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Most people don’t have the time to asses everything around their home to see if they could be doing something to be breeding pests. Pests in Alabama are just like pests anywhere except that the humid and warm environment during the summer and spring make it ideal for them to thrive.
Something as simple as a wood pile too close to your home can can create a pest problem
It’s obvious to most homeowners to not leave food debris and spills for pests to feed off of. But what about things that aren’t so obvious that you might be doing to encourage pests. In Alabama, we have more warm humid months than we do cold winter months. This makes pest season virtually year around.
So what can we do to around our homes to discourage pests from moving in with us? Here’s a short list I’ve compiled that I think will be most helpful.
1 Keep an eye on the kids (or adults that act like kids) when it comes to eating inside the home.
I have a customer in Homewood who is in a constant struggle between her four kids and her husband to not eat on the couch, in the bedrooms, living room or anywhere else food can find it’s way onto the floor or in the crack of a piece of furniture. Pests will find their way inside and if you’re feeding them, they don’t have an incentive to leave.
2 Look out for wide open spaces.
They actually don’t have to be that wide open but that’s how most pests view little cracks around doors and windows that can be a huge entry point into your home. You don’t have to do anything drastic such as replace them but you can use things such as expanding foam (use it sparingly, it will make a mess) or weather stripping. Most homeowners are under the impression that their home is sealed from the outside. Not true. There’s plenty of cracks and crevices.
3 Keep the brush back
The more vegetation that you have up against your home, the greater the likely hood of pests finding their way inside. Try to at least trim it back to keep it from touching doors and windows.
4 Be careful of what you bring into your home
Pests don’t always come from the outside on their own. They can also be hitchhikers. Ants can be brought in with potted plants. Roaches can be brought in with boxes. Indian mill moths and beetles can be brought in with food items. You can’t always tell but inspect those items regularly.
My name is Greg with ETX Pest Management. Please call or text me @ 205-223-9460 or click here to find out about our four step initial service and how we help our customers to be pest free year around of pests in Alabama. I service select areas of Jefferson and Shelby County areas such as Hoover, Homewood, Vestavia, Pelham, Helena and Alabaster.
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Sawtooth grain beetles found in rice.
Over the years I have many customers who tell me they’ve started seeing very small insects inside their pantry. They sometimes think that they may be coming from another part of the kitchen or outside.
Many times I’ve identified them as sawtooth grain beetles. These are known as stored product pests. They infest food at some point between the packaging facility and the arrival to your pantry.
You’ll find them in grain products such as rice and cereal. If it goes untreated they’ll infest other food items in your pantry that are unsealed.
I once had a customer in Hoover who had a massive infestation of sawtooth grain beetles and could not figure out where they were coming from. After I had inspected her kitchen and pantry, I was baffled myself. Sawtooth grain beetles are often found at the source which is usually in the pantry.
Her pantry had been cleaned out and her infested food items were disposed of and other food items were sealed. It turns out that behind her pantry was a closet area that was adjacent to a storage room where she had kept corn for the purposes of feeding wild life near hear home.
The corn had been stored in that location for several months and forgotten about. It turns out that there were massive amounts of sawtooth grain beetles that had multiplied because the feeding conditions and habitat were right.
They were making their way into her pantry and that was causing a greater problem in the pantry of her kitchen.
If this problem presents itself, inspect all of the packaged food items in your pantry especially those that are already opened. Dispose of those that are infested and seal up others in air tight containers.
Here’s a short video about sawtooth grain beetles that I created a while back: sawtooth grain beetles video
My name is Greg with ETX Pest Management. Please call or text me @ 205-223-9460 or click here to find out about our four step initial service and how we help our customers to be pest free year around. I service select areas of Jefferson and Shelby County areas such as Hoover, Homewood, Vestavia, Pelham, Helena and Alabaster.