Guide To Tick-Related Illness For Knoxville Residents

Guide To Tick-Related Illness For Knoxville Residents

You probably know by now that tick-borne illnesses are on the rise. According to the CDC, Lyme disease alone has doubled over the past twenty years. This can present a serious health threat to your dog, your cat, your children, and anyone else living in your home. Here is a quick guide to help you understand this threat.

Tick-Borne Diseases that Affect Dogs

Dogs are most affected by the diseases that ticks can carry. There are many reasons for this but one of the most noteworthy is that dogs aren’t as hypersensitive to changes in their environments, like cats are. When a tick gets on a cat, it is usually removed quickly, and quick removal can prevent the spread of illness.

Some of the many diseases that ticks can transmit to dogs are Lyme disease, canine ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, canine babesiosis, canine bartonellosis, canine anaplasmosis, and canine hepatozoonosis. All of these come with their own set of symptoms. If you have a dog, take the time to research each of these so you can recognize the warning signs.

Tick-Borne Diseases that Affect Cats

Cats are less likely to contract tick-borne diseases, but they’re not immune. And while they can still get sick from tick diseases, their resistance to illness could increase your exposure to serious illnesses such as cat scratch fever, an illness that can cause blindness if your cat licks you near your eyes.

The key diseases spread to cats are haemobartonellosis, tularemia, cytauxzoonosis, ehrlichiosis, and babesiosis. Spend some time researching these and discuss with your veterinarian some strategies for protecting your cats, and yourself, from ticks.

Tick-Borne Diseases that Affect People

Humans can also be impacted by tick-borne disease. While Lyme Disease gets all the press, there are many diseases that are spread from tick to human. Here’s the short list: Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, Powassan virus, ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, Colorado tick fever, and Southern tick-associated rash illness.

Tick Prevention

  • Personal protection: Apply mosquito repellent on your legs. Avoid tall grass. Wear bright-colored clothing so you can see ticks crawling up. Check for ticks after being outside.
  • Pet protection: Make sure your pets have collars and other tick-prevention products.
  • Reduce moisture around your home: Ticks need moisture to live. The drier you can make your landscaping, the fewer ticks you’ll have.
  • Control wildlife: Animals bring ticks into your yard and into your home. Everything you do to prevent wildlife activity will have an impact on tick populations.
  • Treatments: Professional treatments from a licensed pest control provider can destroy ticks and mosquitoes in your yard.

For assistance with tick & mosquito control in the Knoxville area, call on Russell’s Pest Control. Our licensed and experienced service professionals are here to help.

How to Tell if Professional Mosquito Control is Right for You

How to Tell if Professional Mosquito Control is Right for You

If you can’t enjoy your backyard for more than a few minutes without getting bitten by mosquitoes, that might be a sign that it’s time to secure professional mosquito treatment. Mosquitoes are at their peak in activity as we enter the long, hot, final days of summer. For Tennessee homeowners, mosquitoes can become a big problem, as they can transmit disease and ruin summer fun. The good news is that professional mosquito treatment can be highly effective and let you get back to enjoying your summertime activities.

 

Peak Mosquito Season

Late summer is full-on mosquito season. There has been plenty of time for mosquitoes to lay eggs and for those to hatch and become adult mosquitoes, who are also laying their eggs. If they’ve found a nice bit of water in your yard, they may be relentless with their attack on your property and family. Late morning and early evening can be unbearable, as mosquitoes are typically active and biting during this time.

 

Problems Mosquitoes Bring to Tennessee

Mosquitos are vectors for various diseases from Zika Virus to West Nile Virus. There is no way to tell from looking at a mosquito or its bite whether a mosquito is infected or not. This makes all mosquitoes a problem. Even if mosquitoes weren’t disease carriers, their bites are irritating and unwanted. Some people only have a mild reaction, resulting in a small itchy bump on their skin that lasts a few hours. Others can develop large welts that last for days, causing itching that is so bad that scratching the bites can cause infection and scars.

 

Signs That it’s Time for Professional Treatment 

If you find yourself going back inside a few minutes after going outside because mosquitoes are attacking, it may be time to call a professional. If your children return from playing outdoors with bites all over, it’s time. If you can see mosquitoes swarming around your hedges, pool, or the perimeter of your property, call for treatment.

 

How Professional Mosquito Treatment Works    

At Russell’s Pest Control, we take a three-step approach to reducing mosquitoes on your Tennessee property. Initially, our technician will inspect your property and identify the locations where mosquitoes are likely to breed and hide. Next, treatments are applied to the targeted areas, including hiding spots and breeding sites. Finally, follow up treatments will continue monthly through mosquito season to ensure continuing protection. Contact us to schedule your consultation, or to begin treatment, so you can enjoy the remaining summer days mosquito free!  

Don’t Let Flies Invade Your Knoxville Home in the Summer

Don't Let Flies Invade Your Knoxville Home in the Summer

You don’t want flies invading your Knoxville home this summer, so it’s time to take precautions to keep them out. There are a variety of ways that flies can get into your home. Once they are inside, they are nothing but an annoying nuisance. You can take steps to prevent them as much as possible. However professional treatment can be worthwhile for fly-infested homes.

 

How Flies Get into Homes

We should be wondering how flies don’t get into homes rather than how they do get in. They are so small it’s a wonder our Knoxville homes aren’t constantly filled with flies.

 

Let’s look at some of the most common ways flies get in, from house flies to fruit flies:

  • Through the front door. Whether from kids running in and out or leaving the door open to let in the fresh air, it’s easy for flies to come right in.
  • Through the window. Whether you have the windows open this summer or you have tears or holes in your screen, flies will make their way in.
  • In your belongings. From groceries to house plants, anything you carry in from outside has the potential to harbor flies – especially fruit flies.

