Discover The Many Benefits Of Year-Round Pest Control In Knoxville

Discover The Many Benefits Of Year-Round Pest Control In Knoxville

Have you ever brushed your teeth and stared at a big centipede in an upper corner of your bathroom and wondered where that bug was going to roam after you went to bed? Have you ever watched a big wasp flying around in your garage and wondered whether or not it was from a nest inside your walls? Have you ever had to go chasing after a nasty spider in the middle of watching a television show because it crawled across the wall behind your TV? Pests are disturbing. But their ability to make us feel uneasy and interrupt our lives is only the beginning of the troubles they can cause.

While centipedes are gross houseguests, they aren’t going to make you sick. That is not the case for cockroaches, rodents, flies and other pests that pick up harmful bacteria and spread it around. When you have year-round pest control, you get ongoing protection from bugs and animals that are drawn to rotting organic material.

While a random wasp flying around in your garage or outside in your landscaping is probably nothing to worry about, it can be downright dangerous when they create a nest in your yard. Social insects have a nest-protection instinct that can cause them to swarm and attack. Year-round pest control comes with routine pest inspections that work to catch stinging pests before they can do harm.

While most spiders that get into your home will just creep you out, we have two venomous spiders in Knoxville that can present a threat. They are the black widow spider and the brown recluse spider. Black widow spiders only get into homes occasionally, but recluse spiders can do quite well in your home and grow a significant population. With year-round pest control, you’ll get ongoing removal of spider webs around your home which will work to deter common household spiders and your pest control technician will alert you when signs of black widows or brown recluse spiders are present.

When mosquitoes come into your yard, year-round control can make them regret it. When termites try to feed on your home, your termite protection will immediately begin to eliminate the attacking colony. When ticks are brought into your yard and near your home, they won’t live long enough to get onto your pets or climb onto you while you’re working on your landscaping. Year-round pest control protects your health and property all year long.

If you’d like to learn more, we’d be happy to answer your questions. If you’re ready to take the next step and begin service, request a free, in-home pest evaluation and we’ll send a pest control professional right to your Knoxville home to help you get started.

Life is better without pests. Get your protection in place today.

How Can I Tell If I Have Been Bitten By A Tick?

How Can I Tell If I Have Been Bitten By A Tick?

In Tennessee, warm weather lasts longer than in some other states. Fall in Tennessee is the perfect season to be outdoors. But if you love picking apples or going on long fall hikes, you need to know about the dangers of black-legged ticks, also called deer ticks. These insects may be small, but they can cause a lot of trouble. You may have heard of Lyme disease, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. And there are several other serious diseases that can come from tick bites. Here are the answers to some common questions you might have about ticks.

When are you most likely to get a tick bite?

Ticks live in nature and travel by attaching themselves to animals such as wildlife or pets. You’re most likely to find a tick bite after spending a long time outdoors. Hiking in wooded areas, camping, or even just playing in fields with tall grass can all be ways of exposing yourself to ticks. Ticks can also bite you in your own home or in your yard. They might get to your yard on your pet or on wildlife such as deer or raccoons. They could even get into your home on squirrels or mice.

Where are tick bites usually found?

Ticks can’t fly. You won’t find them falling on your head as you walk and they won’t jump off branches at you. Instead, they crawl on your feet or legs and travel upward onto your body. This means that you may be able to avoid them by wearing long pants that are light colored so you’ll see a tick when it gets on your leg. If you don’t see it, it will look for a moist, warm area such as your armpits, your groin, the back of your head, or in your hair.  Ticks want to find a protected (which means hard-to-see) place to bite and then they attach themselves to you after they bite.

What does a tick bite feel like?

You might not notice a tick bite. The good news is that it’s very rare for the bite itself to cause any pain. The bad news is, this makes it harder to notice a tick bite than other insect bites. And the longer the tick remains attached to your skin, the more chance you have of contracting a tick-related disease. In some cases, a tick bite will itch, especially once the tick has been removed.

