Category Archives: Let’s Talk About Ticks

It doesn’t matter if it’s the spring, summer, or fall; when the weather permits and outside temps are reasonable, many of us venture outdoors to relax and have some fun. Whether parents, kids, and the family dog go for a hike, head to the beach, or simply roughhouse and relax in the backyard, it’s essential to be on the lookout for ticks.

These tiny, blood-sucking pests can have an outsized impact on the health and well-being of the entire family. Don’t wait for someone to get bit and possibly be infected with a common tick disease. Prevention is key. It’s time to prepare for tick season.

What You Need To Know About Ticks

There’s a lot to learn about ticks; they can be weirdly, even disgustingly fascinating. For instance, did you know that ticks aren’t insects? Ticks have eight legs and are classified as parasitic arachnids. Adult ticks range in size from that of a poppy seed to an apple seed, and they feed on the blood of warm-blooded animals. When engorged with blood, these tiny biters swell from the size of a small seed up to the size of a blueberry!

Because ticks are so small, you are unlikely to feel their bite. But once a tick finds someone to bite, it grasps the skin, cuts a hole in it, inserts its barbed feeding tube, and begins to suck blood. The barbs hold the tick in place while the host moves about. An adult female tick can remain attached to its host, feeding on its blood for seven to ten days, after which it will detach and fall off. After the first 36-48 hours of feeding, a Lyme disease-carrying tick is most likely to transmit the disease bacterium to its host.

Immature ticks, called nymphs, are the most frequent cause of Lyme disease in humans. Measuring just 2 millimeters across, nymphs are very difficult to see. Nymphs are most active feeding during spring and summer, which is often considered tick season.

Ticks generally make their homes in wooded areas with overgrown shrubs, tall grasses, fallen branches, and plenty of leaf litter. They typically rest at the tips of grass and shrubs, waiting to grab onto a passing animal to feed. But ticks are not only found in woods. They are plentiful in the coastal brush and grasses around the beach and can make their home in your backyard. In fact, most humans are bitten by ticks in their own gardens.

When is Tick Season?

Depending on your climate, tick season, or the time when adult ticks are most active, is from early March to mid-May and mid-August to November. However, for the following thirteen states, tick season is year-round:

1. Alabama
2. Arizona
3. California
4. Florida
5. Georgia
6. Louisiana
7. Mississippi
8. Nevada
9. North Carolina
10. Oregon
11. South Carolina
12. Texas
13. Washington

When Does Tick Season End?

Tick season typically ends when temperatures drop below freezing. However, to kill off ticks, the weather must be below 10 degrees Fahrenheit for a sustained number of days. As winters get warmer, tick seasons will last longer, and more people and pets risk getting bitten.

Risks and Symptoms of Tick Bites

Most tick bites are painless, with just a few mild symptoms like redness, swelling, or soreness at the bite. However, some ticks carry and transmit disease-causing bacteria and can lead to Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tick-borne relapsing fever, and Tularemia, among others. And even those ticks that don’t transmit disease can have their head or jaws detach from the tick’s body and remain in the host they bite, causing infection. This is why it is critical to learn to remove ticks safely. Of course, because feeding ticks suck blood, bites can lead to anemia.

Unlike most biting insects, ticks bite once and hang on rather than biting in clusters. The more they feed, the larger and more noticeable they become. Harmless tick bites often cause no symptoms or visible signs. Some cause a red bump that looks like a mosquito bite. People who are allergic to tick bites may experience:

• Painful swelling at the bite
• A rash
• A burning sensation
• Blisters
• Shortness of breath in extreme cases

However, not all tick bites are so relatively harmless. Symptoms of tick-borne diseases include:

• Rash at the bite site*
• Full body rash
• Fever
• Chills
• Headache
• Stiff neck
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Weakness
• Muscle aches
• Joint pain
• Swollen lynch nodes
• A fever spoke around 102 or 103°F
• Abdominal pain

*A Lyme disease rash looks like a bullseye, with a red bump at the center, surrounded by a ring of paler flesh, surrounded by a reddened ring. If you, a family member, or a pet is showing any of these symptoms following a tick bite, seek prompt medical attention.

