How to Protect Yourself from Summer Biting Insects

Summer is here, and with it comes a new invasion of biting insects. The warmer weather, longer daylight hours, and abundance of food draw insects in summer, and they often use people’s private yards and homes as their base of operations. However, with smart preventive measures, you can keep yourself, your family, and your pets safe from summer insects that bite.

Insects will always be a part of the natural world around you, but you can make your environment less hospitable. Then, bugs will have no choice but to make homes elsewhere. By focusing on preventive measures, effective repellents, and natural solutions, you can minimize the risk of bites from mosquitoes, ticks, and other common summer insects.

Stopping Bee Stings

Bees and wasps are some of nature’s most important pollinators, but they can also be an intimidating presence in your outdoor space — especially if you’re allergic to their stings. Bees tend to be fuzzy-looking, while wasps are smoother and often more colorful. If a bee stings you, it will likely leave its stinger behind, whereas a wasp can sting multiple times because it does not drop its stinger.

The most effective things you can do to keep bees and wasps away from you include:

• Do not disturb their nests or hives; if you see one, call a professional for removal.
• Avoid wearing scented lotions, which may attract these pollinators as if you were a flower.
• Eliminate appealing habitats for hives, such as sheltered, safe areas around the home.
• Do not leave food and drinks uncovered outside.
• Avoid swatting at bees; they typically only sting when threatened.
• Be strategic about the flowers you plant. While it’s great to support the environment with native plants in your garden, planting purple and blue flowers near your home or outdoor areas can attract bees because they see these wavelengths clearly.
• Remove water sources so bees have to relocate to a more suitable home.
• Use plants that produce scents bees don’t like, such as mint, eucalyptus, lemon, garlic, and cinnamon.

Avoiding Tick-Borne Illness

For many, the thought of a tick bite comes with some disquiet. These insects can continue to bite even if their body is removed from their head, and they are disease vectors that can carry numerous illnesses, including Lyme disease.

Some of the best ways to stop ticks from infiltrating your outdoor spaces include:

• Cut the grass so ticks do not have shelter or an easy means of hitching a ride on you and your pets.
• Target other pests, such as deer and mice, which are more likely to carry ticks into your space if they visit.
• Create a mulch moat around your home, which is difficult terrain for a tick to cross safely.
• Cultivate plants that ticks dislike, such as lemongrass, chrysanthemums, rosemary, and basil.
• If you must walk through the grass, wear long pants and high socks or tuck your pants into your shoes.

If a tick has bitten you, see a medical professional. Not only can they remove the full tick safely, but they can also diagnose tick-borne illnesses in the earliest stages.

Eliminating the Mosquito Threat

Perhaps the most notable of all biting insects in summer is the mosquito. From transmitting a host of diseases to producing itchy bite marks that will leave you distracted and desperate for relief, these little buzzers are the bane of most people’s outdoor existence from April to September.

To protect yourself from mosquitoes, be sure to:

• Remove standing water, which provides a safe place for mosquitoes to reproduce and leave their larvae.
• Support natural predators who eat mosquitoes, such as birds and bats.
• Keep your lawn mowed low so water cannot build up underneath the thatch.
• Switch your outdoor lights to yellow bug lamps so mosquitoes cannot see the radiation as easily, reducing the appeal of your property to them.
• If you want to continue using outdoor water features such as bird baths, use drippers or wigglers to keep water from stagnating.
• Cultivate species that produce repellent odors, such as citronella, lavender, catnip, and rosemary.
• Wear long-sleeved clothing to reduce exposed skin.
• Sit near a fan when outdoors to make it more difficult for mosquitos to approach you.

Stay Safe from Insects in Summer with Pest Control Help

Summer is supposed to be a time of outdoor relaxation and soaking up the sun — but biting insects can claim your property as their own in no time. Stop them in their tracks using smart, eco-friendly pest control solutions. And if you’re having a hard time controlling insect populations on your own, it’s smart to seek help from professionals.

Contact Spartan Animal & Pest Control to explore the many ways we can help you reclaim your outdoor space from biting insects in the summer.