Fall Pest Control Preventative Treatments
Fall is the time of year when pests will try to take up residence and overwinter in your home. Rodents, carpenter ants, queen bees, carpenter bees, cluster flies, lady bugs, and spiders look for shelter. These pests can become established in your home and cause structural damage.
Rodents such as mice or rats will look to seek refuge for the fall and winter. They can reproduce at a rate of 4-7 pups per litter with a gestation period of 19 days. The female will typically produce 5 to 10 litters in her lifetime. The pups become sexually mature as early as 6 to 10 weeks old; therefore, populations can grow rapidly. These rodents gnaw on electrical wires, tear insulation, contaminate food and leave unpleasant odors. Preventive services to winterize your home will eradicate the problem.
When the temperature begins to drop in the fall months, ants will look for ways to seek shelter. Carpenter ants can establish colonies inside the walls of your home and remain active. They will create nesting galleries in wood, causing the homeowner serious structural damage if left untreated.
Typically a wasp, hornet or yellow jacket queen bee will overwinter in the wall voids and attic. Carpenter bees also lay dormant in the winter. In the spring they awaken. The queen bee will look to lay eggs and establish new colonies and the carpenter bee will drill holes in the wood of your home.
Some occasional invaders that can enter your home include lady bugs, cluster flies, and spiders. A thorough inspection, sealing structural gaps, along with conventional and/or organic treatments in the fall will help to resolve your pest control problems.
This is the time of year for fall clean-up around your home. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a way for a home owner to do some preventative treatments around their home. Some of these preventative treatments can include: cutting back trees and bushes from touching your home, sealing up cracks and holes around the foundation, keeping firewood away from the home and covering trash cans. Your professional pest control company can advise you on the best way to implement IPM and eliminate the problem with conventional and/or organic solutions. This will help ensure that new pests do not enter your home.