Preventative Routine to Best Prepare for Tick Season

Although ticks are found in some of our favorite getaway spots, like the woods, mountains, and beaches, most people get bitten by ticks in their own backyard. Ticks hide and breed in unkempt or overgrown vegetation. So, let’s see how to prepare for tick season:

Your property:

• Keep your grass well-mown
• Keep your trees trimmed
• Keep up with the weeding
• Remove leaf litter
• Move swing sets and sandboxes away from shrubs, bushes, and other vegetation
• Discourage deer and other wildlife
• Keep fences and other barriers to wildlife in good repair
• Layer gravel or cedar wood chips between the lawn or garden and any wooded areas
• Don’t over water; ticks are attracted to moisture
• Have professional tick control service spray every month

Your pets:

• Apply a monthly topical flea and tick medication
• Keep bird feeders and bird baths away from pet areas
• Carefully inspect your pet’s body each night
• Give regular baths
• Launder pet bedding and toys

You and your family:

• Avoid tall grass and wooded areas, hiking only in the middle of trails
• Wear lightweight clothing to make it easier to spot ticks on it
• Wear clothing that completely covers you, tucking pant legs into socks when hiking
• Treat boots, hiking wear, and camping gear with permethrin
• Tie back long hair or wear a hat
• Shower after returning indoors, and carefully inspect your body for ticks, paying particular attention to:
  1. Neck
  2. Under arms
  3. Behind ears
  4. Behind knees
  5. Inside elbow joints
  6. Under hair and on the scalp
  7. Inside the belly button
  8. Around the waist
  9. Groin area

When examining yourself, your kids, and your pets, check the same areas, plus the ears, mouth, and between the toes for your pet. If you find one attached, remove the tick safely, and save it for testing should symptoms develop.

Keeping Your Family Safe During Tick Season

While the ways to prepare for tick season may seem burdensome, they are nothing compared to suffering with a tick-borne disease. According to insurance records, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that “approximately 476,000 Americans are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease every year.”

This accounts only for humans who sought medical care contracting just one of the diseases ticks carry. Don’t let one of your family members, furry or not, become a statistic. Make tick season precautions a regular part of your family’s health care.

Mosquito Joe for Reliable Tick Control Services Near You

Tick season preparations may seem like a heavy lift, but Mosquito Joe is here to help! Not only do we provide effective mosquito control and flea control, but we can also help you rid your property of ticks. Our barrier spray applications target tall grasses, shrubs, plants, and trees where mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks hide and breed. Our professional technicians will tailor our services to meet your property’s specific needs.

As a Neighborly company, we make it our business to become the local experts on the pest issues in neighborhoods across the country. And you can trust that we do our work promptly and efficiently because every visit is backed by the Neighborly Done Right Promise™  and the Mosquito Joe® Satisfaction Guarantee!

Don’t Wait for Tick Season – Contact Us Today!

This tick season, protect your family and secure your property for bite-free fun with Mosquito Joe! Call us today at 1-855-275-2563 or contact us online for a free quote or to schedule professional tick control services. Because you and your family deserve to enjoy summer!

Have you ever wondered, How far can a tick jump? If so, you’ve come to the right place! Let’s dig into the cool facts about how ticks travel so you can be better protected from the nasty little suckers.

We make no bones about it; BUGS are our business. So we make it our business to know everything about bugs. To battle bugs effectively, we have to know the answer to all kinds of bug questions. Yes, we’re nerds when it comes to bugs.

Take the tick, for example. Ticks are pests that cause all kinds of problems for humans and pets that venture outdoors. The results of their bites can range from mild skin irritations to serious health consequences. There’s a ton more to know about ticks, but we’ll focus on a few questions that may have been “bugging” you for a while.

