What are “occasional invaders” in the pest control world?  Typically, they are pests that are not a big issue unless they infest a home.

 A few ladybugs, stink bugs,  or a silverfish or two don’t bother anyone. The same might not be said of one spider or one cricket that’s deprive you of a night’s sleep. 

Change the numbers from one or two to an infestation and things change quickly. Ladybugs aren’t so cute when they have covered your walls with their “mark”. 

Reasons to avoid an infestation of occasional invaders:

Some secrete foul odors 

Some may cause damage and/or staining to your indoor fabrics

They can damage your indoor plants

They may bite or pinch you or your pets

When they die, their bodies can attract other pests

The dead bodies, shed skins and droppings can cause some people to have allergic and/or asthma issues

What are some common occasional invaders?

Occasional invaders, like most pests,  are typically looking for food, water, or warmth. The best places to find them are under sinks, cupboards, crawl spaces, basements, showers, and tubs.

Centipedes (usually found in shower drains)

Earwigs (usually found in moist areas)

Pill Bugs (aka Roly Polies or Doodle Bugs)

Crickets

Beetles

Silverfish (attracted to paper like wallpaper, books, and envelopes)

Ladybugs 

Spiders 

Cluster flies

Stinkbugs

Is this a year round problem?

Occasional invaders aren’t mysterious pests that suddenly appear in the winter, they are active year round. Most of the time they are outdoors and we don’t notice them until they start getting inside our homes for the winter. 

Pest control is a partnership.

Keeping pests OUT of your home is more than half the battle. Here are a few tips:

Pay attention to cracks around windows and doors, tears in screens, piles of leaves, or branches around your home. 

Repair any possible entryway for pests so they can’t get in your home. 

Eliminate areas where water can collect. Check under your sinks for leaking pipes and repair. 

When you partner with Lawn and Pest Solutions, we will help you wage war against the “occasional invaders”. Our services will also protect your home from termites, roaches, ants, and more. 

Our licensed pest technicians will thoroughly spray inside and outside of your home on a regular schedule to keep your home free of pests year-round. Contact us here to learn more about our Pest360 program.

There are 22 kinds of rodents in Mississippi including mice, rats, voles, and squirrels, that’s a lot of rodent prevention! They are the largest group of mammals in the world? Other than that “claim to fame” rodents don’t have many positive attributes. 

If forced to come up with a couple of positives, we can give them: being a food source to other animals and the aeration they provide your lawn while burrowing underground. For most folks, this isn’t enough. Preventing rodents from coming into your home or lawn is a major priority. 

Rodent facts:

They gnaw on electrical wires inside and outside of your home. 

They chew on the wood and insulation in your walls and attics. 

They can carry diseases and parasites that are harmful to humans and pets.

They VERY actively reproduce, with several litters a year! 

The reproductive lives of rodents (trigger warning)

Mice are especially “active” and can start having babies at just a few months old. In their short lifespan of only 8 months to a year, one female can have 8 litters, or 50-60 baby mice. Momma mice are just looking for food and a warm place to sleep, then they can set up house!

Keep mice and rodents out of your house!

Most pests are not a problem until they become an infestation. Infestations of any pest can usually be prevented by keeping the pests out in the first place. 

How to keep rodents out of your home:

Caulk gaps around doors and windows of your home

Remove branches, limbs or vines that are leaning on your home

Close gaps around pipes, vents and cables (a mouse can squeeze through a dime sized opening)

Move outside garbage cans further away from your house

Remove sticks, leaves, debris from lawn

Don’t allow grass to grow too high (high grass and debris create hiding places for rodents)

Move piles of firewood at least one foot off the ground and away from the exterior of your home.

Check vents, window/door screens and weather stripping around all openings.

If you have a fireplace, install a chimney cap to keep rodents from climbing in.

What makes your home so enticing to rodents?

