Tips For Preventing Ticks This Summer

Dog jumping in grass

Picture this: it’s a glorious summer’s day, and you eagerly step outside, relishing the warmth of the sun on your skin. The gentle breeze carries the sweet scent of blooming flowers, and the world seems alive with vibrant colors and joyful sounds. You envision a day filled with outdoor adventures, picnics, and maybe even a refreshing swim. However, amidst this picturesque scene lies an unexpected threat, lurking in the tall grass and leafy trails, ready to disrupt your idyllic summer experience: ticks.

Ticks, those tiny pests that latch onto the unsuspecting passersby, can quickly turn a beautiful day into an itchy and worrisome nightmare. Their presence not only poses a nuisance but also brings potential health risks. From transmitting diseases such as Lyme disease, babesiosis, and anaplasmosis, ticks have gained notoriety as a significant concern for outdoor enthusiasts during the summer months. But don’t worry – with the right tips and tricks, you can protect your pets from ticks all summer long.

How to Keep Ticks Off Your Dog

Preventing tick bites is not merely a matter of convenience; it is a vital step in safeguarding your health and ensuring a worry-free summer. Here are some of the most effective ways to keep your furry friends safe from ticks:

Check Your Pets Daily

After every outdoor adventure, take a few minutes to check your pet’s fur for those pesky parasites. Look everywhere, from nose to tail, and do not let any tick hide. If you find one, it is time to act! Use tweezers or a tick remover tool and get rid of them fast.

Avoid Tick Territory

One of the best ways to prevent ticks is to keep your pets from wandering into tick hot spots. These tiny pests often hide in tall grass, ready to pounce. Keep your pup on groomed trails and paths, away from tick traps. You can also make your backyard a tick-free zone by mowing and clearing debris. 

Bathe Your Pets Regularly

Routine baths can help you discover any ticks or prevent new ones from hopping into your pet’s fur. Grab a mild dog shampoo and get ready to lather up. Wash your pup from head to toe, checking for any sneaky ticks. You can also try adding some apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, which are natural tick repellents.

Try a Tick-Proof Dog Vest

When it comes to protecting our furry companions from the dangers of ticks, one effective solution worth considering is tick-proof dog vests. These specialized garments offer a shield of defense against ticks, minimizing the risk of infestation and potential tick-borne diseases. Tick-proof dog vests are designed with durable, tightly-woven fabrics that create a physical barrier, preventing ticks from attaching to your dog’s fur.

Talk With Your Veterinarian

Your vet is your tick-fighting expert. Ask them about tick prevention to get personalized, pet-friendly advice. They will give you expert advice and the best products for your dog’s needs—whether collars, sprays, drops, pills, or vaccines, your vet has it all. 

Get Professional Tick Prevention

When ticks take over your property and your pet, it is time to call Inman-Murphy, Inc. They are the tick-busting pros. By using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques, they can provide personalized and environmentally responsible solutions that will keep ticks out of your backyard. No more ticks, just peace of mind.

Do not let ticks hold your pet’s adventures hostage. Take charge, pet parents! Call Inman-Murphy, Inc. to learn more about their exceptional pest control services.

Common Late Summer Pests

A mosquito

You might think that the late summer means the end of the pest problems you’ve been facing since early spring, but some pests are made for these conditions. With the right amount of warmth and plenty of people participating in outdoor activities, many kinds of insects and animals can find a meal or a suitable place to stay. If you want to make sure that pests don’t take over the last month of your summer, you have to be consciously preventative in your routines. Read on to learn about pests to avoid in Mid-South TN‘s late summers with Inman-Murphy, Inc.!

Common Late Summer Pests in Mid-South TN

There really is no season in which you can avoid pest problems outright. The late summer is a deceptively pest-ridden season because we often think of late spring and early summer as being the most problematic. However, these pests stick around to capitalize on the lingering warmth:

  • Bees and wasps: Bees, wasps, and many other kinds of stinging insects take advantage of heightened outdoor human activity during the late summer. They will not hesitate to stop by your cookout for a free meal or build a hive in your yard for a consistent and close by food source.
  • Ticks: These parasitic pests thrive in the warmth and growth that sticks around into August and September. Walking through tall grass or dense vegetation could put you in tick trouble.
  • Wildlife: Wild animals, especially those that hibernate during the winter, are out and about all summer looking for food and safe places to stay. Raccoons, possums, and squirrels are common offenders in the late summers here in Mid-South TN.
  • Mosquitoes: If mosquitoes are able to develop a consistent breeding population around your property, they can remain a serious nuisance all the way until temperatures drop below 50°F.

Preventing Pests in the Late Summer

While it should be stressed that severe pest infestations should always be taken care of by an expert, there are a few pertinent strategies you can try on your own to keep pest presence on your property at a minimum. Try the following:

  1. Keep a tidy yard: Trimming your trees and shrubs, quickly disposing of grass clippings and piles of vegetation, and decluttering in general will all discourage pests from looking for shelter in your yard.
  2. Look for cracks: Check around the outside of your home and structures on your property regularly for openings in roofing, siding, foundation, or around windows.
  3. Guard your trash: taking out your garbage regularly and using sealable lids on your outdoor trash bins can prevent many kinds of pests — most notably, wildlife.
  4. Eliminate standing water: Mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water, so covering up or pouring out any that you find around your yard can cause mosquitoes to look elsewhere to breed and feed.