Now, we understand that most people don’t think about ticks like we do, at least not until they become a problem. But there are a few tick questions we get quite often, one of the most common being: How far can a tick jump? This is actually more of a trick question than a tick question.

Despite being outfitted with four pairs of legs, adult ticks don’t jump at all. Each leg is covered with short, spiny hairs and ends in a couple of tiny, curved claws. Between the two claws is a small, sticky pad. The hairs, claws, and sticky pads are all designed to assist the tick in locating, grasping, and crawling onto its host — no jumping required. And it’s wired to crawl upwards once it does attach.

Unlike the enormously strong flea legs, a tick’s legs are not geared for locomotion so much as for grasping. They seem to get around quite a bit, so people often ask, “Can ticks jump and fly?” No, they can’t jump, and ticks don’t have wings, so they can’t fly either. They are essentially grounded, but not in a good way! Living close to the ground doesn’t mean ticks can’t move up in the world. They still manage to get around quite well.

So, how fast do ticks move? On their own, not very fast. If they were a vehicle, they would be a tractor, slow and plodding. But they are skilled at utilizing other means of transportation. Our response to the question “Do ticks jump or fly?” is that they don’t need to. They have found more efficient ways to get around, much to our disadvantage.

How Ticks Move in Nature

So, if ticks do not fly or jump, how do they reach your property? How do ticks travel? A tick’s primary mode of travel is on the host whose blood it feeds on. This could be an animal, a human, or both. Ticks are not too picky when it comes to transportation; they’ll take the first ride that comes along.

In the wild, a tick climbs to the top of a plant or a long blade of grass to search for a host. This host-seeking behavior is called “questing.” While holding the plant with its third and fourth pair of legs, the tick stretches out its first pair of legs, waiting for an animal to approach. Ticks can feed on mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and humans. Warm-blooded hosts are their favorite. With the slightest brush, a tick can grab on and instinctively crawl upwards toward the host’s head and ears, seeking thinner skin.

The tick grasps the host’s skin and cuts into it with its claws. During this process, the tick also secretes a numbing agent within its saliva that helps its bite go undetected. Then it inserts a barbed feeding tube, and the blood buffet is open. An adult tick can remain attached, feeding, for a week to 10 days. During that time, the host continues daily life and may transport the tick several miles. Once sated, the tick releases its hold and drops off its host. Soon, it will again climb to the top of another plant to resume questing.

How Ticks Get on Humans

The most common way a tick finds a human host is through questing. This is the host-seeking behavior where the tick crawls to the top of a plant or grass stem to wait with its forelegs outstretched. When a human brushes against the undergrowth, the tick grabs on and then crawls to a preferred site to attach and feed. Sometimes, ticks wind up on tree leaves, branches, and shrubs. Although it’s more common to find ticks in low-lying areas, this is not always the case. The second most common way ticks find human hosts is through their pets. If your dog or cat is bitten, the tick may drop off in your home or yard. That proximity makes you a more likely target when the tick resumes questing. This is why it’s a good practice to inspect your pet for ticks after spending time outdoors, especially during spring and summer.

Preventing Tick Bites

The most important step to preventing tick-borne disease is learning all about tick bites and how to find them. Then, you can take essential steps for tick bite prevention. These steps include avoiding typical tick habitats like wooded and grassy areas when possible. When out hiking or walking, try to stay on designated or established pathways to avoid encountering ticks. You’ll also learn the ways to help limit ticks on your property. When walking where ticks are likely to be, wear long sleeves and pants in light colors. While ticks cannot jump or fly, they are excellent at hitchhiking a ride and will cling on if you brush past their perch. Covering your skin makes it harder for ticks to attach and start feeding, and the light clothing makes the tiny pests easier to spot.

