Florida’s rainy season is typically pretty predictable. It arrives in early June and gives us often daily downpours through early October. But not this year. Rainy season arrived with a gully washer in early May, dropping up to 10 inches in some parts of Florida in a single weekend. As much as we might dislike dodging torrential downbursts, for pests it can destroy their homes and send them searching for somewhere high, dry and prime for invasion.
Mosquitos are just part of the problem.
Besides the obvious mosquitos who thrive on rainy season, many pests find it to be deadly. Hurricanes and tropical storms inevitably bring an uptick in calls to pest control companies as homeowners, office buildings, retails stores, and restaurants find invading hordes of roaches, ants, and rodents who have lost their outside habitats due to flooding.
Roaches can be particularly troublesome as there are three distinct kinds that call Florida home. The American Cockroach (also called a palmetto bug), the Oriental Cockroach, and the Australian Cockroach can enter homes and businesses not only through gaps under doors but also through open dryer vents and anywhere plumbing creates gaps where pipes enter the structure.
Termites love a rainy day.
Damp wood is an excellent source of food for termites. Plus, it’s the time of year that termites naturally swarm as the rains trigger them to fly and reproduce when the soil becomes moist enough. First, they breed, then they seek out a new home for their new nest, and then shed their wings. Unfortunately, they can be difficult to spot until they’ve caused real damage.
You can’t stop the rain, so what can you do?
There are some things you can do on your own to lessen the possibility of pest invasions. For termites, be sure to check the areas around a structure where humidity doesn’t dissipate as quickly, such as window frames around windows that drip condensation for most of the morning. You should also look for damp wood around leaking pipes, and exterior wood damages by a malfunctioning gutter, or damage from a leaky roof. Fixing any issues, you see now will help make the structure less appealing to a swarm of termites looking for the ideal place to nest.
Make sure there is no standing water around your home or business to help reduce the number of mosquitos. If you have a bird bath, be sure to empty and replace the water daily so termite larvae can’t hatch. You should also avoid feeding times of early morning and early dusk when mosquitos are most active and looking for a meal.
The best advice? Be prepared for rainy season by treating pest invasion before it occurs.
A quarterly pest control service can make your home or business far less tempting to pests of all kinds. Not only are pest control professionals trained to spot the invasion before you do, they can alert you to areas that might be ripe for infestation, such as a gap in the garage door seal or if they suspect insects are entering via dryer vents without cages or flaps on them.
A pest control professional is trained to spot invaders before you do.
With a trained eye, they can see signs like access points for termites or evidence of cockroaches long before you do and eliminate the problem before it becomes a bigger one requiring a costlier solution. Why is that important? Because pests can pose real health risks. Some of the most common pests, including cockroaches, rodents, ticks, and mosquitos can carry deadly and debilitating diseases.
Florida restaurants have an especially hard time controlling pests during rainy season as is evidenced by the increase in emergency closures, especially after major rain events like tropical storms or hurricanes. Food prep areas are smorgasbords for a wide variety of pests, offering
damp and dark places, wet areas, food scraps, and other enticements that can lure a wide variety pests.
Have your home or business treated for pests inside and out each quarter.
Quarterly pest control provides a one-two punch on invading pests. First, a review of the outside will reveal any termite entry, while also allowing your pest control professional to remove wasp nests, mud daubers, and spider webs. Inside, they’ll be treating to eliminate any of those pests who make it through the first outside line of defense. It’s important to treat both areas on a quarterly basis all year round will help keep pests at bay both when conditions are the most enticing and all through the year.
Most pest control companies offer free termite inspections.
A local pest control company like St. Petersburg, Florida-based Regional Termite & Pest Control offers free termite inspections and can offer solutions based on what they find. Serving the greater Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Ocala and their surrounding areas, Regional Termite & Pest Control offers both annual and quarterly pest control services for homes, offices, hotels, restaurants, retail shops, and health care practices to name a few.
