How Important is Seasonal Pest Control

Tips For Preventative Pest Control

Have you heard the song Under Pressure? David Bowie and Freddie Mercury probably stayed in Sacramento at some point because that song perfectly describes our pest problems. Our yards are always under pressure. Tiny insects, small rodents, and mid-sized animals are continuingly encroaching. If you know what brings them into your yard, you can naturally deter them.

Garbage: An open trash receptacle is an open invitation. Pests can smell rotting organic matter from a distance. The odor is strong. While you don't like that smell, they do. Protect trash by putting covers on your containers. Avoid over-filling your receptacles, so your cover remains closed. Put trash to the curb each week to prevent your receptacles from stinking. If they develop an odor, clean them to remove that pest-attracting odor.

Nectar And Honeydew: While pests love stinky, gross things, they'll also enter your yard for sweet food sources, such as nectar and honeydew. They get nectar from flowers, and weeds can provide a plentiful source of flowers in your lawn. Address weeds to reduce this food source. Honeydew comes from aphids and other plant-damaging pests. Take steps to avoid problems with aphids, such as keeping plants healthy and applying yellow sticky traps in key areas. 

Lights: Insects are attracted to light. But lights are important for security and nighttime visibility and most Sacramento homes are lit at night. What can you do? We have two solutions that work well. You could replace exterior white lights with yellow lights. Insects can't detect yellow light, and this kind of lighting will not increase pest pressures in your yard. If you need the bright illumination provided by white lights, you could purchase motion-sensitive bulbs or fixtures. When you return home at night, the lights come on as you walk toward the door. The rest of the time, those lights stay off. 

Bugs: It is a bug-eat-bug world out there. When you reduce bugs, you reduce other bugs. You also reduce wildlife and rodent activity. One way to deter bugs is to keep your perimeter dry. We recommend cleaning gutters and repairing gutter breaks to prevent perimeter saturation. Remove unnecessary plants, weeds, and other vegetation from your landscaping. Trim bushes and ornamentals to allow for good airflow. Give your plants only the water they need. They only need ground moisture. In fact, damp conditions can lead to unhealthy plants.

Wood: Many pests climb between wood scraps, under wood sources, or tunnel inside wood. Dead branches are a big issue. Residents often collect dead branches and stack them in a pile on the ground. Doing so can attract a long list of pests, including termites. It is far better to store wood in a bin or on an elevated platform. Keeping the wood off the ground prevents direct access for termites and carpenter ants, and elevating wood makes it less ideal for animals to hide in.

Repairs: Every home develops entry points. You can work to keep pests out of your home by applying home improvement pest control. How does this work? Replace weatherstripping, door sweeps, and damaged screens. Repair rotted wood. Fix eaves and soffits. These repairs remove potential entry points for pests.  

Sanitation, yard work, and sealing entry points work to make your home resistant to all pests and are the foundation of natural home pest control. They work far better than DIY home pest control sprays, which only treat the symptom, not the source of your pest problems.   

Regular Pest Control Is Important In The Sacramento Region

Pest problems worsen at certain times of the year, though not nearly as much as they do in northern states. In spring and summer, mosquitoes, wasps, flies, and certain ant species kick into high gear. They take a bit of a break at the end of fall and through the winter when temperatures cool. Spring is a good time to consider the following preventative steps:

• Inspect your exterior and knock down any aerial wasp nests. These look like small paper blobs. Make sure to do this during the day when there are no visible wasps crawling on those starter nests.
• Do some spring cleaning in your yard to remove debris that can get damp and attract flies and other pests.
• If you have a dog, dog droppings in your yard can attract flies and provide a breeding site. Stay ahead of waste clean-up.
• Remove objects from your yard that collect rainwater. Stagnant water in your gutter system can provide a breeding site for mosquitoes.
• Clean your gutters out. Blockages in your gutter system can increase mosquito, and other pest, problems around your home.

In fall and winter, you'll likely see more spiders, roaches, and rodents. So, at the end of summer, it is time to start considering exclusions. Here are some tips:

• Knock down spider webs. A single web can have hundreds of unhatched spiderlings. Certain spiders create egg sacs in their webs, and these paper-like sacs can have as many as 300 eggs.
• Yard work is a strong deterrent for roaches. They love to hide underneath organic materials. Remove leaf and palm debris, dead branches, rocks, etc. 
• Rodents are deterred by removing debris in your yard as well. Mice and rats have poor eyesight and use ground objects to help them navigate. Along with removing yard clutter, apply exclusion work to keep rodents out of your home. Expanding foam is perfect for sealing voids, and a caulking gun can get cracks and holes. 
• Rodents get underneath structures. Applying hardware cloth can keep them out. The hardware cloth acts as fencing. Install it at least a foot below the surface of the ground to prevent rodents from burrowing under.
• Rodents are incredible climbers, and it is essential to keep them off your roof. There are vulnerabilities up there they can access. Trim tree branches away from your roofline, put wire mesh in the openings at the base of your gutter system, and install guards on pipes that climb up the sides of your home.

These extra tips will provide extra control in seasons when certain pests are more active. Your pest control service provider provides extra protection like this too. Let's take a quick look.  

Tackling Seasonal Pest Control

All year long, your service provider performs inspections and applies extra control when pest activity is detected. But some pests increase activity consistently during certain seasons. We mentioned some of them. HomeShield Pest Control takes these pests into consideration, and our home pest control services include coverage when pest pressures rise.

Mosquito Season: You don't have to worry when mosquito activity rises in early spring. Your service ramps up when these pests start to get busy.

Tick Season: Your pets will thank you for this service. When ticks start to move into your yard, routine treatments will stop them from getting on your dogs or cats and hitching a ride into your home.

Winter Rodents: While we're always addressing rodent activity in your yard, we know that rodent pressures increase when temperatures cool. Your technician stays ahead of those rodents.

While temperatures don't change drastically in the Sacramento Region, they change enough for pests to notice. It pays to have ongoing services and routine treatments to keep pests at bay.