You won’t feel a tick bite (because they anesthetize the skin before biting), so vigilance is key to remaining healthy and free of tick-borne diseases. Despite all the tick-avoidance precautions you can take, it is critical that you examine your pets, kids, and yourself for ticks when returning home from the outdoors. Showering is an excellent way to rinse away any ticks that are not yet attached. Unfortunately, washing your clothing won’t kick ticks; you’ll also have to toss them into the dryer and run it on high heat for 10 minutes to kill any tick adults or larvae. If you get bitten, properly removing the tick is essential to avoid the diseases they spread.

The Importance of Tick Testing

Testing is important if you, a family member, or a pet gets bitten by a tick. Tick testing will let you know what diseases the tick is carrying. It will not determine whether you were infected, but it alerts you to whether you need to consider treatment. Your doctor will advise you on potential treatment after receiving the test results.

When removing a tick, take care not to crush it. Instead, seal it in an airtight container or wrap it in tape. Make a note of the date of the tick bite, where on your body you were bitten, and the approximate location where you encountered the tick. Some people, especially those with a compromised immune system, prefer to test immediately. Others save the tick(s) for testing if they develop symptoms.

Protect Yourself and Your Family From Tick Bites

Although ticks do not fly or jump, they represent a health hazard for you, your family, and your pets. Ticks that carry various diseases are becoming more plentiful as development further encroaches on their natural habitat and more areas experience warmer seasonal temperatures. Therefore, it is critical that you take steps to protect yourself from these bloodsucking, disease-carrying pests.

In addition to these precautions, employing professional tick control services by your local Mosquito Joe is essential to limiting exposure to ticks around your home. We provide effective tick control as part of our comprehensive pest control services. All our work is backed by the Neighborly Done Right Promise™ and our Mosquito Joe® Satisfaction Guarantee, so you can count on excellent results. We come out to your property, tailoring our service to your specific needs. Discover effective, professional tick control near you. We have locations across the country. Our reliable pest control service is trusted by thousands of homeowners and businesses across the U.S.

Don’t let ticks keep you from exploring the great outdoors. Request a free quote at the top of this page, or call us today at 1-855-275-2563. You deserve to enjoy your outdoor spaces without worrying about tick bites. Let Mosquito Joe make the outdoors fun again.

When temperatures begin to rise, tick bites become a concern for families who enjoy outdoor activities. In fact, any time temperatures reach above 40 degrees, ticks become more active. So, hiking, camping, going to the beach, and even enjoying a barbecue in the backyard can be interrupted by a tick bite. Detecting a tick early and removing the tick properly from the bite area is crucial to preventing tick-borne diseases like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

What do ticks feel like? Can you feel a tick bite? If you can’t feel a tick, how can you detect and remove ticks to avoid illness? Here’s what you need to know to protect yourself, your family, and your pets with essential tick bite detection and prevention.

Can You Feel a Tick on You?

Can you feel ticks on your body? Unfortunately, the answer in many cases is no. So, what do ticks feel like? When ticks are in the nymph stage during spring and early summer, they’re the size of a poppy seed, making them nearly impossible to feel. Even when they bite, you won’t feel a tick nymph, yet they are the ticks most likely to transmit Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections.

If you can’t feel a tick bite, how do you know if you’ve been bitten? Detecting ticks or nymphs requires super-close visual examination. Even then, a tick can be in a place you can’t see on your own. They like to bite the back of your neck or the top of your scalp. That’s why it’s wise to have a friend or loved one help you scan your body for ticks after being outside, especially in places on your body that you can’t see.

As ticks grow, it may be easier to feel them moving on your skin, but there’s no guarantee. A tick crawling on your body can feel like a very slight tickle—it’s a sensation that can be easily missed if you aren’t purposefully checking for them. You’re more likely to find a tick by seeing it crawling on you or someone else.

