About North Charleston Pest Control

North Charleston recorded 114,852 people at the 2020 census. The city sits across Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties, and county lines run through it, so two neighbours can fall under different county mosquito programmes. Many of the older houses are single-storey brick or frame on vented crawl spaces under mature live-oak canopy. In a warm, humid coastal climate, humid air that enters a vented crawl space can condense on the cooler ducts and joists of an air-conditioned house. Sustained damp feeds wood-decay fungi and draws termites to the sub-floor, which is why crawl-space work is a large part of this trade. The City of North Charleston's own page gives average precipitation of about 50 inches, and the climate stays warm and humid most of the year, with no winter freeze deep enough to stop breeding.

Formosan subterranean termites are established in Charleston. Clemson's Home and Garden Information Center says they were introduced into South Carolina in the 1950s and dates their arrival in Charleston to the mid-1950s. People are the main cause of their spreading range, mostly by moving infested material such as old railway ties. Infestations are concentrated in coastal areas from Charleston south to Beaufort, and Clemson's Dr. Eric Benson has said they have been in the Charleston area for 60 years. Native subterranean termites swarm in early spring, usually in the afternoon. Formosan swarms come later, from mid-May to July, often in the evening and drawn to lights, so the time of day helps tell the two apart. The termite swarm timing guide sets out the detail.

Mosquito pressure follows the warm, wet months. Charleston County treats larvae in standing water from the air and adults by ground spraying, and it chooses where to spray using surveillance equipment and reports from the public. Asian tiger mosquitoes, the most common daytime biting mosquito in the Carolinas, breed in rain gutters, flower pots and tires rather than in natural wetlands, so mosquito control often starts with the containers on the property. Fire ants are another arrival route: South Carolina is entirely inside the federal fire ant quarantine zone, and soil, sod and nursery stock move under regulation. Phones are answered 24/7, and a visit the same day happens only when a technician is free.