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Call Us Today at : (512) 561-7451Orange County, Florida
Alafaya is the part of east Orange County below State Road 50 that most people place by its neighbors: the University of Central Florida, Waterford Lakes and Avalon Park. Young neighborhoods and frequent move-ins shape the service calls we get.
Alafaya is an unincorporated, census-designated community in eastern Orange County whose center lies about 9 miles east of downtown Orlando. The 2020 census counted 92,452 residents and a median age of 34.2. Much of the housing is recent: Waterford Lakes began in 1985 and filled out through the 1990s around parks and lakes, and Avalon Park arranges 1,860 acres of villages around a town center east of Alafaya Trail.
The University of Central Florida, with more than 70,000 students, has its main campus on Alafaya Trail close by, and census estimates show about 64 percent of local homes owner-occupied, leaving roughly one in three rented. If you rent to students, or are one, shared kitchens, secondhand furniture and new housemates every August bring different pests than a settled family home does.
The German cockroach is the small indoor roach. UF/IFAS is blunt about how it arrives: it never walks in from the yard, people spread it, and it can ride along on backpacks, purses and clothing. One egg case holds 30 to 40 nymphs and there are three to six generations a year, so numbers build fast in a shared house. Baits and sticky monitors beat baseboard spray.
Any move can bring bed bugs. UF/IFAS explains that they travel on clothing and inside luggage, bedding and furniture, which covers most of what comes off a moving truck. They tuck into cracks in walls and furniture by day and leave rusty spots on the mattress. Skip the bug bomb: a study UF cites found store-bought foggers ineffective. Look over used couches and bed frames before they come inside.
Tiny pale ants on the bathroom sink are usually ghost ants, Tapinoma melanocephalum, which UF/IFAS maps mainly from Sarasota to the Orlando area and south. Foragers often start from outdoor nests in potted plants or at the bases of palm fronds, then settle in wall voids and gaps behind cabinets. Sprays give only temporary relief; bait reaches the queens.
Newer construction is not termite-proof. UF's termite collection has logged Formosan subterranean termites in this part of east Orange County since 2012, and native eastern subterranean termites occur statewide. One native colony may hold 100,000 to a million termites and forage up to 150 feet, so the nest can sit under a neighbor's yard. Leaky plumbing and air conditioner condensate draw them to a wall.
Summer storms refill every pond, saucer and bucket in the neighborhood. Culex nigripalpus, which UF/IFAS names Florida's most important disease-carrying mosquito, lays eggs in freshly flooded ditches and feeds near sunset and before sunrise. The Asian tiger mosquito uses small containers and is a daytime biter. Orange County Mosquito Control supplies residents with mosquito-eating Gambusia fish for ponds at no charge.
St. Augustinegrass is Florida's most common home lawn, and the southern chinch bug is a major pest of it, worst in central and southern counties. UF/IFAS Extension in Orange County describes splotches of green amid a sea of dead brown grass, starting in sunny, water-stressed spots. Check sprinkler coverage, mow at 3 to 4 inches and thin the thatch before reaching for an insecticide.
Native subterranean termites swarm in daylight during these months, usually on a warm afternoon after rain, and Formosan swarms begin at dusk in April. Lovebugs are in the air through much of April and May. It is a good stretch to fix leaks and book a termite inspection.
Chinch bug infestations peak in early July, and mosquitoes follow every storm. Fire ants stage mating flights near noon on hot, bright days that follow a rain, and UF/IFAS notes that a colony flooded out of saturated soil may move to higher ground or indoors.
Leases turn over and furniture changes hands, so this is when German cockroaches and bed bugs hitch rides. Adult flea numbers are highest in August and September too, and fleas left in a house that stood empty can emerge when new people walk in.
For a rental, the best time for service is the gap between tenants. We inspect kitchens and bathrooms, set cockroach monitors, look over any beds and couches that stay with the house. Turnover is also the moment to fix what let pests in: worn door sweeps, torn screens and the slow leak under a sink.
Owner-occupied homes in Waterford Lakes, Avalon Park and the streets between get an exterior-first visit. We look for mud tubes in the inspection gap below the siding, mulch piled deeper than UF's two-inch guideline beside the foundation, fire ant mounds along sidewalk and driveway edges, and thin patches in the lawn.
People carry them in. UF/IFAS states that German cockroaches do not enter buildings from outdoors and live only alongside people, so they arrive hidden in bags, backpacks and belongings. A quick spray along the baseboards rarely ends it; baits, sticky monitors and cleaning up grease and crumbs work better.
Yes, they can. Formosan subterranean termites have been collected in this area repeatedly since 2012, and native subterranean termites live throughout Florida. UF/IFAS recommends a yearly inspection by a licensed professional and at least six inches of visible space between the soil or mulch line and the siding.
In summer, southern chinch bugs are a likely cause. Injury usually begins in full sun or where the sprinklers miss and shows as yellow to brown patches. Part the grass where dead turf meets green and look for the insects. Tropical sod webworms also leave brown patches, so confirm the cause before treating.
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