Common Winter Pests and How to Control Them

With the changing seasons comes an onslaught of pests that can wreak havoc on you and your home. With the common winter pests such as rats, mice, and so on, it’s important to remember that prevention is key in keeping them out of your home. In this article, we will discuss some of the common winter pests that attack our household during the winter season and how we can avoid that from happening.

What are some of the common winter pests?

Winter is a time when pests are likely to go into hibernation. Here are some of the common winter pests:

● Winged Carpenter Ants- Carpenter ants are one of the most common insects found in homes during winter. They can cause damage to wooden structures by excavating tunnels through them. These ants are quite large and have a reddish-brown color, with two pairs of wings that are attached at the waist. They often live in colonies that contain several hundred ants. If you see carpenter ants’ infestation in your home during winter months, it is best to get in touch with Terminix pest control before they damage your wooden furniture. 

● Cluster Fly- Cluster flies can be found anywhere in the United States. These flies are grayish-brown in color and have a long ovipositor (a tube used to lay eggs) that extends from their rear. The cluster fly's name comes from laying their eggs in clusters on grass or tree trunks. Once they hatch, these flies will seek shelter inside buildings where they can feed on blood from humans and animals.

● Mice- Mice are a very common winter pest. They can be found in your home, under your home, and even inside the walls of your home. Mice are attracted to warm places to live and will eat any food they can find. They like to make nests in attics, basements, and crawl spaces. They also leave droppings that can be a health hazard if not cleaned up properly.

● Rats- Rats are perhaps the most common pest homeowners face throughout the year. These rodents can threaten your food supply and damage your home if they get inside. They also carry diseases like salmonella, hantavirus, and leptospirosis that can be spread to humans through their urine and feces. Rats can squeeze through tiny holes in walls or floorboards, so it's important to seal up any openings around pipes, vents, or foundation cracks with steel wool or caulk. You can also use traps to catch rats before they get inside your house.

● Bed bugs- Bed bugs are small insects that feed on human blood and can survive for up to 18 months without feeding. They hide in cracks, crevices, and folds of mattresses, box springs, bed frames, headboards, and dressers. When they bite, they leave itchy red welts on your skin. If you have bed bugs in your house, you may find their droppings on your sheets or mattress. You may also see them crawling in your bedroom at night or early in the morning.

How to Prevent Home Invasion?

Winter is the best time for pests to invade your home. They find it easy to get in and out of your house during this season. Here are some tips to prevent winter pests from invading your home:

1. Pest control

The best way to prevent pests is by doing regular pest control. This involves treating the exterior of your home with a barrier that keeps pests out of your home. To ensure that these barriers work effectively, you must also treat the interior of your home with pesticides or other chemicals that kill any insects or rodents that may have gotten inside your house.

2. Clean your house regularly

If you want to prevent winter pests from invading your home, then you must clean it regularly. This is because these pests are attracted by dirtiness and messiness. If there is no mess in your house, then there will not be any attraction for them to come inside. So, clean your house thoroughly regularly and remove all kinds of garbage so that there will be no attraction for these pests!

3. Seal any cracks or holes

Check for cracks or holes in your home's exterior walls and fill them with spray foam insulation. You can also use steel wool to seal small holes outside your house.

4. Remove debris from your yard

Clear away dead leaves, branches, and other debris from around your house or garage. You don't want these things lying around because they can attract rodents, snakes, and other pests. Also, ensure you have no standing water or puddles around your home; this will attract mosquitoes that may carry diseases like the West Nile virus or Zika virus.

In Conclusion

Though you can't entirely get rid of insects in the winter, you can take steps to manage and minimize them. The key to this is to find out the kind of pests your property attracts the most so that you can target the right mixture of insecticides and repellants to keep them at bay.