Prepare Your Yard for Snake Season

Prepare Your Yard for Snake Season

As the weather warms up in Georgia, so does the activity of one of the area’s most misunderstood creatures: snakes. With snake season approaching, it’s essential to take proactive steps to ensure your yard is prepared for these slithery visitors. Whether you’re concerned about encountering venomous species or simply want to minimize their presence around your home, proper preparation and understanding are key. Here’s everything you need to know to get your yard ready for snake season:

When is Snake Season in North Georgia?

Snake season in Georgia typically begins in the spring, around March or April, and extends through the summer months until around September or October. During this time, snakes become more active as they emerge from hibernation and seek food, mates, and suitable habitats.

Common Snakes Found in North Georgia

Georgia is home to a variety of snake species, both venomous and non-venomous. Some of the most common snakes you may encounter include:

  1. Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake
  2. Timber Rattlesnake
  3. Copperhead
  4. Eastern Coral Snake
  5. Eastern Rat Snake
  6. Black Racer
  7. Eastern Garter Snake

While most snakes in the region are harmless and play a vital role in controlling rodent populations, it’s essential to be able to identify venomous species and exercise caution when encountering any snake.

Snake Safety Tips for Outdoor Activities

Whether you’re gardening, hiking, or simply enjoying time outdoors, it’s crucial to practice snake safety to minimize the risk of encounters. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

  1. Wear sturdy shoes and long pants when walking in areas where snakes may be present.
  2. Stay on designated trails and avoid tall grass, brush piles, and rocky outcroppings where snakes may hide.
  3. Be cautious when reaching into dark, secluded areas such as woodpiles, rock crevices, or garden beds.
  4. Keep pets on a leash and supervise them while outdoors to prevent snake encounters.
  5. If you encounter a snake, maintain a safe distance and allow it to move away on its own. Avoid startling or antagonizing the snake.

Tips to Deter Snakes from Your Yard

While it’s impossible to completely eliminate snakes from your property, there are steps you can take to make your yard less attractive to them:

  1. Keep grass and vegetation trimmed short to reduce hiding places for snakes and their prey.
  2. Remove debris, such as logs, brush piles, and rock piles, where snakes may seek shelter.
  3. Seal any gaps or cracks in buildings, foundations, and fencing to prevent snakes from entering your yard.
  4. Install snake-proof fencing around gardens, play areas, and other high-traffic areas to keep snakes out.
  5. Consider natural deterrents such as certain plants (e.g., marigolds, wormwood) or commercial repellents.

If you’re concerned about snakes or other wildlife on your property, don’t hesitate to reach out to a professional pest control company near you for assistance. Our team of experts specializes in humane snake relocation, snake control, and wildlife management services tailored to your specific needs. Request a free wildlife control quote today and enjoy peace of mind knowing your yard is in good hands.

As snake season approaches, taking proactive steps to prepare your yard can help minimize encounters and ensure a safe and enjoyable outdoor experience for you and your family. By understanding common snake species, practicing snake safety, and implementing effective deterrents, you can create a snake-friendly environment that strikes a balance between coexistence and control.

Protecting Your Georgia Business from Nuisance Birds

Protecting Your Georgia Business from Nuisance Birds

When left unaddressed, birds can wreak havoc on your business. As a business owner, protecting your reputation and bottom line is crucial to your success. We breakdown the dangers nuisance birds can be to your business if invaded and bird control methods you can place to deter them away. 

Problems Birds Cause to Businesses

Birds can cause many problems for your business and property. It’s crucial to understand the issues birds can bring so you can effectively deter them. 

  • Health risks: Birds and their droppings can spread more than 60 diseases, including Salmonella and E. coli. They can also attract other pests, including rats and insects, that pose additional health threats to your team and customers. 
  • Property Damage: Bird droppings can be corrosive and cause damage to roofs, balconies, equipment, and more. The cost to repair their damage can be costly and disrupt your regular business operations. 
  • Safety Risks: Bird droppings can create a slippery surface, especially on walkways, stairs, and entrances. This can lead to customer or employee slip-and-fall accidents. 
  • Food Contamination: If you’re in the food business, a bird infestation can pose a risk of food contamination, which can lead to food poisoning and other health issues for your customers. 

