PEST CONTROL:
Whether conditions in your area are hot and humid, cool and dry, or rainy with sudden downpours, your weather directly affects pests and their activities. These conditions prompt pests to invade your home to seek three very basic needs – food, water and shelter. Find out how your local weather is affecting your pest forecast this summer, then use our tips to help maintain a pest-free home!
Rainy, Wet Weather Pest Forecast: More pests may invade your home. You can expect an increase in the number of pests you see this summer, plus more invasions, as these larger populations seek food. Specific pests you should watch for include: ants, outdoor cockroaches, spiders, crickets, ladybugs, yellow jackets, hornets, mice and rats. Here’ s why:
• More moisture promotes pest reproduction and growth, so you have more insects! Ants, especially, reproduce in greater numbers in wet, warm climates.
• Additional pests mean a greater need for more food sources. Insects will continue to search beyond their normal habitats to find food.
• Invasions may occur as pests relocate to drier ground.
Excessive Rainfall and Flooding Pest Forecast: Ants and others retreat from flooded soil. Excessive rainfall over a short period of time will flood the soil and cause insects, especially ants, to seek dry ground. Some pests retreating from the unfavorable weather conditions will find shelter in the nearest location, which is often your home. Other facts to note:
• Ants can easily move an entire colony on short notice.
• Common areas that may become new homes overnight for ants are wall voids and under foundations.
• Excessive rain creates an abundance of ants, which increases the need for pest control services.
Dry Conditions Pest Forecast: Pests most likely will seek water in and around your home. Rain will create additional pest growth, while lack of rain promotes pest invasions. If you enjoyed a dry, cool spring, chances are pests may be fewer, but they will be relentless in their pursuit of moisture for survival. Dry conditions affect pests in the following ways:
• Lack of moisture outside drives pests inside homes to find water.
• During dry weather, ants, earwigs, millipedes, pill bugs and sow bugs, crickets and spiders are the most common pests to seek water indoors.
• Millipedes have been known to leave leaf litter, mulch or a lawn and move in migrations of thousands when their harborages dry out – inevitably invading homes that stand in their way.
Extreme Drought Pest Forecast: Fewer pests but more frequent visits. Fewer pests are one benefit of a dry spring and summer. Extended periods of dry weather or droughts will affect the food supply also eliminating some insects. Here’ s what you can expect:
• With a reduced food supply, scorpions and certain spiders must venture beyond their normal habitats in search of a food source.
• Pests may establish breeding sites and harborages in and around your home – in debris, bricks, rocks, firewood, etc.
Cool Weather Pest Forecast: Warmth indoors attracts pests into your living spaces. With cooler temperatures outside, pests seek the warmth and shelter of your home. Some pests you are likely to find invading your home to escape the cooler temperatures are box elder bugs, cluster flies, ladybugs and silverfish. Here’ s more about these pests:
• Occasional invaders, like overwintering pests, start moving indoors during late summer and early fall as the temperature drops.
• These pests like to use walls, voids and attics as their winter retreats.
• There isn’ t any way to totally pest-proof your home, but you can seal as many cracks and holes on the outside of your home as possible, especially on the south and west walls where the sun heats the home during the late summer and fall. Also, you should install tight-fitting screens on all foundation and attic vents.
PLUMBING:
Seasonal Tips for Winter The holidays are a time for family, friends and quite a few plumbing emergencies. A majority of Americans take part in holiday parties with 11 or more guests around Thanksgiving and Christmas. These extra guests put a serious strain on a home’ s plumbing system, which results in more emergency calls to plumbers.
Big holiday meals require a busy kitchen. Too much grease and food finds its way into the kitchen drain or disposer. Holiday guests also equate to extra showers and baths as well as lots of extra toilet flushes. It all adds up to potential plumbing disasters. Pipes clog because of a gradual buildup of grease, hair, soap and / or food particles. All it takes it one major overload, like a house full of guests, to exasperate the situation and create a clogged drain. Follow these tips to avoid a plumbing disaster.
In the kitchen:
• Avoid pouring fats or cooking oils down the drain because liquid fats solidify in the pipes and create clogs. Wipe congealed grease from pots.
• Never put hard-to-grind, stringy, fibrous waste into the garbage disposer( poultry skins, carrots, celery, pumpkin pulp or banana peels). The disposer can › t sufficiently grind these items and they will clog your sink drain.
• Run cold water down the drain for about 15 seconds before and after using the garbage disposer to flush waste down the main line.
• Turn on the disposer before adding food debris.
• Run the dishwasher and washing machine at night or at off times to conserve hot water and maintain adequate water pressure for your guests. In the bathroom:
• Plan ahead, spread out showers throughout the day; wait 10 minutes between showers rather than taking one right after another.
• Turn up the water heater slightly to retain hot water. To avoid scalding, do not exceed 125 ° F.
• If shower pressure is weak, pour a cup of vinegar into a plastic bag, place it over the shower head, and soak. Use a twist tie to hold it in place overnight. In the morning, remove the bag and use an old toothbrush to gently scrub off the mineral deposits to help restore water flow.
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