​Now that the New Year has come and gone, we all have some time to sit down and think ‘what’s next?’ Taking a minute to ponder on what’s next for your home and how to protect it, especially this time of year, is very important. Many people will ask “Is pest control really necessary in the winter?” The answer is absolutely! When we think of the cold winter months, we usually don’t realize that the middle/end of February in Georgia comes with lengthy periods of frigid temperatures as well as the scattered days of 75-degree weather, which results in unwanted pests searching for ways to get inside to shelter themselves from what mother nature is throwing at us. At ALF Pest Solutions, we are here to help prevent these pests from sharing your home with you! Here are some pests to look out for starting in February:

Cockroaches
As with most any month throughout the year, cockroaches are going to be problematic for a couple of reasons. Cold temperatures will drive them indoors to find food, water, and shelter, which our homes will provide them with all three. These roaches will come out at night from wherever they’re hiding in your home to scavenge for traces of food. Making sure we do not leave any food sitting around by wiping down our counters, as well as storing pet food in containers with sealed lids will help in reducing the food source for roaches. We also strongly encourage signing up for our monthly or quarterly pest control programs. In doing so, we will be coming and treating the interior and exterior of your home with top of the line products, creating a barrier between your home and the surrounding areas, killing any pests that cross through that barrier. 

Spiders
In these winter months, spiders are looking to escape the cold and find shelter inside your home. One spider that is typical to see this time of year is the Brown Recluse, which is a poisonous spider nobody wants to deal with, especially in your own home. The size of an entry point in which spiders need to enter the home is very miniscule. So, to ensure that you won’t be having an issue with them all winter, it is very important to have the proper pest control program taking preventative measures to protect your home. Spraying any points of entry (windows, doors, etc.) will greatly reduce the risk of seeing them indoors. When signing up for either our monthly or quarterly programs, ALF Pest Solutions also includes going around the perimeter of your home (as well as garage) and taking down any cobwebs that have been made in the corners, and windows.

Ants
As February winds down, we are starting to get closer to March and the Spring weather coming in, ants will start to be a problem in and around our homes. Most common this time of year is the Argentine ant. These ants are known for being very small and making big trails in the ways they forage. (Also known as sugar ants, or tracker ants) Leaving out food around the house and not wiping down counter-tops or your sink could easily attract these pests to trail into your home. We at ALF Pest Solutions have multiple pest control programs to help keep unwanted critters out of your home. Give us a call today, so we can work together to find the best program to keep your home pest free!

​It’s the beginning of a new year! And after the hectic holiday season most of us are questioning how to keep up with those very bold new year’s resolutions we’ve made, or when will I finally be getting all of these decorations down and put away? But after all of the friends, family, and of course food, constantly coming in and out of the door the big question is, what else has made it inside of my home? Believe it or not, January can be a big problem time in the year for unwanted pests! Between the commotion of everyone coming and going, and the freezing cold temperatures outside, it makes a perfect scenario for unwanted critters to invite themselves in. Many pests are looking to shelter in our homes to keep out of the danger that comes along with these frigid temperatures. Here are a few things to look out for during the month of January:

Firewood Bugs
If you have a wood burning fireplace in your home, this could be of big concern! Boxelder bugs, termites, and stink bugs all love hanging out inside firewood. By bringing that wood inside you are incidentally bringing all of them into your home to shelter and reproduce. Which if left untreated, without the correct pest control program, can wreak havoc on your home.

 Spiders
In these winter months, same as most pests, spiders (especially the Brown Recluse) are looking to escape the cold and find shelter inside your home. The size of an entry point in which spiders need to enter the home is very miniscule. So to ensure that you won’t be having an issue with them all winter, it is vital to have the proper pest control program taking preventative measures to protect your home. Spraying any points of entry (windows, doors, etc.) and creating a pesticide barrier between outside and inside is essential. 

German Cockroaches
The German Cockroach is the most common infesting roach found in the world. They like to hangout and harbor in small, warm, moist areas, and are almost always brought into the home by means of an outside source. (Groceries, small appliances, boxes, other people unknowingly, etc.) They are most commonly found in the kitchen, behind the fridge, dishwasher, coffee makers, anything with a warm motor where they can lay their eggs and reproduce. It only takes 28 days for German Cockroaches to reproduce from the laying of their eggs, to hatching, making it so easy for them to infest in such large numbers. Having a monthly or quarterly indoor/ outdoor pest control service to treat around these problem areas is very important to ensure preventative measures are being taken to protect your home from the infestation and spread of bacteria and human pathogens of these pests. 

​Tick season is upon us again.  Because of our mild winter, experts predict that this year’s tick season will be more active than the last couple of years.  Ticks get a lot of the media attention this time of year because of Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.  The University of Georgia reports that the most common Southeastern ticks that spread these diseases are the Lone Star, American Dog, and the Black Legged Ticks. 
 