In order to remove a tick, grip the body with a good pair of tweezers as close to your skin as possible and pull directly out. It’s a bad idea to try to remove a tick with your fingers because they can break and get stuck inside your skin. If you’ve been bitten by a tick, it’s a good idea to see a doctor to make sure you didn’t pick up any serious diseases.

What does it mean if you have multiple tick bites?

If you have multiple tick bites, or if you constantly find new tick bites on your skin, you may have ticks in your home. As I mentioned earlier, ticks can come onto your property by riding in on wildlife or by arriving on your pets. They can’t live inside for long, but they’ll survive for a while if they can continue to get blood from you or your pets. If you keep finding tick bites, you should consider professional help.

Why call Russell’s Pest Control for tick management?

Russell’s Pest Control has experience in dealing with these difficult pets. We believe in a full treatment plan, which means that we’ll help you eliminate ticks long-term. To do this, we’ll identify factors that might be attracting ticks to your home. We’ll address a rodent problem or help you cut back on the number of wildlife coming onto your property. This will ensure that ticks don’t just vanish for a day, but that they have a hard time ever coming back to bother you.

Preventing Wasp And Hornet Stings In Knoxville During The Fall

Preventing Wasp And Hornet Stings In Knoxville During The Fall

Wasps and hornets can be a nuisance during the thick of summer. Throughout June and July, they’ve been swarming your barbecues and buzzing through your picnics. But they aren’t only active in the summer. By the end of summer, all young wasps and hornets are out of their nests foraging for food. This means you might have more stinging insects now than you did all summer. Let’s take a look at what this means.

Increased Aggression in Stinging Insects

You’re more likely to be stung by a wasp or hornet in the fall. This is mostly because there are more of them. All the eggs have hatched, and entire colonies are out looking for food before winter hits. For some species of stinging insect, it’s important to gather enough food to keep a colony alive throughout the winter. For other species, hibernation isn’t an option, and fall is just the last chance to enjoy sweet nectar.

Either way, these insects are more active in the fall than they were in the spring. If you let your guard down, you may find yourself with uncomfortable stings. Wasps and hornets tend to be aggressive only when they feel threatened. It’s always a good idea to keep an eye out for hornets and wasps, especially during the fall when there are more of them around.

Preventing Wasps and Hornets

There are some things you can do now to prevent an infestation next year. One way to prevent stinging insects is to clear your yard. Stinging insects build nests in holes in the ground, in trees, on overhangs, even on playgrounds. One way to prevent this is to fill holes and trim all plants in and around your yard. Another way to prevent stinging insects is to control the presence of other pests. If you have lots of bugs on your property, wasps and hornets will probably show up in search of food.

Tips to Avoid Getting Stung

Preventative measures can be helpful, but it’s important to learn how to protect yourself from stings when stinging insects do show up in your yard. You can avoid getting stung by avoiding bright-colored clothing. Flower patterns will attract confused wasps and hornets, as will bright patches. Perfumes, or even scented soap or shampoo, can attract stinging insects. Sweet smells are enticing to them and increase your chance of getting stung. You can also minimize your chances of being stung by covering as much skin as possible and wearing long pants and long sleeves when you know you’ll be spending a lot of time outdoors. Finally, wearing bug spray can help dissuade stinging insects from coming too close to you.

When to Call Russell’s Pest Control

It’s good to think in terms of prevention and avoiding stings. Wasps and hornets are important pollinators, and you will inevitably come across a few here and there on your Nashville property. However, if your yard is filled with wasps and hornets, or if you think there is a nest on your property, it is best to get professional help. Russell’s Pest Control has experience in identifying the species of stinging insect and the factors that might have attracted them to your home in the first place. We can create a custom treatment plan to clear your yard of these pests so that you can enjoy the beautiful weather of fall without wondering if you’re about to receive another painful sting.

