Month: August 2019

Most mosquitoes that bite you are not going to make you sick. They’re just going to leave a red, itchy welt on your skin. But, if the wrong mosquito bites you, you could get very sick. Some diseases that can be carried by mosquitoes can have serious symptoms and even lead to death. If you are looking to protect your family from these diseases, it is important to understand how mosquitoes spread diseases and how you can prevent the spread of these diseases.

Mosquitoes aren’t born with diseases. They acquire them after they hatch. The way they acquire them is from biting animals or humans. If a mosquito hatches in your yard and bites an animal in your yard that is carrying a transmittable disease, it can become infected and transmit the disease to you or someone in your family.

The most dangerous mosquito-borne disease in the United States is West Nile virus. It is the cause of several deaths every year. Mosquitoes get this virus from bird populations. Fortunately, incidents of this disease are low in Nashville. But they are on the rise and all residents should be aware of this threat.

There are several other mosquito-borne diseases that have cases in the United States. They are Dengue fever, yellow fever, Chikungunya, malaria, Zika, and several forms of encephalitis. Some of these are endemic (local to the U.S.) and some occur in outbreaks caused by travel cases.

5 Top Tips for DIY Mosquito Control

• Reduce stagnant water in your yard. These are used as mosquito breeding sites.
• Reduce humidity in your landscaping to make it less inviting for mosquitoes to hide in.
• Use protection when you go out into your yard if you do not have ongoing mosquito reduction service from a licensed provider. Mosquito repellent is the number-one product for preventing bites. If you don’t want to spray chemicals on your skin, consider spraying it on your clothing or choose a natural repellent like oil of lemon eucalyptus.
• Create screened-in areas for outdoor recreation.
• Add insect repellent plants to your landscaping. Keep in mind that many of these plants need to be activated by touch in order to release their mosquito deterrent smells. When you touch them, you can also rub the oils on your skin for natural protection.

For a complete residential pest control plan that includes mosquito reduction service at a price that won’t break your budget, contact All-American Pest Control. We service the Greater Nashville area with industry-leading pest control and the highest level of customer service. We can help you protect your family from potentially dangerous mosquitoes.

There are a few critters that can break into East Nashville homes and make noises in attic spaces. The two most likely suspects are mice and squirrels. Attic spaces are perfect for squirrels that like to live above ground in tree holes. They’re also ideal for mice because attics offer lots of places to nest and explore. If you’re curious which of these two pests might be in your attic spaces, here are a few ways you can tell.

The Noises They Make

If you’re not in your attic and you hear bumping or crashing sounds, like something is moving around up there, it is more likely to be a squirrel than a mouse. Mice are much smaller than squirrels and much quieter. But, if you hear scraping or bumping in a ceiling that you know is below an attic space, you might have mice. Those little rodents make a lot more noise when they’re inside walls, ceilings and floor voids.

When They Make Noises

Mice are mostly nocturnal animals. Squirrels are diurnal. Mice are waking up as you’re going to sleep and squirrels are waking up when you wake up. If you’re hearing noises in the day, it is likely to be a squirrel. If you’re hearing noises at night, it is not likely to be a squirrel, unless it is a female taking care of her young.

Damage

If you know how mice break into your home, you can look for signs of entry and rule out squirrels as your invaders. Mice often use their teeth to chew small holes larger, such as a tiny gap in the seal around a door or window frame, pipe, or wire conduit. They may chew through a door sweep or weatherstripping on an exterior door. They might chew a vent cover to get in.

Droppings

When mice get into a home, they can cause big problems because they don’t stay in attic spaces. They explore homes from top to bottom. As they do, they’ll leave tiny black droppings for you to find. Look for these in secluded places. Squirrels, on the other hand, are more likely to stay in your attic.

What to Do When You Hear Noises

You may be tempted to go up into your attic to see what is going on up there. Keep in mind that a momma squirrel protecting her young or a cornered squirrel can be very aggressive. It is best to have a service professional take a look and offer a comprehensive solution to arrest your pest problem and prevent continued entry. All-American Pest Control provides the highest level of pest control services for homes and businesses in East Nashville and throughout Middle Tennessee. Contact us for a free home pest control evaluation. We’re here to help.

