Spring is a great time to inspect your home for wintertime invasion of pests of all kinds. During the winter your home was an inviting place for critters to find warmth, food and water. Now that it’s springtime they may be planning to make your home their permanent residence, make a family and even invite friends.
Common Northwest Pests include; carpenter ants, wasps, hornets, spiders, raccoons, rats, mice, bats …
Attached is a checklist guide to use to inspect your home. Should you find you need to hire a professional, please feel free to give me a call and I can help refer you to some reputable specialists.
Pest Inspection
Ants. Termites are not common to the Pacific NW. Carpenter ants, moisture, odorous house ants, sugar, argentine and pavement ants are. You may find them in their adult stage or their winged stages. Look for piles of fine wood (frass) and you may have found carpenter ants. Moisture ants are very small; their presence usually indicates a water source and may lead you to a leak. Another small ant is the sugar ant found in cabinets where food is available. Pavement ants are found at the margins of patios, foundations, driveways. You may note small mounds of dirt near a crack. Spraying adult ants is usually a waste of time and product, the only real way to treat ants is to get at the colony and kill all of them.
Bed Bugs Unfortunately bed bugs are becoming more common even in clean homes. Look for blood stains on bedding, red spots on your body. Check in the seams of beds, the critters can also hang out in the walls near beds where they find their hosts.
Bees, hornets, wasps, yellow jackets. Check your eaves for paper-like cones made by wasps and yellow jackets. Bees can make their hives inside the walls of the home or in trees or other structures near the home. Hornets often make their nests in the ground. Except for wasps and yellow jackets removal of these pests is best left to a professional.
Rodents; rats, mice can enter the home through very small entry points. Rats and mice are near-sighted so they tend to run along baseboards or backsplashes. Look for feces that appear like brown rice, the size of the feces is a clue to determining if you have rats or mice. Also look for rub spots on corners where they rub their fur. Attic spaces and crawl spaces should be inspected. Make sure all vents are properly installed and check for chewing marks.
Birds Swallows love to nest in eaves and small birds love perches where they can nest. All forms of birds can find your home inhabitable and usually require removal by a specialist who knows their unique habits.
Beetles, especially wood boring beetles can be very destructive and difficult to treat. Look for small bores in wood that is near or in contact with soil. The damage seen on the outside can be a small indicator of the damage inside posts and walls.
Spiders weave their webs and catch flying insects and therefore are generally useful in keeping the population of gnats and mosquitos down.
Raccoons and other large animals can enter through garages, gable vents and even through an inadvertently open door. Leaving the garage door open at night can invite many critters including coyotes and neighborhood dogs and cats.
This information is adapted from various sources and should not be relied upon as definitive or authoritative. Reader should seek professional advice before proceeding with any repairs.
