Summer is the perfect season for spending a large amount of your free time outside. Whether it’s enjoying the sun, playing sports, or any other activity, summer just brings everybody outside for a great time. That is until summertime pests arrive. Likely one of the worst things about summer, these pests can ruin an outdoor excursion, whether through stings, bites, infections, damages, or the like. Luckily for you, there are a few ways you can modify your yard to help keep it free of these summertime pests.

What are the most common summertime pests?

In addition to bringing humans out, summer brings out a few summer exclusive pests. These are your standard fare, including bed bugs, spiders, squirrels, snakes, ants, mosquitoes, ticks, and more. Each of these pests, which as you can see, are mostly insect pests, have their own unique ways of being captured or prevented from bugging you.

We understand it can be quite annoying to take care of these pests, especially with the fear of being bitten or stung. Many of these animals are active all year long, such as ticks, spiders, or ants, although others become much more active during warm weather. These would be your wasps or bees, snakes, and termites. While it’s important to set up a year-round defense for most pests, there’s an especially great need to set up specific preventions for summertime pests, which can be much more difficult to protect against.

How can summertime pests be prevented from living in yards?

The easiest way to get rid of these pests is to take care of preventions before the season begins. While it’s still possible to take care of summertime pests during summer itself, it’s much easier to remove them in advance, by straight up preventing them from calling your yard home. There are a few really easy ways to keep these pests at bay, including:

Removing standing water: mosquitoes are the most common pests to come from standing water, although these water sources can also breed dangerous bacteria or parasites which can spread to other summertime pests. Birdbaths should be changed every few days, rainwater should be removed, and things like buckets should be flipped over.

Add outdoor fans: ceiling fans have exploded in popularity over the last few years, thanks in part to their cooling and prevention benefits. Fans are great at warding off flies and mosquitoes, as the little pests just can’t keep up with the strong wind.

Tidy your yard: cleaning and maintaining your yard is useful for warding off overgrowing weeds and pests alike. Tall grasses can harbor ticks or fleas, alongside snakes or other animals. Untrimmed bushes or trees can also allow pests, such as squirrels, to climb more easily into your home. That’s why squirrel control measures are important to implement.

Remove outdoor food: this step is most useful for the largest pests, such as raccoons and rodents. Removing food from open positions outside is incredibly useful year-round, although it can help more in the summer, thanks to wild animals being more common during the season.

Ask the professionals: even with these tips, nothing beats calling the pros. Several of these summertime pests can be dangerous, likely one reason why you haven’t yet cleared your yard of them. Calling the experts might be the best option for you, as wildlife control and removal providers might hold services for squirrel control, snake removal, nest removal, prevention treatment, yard maintenance, and the like. These guys can also add special products to your yard, blocking off entry and exit ways for pests, clearing homes, and removing animals. When in doubt, let the experts handle it. Learn more about professional wildlife removal here.

How can summertime pests be removed, after summer begins?

As we’ve said, it’s much harder to remove summertime pests once summer begins, but it’s still possible. Most of these recommendations still work, although it might take a birth cycle before any notable change happens. Take mosquitoes, which, with removed standing water, will likely die off after a generation. There’s also the chance that you can get in at the right time for other pests, including cutting branches and taking care of your yard, warding off squirrels, raccoons, snakes, and more.

There are always the guaranteed services of professional teams though, which can move in to individually remove animals that might be disrupting you. When prevention and active rejection doesn’t work, you can always call an expert to physically take care of and remove the problem for you. Luckily, prevention works most of the time, although it’s important to remember to be proactive towards removing summertime pests.