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Call Us Today at : (512) 561-7451Alachua County, Florida
Tree canopy covers 47 percent of Gainesville, Hogtown Creek drains through town toward a sinkhole, and the University of Florida dominates daily life. Those three facts explain most of the insects and rodents we get asked about here.
Gainesville is the Alachua County seat and the most populous city in North Central Florida, with 141,085 residents in the 2020 census. It is home to the University of Florida, the third-largest public university campus in the country by enrollment, and to Santa Fe College. Paynes Prairie, a 21,000-acre savanna, lies along the southern edge, and Devil's Millhopper, a limestone sinkhole with more than 100 feet of exposed rock, is a state park here.
Housing runs from student apartments by campus to restored Victorian and Queen Anne houses from the 1880s and 1890s, and out to planned communities such as Haile Plantation west of the city limits. Gainesville has earned Tree City USA recognition every year since 1982, and trees that touch a building give insects a bridge to the roof.
Gainesville Mosquito Control names two container species as its main concern, Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti. Both develop in buckets, flowerpot saucers, birdbaths, tires and clogged gutters. The city's advice is to empty and scrub those containers at least once a week, since scrubbing removes eggs as well as larvae. Crews also trap and identify mosquitoes and use mosquitofish in suitable standing water.
Every spring the oaks deliver these. UF entomologists report that fir tussock moth caterpillars, which despite the name feed on oaks and bald cypress, finish growing in early April and crawl off to spin cocoons in protected spots, often under the soffits of buildings. In some years they are very numerous. Homeowners have developed itchy rashes from handling the cocoons, so avoid bare-skin contact when clearing them.
Two native subterranean species, the eastern and the dark southern, both appear repeatedly in UF's termite records for Gainesville, and their swarmers can show up from January through May. The West Indian drywood termite is here too. It needs no soil contact, lives inside lumber and furniture, and pushes out piles of hard, six-sided pellets. Formosan subterranean termites have been collected only a few times locally, first in 2018.
Apartment living comes with two hitchhikers. UF calls the German cockroach the species that typically plagues multifamily dwellings, and it can arrive inside grocery bags. Bed bugs travel on clothing and in luggage, bedding and furniture, then hide in cracks in walls and furnishings and leave reddish brown spots on mattresses. Bed bugs have never been implicated in spreading disease, but UF notes complaints about them have been rising since 1995.
UF/IFAS Extension Alachua County lists four ticks to know: the American dog tick, lone star tick, blacklegged tick and brown dog tick. Its advice: mow regularly, clear leaf litter and brush piles, and lay a three-foot strip of gravel or wood chips where lawn meets woods. Unlike the others, the brown dog tick is able to live out every life stage inside a house.
Gainesville averages 15 nights at or below freezing, usually between December 4 and February 24, and readings under 20 degrees are rare. Eastern subterranean termites start their daytime flights in January, and brown dog ticks keep breeding indoors whatever the weather.
Azaleas and redbuds bloom through a long, dry spring. Tussock moth caterpillars come down from the oaks in early April, and carpenter ant flights start that same month. Lovebugs follow in late April and May for roughly four weeks of daytime flights.
From about May 15 to September 30 the pattern is afternoon thunderstorms and high humidity, and June through September bring most of the 48 inches of yearly rain. Every storm refills the containers mosquitoes use, fire ants relocate after downpours, and a second lovebug flight arrives in August.
Autumn is the driest stretch of the year. Yellowjacket colonies are at full size and building cells for next year's queens, so a ground nest found while raking deserves caution, and dry weather suits sealing soffits, door sweeps and attic vents.
Hogtown Creek's watershed covers 21 square miles, and only about a fifth of it remains natural, so much of the city drains toward it. UF also notes that tree holes are far more common in north-central Florida's hardwood forest than farther south. That means shelter for smokybrown, American and Florida woods cockroaches, the large roaches often called palmetto bugs.
In the Duckpond, where 229 historic buildings date from the late 1800s and early 1900s, we pay close attention to drywood termite pellets and to wood near the ground. Landlords and tenants can both request service. Every plan uses eco-friendly products and begins with a free estimate.
No. UF/IFAS lists that story among its lovebug myths. The flies spread on their own along the Gulf states from Louisiana and Mississippi and reached Florida in 1949. They feed on pollen and nectar, neither bite nor sting, and appear as adults for a few weeks each April to May and August to September.
They are most likely tussock moth caterpillars that came down from nearby oaks. UF reports they mature in early April and wander onto buildings to spin cocoons under soffits. By the time they are crawling, treating the tree is too late. Sweep cocoons away without touching them, because the hairs irritate skin, and expect the adult moths from mid-April to early May.
Start with containers. The city's mosquito program says its two main pest species grow in buckets, saucers, tires, birdbaths and clogged gutters, so tip and scrub them weekly. For permanent water that cannot be emptied, the city points to mosquitofish. Residents can reach Gainesville Mosquito Control at 352-393-8287, and we can treat the shaded resting areas around the house.
Describe the rental, Duckpond porch or Haile backyard on /quote and the estimate is free, /schedule-pest-control-service holds a time, and plans from $57 are explained at (512) 561-7451.
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