Guide To Tick-Related Illness For Knoxville Residents

Guide To Tick-Related Illness For Knoxville Residents

You probably know by now that tick-borne illnesses are on the rise. According to the CDC, Lyme disease alone has doubled over the past twenty years. This can present a serious health threat to your dog, your cat, your children, and anyone else living in your home. Here is a quick guide to help you understand this threat.

Tick-Borne Diseases that Affect Dogs

Dogs are most affected by the diseases that ticks can carry. There are many reasons for this but one of the most noteworthy is that dogs aren’t as hypersensitive to changes in their environments, like cats are. When a tick gets on a cat, it is usually removed quickly, and quick removal can prevent the spread of illness.

Some of the many diseases that ticks can transmit to dogs are Lyme disease, canine ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, canine babesiosis, canine bartonellosis, canine anaplasmosis, and canine hepatozoonosis. All of these come with their own set of symptoms. If you have a dog, take the time to research each of these so you can recognize the warning signs.

Tick-Borne Diseases that Affect Cats

Cats are less likely to contract tick-borne diseases, but they’re not immune. And while they can still get sick from tick diseases, their resistance to illness could increase your exposure to serious illnesses such as cat scratch fever, an illness that can cause blindness if your cat licks you near your eyes.

The key diseases spread to cats are haemobartonellosis, tularemia, cytauxzoonosis, ehrlichiosis, and babesiosis. Spend some time researching these and discuss with your veterinarian some strategies for protecting your cats, and yourself, from ticks.

Tick-Borne Diseases that Affect People

Humans can also be impacted by tick-borne disease. While Lyme Disease gets all the press, there are many diseases that are spread from tick to human. Here’s the short list: Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, Powassan virus, ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, Colorado tick fever, and Southern tick-associated rash illness.

Tick Prevention

  • Personal protection: Apply mosquito repellent on your legs. Avoid tall grass. Wear bright-colored clothing so you can see ticks crawling up. Check for ticks after being outside.
  • Pet protection: Make sure your pets have collars and other tick-prevention products.
  • Reduce moisture around your home: Ticks need moisture to live. The drier you can make your landscaping, the fewer ticks you’ll have.
  • Control wildlife: Animals bring ticks into your yard and into your home. Everything you do to prevent wildlife activity will have an impact on tick populations.
  • Treatments: Professional treatments from a licensed pest control provider can destroy ticks and mosquitoes in your yard.

For assistance with tick & mosquito control in the Knoxville area, call on Russell’s Pest Control. Our licensed and experienced service professionals are here to help.

Warm Tennessee Weather Makes Brown Recluse Spiders Happy

Warm Tennessee Weather Makes Brown Recluse Spiders Happy
We love perfect growing season weather! It means that, when harvest time comes, we can visit the farmers market and get locally-grown fresh fruits and vegetables! Brown recluse spiders feel the same way about the warm weather this season as we do. No, they aren’t looking forward to yummy Tennessee grown tomatoes or snap beans, but they know that warmer weather brings more of the food that they love: other insects!
 
Brown recluse spiders, like most other spiders, prefer to feed on flies, cockroaches, mosquitoes, and other insects. They have a paralyzing bite that paralyzes their prey almost immediately. These nocturnal hunters are actually more of a scavenger than an actual web-sitting spider. They are most commonly found roaming around at night in search of dead insects to feed on.
 
Brown recluse spiders are one of the most feared spiders in Tennessee, though they hardly live up to their reputation. As their name suggests, these spiders are rather reclusive and will hide away in warm, dark places during the daytime. Hunting at night also allows them to avoid coming into contact with people, especially when they are invading a home. Some of the most common places to find these spiders are:
 
  • Attics
  • Basements
  • Crawl spaces
  • Closets
  • Heating and cooling registers and ductwork
  • Inside storage boxes (in clothing, shoes, boots, linens, etc.)
  • Eaves of buildings
  • In the corners of storage sheds, barns, and garages
  • Inside rock walls
Encounters with the brown recluse spider are relatively uncommon; these spiders typically only bite if a person inadvertently surprises the spider or tries to trap the spider as the spider’s natural instinct will be to bite in order to protect itself. Contrary to popular belief, these spiders do not seek out humans to bite them.
 
