As outdoor temperatures drop in the fall, rodents and other pests start hunting for warmer and drier nesting sites for the long winter months. Their quest often brings unwanted pests into your garage and living spaces.
By being proactive about pest control in the fall, you can head off the invaders and encourage them to keep moving along and winterover elsewhere.
Some important fall pest control steps you should take include:
Screen All Attic and Basement Vents with Hardware Cloth
Just as you should caulk all of your windows and doors before each winter for both pest control and weathering, so too should you make sure all of your home's attic and basement vents are secure.
While you should never completely cover the vents and prevent them from doing their job of ventilation, you should rescreen them with a small mesh wire, such as with hardware cloth.
Hardware cloth is inexpensive, easy to work with, and available at any hardware store. The mesh of hardware cloth is small and it is adequate for keeping rodents and other pests out.
Clean Your Outdoor Trash Cans and Their Storage Area
Even if you bag all of your household trash and yard waste before putting it in the outdoor trash can, there is still likely to be some stinky residue from leaky bags. And, if you have not cleaned up around the can in a while, there might be some lingering gross stuff there too.
Even if you can't really smell your trash can, it is a sure bet that rodents, flies, and other pests can. When their food sources start drying up in colder weather, they will come looking for things they can smell.
Take the time before winter to eliminate any pest-attracting smells by washing out your trash cans and their storage area with some liquid dish soap or chlorine bleach.
Spray the Perimeter of Your Home with Insecticide
All of the bugs and other pests in your yard have been growing and multiplying all spring and summer. Now they are looking for refuge to get out of the rain and cold.
This makes the fall season a perfect time to apply a broad-spectrum insecticide all around the exterior perimeter of your house.
If you have children, pets, or other concerns with spraying, then you can always have a local residential pest control service out to do the job for you.
Share6 October 2022
After marrying my sweet husband ten years ago, I moved into a fixer-upper. I immediately started making a list of remodeling projects I wold need to complete before the house would be comfortable to live in. For instance, I had to rip out the old linoleum flooring in the kitchen, mud room, and bathrooms. I also had to buy a complete set of new furniture. Only a few days after moving into this house, I also discovered my need to contact a reputable pest control specialist. The house contained huge, disgusting roaches. After a local pest control technician visiting my house, my home was free of potentially health damaging roaches. On this blog, you will discover the latest trends in the pest control industry for successfully removing roaches from a home.