Pest Control Tips: Pests and Weather
Whether conditions in your area are hot and humid, cool
and dry, or rainy with sudden downpours, your weather directly affects pests and
their activities. These conditions prompt pests to invade your home to seek
three very basic needs – food, water and shelter. Find out how your local
weather is affecting your pest forecast this summer, then use our tips to help maintain a
pest-free home!
Rainy, Wet Weather
Pest Forecast: More pests may invade your home.
You can expect an increase in the number of pests you see this summer, plus
more invasions, as these larger populations seek food. Specific pests you should
watch for include: ants, outdoor
cockroaches, spiders, crickets, ladybugs, yellow
jackets, hornets, mice
and rats. Here’s why:
- More moisture promotes pest reproduction and growth, so you have more
insects! Ants, especially, reproduce in greater numbers in wet, warm climates.
- Additional pests mean a greater need for more food sources. Insects will
continue to search beyond their normal habitats to find food.
- Invasions may occur as pests relocate to drier ground.
Excessive Rainfall and Flooding
Pest Forecast: Ants and others retreat from flooded soil.
Excessive rainfall over a short period of time will flood the soil and cause
insects, especially ants,
to seek dry ground. Some pestsretreating from the unfavorable weather conditions
will find shelter in the nearest location, which is often your home. Other facts
to note:
- Ants can easily move an entire colony on short notice.
- Common areas that may become new homes overnight for ants are wall voids
and under foundations.
- Excessive rain creates an abundance of ants, which increases the need for
pest control services.
Dry Conditions
Pest Forecast: Pests most likely will seek water in and around your
home.
Rain will create additional pest growth, while lack of rain promotes pest
invasions. If you enjoyed a dry, cool spring, chances are pests may be fewer,
but they will be relentless in their pursuit of moisture for survival. Dry
conditions affect pests in the following ways:
- Lack of moisture outside drives pests inside homes to find water.
- During dry weather, ants, earwigs, millipedes,
pillbugs and sowbugs, crickets and spiders are the most common pests to seek waterindoors.
- Millipedes have been known to leave leaf litter, mulch or a lawn and move
in migrations of thousands when their harborages dry out – inevitably invading
homes that stand in their way.
Extreme Drought
Pest Forecast: Fewer pests but more frequent visits.
Fewer pests are one benefit of a dry spring and summer. Extended periods of
dry weather or droughts will affect the food supply also eliminating some
insects. Here's what you can expect:
- With a reduced food supply, scorpions and certain spiders must venture beyond their normal habitats in search of a food source.
- Pests may establish breeding sites and harborages in and around your home
– in debris, bricks, rocks, firewood, etc.
Cool Weather
Pest Forecast: Warmth indoors attracts pests into your living
spaces.
With cooler temperatures outside, pests seek the warmth and shelter of your
home. Some pests you are likely to find invading your home to escape the cooler
temperatures are box
elder bugs, cluster
flies, ladybugs and silverfish.
Here’s more about these pests:
- Occasional invaders, like overwintering pests, start moving indoors during
late summer and early fall as the temperature drops.
- These pests like to use walls, voids and attics as their winter retreats.
- There isn’t any way to totally pest-proof your home, but you can seal as
many cracks and holes on the outside of your home as possible, especially on
the south and west walls where the sun heats the home during the late summer
and fall. Also, you should install tight-fitting screens on all foundation and
attic vents.
Any short period of drought, extended rainfall or excessive heat or cold can
force insects and other pests to invade homes seeking relief from unfavorable
weather conditions. Like people, pests are affected by extreme heat or lack of
rain and will do what is necessary to survive. Understanding the
cause-and-effect relationship of weather and pests will help keep insects out of
your home. For more information about pest control, click here. Schedule a Free Pest Evaluation online today and a Terminix representative will perform a complete analysis of
your home.
|
