While homeowners and their families look forward to summer each year to enjoy beach days, playing outdoors, and grilling for friends in their backyard, the combination of heat, humidity, and rain also brings an ideal pest breeding ground that can cause headaches all summer long.
Whether damage inside a home to wood and wires, stings that could cause health issues, or gardens having off-color grass surrounding them, the time for a closer inspection by Truly Nolen is definitely warranted.
A perfect storm of conditions often spurs the summer surge of pest problems in Southwest Florida. Hot temperatures, daily thunderstorms, and leftover standing water all play a role in this surge.
For example, the hot temperatures and increased moisture bring about swarming termites, standing water is a key ingredient for mosquito madness, and ants and roaches look for helpful harborage from homeowners when the rains make their way onto land.
In addition to the above, other pests are looking to get inside your home this summer, so beware of unwanted visitors!
Get to know what pests to watch out for in your home and what signs to look for.
Roaches actually thrive in Southwest Florida’s summer heat and humidity, especially after a rainstorm rolls through.
Two main types of cockroaches are found in the area during the summer, which is not what a homeowner wants to hear. Typically, anyone who comes in contact with a roach is grossed out by them in some way. As they generally dislike cooler temperatures, summertime in Southwest Florida suits them perfectly, unfortunately. They are also typically active at night, where they can stay in the shadows and find the things they need to survive.
American cockroaches (or Palmetto bugs, as most people refer to them in Florida) are large and can fly with their fully developed wings. The American cockroach is commonly found outdoors in landscaped areas, sewers or storm drains and in low areas of a building where moisture levels are higher. Indoors, they are most commonly found in restaurants, grocery stores, and other places where food is prepared or stored. They are often found in damp sewers, storage rooms, in heating ducts, and on the first floors of buildings. They can be transported into homes and apartments in boxes from infested establishments.
German cockroaches are the smaller of the two roaches and are typically found in homes, apartments, restaurants, and other buildings where food is stored, prepared, or served. German cockroaches eat all kinds of food and may hitchhike into the home in search of food and moisture. This species avoids lights and prefers to live near moisture sources and in humid areas, given their general aversion to the cold. German cockroaches can proliferate quickly and usually nest around the kitchen and bathroom near food and moisture.
While they do not bite humans, both types of roaches spread bacteria and allergens, contaminating food and surfaces, which can, in turn, make a homeowner or a family member quite ill if they are not careful.
Some ways to prevent an outbreak before you may need a pest control professional include eliminating water (do not let water stand in sinks, eliminate outside collection areas, and fixing pipe leaks), eliminating food sources (dispose garbage properly and wipe off counter tops often), and eliminate harborages (discard unnecessary cardboard boxes, pull mulch away from your home, and sealing wall cracks and baseboards).
If professional assistance is needed, a technician will target both active roaches and hidden egg cases.
Summer is a peak period of activity for stinging insects, especially around eaves, healthy trees, and other common outdoor gathering spots. Each year, some 500,000 people are sent to the hospital due to stings from insects such as honey bees, paper wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets. Bee and wasp stings can cause significant reactions, ranging from pain that is localized to serious or potentially fatal conditions.
Paper wasps and yellow jackets are two wasps that can wreak havoc quite quickly in Southwest Florida. They become a nuisance because of their ability to build nests in pretty visible locations such as roofs, decks, and playsets. Both paper wasps and yellow jackets will keep their distance from humans unless their nests are disturbed. If you get too close to their nest, they will attack in number,s and their stings are quite painful.
Meanwhile, bees are more likely to swarm a new nesting site in a quiet, shaded area. Their hives in general can be found in multiple places, and when Africanized bees get set off by something in their environment, they will quickly swarm and could cause some serious stinging for homeowners.
Both wasps and bees love to dine on open food and sugary drinks, and trash will even attract them to a picnic or patio area. Therefore, some do-it-yourself tips to help keep wasps and bees at bay include covering your trash bins and avoiding giving off a strong scent outdoors. Do not attempt to remove a nest or hive without protective gear; doing so can be dangerous and potentially fatal.
Truly Nolen offers safe removal and relocation of bees, elimination of wasps, and guidance on how to help keep from continually attracting them during summer.
Did you know mosquitoes are the most significant and dangerous vector of disease in history, and are responsible for more human deaths than any other animal? In recent years, the insect’s profile has significantly increased due to Encephalitis outbreaks, the Zika virus, West Nile Virus, and even Dengue and Yellow Fever.