Rodents are especially attracted to the smell of food. You can help deter rodents and mice from moving in by doing the following:

Don’t leave pet food sitting out at night (roaches also love pet food)

Keep pet food in an air tight container when stored

Store leftover food immediately

Clear dirty dishes from the sink before you go to bed

Remove garbage from inside your home BEFORE it gets full or worse, overflowing

Declutter storage areas and place storage bins off of the floor

If you are providing access to the inside of your home AND leaving food out for pests, how can you blame rodents for infesting? Our licensed pest technicians know exactly what to do when dealing with mice and rodents. Our Pest360 Program can help you before an infestation.

Once mice and rodents are in, the infestation can get messy. Stop the problem before it happens. Contact us and we will be in touch with you ASAP. Let us help you with rodent prevention. We serve the Memphis, Tennessee and North Mississippi areas.

Lady bugs (lady beetles) and stink bugs fall into the category of “occasional invaders” meaning they aren’t really bothersome until they infest your home. Seeing a few of these around your home isn’t a big deal until it becomes an infestation. But first…

What’s the difference between a lady bug and a lady beetle?

Lady Beetles

Around North Mississippi and Tennessee, we are likely seeing Asian Lady Beetles. These Lady beetles are slightly different from what most of us refer to as “ladybugs”. 

Asian Lady Beetles often appear when the weather cools. They congregate on the side of a house by the hundreds or thousands. If Lady beetles can find an entry point into your home, they will make their way inside. 

Lady Bugs

Lady bugs are generally considered to be helpful insects. When ladybugs or lady beetles are found on a crape myrtle, they typically have laid hundreds of eggs right in middle of the aphids. As soon as the eggs hatch, they begin feasting on the aphids. Ladybugs can rescue a crape myrtle and even a crop from aphids when the timing is right! However…

In order to protect themselves from predators, ladybugs secrete a fluid from the joints in their legs. This secretion is unappealing to predators and smells really bad to humans. 

In an infestation of lady bugs, many homeowners experience staining on walls from the secreted fluid. Some people are even allergic to the dust from their crumbling shells.

Stink Bugs

While stink bugs have never depicted as “cute” like lady bugs, they are also not much of a problem until an infestation occurs. Much like the lady beetles, they produce a foul odor and are best swept up and safely thrown away.

What defines a pest infestation?

 A sudden increase in destructiveness or population numbers of a pest species in a given area.

When their numbers and impact are currently or potentially at intolerable levels.

Avoiding infestation:

Now is the time to check out what is happening outside your home.

Repair cracks around windows and doors

Repair torn window or door screens

Remove piles of branches and leaves in your lawn

Eliminate areas where water collects

Inside your home:

Check under sinks for leaking pipes and repair

If you discover a building infestation, vacuum up lady bugs, lady beetles and stink bugs and throw them away. If you are beyond that solution,  Lawn and Pest can help.

In addition to “occasional invaders” we are also here to protect your home from termites, roaches, ants and more. Our licensed pest technicians will thoroughly spray inside and outside of your home on a regular schedule to ensure this problem is taken care of now and later. 

Ask Paul

Our website has a user-friendly app to leave your messages with our office. Leave us a message and let us show you #thelpsdifference .

When faced with pest issues, one must choose between a local or national pest control company.  We are one “Google pest control” away from many options. 

Google “local pest control” first

Thanks to big budgets, national marketing, and branding companies have successfully made their names a fixture. 

When deciding between a local or a national pest company, try reading the Google reviews. You can’t help but notice that our customers frequently refer to our employees by name in the reviews. 

National pest control companies aren’t bad. They are large and successful pest control companies. We easily recognize their names and logos and feel like we “know” them. 

Why choose a local pest control company?

1. A local pest control company may be able to charge you less for the same services.
2. We live here, too. A local company will be well aware of all the seasonal pest infestations that are happening where YOU are, not where THEY are.
3. A local pest control company can work with your schedules and needs, not what “corporate” tells them to do.

We are a locally owned pest control business.

Working with a locally owned business like Lawn and Pest Solutions means that you are getting very personal service. We work hard to retain our employees for years so that customer relationships are solid and built on trust. 

