Category: Blog

There are few things more unpleasant than mosquito bites. Unfortunately, Florida residents are all too familiar with mosquito infestations and their itchy stings. However, the threat of a mosquito is not limited to the outdoors.

If you have been waking up with bug bites on your body and don’t know where they are coming from, then you may have mosquitoes inside your home. While it may sound unlikely, mosquitoes can breed in any warm areas containing stagnant water. If nuisance mosquitoes are invading your home, try the following tips and tricks.

Mosquito Control Tips and Tricks

The best way to avoid mosquitoes is to prevent mosquitoes. Here are some mosquito control tips for mosquito-proofing your home.

• Maintain your window screens.

The screens on your windows are one of your home’s first lines of defense against mosquitos. Examine them every now and then for holes or other damage and replace them, if necessary, to keep mosquitoes outside where they belong.

• Wear bug repellant inside and outside.

Before protecting your home, it can be helpful to protect yourself. You may think you only need to wear bug spray when you’re going to be outside for a long period of time, but also wearing bug spray indoors can be a great way to repel mosquitos that may be buzzing around inside.

• Remove any standing water.

Mosquitoes lay their eggs in pools of stagnant water. To prevent a large mosquito population from breeding near your home, regularly clean out your gutters, dump out rain buckets, change the water in your birdbath, flush your toilets, and run your filter on your pool. By keeping the water around your home flowing, nuisance mosquitoes won’t have a place to breed.

While the above mosquito control tips may help save you from a few bites, the only way to truly mosquito-proof your home is to rely on the professional mosquito control services provided by Critter Control® of Orlando.

Professional Mosquito Control Services in Orlando

At Critter Control® of Orlando, we use safe, non-toxic, and eco-friendly methods to quickly and efficiently eliminate growing mosquito infestations and prevent new ones from breeding.

To schedule an inspection of your Orlando property and receive a free estimate for our mosquito control services, call Critter Control® of Orlando today at 407-295-7194.

Central Florida’s sunny weather is great for relaxing outdoors. However, residents and tourists are not the only ones out enjoying the Sunshine State’s warm climate; pests are too. In particular, mosquitoes breed in humid, warm temperatures and are sure to disrupt your outdoor enjoyment. If you’re seeing mosquitoes on your Orlando property when the temps start to rise, here are a few mosquito control tactics you can try to keep the pests away from your outdoor living space.

5 Mosquito Control Methods

You can control nuisance mosquitoes and keep your backyard a safe space for outdoor fun by:

1. Clearing standing water

   Mosquitoes are attracted to water and humid climates. In fact, the pests spend 75% of their life cycle in water, so dumping stagnant water is a crucial step in controlling them. Some common areas to check for standing water include gutters, birdbaths, flowerpots, and buckets.

2. Keeping your grass cut

   Besides standing water, mosquitoes like to rest in the shade. Tall grass or bushes can provide shady areas for mosquitoes to hover around. Mowing overgrown vegetation and exposing your lawn to direct sunlight can help curb your mosquito problem.

3. Adding repelling plants

   Citronella, marigold, and lavender serve as natural mosquito repellents. The plants contain chemicals and strong fragrances that irritate mosquitoes, so planting them in your garden can help keep the pests away.

4. Using fans

   Fans can simultaneously keep you cool and blow mosquitoes away by making it difficult for the pests to land nearby.

5. Spraying insecticides

   Insecticides are commonly used to kill mosquitoes and their eggs and larvae. While spray repellents can help rid your property of mosquitoes, they often contain strong chemicals that can be unsafe for you and the environment. Therefore, it is recommended to have professionals spray your property for mosquitoes using non-toxic and eco-friendly methods to ensure the mosquitoes are the only living thing that gets eliminated.

Effective Methods for Mosquito Control

The professionals at Critter Control® of Polk County rely on the low-impact IN2Care Mosquito Trap to target and permanently remove disease-transmitting mosquitoes on your property.

Our safe and effective mosquito control trap keeps you and your surrounding environment safe while it works to provide you with 24-hour protection from nuisance mosquitoes. Using reduced chemicals, our device’s technology is pet-friendly and does not affect plants or beneficial insects like bees and butterflies.

Reliable Mosquito Control Services in Orlando

Trust the experienced mosquito control technicians at Critter Control® of Orlando to quickly and efficiently remove nuisance mosquitoes from your property and keep them from returning. To schedule your inspection and receive a free mosquito control estimate, call Critter Control® of Orlando today at 407-295-7194.

