The North Mississippi Guide to Professional Home Pest Control

Pests can be found everywhere — in your home and garden.

Although insects first appeared 480 million years ago, their long presence doesn’t mean you should panic when you see a cockroach scurry across the counter, ants gathering near your front door, or grubs damaging your lawn by eating its roots.

Remember, you are the larger species!

Encountering bugs during daily activities is normal, but they become bothersome when they invade your living, eating, or relaxation spaces.

Table of Contents

• Common Household Pests in North MS: Even a Clean Home is a Target for Common Invaders
• Getting Started With Pest Control: Set Up a Barrier With Perimeter Pest Control
• Taking the Battle Inside: Signs that Pests Have Already Entered Your Home
• When Pests Are More Than Just a Nuisance: Avoiding Termite Damage in Your North MS Home
• Pests in the Landscape: How to Protect Your Lawn, Plants & Guests from Common Insects
• DIY Products & Low-Cost Providers Are No Replacement for Professional Pest Control
• Pest Control Costs: What to Expect, and How You Can Build the Right Program For Your Home
• Average Pest Control Pricing in North MS
• Work With a Professional to Keep Pests - And Pest Control Costs - In Check

Of all the pests that can bother us, some are certainly more prevalent in Tupelo, Oxford & New Albany, MS

That’s why we’ve put together this comprehensive guide on how to recognize and fight the most common pests in North MS. The goal is to help you better identify, prevent, and control these insects so you can take back your personal space from the bugs that get in your way.

Common Household Pests in North MS: Even a Clean Home is a Target for Common Invaders

Even though they are a terrible nuisance to you — and in some cases can even bring disease and filth — common North MS household pests have reasons for coming into your home.

Their motivations are driven by some typical attractions that all homes possess—even if you keep yours as clean as possible. Dealing with a pest infestation starts with knowing what lures them indoors.

Motivation #1 of Household Mississippi Pests: Food

A common reason you may have bugs in Tennessee is that you have food.

Most pests are attracted to sugars, crumbs, and uncovered foods. Cockroaches, ants, and rodents, for example, are attracted to things like dirty dishes in your sink, garbage or pet food left out, and crumbs on the floor. For instance, if you don’t have food in sealed containers, that’s a bug magnet. Once they find your food, they bring their friends to show them the jackpot. That’s when your pest infestation escalates.

Even pet food is attractive to pests. They also seek water, so if you have high humidity or water leaks, bugs may come into your home in search of that moisture. This is especially true if it’s dry and hot outside.

So, one way to keep household New Albany pests out of your home is to keep it clean. Remove crumbs and spills from floors; store all food in sealed plastic containers, including pet or bird food; and take the trash out regularly, keeping it in a sealed lid.

Motivation #2 of Household North MS Pests: Safety and Shelter

You might be great at cleaning your home to ensure you don’t leave crumbs that can attract common indoor pests, but they are also looking for other things your house offers, like shelter and safety.

Just like you crave a warm, cozy place to rest and sleep, feeling safe and protected from the outside world, pests want the same thing. They want to find a place where they can hunker down and get what they need—food, water, and shelter — while they multiply.

Sealing cracks and crevices around your foundation, windows, basement, siding, and insulation can keep bugs outdoors where they belong.

Getting Started With Pest Control: Set Up a Barrier With Perimeter Pest Control

Despite your best efforts, if you have persistent common household pests in New Albany, you may need some extra help keeping them out.

This is where an outdoor perimeter pest control treatment can help prevent pests from entering your home.

But as you hear about perimeter pest control, you might wonder how it works to limit pest invasions in North Mississippi homes.

New Albany Pest Control Starts With Managing The Perimeter

Pests hunt for shelter, food, and places to hide, and they make more bugs. Gross, right?

Your home is pretty inviting. Moisture and humidity can draw insects in, and crumbs, spills and trash are all things insects find quite attractive.

And if you have any small openings—cracks around your windows, for instance—bugs can find their way in.

Perimeter pest control involves blocking a bug’s entrance into your home by applying a product around the foundation to discourage entry. Regularly refreshing this barrier prevents it from breaking down, keeping pests out.

For instance, Lawn & Pest Solutions offers a Pest 360 service that creates a barrier around your home and ensures a technician is on-site at least once every 3 months. You remain on call with your pest professional should pests come in. That technician can then come inside to address the indoor pest control issue in New Albany, MS, at no additional cost.

How Does Perimeter Pest Control Work?

Pests don’t like to cross pest control perimeter barriers because they contain a product whose smell or taste they dislike, so they stay away. This works for all bugs, including cockroaches, ants, spiders, and centipedes.