Bird Control Methods for Your Business

One of the best ways to deter these nuisance birds away is to create an environment that’s less attractive to them. Check out these humane preventative tips to keep birds from invading your business. 

Bird Netting

This method can act as a barrier to keep birds away from your building. The netting is often made of polypropylene and has stainless-steel hardware, which can be invisible to your customers’ eyes. It can best protect your business from smaller birds like swallows and sparrows. Bird netting can protect areas such as loading docks, rooftops, courtyards, storefront signs, balconies, open beam structures, and more. 

Spikes

Spikes are harmless deterrents that work great to deter birds, such as pigeons, away from a structure. Spikes are made from stainless steel or plastic and are placed upward to make it difficult for birds to land or make it uncomfortable to roost. Spikes can be placed on ledges, parapets, gutters, signs, and more. 

Visual Deterrents

Visual deterrents or decoys are a great tool to utilize around your business property to deter birds. Decoys that resemble owls or other predators can scare birds away. Other deterrents include holographic and reflective materials like optical gel, scare tape, and more. This method can be a great addition to other bird control methods you have already placed at your business.  

If you’ve seen more bird activity than you’re comfortable with around your business, call your local professional wildlife control team for assistance. These bird experts will provide you with the best options to prevent the nuisance birds, deter them from your property, and control them to avoid a future bird infestation. 

Bird Control Tips for Your Georgia Business

Bird Control Tips for Your Georgia Business

As much as birds are necessary, they can become a nuisance once they begin invading and damaging your business property and causing health concerns for your customers and employees. Whether it’s a restaurant, warehouse, commercial building, or store, these wildlife creatures can threaten your business’s bottom line. One of the best bird control methods to keep these birds from invading your business property is to create an undesirable environment for them. If you’re experiencing an influx of bird activity, there are several methods you can utilize to safely deter them from your business. 

Common Bird Prevention Tips

Reduce Nesting Options

Create an environment less inciting to birds by removing limbs and branches from your business property. Additionally, look to routinely trim any surrounding trees around your property and if you have a lawn keep it mowed. 

Utilize Deterrents

Consider mounting a plastic hawk or owl decoy on the roof of your building to scare nuisance birds away. Bird spikes and optical gel are another great tool to place on top of the building to encourage birds to perch and nest elsewhere. 

Exclude Areas

Many birds are known to create nests around or under HVAC units because of the availability of water and shelter. To avoid this, consider netting or blocking off the area around your HVAC unit. If larger areas need excluding, it’s best to contact your local pest management company for assistance. 

Remove Food Sources

Birds will continue to visit your property if there’s access to food sources. It’s crucial to make food and water sources inaccessible as much as possible by promptly removing all food debris and standing water. Likewise, discourage customers from feeding birds if they happen to land around your business. 

Call a Professional

There are state rules and regulations on controlling birds from properties, so it’s best to contact your local wildlife control company to assist with any bird nuisance. These bird control professionals will provide you with a thorough inspection of your business and recommend the best methods to remove and prevent these birds from your property in the future.  

Why Are Moles Invading My Yard?

Why Are Moles Invading My Yard?

Moles can be one of the most destructive pests for yards. Once these creatures invade, they will dig and destroy your yard! One of the best steps for mole prevention on your property is understanding what’s bringing them there in the first place.

Moles are looking for one thing in on your property – food! Moles need a plenty amount of food source to survive and tend to eat various lawn insects, including grubs, earthworms, and other bugs. If you have available food sources in your yard, they will dig through to get it and leave behind tunnels, holes, and mounds of dirt. Moles can dig up to 18 feet per hours and as they are digging will detach the roots of plants to not only allow weeds to grow but will also kill the lawn, plants, and trees too.