Our pest technicians are trustworthy, honest, hardworking and loyal. We don’t send in “fly by night” employees to spray inside your home. You won’t be worried to see our guys spraying in your lawn or on your patio. 

Just #askpaul

In addition to providing reliable technicians, our owner Paul Welborn feels personally responsible for each customer. It is not uncommon for him to show up at a home to help solve an unusual pest issue. He is committed to making sure the customer gets the best possible service.

Whether loading up trucks at 6:45 a.m. or frying up fish at employee appreciation day, Paul is there. Creating personal relationships with his employees and investing in their futures is important to Paul. He believes that qualified trained technicians who want to stay with the company is key to keeping customers happy. 

When the company sees itself as a team, everyone benefits, including the customers. This is why it is important to choose a local pest control company over a national one. We provide outstanding customer service and stand behind our programs. We serve the North Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee areas with outstanding pest control. Contact our office 24/7 to get a very fast response and outstanding service. 

How do you know when you need to hire a pest professional? Is it the first time you walk the pesticide aisle of a home improvement store? 

The big bags of chemicals and small containers of mysterious liquids are intimidating. The fine print on the bags and bottles along with the smells of their contents are a lot to process. 

You may say to yourself “I don’t know what I am doing here”. Maybe it is time for you to consider the benefits of hiring a pest professional! 

You may ask yourself…

Is this the right formula? 

Is this safe for my pet? 

What will happen if my children touch/eat this? Where do I spray? 

Do I spray it once a week? Month? Year?

What is in this stuff?

And for this writer… Where did we put the sprayer, and how do I get this smelly stuff inside of it?

With all of that in mind, a DIY insecticide program should bring up a lot of uncertainties.

Hiring a pest professional sounds like a good idea. 

Most of us pay someone more knowledgeable to change our oil, rotate our tires and resolve plumbing problems. Why do we think we can fend off an infestation of roaches? 

Hiring a pest professional can give you peace of mind. A pest professional undergoes continual training to maintain certification. In addition to that, at Lawn and Pest Solutions, our pest professionals have additional standards to maintain. 

When, what, where and how much.

Our licensed pest professionals at Lawn and Pest Solutions apply pesticides that are specific to the area you live. These treatments apply to the specific problems you have.

• Our pros look for points of entry and help you exclude them.
• Our pros broom down cobwebs and wasps nests outside so they don’t set up camp outside your home. 
• Our pros know “what’s coming” ….(for instance, we know ants are more active in wet weather).
• Our pros are proactive. We like to prevent pest problems, not just solve them. 
• Our pros have seen it all. We know where to look, what to look under, what signs to look for when solving pest problems. 

Hiring a pest professional is a no-brainer.

At Lawn and Pest Solutions, our pest professionals are here to solve your problems. You don’t have to be a DIY pest guy, just call us with your pest problems and questions. Leave the hiring of pest professionals up to us.

Leave the YouTube tutorials to the stay at home chemists. They can mix up their homemade roach spray in their kitchens. Meanwhile, you can feel confident in our trained pest professionals. We are here for you. 

Call our office today to have peace of mind. We serve the North Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee areas.

Why choose local for pest control if you don’t know their jingle by heart? Why choose local if their logo isn’t burned into your visual memory? Just because you know the theme song to the sitcom “Cheers” would you have been a regular there? 

Why did Norm and Cliff return to their familiar stools at the end of the bar every day? 

It surely wasn’t because of the good customer service. They got the same old cheap beers and typically ended up victims of a pranks or jokes. Cliff and Norm returned to “Cheers” because it was a familiar name and place and they were surrounded by familiar people. Some might say “Cheers” was a lazy choice. 

Are you choosing your pest control like Norm and Cliff chose their bar? 

When naming off pest control companies, one might immediately thing of Orkin and Terminix. Their names are plastered on billboards and televisions. National marketing and branding companies have successfully made their names a fixture. In the Memphis area, Cook’s Pest Control brings to mind their catchy jingle that most of us can sing word for word! 