Not only are you unlikely to feel a tick or nymph moving on you, but you can’t feel a tick bite. Even once the tick bites and embeds itself into your skin, you’re unlikely to feel it. The bite doesn’t hurt, itch, or burn. While the tick feeds on your blood, its body begins to swell, making it easier to spot and locate. A tactile search is one way to find or feel a tick on you. Search by running your hands lightly over the areas of your body where ticks are likely to crawl or bite, including:

• Under the arms
• Inside the belly button
• On the back of the knees
• In and around the ears
• Between legs
• On the scalp or in your hair

What Does a Tick Look Like?

Since you cannot feel a tick bite or even a tick crawling on you, it’s important to look for them visually. But what do ticks look like?

Ticks are arachnids, and they look a lot like the spiders and mites they are related to. Tick eggs look a lot like red caviar, and the hatchlings and nymphs look like minuscule spiders or mites. A hungry tick has a flat body with a teardrop shape. The head is at the more pointed end of the body. Tiny tick larvae have just six legs, while nymphs and adult ticks have eight. Once a tick bites, it embeds in the skin, attaching through a barbed feeding tube. The feeding process includes injecting the host with a mild painkiller, so you cannot feel the tick bite, attach or feed.

As the tick feasts on its host blood, the tick’s body swells enormously. An adult female tick can swell up to 200 times her original body size as she drinks blood. She may swell to half an inch long, making her much easier to spot.

Related Topic: What Are the Best Essential Oils to Repel Ticks?

What Does a Tick Bite Feel Like?

Unlike bites from mosquitoes and other bugs, tick bites do not typically cause immediate skin irritation or itching sensation. When it embeds itself in your skin, the tick injects its saliva, which contains a numbing agent called kinases, enabling the insect to avoid detection while it feeds on its host.

You can’t feel a tick bite when it bites you. Many individuals with Lyme disease were unaware they experienced a tick bite until symptoms of the disease emerged well after the tick was gone. What does a tick bite look and feel like? The answer depends on the type of tick and your specific physical reaction.

Tick bite lesions can vary in appearance, size, and sensation. In most cases, a bite that does not transmit a tick-borne illness will resemble a mosquito bite without extensive itching or pain. It is a small red bump that will fade within a couple of days.

Since you cannot feel a tick bite, it’s good to know what the bites look like. Here are some of the different tick bite lesions and reactions that are cause for concern:

• Redness or rash around the skin indicates inflammation and possible infection.
• Bulls-eye rash—a telltale sign of a tick bite; this can signal a potential infection of Lyme disease.
• Bite area with a tick still attached and its head burrowed into the skin.
• Fever, chills, aches, and pains, can be signs of a tick-borne illness.

Related Topic: How to Properly Check and Remove Ticks from Your Pets

If you notice any of the signs or symptoms listed above or find a tick attached to you, contact a medical professional who will have the proper tools to remove the tick safely. Once removed, professionals can test the tick for disease to ensure you receive any necessary treatment. If medical attention is difficult to reach, learn how to remove a tick safely.

Contact Us for Effective Tick Control

Contact your local Mosquito Joe to keep ticks at bay and your family and pets safe. In addition to trust-worthy mosquito control service, our service professionals will provide an effective, long-lasting barrier treatment to keep ticks out of your yard for up to thirty days. To learn more about our pest control services, including our natural barrier treatments, call 1-855-275-2563 or request an estimate online today.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ticks

Why are there so many ticks?

Ticks are not a new threat, but as their population and habitat continue to grow and expand, the potential threat to humans and animals increases. Climate change plays a part in rising tick populations. And as more forests and wooded land is developed into housing and shopping districts, the areas where ticks once lived in isolation are gone. The combination of a rising tick population and people moving into their traditional habitat increases the chances that you will encounter ticks.

Where are ticks most commonly found?
Ticks live in areas where hosts are plentiful. This includes wooded areas, meadows, and marshes. You can also encounter ticks at the beach, particularly along walkways from the hills overlooking the water, down past heavy vegetation to the sand. Nearly anywhere there is sufficient vegetation, you will find ticks.