There are basically four life cycles to the tick.  The first being the egg stage.  A mass egg drop from a female can be upwards of 6,000 eggs at one time.  The mass group of eggs is typically dropped in grassy or wooded areas.  Within about two weeks, the eggs will hatch into a seed tick.  The seed tick will typically congregate in the area where they were hatched.  They’ll climb shorter grasses or brush and wait for smaller hosts.  After they latch to a host, they quickly grow and move to the nymph stage.  Once they do, they look for a larger hosts.  This is the time the tick looks for larger patches of grass or brush where larger animals such as deer would pass.  After the tick finds a larger host, they will continue to feed and develop into a strong adult.  High humidity and thick vegetation areas are the best habitats for any tick population.  In the right conditions, a tick in any of these stages can wait for a full year to latch onto a host.
 
It’s important to note that Lone Star and Black Legged Ticks will latch onto humans in any of its life cycles; while the American Dog Tick will typically latch to a human only during its adult stage.  If you have to be in areas where ticks may be prevalent, we recommend these steps:

1. Wear long pants and keep your shirt tucked into your pants and your pants tucked into your socks.
2. Use a repellant with some level of DEET on exposed skin areas.
3. Check yourself a couple times a day for any evidence of ticks.
4. If a tick does latch on to you. Remove it with tweezers, a cloth, or tissue paper. Then grab the tick as close to the attachment point as possible. Steadily pull away from the skin careful not to jerk or twist.  You do not want to leave any parts of the tick’s mouth on your skin. Then disinfect the area immediately and wash your hands thoroughly.
5. Lastly if you start to get symptoms of rash, fever, headaches, or muscle pain, you need to see a physician immediately. 

 
ALF is committed to helping you protect your family through the summer months.  If you feel that our Flea and Tick services would be beneficial to you.  Please call us at (844) 369-TURF (8873) and we’ll provide you the best service in the business. 

We get several inquiries this time of year from people looking for answers on how to eliminate mosquitos.  The honest answer is that unless the State of Georgia just went out on an outright mosquito fogging quest through the entire state, we’re all doomed to get bit at some point throughout the summer.  The good news is we can take steps to help deter the mosquitos from being an outright nuisance.  

If you’re not someone that cares to subscribe to a pest control plan for some reason or another, there are some products out there that can help deter them from your lawn.

Citronella Candles are available at most grocery stores.  We’ve also inserted a DIY link if you like the more natural approach.  The candles provide some relief to your immediate area.  From 1-10, the effectiveness is roughly a 3.  If the composition of the chemical is strong enough and the flame is steady, you’ll see relief in a 5-10 foot radius around the candles.

Ultrasonic Mosquito Traps are available at most of your Home Depots and Lowe’s.  We’ve provided a link so you can see the product.  They are designed to attract mosquitos so you don’t want to place them near the area you’re occupying.  From 1-10, the effectiveness is roughly a 5.  They do a decent job at capturing the mosquitos that fly around them but the downside is they don’t do much for the mosquitos flying around you.

Bat Houses are probably the best DIY alternative to keeping mosquitos out of your yard.  A single bat can eat up to 1000 mosquitos per night and even in a small bat house up to 20 bats could be living in it.  They fly around all night and eat as many as they can.  From 1-10, the effectiveness is roughly a 7.  They eat so many in a night they can keep the mosquito population quite manageable in a small yard.  The downside is that proper conditions have to exist for bats.  You need a very tall tree, south facing exposure to sun, and a water source within a 1000 feet so bats are encouraged to inhabit the house.

If you need professional help, ALF provides a mosquito program that’s more effective than the DIY or natural alternatives that are out there.  From 1-10, our products have an effectiveness of a 9.  We are able to attack the existing mosquitos and the habitats of the adults and larvae.  So we’re not just attacking the mosquito that’s present.  We’re attacking the entire life cycle which typically gives our customers around 28 days of total relief per application.  We recommend a succession of 6 applications from April through October to keep you mosquito free through the summer.  Our products are also not harmful to pollinators if that might be a concern of yours.  The only reason that we feel our products don’t reach a 10 out of 10 is that some environments reduce the effectiveness of the product.  Heavily wooded, overgrown, and/or water saturated areas can often provide too many habitats for the adult mosquitos and their larvae than it is possible to cover.  In these cases, we may need to consider a customized program in conjunction with other traditional methods to optimize the effectiveness of a satisfactory mosquito program.

If you have any questions or you are in need of help with mosquitos, please feel free to contact us at (844) 369-TURF (8873).  We’ll be happy to help in any way that we can.