Keeping the pests outside as the summer season begins
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – It’s that time of the year again where every creepy crawly and buzzing nuisance tries their hardest to make your home their home.
Over the winter and in the early spring, they are lying dormant in your attic, your walls and in unattended leaf piles left behind from the fall. But now that the weather is warmer, they are now becoming more active, looking for food, water and shelter.
“So it makes your house more inviting. Either you have natural watering, so there’s a water supply that will attract every insect known to man, because there’s not any anywhere else that makes your house much more attractive. And also, most of our homes are air conditioned, which exposed water in your house, but it also attracts water to the foundation in places like that. So up next to your house is where they’ve got the most protection and also the best food supply,” said owner of Guarantee Pest Control Jimmy Blankenship.
One especially concerning insect that has bothered both people and pets alike are ticks. Tick bites can cause major health concerns, infecting people with Lyme disease or Alpha Gal syndrome, leaving people with severe allergies to meat. These ticks have become more noticeable to those looking to rid our homes of pests.
“It’s normal for ticks to start breaking out in April and May, but they are worse this year. We’re getting more calls on them. I’ve seen more myself. I’m getting them on myself. So yeah, it is something that people need to be aware of and they need to if they’re start seeing things, they need to do something about it,” Blankenship said.
So what can you do to prevent these encounters?
Well, Blankenship says that tick prevention begins in the fall, picking up leaf and tree debris and making sure no summer items like pool noodles are lying on the ground.
“As those are favorable locations for ticks to lay their eggs before Winter that’s where they initiate. That’s where they come from to begin with. And then right now, if you haven’t done those things, you can do those now. I recommend using some some tick repellent on your clothing when you’ve got to do that job, do that work. We can control ticks. We can do treatments to control them, but it works much better if those conditions are already taken care of,” Blankenship said.
Stink bugs have also become prevalent this time of year, and they are not native to our area. Coming down from the north, Blankenship says, however, that while the stink bugs may be new, everyone has pretty much gotten used to their stinky presence in our gardens.