Some common signs that a mole has invaded your yard include,

  • Surface tunnels
  • Dying grass and plants
  • Increase of weeds around your property
  • Molehills or piles of dirt less than 6 inches tall and shaped like footballs

Mole Prevention Tips

Mole prevention starts with reducing the sources that are attracting them in the first place. Check out our do-it-yourself mole control tips:

  • Eliminate their food source: Eliminate moles primary food sources including earthworms, grubs, ants, mole crickets, and other lawn insects. Consider utilizing products that are labeled to treat these pests or contact your local pest control provider to help you eliminate the lawn pest.
  • Reduce water sources: Moles tend to prefer damp earth so it’s best to not overwater your lawn to limit moles and other lawn pests like earthworms. A good rule of thumb is to only water your lawn with 1” of water per week.
  • Apply repellents: Moles do not like the smell or taste of castor oil so look to utilize this around your property. It’s always best to use this repellent monthly while these creatures are active.
  • Consider traps and baits: During the fall and spring when mole season is most active, you can place a trap or bait where there is an active tunnel. The best way to find a active mole tunnel is by poking holes at the top of a tunnel and watching it, if it’s repaired within 1 to 2 days, there’s moles.
  • Call a wildlife professional: Moles can be difficult to eliminate and control so it’s best to contact your local wildlife control company for help. These wildlife technicians will be able to track the mole, utilize the best bait, monitor the tunnel to ensure moles are removed, and provide recommendations on treating the tunnels.

If you suspect a mole infestation on your property or other wildlife creatures, contact your local pest control company for a free evaluation.

Dealing with A Mole Infestation in Your Georgia Yard

Dealing with A Mole Infestation in Your Georgia Yard

Georgia homeowners take pride in their yard and spend money and time to perfect it, which is why having a mole infestation can be so frustrating. Moles are looking to your home for a food source and will dig up your manicured lawn in the process! Understand moles and how you can prevent them from invading your Georgia property in this blog.

What Are Moles?

Moles are small animals, ranging between 4 and 11 inches in length, can weigh up to 8 ounces, and have a grey to brown body color. They have a small pair of eyes, and no external ears and are often known for their long, thin, and hairless snout. Moles don’t have the best vision but have an exceptional sense of smell. These creatures also have large front feet with webbed toes, which helps them burrow underground and search for food.

Why Are Moles Invading My Yard?

Moles invade yards for one reason – to search for food. If they’ve sensed food on your property, they will dig underground to find it. Moles’ diets consist of many lawn pests, including grubs, earthworms, mole crickets, and ants. These creatures also prefer damp earth as well. Once they’ve found a food source in your yard, they will create tunnels underground, damaging root systems of your grass.

How Can I Prevent Moles?

The best way to avoid moles is to make your yard undesirable to them. Check out our top mole prevention tips for Georgia yards:

  • Remove excess water: The overuse of sprinklers and irrigation systems can provide an ideal environment for moles. Loose and damp soil will make it easier for moles to create a tunnel through your yard.
  • Install barriers: Consider using physical barriers, like hardware cloth liners, around your flowerbeds or across the top of the bed to prevent mole digging. You can also place these barriers around the bases of the trees too to deter moles away.
  • Lay mulch in the fall: During the colder weather, mulch can become an insulator for plants and moles. Consider installing mulch after the first frost instead of earlier in the fall. Hopefully, moles and other lawn pests have found another environment by the time you’ve laid your mulch.
  • Eliminate their food source: Most mole infestations arise because of a grub problem. Look to eliminate grubs and other pests from your yard to help control the mole population and protect the overall health of your lawn.

A mole infestation can happen quickly and can be difficult to control and eliminate. The best and most effective way to remove and control moles is to contact your local wildlife control and pest control company for help. These pest professionals will set you up with an ongoing pest control service and schedule visits to identify the mole problem early and provide you with a treatment and prevention plan.

Do I Have Moles in My Yard?

Do I Have Moles in My Yard?

