Mosquito, Tick & Pest Control in Center Point, AL
In the first week of September 2021, our office called a Center Point homeowner who had us on the schedule for mosquito control, and the call had nothing to do with mosquitoes. Fall armyworms were chewing through lawns across the state that year, in numbers Alabama Extension entomologists said the state hadn't seen since the 1970s. We wanted to know whether her grass looked right. It did. She hadn't noticed a thing, and that's the reason you ask early.
Some of the most useful notes on our Center Point accounts aren't about mosquitoes at all. They're about the lawn and the front porch, and a good part of this page follows them there. We're the Greater Birmingham Mosquito Squad, a veteran-owned family business that started treating yards around Birmingham in January 2018, and we've been working this town ever since.
A City Since 2002, a Community Long Before That
Center Point started as a crossroads near a spring. Barber Springs, off Polly Reed Road at the head of Five Mile Creek, is the spot the settlement grew up around, and it's on the city logo today. According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, a dependable water supply was found in 1947, and growth took off from there. By 1967 Center Point was counted as the largest unincorporated community in the country, at 64,000 people. It didn't become a city until March 2002.
We bring that history up for a practical reason. A town that's been settled since the postwar years has had plenty of time to grow in its lawns and its shade, and each of those matters for a different pest below.
What an Armyworm Fall Looks Like on a Center Point Lawn
Alabama Extension's guide to controlling fall armyworms on lawns says the worms usually turn up in late summer or early fall, and that they favor well-fertilized, well-kept bermudagrass. The moths ride in on air currents from Texas and Florida every year, so one quiet season doesn't say much about the next.
October is a good month to look. The giveaway Extension points to is predators: birds working one patch of lawn over and over, or paper wasps walking the grass instead of flying past it, because both are hunting caterpillars. The other clue is fuzzy gray egg clusters on pale surfaces around the yard, with gutters and fence posts among the usual spots.
If you're suspicious, try the soap flush Extension describes: two tablespoons of liquid dish soap in a gallon of water, poured over a square foot or two of turf. Caterpillars hiding in the thatch will crawl up to the surface. If they show, call us before the patch spreads. Our armyworm control is built around getting ahead of them before the lawn shows it.
Fire Ants in the Same Grass
The same grass can carry fire ants most of the year, and we handle those through Yard Defender, one of the two pieces inside Complete Home & Yard. That plan costs $119 monthly and also picks up fleas plus the house side covered further down. If you've regraded a bed or reseeded a bare spot this year, read our post on why fire ants hit new-build yards in Hoover first. Sunny, freshly turned soil is what they look for, and a dug-up corner of an older Center Point yard offers the same thing on a smaller scale.
Mosquito Control on a Center Point Lot
Mosquitoes spend the bright part of the day low and out of the sun. Think about where shade holds on your own lot: under the hedge along the driveway, inside the ivy on a fence, behind the shrubs at the corner of the house, or in the dark gap under the porch steps. Our Mosquito Barrier Treatment goes onto that shaded cover. Each visit is $74, and they come back around on a 21-day cycle as long as it's warm out. Most springs our first Birmingham-area treatments go out before March is over, and there are still Center Point barrier visits on our calendar in the back half of October.
What the barrier can't do is empty the water they're hatching in. After a storm, take a lap around the yard and look for the small stuff: the folds of a tarp over the mower, a grill cover sagging in the middle, a recycling bin lid that flipped and filled, the dog's outdoor water bowl nobody has rinsed in a week. Each one can raise a batch of mosquitoes before the next rain, and you'll rarely spot it from the porch. That's why tipping out containers stays part of good mosquito control even with a barrier in place.
Some customers would rather we used plant-based products, and that's fine. The natural treatment option we carry is built on essential oils, and it's easy to request at booking.
The Bugs That Came In With the Packages
This past April, a Center Point family texted our office photos from their front porch. Tiny black insects, smaller than an ant, with wings they didn't seem to use, kept collecting on delivery boxes left by the door, and the family was convinced that was how the bugs were getting inside. The office uploaded the photos to the account.
We won't guess at a species from a description, and you shouldn't either. A clear photo is worth more than a long explanation on the phone, so if something odd is crowding your porch, send pictures when you call. In the meantime, the habit is simple. Bring packages in soon after they land, and don't let a stack of empty cardboard build up by the back door or in the garage. Our own Home Shield page points out that roaches can travel into a house inside boxes, which is reason enough to treat cardboard as a way in.
Home Shield costs $99 monthly and it's an exterior service, working along the foundation and around the windows and vents where roaches and other crawling insects find their way in.
When Mice Are Part of the Problem
Home Shield doesn't cover rodents. If mice are getting into your attic or kitchen, that's the job for Complete Home & Yard, which adds rodent control to the house treatment and the full-lawn work above. For a lot of homes here, that one plan ends up covering most of what this page talks about.
Working With Our Office
Our office is at 421 2nd Avenue, Birmingham, AL 35204, under License No. 2025-7001142 and 2025-5000111. Once you book, we'll have your first visit finished in 48 business hours or less, weather permitting, or you don't pay for it. Nobody signs a contract with us. Veterans and first responders get 10% off, and teachers do too. Anyone who sends us a neighbor picks up $75 through our referral program. Nobody needs to stay home for a visit, and you're notified once the technician is headed your way.
Close by, we also treat yards in Irondale to the south, Pinson up the valley, Trussville to the east, and the Birmingham neighborhoods along the city line. Reach the office at (205) 900-3528, or use the online quote form.
