From Thanksgiving through New Year, your home is a veritable whirlwind of extra food stuffed into pantries, boxes pulled from basements and attics, and doors swinging wide to guests. At the exact time you hope to avoid the call of the wild. This means the unpredictable winter weather in Indianapolis drives hordes of mice, cockroaches, and spiders indoors.
You definitely do not want mouse poop on your stovetop or spiders coming out from the boxes where ornaments are stored when you are preparing a family dinner or hanging up your tree. Indianapolis homeowners tend to concentrate on cleaning and dressing up but they forget about the pest vulnerabilities that the holiday preparations expose them to. Implementing some preventative measures now and seeking professional advice from pointepestcontrol.net before the holiday season kicks in helps keep your festivities pest-free and hassle-free.
Why Pest Control Belongs on Your Holiday Prep List?
Holiday preparations invite pests indoors without even trying. Decorations that have been sitting dark in basements and attics, where spiders, silverfish, and even mice have made their homes all year long.
There could be insects hiding out in your Christmas tree that wake up when you bring them into your warm house. Packages left on porches and food deliveries provide a temporary home for rats. Cooking raises the levels of moisture in indoor places, which cockroaches and silverfish adore.
Pre-Holiday Decluttering: The First Line of Defense
- Use a vacuum to thoroughly clean behind kitchen appliances where crumbs and grease build up, especially under the stove and fridge.
- Separate out moth-infested flour, cereal, and baking ingredients from the pantry, where they must be air-tight and disposed of in sealed bins to keep fall pantries neat.
- Thoroughly clean under furniture and along edges where dust and debris provide hiding places for spiders and silverfish.
- Eliminate cardboard storage from your house and replace it with sealed plastic bins, as cockroaches and silverfish consume the glue in cardboard and use boxes as harborage
- Get rid of clutter in basements and garages, where pests hide, and create clear areas around the perimeter of your home, where you can see pest activity.
Inspecting Decorations Before You Deck the Halls
Your holiday decorations are prime winter real estate for bugs looking to overwinter. Instead of opening ornament boxes that have been stored in your basement since last January right in your living room, review them in a garage or utility area first. Check for spider egg sacs stuck to boxes, mouse droppings signaling rodent nesting nearby, and small holes in cardboard indicating insect activity.
Because real Christmas trees are often cut down at tree farms in Indiana, they may also carry pests like adelgids, aphids, and even praying mantis egg cases that can hatch in your cozy home. Shake them outside for several minutes, then check between branches for any unnatural lumps or growths.
Insects searching for food will be drawn to wreaths made of pinecones and dried berries. Mice use artificial trees kept in attics for nesting material. Spending just 15 minutes checking decorations outside your home will stop pests from being brought indoors at the busiest time of year.
Scheduling a Quick Pre-Holiday Pest Inspection
The week prior to Thanksgiving is perfect timing for a pest inspection, early enough to fix issues before guests arrive but late enough for treatments to remain effective through the New Year. In-house inspections alert you to vulnerabilities that you would miss due to distractions from thinking about menu planning and gift shopping.
Pointe Pest Control covers Indianapolis homes and knows the areas of your home that pests will enter, specifically during the winter months. It is examining the basements that housed holiday storage, up to attic spaces where the decorations were stored, around kitchen areas where holiday cooking takes place, and assessing exterior gaps where freezing temperatures allow pests to enter. Their inspections determine if there are active infestations that require immediate treatment or just vulnerabilities that need to be sealed.