Keep Pests Out During Rainy Season

Monsoon season is coming! Throughout Southeast Asia, the monsoon season generally starts in May or June, reaching a fever pitch between August and October then tapering off by November. Rain and overcast skies mark the weather throughout the monsoon season. When it rains, insects face many life-threatening risks such as drowning, losing their food sources and homes, and being washed away in the current. Due to this, they will attempt to look for dry shelter. Unfortunately, when they find food and a place to nest in your home or premises, they’ll probably stay and could spread quickly. That’s one way an infestation can form. These pests are skilled at finding higher, drier ground for an emergency shelter that can lead to infestations anywhere from your attic to your kitchen cabinets. So, you should know which pests may invade the warmth and peace of your house or premise after a big rain shower. The most common type of pests that comes inside during the rainy season are these bugs:

• Ants
• Cockroaches
• Spiders
• Millipedes
• Mosquitoes
• Termites

Make sure your house isn’t their destination with these easy tips:

1. Reinforce Your Doors
2. Close Any Opening
3. Repair Damaged Window Screen
4. Keep Up with Trash
5. Keep Wood Dry
6. Use Yellow Light Bulbs
7. Pest Control Treatments

Reinforce Your Doors

The best way to prevent unwanted pests from entering your home during the rainy season is to put up barricades around all your doors. Keep in mind, if air can pass through your doors, bugs can get in. Make a point to reinforce your door sweeps and use door seals to fill the gap around the sides and top of each door in your home. Cockroaches often live in sewers, drains and other wet locations because of their need for moisture. Like ants’ burrows, these locations are prone to flooding during storms.

Roaches can be an even more dangerous intruder than ants. These pests are resilient and stealthy, hiding in pantries and usually scavenging at night. And they can find plenty of moisture in bathrooms, basements and crawl spaces, where they’ll be happy to stay, even after the rain dries up. The bottom line is, seal off pest entry points.

Close Any Opening

Any opening at the exterior of your home can be used as an entry point for pests. Thoroughly inspect your home, and use caulk to shut off any cracks you find. This is the simplest and often most effective way to keep pests out. Make sure to repair your screens as needed so bugs can’t creep through holes or worn out corners. Ants often resort to hiding in homes and buildings, entering through cracks in the walls or under a garage door that doesn’t fully close. Once they’re in, they’ll start searching for food until the soil dries enough to rebuild their nests.

It’s especially important to make sure your home has no holes, crevices or cracks that could let ants and other tiny pests get in when it rains. Do a careful inspection of your house’s exterior walls and seal any openings before bugs find them. You may see cracks and gaps as something too small to bother with but it’s a bigger deal than it looks. Tiny bugs, most especially termites, will use this opportunity to find food, shelter, and warmth inside your house. Beware that they may stick around if they find easy sources of food in your place.

If you leave such access points during the wet season, you will be considered a volunteer to adopt a variety of pesky critters. Save yourself from the trouble in the long run by repairing cracks and sealing the gaps on your walls and foundation.

Repair Damaged Window Screens

One of the most effective ways to keep your home bug-free this summer is to ensure your screens are intact. Make sure to replace any broken screens, so insects are not able to squeeze through the holes and cracks to seek refuge inside your home. People coming in and out of the house means doors are constantly opened, and you may often want to open the window to let air circulate. Yet, these normal actions can provide opportunities for pests such as mosquitoes, beetles, and other insects to enter your home.

High rainfall can cause widespread flooding and stagnant water can be a breeding ground for all sorts of bacteria as well as mosquitoes, increasing the transmission of several communicable diseases. You can install screens or window nets on your windows and doors, and repair loose edges to keep the little pests from coming in.

Keep Wood Dry

Damp wood is known as an excellent source of food for termites, which is why it’s vital to dry wood out as much as possible between storms. There will still be types of termites that will most likely come for its demise. Keep all wooden items in clean and dry spaces. Apply eco-friendly pesticide if possible, to further discourage termites from coming in. Keep bushes and trees trimmed and away from your premise’s exterior. More rains mean more pools of standing water, where mosquitoes can breed.

Cases of mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever proliferate throughout the monsoon season (DOH, 2019). Make sure you clear out stagnant water from your surroundings before it can attract disease-causing mosquitoes.

Keep Up with Trash

Food is a huge attractant for all pests. To keep pests away from your home this summer, it’s essential to clean out the garbage around your house to avoid luring unwanted pests towards your home. Garbage kept in the home for long periods poses more health hazards than just inviting insects and rodents. Thus, it is important to properly store and clear out the garbage in and around your home. All trash bins inside the house should be emptied every day or every other day. All garbage bins outside the home must have a lid.

Spend some time clearing the clutter around your premise too. Debris and litter can accumulate in your garden or yard and give pests more places to hide. If you want to keep bugs and rodents far away from your home, you can start by work on forming a habit of cleaning up after each meal so bugs won’t find any spills, crumbs or dirty dishes to feed on. Wipe counters and vacuum floors as often as possible. Clean up spills immediately and cleaning the drains occasionally is a good way to avoid attracting roaches after it rains.

By organizing general clutter in your storage rooms, attic and basement, you can reduce the number of hiding and nesting places for pests. Don’t leave pet food out. Any food out in the open is fair game. Keep opened goods in sealed containers or inside the refrigerator so as not to be mistaken as a food offering.

Use Yellow Light Bulbs

It’s no secret that insects are attracted to light. One way to keep bugs away is to turn your exterior lights off at night. Also, industry experts have found that changing your bulbs from white to yellow can help keep pests away because they are harder for them to see.

Pest Control Treatments

Keeping your house protected during monsoon season can be tricky. Don’t give the pests any chance to move in with you! The wonderful rains also bring along with themselves a host of monsoon or rainy season pests such as mosquitoes and other bugs of various kinds. These are not just irritating but can also cause a host of diseases. This is why it is important to get rid of them.

You don’t want to wait until pests have made their home in your house to take action against them. You must protect your space through proper cleaning, pest prevention practices and pest control treatment. ATALIAN provides effective solutions for you to get rid of these pesky insects from your premise for good. Reach us now for more details on pest control solutions.