Pests That Wake Up in Spring

Pests that wake up in spring

The whole world seems to come back to life in spring. Unfortunately, “the whole world” includes some things we wish would stay sleeping. Along with grass, flowers, trees, and birds, a whole host of Michigan’s most annoying pests wake up every spring.

When pests wake up in spring, they’re usually hungry, thirsty, and ready to find mates. To make up for their long winters off, they tend to pursue these activities ferociously. Their single-minded pursuits make pest problems all-too-common this time every year. Here are the pests you’re bound to run into this spring, what they’re up to, and the problems they cause.

Boxelder bugs

boxelder bugsStarting in early fall, boxelder bugs go looking for dry, warm places where they can wait out the winter. Unfortunately, those dry, warm places often include our homes. When spring comes around, boxelders become active again to seek their newly rejuvenated food sources and, eventually, to reproduce. When that happens, they vacate their winter hideaways en masse. If they were hanging out in your home over winter, you’re going to run into them again this spring.

Boxelder bugs are obviously a nuisance, but luckily they’re not a dangerous one. These pests don’t bite, spread disease, eat fabrics or stored foods, or lay eggs indoors. Instead, they simply vacate the premises to seek the seeds and flowers of acer trees like the boxelder. The nuisance part comes from how many of the gross bugs you may notice vacating. Boxelder excretions and feces may also stain window ledges and other favored areas.

Stink bugs

stink bugsStink bugs follow a similar seasonal routine to boxelder bugs, and they’re around for the same reasons. During fall, they desperately seek out any warm place where they can wait out the winter. Once they’re in position, they go dormant until outdoor temperatures rise back up to survivable temperatures. Once that happens, they wake up with one thing on their mind: mating. In their mad scramble to get back outdoors, however, they tend to get lost… or stuck.

Like boxelder bugs, stink bugs don’t reproduce or nest indoors, cause disease, or bite. They do… stink, however. When threatened or crushed, stink bugs secrete a foul-smelling substance from a special scent gland. This scent smells like rotten vegetables or coriander. The more stink bugs secrete at once, the more powerful the stench. These secretions can also leave behind a dark yellow stain on carpets, furniture, or window sills.

Carpenter ants

carpenter antsDuring spring, the infamous wood-infesters come marching in to build their nests and search for water. Carpenter ant invasions tend to be the most noticeable during the start of the season. Starting in mid spring, the reproductive carpenter ant castes swarm in order to seek mates and start new colonies. After mating, queen ants seek good places to lay their eggs. These eggs hatch into workers, and the infestation begins in earnest.

Carpenter ants are a problem because they make their colony nesting grounds by boring through wood. The tunnels they carve compromise the structural integrity of wood products. Carpenter ants don’t actually eat the wood they infest. Instead, they have to hunt for sources of protein and sugar. You may find foragers in your kitchen, basement, or garden. Keep a close eye out for swarmers, in particular. If these flying ants get trapped in your home, chances are their nest is also inside your home.

Pavement ants

pavement antsUnfortunately, carpenter ants aren’t the only ants reproducing and foraging in the spring and summer. In late spring, the brief but very active pavement ant mating season begins. During this time, you may notice swarms of larger-than-average, reddish-black ants flying in large clusters. After mating, pavement ants lay eggs in tight crevices (hence their association with pavement, and the cracks in it). When young pavement ants emerge, they start looking for food almost immediately.

Pavement ants are most often encountered in groups in your kitchen. They break down and carry off all sorts of stored food, especially grains and sugars. When they find food, they tend to stick around. It’s not uncommon to find ants infesting cabinets, pantries, cupboards, and anywhere else they could find food. They’ll attack any scraps they can get their mandibles on. Unlike other pests on this list, they can stay active as long as they’re warm and they have food.

 

Spring should be a wonderful, refreshing time of year–especially after a brutal Michigan winter. Don’t let pests ruin that for you. If you need some help fighting back an infestation so you can enjoy the nice parts of spring again, give Griffin a call. We can deal with the dirty work so you can enjoy the rest.

Rainy Day Pests to Watch Out For

Rainy day pests to look out for

Rain is a welcome change of pace in spring time, especially since it helps push away the winter grey. As you might expect of any meteorological change, however, rain can also be disruptive. Spring is a already a transitional time of year. Flora and fauna are struggling to adapt to the changing season. When rain disrupts this process, it can create some awkward circumstances.

The most unwelcome of these awkward circumstances would have to be the pests. When rain disrupts their behavior, all kinds of pests may end up in places where they wouldn’t normally be. Places like your home. Here’s what to expect from pests after a long rain, why, and how to react.

Cockroaches

cockroachCockroaches need moisture and humidity to stay alive, so they’re naturally attracted to moist and humid places. The problem is, the moist and humid places where they naturally congregate also tend to be vulnerable to flooding. Millions of cockroaches live in sewers, gutters, or drain pipes. When we get heavy rainfall in the spring, these places flood. Flooding forces cockroaches out of their homes and into new places – like your home!

After periods of heavy rain, it’s common to find cockroaches in your kitchen, bathroom, or basement. These roaches are probably flooding refugees that snuck up your drains or through cracks in sills or frames. Once inside, roaches look for food, shelter, and moisture. They love to squeeze under tight hiding places like boxes and furniture, where they can hide until night time. Unfortunately, once cockroaches get inside, they’re in no hurry to leave. They’ll stick around as long as they have access to food and shelter.

Snakes

snakeSnakes tend to come out after rain for several reasons. First, most snakes naturally live close to water. When rainfall floods the banks of rivers and streams, the snakes are forced to seek higher (and drier) ground. Snakes also have to come out after rain to warm back up. As cold-blooded reptiles, snakes rely on sunlight to keep their internal body temperatures up. After days of clouds and rain, snakes get desperate to get warm.