These small, 3/8” long and 3/16” diameter, light brown spiders are easily identified by the dark brown fiddle-shaped marking on their backs. Anyone who is bitten by a brown recluse spider should seek medical attention immediately; the bite of this spider can be extremely painful and the venom that is injected can cause a variety of reactions. If possible, obtaining the spider you were bitten by and keeping it secure for proper identification is important in order to take the proper course of medical treatment.
 
The warm summer weather in Tennessee is a happy time for many of us, including the brown recluse spider. Keep these dangerous spiders out of your home or business with a year-round pest control plan from the Tennessee pests control professionals at Russell’s Pest Control. We offer several pest control plans to fit your needs, your schedule, and your budget. Don’t wait another day; give us a call to learn more about our residential pest control plans!

How To Avoid Carpenter Ants This Spring

How To Avoid Carpenter Ants This Spring

Tis the season again, the season for ants to begin infiltrating our homes. While it is never pleasant to see a few ants, or a few hundred ants, crawling around on our pet’s food dish or a piece of food that was dropped on the floor, it should be especially alarming if you see large black carpenter ants crawling around. And it is important to note that these ants are usually only seen in living areas 1 or 2 at a time. But if you see 1 or 2, there are likely hundreds, or thousands, just out of sight inside the wood of your home.

What Is More Damaging, Termites Or Carpenter Ants?

While it is well-known that termites are the most destructive of all the wood-destroying organisms, carpenter ants should never be ignored. While termites cost U.S. property owners billions of dollars each year and carpenter ant damage is only in the hundreds of millions, that’s still pretty serious. So it is important that we know how to identify these destructive creatures and know what we can do about them before they can do extensive damage.

How To Identify Carpenter Ants And Carpenter Ant Swarmers

Carpenter ants are the largest ants you’ll see inside your home. These black–or dark red–colored ants measure from 7 to 12 mm in length, with winged carpenter ants being as much as 22mm in length.

Ways to tell the difference between any winged ant swarmer (typically called “flying ants”) and termite swarmers are the following: Ant swarmers have elbowed antennae. Termite antennae are straight or slightly bowed. Ant swarmers have a pinched or constricted waist. The waists of termite swarmers are broad. And ant swarmers have a front pair of wings that are longer than the back pair. Termite swarmer wings are similar in length.

What Factors Are Conducive To Carpenter Ant Infestations?

Carpenter ants, like so many other household pests, typically get into homes by way of gaps and cracks in foundations or walls. If wood is wet, or rotting, this makes it even easier for pests to get in. Some things that can cause wood to be wet or rotting include broken or obstructed gutters, leaky spigots or hoses, and areas of overgrown vegetation that holds moisture close to walls and the foundation.

  • To keep carpenter ants from invading, it is important to address these issues.

  • Seal up gaps, cracks or holes in your foundation or walls.

  • Dry up moist areas surrounding your home.

  • Repair or unclog gutters and be sure water is channeled away from your home.

  • Repair any leaky spigots or hoses.

While these DIY steps will help to keep carpenter ants and other pests at bay, the best way to protect your home from these wood-destroying insects is to partner with a professional pest control company. If you live in our Tennessee service area, contact us today to learn more about our residential pest control options. 

How To Identify Pest Entry Points In Your Home

How To Identify Pest Entry Points In Your Home

Knock, knock, knock. Family, friends, the mailman, or a salesperson—these are all reasonable options for who could be knocking on your front door. You know who won’t knock on your door and ask politely if they can come in? Pests. Nuisance pests, destructive pests, rodents, you name it. You can be sure that they probably aren’t using the front door to get into your home, and they won’t be asking your permission either. Pests are very sneaky about how they get into homes. The most common ways that they get in are through the small spaces or damaged areas that you didn’t even realize you had. Homeowners will want to look out for cracks and crevices in the foundation and structure of the home, holes smaller than a dime, gaps or spaces under entry points, vents and chimneys, unscreened windows, and loose shingles or other damage on the roof of the home. These are all easy ways for pests to sneak their way in without you noticing.

