Seasonal Changes Bring Out Pests
Household pests like mice and ants affect many homes each year. Fortunately, a qualified exterminator can quickly rid your home of these and other nuisance pests. Identifying a potential problem quickly and contacting an exterminator to treat the pest problem can make it easier to rid your home of creatures that can infest your home.
An important part of identifying a pest problem early is remembering that seasonal changes bring out pests. Let’s take a look at how some of the most common pests can become more or less prevalent from season to season.
Mice
The common house mouse can be found in many homes and buildings. These mice are small, have a long tail and are usually feature dark grey fur on the back and lighter grey coloration on the belly. Mice pose a significant health risk to humans, and can also cause considerable damage. These pests have a habit of nibbling on a large variety of food items, plus they’ve been known to urinate on food. There are a number of parasites associated with mice, including ticks, tapeworm, mites and ringworm.
Warning signs of an infestation of mice include seeing mice in the building – especially if spotted during the day – and mouse droppings.
Mice are often found inside more commonly during the late fall and winter as they seek warmer places to survive the cold winter months. Keep a vigilant eye out at this time of year, and make sure that any gaps around your foundation are sealed and any other access ways to your home are closed off.
Ants
Ants are commonly found outdoors, but when they move inside, it is time to call an exterminator. There are several types of ants that are common pests in the Montreal area. These include carpenter ants, pharaoh ants and little black ants. Ants are often seen indoors during the spring and summer months.
Carpenter Ants
Carpenter ants are fairly large, ranging from 1/4 inch to 3/4 inch in length. These ants are usually black, but are sometimes feature some red coloring. Carpenter ants often nest in trees, logs and stumps, but will also nest in wooden structures like buildings and homes.
Carpenter ants can cause damage to a building over a period of years, and treating an infestation requires locating the nest. When these ants are spotted in buildings during the late winter or early spring it is likely that the nest is inside the building. When they are spotted inside a building during late spring or early summer the nest is probably outside and they are coming inside in search of food.
Pharaoh Ants
Pharaoh ants are small, and are usually light yellow to reddish-brown in color. These ants breed year-round, and will nest in small areas that are warm and dark. Pharaoh ants often forage for food near locations with water, like near washbasins, toilets and drains. These ants will often move toward artificial heat in the same way as mice, and seek out homes and businesses when the weather turns chilly. Even worse, a colony that’s established in a consistently warm place can continue to birth new ants year round.
Little Black Ants
Little black ants are tiny and are normally about 1/8 inch in length and, as you might guess, they are jet black in color. Household infestations of these ants are usually found in gaps along walls or at the edges of carpeting. Outdoor nests can be identified by the soil craters at the nest entrance – the commonly seen anthill that pops up in dirt driveways or between sidewalk cracks, for example. They tend to mate during the summer, meaning that new colonies can pop up quickly and expand during the warmer months of the year – including into your home.
Central Extermination has been meeting the pest control needs of our customers since 1980. Call us today at 514-722-2425 to learn more about our extermination services or to request a quote.
