Pest Control in Allen, TX

We Studied Mosquitoes In Allen, TX: Here's What You Need To Know

Mosquitoes are common insects found across the majority of the United States. They become active when temperatures rise to 50 degrees or above. In most areas, mosquitoes are only active from late spring to early fall. Here in Allen, Texas, our warmer-than-average year-round temperatures allow mosquitoes to remain active for much longer. When it comes to dealing with these irritating insects, it’s best to understand more about them. Here are a few things you should know about mosquitoes in our area:

• There are about 175 different mosquito species found in the United States. Texas is home to most species of mosquitoes (85 of them).
• Mosquitoes are considered the most dangerous animals in the world due to their part in spreading many different diseases. Malaria, dengue, and West Nile virus are just a few of the illnesses mosquitoes are responsible for spreading.
• Only female mosquitoes feed on blood. Both male and female mosquitoes feed on plant nectar, but females need the protein in the blood to nourish their eggs. 
• Mosquitoes depend on water to survive. Without any available sources of water, mosquito eggs won’t hatch into larvae.

At All-Safe Pest & Termite, we work hard to ensure your Allen home or business property is protected from all kinds of pests, including mosquitoes. Don’t allow mosquitoes to live on your property and spread diseases to your family, contact All-Safe for immediate mosquito control services and treatment options. 

Keeping Rodents Out of Your Allen, Texas Home

Mice and rats are no joke: they can be incredibly harmful to your property as they chew through building materials and gnaw on wires. They can also damage stored furniture and other items you have in storage. As they move through your home, they cause contamination with their urine, feces, and dirty hair. If all of this isn't bad enough, they bring friends with them. A single mouse can have as many as a hundred seed ticks on its body. Trust us when we say, you're better off not having these critters inside your home. That's why we've put together this quick guide for mouse and rat exclusion. Here's what you need to know.

It’s important to understand that there are many key factors that can drive rodents to your yard. Part of successfully deterring them involves making your home as unappealing as possible to them. Steps you can take include:

• Keeping your grass cut, plucking your weeds, and keeping your vegetation trimmed. Rodents prefer a yard with overgrowth.
• Removing unnecessary clutter from your yard. All rodents will use objects in your yard as a place to hide. The more hiding places you have, the more interesting your yard will be. The Norway rat will choose a yard that has groups of objects because it prefers to create burrows underneath junk piles. They'll also get under concrete slabs, rocks, shrubs, and other structures or landscaping.
• Protecting food sources in your yard. If you have vegetables, berry bushes, fruit trees, or some other food source, you should install fencing that will keep rodents out. Be sure to install it with at least one foot of the fence below the ground.
• Removing food sources. Mice and rats will eat birdseed. If you have feeders, consider putting them far away from your home.
• Keep your landscaping trimmed to make rodents feel exposed.
• Removing objects that are near your home, especially woodpiles, leaf piles, etc.
• Installing fencing to keep rodents from getting into the voids underneath structures.
• Examining your foundation and exterior walls for tiny entry points and seal them.
• Keeping your trash stored in sealed containers.
• Keeping your kitchen and pantry clean.
• Routinely deep cleaning the interior of the home.
• Putting pet food down only during mealtime and storing it securely afterward.
• Addressing plumbing leaks and moisture issues.
• Putting foods that come in cardboard, paper, or thin plastic in glass or hard plastic, sealed containers.
• Putting bagged dog or cat food into sealed plastic totes.

If you want long-term protection against rodents, DIY prevention steps are unfortunately not enough. However, there is another way: contact the pest professionals here at All-Safe Pest & Termite for a comprehensive rodent management plan and start taking your home back from these troublesome invaders. 

Common Termite Warning Signs Found in Allen, TX Homes

Termite infestations can be extremely difficult to identify for the average homeowner on their own, especially if they don’t know what to look for. Worker termites have a strong aversion to light and they avoid exposure to dry air. This keeps them well hidden, most of the time. Here are a few possible exceptions.

Winged Termite Swarmers — Winged termites do not have an aversion to light. In fact, they're drawn to it. When termites develop into alates (termites with wings) they work their way up out of the nest, through the tunnels toward the light. If they emerge inside your home, you're likely to notice them. Unfortunately, most of the time they will find their way outside. When they do, you probably won't notice them because swarms don't last for more than about 30 minutes. Swarmers can emerge, swarm around together, and be gone before you get back from eating out at a fast-food restaurant.

Discarded Wings: When termite swarmers mate, they shed their wings. If a swarm happens while you're gone, you may come back to find tiny white wings on your window sills or on structures outside. These wings are tiny and light. It doesn't take much of a breeze to blow them away. So this sign can be very subtle.