Mosquitoes live in a variety of habitats, but they are mainly concentrated near sources of standing water to reproduce because mosquito eggs need water to hatch. Summer rains creating standing water in Southwest Florida are always a factor in how quickly mosquitoes spread in the area. Most standing water will likely have the buzz of mosquitoes nearby, larvae in the water, or even a person getting bitten for simply walking close to the area.
Generally, if you are bitten by a mosquito, a mosquito bite will simply appear as a small itchy bump, but some people can have more intense reactions to the bites if they are allergic. Although a mosquito bite itself is harmless, the diseases they can potentially carry are where your concern should lie. Because of the risk, it is always smart to use insect repellent when outside and long sleeves and long pants at dawn and dusk to prevent mosquito bites. If at any time you feel that the bite is serious, seek medical help as soon as possible.
Mosquito control can be complicated because they can adapt to different and changing conditions. Some do-it-yourself things homeowners can do to help control mosquitoes in and around their home include:
If the infestation seems to be out of control, seek the help of your local pest control professional to deal with the problem effectively through tried and true tactics.
When rains occur regularly, ants of all kinds tend to move indoors, and summer is a normal time when Southwest Florida homeowners will spot ants in their homes. In addition, triple-digit temperatures will cause ants to go inside seeking dry, cooler harborage.
Some of the species that infiltrate the area during the summer include fire ants (1/8 to 3/8 inch in size, with a dull red body coloration and a copper brown head), ghost ants (less than 1/16-inch-long with pale bodies, dark heads, and dark thoraxes), sugar ants ((ranging between 1.5 and 3.2 mm in size with a dark brown or black coloration), and carpenter ants (1/3 of an inch to an inch long, which is relatively large for ants with a black coloration).
Ideal fire ant locations have dry, sunny and flat conditions. Typically, they build their nest mounds in the ground near landscape areas or structural foundations, as loose earth is preferable for mound construction. Their stings are among the most painful of any ant should you be unfortunate enough to be bitten by one.
The ghost ant is easily recognized due to its peculiar color markings and small size. Like sugar ants, ghost ants give off a coconut-like odor when they are crushed. Foragers are seen in kitchens and bathrooms on sinks, counters, and floors.
Ghost ants are easily transported in boxes, crates, potted plants and even in household goods that are being shipped.
Sugar ants build their nests in a wide variety of places, and their colonies can contain as many as 100,000 workers and numerous queens. The workers also follow long foraging trails, and they feed on many sweets, meats, fats and grease. Their most obvious identifier, however, remains the rotten coconut smell they make when crushed.
Drawn to moist wood under and around windows, roof eaves, decks and porches, carpenter ants tunnel through damp wood to the solid dry wood inside your home. Carpenter ants also tunnel outside, constructing extensive underground tunnel systems, often leading to a food source. Outdoors, carpenter ants prefer to feed on the honeydew produced by aphids. Indoors, carpenter ants go for sugary, fatty foods in your kitchen.
The main tactic in an effective ant prevention plan is to create a less inviting environment for them around your home. This includes eliminating access and removing suitable sources of food and water, sealing all gaps in your walls, and cleaning up any spills immediately. A pest control professional can also assist with a treatment plan that will take care of these nuisance ants.
Did you know subterranean termites are the most menacing of the 2,500 termite species? They live underground or in moist secluded areas with colony populations that can reach two million, and as they become pests for so many, they cause billions of dollars in damage each year worldwide.
Why are they so destructive? Because they break down cellulose substances (cellulose is what wood is made of) in the environment, turning them into nutrient-rich material. This behavior makes them a Southwest Florida homeowner’s worst nightmare.
They build mud tubes to allow travel back and forth, maintaining moisture, protecting themselves from UV-rays and predators, according to the National Pest Management Association, and these tunnels may be one of the first signs of a pest problem in a home.
There are several ways that subterranean termites can enter a home:
To avoid problems with subterranean termites, the NPMA suggests maintaining a one-inch gap between the soil and wood portions of buildings, but residents need to be on the lookout for other signs of pest invasions.
When diagnosing the level of termite activity in your home, accurate identification of possible entry points from the exterior leading into the interior of your home is critical.
Often, a termite infestation begins with swarmers, or pests looking to develop a new colony. Upon first sight of these winged bugs, seeking out and determining how these termites are entering your home provides a good foundation on which a trained pest control professional can assist you in determining the severity of the problem and the next steps.
