As the weather starts to warm up, critters of all kinds start coming out of the woodwork (sometimes literally) so if you need additional reasons for pest control in your Phoenix area home, here’s some information we think you’ll find useful.

Did you know?

• A female House cricket produces an average of 730 eggs and these eggs hatch in 2-3 months
• 1 queen fire ant can reproduce 1,600 new fire ant workers every day
• Arizona contends with the most ant species of any other state

How Pests Get Inside

They gain entry into your home easily as they are great at finding cracks around doors and windows or open spaces around cables or wires that were not properly sealed.  A tiny scorpion can fit through holes the size of a dime while ants and smaller creatures squeeze through much smaller holes. A good rule of thumb to follow is that if you can see daylight coming through any areas around your doors, windows or foundation, then pests will find their way into your home.

 Your Home is Inviting

Pests come into your home because they like the environment-there’s water, food and it’s warm. Your home is like a buffet to bugs with an unending source of food. Pests will often follow other pests; for example, scorpions and spiders feed on crickets so they often follow their food source into your house and then you have not 1 pest problem, but several.

But I Only See a Few. . .

These little creatures don’t need much space so they hide in little cracks and crevices and many times, you might not even know they’re there (at least not right away). A few roaches (or ants or crickets) can grow into a full-blown infestation very quickly. That’s why we recommend calling at the first sight of critters as if you can see 1 or 2, you can bet there’s many more you can’t see as your home is the perfect place for them to set up a nest and breed.

What Can I Do to Prevent This?

There are many things you can do to discourage pests from coming into your home and it starts with your yard. Weeds around your home are a great breeding ground for pests so use a weed emergent to kill weeds and keep them under control. Trim shrubs and plants so they aren’t touching your house and keep your grass cut low. Clean up dead plants, fallen branches and woodpiles and make sure you have no standing pools of water as water is like a beacon calling pests to the area.

 How to Discourage Pests from Entering Your Home

1. Eliminate debris like rocks, wood piles, etc. that pests can hide under during the day around your home, & several feet out
2. Repair any leaky pipes
3. Add door sweeps
4. Make sure weather stripping around your home is in good order
5. Screen vents around and on top of your home
6. Change exterior light bulbs to yellow bulbs, which are less attractive to many bugs
7. Make sure you’re not over watering
8. Fix broken watering system parts
9. Make sure all water on your property is draining and eliminate standing water
10. Trim all plants, and make sure they aren’t touching your house
11. Keep grass areas trimmed low
12. Clean up all food crumbs, spills, etc., in a timely manner
13. Seal all concrete expansion joints with calk
14. Calk all block fence “I” blocks
15. Prevent sewer roaches from coming up drains by using all drains regularly
16. Contact a pest prevention professional such as Bug Guardian for regular visits

Seal Up Your Home

Critters are small and do not need an invitation to come inside so do an inspection around your home to find any places where you can see daylight coming in as that’s their open door. These areas need to be sealed and standard caulking will do the job. There are also less obvious hiding places, such as the underside of the weep screed of your stucco siding- crickets like to live there because of the moisture.

We all look forward to warmer weather and unfortunately, so do the pests so that’s your reason for pest control in Phoenix.