Steps You Can Take To Prevent Cold-Weather Bug Invasions

It's time for football, woolly sweaters, crackling fires, and hot chocolate. It's also twhen we inevitably begin spending more time indoors and are not alone. It's not just people that head indoors when the temperatures drop. Insects do the same thing, and your home might seem like an inviting haven to them where they can wait out the bleak winter season.

Winter pest invasions are much more common than you might expect. Although some bugs do die off in the cold, many do not, especially if they have a cozy shelter nearby that they can easily access. The survivors include ants, beetles, silverfish, cockroaches, spiders, and many more. Many serious household pest infestations begin this way, and it's not unusual for a content pest to stick around even when the outside weather turns warm again.

So, are you prepared for these creepy critters to come calling? Nobody wants a barrage of bugs invading their home, but there are definite steps you can take that can minimize cold-weather bug invasions. Here are some of the best.

Ways To Prevent Winter Bug Invasions

Seal your house up tight. Exclusion is typically a professional pest control technique, but there are aspects of it that you can achieve on your own. Exclusion means sealing gaps and installing barriers in the places where pests might gain entry, including around windows, doors, vents, pipes, and cracks and crevices. You can use materials like caulk, weather-stripping, and mesh as exclusion barriers, and remember to make these same modifications to basements, attics, garages, crawlspaces, and sheds. The more your home is sealed up, the fewer pest invasions you'll have.

Keep your house clean. We know this sounds like a no-brainer, but we also know how easy it is to procrastinate on certain chores. Don't do it. Or should we say do it, the housework, that is. Dirt, debris, clutter, and trash attract insects because, to them, it smells like dinner and provides more places to hide. Do bugs sometimes get in even if your home is spotless? Sure. But it can happen less when you remove one of the key elements that attract them.

Tidy up your home's exterior. Your yard is the gateway to your home. When your exterior is inviting to pests, they are closer to getting inside. You can minimize that by picking up fallen leaves, removing clutter, and tidying up the areas where it would be easy for insects to congregate. It also helps to trim your vegetation so that it doesn't touch your house, and you should also try to keep woodpiles and mulch away from your home's walls. Plus, give your gutters some love. Clogged gutters aren't just a haven for bugs; they are a leading cause of roof and foundation leaks.

Be mindful of your food storage habits. Do you leave fruit out to ripen on your kitchen counter? What about your bread? Is it sitting out, protected only by the plastic bag it came in? What about your pantry? Have you opened cardboard boxes, bags of sugar, or sacks of grain that are easy to get into? If that sounds like your home, that sounds like trouble regarding pest invasions. How you store your food is critical. It is far better to use a breadbox, glass jars, and rigid containers with tight-fitting lids for storage. If you don't, you are just ringing the dinner bell foraging pests.

Be diligent. Just being alert for signs of potential pest problems can make a difference. Inspect your home regularly from top to bottom as winter approaches and throughout the year. The longer an infestation goes unnoticed, the more damage it can cause and the harder it is to get rid of. Be diligent and act on it if you hear noises, notice strange odors, see holes, scratches, waste, or other suspicious signs of an insect presence.

The Professional Pest Control Help You Need

If you experience a pest problem, see signs of a wintertime invasion, or need a little help any time of year, look no further than Elite Pest Control. We are New Jersey's most trusted pest control company for a reason, and nobody does it better than Elite. We are experts at exclusion and inspection and have the business's most comprehensive and reliable pest treatment plans. If ever we can be of service, contact us for more information.