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Call Us Today at : (512) 561-7451Hernando County, Florida
Spring Hill began in 1967 as a Deltona Corporation planned community and now holds more than 47,000 housing units in southwestern Hernando County. That many lawns, roofs and fences side by side give pests an easy path from one yard to the next.
Spring Hill has no city government. It is a census-designated place, unincorporated, where the 2020 census counted 113,568 people. The Deltona Corporation and the Mackle Brothers founded it in 1967, sold its lots through national advertising and reused the plans they had drawn for Deltona. A waterfall at Spring Hill Drive and U.S. 19 still marks the original entrance. Tampa lies about 40 miles south, a drive made easier when the Suncoast Parkway was finished in 2001.
The community belongs to Florida's Nature Coast, with Weeki Wachee Springs close by and Hernando Beach to the west. For our purposes two census figures matter more: a median age of 45.8, and about one resident in four aged 65 or older. We keep service simple, show you the problem first, and choose eco-friendly products where grandchildren and pets play.
The southern chinch bug is, by UF's count, the second most expensive plant-feeding insect in the state, and its favorite food is St. Augustinegrass. Adults are only about a quarter inch long. Damage starts as off-color patches in sunny or drought-stressed parts of the lawn that turn brown and die, and UF adds that St. Augustine growing in dry, sandy or shell soil on high ground suffers most. A coffee can pushed into the turf and flooded for five minutes floats the bugs up.
Red imported fire ants reached the United States through Mobile or Pensacola between 1933 and 1945 and now nest in lawns, parks and along sidewalks. A mature colony may hold as many as 240,000 workers, which boil out to bite and sting when the mound is bumped. Stings raise a white pustule within a day and can trigger allergic reactions in sensitive people. UF rates bait above drenching a mound: slower, but the queen and her brood end up eating it.
Native eastern subterranean termites are found statewide, and the University of Florida map records them in the Spring Hill area. The same map shows Formosan subterranean termites collected in and around Spring Hill in 2017, 2020 and twice in May 2026. Both kinds travel from soil to wood inside mud tubes. Native swarmers appear on warm afternoons from January to April; Formosan swarmers come to lights after dusk in late spring.
The Florida carpenter ant, Camponotus floridanus, lives throughout the state and is hard to miss: workers reach 11 millimeters, rust-orange in front and black behind. Foraging happens at night, busiest from just before sunset until two hours after. They do not eat wood. Instead they settle into existing voids or soft, rotted wood, very commonly under window and door frames that take in rain or sprinkler water, and UF notes that tree limbs touching the house act as bridges.
Hernando County Mosquito Control warns that mosquitoes can breed in as little as a quarter teaspoon of water and go from egg to adult in seven to ten days. The program lists West Nile virus, Eastern equine encephalitis and St. Louis encephalitis as the locally acquired diseases it watches for, using traps and sentinel chickens. Its homeowner checklist: inspect the property weekly, dump or cover containers, store tires properly and remove water lettuce, water hyacinth and cattails from ponds.
Native subterranean termites swarm on mild, sunny afternoons, usually after a rain. Winged termites inside the house, or a row of wings on a windowsill, are worth a call. It is also the comfortable time to go over the foundation, garage and attic, before summer heat sets in.
Formosan termite flights peak in May, and every Formosan record UF holds for Hernando County was collected in May or early June. Carpenter ants swarm between April and June. Fire ants hold their mating flights on warm, sunny days after rain, so new colonies are being founded now, which makes this a practical time to bait the whole yard.
Chinch bug injury peaks in early July and keeps spreading through the hot months, fleas reach their highest numbers in August and September, and daily rain fills gutters, toys and plant saucers. Mow St. Augustine at 3 to 4 inches, water only when the grass starts to wilt and empty containers weekly.
The dry season returns. UF notes that house mice sometimes invade buildings near wooded areas in fall, so check door sweeps, garage door seals and the screens on attic and plumbing vents. Keep firewood off the porch, since Florida woods cockroaches ride indoors on it.
We start on the lawn. Chinch bug patches are probed along their edges, fire ant mounds are mapped, and we look at mowing height, fertilizer and sprinkler timing, because UF links chinch bug trouble to heavy nitrogen and overwatering.
Then the house. The big roaches Floridians call palmetto bugs, which UF identifies as the American, smokybrown, Australian and brown cockroaches, develop in garages, attics and other damp, warm places and come in from outside. We seal gaps around door and window frames, screen vents, and check the slab edge and garage for termite mud tubes. Dog owners get one more question, about ticks, because the brown dog tick can breed indoors.
Rule out southern chinch bugs before anything else. They cause irregular yellow patches that brown out, usually in the sunniest, driest parts of the lawn, and the damage peaks in early July. Confirm with the float test before treating, because drought and disease look similar and some chinch bug populations no longer respond to common insecticides.
Yes, they have been found here. The University of Florida termite map lists Formosan subterranean termite collections in the Spring Hill area in 2017, 2020 and 2026. UF says the species lives mainly in coastal cities and has been spreading, so swarms at lights on a May evening should be identified instead of ignored.
Hernando County Mosquito Control does. It takes service requests from residents and sends technicians to inspect. The county uses surveillance, mosquito fish, larvicides and, when counts are high, spraying. On your own lot the job is removing standing water every week, since the county cannot empty your buckets and gutters for you.
A free Spring Hill estimate is one form away at /quote, or one call away at (512) 561-7451, and plans run from $57.
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