A perfectly manicured yard can be destroyed by moles in an instant! These creatures dig tunnels in search of lawn pests in your yard, including grubs, earthworms, and other bugs. Once moles invade, it can be difficult to control and remove them from your property as they can go undetected for long periods of time. One of the best ways to understand mole prevention is understanding the signs of their activity in the first place. We break down common mole signs and the preventative measures to place at your home to avoid their destruction.

Common Mole Signs

There’s no one sign that can pinpoint moles in your yard but there’s several to lookout for if you suspect you’ve got a mole infestation, including:

  • Molehills
  • Yellow or damaged grass
  • Tunnels and runaways
  • Overturned soil
  • Small craters
  • A spongy ground when you walk on it

If you’ve noticed any or all of these signs on your property, it’s likely that you have a mole in your yard.

Preventing Moles

There are several methods you can utilize to avoid mole activity. Consider the following mole control tips and tricks:

  • Moles feed on grubs and insects so it’s important to eliminate these lawn pests to not only help reduce mole activity but also keep a healthy lawn.
  • Use nontoxic mole repellent in your yard by mixing three parts castor oil, one part dish soap, and water. Castor oil will upset mole’s digestion and encourage them to find a food source somewhere else.
  • Owls are one of the biggest mole predators. Consider installing an owl nesting box on your property in the late winter or early spring when owls begin looking to nest. Owls will help control both the mole and small rodent population on your property.
  • To keep moles out of a specific area, such as a garden bed, create a trench around the perimeter. Dig this trench about three feet deep and fill it with rocks or wire mesh to extend to the bottom of it.

Since moles live underground, it can be difficult to prevent and control them. The best treatment for moles is target elimination through baiting, which is best done by a professional wildlife control company. These expert professionals will be able to track the mole, strategically place traps, utilize effective baits, treat the mole tunnels to avoid another mole infestation, and monitor the tunnels to ensure all moles have been removed. If you suspect moles in your yard, call your local wildlife control company for a free evaluation.

Do Snakes Hibernate?

Do Snakes Hibernate?

Georgia, with its diverse wildlife, is home to a variety of snake species. As temperatures begin to drop, many people wonder if snakes, like other animals, hibernate during the winter months. In this blog post, we’ll explore the intriguing world of snake hibernation, the differences between hibernation and brumation, and provide valuable tips for effective snake control in your Georgia home.

Do Snakes Hibernate?

Contrary to popular belief, snakes don’t undergo true hibernation. Instead, they enter a state called brumation. While hibernation involves a deep sleep, brumation is more of a slowed-down metabolic state. Snakes become less active, but they are not completely dormant. This adaptation allows them to conserve energy during colder months, making it easier to survive until warmer temperatures return.

Understanding Brumation

Brumation typically occurs when temperatures drop, signaling snakes to find a sheltered spot to wait out the cold season. Unlike mammals in hibernation, snakes may occasionally emerge during milder days to bask in the sun and regulate their body temperature. Understanding this behavior is crucial for effective snake control, especially if you want to keep these slithering creatures away from your property.

Tips for Snake Control in Georgia

  1. Seal Entry Points: Snakes are excellent at finding small openings to enter homes. Inspect and seal any gaps or cracks in the foundation, walls, and windows to prevent them from slithering in.
  2. Trim Vegetation: Keep your yard well-maintained by trimming tall grass, bushes, and overgrown vegetation. Snakes seek shelter in these areas, so reducing hiding spots decreases the likelihood of them setting up residence in your yard.
  3. Remove Attractants: Snakes are attracted to areas with abundant prey. Minimize potential food sources such as rodents by keeping trash sealed, cleaning up fallen fruits, and securing pet food.
  4. Regular Inspections: Conduct regular inspections of your property, especially in warm seasons when snakes are more active. Early detection can prevent a snake population from establishing itself.

Concerned about snakes on your property? Our expert pest control team in Georgia is here to help! Whether you need snake removal or wildlife management, we offer effective and humane solutions. Request a free pest control quote today to safeguard your home and enjoy a snake-free environment.