When you think of Orkin, Terminix or Cook’s, what do you really know about their company?

Maybe we should ask, what do Orkin, Terminix and Cook’s know about YOU? Working with a locally owned business like Lawn and Pest Solutions means that you are getting very personal service. Our employees tend to stay with us for years. We have customers and technicians that know each other on a first name basis and keep up with each others’ lives. Even in our Google reviews, our customers refer to technicians and salesmen by name. Do you know your pest technician by name?

The LPS Difference

Being locally owned, Lawn and Pest Solutions owner Paul Welborn feels personally responsible for each customer. From customer service to satisfaction with pest services, Paul is invested. It is not unusual for him to show up at a home to help solve an unusual pest issue. 

Lawn and Pest owner Paul Welborn is hands-on and present. Whether loading up trucks at 6:45 a.m. or frying up shrimp at employee appreciation day, he is there. Creating personal relationships with his employees and investing in their futures is important. It means that Lawn and Pest Solutions technicians want to stay with the company and support Paul and Lawn and Pest. When the company sees itself as a team, everyone benefits, including the customers. 

Orkin, Terminix, and Cook’s aren’t bad pest control companies. They are large and successful pest control companies. We know their names, their logos, and even their “theme songs”. But working with a smaller team with a local owner certainly has its’ benefits. We want you to choose local for pest control.

At Lawn and Pest Solutions, we want to know YOUR name and give you the best termite and pest control you can get. We provide outstanding customer service and stand behind our programs. We serve the North Mississippi and Memphis areas with outstanding pest control and lawn treatment. Contact our office 24/7 to get a very fast response and outstanding service. 

One walk down the pesticide aisle of a home improvement store is enough for me to know I need to hire a pest professional. So many bags of chemicals and containers of liquids. The smell of the aisle alone is enough to let me know, “I don’t know what I am doing here”. Have you ever tried reading the instructions on pesticides? I am always reminded that I am not a chemist or a baker. I don’t do “recipes”. 

What’s that smell?

A do it yourself insecticide program should bring up a lot of uncertainties. Is this the right formula? Is is safe for my pet? What will happen if my children touch/eat this? Where do I spray? If I only have to spray it once a year, what the heck is IN this stuff? And this one is for me, where is that sprayer and how do I get this smelly stuff inside of it? So hiring a pest professional sounds like an obvious YES.

I don’t change my own oil, rotate my tires, unclog my toilets or rewire my lamps. 

Why would I think I can fend off an infestation of roaches? Hiring a pest professional gives peace of mind. A pest professional undergoes continual training to maintain certification. In addition to that, at Lawn and Pest Solutions, our pest professionals have additional standards to maintain. They know when to spray, what to spray and where to spray.

Our licensed pest professionals at Lawn and Pest Solutions are more than guys with sprayers who know where to spray. These are things you can expect from us:

• We apply pesticides that are specific to the area you live and that apply to the specific problems you have.
• We look for points of entry and help you exclude them.
• We broom down cobwebs and wasps nests outside so they don’t set up camp outside your home. 
• We know “what’s coming” ….for instance, we know ants are more active in wet weather. Our techs are proactive. We like to prevent pest problems, not just solve them. 
• Our techs have seen it all. They know where to look, what to look under, what signs to look for when solving pest mysteries. 

Hiring a pest professional, it’s a no-brainer.

At Lawn and Pest Solutions, we are here to solve your problems. You don’t have to be a DIY pest guy, you can just call us with your pest problems and questions. You don’t have to learn how to spray your pantry safely by watching YouTube videos. You don’t have to become a stay at home chemist to mix up your own roach spray. You can feel confident in our trained pest professionals that they know what they are doing and they know when to do it. Don’t worry or waste any more money and time trying to do it on your own. We are here for you. Call our office today to have peace of mind and know that this is not the year the roaches are going to rule your kitchen.