Everyone – including the pests that will be invading your homes for the next few months, making your lives miserable!

They have been hibernating all winter, just like the bears. Their metabolism slowed down along with their reproductive systems and they are now emerging, hungry. They need to build new nests to lay eggs and if they are not stopped, they will take over your home.

Most of the pests like ants, roaches and mosquitoes are easy to see and deal with. The unseen ones that lie dormant in our soft furnishings and carpets are fleas. Even if you don’t have pets, if the flea infestation in your neighborhood is big enough, they will enter your home, brought in by YOU.

Walking through long grass talking a short cut home, they will cling to your socks or stockings and will be deposited into the carpet where they will lay thousands of eggs and you will spend the entire summer scratching your skin to pieces.

Your entire home should be inspected before the warm weather begins, and that includes your pets.

Now that you have cleaned your house thoroughly, you need to deal with the other pests who think they are going to the Ritz for the summer.

Ants. A small word, for a small creature, that can get in through cracks that you can’t even see. The first thing to do is make sure you don’t have anything growing against the house. Soil is heavenly for making ant nests and once made, they are a devil to get rid of. Have a six-inch or wider cement path against the house – all the way around to separate the garden from the wall. Make sure it is slanted downward away from the house to keep damp from forming.

Then get yourself a large container of ready-made Poly filler and fill in all the cracks under windowsills outside, around inlet pipes, and make sure all drains are covered over, outside. Do the same inside the house. Check the surrounds of all the windows, windowsills, outlet pipes and along the skirting boards throughout the house.

You will find over time, the wooden skirting tends to pull away from the walls. Even those around the ceilings tend to leave gaps particularly with the widely differing temperatures causing materials to expand and contract. 

These are all gateways and open invitations to the roach!

Roaches are traditionally seen as ‘dirty’ creatures as they inhabit drains and dustbins and sewerage pipes and tunnels. They are certainly the hardiest of all the creatures and multiply by the thousand, at the drop of a hat – or the rise of temperature. They love warm, dark and damp places and your kitchen and bathroom are Club Med. 

It doesn’t mean you are a bad housekeeper or have a dirty house, they will fly into any home that has an opening, so screens on all doors and windows, drains kept closed, food put away into the fridge and dustbins kept clean and empty will keep these horrible pests out. A well-ventilated bathroom, too will keep it nicely cool and uninviting!

Spring is when one can push the ‘reset’ button and get stuck in to enjoy the coming summer. But suddenly, you are confronted with a new set of nasties. The plant-eating worms and beetles that devastate the new buds. The aphids, red-spider mites, snails, scale insects, coddling moths, thrip and white moth – all of which are there, to wreak havoc on your carefully-tended garden.

But that is a whole different set of remedies that will be dealt with in another post. 

To get back to making our home safe, for our family and pets. There are still a few things that can be done.

Those screens will keep out mosquitoes – also make sure you don’t have pools of stagnant water on your property – mosquito-breeder’s paradise! Flies, if allowed in, will lay eggs and you will be confronted with the horrifying sci-fi image of maggots by the thousand on the kitchen floor!

Wasps are particularly dangerous. They can sting more than once without dying – unlike bees. They like building their nests under the eaves of the roof where it is sheltered and private.

Use a powerful hose end sprayer filled with lots of soapy water – dish washing liquid is best after the nest has been professionally treated and eliminated.

Alliance Pest Services offers a wide variety of pest programs and wild life removal services, including bat removal services. Catch any developing pest problems early on to ensure that they don’t develop into a major pest problem in the summer months.