How Are Springtails Getting Into My Cypress Home?
Cypress is a great place to own a home, but homeowners should still be cognizant of their household pest control needs. This includes springtails and moisture pests that can become quite an annoying presence in your home. Their name comes from their tail-like appendage that acts as a spring and propels them into the air.
With 700 different species of springtails living in North America, it makes sense why Cypress homes are at risk. The first step to controlling springtails is understanding their behaviors and being able to identify them in the first place.
What Are Springtails?
Springtails are garden critters that are found outdoors at all times of the year. These small hexapods can survive harsh winter temperatures by using a protein in their body, and this makes them hard to eliminate completely from your property. Springtails especially become a nuisance during extended droughts, as they seek sources of moisture in your home. As moisture pests, they rely on water to survive.
Here are some more basic springtail characteristics to keep in mind:
Behavior – Springtails have the ability to jump from place to place like fleas. They do not have wings and cannot fly, but they can jump up to several inches using the forked structure under their abdomen. There are, however, some non-jumping springtail species that live underground.
Size – Among the world’s tiniest critters, springtails are small in size, measuring between 1/16" - 1/8" in length.
Color – They have dark-colored bodies that are usually brown, grey, or black (although some species are white or brightly colored yellow, metallic green, orange, red, or lavender.) Their scales are creamy-white or gray in color.
Body – Springtails have slender, elongated bodies (though some species are rounder in shape). Their bodies are softer than fleas, and you can crush them easily. They have small rudimentary eyes, six legs, and short antennae with around four-six segments.
Mouth - They have complex piercing mouthparts that they use to suck fluids from fungi and other liquid sources. The mouthparts of a springtail are concealed within their head, making them different from other insects.
Furculum – This is the springtail’s bi-forked appendage on the underside of their fourth abdominal segment. It extends quickly when the springtail is disturbed. This forked tail is held under its body by a structure called the tenaculum, which can propel a springtail up to 100 times its body length.
Collophore – This is the tube-like structure on the underside of the springtail’s abdomen. It helps them uptake water, which is essential to their survival.
If you think you see springtails around your home, the best thing to do is get in touch with your local pest professionals. The team at Modern Pest Control has a lot of experience dealing with Texas springtails, and we’re here to customize a residential pest control solution that’s right for you and your property.
Why Have I Started Seeing Springtails Around My Home?
If you’re wondering why you’ve started seeing springtails around your Cypress home, there are a number of things to keep in mind. Outdoors, springtails are found close to the home in areas of high moisture and condensation. They thrive in shady and moist areas and can sometimes be found in the pool or air conditioning drain line, as well as near plumbing leaks. Springtails inhabit excessively damp soil mixed with a high percentage of peat. Along with damp soil, you can often find them in decaying logs, organic debris, leaf litter, piles of compost, lawn soil, and recycled dead plant matter.
Springtails lay their eggs in small groups in moist soil, and the prolific rate at which they breed means that there could be millions of springtails in your yard alone. In fact, even just one cubic foot of soil can have 10,000 individual springtails.
When outdoor conditions are too dry, springtails move indoors where you will commonly find them infesting wet insulation, drains, damp walls, bathrooms, toilet bowl tanks, basements, and kitchens. You may also discover springtails in the soil of overwatered houseplants. Sometimes they’re even detected hopping in a fresh layer of fallen snow, and then later, they’re found in large numbers hanging near the bottoms of plants where snow has melted. Some often refer to these springtails as “snow fleas”.
Springtails are detrivores and microbivores (some species are carnivores and eat small invertebrates and other springtails. They feed on roots and fungi, as well as bacteria, algae, lichens, decaying vegetation, mulch, pollen, and other plants. These are the food sources responsible for Springtails around your Cypress home.
The good news is that springtails rarely damage plants. They also don’t damage food, clothing, furniture, or property. They are mostly a nuisance. In fact, springtails aren’t all bad. They are actually beneficial arthropods that feed on decaying organic matter in the soil, which helps along the natural process of decomposition. By recycling dead plant materials and turning them into nutrients, springtails help fertilize your lawn!
How To Prevent Springtails In Cypress
While springtails pose no health threat and that don’t cause real damage to your property, it’s still understandable that you don’t want them roaming around your home. Also, springtail activity can indicate a large moisture issue around your house, and moisture-related problems can have serious consequences for your structure and your loved ones inside of it.
The best approach to springtail control is to be proactive in your prevention efforts. To prevent springtails in Cypress, here are some precautionary measures that you can take:
Address any mold and mildew in common problem areas like bathrooms, laundry rooms, showers, and saunas.
Avoid water accumulation resulting from issues like poor drainage, sloped landscaping, or excessive irrigation.
Be diligent in your moisture control efforts in order to control springtails around your property.
Be sure that you keep all mulch at least a foot away from the foundation of the building.
Check and replace door seals if necessary, as well as any areas where insects can enter.
Don’t over-water house plants and allow the soil to dry thoroughly before watering again.