Your pest control professional may also suggest sealing entry points or trimming trees and shrubs to further discourage insects from coming inside.

Pests are excellent at hiding. So just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean you don’t have a problem. If you go from seeing occasional pests inside to seeing very few or no pests, that’s when you know your perimeter pest control is working to keep bugs out.

Taking the Battle Inside: Signs that Pests Have Already Entered Your Home

The very idea of pests poking around your home can make you feel much less safe and secure. No one likes thinking about bugs in cupboards, spiders in basements, or mice lurking behind appliances.

But the reality is that in Mississippi, one or more of 40 common pests are found in every home at some point. Even the most conscientious person cannot always avoid an occasional pest infestation.

This means you could share your home with some unwanted visitors – from cockroaches to spiders to centipedes.

Fortunately, there are some signs you can look for if you suspect you have an infestation by a common North MS household pest.

Sign #1 of Household Tupelo, Oxford & New Albany, MS Pests: Messes You Didn’t Make

One sign of common North MS household pests might be random, strange, small piles of messes you don’t remember making yourself.

For instance, mice leave little pet food or birdseed caches behind appliances. You might even find random pieces of paper, cotton balls, and twine in hidden places.

These things show that pests or rodents are sneaking food or crumbs and gathering materials to build nests.

Sign #2 of Household Pests: Strange Noises

Some common household pests can be pretty noisy.

You might hear cockroaches scampering across a floor or a counter. And mice tend to be noisy as they move in walls or attics. Rodents also gnaw a lot to file down their continuously growing teeth. You might hear them gnawing on wood, walls, or even electrical wires.

Sign #3 of Household North MS Pests: Droppings

This sign of common household pests might be exclusive to mice. It’s the droppings they leave behind.

Yes, we’re talking about poop, and mice do quite a bit of this. Each mouse can drop up to 75 small, smooth, black pellets with pointed ends daily. Rat droppings look a little different. They are shiny black and are ½ to ¾ of an inch long.

And since they don’t clean up after themselves, you can usually spot these droppings in places mice or rats frequent, including kitchen cabinets, pantries, attics, crawl spaces, and near air vents or holes in walls.

You might also smell rodent pee as it collects in a single area near their nest.

Sign #4 of Household North MS Pests: Actual Pest Sightings

An obvious sign of pests is spotting them.

You might see ants crawling around kitchen floors or near entryways. You might see spiders and their webs in corners of windows or basement nooks. You might see centipedes on your basement floor.

Other pests, like mice and cockroaches, are usually most active between dawn and dusk, so you might spot them scurrying away when you flick on a light as you enter your kitchen. If you don’t see an actual mouse, you might see holes or debris they leave behind as they gnaw through dark corners in your kitchen cabinets or pantry areas.

What You Should Do When You Find Pests in Your Home

Now that you know the signs of common North MS household pests, you might want to take action quickly once you spot a few.

It starts with removing nests or webs and progresses to elimination tactics for specific pests.

This might sound overwhelming. We completely understand. If you are concerned about quickly and effectively eliminating all pests in your home, you might want to hire a pest control professional.

When Pests Are More Than Just a Nuisance: Avoiding Termite Damage in Your Home

Some common pests in North MS are more extreme than others.

Take termites, for instance. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, termites cause billions of dollars in structural damage each year and cost property owners more than $2 billion in treatment costs.

And if this fact worries you, we understand. Termites can quickly deteriorate the value of your North Mississippi home.

Pests that can cause this kind of extensive damage require more than DIY treatment methods.

Because termites don’t leave a lot of signs of their presence and are very small, you might not even know what’s happening until they’ve done a decent amount of damage. And no one wants to deal with massive, unexpected repair costs.

Let’s look at termites, signs of termites, termite prevention tactics, and termite control strategies so you can shield your home from these invasive insects.

Signs of Termites in Tupelo, Oxford & New Albany, MS

While many other common pests in North MS have a season or time of year when they appear most active, termites can be active in your home all year.

Termites swarm when they search for mates around April and establish a new colony. This happens as the weather warms, usually after rain.

Other than this timing, though, when you see termites moving around, you may not see them until the damage is done. That’s why it’s essential to watch for these signs of termites.

Flying Termites

When termites swarm, they fly into the air, drop to the ground, shed their wings, and seek out a mate. So, you might see termites flying in the air. They tend to look like winged ants when they do this.

Termite Roads

Another sign of termites in North MS is the mud tubes they use to travel. Mud tubes are about ⅛-inch thick tubes that shelter termites as they travel between their underground colonies and your home to find wood to eat. They keep termites protected and moist. These mud tubes typically extend over foundation walls or support beams. You can see tunnel trails running along wood, concrete, cinder blocks, and even in mid-air to help termites reach their destinations.

