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Shoreline neighborhoods — with their boardwalks, beach cottages, docks and dense edge vegetation — often feel like a summer idyll, but every May many coastal communities notice a predictable nuisance: an uptick in wasp nest-building. Unlike the sudden swarms people associate with late-summer yellowjacket raids, these May nests are the product of solitary queens emerging…

May marks the start of the mosquito season in Federal Way. Our mild, wet Pacific Northwest springs mean standing water from winter rains and slow-draining yards can persist into late spring—exactly the conditions mosquitoes need to breed. As daytime temperatures stabilize above the mid-50s and nights stay relatively warm, mosquito eggs laid the previous season…

May marks the turning point in Auburn’s gardening calendar: soil is warming, seedlings are pushing up through the beds, and with that burst of growth comes an equally vigorous surge of pests. Weather over the winter and spring—mild or harsh, wet or dry—shapes which pests are most active and how quickly populations build. That means…

Across Kent this spring many warehouse operators, logistics managers and local residents have noticed a sharp uptick in rodent activity around industrial estates and storage facilities. What looks like a seasonal nuisance is the intersection of several factors: biology (rats and mice breed rapidly in warmer months), recent weather patterns (milder winters and wetter seasons…

Renton’s mix of older craftsman homes, modern developments, and the wet Pacific Northwest climate creates prime habitat for carpenter ants. Unlike termites, carpenter ants don’t eat wood for nutrition but tunnel through damp or decaying timber to build galleries and colonies — and once established inside walls, eaves, or crawl spaces they can cause costly…

As late spring settles over Mercer Island, dog owners need to shift from thinking about winter parasites to preparing for peak tick season. The island’s mix of leafy yards, shoreline paths and nearby wooded parks creates ideal habitat for blacklegged (formerly “deer”) ticks, whose nymphs become active in May. These tiny, hard-to-see life stages are…

Every spring, residents and winemakers in Woodinville notice the same unwelcome sign that the warm months are coming: a sudden uptick in yellowjackets. By May, these aggressive, black-and-yellow wasps become a conspicuous part of the landscape — buzzing around backyard barbecues, hovering near trash cans and compost, and popping up among the rows and cover…

Every spring, Bothell homeowners start seeing more tiny visitors than usual: ants. May is prime time for ant activity in the Pacific Northwest because warming temperatures, longer days and drying soil encourage colonies to expand, workers to forage aggressively, and reproductive ants to swarm. In Bothell you’re most likely to encounter pavement ants, odorous house…

May marks a turning point for homes around Cougar Mountain. As temperatures rise, daylight lengthens and spring vegetation fills in, the creatures that live in the foothills and riparian corridors become more active and begin seeking food, water and shelter closer to people. The mix of suburban yards, wooded lots and nearby trails creates a…

If you live in Sammamish and have noticed wasps buzzing around decks, gutters and eaves earlier than usual this spring, you’re not alone — and there’s a logical explanation. Wasp activity is driven by the seasonal life cycle of social species such as yellowjackets, paper wasps and bald-faced hornets, but that cycle is increasingly sensitive…