From the Austin team
Notes from the field.
What we are seeing across the Austin metro, when each pest actually peaks, and what works on a real house rather than in a brochure.
Latest
What is making dirt piles in your yard? Moles, gophers or grubs
Dirt piles and holes in the yard can come from moles, pocket gophers, fire ants, armadillos or crawfish, while white grubs mostly brown the turf instead. Three checks tell them apart, with published measurements, Austin's soil split at I-35, and who handles each one.
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Roof rats in Central Texas are in the attic, not the kitchen
Roof rats are the climbing rats of Central Texas, and they nest in attics, not kitchens. How to tell one from a Norway rat, how it gets in, what the Travis County typhus data says, and what actually works.
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When bugs in Austin peak, month by month
Bugs in Austin never fully stop, but each one peaks on a schedule. This month-by-month calendar, built from NOAA weather normals, Texas A&M entomology and Austin Public Health data, shows what is normal each month and when to act.
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Termite or ant? How to tell swarmers apart
Winged insects on the windowsill? Three checks settle termite vs ant in about a minute: the waist, the antennae and the wings. When each swarmer flies in Central Texas, what an indoor swarm means, and who to call.
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What do bed bugs look like?
An apple seed with six legs, and no wings at all. Every life stage measured against a coin, the marks they leave on a mattress, and the six insects people bring us thinking they found one.
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Are there scorpions in Austin?
Yes, and Texas A&M has recorded two species near the city against 14 in Big Bend. Which one is on your tile, how bad a sting really is, when they show up, and the honest line on when one scorpion means you do not need to call anybody.
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How much is pest control in Austin, Texas?
Call five companies for a price and you will get five versions of "it depends." Real numbers for the Austin metro, our own published rates in full, and why the averages you find online disagree with each other by more than double.
Read the postSeven posts so far. More on the way, and the pest guides below cover a lot of the same ground already.
Pest guides
Every pest we treat, written up properly.
Twelve guides. Each has a seasonality chart built from Texas A&M AgriLife timing, photographs from our own service calls, and a straight answer on what it costs.
Looking for your city instead? The service area page has a guide for each of the seven cities we run daily routes through.
Answered 24 hours · Austin, TX
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