The other type of termite that is prevalent in the area is drywood termites. As their name implies, drywood termites infest dry wood and can ravage attic framing, according to the National Pest Management Association. These light brown bugs do not need soil to survive and can form colonies of up to 2,500 members. They are commonly found in warm climates and areas with a low content of moisture. In addition, they do not require soil moisture content to live. Because they are more of a small colony insect, they are difficult to detect because their colonies are spread over a wide area.
Compared to subterranean termites, drywood termites can be more difficult to detect and are not typically noticeable until small piles of black pellets (their feces and unwanted cellulose) plus the color of the wood that is infested collect. They make their nests within the wood they consume and infest walls, columns, beams and furniture. They also attack floors, furniture and books.
The most effective prevention for drywood termites can be "built-in" to a home during its construction phase with the installation of pressure-treated lumber wherever a builder can do so. Meanwhile, untreated wood can be sprayed with borate solutions. Once construction ends, it becomes much more difficult to completely treat all wood in a finished house with residual chemicals.
If a drywood termite infestation is suspected in your house, the safest course of action is to have a trained pest control professional conduct a thorough examination of the entire structure. As a homeowner, you should take notice of specific areas when the professional visits and keep samples of the pellets whenever possible.
In cases where a drywood termite infestation is found, liquid treatment injection of galleries in the infested areas and preventative coatings of through interior baseboard injections and attic treatment are highly effective.
Between a general warming of temperatures over the last decade around the United States (according to a study in Science Advances Magazine) and several Hurricanes in Southwest Florida causing destruction that left homes vulnerable, there has been a significant increase in the population growth of rodents that shows no signs of slowing anytime soon. This, in turn, makes it easier for rodents to find the three things they need to continue to be prevalent: food, water, and harborage.
Rodents thrive during the summer because the three things they need have become easier to find in this area: food, water, and harborage.
Rats have oversized front teeth for gnawing and cheek teeth, which are adapted for chewing. Rodents chew on a variety of items available to them and cause great damage in and around homes. They eat and contaminate food, damage structures and property, and transmit parasites and diseases to other animals and humans.
Rodents tend to multiply swiftly, and infestations may be extremely difficult to exterminate. Some species breed year-round, and populations are maintained through constant reproduction.
Infestations in or surrounding a home can prove extremely destructive. Different species are known for different nesting and feeding behaviors, but infestations cause damage to gardens and yards, as well as to the home and its contents. For this reason, it is best to be consistently on the lookout for signs of rodent presence.
These include:
Rats are active mostly at night. They have poor eyesight, but they make up for this with their keen senses of hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Rats constantly explore and learn, memorizing the locations of pathways, obstacles, food and water, shelter, and features of their environment. They quickly detect and tend to avoid new objects and novel foods. Thus, they often avoid traps and baits for several days or more following their initial placement.
To compound this, rats have oversized front teeth for gnawing and cheek teeth, which are adapted for chewing. Rodents chew on a variety of items available to them and cause great damage in and around homes. They eat and contaminate food, damage structures and property, and transmit parasites and diseases to other animals and humans.
One of the most common rats in the United States, the Norway rat is extremely adaptive and does well in a variety of human habitats, including densely populated cities. Norway rats (also called brown or sewer rats) are large, burrowing rodents. Norway rats can undermine building foundations and slabs with their burrowing activities. They require water to drink, and they can gnaw on all types of materials, including copper, lead, plastic, and wood.
In addition, Roof rats, also known as black rats, are generally smaller, sleeker, and slimmer than Norway rats. Roof rats typically have light black to brown fur on their bodies with lighter underbellies. As their name indicates, roof rats prefer to nest high above the ground in trees, tall overgrown shrubs, or dense vegetation such as ivy. They often can be seen at night running along overhead utility lines or fence tops. These rats move faster than Norway rats, have an excellent sense of balance, and are very agile climbers. They often access homes by running along tree branches, cables, or wires. They are typically found in attics, walls, false ceilings, and cabinets. Roof rats can cause considerable structural damage in homes with their gnawing and nest-building activities as they chew on wood and wires.
