How to Keep Heat-Seeking Pests from Entering Your Home This Fall & Winter

As the warm weather begins to ease up in Memphis and North Mississippi, you aren’t the only one cleaning up and considering fall and winter tasks.

Pests and rodents are on the move. They don’t just dilly-dally; they are on a mission. As the cooler temperatures arrive, pests take it as a sign that they must seek shelter. And they’re not picky about where they find their shelter either. That makes your home fair game.

And you want to make sure you do what you can to keep these pests out.

• Pests That Enter Homes in Cold Weather
• Reduce Conditions That Encourage Pest Infestations
• Eliminate Entry Points
• Create a Barrier of Defense
• Hiring a Pest Control Professional

Let’s discuss pests that enter homes in cold weather and how to keep them out of your house in Memphis and North Mississippi.

Pests That Enter Homes in Cold Weather

In Memphis and North Mississippi, we see our first home pest invaders when nighttime lows sink to temperatures in the 40- to 50-degree Fahrenheit range. When lows sink to the 30s, rodents like mice can begin entering homes.

Some of the worst ones for this area include:

Mice & Rats

Rodents don’t do well in colder temperatures without some form of shelter. This ensures they can stay warm and have babies, another problem you don’t want in your home, garage, basement, attic, and elsewhere.

They are also looking for something we’re all after daily: food. Mice can smell food from a distance, and your home cooking and pantry staples are better than anything they have outdoors.

Rodents only need a small space to squeeze into, and then they’re in. Your job is to find a way to get them out.  

Lady Beetles, Kudzu Bugs & Stink Bugs

Lady Beetles, stink bugs, and kudzu bugs may seem harmless. These pests may cause little damage to your home or raid your pantry, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a nuisance.

As the weather cools, they look for entries into your home to find shelter and warmth. And they enter in numbers and then multiply.

Roaches

Cockroaches invade your home and make your personal spaces their own. They are dirty, move fast, and multiply like crazy. The thought of cockroaches near your food or personal space can give you nightmares.

Ants

The tricky thing about ants is that they can show up without warning … and never come alone.

Before you know it, you have a full-on ant problem. They are typically attracted to sugars, crumbs, and uncovered foods.

Keeping a tidy home and landscape helps to discourage ant infestations by removing the sources of food they're looking for.  

How to Keep Pests Out of Your House

For example, you might be looking for a bigger home for your growing family, something in a better neighborhood, or something nearer to your child’s school, but insects are also out searching.

They crave the safety, security, warmth, and pantry full of food you have. And they don’t ask permission to steal a corner of your basement or nest in your walls.

Here’s how to keep pests out of your house as the weather gets cooler to avoid bigger infestation problems.

Reduce Conditions That Encourage Pest Infestations

To insects or mice, imagine how good your home smells and feels. Fresh food, water, and crumbs – it’s like a smorgasbord.

This is made worse if food is continually left out or spills aren’t cleaned up, this is a bigger draw for bugs.

So, one way to keep pests out of your house is to keep it clean. Clean crumbs and spills off floors; store all food in sealed plastic containers, including pet or bird food, and take the trash out regularly, keeping it in a sealed lid.

Since bugs naturally come in from the outdoors, hanging out most in piles of debris, there’s work to be done outside, too. Rake and trim leaf, branch and twig piles and overgrown plants. Also, move any firewood stacks to areas at least 20 feet from your home.

Eliminate Entry Points

To keep pests out of your house, you can also make sure bug superhighways into your home aren’t left wide open.

Sealing any cracks or crevices around your foundations, windows, basement, siding, and insulation can keep bugs outdoors where they belong.

A professional pest inspection can help uncover these entry points, ensuring your pest control plan effectively targets the areas of your home that most need treatment.

Create a Barrier of Defense

In addition to the tips above, outdoors, a perimeter pest control treatment can help prevent pests from entering your home in cold weather.

These applications last approximately three months and ensure nothing gets through, particularly as temperatures drop and pests seek shelter and when temperatures rise again in spring and pest activity increases.

Hiring a Pest Control Professional

The best way to keep pests at bay is to embrace professional pest control.

For instance, Lawn & Pest Solutions offers a Pest 360 service that keeps a barrier of defense outside your home and ensures a technician is on-site at least once every three months. You remain on call with your pest professional should pests come inside.

That technician can then come inside to care for the problem at no additional cost.

Preventing Common Household Pests in Memphis and North Mississippi

As the weather gets colder and you know pests will be more mobile as they seek shelter and safety, keeping rodents, ladybugs, stink bugs, roaches, and ants out of your home is admirable.

We understand if you’re busy and don’t have time to inspect all the corners and crevices. Life gets busy.

Hiring a service for professional pest control in Memphis and North Mississippi can help.

A pest control technician will conduct a general pest inspection and look for common entry points. Since they always see pests, they know exactly where to look. They can even alert you to problem areas. After that, they can do a perimeter pest control treatment that acts as a barrier to keep bugs out.

Signing up for a recurring service that includes inspections, any necessary treatments, or replenishing this barrier is important. This means a professional checks for pests regularly, which can be a good feeling, keeping your worries at bay. Your pest barrier is only as good as its weakest spot, so keeping that treatment up regularly means pests can’t sneak through.

Noticing any pests in your home? Want to learn more about our pest control services in Memphis and North Mississippi? Get started today with a free quote. We’ll review your options together so you can make a great choice. Then you can just sit back and enjoy your home -- without the unwanted visitors.