It is summertime again in Florida. While most of the season is pretty enjoyable, the heavy downpour of rain and the humidity that follows is always pretty rough. I mean, I walked out of my front door the other day and it felt like I had a wet towel draped over my shoulders. But while we suffer in these conditions, insects thrive. And not just any insects either, but pests. Things like cockroaches, ants, and mosquitoes are obvious. But add to that the tick. In fact, that is the subject of our discussion today. We will talk about ticks and whether or not you should look into hiring a Tampa tick exterminator.
Tampa tick exterminator: Overview
If you have been paying attention, then you’ll probably have noticed something worrying. There are more ticks than ever! Well, trust me, it’s not just in your mind. So now what we’ll do is go over a few species of ticks, and how to identify them. With any pest infestation, you want to know what you’re dealing with.
Gulf Coast Ticks
Gulf Coast ticks are common pests that inhabit grasslands and the edges of wooded areas, where the shade provides shelter from the sun, and they can wait for prey. This pest’s range extends about 150 miles inland along the Gulf of Mexico and southern Atlantic coast. They extend all the way from Texas to South Carolina. Don’t be shocked if you need to contact the Tampa tick exterminator at least once about this populous and far-ranging blood sucker.
The Gulf Coast tick is a pest of medical importance throughout its range. Adult ticks bite and feed primarily in and around the ears of their hosts. This clustered feeding habit can cause ear damage in pets and livestock with enough ticks feeding at once. And they feed on host animals throughout their entire life cycle. In general, their larvae and nymphs feed on small animals. This can include birds, rodents, rabbits, and similarly sized hosts. Adults tend towards feeding on larger animals. This can include dogs, coyotes, skunks, mountain lions, bears, and humans.
Coastal populations of this tick are most active starting and may and running through the entire summer and fall. Their favorite hunting spot is tall grasses and the borders of woodlands. And their range is slowly increasing. As the globe warms up, young ticks feeding on migrating birds are starting to establish more far north populations. Even Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas have established populations of this pest now.
Lone Star Tick
Next on our list of ticks is one that should have you running for the Tampa tick exterminator. The Lone Star tick is a nasty customer with a bad reputation. Primarily found in the Southern states, but expanding northwards, is the Lone Star tick. These guys love areas with little to nil tree cover. Places like grassy fields and along trails and walkways are where you’ll find them. And like the above, this tick feeds on a variety of hosts. From as small as a mouse, all the way up to bears and large humans.
Thankfully, this is an easy tick to identify for the Tampa tick exterminator. The adult female of this species is round, rust colored, and has a single white dot in the center of its back. And, as with most ticks, the females are the larger of the two sexes. This is also a multiple host tick, like the Gulf Coast tick mentioned above. The females gorge themselves on blood and deposit roughly five thousand eggs on
the soil in a protected location, like in mulch or piles of leaf litter. The engorged female will travel for pretty impressive distances to find these locations. After hatching, the young ticks then ‘quest’ to seek a host. Questing is a behavior that entails climbing up an object and then waiting for the host to walk by. The larva then grasps the host and proceeds to search for a preferred feeding site. The larvae then bite, feeds for 1-3 days, detaches its mouthparts, and drops down to digest.
Larvae from this species are called “seed ticks”. And this is due to their small size and abundance. If humidity is high and the temperature is hot, these larvae can survive up to six months in their birth environment. But, these ticks are adept at finding a host, so they tend to not have to.
Tick Control Methods
Now, if you have an infestation of ticks you should immediately take action. And what I mean by that, is hire a pro. The layman can do some things to help control tick populations around their home, we’ll go into those here in a moment, but an actual infestation? Not really. You’re going to need the Tampa tick exterminator.
Tampa Tick Exterminator: The Tips
To start with, keep your grass mowed. Like I mentioned with both species of ticks above, they love tall grass. They engage in that “questing” behavior and catch you as you walk by. The best way to avoid that? Simply keep your grass well trimmed. And then, remove any wood piles or leaf litter from around your home. Female ticks love to lay their eggs in locations such as these. That means that when they hatch, you’ll have seed ticks waiting by the thousands. Don’t forget, a single female can lay up to five thousand eggs.
Create a wood chip or rock barrier around your home or property. A flat, several inch wide “moat” of sorts made out of these are decent tick barriers. They heat up easily, smother grass growth, and ticks don’t like traveling across them. It may be a bit of work, but it’s worth doing if you’re trying to curb the tick population around your home. Remember, ticks can’t jump or fly. This is really our one blessing in the war against them. As such, make sure to properly tailor your efforts around moving their habitats away from your home, and keeping your lawn neat and trimmed
