Prepare Your Home for Fall With Pest Control

The long, warm days of summer are coming to a close, and it’s time to prepare our homes for the fall months. It is important to take preparations to keep pests out of your home! Some pests and rodents may seek shelter in your home over the winter months, and some may already be hiding there out of sight.

Take preventative pest control measures today to ensure that your home stays clean and free of ants, roaches, spiders, rodents, and more this fall! Give PestLock a call for all of your residential and commercial pest control needs. We proudly serve Washington and Oregon, and our knowledgeable technicians are enthusiastic to help you find the best prevention and control methods for your home or business.

Why Seasonal Pest Control is Important

If you only think about pest control services and protection when you see insects and rodents in your property, you aren’t the only one. While one-time pest control treatments will rid an area of unwanted creatures, they do not provide prevention or year-long protection. At PestLock, we provide seasonal pest control services that are designed to keep pests at bay all year long. Each season brings a unique set of pests, and we have the knowledge and experience to offer preventative treatments that will keep your home clean from pests no matter what month or season it is.

4 Common Fall Pests

As the months cool down, residents of the Pacific Northwest will find four common pests trying to invade their homes. The most frequent offenders are spiders, rodents, roaches, and ants. Let’s explore each of these a little bit further, and look at preventative measures that you can take to keep pests at bay.

Ants

Ants thrive the most in the summer months, but they continue to be an annoyance throughout the fall. To avoid infestation, sweep and vacuum your home often, eliminate moisture and leaks anywhere possible, and secure entry points like cracks, windows, and door frames.

Moisture ants can swarm during late summer and early autumn. These critters are usually under ⅛ inches in length, and are brown or yellow in color. They build large nests that can cause annoyance and destruction in your home. They are attracted to moisture, and often build their nests near bathtubs, in damp crawlspaces, near windows, or by leaks in your roof.

Similar to moisture ants, you may also find odorous house ants near the damp places of your home. Odorous ants are about the same size as moisture ants, and they are brown in color. These insects received their name for the sour, rotten smell that they release when they are smashed or stepped on. Their homes are often found near leaking pipes or heaters.

One more common ant variety in Washington and Oregon is the carpenter ant. They earn their names because of the tunnels they create in wood when they are building their nests. They don’t eat the wood, so you can be on the lookout for piles of sawdust or insulation left behind by their burrowing. Left unchecked, carpenter ants can cause significant structural damage to homes. They are black in color and found often in the wood of window sills and areas close to your home’s exterior.

Rodents

There is almost nothing quite as shocking as seeing a rodent scurrying across the floor in your cozy, comfy home. Mice and rats can cause damage to your home, and they are known for transmitting a wide variety of diseases to both people and pets. To avoid rodents, be sure to store food and garbage in airtight containers. If you have a fireplace, keep your stack of wood away from your house, so mice and rats cannot create nests and burrow into your home from inside the wood pile. As with all pests, be sure to seal exterior cracks and holes that offer these small animals an entrance into your home. You can also leave traps in the tucked away corners of your home if you are worried rodents may invade.

Roaches

There are a few species of cockroaches that live in Oregon and Washington, and the autumn months are their time to shine. When food and water become scarce outdoors, roaches follow their senses and seek to invade the homes of residents in the Pacific Northwest. Roaches are known to spread various kinds of bacteria, and can often trigger asthma attacks. The best way to avoid roaches is simply to keep a clean home. Not only do you need to do the obvious things like storing your food in airtight containers, but you need to clean all areas of your living space. This includes regularly scrubbing under, around, and behind appliances and other hard to reach spots.

Spiders

A common misconception about spiders is that they primarily enter your home in the fall and winter months in search of food and water, but they usually prefer to stay outdoors. The reason they are seen more often during the fall, is that they are out and about looking for mates. To keep the spiders at bay, you can kill them whenever you see them, sweep away webs as often as you find them, avoid stacking firewood near your home, and make sure you are on the lookout for them in the dark corners of your home.

Fall Pest Control Services

It can feel overwhelming to try and keep the pests at bay, but we are here to help! Contact PestLock today for a free consultation, and we will find the best solutions for you to prevent any pests from invading your home during the upcoming fall season.