Service Choice, Author at Service Choice

Common Spring Lawn Care Mistakes

Now that spring has arrived, it’s time to improve your outdoor living space, and maintaining a healthy lawn should be at the top of your to-do list. Unfortunately, achieving the perfect lawn can be challenging for homeowners in South Florida. Here are some of the common spring lawn care mistakes you need to avoid, and what you can do to ensure your lawn is primed for healthy growth in the spring and beyond.

Improper Fertilization

Your lawn needs critical nutrients to grow and thrive but applying the wrong fertilizer—or applying the right fertilizer at the wrong time—can do damage to your grass. Since every lawn is unique, you need to do plenty of research to determine what type of fertilizer is best for your lawn, as well as the best application technique, frequency, and quantity of product.

The lawn care professionals at Service Choice of Oakland Park can create a proper fertilization regimen that meets your lawn’s unique needs. We’ll account for several factors, including your grass type and the season, to make sure your lawn is primed for healthy growth and resists insects and disease.

Overwatering

While it’s tempting to water your lawn frequently—especially during the hotter months of the year—this practice may not only be wasteful, but it can also drown out your emerging lawn. It’s best to water once or twice a week, providing your lawn with around one inch of water. You should always water in the morning to ensure proper evaporation into the soil.

Mowing Too Short

While keeping your grass trimmed is critical when it comes to preventing pest infestations and the spread of fungus, cutting too low can damage your grass. When you mow too short, your lawn is more prone to drought stress, weeds, and even disease. Maintain a minimum of three inches in length, depending on your grass type. In general, you shouldn’t mow more than 1/3-inch of a grass blade in a single mowing session. When in doubt, consult your lawn care professionals who understand the best mowing height for the grass type you have in your yard.

Overlooking Weed Prevention

You need proper weed prevention to protect your lawn. Once weeds take root in your yard, they can quickly spread, crowding out healthy grass and sucking essential nutrients out of the soil. Maintaining a healthy, dense lawn is the best defense against weeds. Alongside proper mowing, watering, and fertilization, you should invest in pre-emergent weed control to prevent weeds from taking root during the spring growing seasons. Your lawn care technician can inspect your lawn for weeds and apply an appropriate post-emergent weed control on problematic areas.

A Trophy Lawn Is Just a Phone Call Away

Achieving a lush, healthy, green lawn is well within reach, as long as you rely on the lawn care experts at Service Choice of Oakland Park to care for your yard. After a free initial inspection, we’ll suggest a comprehensive treatment plan–including fertilization; pre-emergent application; and disease and insect control–so your lawn is primed for healthy growth. Call us today at (954) 568-9955 to schedule your free consultation!

Florida Insects You Need to Keep Away From Your Garden

Thanks to Florida’s warm, humid climate, gardening is possible all year round. It’s also the perfect environment for several nuisance pests to thrive, each of them with its own unique way of destroying stems, leaves, and other parts of plants. While some pests do their damage quietly, the results of their efforts are almost always visible. Here are some of the most common pests you’ll find in your Florida garden, and what you should do to remove them.

Aphids

Aphids attack almost any species of plant you have in your garden–an infestation is one of a gardener’s worst nightmares. If the leaves of your plants are turning brown and curled, it’s a good sign that aphids are nearby.

Aphids transmit viruses as they feed on your plants, secreting a sticky substance called “honeydew.” In no time, the honeydew promotes the growth of sooty mold. It doesn’t take long for a small aphid colony to turn into a full-blown infestation, so taking immediate action and calling your local pest control experts is the best preventative measure you can take to protect your plants.

Cutworms

These damaging pests emerge from the soil at night to cut and eat seedlings and transplants at their base. As they cut new growth to the ground, they feed on the stem and leaves of the plants. The most common cutworm in South Florida is the black cutworm, and it poses a huge threat to vegetable gardens. These insects are most active in the early season when plants are tender. If you spot cutworm damage—like wilting at the top of your plants—reach out to your pest control experts immediately.

Whiteflies

Whiteflies are a widespread nuisance pest throughout South Florida, traveling from garden to garden and sucking the sap out of plants. Once whiteflies have established themselves in your yard, they’ll instantly start doing damage to your plants. If left unchecked, whiteflies can stunt plant growth and even kill the plants you’ve worked so hard to cultivate.

Whiteflies are easy to spot, thanks to their bright color. Check under the leaves or near the top of plants and look for tiny white insects. You can also feel leaf surfaces for sticky honeydew—it’s a sign that whiteflies are nearby. A whitefly problem is hard to treat on your own. Service Choice of West Palm Beach provides innovative treatments that protect insects that are beneficial to your garden while naturally eradicating the pesky whitefly.

Service Choice of West Palm Beach Helps You Protect Your Garden

While some Florida insects are beneficial to your garden, many others aren’t. If your plants aren’t looking their best, despite all your hard work, an insect infestation could be to blame. Protect your garden by calling the pest control experts at Service Choice of West Palm Beach today. We’ll develop a treatment plan that allows beneficial insects to thrive while removing any pests that can damage your plants. Call us today at (561) 734-9269 for your free consultation!

