Pest Library

What You Need To Know About Pests In Celina, TX

Celina is home to many types of pests. From tiny insects to foot-long rats, we have them all in our area of Texas. If you’ve seen a pest in your home that you don’t recognize or even one that you’re familiar with, our Pest Library is a good resource to learn more about what has invaded your house. You’ll find all of Celina's most common pests in our Pest Library, along with the information you need to know about them to protect your home and family from pest threats.

Ants

Living in Celina Texas and surrounding areas means that you are no stranger to ants. Ants thrive in our warm temperatures and are out and about searching for food and water throughout most of the year. They thrive when living near people because our properties more often than not provide them with all the food they need to maintain their colony. Ants in our yards and homes gather food from trash cans, gardens, outdoor eating areas, indoor kitchens, and anywhere else a crumbs land or a sticky spill happens!

While ants are a common sight, their presence is a problem. Though it is true that most species don't cause major issues to people or properties, they do cause some problems, and it's important to keep ants away from your home and family. They pick up bacteria on their legs and bodies as they travel over the ground. After getting into your home, they will contaminate surfaces with that bacteria. Ants are typically in our homes to forage for food, and as they crawl over the food in your home or find their way into food packaging, they contaminate it and make it inedible. It is important to understand that some ants in our area do pose a risk. Examples of dangerous ants include the fire ant and carpenter ant. The carpenter ant causes damage to our homes by tunneling through and nesting in structural wood. The fire ant is tiny but super aggressive, and the ants work together to deliver painful bites or stings to any person or animal they view as a threat.

The following tips and tricks will help you to keep your Texas home free of ants:

• Ants gravitate to areas of high moisture. Reduce moisture around your home by making sure gutters are clear and by quickly repairing leaky pipes or spigots.
• Use dehumidifiers in your home to reduce humidity levels.
• Remove wood scraps and other wood debris or yard debris from your yard where ants like to nest.
• Seal up your home to keep ants from easily moving inside. Seal any small cracks or openings you find in your home's exterior.
• Take away their easy access to food by keeping lids on trash cans, storing your family's food properly, and regularly vacuuming and wiping down surfaces to remove crumbs.

Beetles

Beetles are some of the most varied insects, with hundreds of thousands of different species living worldwide. We identify beetles from other types of insects by their unique wings. Beetles have two pairs of wings like other insects; however, one pair is hardened and acts as a cover for the membranous wings they use for flying. When at rest, the wings meet in the middle of the back and form a distinctive line. Depending on the species, beetles feed on many things, including decaying organic matter, dry goods, wood, fabrics, carpets, leather, and plants. Our area's four most common beetles are the carpet beetle, bark beetle, June bug, and stink beetle.

Beetles can become a problem in our homes after adults enter on their own through spaces they find around windows or doors. Most beetles are attracted by our home's interior and exterior lights. Another way beetles find their way inside is hitchhiking into a new home on something infested with their eggs or larvae like dry goods purchased from the store, a potted plant, dry pet food, bird food, carpets, or upholstered furniture. Beetles tend to hang out in damp, dark areas, so once they get into your house, it can take some time before their presence is known, allowing a large infestation to develop. Beetles cause many problems in our homes, including damage to personal items, the spread of bacteria, the contamination of food, and being an overall nuisance.

The following tips and tricks will help you to keep your Texas home free of beetles:

• Replace white outdoor bulbs with yellow bulbs or LED bulbs which are less attractive to beetles.
• Make sure weatherstripping is placed around windows and doors to stop adult beetles from finding a way into your home.
• Place door sweeps on all exterior doors.
• Inspect potted plants and storage boxes for beetles before bringing the items into your home.
• Regularly vacuum and dust your home to remove beetles and the debris they use as a food source.
• Don't buy dry goods from the grocery store with holes or rips in the packaging.
• Store your family's food in the pantry or kitchen in hard-sided containers with airtight containers, not their original packaging.

Cockroaches

Cockroaches are insects that every homeowner in Texas needs to guard their home against. No home is immune to a cockroach invasion. These insects move indoors by hitchhiking or through spaces they discover in exterior walls. The reason cockroaches are so unwanted and feared is because of the dangers they present and the diseases they can transmit. Cockroaches are scavengers that feed on decaying organic matter. They also live in unsanitary areas and spread diseases, filth, and allergens everywhere they travel.

If you have cockroaches in your home, one of the following three species is likely: American cockroach, German cockroach, or Oriental cockroach. All three species have made themselves well known as common household pests, with the German cockroach being at the top of the list. Cockroaches are not solitary pests; they live together in large groups, so if you see one or two in your home, there are many more hiding nearby. Cockroaches produce pheromones that alert other roaches to food sources, and they will also cause a musty, unpleasant odor to develop in your home.