Shelter Tubes: When worker termites go from the soil to the wood of your home, they build shelter tubes up hard surfaces. This is because they can't eat their way through concrete, bricks, and other hard building materials. If they do this on the outside of your foundation walls or interior walls, you may be able to see them. Keep in mind that outside shelter tubes are likely to be hidden. Remember, those termites don't like the light. This leads them to create tubes under decks, porches, patios, stairs, and inside crawl spaces. They also create tubes in hidden places on the interior of a home, such as the backs of closets, inside wall voids, and in the void underneath jetted tubs.

Have you noticed any of the following warning signs of termites around your home? If so, don’t wait: contact the pest control pros at All-Safe today and learn more about how one of our comprehensive termite protection plans can keep your investment protected.

Ant Prevention Tips for Allen, TX Homeowners

Ants are a problem no one wants to have. While all are a nuisance, pharaoh ants and acrobat ants can contaminate food items they come into contact with, fire ants can leave you covered in painful and even dangerous stings, and carpenter ants can literally eat you out of house and home. 
An interior ant infestation can be incredibly difficult to solve once it gets underway, making prevention crucial. Some great tips for limiting ant presence around your home include:

• Fixing any moisture problems inside or around the home, such as leaky pipes or faucets.
• Keeping your trash in sealed containers and routinely wash your containers to avoid attracting ants.
• Sealing gaps around exterior pipes as well as door and window frames.
• Filling in holes created by wood-damaging pests.
• Fixing gaps in the weatherstripping around doors.
• Using duct tape to seal around air conditioning units.
• Fixing damaged screens on windows and doors.
• Patching any cracks that might have formed in foundation walls.

Unfortunately, when it comes to ants, prevention can only take you so far. For long-term protection for your home, the only option is a professional treatment from a certified pest control provider. All-Safe Pest & Termite have provided homes across Texas with safe and effective ant control for decades - contact us today to find out how we can make your ant problems disappear. 

Keeping Wasps And Yellow Jackets Out Of Allen Homes And Yards

Allen, TX falls under siege from stinging insect activity almost all year long. Our hot, dry summer seasons allow these pests to get the upper hand in any home or business, while mild winters and seasonal falls and springs allow for faster spread.

Bees, hornets, yellow jackets, and wasps are just a few of Allen's most problematic pest species. Although all of these animals pose a threat to health and wellbeing, some of these pests are more bothersome than others. More aggressive stinging insects like yellow jackets and wasps can pose a serious threat to people that are allergic to their stings. Worse, they may cause anaphylactic shock, which is an extremely dangerous condition that may lead to hospitalization.

It's impossible to completely reduce your risks of a stinging insect attack in Allen. Not only are their numbers simply too big to ignore, but their prevalence in the heart of Texas makes them simply unavoidable. Instead of looking for a total household prevention plan, it would be wise to consider more practical stinging insect prevention steps that help to avoid infestations near the house.

At All-Safe Pest & Termite, we recommend the following actions:

• Regularly check your home for cracks, crevices, or holes that could serve as an entry point for stinging insects. Be sure to fill or seal any you find, preferably with waterproof expanding foam.
• Keep food and garbage properly sealed and stored away from areas where stinging insects might be present. Don't allow spills or crumbs to remain outside for long, especially during parties or backyard barbecues. The longer food remains unattended, the more interesting it will look to hungry wasps.
• Trim back any trees, bushes, or other vegetation that might be touching your home. This will not only make it harder for stinging insects to access your yard, but will also give you a better view of their movements as well.
• If you have a garden, keep it as far away from your home as possible. If that's not possible, try to at least keep fruits and vegetables from rotting on the ground. The sweet smell of ferment will attract hordes of hungry stinging insects, and prompt them to build nests nearby.

Any form of stinging insect activity should be stopped immediately to prevent illness, pain, or death. Therefore, it is important to call a professional pest control company like All-Safe Pest & Termite if you suspect there may be a nest on your property. Our experienced technicians will safely remove the nest and help keep these pests from coming back.

Give us a call today to discuss some stinging insect prevention steps or treatment solutions. We are looking forward to helping however we can.

Three Things Everyone In Allen Should Know About Cockroaches

Cockroaches are one of the most reviled pests in the Allen area for many good reasons. These disgusting insects not only spread serious types of disease but can also trigger asthma and allergies in sensitive people. Even if you don't have any health concerns, cockroaches are still a major nuisance that nobody wants to deal with -- especially not around your home or business.

