Fall is a beautiful season full of changing colors, cooler temperatures, kids heading back to school and festive holidays just around the corner. It is a much loved time of year. When it comes to pests though, this season can mean big problems for your home. As the weather cools down, the survival instincts of pests kick into full gear. Their instincts tell them that if they do not find shelter soon, that those colder temperatures mean starvation and death. To preserve their life, they will do anything they can to get into your home for warmth, food and shelter. Fall pest control is imperative to keeping your home safe and homeowners need to stay extra vigilant. Here are a few of the most common invaders.
Rodents
Rodents are one of the most dangerous, destructive pests that homeowners encounter. These pests are opportunists and if they find a small hole or crack in the exterior of your home, they use their strong teeth and jaws to chew that hole wider so they can squeeze through. They only need a hole the size of a nickel to squeeze through. Keeping your home, garage and shed sealed tight is vital during these colder months because rodents will stop at nothing to get to food and shelter. They leave urine and droppings wherever they go and these excrements carry deadly diseases. Professional fall pest control is your best solution for successful rodent control.
Flies
Flies are one pest that has a talent for driving us totally crazy. Not only that, they are dirty and with their love of everything disgusting, they are also good at spreading germs and bacteria. One type of fly that homeowners deal with during the fall are cluster flies. They look different than the typical house fly with fatter, shorter bodies. They gravitate to the warmer, hidden places of homes such as inside walls, basements and attics where they cluster together for warmth. When these flies find a way out into your home, they fly around in a drowsy, drunken-like stupor. With a lifespan of just under a month, finding their dead bodies all over is unpleasant to say the least.
Ants
You may be surprised but unlike flies with their short lifespans, ants can live a very long time. Female worker ants and males can live 5-8 years while a queen can live anywhere from 15-30 years! How do they survive the cold weather? Well, often it involves searching for places of warmth and this includes your home. Ants are one of the most difficult insects to remove from your home and this is best done successfully with professional fall pest control services. If they infest, they get into all areas of your home, especially kitchens, bathrooms and laundry areas which are plentiful with food and water.
Termites
Termites can make sawdust out of a woodpile in no time but that woodpile will not protect them from the cold of winter. Termite colonies begin searching for a warmer location for their colony and your house is the perfect solution. If you see strange, mud tubing along your foundation, these are the termites’ pathways into your home. Once inside, they can do very expensive and catastrophic structural damage. Routine, fall pest inspections will catch the signs of termites you might have missed.
Don’t skip fall pest control inspections
Essential to keeping your home pest free all year long, it is important to schedule year round inspections and fall is one of the most important times of the year as these pests are desperate for your food and shelter. Pointe Pest Control technicians know exactly what clues to look for when it comes to infesting pests and with safe, yet effective treatments, we remove pests before fast before they become a nightmare. We look forward to serving you.
