A Year of Texas Pests: What to Watch For, Season by Season

Central Texas never gets cold enough to give homeowners a real break from pests — the cast just rotates. Here's what shows up when, and what to do about it before it becomes an infestation.

In a lot of the country, winter does half the pest control work for you. Central Texas isn't one of those places. Our mild winters and long, punishing summers mean something is always active — the cast of characters just rotates through the year.

Here's what we see most often around Austin, Hutto, Round Rock and the surrounding communities, and what actually helps at each point in the year.

Spring (March – May): swarms and nest-building

Spring is the busiest and most consequential season, because this is when the expensive problems start.

• Termite swarms. Subterranean termites typically swarm on warm days after rain. If you see a cloud of winged insects near your foundation — or a pile of discarded wings on a windowsill — that is not a fluke. It means a mature colony is nearby.
• Ants on the move. Fire ant mounds reappear in lawns, and sugar ants and carpenter ants start scouting kitchens and bathrooms for water.
• Wasps starting nests. Early spring is the cheapest time to deal with wasps, because you're removing a nest the size of a golf ball instead of a football.

What helps: knock down new nests early, treat the perimeter before ant trails establish, and take swarmers seriously. Getting a free termite quote in spring costs nothing and can save a structural repair bill.

Summer (June – August): heat drives everything indoors

Texas summers push pests toward the two things your house has and the outdoors doesn't: shade and moisture.

• Mosquitoes breed in standing water — and it takes surprisingly little. A saucer under a potted plant, a clogged gutter, or a low spot in the yard is enough.
• Cockroaches come in through weep holes, drains, and gaps under doors, heading for kitchens and bathrooms.
• Scorpions follow their food indoors and turn up in garages, bathtubs, and closets.
• Fire ants stay aggressive, and colonies move closer to irrigated ground as the rest of the yard dries out.

What helps: eliminate standing water weekly, seal gaps around doors and pipe penetrations, and keep up exterior perimeter treatments. Summer is when a lapsed pest control plan gets noticed fastest.

Fall (September – November): the move indoors

The first genuinely cool nights trigger a shift. Pests that spent all summer outside start looking for somewhere to overwinter — and your walls are ideal.

• Rodents. Mice and rats need a gap roughly the width of a pencil to get in. Attics, garages, and the gaps where utility lines enter the house are the usual routes.
• Spiders become more visible as they mature and build larger webs around eaves and porch lights.
• Crickets and occasional invaders pile up around doorways and garages.

What helps: this is exclusion season. Seal entry points, check weather stripping, screen vents, and trim branches touching the roofline. Trapping a mouse matters far less than closing the hole it used.

Winter (December – February): quiet outside, active inside

Winter activity drops off outdoors, which is exactly why problems get missed. Anything already inside now has your house to itself.

• Rodents keep breeding in attics and wall voids all winter.
• German cockroaches thrive year-round indoors, near appliances and under sinks.
• Termites don't hibernate. Subterranean colonies feed through winter; you just don't see swarmers, so nothing prompts you to look.

What helps: interior monitoring and attic checks. Winter is also the calmest time to schedule a thorough inspection, before spring swarm season starts the cycle again.

Why timing beats reacting

Almost every expensive pest problem we're called out to started as a small, cheap, seasonal one that nobody caught. A wasp nest in March is a five-minute job. The same nest in July is a stinging hazard over your front door.

That's the whole logic behind recurring service: treatments land ahead of each season's pressure rather than after you've already got a problem. Most Central Texas homes do well on a quarterly plan, though properties backing to greenbelt or water often need bi-monthly coverage through the summer.

Not sure where your property stands? We'll walk it with you and tell you honestly what it needs — and what it doesn't.