Unfortunately, cockroaches are still a very common pest in Allen. In fact, they are one of the most common pests that we get calls about here at All-Safe Pest & Termite. Cockroaches like to live in dark, moist places, making them especially difficult to control. What's worse, their quiet behaviors and sneaky tactics make them almost impossible to locate until the situation is too far gone.

There are three things in particular that Allen home and business owners should know about cockroach activity:

1. Cockroaches are nocturnal creatures, so they are most active at night. This means that they can be very difficult to spot during the day. You won't be likely to see an infestation except for the late hours of the night, long after most people go to sleep. Even if you do stay up to catch them in the act, there's no guarantee that roaches will make themselves visible -- they are extremely difficult to spot around homes and businesses.
2. Cockroaches reproduce extremely fast, meaning that a small infestation can become out of control before you even know it's there. A single female cockroach can lay up to 40 eggs at a time and can produce several hundred offspring in just one year. Even a single pair of cockroaches can become a big colony within a matter of months, wreaking havoc around homes and businesses.
3. Cockroaches like to live in small spaces, often hiding in cracks and crevices around human buildings. They are also attracted to dirty or cluttered environments, which makes them difficult to spot and very difficult to eliminate. Even if you do manage to find the root of the infestation, it will be difficult to get rid of all the roaches without local cockroach control services.

It's clear that roach activity is less than desirable around Allen homes and businesses. But cockroaches aren't necessarily fated to take over your home. Fortunately, these insects can be prevented with some help from the pros at All-Safe Pest & Termite, one of the area's leading providers of local cockroach control services.

Roach relief could be just a single phone call away. When you're ready to make a difference, get in touch with All-Safe Pest & Termite as soon as possible.

Simple & Effective Spider Control Tips For Allen Property Owners

No one wants to find spiders around their home or business in Allen, but unfortunately, these off-putting pests are some of the most common species in Texas.

The vast majority of Texas spiders pose no threat to humans, and rarely if ever get in the way of human activity. However, there are some species that can be dangerous -- and even deadly to certain victims. It's important to identify the different types of spiders that might be lurking around your property, as well as their methods of prevention and long-term control.

Here are a few simple spider control tips for concerned Allen property owners:

1. First, it's important to keep an eye out for potential spider habitats. Spiders like dark, secluded places where they can build their webs undisturbed. Be sure to regularly check behind furniture, in closets, and under sinks for any signs of spider activity. If you do happen to find a web, be sure to remove it immediately.
2. Second, make your property less inviting to spiders by reducing the amount of clutter around your home or business. Spiders like to hide in small spaces, so getting rid of excess clutter will make it more difficult for them to set up shop. Be sure to declutter both inside and outside your property, and pay close attention to areas like sheds, basements, and garden greenhouses.
3. Third, be sure that you seal any cracks or holes around your property that might serve as entry points for spiders. Take a close look at your doors and windows and check for gaps that might need to be filled with caulking or weatherstripping. Additionally, repair any broken screens on windows and doors to keep spiders far away from your place of habitation.

Spider prevention steps are an important part of any holistic pest management program. However, they are rarely enough to eliminate a fully established spider infestation -- especially the ones around Allen, TX. Rather than simply relying on convention or internet tips alone, get the greatest bang for your buck with local spider control services at All-Safe Pest & Termite. Boasting almost 30 years of experience and a long record of success, we have what it takes to protect your Allen property from spider invasions. 

Get signed up for local spider control services from All-Safe Pest & Termite by contacting us at (972) 945-9226 today!

Protecting Yourself From Ticks In Allen

Are you worried about the presence of ticks around your Allen, TX property? You're certainly not alone. These parasites can latch onto your dog, cat, or you, and can cause health problems for both people and pets. Ticks are vectors of disease; depending on the species, they can transmit Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, and more.

If you're dealing with a high number of ticks on your property, it’s important to take steps to protect yourself and your family from these pests. Preventative measures can help reduce tick populations in your yard, keep them out of your home, and protect you from being bitten. Try these tick prevention tips:

• Mow your lawn regularly and cut back excess vegetation.
• Take steps to reduce wild animals on your property, such as removing bird feeders and securing garbage cans.
• Keep your pets on year-round tick medication.
• Use tick repellent and wear long pants to prevent ticks from biting you.

The best way to get rid of ticks in the Allen, TX area is to call in the professionals at All-Safe Pest & Termite. We offer tick control services that are safe, effective, and long-lasting – just ask our outstanding customers!

Call All-Safe Pest & Termite today for quality tick control near you.