Mosquito FAQs

While purchasing chemicals and treating your home or business is an option, contacting a pest control service will ensure that treatment is efficient and correct. The most important factor to eradicating a pest issue is properly identifying the species. Once the pest has been identified, a pest management professional will use knowledge, tools and proper pesticide to rid your home or business of its current issue.

While the Pest Library is a list of the most common pests found in our region, it is by no means an exhaustive list. If you would like help identifying an insect, please feel free to contact us.

A photograph of the insect would be most helpful. If you cannot supply a photograph, a general description (color, markings, size, etc.) and location (indoors, outdoors, etc.) would be most helpful in identifying the insect.

The simple answer: the growth of the global economy. In an effort to boost a country’s export and Gross National Product, international commerce has become a very normal practice. With the spread of humans to foreign lands, the insects are simply piggybacking and thriving in foreign places.

In addition to a mosquito control service, there are several measures you can take to get rid of mosquitoes around your home.

• Replace any standing water in bird baths, ponds, or pools at least once weekly to reduce breeding sites.
• Introduce mosquito-eating fish to ponds with standing water.
• Turn over any empty flower pots, children’s toys, and other objects that might hold water.

Mosquitoes are known vectors of several serious parasites and illnesses.  Some of the most serious are West Nile Virus, Malaria, Chikungunya, and Yellow Fever.  More information can be found here or on the Centers for Disease Control’s website.

Our mosquito treatments are designed to last between 3 to 4 weeks. Depending on weather and other environmental factors, mosquito treatment may not last as long. Our monthly mosquito barrier treatments are a guaranteed service. If you do not see results, call us, and we will come back out for an extra mosquito treatment service at no additional cost.

Municipal mosquito treatment services are designed to reduce the population of mosquitoes on a large scale and not necessarily for the comfort of individuals. Our mosquito treatment services are customized to your home and your needs. We aim to allow your family to get out and enjoy your yard without worrying about being bitten by mosquitoes.

You cannot compare the mosquito magnet to a misting system or Palmetto Mosquito Control’s Barrier Service. Mosquito traps or magnets capture only the insects located downwind of the machine. There is no independent field research that supports the manufacturers’ claims that mosquito traps reduce the population of mosquitoes and gnats in a specific outdoor area. One female mosquito can produce about 1,500 eggs that will emerge as adults in about 15 days. Many of our customers owned one or more mosquito magnets before purchasing our system or service.

Mosquitoes carry a variety of diseases, and it’s important not to expose yourself, members of your family, or pets to illness. If you get mosquito bites while outside, Palmetto Mosquito Control is happy to provide a free estimate for any of our mosquito treatment services. We can devise a proper treatment plan with either a Mosquito Misting System, a Mosquito Barrier Treatment, a one-time Special Event Treatment, or a Neighborhood Mosquito Control program. Get your free inspection today.

Mosquitoes hibernate during winter and return when the temperature rises during the spring, which can be early as February or March in North and South Carolina. Mosquito populations peak during the summer when it’s the hottest, so bug spray or treatments are extremely important during June, July, and August.

To minimize potential exposure to pests we suggest that animals remain indoors for at least thirty minutes after treatment is applied.

Palmetto Mosquito Control can minimize the risk of exposure by installing a misting system. Precise placement of nozzle heads allows the product to be distributed to the most beneficial area and minimizes potential accident exposure to children, pets, and adults. During installation, we make sure that both the tank and operating system are hidden from view and securely locked.

Mosquitoes are considered a vector for disease; in other words, they can transfer disease from one human to the next. If a mosquito feeds on an infected host, it spreads this virus or disease to the next person they feed on. This causes diseases such as Zika or West Nile Virus to spread rapidly.

Mosquitoes can live anywhere from 4 days to an entire month. Their lifespan primarily depends on weather and living conditions. On average, females have a much longer lifespan than males at 42-46 days compared to males living only about 2 weeks.

Initially, mosquitoes locate humans by the carbon dioxide we all exhale. Once the mosquito gets closer, they notice bodily functions and scents such as moisture, sweat, scent, and even the heat from your body temperature.

This question remains somewhat of a mystery. However, the reason why some humans get bitten more than others might come down to blood type, body scent, or perfume.

A recent study found that people with blood Type O were more likely to get bit because mosquitoes are attracted to this type of blood for unknown reasons. In this study, those with blood Type A were the least likely to get bit, and blood Type B was found somewhere in the middle. Besides blood type, mosquitoes are also attracted to certain chemicals in your skin that some people produce more than others, such as lactic acid.

All mosquito bites are from female mosquitoes since they need the nutrients in the blood to produce eggs. When a female mosquito bites an animal or human, she pierces the skin and begins to feed. As she does this, she injects her saliva that contains an anticoagulant to prevent your blood from clotting around the bite, allowing her to feed much faster.

Your body recognizes the protein in the mosquito’s saliva as an attack or foreign substance and immediately releases histamine to the bite, causing the redness and swelling of an allergic reaction. In other words, the swelling and itching you feel after the bite is a reaction from the histamine your body produces due to the mosquito’s saliva.

The native southern house mosquito mostly feeds at dusk and dawn because they don’t usually like direct sunlight. However, with the introduction of the Asian Tiger Mosquito, an invasive species, bites can happen almost any time of day.

Mosquitoes can live in water, and females lay their larvae in pools of water. Once the larvae hatch, they spend their first two stages of life primarily in water. This is also what attracts mosquitoes to humidity, as well as humans, due to the water vapor that we all exhale.