Expert Help with Summer Pests

If you think you’ve done everything you can to prevent pests without success, it’s time to reach out to your local exterminators. We are proud to employ only licensed, certified, and highly trained technicians here at Inman-Murphy, Inc.. Our pest experts have seen every kind of problem that develops in our area, so we can efficiently and effectively put together a plan to eliminate pest presence and keep your property pest-free* for good. Contact us today for a free quote!

Avoiding Deer Ticks & Lyme Disease

A deer tick found in Mid-South TN - Inman-Murphy Termite & Pest Control

Have you ever found a tick on your leg attempting to latch itself on? This is one of the most unsettling pest experiences you can have around Mid-South TN, but it’s even worse to find out that some ticks in our area are capable of transmitting the bacteria that causes Lyme disease to humans. Like some of the many other diseases that ticks can carry, Lyme disease comes with serious consequences, so it’s important to be able to protect yourself, your family, and your pets from tick bites. Read on for tick prevention advice from our team at Inman-Murphy Termite & Pest Control.

How Do People Get Lyme Disease?

Most cases of Lyme disease start with a bite from a deer tick nymph. Deer ticks are known to carry and spread Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, through their bites. Because of both their tiny, 2 mm-long stature and their anesthetic saliva, deer tick nymphs are experts at sneakily biting hosts without ever being detected.

If you end up contracting Lyme disease from a deer tick bite, the first symptoms you will notice are fever, rashes, headaches, exhaustion, and pain in your joints and muscles. However, if left untreated, you will eventually start dealing with nerve damage and arthritis. You should call a local medical professional right away if you’re experiencing any of these symptoms and believe them to be related to a recent tick bite.

Best Ways to Avoid Ticks in Mid-South TN

It’s important to learn how to keep out of ticks’ way to prevent bites and the potential consequences that could follow. Ticks in our area like to hide out in humid and densely vegetated areas, so we have to be cautious when spending time outside, especially with our pets and children. Here are some tips for avoiding ticks:

  • When spending time outside, wear long pants and socks to limit skin exposure
  • Keep your kids and pets on the trail when hiking or walking in areas with dense vegetation
  • Always check your body for ticks before coming back inside
  • If you do find a tick, don’t grab it with your fingers. Use tweezers to pinch it close to its head and the surface of the skin, then draw it away slowly.

Local Tick Control Professionals

You should not be dealing with ticks on a regular basis. If you, your family members, or your pets are coming back inside with ticks on their bodies routinely, you might have a tick problem on your property. In this case, it’s important to reach out to your local tick exterminators for help to protect yourself from dangerous bites. Our technicians at Inman-Murphy Termite and Pest Control are trained to set up barrier spray treatments to keep ticks away for months. Contact us today to learn more about our tick control services and receive a free quote!

Rain in April Attracts Pests

A tick found in Millington TN - Inman-Murphy, Inc.

It can seem impossible to keep pests out of your yard (and even your home) when spring comes around. Do you know why that is? There are many factors that play into spring being the season that all kinds of pests thrive, but rainfall is one of the most important contributors. Every year, the rainfall brings about conditions for a few particular pests to exploit, and we are the ones that have to take precautionary measures against them. If you’re looking for DIY spring pest control advice for rain bugs, read on to learn from our expert exterminators at Inman-Murphy, Inc!

What Pests Does a Rainy Spring Bring?

A rainy spring leads to many benefits that pests around the Memphis Metro area use to their advantage. There are a few kinds of pests in particular that thrive after a rainy spring:

  1. Mosquitoes: The more rainfall in spring, the more mosquitoes will be bothering you during the summer. This is because mosquitoes breed in standing water, no matter the size of the source, so an abundance of rainwater pools will allow them to proliferate in peace and grow their numbers quickly.
  2. Fleas and ticks: Fleas and ticks get by by hiding in foliage, waiting until an animal that they can feed on walks by. These parasitic pests take advantage of ample plant growth after rainy springs to find perfect hiding places, which might be in your yard.
  3. Beetles: While a rainy spring makes our gardens flourish, it also gives all kinds of beetles opportunities for easy sustenance supplies.
  4. Fire ants: Fire ants and many other kinds of ants burrow in soil to grow their colonies, so a rainy spring will provide them with optimal soil texture for expansion.
  5. Termites: Sometimes called rain flies, termite swarmers come out during rainy springs to take advantage of water-damaged wood.

What Can I Do Post-Rainfall to Prevent Pests?

A rainy spring can lead to pest problems both indoors and outdoors. Here are some measures that you must take to ensure your property is protected from spring pests:

  • Seal cracks and gaps: Gaps around your doors and windows can be closed off with screens and weather stripping, and cracks in your walls or foundation can be sealed with a silicone-based caulk.
  • Clean your gutters: Leaves and other natural debris can build up in your gutters, leading to overflows that cause moisture problems or pools of standing water that attract mosquitoes to breed.
  • Prevent pooling water: Whether inside in your kitchen and bathroom or outside around your garden and patio, pooling water will always bring out thirsty bugs, so keep an eye out!

Help With Spring Pest Control

If your yard is riddled with pests every spring, it’s time to reach out to your local pest control company. The exterminators at Inman-Murphy, Inc. are well-versed in springtime pest problems around Millington TN. We train our team to conduct property-wide inspections, determining the reasons for your infestation, applying pertinent pest control products safely and efficiently, and teaching you how to avoid pests on your own going forward. Reach out today for a free estimate!