As mentioned before, pests aren’t going to knock politely and ask to come in. This leaves homeowners with no choice but to take charge and prevent pests from doing so. The best way to do this is to first identify where potential pests could be entering by inspecting your home. Keep an eye out for any of the common ways of entering that are mentioned above. If you notice any cracks or crevices you can fill them with sealant, and you will want to repair any loose or missing shingles. It also helps to trim back bushes and tree branches away from the home, as they can act as a bridge for pests to climb onto the roof and enter attics. Along this same line, you may want to move firewood away from the home and properly dispose of garbage. If you haven’t yet invested in mesh covers for vents or chimney screens, you will want to do so to avoid pests crawling in through those open holes. Lastly, you will want to make sure that all windows and entry points have proper rubber sealing around the frames, and repair any torn or loose screens. These tips may come in handy, but your best bet to avoid unwanted pests is to set up a year-round pest control plan with Russell’s Pest Control.

Here at Russell’s, we realize that pests just happen—they have their tricks of finding a way inside homes all throughout Knoxville and Eastern Tennessee. Luckily for you, our technicians do their best at preventing any intrusions as well as eliminating any pest that does sneak its way in. They do this using only the safest technology to solve pest problems. All of our services include quarterly visits where we monitor your home’s defenses. You can decide what works best for your home and family. If our initial treatments don’t work, we provide our Russell’s Pest Free Guarantee and will return to retreat at no extra cost. Russell’s has been protecting homes and properties since 1971, and we’d like to continue to do so with you. So if pests won’t bother knocking on your door, don’t bother waiting any longer to invest in a pest control plan that will surely keep them out!

Guide To Fall Spider Elimination

Guide To Fall Spider Elimination

Have you ever walked into your shed or garage and stepped through a spider web? Have you ever walked out your sliding glass doors only to have a web drape across your face? Walking through a spider web is no fun. Not simply because it is annoying, but because you have no idea whether or not there was a spider on that web, or whether or not that spider is now crawling on your clothing somewhere. But, as unsettling as spiders can be in your yard, they are even more unsettling when they get in the house.

Fall is a unique time of year. It is the time of year when temperatures start to drop, and bugs start to look for places to hide from the freezing temperatures of winter. When they do, they often find their way into our homes.

You may not know this, but spiders are actually pretty resilient when it comes to freezing temperatures. They have a natural sort of antifreeze that protects them. While it is possible for them to freeze, it is much less likely than it is for many other bugs. But, since spiders feed on other bugs, they are likely to go where their food goes.

There are many spiders that will not be happy to stay in your home. They prefer to be in your garden or exterior flower beds. But, there are some that will find your house to be the perfect environment. These spiders are often called common house spiders. The name pretty much says it all. These are the spiders you’re going to commonly find making webs inside your home. But there is one thing this name does not reveal. It does not reveal the role that fall plays in introducing these spiders to a home. While they can get inside any time of the year, it is much more likely to occur when food sources outside become scarce.

Before those spiders start to invade your home, it is a good idea to seal your exterior walls and foundation, inspect and repair all your screens, examine weather stripping and door sweeps, and take measures to reduce insects on your home. This will help to reduce the number of spiders inside your home this fall–and beyond.

If you need assistance with insect and spider control, reach out to Russell’s Pest Control. We offer comprehensive pest solutions that will help to keep all the bugs out of your home and manage the bugs around your home, all year long.