Particularly severe rainy conditions may even force snakes into your home. As dry shelter becomes less and less available, snakes have to get creative if they want to survive. They’ll twist and contort themselves to fit through small cracks and crevices to enter basements and attics. They may even follow other pest-refugees while they’re hunting and stumble into your home inadvertently. Unlike cockroaches, snakes don’t typically stick around after the rain stops, but you might find them in your yard nearby.  

Spiders

spiderFor most pests, heavy rainfall is a nuisance. While it can be a nuisance for spiders, too, it can also be an opportunity. The busiest insect hunters in the world aren’t about to stop their grind for a little rain. After all, the itsy bitsy spider wins out in the end, even in the nursery rhyme. They go where their prey goes, no matter what. That means, when it rains, they’ll follow their prey into your home.

Spiders want to build their webs wherever they think they can catch prey. They’ll find the places where other pests get into your home – window sills, baseboard cracks, etc. – and set up shop there. Often times, spiders already living nearby during rain will move inside to follow prospective prey. Other times, their homes will get wiped out by flooding, just like their prey. Either way, expect to see more spider activity when it rains.

Termites

TermitesEveryone knows termites eat wood. What fewer people know is, ironically, termites are more attracted to moisture than they are to wood. When you think about it, it makes sense: eating wood has to be thirsty work. Termites need moisture to survive, just like everything else. If they get too dried out while they’re munching away at wood, they’ll die. Termites prefer to strike at wet food, so they can keep hydrated while they work.

Obviously, all wood is wet when it’s getting rained on. During rainy periods, termites may seize the opportunity to attack wood sources that are normally dry. The wetter the wood, the easier it is for termites to chew through it. Rain is a great deal for termites–as long as they can survive it. Just like other pests, termites can easily drown in flooding. They may also target wood that lets them avoid this danger.

 

We know this is probably kind of a bummer. You were just looking forward to being done with winter, and now you have all this to worry about? Maybe April really is the cruelest month! Well, the good new is you don’t have to deal with it alone.

Give Griffin Pest Solutions a call any time you’re worried about a pest infestation. We can make sure your home stay pest-proof this spring and beyond. Rain or shine, Griffin has your back.

Do April Showers Bring Pest Problems?

Tulips in rain

April showers bring May flowers… but unfortunately, that’s not all they bring. As winter finally breaks and the world starts coming back to life, bugs and other pests are waking up, too. Just like everybody else, pests don’t love getting stuck out in the rain. They don’t even get tiny pest-umbrellas (how cute would that be?).

If given the opportunity, roaches, ants, termites, and similar pests will be all too happy to enjoy staying dry inside your home. When the rain starts coming down, pests flock to easy cover so they can stay warm and dry until the sun comes back out. Here are a couple easy things you can do to prevent pests from ruining your rainy day.

Leaves in a gutter

Clear Out Roof and Rain Gutters

Rain and roof gutters direct fallen rain water away from your home, keeping it from building up and causing leaks or structural damage. The problem is, spring tends to generate a lot of natural outdoor debris. If dead leaves, trash, twigs, and other random material gets caught in your gutters, the water that falls into them won’t flow as well.

If too much water builds in your gutters, it can overflow, causing either leaks in your home or a buildup of water and moisture around your house. Runoff and other moisture attracts all kinds of pests, who are looking for a free drink or a place to lay eggs. Mosquitos in particular swarm around puddles and runoff, and they’re the worst. To prevent this possible problem, just clear out your gutters before and after a rain. If you want to make sure they’re working, you can pour a bucket of water into them and see what happens.

Windows rained on in sunlight

Check Door and Window Sealing

Weaterstripping is easy to forget about, but door and window thresholds are probably the #1 way pests get into houses. Even worse, if there are gaps in your window or door sealing, water could leak in through them. Bugs will come by for a quick drink and discover an easy way in.

Inspect your doors and windows’ thresholds closely. If you can see light coming through underneath the door or window sealing, it means there’s a gap there big enough for pests to work their way through. Luckily, replacing weather sealing is a relatively simple and quick project. If you notice a problem afterward, you may want to consider making sure the door or window sits right in its frame.

Puddle on concrete

Watch for Puddles

Puddles can accumulate in a house when it rains for a lot of reasons. You could have leaks in your roof, siding, window frames, or foundation. Sinkholes or soft ground may form in your lawn. You might not have a sump pump.

Whatever the reason, make sure rainwater isn’t collecting in your basement, attic, crawlspace, or anywhere else. Puddles attract pests like crazy. Mop up puddles with soapy water as you encounter them, but make sure you find and fix the source of the problem too. Eventually, puddling can be a significant problem for your home’s structural integrity, so if you keep having this problem consider having a sump pump installed.

Hand wiping condensation off of window

Control Condensation

Rain means humidity, and humidity means condensation. After a long rain or during a particularly muggy day, you may notice your windows start to “sweat” with condensation. It might feel futile, but it’s worth wiping this condensation away as it accumulates. Condensation may not seem like much water, but it’s just enough to keep pests coming back.

Window and pipe condensation is usually a sign that your home is more humid than it should be, which is the #1 thing pests look for in a shelter. Look for drafts, moisture, or any other reasons why your rooms aren’t as dry as they should be. If the problem persists, consider investing in a dehumidifier or getting your HVAC inspected. Not only will managing humidity help keep pests out, it’ll make your home a lot more comfortable too!

 

Pests can put a real damper on your enjoyment of early spring, but they don’t have to! Following a few simple steps like these and taking common sense prevention measures will keep pests out, no matter how desperate they are to escape the rain.

If pests are already raining on your parade, you could also give us a call today. Griffin’s customized pest solutions will help ensure that pests get out and stay out, so you can go back to enjoying your spring.