Winter Pest Control Tips For Homeowners

Now that the cold weather is just around the corner, it is time to think about your home's winter pest control needs. Many birds, rodents, and insects spend time in the fall looking for warm and dry areas where they can nest and your home is a prime location for them.

As pests try to gain entry into your nice warm and dry residence, they can cause a lot of expensive damage. To prevent this, it's important to spend some time each fall inspecting your home for pests and eliminating any problems you discover.

If this is the first year of living in a new home or if you aren't sure where to start your winter pest control efforts, then these tips will help.

Tip: Secure Your Basement and Attic Vents

While you should never completely seal off the vents leading into your attic or basement because they serve an important purpose, it is important you inspect each of them and make sure they are covered with protective mesh screens. The screens are there to keep birds and other pests out of these spaces. If the screens come loose or fall off, then it opens up your home to many different types of pest infestations.

Tip: Seal Up All Windows and Doors

Every fall it is important you walk around your home with a caulking gun and a roll of self-adhesive insulating foam tape. Any cracks or creases you find in walls, around windows, or around doors should be filled with silicone caulk. Gaps between windows or doors and their sills should be sealed with the self-adhesive insulating foam tape. Not only will this process make your home more energy efficient, but it will also help keep out insects and rodents.

Tip: Move or Remove Excessive Sources of Cellulose

Though you may like having your firewood piles near your home because then you don't have to lug the heavy pieces so far to your wood stove, wood piles and other sources of lots of cellulose fibers attract termites. In areas with termite problems, they can cause thousands of dollars in damage if they create a colony in your home. Additionally, all of the void areas in wood piles are attractive winter homes for rodents and snakes.

By moving your woodpile away from your home and removing any other sources of cellulose fibers such as dead weeds or downed leaves, you can help prevent termite infestations in your home and encourage snakes and rodents to live elsewhere this winter.

Tip: Have Your Home Professionally Inspected

Finally, if you have not had a professional pest inspection performed on your home in the past year or two, then now is the perfect time to do so. A pest control technician will know all of the hidden places where pests like to hunker down for winter and can remediate any problems they find.

For additional information, reach out to companies like Environmental Services Pest Control.


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