Ants can enter your home through any of the following: cracks in the foundation and slab, gaps around window and door frames, spaces where pipes and wires pass through walls, weep holes in brick, and the joint between siding and foundation.
Mosquitoes, ticks, ants, wasps, and fleas are the most common outdoor pests for Chicago homeowners. Each one thrives in urban yards where standing water, dense vegetation, and food waste are in steady supply, and where nearby buildings create shaded microclimates.
Stink bugs are not venomous or poisonous and they don’t sting. If a dog or cat eats one, it will taste very bad and may cause them to drool or vomit, but that will resolve on its own. In some rare cases, a bug can become lodged in your pet’s mouth or throat.
Yes. Asian lady beetles can spend the entire winter sheltered inside wall voids, attics, and other protected spaces.
Yes. Boxelder bugs can use small exterior gaps to reach protected spaces inside walls, attics, and other parts of a building.
Cities produce enormous amounts of standing water through infrastructure, including catch basins, flat rooftops, clogged drains, and neglected containers. Mosquitoes don't need a swamp to breed—a bottle cap's worth of water is enough.
Start by getting rid of every source of standing water you can find on your property. Then schedule a professional barrier treatment. The water removal stops new mosquitoes from being born, and the treatment knocks down the adults that are already there.
Both have significant mosquito problems, but the sources are different. Suburban yards tend to produce more mosquitoes from landscaping and natural water features, while urban areas generate them from infrastructure like catch basins, containers, and poor drainage.
A breeding ground forms wherever still water sits undisturbed for about a week, with a little warmth and some organic material to feed the larvae. That's the whole recipe, no pond required, just standing water left alone long enough for eggs to hatch and develop.
Clogged gutters are one of the most productive breeding sites for mosquitoes on residential properties. Leaves and debris can hold standing water for weeks and provide larvae with organic matter they can feed on.
They do not, and this has been shown repeatedly by independent testing. Mosquito repellents need to be present on the skin and one band on the wrist will not deter mosquitoes from biting ankles, arms, and the neck.
They can. Protected edges beside foundations, sheds, decks, and other structures can provide suitable places for rats to establish burrows.
Rats can often find food in garbage, pet food, and spilled birdseed, which attracts them to backyards. Shelter is another common reason and they like to stay in places like woodpiles and around sheds or decks with open undersides.
Yes. Gaps around a window air conditioner can create pest entry points if the unit and surrounding panels are not tightly sealed.
Yes, spiders are drawn to the smell of gas and often build webs and nests inside burner and venturi tubes as well as gas lines. This can cause low or uneven flames and, in some cases, a flashback fire behind the control panel.
Deer ticks generally stay out of mowed open turf, but they are often very common in the shaded areas nearby like wooded park edges and restored natural areas.
It depends on what your yard looks like. Ticks, in general, need shade and moisture, brushy or wooded edges, and leaf litter to survive when it is hot and dry. And they also need deer and rodents to carry them there in the first place.
Lyme disease numbers are on the rise because the ticks that carry it are spreading into new regions. At the same time, milder winters are lengthening the active tick season and more people are living next to natural tick habitats.
The range where ticks are found is growing, and it’s expanding more and more into Chicagoland. This is due in part to larger deer and rodent populations, as well as milder winters.
Emergency rooms are seeing more tick-bite visits mainly because there are more ticks and more bites. But there is also greater public awareness of tick-borne disease, which makes people more likely to seek care.
Yes, ticks live in Chicago's parks, forest preserves, lakefront green spaces, and even landscaped areas around the city.
Yes, ticks will often latch onto birds. It’s a well-documented way that tick populations start in new places.
Yes, tick-borne diseases have been rising in urban and suburban areas, not just rural ones, as ticks expand their range into city parks, preserves, and green spaces and more people encounter them there.
Yes, brick buildings are common places for yellowjackets to nest. They often access the wall interior through weep holes and cracked mortar joints and then build their nest inside.
