Pest Control and the Holidays

Pest control problems can can easily ruin your families holidays. This time of year could be a great time for a home pest inspection before guests come. Pest control professionals can help you identify potential pest problems in and around your home.

Here are some tips to keeping your home pest-free during the holidays.. and year round.

Leaving cookies for Santa or carrots for the reindeer? Keep them covered to prevent midnight insects.

1) Keep it Clean

Pantry pests are a common residential pest control problem all year long, but we may not be as careful to thoroughly close containers in the holiday rush. Weevils, moths, ants, rodents and beetles are happy to feed on any carbohydrate-heavy food, including rice, cereal and flour. To avoid drawing pests to your pantry, keep a tidy kitchen. After eating, immediately clean up any crumbs or spills, and store extra food in airtight containers. Finally, keep your pantry dry; like us, pests need water to survive.

2) Firewood Pest Prevention

For pests, firewood represents both shelter and food. You can more easily avoid firewood pest infestations by storing firewood off of the ground. Keep firewood more than twenty feet from your house. Proximity encourages infestations, as bugs tend to explore the area surrounding their homes, and firewood makes an excellent rodent and bug home.

3) Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Hitchhike Into Your Home

Bed bugs can be found at all levels of hotels across the nation, so don’t feel bad about protecting your home from bed bugs that may have hitchhiked in with holiday guests. Your guests may unknowingly bring bed bugs into your home on their luggage. Following the visit, wash clean linens in very hot water. Lastly, a box spring and mattress encasement is an excellent method of practicing bed bug residential pest control.

4) Christmas Tree Pest Prevention

Before you bring that beautiful store bought or live Christmas Tree into your home, carefully check them out, looking for spider webs. If you find webs, remove them immediately. You should also keep an eye out for live insects lurking in your tree. These pests can breed quickly in your home’s warm environment. Use these same home pest inspection methods when bringing fresh wreaths or garlands into your home.

5) What Lurking in Your Stored Decorations?

A variety of pests could have made your decorations their new home. Moths, nesting mice, silverfish and carpet beetles love to set up shop in storage containers. Not only do storage boxes provide a protected home for pests, but they also contain pest food in the form of organic materials like fabric and paper. Therefore, be very careful when unpacking stored holiday decorations. It may be wise to unpack your holiday decorations outside.