Damaged Wood

Since termites eat wood, an obvious sign of termites is damaged wood. You’re looking for crumbling wood. If you push on it with your finger or a screwdriver, it might cave in because the center is hollow and eaten away by termites. The wood may also be discolored.

Termite Control Starts With Prevention

One of the best ways to combat termites is to prevent them.

Try these ways to avoid termites in North MS:

Control Moisture

Termites love moist environments. They use soil moisture to create mud tubes for their termite colonies to survive. To prevent excess moisture, ensure proper drainage, eliminate excess condensation or dampness in crawl spaces, and clean your gutters.

Keep Foundation Areas Clean

Excessive mulch, firewood, or scrap lumber left to pile up around your home are termite attractants. Add moisture to that, and you’ll invite termites in.

Get Annual Termite Inspections

Many pest control companies perform your first termite inspection free unless it’s part of a home inspection for refinancing or a real estate transaction. Once you call to request an inspection, a pest control professional can schedule it within 24 to 48 hours.

You should be home for the inspection so the technician can enter. They need access to the exterior and interior of your home, especially vulnerable areas like crawl spaces, basements, attics, and garages. They look for tell-tale signs of termite activity and current or past signs of termite infestations. The whole inspection process takes approximately an hour.

Termite Control Strategies That Work

Many termite control companies offer trench-and-rod treatments to combat termites.

During this treatment, a pest control professional digs a shallow trench around your home's foundation and injects a termiticide every 1.5 to 2 feet along this trench.

This is an involved and invasive process because you must surround your home to make it work. Any break in the perimeter is an entryway for termites, so the company must drill into your driveway and walkways.

However, there are less invasive ways to tackle termites. Lawn & Pest Solutions offers a treatment using the Sentricon System. As Certified Sentricon Specialists, rather than pumping gallons of termiticide around your home, we place stations that contain termite bait around the house and monitor them for termite activity.

When the worker termites consume the active ingredient, they feed it to their colony, which dies. This is an environmentally friendly and highly effective option.

How Much Does Termite Control Cost?

Lawn & Pest Solutions’ termite control treatments include annual interior and exterior inspections to ensure termites aren’t returning to your home.

Sentricon usually starts at approximately $69 per month for the first 12 months and then drops to $26 monthly.  Most homes fall into this price range.

Pests in the Landscape: How to Protect Your Lawn, Plants & Guests from Common Insects

Pests don’t only invade your home - there are also outdoor pests that can wreak havoc on your lawn and landscape.

Let’s review some common pests in North MS that destroy your grass, feast on your plants, trees, and shrubs, and even feed on you and your pets.

Lawn Grubs

You know what white grubs are if you have heard of Japanese beetles, the northern masked chafer, or June bugs. These fat, C-shaped, white, common pests are the larvae of adult beetles.

If you see Japanese beetles crawling around your roses or other plants, that could be a sign they are laying eggs in your grass nearby. And those eggs turn into the white grubs that feed on your lawn all summer and fall. As temperatures get cooler before winter, they burrow deeper into your soil. In spring, they awaken and resume feeding on your lawn until they emerge as adult beetles in late spring.

How does it start? In spring, grubs wake up from winter hibernation. They dig their way up from deep in the soil to just beneath the grass surface and begin to feed on your lawn’s root system. But because your grass is vigorously growing in the spring, it’s less likely that you’ll see damage.

Later, you may notice yellow or brown spots or dead patches. A heavily infested lawn may feel loose as if it’s not connected to the ground. If you try to pull it up, it might come like a carpet that isn’t tacked down. If you walk on your lawn when it has grubs, it may also feel spongy.

Unfortunately, nearly everyone has some grubs in their lawn and may need lawn grub control in North Mississippi. However, based on the weather and whether or not you’ve tried to control them, there can be light years and heavy years of infestation.

A comprehensive, proactive lawn care program is most effective for lawn grub control.

Fall Armyworms

Fall armyworms usually infest lawns in southern and transition zone states, making North Mississippi an ideal location for them to attack.

Their larvae are 1 inch to 1.5 inches long and dark greenish-brown to black, with long, white, orange, and dark brown stripes along the abdomen.

The adult moths have 1-inch-long bodies with a 1.5-inch wingspan, a tan body, and a tiny white spot centered on each forewing.

Early feeding damage by fall armyworms looks like drought-stressed grass, but if many of these pests are present, it can quickly progress to complete browning. Look closely; you might even see ragged holes in your grass blades, creating brown patches.

Another sign of armyworms includes a lacy or transparent effect on your grass blades where they have been chewed.

