West Nile Still A Threat

The mosquito season in Georgia is officially at its highest point, which is made even more evident by the report of the first human case of West Nile virus for 2017. Health officials in DeKalb County are diligently working to prevent additional infections from occurring, which could prove to be a daunting task, considering this is a particularly bad year in terms of the mosquito threat. So, we’re helping to get the word out about what people can do to reduce the risk of contracting this and other mosquito-borne viruses.

We had a lot of rain in June. This is good and bad news when it comes to mosquitoes. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in any location that can contain water. In fact, a single bottle cap full of water can add several hundred mosquitoes to the population in one season. The heavy rain we got in June caused many containers to overflow and push mosquito eggs out onto the ground, where they were able to be dried in the sun and eliminated. But that rain has set up the conditions for a lot more mosquitoes to develop in September, October and even November–weather permitting.

What you need to know most about this increased population of mosquitoes is that there is something you can do to protect yourself from them. Most people think mosquitoes are an inevitable pest, but they actually aren’t. When you prevent mosquitoes in your yard, you have a wider impact than you think. This is because mosquitoes don’t travel very far in their 2-month lifespan. The typical mosquito isn’t likely to go more than 300 yards from where it was born. That means the mosquitoes that are biting you in your yard probably came from your yard. When you actively work to dry things out and prevent still water from accumulating, you can reduce your chances of being bitten.

Okay. So, what about the mosquitoes that will come into my yard from my neighbor’s yard? This is where it helps to have a professional pest specialist treat your yard. You can make it hard or impossible for mosquitoes to multiply on your property, but that won’t stop your neighbor’s mosquitoes from biting you. This is done by having your yard treated by a professional. Mosquitoes hide from the sun during the day. When they do, they will use shaded locations in your yard. If these are treated with a knockdown agent, those mosquitoes will not only be unable to bite you any longer, they will not be alive to lay eggs in your yard or anyone’s yard.

West Nile virus is a threat in Georgia. But, if we all take part in mosquito abatement, we can significantly reduce the risk that this and other dangerous mosquito-borne diseases present. To learn more, or to schedule service for your Georgia property, give us a call.

West Nile Virus in Knox County

West Nile virus is something that needs to be addressed, and addressed, and addressed! You see, mosquitoes are not, unfortunately, going to disappear overnight. And unless you want to move to Greenland or the Arctic’s, then mosquitoes are a fact of life anywhere and anytime that the weather is warm. What’s sad is that there are many people who still, no matter how many times they hear it, don’t take mosquito control and prevention seriously.

Mosquitoes and the illnesses that they carry are so serious, in fact, that health departments and agencies are monitoring areas here in Tennessee, as well as all over our nation for the presence of illnesses, such as West Nile virus. The lab results at the end of September 2015, confirmed the presence of West Nile virus (WNV) in three areas of Knox County, Tennessee. Following a protocol set forth by the United States Center for Disease Control, the Knox County health Department sprayed the affected areas to reduce the mosquito population and the risk of the WNV spreading to humans.

The Center Disease Control (CDC), publishes and puts forth these following general protective measures for limiting mosquito exposure:

  • Avoid areas with outbreaks. The CDC has a Travelers’ Health website that provides updates on regional disease transmission patterns and outbreaks.
  • Be aware if peak exposure times and places. Peak mosquito time of the day is the cooler twilight periods of the day (dawn and dusk). Try to be extra prepared for these times. Avoiding the outdoors or taking appropriate preventative actions, like wearing insect repellent, can help to reduce the risk of being bite. Avoid all tall grass, woodlands or other highly vegetative and wet areas.
  • Wear appropriate clothing. Cover as much skin as possible. Wear light colored, long sleeved shirts, boots, long pants, and hats. Tuck your shirts and socks into your pants to keep mosquitoes and other biting insects off your body. For extra added protection clothing and camping gear can be treated with Permethrin. Treating with Permethrin repels and kills ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, and other biting insects.

