, silverfish are arguably the strangest and most annoying. These tiny insects don’t pose much of a threat, but they’re still incredibly undesirable with an uncomfortable presence.
Are you scratching your head, wondering how they got inside? You may have acquired them from a number of different sources:
- Migrated items: Silverfish may travel into the home via dry food, firewood, books, fabric, or boxes. It’s not uncommon to pull items out of storage only to discover silverfish hiding nearby. If there’s enough food and water for pests to sustain themselves, they’re likely going to stick around – possibly for weeks at a time.
- Entry points: Desperate times call for desperate measures. If silverfish are hungry enough, they can and will look for ways to get inside. If you have cracks and gaps around doors and windows, silverfish can exploit them to gain access to your home.
- Indoor humidity: Your home may be damp and humid enough to support silverfish breeding cycles. Basements, bathrooms, crawl spaces, and kitchens may be just damp enough to attract and sustain an infestation.
Regardless of how your silverfish problem started, it’s time to focus on how to end it for good. The team at EnviroCare would be happy to help, offering 60+ years of pest management experience.
Contact us today for silverfish pest control in Mountain Brook.
How To Keep Noisy Crickets Away From Your Lawn In Mountain Brook
You and your family just want a peaceful night’s sleep – not an evening filled with noisy crickets. If you’re struggling to keep crickets away from the yard, there’s a good chance you have some attractant factors around.
The first and perhaps most common of these is the presence of tall grass. Thick shrubs and dense vegetation can also create spaces for crickets to hide.
The solution to both of these lingering problems? Proper lawn maintenance. If you don’t have the means to complete this yourself, reach out to a seasoned landscaping professional.
Keep in mind the team at EnviroCare offers cricket control services. We make it easy to maintain a pest-free landscape with tried-and-true treatments.
Submit an online contact form to receive a service estimate.
