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The holidays are here and that means GUESTS. Some of them unwanted. I hear it so very often on the phones. “Well it’s winter and the pests are all dead”. Until two days before a big dinner party and guess who showed up early for the party? Templeton! Most pests have begun overwintering. But they can emerge if the environment is right. Spiders are active all year long, as are rodents.
If you find a bee in your home in the winter, don’t panic, it is an overwintering bee that has been brought in somehow. Maybe in the tree you just brought in to decorate! OR the firewood that you brought in to heat the home. Most outdoor pest activity will slow down but if they are in your home, which is warm they will stay and pest control can be beneficial to you.
When we apply the barrier to the exterior of the home it is to help prevent the insects from entering your home. Most of the time we can control the activity with just exterior quarterly treatments. However, without that barrier in place – it will break down and any pest that crosses it can get into your home and create its own colony.
Rodent activity will increase in the winter, because of the cold and the lack of food.
Then there are the spiders – most people are afraid of them. Although we cover spiders as part of our nuisance program, we do not actually target them. They are beneficial. WHAT? yes, they trap and eat the other pests you don’t want in your home. And that we can control them by removing their food source – forcing them to move on in the environment. We do sweep for egg sacs and remove webbing.
Winterizing Your Home
Many of the tasks we perform to prepare our homes for the winter season also help to keep pests from entering our homes. Insects and mice that thrive in the outdoors during the warm weather months, must seek shelter as the weather becomes colder. Our warm homes are an inviting place for pests to come in from the cold!
Pests can enter our homes through the smallest of cracks and crevices. Mice can fit through a hole as tiny as a dime! A few Integrated Pest Management (IPM) tips:
- Caulk windows inside and out.
- Check weather striping on doors and/or install door sweeps if daylight is visible around the perimeter of the door.
- Remove all debris and edible vegetation from your home’s foundation to keep from attracting pests.
- Inspect for and correct foundation cracks to block entry points.
- Secure crawlspace entries.
- When insulating exposed plumbing pipes, check for any points of entry. Caulk gaps and fill large ones with steel wool to prevent mice from entering.
- Cap or screen the top of the chimney to keep out rodents and other pests.
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