Thank you TruGreen for sponsoring this post.

The backyard is an outdoor paradise to most, and if you’re like my family you probably love entertaining in it often. Even when we aren’t having friends over we are always outside. When we were house hunting our number one wish was a lot of property, and for us that’s what we got. We have plenty of room for our dirt bike and bike tracks, a large patio area and a stock tank pool. With 13 acres surrounded by 800 acres of preserved land we have our fair share of work cut out for us in maintaining our property and keeping it ready for entertaining.

One of the only complaints we have about our backyard is the amount of insects, mostly mosquitos and gnats, that inhabit it. Sometimes they are so unpleasant that it is hard to be outside.  We have had playdates where we’ve had to go inside simply because the bugs were that bad.  We’ve tried everything from bug torches to bug spray and homemade citronella candles, but they don’t seem to keep the bugs away. I recently heard about the TruGreen Mosquito Defense program and decided to give it a try in our backyard. Besides being a nuisance, mosquitos carry diseases that make them a health concern. I had some questions about the safety of spraying chemicals on our lawn, especially with children and pets but after speaking with the agronomist at TruGreen I felt much better about the decision to rid our yard of mosquitos. He told me they use a naturally occurring substance which is sprayed through a modified backpack blower (see the photo I posted below) and it starts working within 24 hours!

We had TruGreen come out on a Friday for the treatment and were able to go back outside within 2 hours of the treatment being sprayed. I learned that eradicating mosquitos in our yard is essentially a 3 step process: 1.Inspect the property for areas where mosquitos might live 2. Treat with the innovative formula from TruGreen 3.Maintain and receive monthly treatments to help protect us from the biting mosquitos. While the technician was here he also gave us some great tips to reduce the mosquitos population like putting a filter or filling in our small pond which is currently standing water. Standing water can also be found in bird baths, buckets and other places around your property so keep an eye out. We should also be picking up piles of twigs and leaves as well as mowing and keeping other vegetation trimmed because mosquitos love to live in those cooler areas of the yard.  Two interesting facts I learned during the treatment were that mosquitos never travel higher than about 10 feet and that sweat helps mosquitos choose their victims, I had no idea!

After having the treatment done I can honestly say i’m so impressed with the results. My husband and I were even saying how we feel it has helped with the gnats around our patio area which is a huge relief to us, because those things are annoying. We are now more excited than ever to continue enjoying and entertaining in our backyard. I highly encourage you all to schedule a consultation and see how TruGreen can help you with your yard. Did you know they also offer services beyond mosquito treatment? It’s like one stop shopping for backyard control. Happy entertaining, friends!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.