While bees and wasps are considered as beneficial to the natural environment because they help pollinate plants and flowers, the stinging insects can pose a significant threat to the loved ones on your property should they cross paths.

If you discover bees and wasps nesting near your home, you should be aware of the risks they can pose to you and your family and know when to call for professional bee and wasp control services.

The Deadly Dangers of Bees and Wasps

Both bees and wasps are stinging insects that will use their stinger to inject venom into a victim if they feel threatened. While their territorial behaviors and painful stings are dangerous in and of itself, bee and wasp stings can be deadly to those with severe allergies. Furthermore, if someone stumbles upon a bee or wasp nest they can quickly become swarmed by the startled pests and suffer many poisonous stings that can also become life-threatening. Therefore, you will want to avoid being stung by a wasp or bee at all costs.

How to Avoid a Bee or Wasp Sting

The last thing you want is an angry swarm of bees or wasps on your property, however avoiding them can prove difficult. Some precautions you can take to avoid being stung include:

• Not mowing the lawn while bees or wasps are collecting nectar
• Wearing shoes while walking in your yard
• Keeping sugary drinks like sodas and juices covered while outside
• Not disturbing an active hive or nest

If you spot a bee or wasp nest on your property, it is best to keep a safe distance and not attempt to remove the pests on your own. Instead, contact a professional bee or wasp exterminator to safely handle the job for you.

Fast and Effective Bee and Wasp Removal Services in Orlando, FL

The equipped and experienced bee and wasp control technicians at Critter Control® of Orlando will quickly and safely remove nuisance bees and wasps from your property using non-toxic and eco-friendly methods. We will evict all unwanted stinging pests and their nests to keep similar pests from returning.

To schedule your inspection and receive a free bee and wasp control estimate, call Critter Control® of Orlando today at 407-295-7194.

Fleas are small, wingless insects that can jump long distances. The parasites commonly feed on the blood of mammals and birds, but will also bite humans. Unfortunately, the pests are not polite enough to ring your doorbell or even knock before entering your home. Instead, the sneaky parasites get inside by hitching a ride on the backs of your welcomed furry friends. Here are a few other wild ways fleas can get in your home.

Ways Fleas Can Infest Your Home

Once inside your home a flea infestation can spread rapidly because one adult female flea can lay up to 50 eggs per day. Fleas can get into your home in a number of ways, including:

• On your pets.

  Flea-infested domesticated pets, such as a dog or cat, can easily bring fleas into your home on their fur.

• On wild animals.

  A common way that fleas can access your home is by stowing away on wild animals that have managed to invade your property. Invasive wildlife like opossums, rats, squirrels, and raccoons are known carriers of fleas and diseases such as hantavirus, leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, and rabies, among others. This type of double infestation is doubly dangerous.

• Through cracks and holes in your foundation or walls.

  Fleas can squeeze through very small openings, so it is important to seal up any cracks or holes in your home’s foundation or walls.

• On outside furniture or items.

  Fleas can also hide on furniture or other items that have been outside, like towels, rugs, or blankets.

The Dangers of a Flea Infestation

Fleas can pose great risks to you, your children, and your pets. A flea infestation can be life-threatening to small animals like kittens and puppies. Because of their tiny size and ability to jump, fleas are very hard to catch before they bite. Flea bites have been known to spread diseases such as typhus, tularemia, tungiasis, and the bubonic plague, and can transmit “cat scratch disease” to cats who can then spread the disease to their humans.

Fleas can also cause:

• Tapeworms
• Flea allergy dermatitis (FAD)
• Hair loss from constant scratching
• Secondary skin sensitivity
• Anemia from excessive blood loss
• Asthmatic reactions to flea feces

If you’re worried that you may have fleas in your home, Critter Control® of Orlando can help. Our experienced technicians are equipped to handle even the most challenging pest infestations.

Flea Removal Experts in Orlando

If you are struggling with a growing flea problem, trust the dedicated team of experienced pest control professionals at Critter Control® of Orlando to handle your infestation quickly and efficiently. Regardless of how fleas entered your home, our expert technicians will isolate your flea infestation, remove all unwanted pests, and apply non-toxic and eco-friendly methods to ensure they do not return.

To schedule an inspection and get a free estimate for our flea removal services, call us today at 407-295-7194.

Agile and cunning, rats are very good at finding their way into residential properties. In fact, the greasy rodents can squeeze through openings smaller than the size of their body to get inside your home. The nuisance pests are also quite skilled climbers, so keeping them out can be a difficult task. However, there are several rat removal tips and strategies that you can follow to help keep your home rat-free.

