Pest Control in Mansfield

Pest Control for Mansfield's New Subdivisions and Its Old Downtown Streets

Sub:BusinessName} has run routes through Tarrant County since 1984, and Mansfield is served from our Fort Worth office, about twenty-five to thirty minutes down Highway 287. Technicians are in Mansfield every week, from the older streets around Main Street and the historic downtown, through Woodland Estates, Kings Mill and Twin Creeks, to the newer sections at South Pointe, Somerset and M3 Ranch, and out along Walnut Creek toward the Joe Pool Lake side. We are family-owned, the largest independent pest control company in the area, and we hold an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau along with thousands of five-star reviews.

Mansfield is mostly a young city as far as houses go, and that shapes what we treat. Most of the housing stock went up between the mid 1990s and this year: brick veneer on a slab, over Blackland clay, on lots that were pasture or plowed ground a few years ago. New sod over turned soil is fire ant country. Freshly cleared ground is where striped bark scorpions come out from. Builder gaps at the soffits and the weep holes in the brick are where mice and crickets come in. And the clay under all of it swells and shrinks with the seasons, which is why so many slabs here crack and why the soaker hoses come out every summer, keeping the soil at the foundation exactly as damp as subterranean termites like it. The smaller stock of older homes near downtown has a different set of problems, mostly rodents in mature trees and termites at pier caps.

Contact us online or give us a call at (972) 945-9226 to schedule a pest control service for your Mansfield home or business today!

Five Things to Check Before You Call

 Walk the outside of the house with these in mind. It takes five minutes and it tells us most of what we need to know before we arrive.

• Fresh mounds in the lawn after a rain, especially in sod laid within the last three years. That's fire ants. One mound in an open lawn is a hardware-store bait job. A dozen along the foundation or the fence line is a call.
• Something pale and tan with a curled tail in the bathtub, the garage or a shoe. That's a striped bark scorpion, and it came in through a weep hole or under a door after a dry spell. One is not an infestation. Two in a month means they've found the way in.
• A pencil-width line of dried mud running up the brick from the soil, usually somewhere shaded and damp: behind the shrubs, beside the air conditioner pad, inside the garage where the slab meets the wall. That's a termite shelter tube. Don't knock it off; leave it for us to confirm.
• A scratching or scurrying in the ceiling right after dark that stops by the time you get to the attic ladder. That's a roof rat, and in the established neighborhoods with mature trees it's the most common fall call we take.
• Bites in the middle of the afternoon on the patio. That's the Asian tiger mosquito, breeding in standing water within a hundred yards of you. Bites at dusk are the southern house mosquito, the West Nile carrier, and that one comes from the creek and the storm drains.

If none of those sound familiar, you probably don't need us this month. If one does, that's the call, and it helps to say which one.

The Pests That Drive Mansfield Calls, in the Order the Year Brings Them

Mansfield's pests run on a calendar, and the calendar is set by new sod, turned ground and a creek that runs through the middle of town.

Fire ants on new sod, April into October

Fire ants do best on disturbed ground, and Mansfield has more of that than almost anywhere in Tarrant County. Every phase of South Pointe, M3 Ranch and the developments along 287 was graded, sodded and irrigated within the last few years, and the mounds show up after the first heavy spring rain and keep coming after every storm. We bait rather than blanket-spray, because bait travels back to the queen and spray only moves the colony ten feet, and every Pest365 plan includes exterior fire ant control across the whole lot. Mounds in an unused corner of the yard can wait; mounds against the foundation, in the play area or along the walkway are the ones that matter.

Termites, late February into May and all summer underground

Eastern subterranean termites swarm on the first warm, still days after a spring rain, usually in the daytime. Dark, rice-length swarmers around a window, or a scatter of shed wings on a sill, is the one termite sign most people see. A swarm from a stump in the yard is a reason to inspect, not to panic; a swarm coming out of a wall or a door frame is a call the same day. The bigger Mansfield risk is quieter: the soaker hoses that run along the foundation from June to September keep the soil at the slab damp, and damp soil against a slab is where subterranean termites forage. Treatment on an active house is usually a liquid treatment at the foundation and, where it fits, a bait system around the perimeter; the UltraPlus plan installs the colony elimination system up front and inspects with an infrared camera on the first visit. New builds that had a pre-construction treatment have more time, and we'll say so.

Mosquitoes along Walnut Creek and toward Joe Pool Lake, April into October

Walnut Creek runs through the middle of Mansfield, and the linear park along it is the reason properties backing onto it carry heavier mosquito pressure than the same house four streets away. So do the lots on the Joe Pool Lake side and anything next to a detention pond in a new subdivision. The county treats the right of way. It doesn't touch the ivy, the deck and the fence line where adults rest during the day; that's what a yard treatment does, on a schedule from April into October. A treated lot on the creek will have far fewer mosquitoes. It won't have zero, and we'll say so before you sign.

Scorpions where the ground was turned, June into September

Striped bark scorpions live under rocks and in the cracks of dry ground, and a subdivision under construction is a thousand overturned rocks at once. They move toward irrigation in a dry spell and come in through weep holes and under garage doors, which is why the first one usually turns up in a bathtub, a garage or a shoe in the newest sections of town. Sealing and an exterior treatment fix it; spraying inside does not. If you're in a house less than five years old with construction still going on nearby, expect them, and expect them to taper off as the ground settles.

Roof rats and Norway rats, October into February

Roof rats travel the tree canopy in the established neighborhoods, Woodland Estates, Kings Mill and the streets around downtown, and get into attics through gable vents and the gap where the fascia meets the roof deck. Norway rats live along Walnut Creek and in the older commercial buildings and come in low. Our approach is exclusion first: find the entries at the roofline, the weep holes and the utility penetrations, seal them properly, then trap and remove what's inside. Sealing without removal traps rats in the walls; removal without sealing means the next family moves in by Christmas.

Residential Pest Control: What Happens When You Call, and What It Costs

We don't quote a flat price over the phone, because the price depends on the size of the lot, what we find, and whether you want a one-time treatment or an ongoing plan. Quoting before we've seen the house means either overcharging a small one or coming back to renegotiate on a big one.

You call, and we book the estimate visit, often the same day and usually within a day or two. A state-certified technician walks the outside first, because that's where almost every Mansfield pest problem starts: the foundation line and the weep holes, the soaker hose line, the roofline and soffits, the fence line and any tree limb touching the house, and the sod and beds for mounds. Then they walk the interior with you and look at what you've actually been seeing. You get a plain explanation and a written price, and no pressure to sign that day.

If you go ahead, the initial service is a full interior and exterior treatment. After that, most Mansfield homes stay clear with exterior visits, and the interior stays under warranty, so if something shows up inside between visits we come back and treat it at no charge. That's the All-Safe Service Guarantee. Pest365 covers the general pests, exterior fire ant control, exterior spider web removal and exterior rodent baiting. UltraPlus adds the termite colony elimination system, termite baiting, a termite service warranty and the infrared camera inspection. 

To schedule a pest control service for your Mansfield home or business, contact us at (972) 945-9226 today! Check out our reviews!