Why Flies are a Nuisance

Most people don’t enjoy the company of pests in their homes. Flies can be particularly annoying as they buzz around your head or divebomb your food. Due to their habits of hanging around trash, dirty drains, and feces, they can also carry contaminants. When they land on the surfaces within your home, they can transmit these disease-carrying contaminants to your family.

 

Preventing Flies

There are several things Knoxville homeowners can do this summer to prevent flies as much as possible:

 

  • Keep doors and windows closed unless you have sturdy screens in place.
  • Make sure that screens are in good repair with no holes or tears.
  • Take the trash out frequently and store food in airtight containers to reduce food sources.
  • Clean drains and garbage disposals frequently.
  • Check around your home to repair cracks and seal openings, wherever possible.

Professional Treatment for Flies

You may spend time searching for DIY methods of fly removal should you find yourself with a fly-infested home. Most of the time these methods are futile and are a waste of time while allowing your fly population to grow. One or two stray flies in your Knoxville home aren’t of much concern. However, if you are regularly dealing with flies or large populations of flies, including house flies, blow flies, or fruit flies, it’s time to contact a professional.

 

At Russell’s Pest Control we have 40 years’ experience ridding Knoxville-area homes of flies and other nuisance pests. Contact us for options in keeping your Tennessee home free from flies this summer.

Is My Knoxville Home At Risk For A Cockroach Infestation This Summer?

Is My Knoxville Home At Risk For A Cockroach Infestation This Summer?

Cockroaches are pests that are particular and predictable about the locations they prefer to inhabit. If your Knoxville home is desirable to cockroaches you may be at risk for an infestation this summer. You may be wondering what makes a home attractive to cockroaches and how you can avoid attracting them to yours. There are mistakes homeowners make that can put their homes at risk. Learn what you can do to avoid becoming a target for cockroaches this summer.

 

Why do cockroaches thrive around Tennessee in the summer?

Cockroaches are inherently tropical by nature and thrive in hot, moist conditions. The Knoxville, Tennessee area provides the perfect climate for cockroaches. Add in tourists, entertainment, crowds, food, excess trash, and close living quarters and you have a recipe for increased cockroach activity.

 

Factors that Lead to Infestations

Cockroaches live and breed in filthy conditions. Consider the most disgusting things you can think of and cockroaches will call them home. This includes garbage dumps, animal feces, trash bins, gutters, sewers, pipes, and drains.  Cockroaches also like to hide when disturbed, so cracks, crevices, and clutter are key.

 

Mistakes Homeowners Could be Making

Stockpiling excess trash and clutter in and around your home is one of the biggest mistakes homeowners make that plays a big part in attracting cockroaches. Dirty drains, backed up garbage disposals, and leaking or cracked pipes can attract cockroaches, as well. Food that is not stored properly or a home in disrepair may also act as an invitation to cockroaches.

 

Professional Treatment

Cockroaches are vectors for several diseases and pathogens.  When they invade your home, you run the risk of you or your family members becoming ill.  Even if you keep your home spotless and follow all of the tips for keeping cockroaches out, you may still find yourself with an infestation.

 

Don’t waste time using DIY treatments and harmful chemicals. You may make the problem worse by choosing the wrong products or missing some of the cockroaches and causing them to scatter and become more difficult to eliminate.

 

Contact Russell’s Pest Control at the first sign of cockroaches, or even before you have a cockroach problem, for preventative treatments. We have over 40 years of experience eliminating cockroaches and protecting Knoxville-area homes from infestations.  Keep your Tennessee home cockroach free this summer with the help of Russel’s Pest Control.

Tips to Keep Little Black Ants Out of Your Kitchen

Tips to Keep Little Black Ants Out of Your Kitchen

 

If you read anything about little black ants, you’ll usually come across the phrase that they are “just a nuisance” because they can’t damage the structure of your house like a carpenter ant can. But if you’ve walked into your kitchen and seen a line of little black ants marching across your countertop, it probably didn’t feel like “just a nuisance.”

Nope, ants in the kitchen are a big problem when it’s your kitchen. You want them out of there as soon as possible, and you don’t want to have anything to do with any food the ants have touched.

If you think ants are more active in the summer, you’re right. Ants are busy eating food and storing up fat. They enter your kitchen in search of food or water, and often they are richly rewarded for their efforts.

Keep Ants Out

Like any homeowner, you want to keep ants out of your kitchen, so what should you do?

One of the most effective things you can do inside your house is to be sure any source of food or water is unavailable to ants that do get in. This includes:

  • Keeping food stored in glass or plastic containers with tight-fitting lids.
  • Keeping countertops, floors, and sinks clean of crumbs, dropped food, and spills.
  • Keeping faucets valves sealed and free of drips.

Before ants get in your house, they are attracted to your property by something in your yard, so you want to make your property as inhospitable to ants as possible. To keep ants away:

  • Keep your trash in sealed containers.
  • Remove any sources of food from your yard. (For example, take up the dog’s bowl after your pet has finished eating.)
  • Fix leaking spigots and any place that rain can puddle to eliminate water sources.
  • Seal up cracks and gaps where ants could enter through the foundation or exterior walls.
  • Make sure doors and windows are tight by repairing or replacing screens, door sweeps, and weather stripping.

While these steps will help, the best way to prevent ants from being a nuisance or worse is to partner with Russell’s Pest Control.  Our professional technicians can treat the perimeter of your property, creating a barrier to keep ants from entering.

Call us today to learn about our menu of pest control services and to set up an appointment. Don’t wait for ants to enter your kitchen, let Russell’s Pest Control keep them out.