Meanwhile, the house mouse thrives under a variety of conditions in and around homes. Mice are usually brown or light grey in color, with lighter underbellies, but different species can be lighter or darker. Once inside, mice make their homes in quiet spaces out of spare materials, such as string and insulation. Indoors, their diet consists of any spare food, and they consume food meant for humans or pets. Mice have keen senses of taste, hearing, smell, and touch. They contaminate food-preparation surfaces with their feces, which can contain the bacterium that causes food poisoning (salmonellosis). Their constant gnawing causes damage to structures and property.
Rodents tend to multiply swiftly, and infestations may be extremely difficult to exterminate. Some species breed year-round, and populations are maintained through constant reproduction.
Infestations in or surrounding a home can prove extremely destructive. Different species are known for different nesting and feeding behaviors, but infestations cause damage to gardens and yards, as well as to the home and its contents. For this reason, it is best to be consistently on the lookout for signs of rodent presence.
These include:
The most effective rat control begins with prevention. Trash should be disposed of properly, and sanitary conditions should be impeccably maintained. Both human and pet food are an incentive for rodents and should be kept in tightly sealed containers. Any standing water or moisture leaks should be addressed and/or repaired. Wood piles and other rodent shelter sites, such as overgrown weedy areas, should be eliminated.
Prevention begins by implementing the following:
If your rodent problem becomes overwhelming, seek professional pest control help.
While not in abundance, the way others listed above are, spiders, ticks, and flies can be found in the area.
Most spiders in Florida will keep to themselves and only attack when threatened. While Black Widow Spiders and Brown Recluse Spiders are the only two venomous spiders found in Florida, they are much rarer than a wolf spider or an orb weaver. Spiders provide natural pest control, so if they are spotted in a yard, they are definitely beneficial.
Ticks are external parasites that feed on blood as their main food source. Although many believe that ticks are insects, ticks are actually arachnids, like spiders. There are many different species of ticks that are divided into two main categories: hard ticks, such as the common dog tick, and soft ticks.
Ticks are parasitic insects that survive by taking blood from mammals, birds and reptiles. It is also common for ticks to attach to and feed on humans. In addition to being uncomfortable and irritating, tick bites can carry Lyme Disease along with a variety of other diseases and must be treated correctly and monitored closely. Keeping the landscape properly trimmed and wearing tick repellent are two ways to keep ticks at bay this summer.
As humans, we love our lawns here in Southwest Florida, as evidenced by our obsession with lawn care and maintenance and the ability to enjoy our patios during the summer. But as much as we love our lawns and yards, we also tend to take them for granted. How often do you think about the environmental impact and the technological evolution of lawns?
Not only do lawns turn an ordinary plot of dirt into a green paradise surrounded by ornamental trees and flowers that frame your home perfectly, but they also provide a soft carpet for our feet. We love to gather in parks for picnics, sporting events and other leisure activities, but seldom do we think, “Good job, lawn, with that noise reduction and pollution benefit thing you do for us. Oh, and thanks for keeping that dirt in line.”
Lawns and turf grass areas also:
Visually, lawns promote the quality of our lives, lend a hand towards community pride, and increase property values.
However, despite all of the positives, and with our typical dry season ending shortly, your lawn is under constant stress, trying to survive in an often hostile environment here facing heat, humidity, weeds, salt intrusion, poor water retention, invading insects, fungus and other pathogens, just to name a few.
Some of the invading insects seen in abundance include chinch bugs, millipedes, and whiteflies, with occasional appearances from thrips and mole crickets.
Chinch bugs are parasitic insects that feed off and eventually kill plant life. They are very small and, left untreated, can cause a lot of damage to a lawn. However, if the appropriate precautions are taken, chinch bugs can be managed, and the damage they cause can be minimal. Chinch bugs have piercing-sucking mouthparts and feed on the sap of grass plants. Adult chinch bugs and their nymphs cause grasses to wilt because they suck juices out of grass blades and stems. Although chinch bugs are capable of injuring plants such as grasses, they are medically harmless to humans.
Millipedes are attracted to moist vegetation and leaf litter. Not liking hot/dry temperatures or excessive moisture, millipedes may also find refuge inside through small openings in windows and doors, or possible cracks in walls. Once inside, they will continue to look for damp areas like laundry rooms.
Millipedes do not bite, nor are they known to carry diseases. Some species do have defensive secretions to ward off predators, but these secretions are mostly harmless to humans. However, because of their sheer numbers, they are certainly a nuisance.
