F.A.Q.

Mosquitoes, ticks, ants, wasps, and fleas are the most common outdoor pests for Chicago homeowners. Each one thrives in urban yards where standing water, dense vegetation, and food waste are in steady supply, and where nearby buildings create shaded microclimates. 

Cities produce enormous amounts of standing water through infrastructure, including catch basins, flat rooftops, clogged drains, and neglected containers. Mosquitoes don't need a swamp to breed—a bottle cap's worth of water is enough.

Start by getting rid of every source of standing water you can find on your property. Then schedule a professional barrier treatment. The water removal stops new mosquitoes from being born, and the treatment knocks down the adults that are already there. 

Both have significant mosquito problems, but the sources are different. Suburban yards tend to produce more mosquitoes from landscaping and natural water features, while urban areas generate them from infrastructure like catch basins, containers, and poor drainage. 

A breeding ground forms wherever still water sits undisturbed for about a week, with a little warmth and some organic material to feed the larvae. That's the whole recipe, no pond required, just standing water left alone long enough for eggs to hatch and develop. 

It depends on what your yard looks like. Ticks, in general, need shade and moisture, brushy or wooded edges, and leaf litter to survive when it is hot and dry. And they also need deer and rodents to carry them there in the first place. 

Lyme disease numbers are on the rise because the ticks that carry it are spreading into new regions. At the same time, milder winters are lengthening the active tick season and more people are living next to natural tick habitats.

The range where ticks are found is growing, and it’s expanding more and more into Chicagoland. This is due in part to larger deer and rodent populations, as well as milder winters.

Emergency rooms are seeing more tick-bite visits mainly because there are more ticks and more bites. But there is also greater public awareness of tick-borne disease, which makes people more likely to seek care.

Yes, ticks live in Chicago's parks, forest preserves, lakefront green spaces, and even landscaped areas around the city.

Yes, ticks will often latch onto birds. It’s a well-documented way that tick populations start in new places.

Yes, tick-borne diseases have been rising in urban and suburban areas, not just rural ones, as ticks expand their range into city parks, preserves, and green spaces and more people encounter them there.