A line of rain is smashing through Florida right now. And though it may bring some tornados and flooding with it, something decent is going to follow behind all that rain. That’s right, Fall weather. Fall in Florida is magical. The snowbirds come down from the north. The weather lightens up. And pest pressures ease, even if slightly. However, plenty of other pests start to do their dirty work this time of year. That’s why today we’ll cover some of the Brandon Florida fall pests, and what you can do about them.
Brandon Florida Fall Pests: Overview
To begin, there are a few usual suspects that tend to move indoors during this period of the year. The flying pests will die back mostly and become less active. Instead, it’s the crawling pests that you need to look out for, and what we’ll be primarily covering here.
Fire Ants
Normally seen as a summer pest, fire ants are just as if not more prolific in the fall. In fact, this is one of few pests that you can’t really get out ahead of if they infest your home. No sir, these Brandon Florida fall pests don’t like to show their strength until they’re ready to march out and take over your place.
But before anything else, you have to be able to identify the ants. Did you know that fire ants aren’t from the south originally? That’s right, even though they cover so much land they’re actually invasive. This species is native to South America initially and was brought here through exposure from trade. These days you’ll find them all over the Southern and Western United States since they thrive in warm and dry environments.
Fire ants aren’t uniform in size. They can range anywhere from an eighth to around a fourth of an inch. They’re usually reddish-brown to reddish-black. Like other ants, the fire ant lives in colonies with distinct social structures consisting of a queen, drones, worker ants, and reproductive ants.
Fire Ant Mounds
Fire ants are usually found in fire ant mounds. Colonies of fire ants can have a single queen or, even worse, a small group of queens. Because of this, a fire ant colony can double or triple in size within a month. Not only that, but these ants are violently reactive. Disturbing a mound will lead to an avalanche of ants aggressively defending it.
Fire ants migrate and spread rapidly. Not only that, but they can nest in nearly any type of soil, though they prefer open sunny fields. They set up camp in gardens, lawns, parks, or anywhere else they can dig their tunnels and build a mound. Unlike normal ant hills, there’s no entry to the nest through the mound itself. Instead, fire ants enter the nest through tunnels that are several feet beyond the mound itself. This basically means that the destruction of a single mound means little in combatting fire ants since they can have a myriad of underground tunnels to retreat into.
Fire Ants: Continued
Normally we’d move on, but these Brandon Florida fall pests really need some more coverage. Specifically, information on their bites. The name fire ant comes from their bite, in fact. That’s due to the high concentration of toxins in their venom, which leaves you feeling like you’re burning where they’ve stung. And yes, you read that right. Fire ants bite to latch on, but that’s not what does the damage. Instead, they deploy their stinger to create a painful, itchy bump. And they can sting over and over again. Fire ants have killed many humans throughout their existence, due to both their potent venom and aggressive, swarming nature.
When you’re bitten by these little pests, there are a few things you can do.
For one, ice. Ice will reduce the swelling and help the pain. At least fifteen minutes on and off after you’ve been bitten. Then, elevate that leg. This will help reduce the swelling and speed up the healing process. Finally, anti-itch creams and antihistamines will make it easy for you to go without scratching and risking infection.
Lawn Grubs
Next on our list of nasty pests is one simply known as the “white grubs”. White grubs are the larval stage of Chafer beetles, which are a seasonal lawn pest in Florida.
Chafer beetles are part of a group known as the scarab beetles. Many different species in this grouping can be turf pests, actually. “White grub” as I mentioned above, is more of a catch-all term for scarab beetle larvae. All of the larval forms of this group feed on the roots of all species of turfgrass, and live at or just below the root systems of your lawn.
It’s hard to tell which species the grub may belong to, as all white grubs rest in a curled C-shape and are about half an inch to two inches long in range. However, chafer beetle grubs tend to be on the short end of that range.
Initial damage from this pest is mild and hard to track. They’ll start out by yellowing areas of turf, which is hard to diagnose as an infestation from that symptom alone. Major area damage will follow soon after from these Brandon Florida fall pests.
Diagnosing white grubs
This kind of damage becomes more noticeable in the fall, especially if your lawn is already stressed by something like a drought or extended period of no water. If you think you’ve got these guys in your lawn, there are things you can do. But the most conclusive is the cut test.
If you think you have white grubs in your lawn, cut down about two inches into your turfgrass at the edge of the damage. Cutaway three sides of a one-foot piece of sod, and then pull back the flap. If the turf comes away easily, that means that there’s damage to the root system. And when you pull back the flap, if you see some bugs down there: bingo. Contact a pest control specialist immediately, because this is a pest that takes careful control to deal with.
