FAQ's
Answers to your most common Patio Patrol questions
Service Visit Questions
Q Does anyone need to be home when you treat my yard?
No, our goal is to let you relax. After successfully treating thousands of yards, we've gotten pretty darn good at finding our way around. All we ask is that we can access your yard, have any neighborhood gate codes, and that your yard is free from pets during the service. You and your pets can resume using your yard once any products we may have used have dried (typically one hour) after the service.
We will provide you with post-service documentation so you know exactly what was done on your property for each and every service.
Q How often will you treat my yard?
The short answer is every 18-24 days.
The long answer is treatment frequency is based on a wide variety of factors, including product preferences.
We strive to be adaptable to all environmental factors that can impact a pest population. For example, the weather is a huge factor in speeding up or slowing down the mosquito life cycle: if it's warm and damp, we treat it more frequently; if it's very hot and dry we may treat less frequently. Our goal is to treat your yard with as few chemicals as possible, but enough to be effective. We work with you to ensure that the frequency of service is meeting your expectations and reducing populations of pests accordingly.
Q How long will you be in my yard?
It depends. If you're home and you'd like to chat about mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks - we can take the time you want to provide additional education.
We do not rush to get every visit done. We are intent on providing the best possible service on each and every visit. Each service visit can vary in time, and application - however long it takes. We serve and target critical areas where pesky pests may be hiding, and we'll use a hand-held sprayer if need be for hard-to-reach areas to ensure the protection of your entire yard. We also include a home perimeter treatment to ensure outdoor pests stay - well - outdoors. Additional services like wasp traps, mosquito traps, and bait traps can be provided as needed.
Yard size and landscape density have the most impact on time spent at each house. As a rough estimate, a half-acre lot without much shrubbery or foliage can take about 15 to 20 minutes; a 2-acre lot with dense shrubbery and foliage can take a half-hour or more. But truthfully, we take as much time as we need to ensure we are protecting you and your family in your yard - and never at any extra cost to you.
Q How. do you price your services?
We price based on the frequency of services, the size of the yard, and how dense your landscaping is. We have several product options to provide you with the best possible service which also include all-natural options. You can choose a seasonal package or a per-treatment option that fits your needs. The choice is yours!
Our goal is simple: to give you a single, reasonable rate to handle most of your annoying outdoor pests like mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks. Isn't that the way you would do things if you were us?
Q When does your annual program start and end?
Seasons vary greatly by region.
If you live in the Southern United States, you should expect your season to start in February / March and end in November / December. If you're in the northern part of the United States, your season will typically start later in April or early May, and end in October or November.
Typically, mosquito season starts when the average temperatures rise above 50 degrees for three consecutive days, while ticks and other pests can start being seen at even lower temperatures, Our panel of bug experts (entomologists) let us know when mosquitoes, ticks, and other outdoor pests start becoming active, so we can adjust our seasons accordingly.
Because outdoor pets are active at slightly different times each year (depending on how warm the winter is or how long Autumn stays warm and damp), we determine the exact seasonal start and stop times each year in real time. But this is for us to worry about. Just know that we're on it and will handle those pesky pests no matter when they come out.
Treatment and Product Questions
Q How is your service different than the town/city mosquito trucks that spray?
The town doesn't Target any specific home yard, and they only really Target adult mosquitoes during their active periods. Since most mosquitoes can only fly 150 yd from the place they were born, targeting your yard specifically is critical as we can bring the population down to almost zero mosquitoes. And due to the high-quality products we use, our treatments are more effective for longer periods of time. Be on killing the adult mosquito, we also Target than at the egg, larva, and pupil stages. It takes an egg approximately 10 days to become a biting adult. We cannot stress enough the importance of targeting the early portion of mosquitoes' life cycle.
Patio Patrol also spent significant time searching for mosquito larval habitats. Mosquitoes can lay hundreds of eggs in a very small amount of standing water; up to 200 eggs can be found in a soda bottle cap! By eliminating or treating standing Water sources, we further reduce the possibility of mosquitoes developing in your yard... As well as reducing the insecticides that need to be used in future visits.
Q Will your treatment impact my swimming pool, fish pond, or vegetable garden?
No, your backyard and enemies are safe! Our technicians go through extensive training on the proper spring techniques including use of smaller, hand-held sprayers for treating yard areas with pools, ponds, and gardens. By using the special hand-held sprayers, we not only avoid sensitive areas in your yard, but we also ensure your yard's treatment is effective and efficient.
Q How long will a treatment last?
We have found yards are mosquito and tick-free anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks after treatment. This 4-week variance depends on a number of factors, including weather, proximity to an untreated neighbor's yard, use of all natural products, and success in finding and eliminating larval habitats. No matter how long a treatment lasts, Patio Patrol will be back to keep your peskiest pests away.
Q Do you have an All Natural option?
Yes! We offer all-natural options. Each of our all-natural products takes into consideration the environment and effectiveness in reducing the population of the targeted pests. All Natural options have an immediate knockdown effect, as they eliminate mosquitoes and other targeted pests on contact. The residual impact of these options provides a repellency after it dries. All-natural options may have a different frequency of service to provide the best pest control solution for your specific yard.
Q What’s the most effective way to control mosquitoes: misting systems, CO2 traps, barrier spraying, or standing-water treatments?
At Patio Patrol, we use an integrated approach to control mosquitoes and other pests - what we believe to be the most effective methodology. An integrated control plan includes barrier spraying and standing water treatments to assist in the elimination of larval habitats, targets pests during their early life stage, killing both active and resting adults, and surveilling to instruct how to proceed with treatment in the future.
Patio Patrol's treating philosophy does not include misting systems or CO2 traps, as we believe both are relatively ineffective and potentially dangerous. Misting systems kill only a small portion of the mosquitoes on a property, yet spray insecticides at a regular schedule (whether or not it's needed) and are unable to detect if pets or people are nearby when the system sprays. CO2 traps typically burn liquefied petroleum gas to produce the carbon dioxide, and are designed to be left operating and unattended, which can also be dangerous.
Philosophy, Beliefs, and Other Buzz
Q What is your general business philosophy?
We started Patio Patrol to do things smarter. We don't want to be the company that uses the cheapest products or rushes our technicians from job to job. Our goal is to be thoughtful in everything we do. We never premix treatment solutions as the mixture ratio changes depending on each specific yard. We also use a smaller hand-held pump to control overspray and target specific pest areas around your home (even if it's easier and faster to use a larger backpack sprayer). Most people won't know the difference... but we do. Patio Patrol might not be the least expensive but we price our services fairly and do the job right.
Q You say you're Bee-Friendly. What does that mean?
We love bees... at least the kind that don't sting and help pollinate flowers. Our technicians are trained to service yards in such a way as to limit impact on pollinators. We also use specially formulated products. So don't worry, you'll still notice those friendly little bees buzzing from flower to flower.