Our Top Tips for Keeping Ghost Ants Out of Your House

Ghost Ants are an invasive species throughout Florida. While these resilient pests don’t sting or bite, they do pose a risk to your family, contaminating food sources and just about everything they touch. They’re also incredibly difficult to get rid of once they’ve moved in. These tiny, white ants appear and disappear quickly in your kitchen or bathroom, reproducing quickly nearly anywhere. Here’s how to keep Ghost Ants out of your house, and what you should do if you’re dealing with an active infestation.

Keep Your Landscaping Tidy

Ghost Ants often enter homes by climbing along tree and shrub branches that are in direct contact with the structure. Prevent an infestation by keeping your trees and shrubs neatly trimmed, ensuring no branches are touching your home. You should also remove all leaf litter and debris. If you store firewood outside, keep it at least 20 feet away, or more, from your home.

Block All Entry Points

While it’s difficult to seal every crack or hole in the house, spend some time looking for any gaps or cracks in your walls or foundation. You should pay special attention to areas around your kitchen since Ghost Ants are attracted to food sources and typically enter homes near the kitchen. Make sure areas around doors, frames, screens, and windows are tightly sealed, and that there are no cracks or crevices the ants could use to enter your home.

Eliminate Food Sources

A Ghost Ant’s typical food source is crumbs and spills in the kitchen. Eliminate all potential food sources by making sure to clean up spills immediately after they happen. You should also store food properly in airtight containers or bags. Be sure your pet’s food is properly stored, too, since Ghost Ants will happily feed on cat or dog food.

Use Natural Ant Deterrents

Even if you’ve blocked entry points of Ghost Ants, they can still find ways to get inside your home and wreak havoc in your kitchen. Consult with your local pest control experts at Service Choice of Ft. Lauderdale regarding natural ant repellents.

Items like cinnamon, curry powder, salt, and pepper can naturally deter Ghost Ants. You could also put a few drops of peppermint oil around the perimeter of your kitchen. Be careful, though, and always consult a pest control expert first since some of these methods may irritate the skin, mouth, nose, or eyes of children and pets.

Eliminate and Prevent Ghost Ants With the Help of Service Choice

If ghost ants have set up camp in your home, the best way to deal with the problem is by relying on your pest control experts at Service Choice of Ft. Lauderdale. We’ll create a customized, natural treatment method to eliminate a current Ghost Ant infestation and ensure it never happens again. Call us today at (954) 568-9955 to schedule your free pest control inspection!

4 Invasive Ants In South Florida & Why They’re A Problem

Florida has its fair share of pests, and ants are among the most common. Invasive ants are a problem throughout the state, and once they’ve moved into your home or landscaping, they can be difficult to control. Here’s an overview of the four types of invasive ants you’ll find in South Florida, and why they’re such a problem.

1. Big-Headed Ants

While big-headed ants have long been a problem in Africa and Australia, they’re a recent introduction into Florida’s ecosystem. These reddish-brown ants are easily mistaken for fire ants. Luckily, they don’t have the painful bite of a fire ant, but they can be very difficult to control. You need to eliminate the whole colony, since the population can rebound if even a tiny population survives—that’s why it’s best to leave big-headed ant control to pest control professionals.

2. Carpenter Ants

While carpenter ants won’t eat the wood in your home, they will nest inside any rotten wood they can find. They even take over termite habitats in the home, attacking them, consuming their eggs, and making themselves at home. These ants are large and tend to be most active at night or early morning, and they have a powerful, painful bite, so you should never attempt to deal with a major infestation on your own.

3. Fire Ants

Fire ants are not just a nuisance, they can also be dangerous to people and pets, and they’re unfortunately found throughout the State of Florida—even though they aren’t native.

Fire ants bite and sting, intentionally swarming to increase the likelihood that they will be able to kill their prey. They range in color from red to brown and almost black, and a single colony can hold up to 40,000 individuals. You should always reach out to pest control experts to deal with a fire ant infestation rather than risking your health.

4. Ghost Ants

Also known as sugar ants, ghost ants are one of the most common pest problems in South Florida. They’re tiny, fast-moving, and nearly transparent, and they often congregate in kitchens and bathrooms. While they may go unnoticed at times, they swarm quickly the moment a crumb appears on the counter or the floor.

Ghost ants are a year-round problem, and they can be very hard to control. While they don’t bite, they can contaminate food in your home. Instead of relying on DIY pest control methods—which rarely work to eradicate the resilient ghost ant—reach out to your local pest control experts at Service Choice to remove the problem once and for all.

Invasive Ants Are a Year-Round Problem for Florida Homeowners

South Florida’s beautiful, unique climate makes it a welcome habitat for some of the state’s most invasive creatures—ants. No matter what type of ant problem you’re dealing with at home, don’t rely on ineffective DIY treatment methods. Instead, call the ant control experts at Service Choice of South Florida to remove an active infestation and ensure it never happens again. Call us today at (954) 568-9955 to schedule your free pest control consultation.