Outdoor Living- Getting Your Backyard Ready for Summer Fun

Outdoor living ideas– sharing how to get your backyard ready for summertime. These tips will help make your space safe and comfortable for entertaining guests and enjoying the warmer months with friends and family. This post is sponsored by our friends at Orkin Pest Control.

I’m so ready for summer! We love to be outside when the weather is nice, it’s where you’ll find us most evenings and all weekend long. Whether we’re playing with the kids, chilling on the patio or grilling out with friends, our summer is all about being outdoors.

I love getting out in the backyard, planting flowers and tending to our little vegetable garden. The kids enjoy digging in the sandbox, playing games or catching fireflies. They could stay outside all day long!

Nothing spoils the fun of being outside faster than pests. Especially pesky mosquitoes, they are the worst! It’s hard to enjoy being outside when you’re constantly being bugged by bugs biting at you from every direction.

We love entertaining outdoors, summer parties are part of what makes the summer so much fun. Neighbors, family and friends…. everyone’s welcome at our house. Everyone except pesky pests! So the first thing I do every spring is give our local Orkin Pest Control professionals a call and set-up an appointment to have our yard treated. It’s a simple process and it ensures our outdoors space is safe and enjoyable in no-time.

Mosquitoes aren’t just a nuisance, they’re dangerous to your family’s health. Mosquitoes are able to transmit diseases like the Zika virus, chikungunya virus, West Nile virus and more.

A highly-trained pest control technician comes out to your property to inspect, locate and identify mosquitoes and the places they breed in and around your home. Once the inspection is complete, your Orkin technician will prepare a mosquito treatment plan that’s right for you.

We noticed a big difference after our first treatment. The next day we were outdoors enjoying all the things we love without bothersome bug bites ruining the fun.

Mosquito Repellents & Prevention-
Protecting Yourself & Your Family

While treating our yard, the technician from our local Orkin branch gave us a few pointers on how to protect ourselves from mosquito bites. When outdoors, especially between dusk and dawn, which is prime mosquito activity time, you should:

Use EPA-registered mosquito repellents containing one of the following active ingredients: DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, para-menthane-diol or IR3535.
Wear light-colored, loose-fitting, long-sleeved shirts and long pants. Mosquitoes can bite through tight clothes
Since mosquitoes are attracted to incandescent light, use fluorescent bulbs in outdoor light fixtures.
Install outdoor fans can also keep mosquitoes away.

While Orkin Mosquito Control treatments have been very effective at reducing our mosquito populations, we’ve found that mosquitoes don’t respect property lines or fences and can fly from neighboring yards. Talk with your neighbors and work together to eliminate conditions where mosquitoes can breed and become a problem.

The licensed pest professionals at Orkin will design a custom treatment plan that fits your yard’s needs. Give them a call at 877-778-2497 to set-up an appointment to get your backyard ready for a summer full of outdoor fun! Mention Zero Bite (0bite) or sign up here for $50 OFF your initial service for mosquito control.