Which Bugs Can You Expect to Find in Your Home Around the Holidays?
While most homeowners crack down on pest control in the hot summer months, cool weather will often encourage bugs to make their way indoors to find a warm, safe place to spend the season. Granted, these household visitors are unwelcome, to say the least.
Just like humans, insects that infest in a house in the winter are looking for food and shelter as outside weather drops to freezing temperatures. Many homeowners are surprised to find an increase in bug activity in the wintertime, making routine Alabama pest control a popular year-round service.
Indoor Insects Are Attracted to Fresh-Cut Firewood
Before the holiday season rolls around, it helps to prepare yourself for a few unexpected visitors. If you plan on burning an indoor fire, you will need to inspect firewood carefully before storing it inside of the house.
Beetles are known to burrow into firewood underneath the bark and directly into the wood. Dry firewood may still contain beetle larva; it’s possible for adult beetles to hatch and emerge up to two years after firewood has been cut and sold!
Dry firewood may also provide shelter for carpenter bees that are known to nest directly in the wood. Depending upon the area of the country, horntail wasps may lay eggs on wood, transferring larva into a home via fresh-cut firewood.
If you store firewood indoors in a damp environment, watch out! Damp, wet wood will attract countless insects, including termites and carpenter ants, to set up shop just in time for winter. Depending upon the dampness and location of firewood storage, you may also find other bug infestations like centipedes, millipedes, pill bugs, and bark lice.
How to Keep Insects Out of Your House This Winter
The first step in the right direction is to stick with a regular extermination schedule throughout the year. Keeping your pest control on track will make it easier to stop an infestation before it starts. An experienced exterminator can also detect early signs of an indoor bug problem that may not be visible to the naked eye.
From there, be careful with how you store your firewood. Before storing indoors, firewood should be dried out completely to make it less enticing to insects. It’s also important to never spray firewood with pesticides. This is a serious fire hazard that could cause an indoor fire once wood has been placed in a fireplace.
Last not least, you can keep insects out by sticking with the basics. Make sure that all cracks and crevices in your home are sealed completely so that bugs are less likely to seek shelter indoors when cold weather hits!