The leaves are changing color. The temperature is all over the place. It’s getting gradually colder outside, but as you know, this all means that fall is on it’s way! With fall comes our 2017 Fall Pest Gazette featuring overwintering pests, hitchhiking holiday pests, tips to keep your home pest-free over the colder months, and more! Keep reading for a preview of the heaps of info you’ll find inside the gazette, and then download your free copy!
KEEP OVERWINTERING PESTS OUT OF YOUR HOME!
If you’re not familiar with the term overwintering, it basically means relocating to a warmer climate during the winter. We all know a few snowbirds who head south for the winter to places like Florida, and the same thing happens with overwintering pests looking for a warm place to spend the winter. Don’t let top tier pests like spiders, rodents, centipedes and overwintering pests spend the colder months enjoying the pest equivalent of a good time in the sand and sun and the expense of your home or your health. So let’s go over some tips on how to keep them out of your house!
In our previous post, Prep For Fall With These Tips On Overwintering Pests, we get into how to prevent pests like box elder bugs, lady bugs, stink beetles, and bluebottle flies from creeping their way into your home. Since those creepier crawlies feed on these overwintering pests, preventing them from getting into your home is a two birds, one stone kind of situation.
- Make sure door and window screens are serviceable and free of holes and tears. Verify that any cracks or crevices between them and the wall are properly sealed.
- Get rid of as much clutter as possible, and store what you keep in sealable plastic tubs.
- If you have to use cardboard boxes, use an ‘H’ pattern (across the flaps and both ends) to seal them with packing tape.
- Vacuum up any webs, egg sacs, live and dead spiders, and any dead insects around them with a HEPA filter vacuum and seal them in a container to dispose of.
- Set out glue traps if necessary.
- Check places spiders frequently hide: corners, baseboards, under appliances, in storage areas and closets, underneath shelves and drawers.
| Pantry pests |
Our friends at the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) are constantly sharing heaps of extremely helpful info that will keep these overwintering buggies at bay. Here are some more:
- Screen attic vents and openings to chimneys.
- Eliminate moisture sites, including leaking pipes and clogged drains.
- Seal cracks and crevices on the outside of the home using caulk and steel wool. Pay close attention to where utility pipes enter the structure.
- Store food in airtight containers and dispose of garbage regularly in sealed receptacles.
- Replace loose mortar and weather stripping around the basement foundation and windows.
- Store firewood at least 20 feet away from the house, and keep shrubbery well trimmed.
- Install door sweeps and repair damaged screens.
- Inspect items such as boxes of decorations and grocery bags before bringing them indoors.
- If you suspect a pest infestation, contact a licensed pest control professional who can properly inspect and treat the problem.
Unfortunately, sometimes preventative measures aren’t enough and pest infestations still happen. Our Healthy Home Maintenance program that uses our Integrated Pest Management approach will take care of any pest issues you might be having while also helping to professionally prevent any issues in the future. And should you have any issues in between your four scheduled quarterly visits, we’ll come back out and deal with the issue completely free of charge.
AVOID PANTRY PESTS WITH THESE EASY TIPS!
If the term “pantry pests” seems familiar, that’s because we’ve covered it before! Pantry pests are, you guessed it!, pests that can end up in your pantry! Improperly stored rice, flour, cereals, or spices are the targets of these annoying pests, and you normally won’t notice an infestation until it’s too late. The rice weevil, sawtoothed grain beetle (pictured below) and Indianmeal moth are the top culprits. Trust us when we say you don’t want to wait to discover these buggers until you crack open a bag of flour to make some baked goods!
For pantry pests tips, we’re going to go back to our previous post Don’t let Pantry Pests Ruin Your Party. In that post we went in-depth about these aggravating and costly insects, and whipped up a great checklist of steps to make sure you never have to encounter them!
- Clean up all spills and crumbs immediately.
- Store everything in airtight containers.
- Dispose of garbage regularly.
- Don’t purchase expired, unsealed or broken packages from the store.
- Make sure your screens and doors are properly setup to prevent pesky intruders.
- Check the dates on everything before you use it.
- Investigate your home for moisture sites like leaking pipes, clogged drains and lack of drainage.
- Pull out the refrigerator and stove and vacuum any food debris that may have been collecting underneath them.
If you suspect any unwelcome guests in your pantry, call us immediately! We’ll come right away and figure out what, if anything, needs to be done to stop pests from spreading and work with you to make sure they don’t return.
AVOID HITCHHIKERS WHEN COMING HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Yup, we had to include bed bugs in our Fall Gazette. Millions of people head back home to see family for the holidays, and that can mean travel, hotels, and luggage. Just a quick stop, and all it takes is two tiny bed bugs to hop into your suitcase or onto a shirt without you noticing.
We’ve covered bed bugs a lot here at Rose Pest Solutions, most prominently via our Bed Bug Awareness Week campaign. Here’s a neat little infographic from our past coverage with some excellent bed bug info!
SO WHERE’S THE GAZETTE? I WANT MY FALL PEST TIPS!
You’ve waited long enough, so here it is: the Rose Pest Solutions Fall 2017 Pest Gazette! We worked hard to bring you the most up-to-date and important info to both prepare for this season’s pests as well as how to know when it’s time to call the experts at Rose Pest Solutions! We hope you have as much fun reading the gazette as we did sharing all this info with you. Summer is officially over, but our pest prevention and education continues year-round!
