Rain tends to flood ant colonies, which sends them looking for higher ground. Additionally, ants tend to stay inside when it rains and after a long stretch of waiting, they feel a strong urge to seek out food.
Wait until treatments dry before using the yard. This usually takes about 30 minutes. Professional pest control treatments are heavily regulated by the EPA, and that includes what is in them and how they are used.
Most professional barrier treatments need about 30 minutes to dry on vegetation and surfaces. Once the product has dried, you can resume normal use of your yard.
Stink bugs don’t bite or sting and they don’t do structural damage when they overwinter in your walls. They simply smell bad and can stain fabric and walls when crushed, which is reason enough to want them gone.
Most mosquitoes are most active at dawn and dusk, but some species, especially the Aedes species, bite aggressively during daylight hours. The time of day you're outside doesn't guarantee protection.
Yes, tick bites are usually painless. That means you can be bitten and infected without ever feeling a thing.
Where there are blacklegged ticks, there is a higher risk of catching Lyme disease. Blacklegged ticks are found in cool, wooded, and humid habitats and are often carried by local wildlife like deer and mice.
The main differences come down to size, appearance, habitat, and the diseases each one carries. In Michigan that mostly means three ticks: the blacklegged (deer) tick, the American dog tick, and the lone star tick.
Spring and early summer are the most dangerous because that's when nymphal blacklegged ticks are most active. They’re tiny and easy to miss, which is why they are most responsible for transmitting Lyme disease.
Most tick bites don't result in illness, but you should watch for a bullseye rash, fever, headache, muscle aches, or fatigue in the days and weeks after a bite. These can signal Lyme disease or another tick-borne illness that needs medical treatment.
Yes, and increasingly so. Michigan Lyme disease cases have surged in recent years, roughly quadrupling between 2022 and 2025, and the state is now classified as a high-incidence area for Lyme disease.
Blacklegged ticks transmit both Lyme disease and Powassan virus. Lyme disease is a common, treatable bacterial infection taking a day or more to spread. Powassan is a rare, fast-acting virus with no specific treatment and a high risk of severe illness.
Spring and summer are the most dangerous stretches for ticks because that's when the nymphs, immature ticks the size of a poppy seed, are most active. They're tiny and easy to miss, and they cause the majority of tick-borne disease cases.
Tick bites resemble small red mosquito bumps, and the tick may remain attached in the center. Minor redness is a normal reaction, but an expanding rash is a warning sign of Lyme disease.
You can, but it’s a lot less likely. Mowed, sunny lawns are openly hostile to ticks because they dehydrate easily when it is hot and dry outside.