During the summer months, fire ants are an inescapable reality. They show up at picnics. They show up at backyard cookouts. They show up when we tend to our landscaping or just when we’re trying to relax in the yard. When they get inside, they can become even more of a problem. Fire ant infestations can be more than just a harmless nuisance. They can present a serious threat to infants, sick people, the elderly, and anyone who can’t get away from their painful stings. If you or someone in your home has an allergic reaction to the venom of fire ants, it can lead to a hospital visit. So it is important to know everything you can about keeping fire ants out of your yard. Here are the do’s and don’ts of fire ant control.

The Don’ts

Having a fire ant infestation can be very frustrating but don’t let it drive you to do something that could lead to a far worse situation. Here are some things others have tried that do not work and that can be dangerous:

Don’t spray chemicals to kill fire ants. This can make your problem worse by causing the fire ant colonies to split. So rather than one colony, you end up with two or more. Chemicals can also present many dangers. They can be ingested by a family pet. They can be brought into sensitive areas of your home on the fire ants and other pests that are highly resistant to chemicals. They can also be spread to garden vegetables if you have a garden.

Don’t pour dangerous things into fire ant holes. This won’t kill those ant colonies. Fire ants’ tunnels can be quite extensive. You’re not going to get them by trying to flood, burn, or obliterate them.

The Do’s

• Seal your exterior walls to help prevent entry.
• Keep exterior trash in seal receptacles to reduce food options.
• Reduce standing water in your yard. Fire ants are drawn to locations that have a water source.
• If you have pets that go outdoors or livestock that live on your property, put food down only during mealtimes.
• Bait is by far the most effective way to eliminate fire ant colonies, but there are many ways baits can be ineffective. The best solution is to hire a licensed and experienced service professional to apply this pest control.

For assistance with fire ant control in Murfreesboro, contact All-American Pest Control. Our certified and highly trained service professionals know what is required to reduce fire ant colonies in your yard and help you keep those ants out of your home.

What happens when you reduce the hours your employees work, offer three day weekends, and increase pay to keep salaries the same? The results are actually surprising—so surprising that we’ve been getting a lot of attention from television news stations around the country because of our recent success with our decision to go to a 4-day work week. Our story has aired on Fox 17; News Channel 5; WSBT out of South Bend, Indiana; WLOS in Greenville, South Carolina; WCHS in Charleston, West Virginia; and other stations!
 
At All-American Pest Control, we have always put an emphasis on taking care of our employees. Not only is it the right thing to do, it is good for business. Happy employees make happy customers. A few years ago, when we were faced with rapid growth and difficulty finding and retaining full-time employees, increasing our benefits package seemed to make the most sense.

While drawing new, high-quality employees and retaining them was certainly the goal, at the heart of the change in benefits was a desire to help our service team members find a good work/life balance. With a reduced commitment at work, they would have more time to take care of family needs, health needs, and odd jobs around the house. Plus, they’d have more downtime, which really helps to recharge the batteries! We knew that this would have a positive result on our service team.
 
You might think that reducing employee hours would result in less work being done but we found the opposite to be true. Our service team members are more productive than they’ve ever been before. When you treat people right, they do right by you. And most importantly, they treat customers right. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, giving our customers the best service possible.
 
Along with increasing employee morale and productivity, this change in benefits also had the desired effect on our ability to attract and retain great people. Since January of 2018, when the change went into effect, we’ve grown 20% and 2018 was a record-breaking year for us.
 
If you own a business and you’re considering adopting a 4-day work week, we highly recommend it. We’ve seen great results and we think you will too. It pays to treat people right.

