If you’ve had trouble in the past with insects spending the fall and winter in your home, now is the time to take steps to keep that from happening again.

What Kind of Pests Are We Talking About?

Fall invaders are crawling pests such as crickets, millipedes, and earwigs that are normally found outside around building foundations in mulch, or under stones or boards. Or the invaders may be insects that normally live on plants during the summer such as lady beetles, boxelder bugs, stink bugs, or seed bugs (see Why Are There Plant Bugs in My House?).

All of these pests are hoping to find better conditions inside your home. They might be reacting to cooler temperatures and shorter days, or an end-of-season reduction in their normal food source, or their outside conditions may have gotten too dry or too wet. They may cluster on your house in large numbers and will take advantage of any openings they can find that let them inside.

Once fall-invading pests get inside, some will die in the drier conditions but others will find a quiet, protected place to spend the winter. They may end up in the attic, behind baseboards, in wall voids, behind drapes, almost anyplace. These insects are very hard to control once they are inside and in hiding. You may not see them again until spring (or a warm winter day) when large numbers may “wake up” and look for a way to get back outside (see It’s Time for Insects Wintering in Your Home to Wake Up!).

3 Things You Can Do to Prevent the Invasion

Follow these 3 steps before late summer to stop the fall pest invasion before it begins:

1. Clean up around the foundation. Many of these pests hide around the foundation in dark, damp sites: in piles of stored lumber, firewood, stones, or in heavy mulch, thick vegetation, tall weeds. Anything you can do to create a clear, dry border around your home will help discourage  the invading insects that occupy this zone.
2. Schedule an exterior perimeter treatment. This insecticide treatment around the perimeter of your home will kill pests as they group together and before they climb the walls of your house. It’s a first line of defense and means less insecticide used inside your home. At Colonial Pest, we offer a Preventative Maintenance Program that includes two scheduled pest barrier treatments per year, as well as additional services when needed.
3. Pest-proof your home to seal openings where insects enter. This can include screening windows and vents, adding door thresholds, repairing soffits, caulking cracks and gaps, and taking other measures to close openings where insects can enter (see Keeping Fall Pests Out – Advice From the Pros). Sound like a lot of work? We have trained technicians who specialize in these pest exclusion measures, and our work is guaranteed!

Give Colonial Pest a call ASAP so we can set up a perimeter inspection and treatment and can discuss other measures that need to be taken to keep fall-invading pests out of your home.

Photo Credit : By Jared Birk – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, wikipedia