How to identify a tick bite?
It’s essential to recognize a tick bite, so you can remove the tick and seek treatment if the bite becomes infected. But a tick bite looks like a small red swollen area, similar to other insect bites. It may have been bitten by a tick bite if:

• There is only one bite. Mosquitoes and fleas often bite multiple times.
• The red swelling at the bite site has a small black dot at the center.
• The red swelling has a hardened center.
• A bull’s eye rash forms. If the red swelling is surrounded by unaffected skin, that is ringed with a red circle. This is the characteristic appearance of a tick bite that transmitted Lyme disease.
• A rash forms at the site of the bite and is accompanied by fever, body aches, sore joints, swollen lymph nodes, and lethargy.

Ticks might not only carry diseases that may affect you and your pet, but they can also breed on your dog. A tick on your pet can eventually lead to an infestation on your furry friend and in your home. By being vigilant and interrupting the mating cycle, you can help keep your dog happy and healthy.

How Do Ticks Breed?

Ticks can breed quickly and are sometimes hard to spot, making tick infestations such a common problem in tick-prone areas. It can start with your dog when they venture outside or during a walk in a grassy or wooded area. Though the breeding process can vary by tick species, these general steps can take from weeks to months, depending on conditions in your area:

1. The ticks wait on blades of grass or other plants for a passing host. They can’t jump, so they attach to a host when the animal (usually a small animal such as a rodent) brushes by wherever they’re lying in wait.
2. The tick feeds on this initial host, sometimes for several days, before dropping to the ground.
3. The tick molts, becoming a nymph, then lies waiting for a second host. They prefer smaller hosts such as rabbits or raccoons at this stage. They’ll feed, drop to the ground, and molt again, becoming adult ticks.
4. The tick will wait for a third host. At this stage, they prefer large hosts such as deer and dogs. If they attach to your dog, they will feed, breed if possible, and can even lay eggs on your dog that will hatch into larvae. Those larvae will feed on your dog, and the cycle will begin again.

How Do Dogs Get Ticks?

Some things attract or harbor ticks, and it’s worth keeping them in mind. If you can eliminate these things from your yard, you can reduce the chance that you’ll have a tick problem.

• Tall grass and overgrown plants: These can harbor ticks and give them easy access to your dog and the rest of your family.
• Leaf piles: Since these areas are also prime spots for ticks to hide and breed, keeping them clear can reduce the number of spots ticks like to gather.
• Animal and Bird Feeders: Ticks are often found in areas because they can attach themselves to the rodents who eventually come to eat the birdseed or other feed. They wait for an animal to come by and attach to them while they feed.

Of course, you can’t eliminate every plant in your yard, and rodents are a fact of life in many areas. But getting rid of these more obvious hiding places is a good start.

Related Topic: How to Check Dog for Ticks

What Do Ticks Do to Dogs?

Aside from breeding on your dog, ticks also feed on your dog’s blood, which creates a new set of concerns:

• Too many ticks feeding on your dog can weaken the dog, causing lethargy and general discomfort.
• Ticks can carry Lyme disease, which can also infect your family.
• The breeding cycle can continue, causing a worse infestation over time.

Knowing what to do if your dog has a tick will help mitigate these issues. Checking the dog over regularly, especially along their back, legs, and hind end, is a good idea and will help you spot ticks before they cause too much irritation. Remove them using tweezers and pluck them out as close to the dog’s skin as possible. Be careful when using a tweezer to remove ticks; make sure you completely remove the tick from your dog and that you’re not leaving the tick’s head or part of its body behind. You can also purchase flea and tick repellent sprays to protect your dog.

Do Ticks Lay Eggs on Dogs?

If not found and removed right away, ticks that breed on your dog will sometimes lay eggs on them as well. The larvae that hatch from those eggs have a very convenient feeding source: your dog’s blood. This can affect your dog’s health, and that of your family, in a variety of ways. The easiest way to reduce the risks that come with ticks is to prevent your dog from getting ticks in the first place. While this isn’t easy, it is possible with the help of your neighborhood Mosquito Joe.

