Cold Weather Means Cockroaches

As temperatures drop and days and nights get cooler, we all tend to spend more time indoors. Unfortunately, the same goes for outdoor pests. As winter approaches, you may notice that mice, roaches, and other unwelcome pests start moving into your home. How can you keep these unwanted roommates from cozying up with you?

Keep Roaches Out of Your Home

If you start seeing more cockroaches running across your floors, don’t assume it’s because your house is messy. More likely, they’re moving in because your house is warm and dry. Cockroaches can’t survive in freezing temperatures, so as the weather gets cooler, they’re motivated to seek warmth.

A roach scurrying across the floor may seem gross or frightening or just a nuisance, but it’s actually a sign of a problem that you need to solve. Roaches can spread germs and bacteria, and have been known to trigger allergies and asthma. Cockroaches in the home need to be removed immediately.

To prevent a roach infestation in your home this fall and winter, follow these guidelines:

1. Remove clutter. Cockroaches look for secure, dark places to live. To keep your home unappealing to these roommates, clean up old newspapers, empty boxes, and clear large piles of debris.


2. Hide the food. Don’t let roaches enjoy a buffet in your home. Throw away garbage, seal and store food, and rinse off plates in the sink. Roaches are especially attracted to alcohol and beer, so don’t leave out bottles or glasses.


3. Don’t let roaches come in. Now’s the time to fix cracks in windows, doors that don’t seal or gaps between bricks. Repair the splintered basement door and caulk pipes and other crevices.


4. Seal leaky pipes. Cockroaches can go a month without food, but they only survive a week without water. Don’t let them drink in your home. Fix any leaking pipes and clean up puddles of standing water.


5. Schedule year-round roach prevention. The best way to prevent an infestation is to make your home unattractive to roaches in the first place. Thompson Brothers Exterminating offers regular pest prevention services to ensure that cockroaches won’t want to come into your house in the first place. Call us before you see them to ensure that you won’t ever see them.



 
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Thompson Brothers Exterminating is available to handle the cockroach infestation that you have now, or to prevent the one that you never want to have. Contact us today for a no-obligation pest-control quote.