Pest Control Austin: Pest News

shutterstock boy and dog 195x130The amount of information found on the internet today is simply amazing. If you are reading this, then you are obviously among the majority of people who rely on the internet for local, national and worldly news, musings, entertainment, answers, social engagement, communication, etc. At The Bug Master, our goal relating to the internet and the Bug Master website is to provide information related to pest issues in the areas we service. These areas include most of central Texas from San Marcos north through Kyle, Buda, Austin, Round Rock, and Georgetown. From Georgetown TX, Bug Master’s coverage continues north all the way up into Waco. East and west of the IH35 corridor we service areas from Bastrop to Wimberley, Taylor to Liberty Hill and the heart of Texas area around Waco, Temple and Belton east over to Mexia and Corsicana. The interesting thing about serving such a large geographical area is the advantage of spotting and observing trends in the environment as it relates to pests. Most pest related phenomena tend to begin in the southern regions of our service area and then slowly progress to the north. This will be in conjunction with weather trends like rainfall and temperature changes. As the temperatures begin to rise in the spring and spring rains begin to fall, the pests begin to emerge and propagate. One example of this is always the spring termite swarm. I would venture to guess that ninety-nine percent of the time we will get out first termite swarm call from the San Marcos area, then within a week we will begin to get termite swarm calls from the Austin area and this trend will slowly move north with termite swarm calls from the Waco area coming in almost a month after the first San Marcos call. Other times, trends will build in the opposite direction from north to south as may often be the case with rodent calls in the fall months. In the last couple of weeks, we have already begun to see an increase in rodent calls. Again this typical for this time of year as rodents begin to look for shelter from the encroaching winter that is sure to come.

Typical trends that we expect to see each year are:

  • Carpenter ant swarms starting in February
  • Termite swarms usually follow in March
  • April, May and June most other ants, roaches and spiders show up
  • Late June, early July the scorpion calls start to become more frequent
  • Fall months increase the frequency of rodent and wildlife calls

As I’m sure you can imagine, anytime you are dealing with Mother Nature there is no way to predict these trends one hundred percent accurately, one hundred percent of the time but we do monitor several factors to prepare for whatever tomorrow may bring. At The Bug Master, we also rely on the internet ourselves as a source for current industry news and as a source for gathering new information on any given subject. We are fortunate in the pest control industry that most pest control companies work together sharing a lot of information with each other. I like one website in particular for both research and new ideas. FMC Pest Wire is a blogroll with many different links to insider news and best practices relating to pest control and pest control services. I find it to be a great place to start my searches.