Did the description of this article capture your attention? Does it sound like a headline for a news story you would want to know about? Venomous spider infestations happen quite often in Tennessee. Usually, it is the brown recluse spider causing the trouble. While black widow spiders can get into our homes, they don’t prefer to. The brown recluse, on the other hand, can do quite well in a home and reproduce a startling number of spiders. When infestations are discovered, many spiders are often found. Should this be a cause for concern? While there are many reasons to avoid the brown recluse spider, they aren’t quite the ‘things of nightmares’ many would have us believe. It is important to understand truth from fiction, especially when it comes to addressing this pest threat. Today, we’re going to dispel a few myths and give you a few facts that are worth being concerned about.

Myths

• A bite from a black widow spider is not likely to kill you. While you can get quite sick, most people are treated for these bites and recover. The mortality rate is quite low.
• A black widow spider and a brown recluse spider will not hunt you down to bite you. They do not consider you to be prey. You can get bitten, however, if you accidentally startle one or press up against one.
• All brown recluse bites do not lead to significant necrosis. Most often, the lesion that forms at the site of the bite wound remains small.

Fact

• Brown recluse multiply in structures and can become a significant threat because their venom doesn’t just cause necrosis. Symptoms of brown recluse bites include fever, chills, pain at the site of the bite wound, nausea, joint pain, muscle pain, weakness, and in very rare cases seizures or coma.
• If a brown recluse spider bites you while you sleep and inflicts a wound in a sensitive location, even a small amount of necrosis can create a big problem.
• Brown recluse and black widow spiders like to hide in holes. For this reason, they get into footwear, climb into unmade beds, explore crumpled towels or clothing bunched up on the floor, etc. Always shake items out before wearing or using them. And always check for spiders before you get into bed.
• All-American Pest Control is aware of the threat brown recluse spiders can present. This has led us to develop 3 pest control programs that include monitoring and management of brown recluse.

If you live in Mt. Juliet and you want the best protection possible for brown recluse and other dangerous pests, we can help. Reach out to us today and request a free home evaluation. We’ll let you know what pest pressures you’re dealing with and guide you toward a plan that is specific for your needs and your budget.

If we were to give you a list of the common ants in Tennessee, you probably wouldn’t be surprised to find pharaoh ants and acrobat ants on the list—that is, if you know how to tell these two ants apart from other ants. While these two aren’t on our list of Nashville’s most frustrating ants, they are very common ants that can create real frustration for Gallatin homeowners because of their plentiful populations and ability to mobilize quickly. If you’re wondering how to keep them out of your Gallatin home, we have good news for you: You don’t need to know how to properly identify them. The reduction and control strategies for pharaoh ants and acrobat ants is the same for almost all other pest ants (with the exception of only fire ants and, to some extent, carpenter ants).

Control of pharaoh ants, acrobat ants, and other ants that accidentally get into Gallatin homes is pretty simple. It requires:

The controlling of moisture around your home. These ants are drawn to conditions of moisture. If you have a damp foundation perimeter, you’re going to have more ants. You can prevent this by making sure your gutter system is free of obstructions, trim tree branches to allow the sunlight to dry your topsoil, and put space between the plants in your landscaping to let the airflow through and dry things out on the surface.

The controlling of organic debris. If you have sticks, leaves, woodpiles, and other organic debris in your yard, ants populations will flourish. Make sure you keep your foundation perimeter cleaned up. This will reduce ant activity near your home and reduce your chances of accidental entry.

A detailed inspection of your exterior walls and sealing of entry points. If ants can easily get into your home, you’re going to get more infestations. Use a caulking gun to seal gaps around window and door frames and pipes that pass through your foundation wall, and to fill in holes created by rodents. Check your door sweeps and weatherstripping and make sure they are creating a good seal.

A Controlling of food sources. Open trash is an open invitation for ants. Ants will also be drawn to an abundance of bugs around your home. Moisture control helps with the reduction of bugs, but the best solution for pest reduction is routine service visits from a licensed professional.

All-American Pest Control provides the highest level of pest control service for homes in Gallatin and throughout Middle Tennessee. We can help you reduce ant populations and reduce the bugs that ants feed on in your yard. Reach out to us for assistance with this essential service.

