Whose Wintering In Your Home?

When the weather outside gets frightful, many pests seek a warm place to spend the winter. Unfortunately, your home often becomes an attractive winter vacation destination. Knowing what type of pests are trying to move in and where to find them will give you places to start looking for them. Here are a few invaders you may need your local pest control company to evict. 

Mice

Mice are one of the most common pests that can cause a lot of damage, no matter where you live. Contrary to popular belief, mice do not hibernate during the winter but spend the winter foraging for food and bearing their young. 

When mice move into your home, you often find them in your crawl spaces, wall voids, or attics. Once inside, they pose a wide variety of safety and health hazards. These hazards are because mice will gnaw on almost anything and everything. They will damage your support beams, electrical wiring, sheetrock, insulation, and PVC pipes. Any of this damage can be costly.

Mice can affect your and your family's health. They can contaminate your food with their saliva and waste droppings. Their saliva and urine are also known to trigger asthma attacks. They can carry diseases such as Salmonella and Hantavirus. 

Squirrels

The cute little critters you have enjoyed throughout the summer are not as cute when they invade your attic, chimney, or walls. Squirrels will often enter your home through small holes and damaged areas. They will use tree limbs to reach your roof and attic openings. They will even chew their way in but often cannot find their way back out. 

Like mice, squirrels will also chew on your insulation and wiring. They will make their nest to raise their young and leave behind urine and feces. You often discover squirrels in your home when you investigate unusual noises, begin seeing damaged wiring, or smell unidentified odors. 

Spiders

One winter guest you will never hear and may only see once it is too late is the spiders that choose to winter in your home. One of the most dangerous species is the brown recluse spider. 

You often find these spiders in dark, under-used areas of your home. These locations can be in the bottom of closets, in shoes, bedding, or decorations that you store in cardboard or plastic containers. 

It is easy to identify a brown recluse spider by the violin-shaped mark on its back. While it is poisonous, it is not aggressive unless it feels threatened.

Do not spend the winter with unwanted guests. Call your local pest control company and have your home inspected and treated against winter invaders. 

Share