How to Prep Your Home for Pest Season

How to Prep Your Dallas Home for Pest Season

Dallas doesn't really get a true off-season when it comes to pests. The climate is mild enough that something is always active. But spring is when pests go from being manageable to overwhelming. The mercury rises, rain picks up, and all of a sudden it seems like every pest from here to Oklahoma wants to be in your yard and your house.

If you want to get ahead of it, spring is the perfect time to take action. Here’s what you can focus on.

Deal With Standing Water Before the Mosquitoes Do

Spring rains create standing water in all the usual places: clogged gutters, low spots in the yard, tarps and pool covers, plant saucers, and kids' toys left outside. All of it is breeding habitat. So if you’re dealing with mosquitoes and don’t know why, a good first step would be to walk your property after every rain and dump, drain, or flip everything that holds water.

Rain isn’t the only source, though. In Dallas, there is plenty of residential irrigation. And that can create artificial breeding sites no matter what time of year it is. Water will pool around sprinkler heads, drip system runoff, and overwatered sections of lawn. Check your irrigation system early in the season and adjust anything that’s creating standing water.

Inspect for Fire Ant Mounds Weekly

Fire ants ramp up mound-building dramatically in spring. The warm, moist soil conditions in Dallas-area yards are ideal for new colonies to establish. Once a mound is built and the colony is entrenched, it's much harder to deal with.

Walk your yard weekly from early spring through fall and look for new mounds, especially in irrigated areas, garden beds, and along hardscape edges. The earlier you catch a new mound, the easier it is to deal with.

Seal the Home Before Pests Find Their Way In

Spring is when ants, spiders, and rodents start looking for food and moisture. Your home has both. Check the obvious entry points like door sweeps, window seals, and garage door gaps. Then check the less obvious ones like where utilities and plumbing enter the house, as well as foundation cracks. Rodents can even slip in truly odd places like dryer vents that aren’t properly covered.

Rodents can fit through a gap the size of a quarter. Ants need even less. Sealing these entry points before the warm season is one of the highest-return spring maintenance tasks you can do.

It’s also a good idea to clean the garage while you’re at it. Cluttered garages with open food storage and standing cardboard are an invitation for rodents and insects. Secure food in sealed containers and don’t leave obvious places for them to hide if they manage to still get in.

Trim Vegetation and Check for Nests

Trim shrubs and vegetation away from the exterior walls of your home. Dense plantings against the house create a highway for pests to move from the yard to your home.

It’s also smart to check eaves, soffits, and ground-level areas for wasp nests before colonies have a chance to fully establish. A little nest in March can be knocked down with a broom. A big nest in July that’s the size of a basketball could be a huge problem and dangerous to take down without professional help.

Schedule Professional Treatment Before Peak Season

Dallas is warm for most of the year, so the pest trouble never really eases off. That’s a long stretch to handle on your own. So scheduling professional pest control early in the spring gives you a chance to get ahead of the pests before summer heat pushes them into peak activity.

Multi-pest treatment plans from Mosquito Squad of Dallas - Lake Highlands address mosquitoes, ticks, fire ants, wasps, spiders, and more in a single service. Then after the initial treatment, we come back to re-treat every three weeks so the pests don’t get a chance to regroup.

Ready to get your Dallas property prepped for pest season? Call Mosquito Squad of Dallas - Lake Highlands at (214) 506-2823 or contact us online for a free quote.