How Rats Get Inside Your Home

Rats can cause serious damage if they manage to get inside your house. The critters will chew up and shred your household materials to create nests where they will breed rapidly and spread their infestation. If you notice signs of a rat infestation in your home, you need to know exactly where it started so you can tackle it from the source Here are some of the most common ways that rats get into homes:

• Cracks in the walls and foundation

  Rats can squeeze through cracks, holes, and openings in your foundation, walls, and floors that are as small as a quarter inch in diameter.

• Under garage doors or windows

  If left open, a garage door or a window can leave your property vulnerable to rats. However, even if they are closed, rats can sometimes squeeze underneath them if they are not properly sealed.

• Ventilation ducts and pipes

  Rats can climb up pipes to enter your home. They also often use ventilation ducts and underground plumbing pipes to gain entry and travel throughout homes, spreading contamination.

• Over fences and walls

  Again, rats are very good climbers that can easily scale walls and climb over fences to get inside your home.

• The roof

  Gutters and overhanging limbs from nearby trees provide easy access to your roof. If damaged or deteriorated, your roof corners, shingles, and plywood provide a path for rats to chew, scratch, and squeeze through to your attic.

• Uncapped chimneys

  Once on your roof, rats will use any means available to access your home, including uncapped or poorly protected chimneys.

If you have rats in your home, it is important to take steps to get rid of them. While there are a number of different ways to get rid of rats, it can be dangerous to handle the rodents if you lack the proper training and safety equipment. Therefore, it is best to call a professional rat removal company to help resolve your growing rat problem.

Get Rid of Rats in Your Home with Critter Control® of Orlando

Regardless of how rats entered your home, the expert technicians at Critter Control® of Orlando will locate your infestation, remove all unwanted rats, and permanently seal points of entry to ensure they do not return.

If you are struggling with a rat problem, trust our team of dedicated and experienced professionals to handle your infestation with eco-friendly, non-toxic, and humane rat removal methods. To schedule an inspection and get a free estimate for our rat removal services, call us today at 407-295-7194.

Ant colonies consist of a unique structure which depends on the queen ant remaining alive to keep the colony strong. Because ants are small in size, they are often overlooked as a significant threat to residential and commercial properties; however, the pests can cause a large amount of damage if they manage to infest your home or business. Here are some of the threats that ant colonies pose and ways you can locate, treat, and eliminate the pests on your Orlando property.

Ant Prevention and Elimination Tips

Most property owners are unaware of the existence of an ant infestation on their property until it is too late. You could stumble upon wood shavings from a carpenter ant infestation or spot a trail of ants on an exterior wall that leads you to their mound. However, even if you find where the ants are coming from, ant colonies often exist several feet below ground and can, therefore, be difficult to eradicate.

Eliminating an ant colony depends on its location and specific species of ant. Underground colonies require a treatment specifically made for ant mounds, which is typically a liquid solution that saturates the entire mound. Carpenter ant elimination requires a slow-acting bait, which relies on worker ants to take the poisoned bait back to the rest of the colony.

Regardless of the type of ant infestation you are dealing with, eliminating ants is a process that should be left to experienced ant control experts who have the equipment to effectively remove nuisance ants and destroy their colonies before they can pose a threat to you and your property.

The Threat of Ant Colonies

Bites from certain ants can cause a range of adverse reactions and side effects including swelling, dizziness, trouble breathing, and even anaphylactic shock. Ants seek out food and water sources, so kitchen areas are often primary targets for the pests, resulting in food and water contamination from the dirt and waste the ants track in and leave behind.

Additionally, ants can cause serious damage to your home by chewing wood, weakening your property’s structural integrity. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the dangers that ants pose and take immediate action to prevent ants from invading your home.

Reliable Orlando Ant Control Services

At Critter Control® of Orlando, we practice safe pest control methods that are eco-friendly, non-toxic, and at no risk to humans or household pets. Our four-step method ensures all ants are permanently removed through the following process:

1. Inspection – We inspect your entire property to determine the size and scale of your ant infestation.
2. Removal – We safe and non-invasive methods to permanently eliminate your ant problem.
3. Prevention – All ant entry points will be sealed to prevent future infestations.
4. Restoration – Any damage or contamination left behind by the ants will be cleaned and repaired.

The licensed and trained ant control technicians at Critter Control® of Orlando are equipped and ready to quickly remove nuisance ants, pests, or unwanted wildlife from your property and keep them from returning. To schedule an inspection and receive a free ant control estimate, call Critter Control® of Orlando today at 407-295-7194.