The following tips and tricks will help you to keep your Texas home free of cockroaches:

• Cockroaches are attracted to moisture. Reduce excess moisture in your home by using dehumidifiers, repairing leaky pipes, and ensuring your home is properly ventilated.
• Take away their easy access to food in your kitchen by storing food in the fridge or sturdy containers with airtight lids.
• Practice good sanitation in your home by regularly vacuuming, washing dishes, and wiping down surfaces.
• Always inspect secondhand items for hitchhiking cockroaches before bringing the items into your home.
• Place mesh covers over vents and drains leading into your home.
• Seal spaces in your home's exterior that cockroaches could squeeze their bodies through.

Mosquitoes

Nobody wants a yard overrun by biting mosquitoes, but it is a common problem for homeowners in Texas. Mosquitoes are outdoor pests that thrive in our warm, humid weather. Mosquitoes are small flies with a short lifespan which means they have to reproduce in large numbers to keep their populations thriving. Females lay their eggs in stagnant water. When the larvae hatch (wrigglers), they live in the water and develop into adults. Adult mosquitoes feed on plant nectar and other sweet liquids with elongated, needle-like mouthparts. In addition to plant nectar, female mosquitoes feed on the blood of people and animals. They need the protein from the blood to make their eggs.

Controlling mosquito numbers in your yard, preventing frustrating infestations, and avoiding their bites is important for anyone. Mosquitoes are dangerous as they can transmit harmful diseases and parasites to people and animals through their feeding process. Not only do mosquitoes spread diseases through their bites, but their bites are itchy, and excessive scratching can lead to scabbing and secondary infections. Yards with or near stagnant water, overgrown vegetation, heavily wooded areas, ponds, and wading pools will attract mosquitoes and allow large populations to develop.

The following tips and tricks will help you keep your Texas yard from attracting mosquitoes.

• Regularly empty and refill birdbaths, wading pools, and pet water dishes with fresh water.
• Keep lids on trash cans and recycling bins and turn over containers that aren't in use to stop them from collecting stagnant water.
• Fill in low-lying areas on your property that collect rainwater.
• Maintain your yard to prevent overgrown vegetation from providing mosquitoes with daytime resting spots.
• If you own a pool, ornamental pond, or other water feature, make sure the water is adequately treated.
• Try to avoid spending time outside when mosquitoes are most active, at dusk and dawn!

Rodents

Some of the largest household pests to find their way into our Texas homes are mice and rats. These rodents have developed a close relationship with people and have developed a bad habit of moving into our yards and homes to meet their basic needs. Three of the most common rodents to move into our houses are the rat, house mouse, and field mouse.

Our yards attract rodent activity because it provides them with plenty of vegetation to hide in, food, and sources of water. When living in our yards, rodents won't hesitate to move into our homes to forage for food or to find safe shelter. Rodents cause a lot of problems in our homes; mice and rats are avid chewers and cause damage to structural elements in our homes such as wires, pipes, cables, flooring, and walls. They also will contaminate food and surfaces with bacteria and pathogens they carry on their bodies and in their urine, excrement, saliva. Rodents are pests that every homeowner needs to guard their Texas home against throughout the entire year.

The following tips and tricks will help you to keep your Texas home free of rodents:

• Seal holes and gaps that allow rodents to enter your home using steel wool or another material that can stand up to their strong teeth.
• Maintain your yard, cut back overgrown vegetation, keep your lawn cut short, and remove yard debris to make the outdoor spaces around your house less attractive to rodents.
• Inspect windows and doors and ensure weatherstripping is in place to help keep rodents out of your house.
• Maintain a clean kitchen and regularly vacuum floors.
• Lids should always be on trash cans.
• Remove things like bird feeders, uneaten pet food, and fruit and vegetables from gardens to eliminate easy access to food sources.

Spiders

Spiders are arachnids and come in a wide variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. Some use webs to catch their prey, and others use their webs only as a place to rest. Spiders are unwanted in our homes as they can bite us, create unsightly webs, and when they run across our walls, they are quite startling. Luckily most of the spiders that invade our homes aren't dangerous; if a bite were to occur, their venom wouldn't cause any major side effects.

Some of the most common spiders to find their way into our yards and homes include wolf spiders, house spiders, and orb weave spiders. Orb weavers are common garden spiders; the easiest way to identify them is by the circular webs they create. Wolf spiders are large, with adults growing over an inch long. Their bodies and legs are covered in hair. These spiders run quickly to chase down their prey. House spiders are yellowish-brown with off-white abdomens. They have angled stripes that produce chevron-like markings on their bodies and legs. No matter what spider has found a way into your home, they are there because they have discovered food. If spiders are in your home, there is likely an overall pest problem that you need to address. Like other predators, spiders live in the same areas as their prey.

The following tips and tricks will help you to keep your Texas home free of spiders:

• Seal spaces in your home's exterior that spiders use to gain entrance into your home.
• Cut back vegetation from your home's exterior.
• Remove standing water that attracts spiders and the insects they eat to your property.
• Reduce the clutter from your home and yard that can mask a spider infestation.
• Secure your family's food and trash to help avoid attracting insects to your property that spiders like to feed on.