Eliminate their food sources like fungi, as fungal growth can sustain springtail infestation.
Get rid of any wet, moisture-damaged, or moldy sources of wood throughout the property.
Reduce the presence of mulch around your property and the foundation.
Reduce watering and irrigation of grass to once weekly so as not to contribute to moisture problems.
Remove dampness throughout your property, and air out and dry any infested or moisture-damaged areas.
Repair torn screens and close up access points to prevent springtails from entering the structure.
Repair water leaks and make any necessary structural modifications such as exclusions and sanitation.
Routinely check the inside and outside of the home for any moisture problems.
Seal up potential entry points springtails could easily use to gain access into your home.
Tend to dysfunctional rain spouts or gutters that fail to carry water away from the foundation.
Use a fan or dehumidifier to dry out wet areas around the house and reduce moisture levels.
Use caulk or foam to close cracks and seal gaps between bricks and around doors and windows.
Use expanding foam or foam weatherproofing strips to seal windows and door sweeps.
Use insecticides around the foundation perimeter, applying them five to ten feet from the house.
Use pesticides under siding, doors, and openings in wood walls and bricks
Use skimmer nets to clean your pool regularly to get rid of organic matter.
Use a vacuum to physically remove small populations of springtails (this doesn’t work for larger problems).
While we always encourage our customers to stay proactive in their pest prevention efforts, the truth is that prevention only goes so far. Sometimes, springtail infestation is beyond your control, and that’s when it’s time to seek our professional protection.
The Benefits Of Professional Pest Control For Springtails
When it comes to addressing your springtail control needs, you may be wondering if there are any signs of infestation to be on the lookout for. Aside from knowing their common harborage spots and their usual behaviors, you can sometimes find their waterproof bodies floating on the surface of swimming pools. Also, the appearance of pepper flakes or ashes sprinkled across snow can oftentimes be indicative of springtail activity.
To control springtails at your Cypress property, you should know that it’s not easy to deal with these garden pests once they’ve spread around your home. The first thing to consider is that pesticides aren’t effective against springtails for the most part. Not only that but also, they reproduce quickly, especially when they have access to ample humidity and food.
Springtails are hard to see and difficult to find and can live a long time on indoor potted plants. While they’re not dangerous in the traditional sense, they can cause garden plants, roots, and leaves to wilt and die. (springtails usually have an effect on seedlings, not adult plants.) To protect yourself from springtail infestation, you can count on the team at Modern Pest Control.
If you’re looking for professional pest control for springtails, you’ve come to the right place. Since 1952, Modern Pest Control has been providing complete garden pest control solutions to homes and businesses throughout the greater Houston, TX area. We use the latest pest control strategies and most advanced methods to tackle your springtail infestation from the inside out. Our philosophy is to deliver prompt, personalized pest control our customers can count on.
We customize the entire process to meet your needs from start to finish. We cater our treatments to your property and your specific pest problem. Our springtails detection, elimination, and prevention process include the following services:
Inspection - We start with a thorough walk-through of both the interior and exterior of your property to determine areas where springtails are active, as well where their harborage areas are and if we can detect potential entry points. After we identify moisture issues and springtail activity throughout your property, we get an understanding of the action that we need to take.
Service - Once the inspection is complete, our team of pest experts develops a customized treatment strategy to tackle your springtail problem effectively. We’ll treat your home, yard, and perimeter of your structure to eliminate springtail activity, and our treatments are developed to cater to your needs.
Follow-Up - We offer ongoing garden pest control services to make sure your home is fully protected from infestation all year long. Our service technicians are here to bring you superb customer service and the lasting results that you deserve.
Not only do we provide complete springtail solutions for residential properties, but we also service local businesses with year-round garden pest control. Some of the properties we’ve worked with include multi-unit housing, restaurants, hotels, commercial lodging, food processing facilities, office buildings, management properties, healthcare facilities, retail stores, daycares, schools, and supermarkets.
When you go with Modern Pest Control, you go with quality. We bring you the following:
We target our custom treatment and prevention plans to meet your needs because we understand that every property and every individual pest problem differs.
Our team installs pest monitoring devices around active areas to keep an eye on any future infestations and make sure things remain pest-free on a continuing basis.
We develop treatment strategies to deliver lasting results and ongoing protection, and our customers have ongoing access to pest control records and logs 24/7.
We offer an in-depth visual inspection of the grounds and the entire facility to familiarize ourselves with the property and the extent of the problem.
We thoroughly address all sanitation issues and modifications to pest-proof the building and keep pest activity at bay moving forward. Your continued protection is our ultimate goal.
Our staff is trained by professionals from Food Industry Sanitation Auditors (FISA) and the American Institute of Baking (AIB), giving us a high level of expertise for pest issues in food handling facilities. We also work with organizations such as BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association), the Greater Houston Restaurant Association, and the U.S. Green Building Council.
Call us today to learn more about our springtail control solutions. We’re ready to help you enjoy a pest-free property all year long.