Armyworms prefer new sod or newly seeded grass.

If you’re in an area of North Mississippi suspected to have fall armyworms, look for sticky egg masses on buildings, patio sets, decor, plants, and other outdoor surfaces. That’s when you can get ahead of fall armyworms, which is the best way to avoid their damage.

Armyworm control can happen with an insecticide treatment. But since armyworms can have multiple generations per year, you may need numerous applications per year to keep these pests at bay.

Chinch Bugs

Chinch bugs are another common lawn-destroying insect.

Since they are only one-sixth of an inch long, you may not notice their blackish-gray bodies or white wings, but you will notice the lawn damage they cause.

Chinch bugs suck the moisture right out of your grass blades, usually during summer. These pests can multiply pretty quickly. You may not even notice the damage until it’s pretty extensive.

If you suspect chinch bugs, you’ll likely see yellowing grass. Any change of color is something you should watch for.

Aphids

Sometimes called “plant lice,” aphids are tiny, soft-bodied, common outdoor pests that use their mouths to pierce leaf, stem, and root tissue and suck out the sap. This feeding tends to happen on new plant growth, too.

Despite their small stature, many aphids can cause visual damage, including yellow leaves. You may also notice that your plant's leaves or stems are covered in a sticky substance that may look black —a honeydew they emit —followed by black sooty mold.

Scale

Scale insects, like aphids, are also sap-feeding pests common in outdoor environments. But there is a difference. They have a hard shell covering their bodies, giving them protection and concealment.

You might see scales on branches, stems, foliage, or fruit of trees and shrubs.
Crape myrtle bark scale, in particular, can be a problem here, leading to black trunks. The sooty mold the pests create can cover surrounding plant material and structures, creating a messy appearance.

Spider Mites

These teeny tiny mites have eight legs and resemble spiders, but you’d need magnification to see them.

Spider mites can be highly destructive and are common outdoor pests in boxwoods, arborvitae, and other evergreens. These insects have piercing mouths that suck out plant chlorophyll, resulting in white spots or a spotty appearance. As they keep feeding, needles will turn yellow and then brown.  

Moreover, fine-needle evergreens do not produce new growth once a branch, limb, or portion of the plant turns brown.

Lace Bugs

These common outdoor pests are tiny – about ⅛ of an inch long – and feed on the undersides of leaves, sucking vital plant fluids.

These bugs tend to attack azaleas. You might see silver, white, or yellow spots on the leaves, making them look bleached. Azaleas hold their leaves for 2 to 3 growing seasons, so once they show damage, that unsightly growth can be there for up to 3 years.

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are another common outdoor pest that is different from the others. They can be present in your yard, but don’t feed on lawns or plants.

These bugs feed on you and are pretty prevalent in this area. Mosquitoes can not only be a significant source of frustration, keeping you from being able to spend time in your very own yard, but they can also be a serious threat in some areas.

A female mosquito can lay nearly 400 eggs at a time. Approximately 12 days later, you’ll have new adults buzzing about. They love moist areas and can breed in the littlest bits of water.

If you can believe it, mosquitoes only live for about 14 days, but they can cause a lot of trouble in that time because mosquitoes can spread diseases like West Nile, Zika, dengue, and malaria.

Lawn & Pest Solutions provides mosquito control in North Mississippi, including fine mist applications once a month, starting in March and ending in October. The technicians also scout for harborage areas and eliminate them when possible.

These applications also help control ticks, another common outdoor pest that can be troublesome in the Greater North Mississippi area.

Fighting Common Outdoor Pests in Lawns & Landscapes

Lawn & Pest Solutions sees many common outdoor pests in customers’ lawns and landscapes.

We believe in an integrated pest management approach. We’ll inspect your lawn and landscape for pest problems and recommend applications as needed or during high insect pressure.

Plus, we offer other lawn care and tree and shrub care services, such as fertilization and weed control, to enhance your plants’ health and help them recover from damage. While we’re on your property taking care of your lawn and landscape, we will continue to monitor for pests to keep them away.

DIY Products & Low-Cost Providers Are No Replacement for Professional Pest Control

These days, it’s not uncommon for homeowners to attempt some do-it-yourself pest control in Tupelo, Oxford & New Albany, MS. Various products are advertised as being easy and safe to use. You may even wonder why you would spend money on a pest control company to handle bugs in North MS when you can do it yourself.

Professional pest control has many advantages over do-it-yourself pest control.

Fighting insects requires knowledge of all the pests that can invade your lawn, landscape, and home, their regular patterns and hangouts and the best ways to control them. Experience also means knowing how to monitor pests and care for areas susceptible to repeat pest invasion.