For more information about mosquito prevention advice from the CDC visit their website here.

Keeping the mosquito population at a minimum in your yard can be achieved by following a few preventative steps and utilizing our residential pest control plan, The Active Pest Control Complete plan. This plan will not only gives you all the year-round solutions for common household pests, but it also includes the monitoring and control of rodents, installation of the Sentricon® Termite Colony Elimination System™ with Always Active Pest Control Technology termite bait, and the application of seasonal mosquito reduction services (April – October). These few easy steps can also help keep mosquitoes away:

  • Allow nothing to collect water- no tires, buckets, toys or flower pots because mosquitoes lay eggs in stagnant water.
  • Keep gutters and all water shedding systems working properly to move water quickly away from your home and property.
  • At least once a week empty all standing water from landscaping and bird baths.
  • Fill in low areas on your property to keep mud puddles at a minimum.

Mosquitoes and WNV are a concern that everyone needs to take seriously. It’s time that you called the professionals here at Active Pest Control and seriously get a handle on the mosquito situation in your yard and on your property.

West Nile Virus In GA

Often when we talk about things that we read or hear in the media we say ‘they say’, I wonder many times who ‘they’ is. Well, here in Georgia our health departments have been placing mosquito traps in different parts of our wonderful state to monitor these insects and to get an accurate idea of how many of them are actually carrying the West Nile Virus. In one county, DeKalb County, 81 have tested positive for the West Nile Virus. That’s a lot. Juanette Willis, program director for DeKalb County Board of Health agrees with me. She says, “This is a lot more than the past few years.” When we hear that ‘they’ say that we need to take precautions when dealing with mosquitoes, and when ‘they’ say that there is an increase in the cases of mosquito borne illnesses in our state, we can know that ‘they’ are usually our health departments, doing what they do best, looking out for our health and well-being.

So, here in Macon we should be listening to what ‘they’ say. Mosquitoes should be a concern for everyone. We all need to understand them better and know their habits and weaknesses to aptly prepare ourselves for battle with them. Our yards, school playgrounds, hiking trails, ball fields and parks are just a few of the more common battlegrounds where we will encounter these disease-carrying insects. Here some key prevention tips to help you to arm yourself for battle:

  • Try to avoid being outside during the most active time for mosquitoes; early morning and late afternoon to dusk.
  • Wear light colored, loose fitting clothes that cover as much of your skin as possible. The less exposed skin equals less tempting places for mosquitoes to bite.
  • Wear insect repellent that contains DEET.
  • Consider the benefits of wearing insect repellent clothing and insect netting clothing made to wear over you clothes.
  • Avoid high exposure areas like swamps, muddy ponds, woods, etc.

To keep these biters out of your home here are some easy to do fixes and places to check:

  • Replace or repair all widow and doors screens.
  • Repair or replace all door sweeps.
  • Keep lights turned down at night so as not to draw them in.

To help deter mosquitoes from living and breeding on your property, here are a few things that you can do:

  • Do not allow any standing water of any kind. Mosquitoes can lay eggs in a water filled cap of a 2 liter soda bottle, resulting in hundreds more of these biting insects, so just think how many are in that old tire or bucket.
  • Keep grass trimmed short because mosquitoes use the cool grass as a hiding spot during the hottest times of the day.
  • Keep trees and shrubs properly trimmed because mosquitoes use these cool and shadowy places for refuge from the hot temperatures of the day too.

While all of these prevention tips are great for yourself, your loved ones, your property and your home, the best and most comprehensive way to lessen the amount of mosquitoes that you have to deal with at your home or business is with the help of the professionals here at Active Pest Control. With a mosquito control program from us, you will be pleasantly surprised at the massively decreased amount of mosquitoes that you are dealing with. This treatment will also help to prevent ticks on your property too! It’s a win-win situation. Start to enjoy your outdoors again, contact us today because your greatest defense against mosquitoes is Active Pest Control.