Understanding the habits of snakes during colder months is essential for effective snake control in Georgia. By implementing these tips and being proactive, you can reduce the likelihood of encountering snakes on your property. For comprehensive snake removal and pest control services, reach out to an experienced pest control company. Enjoy peace of mind in every season with our reliable wildlife management solutions.

Request your free pest control quote today and keep your home snake-free!

Common Georgia Bats and What to Do If They Invade

Common Georgia Bats and What to Do If They Invade

Bats are often misunderstood and feared by many, but they play an essential role in maintaining the balance of Georgia’s ecosystem. Georgia is home to 16 different types of bats, each contributing to the environment in unique and beneficial ways. Let’s go over some common Georgia bats and why they are so beneficial to humans.

Common Bats in Georgia

  • Eastern Red Bat: These small, tree roosting bats are often seen in heavily wooded areas. They have rusty-red fur which makes them more recognizable when seen.
  • Big Brown Bat: These bats are on the larger size and are known for their robust appearance. They often roost in buildings and feed on insects.
  • Little Brown Bat: These bats are common in Georgia and play a vital role in controlling insect populations.

Benefits of Bats in Georgia

  • Some species can consume their body weight in insects each night. This helps keep populations of pests low, including mosquitoes.
  • Bats are also very beneficial in pollinating certain flowers, including some fruit-bearing species.
  • They also help aid in forest regeneration by dispersing seeds. The fruits they feed on contain seeds and then they transport the seeds to various locations.

Conservation Efforts of Bats

While bats offer numerous benefits, they face several threats. This includes habitat loss, disease, and disturbance in roosting sites. Georgia has conservation initiatives aimed at protecting these creatures by protecting their roosting sites, educating the public, and monitoring bat populations for diseases, like white-nose syndrome.

Removing bats is a delicate matter in the state of Georgia and should only be handled by licensed wildlife control professionals. If you suspect you have bats in your home, be sure to give your local wildlife control company a call today!

Common Wildlife You Might See This Fall in Georgia

Common Wildlife You Might See This Fall in Georgia

Cooler weather is approaching, and this means that wildlife will soon begin searching for warmth and shelter. This could result in them entering your home and making it their sanctuary for the season. Let’s go over common wildlife in Georgia you might see this fall and how you can deter them away from your home!

Common Wildlife in Georgia

Snakes:

Snakes
Snakes can be more common in the fall time, as they start to search for a place to begin their hibernation or brumation over the winter months. Snakes might also be more noticeable as certain snake species mate in the fall months. These creatures can go into hiding as late as December, so it’s important to keep an eye out for them until then. Sealing cracks in your foundation and making your property less appealing to them will help deter them from seeking shelter nearby.

Rodents:

Rodents
Rats and mice will often seek shelter in your home as it provides them with a readily available food supply throughout the winter. You will begin to hear their activity in the walls and attic in the fall as they start storing food in their nests. Keep these rodents out of your home by sealing up holes inside and outside of your home and storing food in airtight containers.

Raccoons:

Raccoons
These nocturnal creatures will mostly be seen searching for food at nighttime throughout the fall. They begin searching for food in the fall to prepare for the winter months when food is scarce. Food scarcity will encourage them to be more active and creative in their search for food, which often leads them to your garbage cans. Some preventative ways to ensure raccoons don’t enter your home this fall include utilizing a lid on your garbage can and storing it outside. Likewise, seal any entry points on the exterior of your home.

Squirrels:

Squirrels
In the autumn months, squirrels have a habit of “bulking up” in preparation for the colder season. It’s common for them to seek refuge in attics, using these spaces to build their nests and stash their food supplies. However, their presence in homes can be particularly problematic since they tend to gnaw through wires and wood, potentially causing substantial damage to your residence. The best prevention tips for squirrels are to install chimney caps or screens and to take down bird feeders in the fall.

Wildlife control can be a difficult task due to some regulations for certain species. Give your local Georgia wildlife company a call today for a customized plan and a free inspection!

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