Carpenter Bees Will Be Active Soon

Carpenter Bees Will Be Active Soon

When spring temperatures warm up, all the creatures in Tennessee will become active again. Some of them will just crawl around in your backyard, dig tiny tunnels under your lawn, and hide under your rocks (and only be a nuisance every once in awhile when heavy rains make the ground saturated, or extended days of drought make the ground too dry.) Some will build nests on eaves and overhangs and leave painful welts on the skin when we accidentally come in contact with them. Some are wood-destroying pests that will damage our homes. There are many ways bugs can become pests. Of the three we’ve mentioned, what kind of pest do you think carpenter bees are?

If you said that these insects leave painful welts on the skin, you would be half right, because only female carpenter bees are able to sting. Male carpenter bees, though sometimes aggressive, are not able to sting. All of the dive bombing and excessive buzzing is just posturing, they can’t actually hurt you. Females, on the other hand, can give you a painful welt, or worse if you have an allergy to her venom. But a female carpenter bee doesn’t want to sting you. Her focus is on building a nest and making babies. That is how she has earned her pest status.

Female carpenter bees chew tunnels in wood to make their nests. While these tunnels aren’t all that extensive at first, they can grow quite a bit over the course of several years. These bees are prone to using and extending existing tunnels. When they do, these tunnels can cause quite a bit of damage.

Tunnels made by carpenter bees can be frustrating to repair because it is hard to know how much tunneling is present just beyond the tiny circular hole they leave in the wood they are attacking. If these tunnels are being created in a sensitive area, like a stair leading up to a balcony, a railing, or a support beam, serious injury could result if the damage isn’t properly addressed.

If you have carpenter bees appearing on your property this year, it is important to have a professional pest control technician take a look at your issue and give you some actionable input on how to protect your home. Identification of carpenter bees is quite easy. They look like a big bumblebee with an entirely black abdomen.

Don’t let carpenter bees damage your property and cause the potential for injury. This is an issue you should address when it first appears.

What To Do, And Not Do, About Rodents In Your Home

What To Do

If you are hearing, or seeing, the evidence of rodents inside your home, this is not an issue to be taken lightly. The scritch-scratching sounds inside your walls, the tiny (or perhaps not so tiny) droppings you are finding in your cabinets, and the chew holes appearing in the Cheerios box are not things that should be ignored. Rodents are not only a nuisance to have around, they pose very real dangers to you, your possessions, your family, and even your pets.

Rodents are famous for foraging in filthy places, but they also forage in your kitchen. This means that they carry all sorts of disease-causing pathogens into your home and deposit them everywhere they roam. Rodents are known to transmit diseases, some of them fatal–as well as secondary pests, like ticks, which can transmit Lyme disease. And, rodents are a danger to your possessions as well. Since they constantly have to chew on things to wear down their ever-growing teeth, they will damage or destroy anything from treasured possessions to your whole house, if they accidentally chew on the right electrical wire.

If you have a rodent infestation, it is imperative you get professional help right away. Although some do-it-yourself rodent control strategies can get rid of some rodents, to completely eradicate these pests, so they don’t keep coming back, a pest control company is the way to go.

Why DIY rodent control doesn’t work

  • While many products will kill some rats and mice, killing all the rodents in a home can be tricky. And many products can be dangerous to humans or pets if not properly handled. At best, you can reduce your rodent population, at worst, you could end up with dead, rotting rodent carcasses inside your wall voids, which will only draw more pests into your structure. Many bugs are drawn to dead, rotting things.

  • Using chemical products can result in rodents picking up the chemicals on their fur and then tracking it around your pantries and food preparation areas.

  • While snap traps may catch some rodents, it is impossible to know if you have gotten them all. These critters have a threat avoidance instinct that will cause them to lay low for a while and grow their population to come back later when the threat is gone. If your family is dealing with flu-like symptoms, it may be rodent related, even if you think you’ve gotten rid of your rodents.

If you are hearing and seeing the signs of a rodent infestation, and you live in our East Tennessee service area, call or click today. With over 40 years experience in pest prevention and elimination, Russell’s Pest Control can make your home rodent-free with rodent control you can depend on. Life is better without rodents.