We cover a lot of important information about pests in this little blog of ours. If you’ve come looking for helpful tips about mice, you’ve come to the right place. Here, you can learn how mice break into Middle Tennessee homes and businesses, problems mice cause in Nashville homes, and other essential things. Today, we’re going to condense this information down into a few things every Spring Hill resident should know about mice.

1. Mice aren’t harmless.

When mice get into Spring Hill homes, they can present more problems than you might think. They bring ticks, fleas, mites, and other parasites in with them. They can create holes in your exterior that can allow rainwater to damage your home and cause mold issues. They can spread harmful bacteria and diseases to your foods, dishes, silverware, and food-prep areas. They can chew into stored boxes and damage valuable keepsakes. They leave droppings and urine in many locations. We could go on and on but, hopefully, you get the point. Mice aren’t harmless visitors.

2. Mice are hard to remove and exclude.

You might think that the answer to a mouse infestation is to throw some traps down. But traps fail to control mice in many ways. If you put traps in the wrong places, positioned in the wrong way, in the wrong numbers, or with the wrong bait, you may not catch any mice at all. If you do catch mice, you may think you solved your problem, only to have mice quietly sneaking around your home and continuing to make your family sick and damaging your property.

3. Professional mouse control is a science.

You might think that a pest professional is just going to lay traps down, catch a few mice and hand you a bill. While this may be the case with some pest control companies, it is not the case when you hire an expert. The educated and experienced service professionals at All-American Pest Control use techniques and products that have been field-tested and are known to work. When your home is given the all-clear, you know that there is a very good chance that you don’t have any mice in your home because your service professional would see evidence during routine monitoring.

Mice 101

What you need to know most about mice would not be taught in a college course on mice. You don’t need to know all of the many species of mice that can get into your home and all of the many ways they differ in their habits and habitat preferences. What you need to know most is that they can present serious threats and that those threats are best addressed with the assistance of an educated pest control professional.

For rodent control in Spring Hill, contact All-American Pest Control. Our highly trained and experienced service professionals are standing by to assist you.

Have you finally decided to take the leap and get the pest control you know you need? Are you done with finding cockroaches in your pantry, spiders in your cellar, and mice droppings in the cabinet under your sink? Have you had enough of centipedes crawling on your foot while you’re taking a shower, stink bugs getting into your home every fall, and mosquitoes feasting on you in your own backyard? Great! But now comes the hard part. There aren’t only a lot of pests that get into your home; there are a lot of pest control companies that promise to keep them out and a lot of year-round pest control options available. It can feel overwhelming. Here are some key things to think about as you make this important decision.

How to Choose the Right Company

Check the company out online. Reputable companies, like All-American Pest Control, give their credentials on their “about us” page. This is a good place to see how long a company has been in business, how they solve pest problems, and how much of a priority they put on environmentally-friendly pest control options.

Look to see if the company you’re looking into has been awarded the QualityPro Seal of excellence from the National Pest Management Association, like the service team at All-American has. This is a 3rd-party auditing process that tests a company in important areas such as business operations, environmental stewardship, consumer relations, employee education and more.

Check out their reviews—really check them out. Take a moment to look past the number of stars and see what people are saying on Google and other review resources. Look for examples where things didn’t go quite right and see how the company responded. Pest control is hard. If all you see are glowing reviews, something is wrong. There is a relationship between a pest control company and its customers. Reviews are a great way to see how professional and attentive a company is when problems arise.  

How to Choose the Right Plan

There are basically two kinds of pest control and there is a little crossover. Yard protection is just what it sounds like. It helps to reduce pests in your yard. Home protection can be a mixture. Most home protection happens around the foundation perimeter of your home. When pests get in, or if you need pests removed before you move to year-round service, interior treatments will be necessary. Find a plan that gives you coverage for both exterior and interior issues, like our All-For-One Complete Care.

For residential pest control in Franklin and throughout Middle Tennessee, you can trust the team at All-American Pest Control to give you the service you need. Reach out to us to talk. We’re happy to give answers to your questions.