In order to prevent an infestation, a homeowner can:
1) Keep mulch less than two inches thick and remove any decaying vegetation and leaf litter from outside of their home
2) Seal exterior cracks
3) Make sure there is proper basement ventilation
4) Avoid overwatering of your lawn
5) Check the weather-stripping around doors and windows
In the event of a millipede infestation, it will need to be treated directly by a pest control professional. Although you can reduce their presence, it may be impossible to eliminate them.
Whiteflies get their name from a white, waxy substance that covers the wings and bodies of adult flies. The adult whitefly is very small – less than 1/16” long – and resembles a tiny moth. There are more than 75 types of whiteflies in Florida. Whiteflies can seriously damage host plants. The flies lay their eggs on the undersides of leaves, where the eggs hatch. Whiteflies feed by sucking the sap from leaves with their needle-like mouths.
Both whiteflies and their nymphs pose a threat to plant life, as all stages feed on plant juices. As the whitefly drains off the plant’s juice, the leaves dry out, turn yellow, and eventually drop from the plant. Whiteflies congregate in such large numbers that they are able to effectively drain off the plant’s source of water and nutrients. This congregation quickly damages the host plant, causing yellowing, stunted growth, wilting, leaf drop, and even plant death.
Because leaves play host to eggs and other life stages of the insects, it is important that you do not allow any damage trimmed from an infested plant to come in contact with other plants because this can spread the infestation.
The whitefly has a wide range of host plants, though different whitefly strains prefer certain plants over others. In all, over 500 plant species are affected by the whitefly. This list continues to grow as the whiteflies spread. Fruit and edible plants such as avocado, banana, citrus, mango, guava, plantain, squash, tomatoes, and others are typically affected. Several species of palm trees, including King palm, coconut palm, sabal palm and other less common palms, can also be affected.
Some of the affected ornamental plants include azaleas, bird of paradise, gumbo limbo, bird of paradise, black olive, bougainvillea, buttonwood, fig (ficus), live oak, mahogany, hibiscus, poinsettia, sea grapes, lantana, live oak, wax myrtle and many annuals.
Whiteflies cause visible landscape damage to trees, plants and shrubs. The most noticeable sign of a whitefly infestation is white spirals, combined with a build-up of white, waxy substance on the bottom of the leaves. Oftentimes, the build-up is so great that plants are actually covered and can lose all their leaves. These stressed and weakened plants may fall victim to other insects and diseases at this point.
Whiteflies produce an extremely significant amount of “honeydew,” a sticky, sugary honeydew excretion which causes the growth of an ugly sooty mold – a black fungus that grows on the insect’s excrement. This “honeydew” is the cause for many problems, as it sticks to vehicles, sidewalks and driveways, outdoor furniture, and homes. The substance causes damage to car paint and leaves a sticky mess. The honeydew also attracts ants that drive off the natural predators of whiteflies.
Be sure to check your plants daily for any signs of infestation. Check the undersides of leaves for whitefly eggs or larvae, as this is a good indicator of whitefly presence. If any evidence is found, take action immediately. The best course of action is to call a pest control professional who specializes in using a broad-spectrum insecticide that treats and removes whiteflies because these pests will not leave on their own. Truly Nolen treats whiteflies by using a deep root injector at the root of the tree every two months for a year.
In general, a focus on eco-friendly lawn care, with Integrated Pest Management, is ushering in a new dimension in lawn care that promotes lawn maintenance by skilled professional pest control companies. Florida’s year-round tropical climate requires constant care to ensure nutritional balance, combat insects and fungus, and control weeds.
While having your irrigation checked and watering your lawn properly will help your turf through the typical late-Spring drought, proper mowing is also a vital part of keeping your lawn pristine until the rainy season begins. In addition, knowing when and what type of insecticides to apply can be challenging, as overapplication can damage your lawn. Florida soils require specific nutritional requirements that commercial fertilizers do not satisfy. Plus, sand in Florida’s soil can deplete nutrients due to poor water retention.
In the information listed throughout this page, we have offered multiple do-it-yourself tips to help you when you detect a problem and to provide you with some ways to keep the problem at bay if it is not a full-blown infestation.
However, the bottom line is that many problems may simply be unmanageable or too intense for a homeowner to handle.
From spotting dead remains and insect nests to hearing unusual noise or seeing unusual activity, a homeowner typically recognizes when it is time to call a pest control professional.
Ready to defend your home this summer? Contact Truly Nolen Pest Control today Contact Truly Nolen today for a FREE inspection and custom plan.