This is in addition to regular pest control treatments designed to ensure pests stay away. Professionals have spent years studying and managing these pests, so they know what they’re doing, while the DIY approach may lack this deep knowledge.

DIY pest control also involves understanding products. It is essential to read instructions and follow label directions while doing this. Using more product than necessary is never the right solution to your pest problem.

Professional pest control companies study safety best practices and have the experience necessary to target minimal product amounts in the specific areas that need it to control the pest. This is safer for your family and your pets.

A reliable pest control company will also have the latest information on the safest and most effective products to keep pests out of your home. They also have access to specialized sprayers that more accurately target product applications.

While DIY pest control can make you feel accomplished for learning a new skill and completing a big task in your home, your patience for pests is low. You don’t want to be stuck chasing pests around your home or landscape every few days if you haven’t fully kept them away with your initial attempts.

This is where the costs of DIY can add up. The initial purchase of products is usually low. Still, repeated purchases of more or different products can add up if you haven’t identified the right pest or treated it effectively.

Professional pest control also offers other perks, such as thorough inspections, integrated pest management strategies, year-round programs, multiple service levels, and technicians with extensive qualifications and professional accreditations.

Pest Control Costs: What to Expect, and How You Can Build the Right Program For Your Home

When you consider bringing in professionals to help keep pests out of your home, lawn, and landscape, your search may yield a long list of companies. 

Once you have this list, you can’t help but compare North Mississippi pest control pricing across your options. You want to know what you’re getting for your money and that you're receiving something of value.

The challenging part of comparing pest control pricing is ensuring you’re comparing apples to apples, not apples to oranges.

Choosing the cheapest price can be tempting, but it can cost you more later if the service and results aren’t up to par. Pest control service and quality can vary significantly from company to company due to these factors:

Technician Experience: The pest control service professionals who work on your property are essential to keeping pests out of your home.

Quality and Proper Use of Pest Control Products: The right products, safe to use around people and pets in your home and effective against pests, can significantly improve pest control service results. Higher-quality, modern products will produce the best results.

Service Visits and Thoroughness: A once-a-year or twice-a-year service won’t be as effective as quarterly or regular visits. This is because even the best products can’t be effective long enough to keep pests away. In addition, regular inspections ensure pests aren’t sneaking into places where they don’t belong.

Ongoing Investments in Your Customer Experience: Quality control measures and the development of internal processes, people, and technology help produce better service outcomes. Returning your calls/texts/emails quickly—within 24 hours max—is a part of this.

Average Pest Control Pricing in Tupelo, Oxford & New Albany, MS

Professional pest control costs vary based on service. Here are some ranges for insect management types.

General Pest Control: Lawn & Pest Solutions' general pest control usually costs about $49 per month, up to $500-$600 annually. Other companies in North Mississippi typically charge an initial service fee of $200, plus an ongoing charge of about $125 per quarterly visit. Lawn & Pest Solutions tends to be unique in offering monthly billing that spreads the cost over the year, while many other companies charge an upfront fee or a professional pest control fee per visit.

Lawn Care: Lawn & Pest Solutions’ Lawn 360 program costs $39 monthly. The cost is typically based on lawn size, so the average lawn in a standard subdivision would cost approximately $75.

Plant Health Care: For Lawn & Pest Solutions specifically, the Basic Program starts at $29 per month, the Ultimate Program starts at $69 per month, and the Plant Health 360 Program starts at $49 per month.

Mosquito, Flea, and Tick Control: Lawn & Pest Solutions offers mosquito and tick services for about $45 per month, while flea control costs about $25 per month.

Work With a Professional to Keep Pests - And Pest Control Costs - In Check

We hope this guide helps you better understand the different types of pests you encounter in this area.

And you deserve affordable, value-based professional pest control services to manage them.

When searching for the best pest control in Hernando, Olive Branch, Oxford, and Tupelo, MS, Lawn & Pest Solutions wants to be at the top of your list. At Lawn & Pest Solutions, we offer a full array of professional pest control and lawn care services. This means you don’t have to deal with two companies for these services; you can have one contact to call and one to handle these issues.

During an initial consultation, we want to gather information about your home, landscape, and pest control challenges to prepare a plan that makes the most sense for you. We don’t want to sell you services you don’t need or waste your time.

And when your pest problem disappears without a trace, while we appreciate the thanks, you’re the real winner here.

Ready to learn why Lawn & Pest Solutions could be your choice for the best pest control services for your home and landscape in Tupelo, Oxford or New Albany, MS? We’d love to learn more about you. Get started today with a free quote. Together, we can prepare a customized plan perfect for you and your home.