Keeping your home pest-free in the fall and winter can feel like a full-time job sometimes. Once the weather starts to drop outside, the pests seek out a warmer place to call home. If you don’t take the appropriate steps now, you may be facing a pest infestation this fall. Here are a few fall pest prevention tips to protect your home from invading pests.
Keep it Clean
An essential part of fall pest prevention is to make your home less appealing to fall pests, this can be done with a little bit of cleaning. Ants, roaches, spiders, and other common indoor pests need a constant supply of food and water. You can make your home less hospitable to them by cleaning up any crumbs and to properly store your food. Make sure food isn’t left out and any messes that are made get cleaned up quickly. Without a steady supply of easily accessible food, your pest population will drop considerably.
Manage the Moisture
Once the food problem is addressed it’s time to move on to the water problem. Pests, like millipedes, thrive on excess moisture in and around the house. Leaky pipes and faucets or too much water around the foundation of your home is an open invitation to a pest invasion. Clean up any excess water, fix any leaky pipes, and watch for water around the foundation.
Check the Foundation
Now that you’ve made your home inhospitable to pests, it’s time to make it inaccessible. The first step is to check the foundation of your home. Ants, spiders, and other pests find their way into your home via cracks and vulnerabilities in your foundation. Repair any weak points in your foundation to prevent pests from gaining entry to your home.
Fix Broken Screens and Fill Gaps
In the fall, kudzu bugs and Asian lady beetles collect on the sides of buildings, looking for a warm place to overwinter. If there are any holes in your window screens or gaps around your doors, then they’ll have an easy way into your home. Fix or replace any damaged screens and caulk the gaps around your doors. It’s also a good idea to check and replace your weatherstripping if necessary.
Clean Your Gutters and Check Your Roof
Safeguarding the exterior of your home against overwintering pests includes the roof of your house. Start with the gutters. Get up there and clear out any leaf debris, sticks, or anything else you find up there. Pests, like mosquitoes, love to lay their eggs in the water that collects in a clogged gutter. While you’re up there, check for gaps in your roof or shingles that need to be replaced. Fixing these vulnerabilities will help keep squirrels and bats out of your attic.
Fall Yard Maintenance
Finally, it’s time to clean up around the yard. Start by cleaning up any leaf debris around the yard, fleas and ticks love to hide out in leaf piles. Next, trim shrubs bushes, and trees away from the side of your home. Pests overwinter in trees and shrubs and can find their way into your home if the branches are up against it.
Call the Professionals at Cramer Pest Control
The best fall pest prevention tip we have is to invest in a pest control program. Here at Cramer Pest Control, we have the best pest control solutions for you. Whether you’re looking for indoor, outdoor, residential, or proactive pest control, we have the best options for you.
Give us a call at (704) 763-0204 or leave us a message here. Make sure you check out our facebook too!