While most people are thrilled to welcome the spring weather for outdoor adventures, the outdoors can also bring danger, and encountering these dangerous pests can lead to severe illness and damage to the environment.

While ants swarm throughout homes, whiteflies damage crops, and mosquitos cause major concern, they are not the only threats out there.

Ticks are jumping about and Lyme disease has become common. To prevent it, make sure you use insect repellent and perform daily tick checks. If you find a tick remove it immediately. They like to hide around the ears, inside the belly button and under the arms.

Encountering pests outdoors can also be extremely harmful to your garden. Earwigs will eat your plants and Tomato Moths will destroy your tomatoes!

On the other hand, things are not always good for homeowners during this time. Some pests have the power to cause extensive property damage. According to termites.com, “termites damage approximately 600,000 homes in the U.S. each year,” and “U.S. residents spend an estimated $5 billion annually to control termites and repair termite damage.”

For the pest control industry, spring marks the beginning of an overwhelming pest season. It’s important to make sure you take the appropriate measures to avoid an invasion in your home and gardens. Call a pest control company at the sign of any infestation and if you have an encounter with one of these dangerous pests get medical help immediately.

Mosquito

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You may think of mosquitos as just an annoying pest that will make you itch with a bite, but they can actually be very dangerous. In the U.S., the West Nile virus is becoming increasingly more common. Other diseases mosquitos transmit include dengue fever, malaria, and chikungunya. Almost all of these diseases result in flu-like symptoms and some can be deadly if a doctor is not seen immediately. If you decide to go outdoors, make sure you use insect repellant and keep your skin covered as much as possible.

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Ants

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Springtime is when those tiny creatures come out and swarm the earth. Ants are one of the most common insects homeowners complain to pest management about. According to pestworld.org, "in the recent NPMA survey of PMPs, carpenter ants, odorous house ants, and pavement ants were the three most cited as structural and nuisance pest ants." Tip: Keep ants away by drawing a line of chalk around your homes entry point. The aunts will be repelled by the calcium carbonate (Reader’s Digest).

Box Sucker

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As the Royal Horticultural Society explains, the "Box sucker is a sap-sucking insect, also known as box psyllid, that feeds at the shoot tips of box plants in spring." It causes the leaves to become cup shapes, and they leave waxy white material on the foliage.

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