Related Topic: How to Remove a Tick from a Dog

Protect Your Dog and Family from Ticks

As ticks continue to extend their habitat across the U.S., the potential for tick and mosquito-borne diseases has also grown. One of the best ways to deal with this potential threat is to take preventative steps to protect your family and your pets. Your local pest control pros at Mosquito Joe can help. We offer traditional and natural barrier sprays that effectively help keep pests, like ticks and mosquitoes away, for up to thirty days. To learn more or to get started, call us at 1-855-275-2563 or schedule an appointment online today.

Invasive bugs are a huge problem in the United States. According to Entomology Today, the economic impact of invasive insects is more than $30 billion each year. These pests can degrade, change, or even displace native habitats and cause all kinds of disruptions for other wildlife.

And when it comes to you and your yard, invasive bugs are a big inconvenience. While some invasive insects like stinkbugs are harmless, they can end up everywhere­—including your underwear drawer! Other invasive bugs, like termites, could do real damage to your home. Any kind of invasive insect is a nuisance. By learning more about them, you can better take control of your space.

Common Types of Invasive Bugs

These are some of the most common invasive insects in North America:

• Several types of moths, like the leek moth and cactus moth
• Wooly adelgids
• Asian tiger mosquitoes
• Several types of fruit flies, black flies, and sawflies
• Termites
• Earwigs
• Stinkbugs
• Mealybugs
• Spotted Lantern Flies

There are so many other invasive bugs in the states, including many types of beetles, borers, scale bugs, wasps, flies and ants. It’s worth researching an insect if it seems to be destroying plants and trees on your property, or your house.

Wait … Are Mosquitoes Invasive?

When you’re thinking of bugs that are a nuisance, mosquitoes are probably the first ones to jump to mind. But are mosquitoes invasive? Actually, yes, there are species of invasive mosquitoes. The Asian tiger mosquito and the yellow fever mosquito are both examples of invasive mosquitoes that have snuck into North America in hiding spots like used car tires. Typically, these types of invasive mosquitoes prefer warmer areas like southern California.

The mosquitoes that most US households deal with are the Aedes mosquito, the Anopheles mosquito, and the Culex mosquito. Since an invasive bug is defined as a species that was introduced to an area where they don’t naturally occur, these mosquitoes are not technically invasive. But they sure are annoying!

Related Topic: Preventing and Eliminating a Basement Insect Problem

Tick Invasion: What to Look For

While it’s normal to find a tick from time to time while you’re outside, finding them consistently could point to a problem. Ticks are tiny, parasitic bugs that generally live in wooded areas and fields. They need human or animal blood to survive and can be carriers of serious diseases, like Lyme disease. When you suspect you have a tick invasion (because they are frequently showing up on you or your pets), act fast so they don’t get inside of your house, where they could survive for a while. An effective way to get rid of these creepy creatures is to have your yard professionally sprayed for ticks during their most active months. You can also keep your grass and trees trimmed and try to weed your garden regularly to deter ticks.

While ticks often burrow under hair before biting their victims, they also attach themselves to other areas of the body, like:

• Under the knees
• Under the arms
• The groin area
• Inside or around the ears
• Inside the belly button
• The base of the neck

During tick season, which is any time of year when temperatures stay above 45 degrees Fahrenheit, be sure to check these areas on yourself and your kids. And don’t forget to check your pets regularly too!

Professional Invasive Species Control

As a homeowner, there isn’t much you can do to prevent invasive insects from migrating to your area. What you can do is prevent them from taking up residence in your own backyard and jeopardizing the safety of you and your family. At Mosquito Joe, our mission is to help homeowners take back the outdoors. Our traditional and natural barrier sprays effectively keep pests away for up to thirty days, which can make the time you and your family spend outdoor fun again! To learn more, or to get started, give us a call at 1-855-275-2563or request an estimate online today.