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Now that winter is here, pests are seeking shelter from the colder weather outside. Unfortunately, warm homes are among the likely places to provide shelter for pests. Have you noticed a rise in rodent infestation in your home or around the neighborhood of late? If so, you need to come up with pest control measures to get rid of pests from your home as soon as possible.
Although spotting a cobweb here and there in your home may appear harmless, pests can actually be very hazardous if left without extermination for a long period of time. For instance, rodents carry diseases like Hantavirus and Salmonella that can easily be transmitted to humans. Therefore, in case you spot any rodents in your home or compound, we highly recommend that you call in a professional exterminator immediately.
Did you know that there are spiders that can bite and cause serious side effects in humans? If your home has been infested with spiders this winter, do not take any chances. Consider exterminating them as soon as possible. Does anyone in your household suffer from allergies or respiratory diseases? If so, you might want to be on the lookout for cockroaches because they can trigger allergies and asthma.
The Keys to Winter Pest-Proofing
Since pests are determined to escape the colder weather outside and seek shelter in homes, you need to ensure that your home is pest-proof this winter. This means that you will have to seal cracks and any other entry points that may give pests access to your home this winter. Below are some tips on how you can keep pests out of your home this winter. They include:
Replace any loose weather stripping and mortar around the windows and basement so that pests cannot penetrate through seek shelter in your home.
Seal cracks and any holes around your house to prevent rodents from finding a way into your home. Remember that mice can fit through a hole as small as a dime so make certain that you cover all grounds including areas where pipes enter the house.
If your compound has a store, ensure that you store the firewood at least 20 feet away from the main house. This is because ants and mice can make nests in the woodpiles and have easy access to your home if you store the wood near the house.
Moisture issues can easily attract pests such as cockroaches. Ensure that you get rid of moisture sites such as clogged drains or leaking pipes from your home. We highly recommend that you also pay extra attention to the bathroom and kitchen since they are vulnerable to moisture issues.
Ensure that all storage areas in your home or around the compound are well organized. This is because pests like rodents can hide in cluttered areas. Avoid storing boxes on the floor. Pests are desperate to avoid the colder weather outside and will therefore find any clutter or litter in or around your home that could make a cozy shelter for pests this cold season.
Inspect all the vents, chimneys, basements, and attics in your property to ensure that there are no pests hiding in the dark spaces. Ensure that all the crawl spaces in your home are dry and well ventilated for better pest control.
How to Prevent Pests in Apartments?
Pests know that their best chance of surviving in winter is to take cover in warm homes. To combat this, you need to know how to ward pests off your property this winter season. Here are more tips on how to prevent pests in apartments and keep them from infesting your home.
1. Ward off spotted lanternflies
Spotted lanternflies are known to be notoriously destructive by destroying any plant they come across. If you want to keep your green plants healthy this winter, use the following tips to keep spotted lanternflies from your home and property.
Use sticky paper to capture lantern spotted flies
One of the best ways to get rid of lantern spotted flies is to wrap the branches and stems of your plants with strips of sticky paper. In case you do not have access to sticky paper, you can use duct tape and place it upside down on your plants so that the sticky surface is exposed. When the spotted lanternflies come to attack your plants, they will land on the sticky surface and get trapped. Once the sticky paper is filled with the flies, you can replace it with a new one and destroy the infested paper by burning it or flushing it away.
Destroy masses of spotted lanternflies' eggs
During this winter, the spotted lanternflies may seek refuge in warm hard surfaces within your home and lay their eggs. The eggs masses of the flies are usually brown or grey in color. If you spot globby masses of eggs in the corner of your basement, along edges on walls, or any other hard surfaces in your home, we highly recommend you get rid of them immediately to prevent a full blown infestation later when all the eggs hatch.
Scrape off the eggs using something with a blunt edge such as a plastic card, putty knife, or any other thing you can get your hands on. Scrape the eggs into a bag filled with hand sanitizer or alcohol to destroy them.
2. Clean Up Your Yard
There are many areas in your yard that can provide shelter for pests in winter. Here are a few tips of cleaning p your yard to keep the pests away.
Clear away all the weed
Overwintering pests like to hide out in weeds. If you have a winter vegetable plot in your yard, ensure that you get rid of all the weeds on it. This will allow frost to get in and destroy all the pests that could be hibernating beneath the weeds.
Expose the grubs to the snow
Another way of getting rid of overwintering pests hiding deep in the ground is by digging up the surface and exposing it to frost. Overwintering pests usually seek shelter in the ground around bushes and trees. Clean up the yard by raking up and removing fallen leaves around bushes and trees in your yard. Once you do this, turn over the top inches of the soil so that the hibernating grabs can be exposed on the surface to the frost and perish.
3. Clean Up Fruit Trees for winter
Do you have fruit trees in your yard? Ensure that you get rid of the fallen leaves and fruits around the base of the tree. This is because the fallen branches and fruits provide perfect breeding grounds for pests to hibernate it and later attack the tree when the warm season arrives. Ruffle up the litter around the fruit trees using a fork to expose the hibernating pests to the surface and the snow will destroy them overnight.
If you had placed mulch around the fruit tree, pull back the mulch and you will likely find some pests hibernating from the snow underneath the mulch. Rake away the mulch so that the frost can penetrate into the ground and cleanse it of all pests.
4. Inspect packages
As we stated earlier, pests such as rodents like to hide out in clutter and boxes inside our homes during winter. When was the last time you inspected the boxed packages in the attic or basement? As the cold weather settles in, ensure that there are no boxes in your house that are potentially providing shelter to pests. Open up the boxes and check what's in them.
5. Clean Up the Kitchen
Another pest control measure to keep your apartment free from rodent infestation is to maintain a clean and well-organized kitchen. Ensure that you regularly get rid of the trash and keep the kitchen surfaces as dry as possible. Pests such as cockroaches are attracted to moist warm places and kitchen cabinets provide the perfect breeding ground for such pests in winter.
Clean out the kitchen cabinets regularly. Ensure that you clean the dishes every night so that the pests will not have any source of nourishment. If any of the kitchen drains have leaking issues, call in a plumber to have them fixed. By keeping your kitchen clean this winter, you lower the risk of having your home infested by pests.
In case it's already too late and your home is infested with pests, you can still get ahead of the situation by calling in a professional exterminator. And we have great news for you if you are looking for an exterminator in Suffolk and Nassau County.
Here at General Exterminating, we carry out pest exterminating on Long Island in both Nassau County and Suffolk County. We are a family-owned and operated pest exterminating on Long Island and Suffolk County service company that provides top-quality exterminating services to keep your homes clean and free from pesky pests.
If you are in need of a pest exterminator in Suffolk, give us a call today and we will send an experienced, licensed, and qualified exterminator to get rid of the pests in your home.
Take the initiative of keeping your home safe and free from pests through extermination this winter by calling us today.