Contrary to popular belief, bug problems often increase during fall & winter, especially when it comes to inside your home. As the weather cools and resources become scarce, bugs start moving indoors in search of food, water, and shelter. Thankfully, with a little know-how, you can enjoy a bug-free home this holiday season. Here are the most common fall & winter bugs and how to control them.
HOW TO PREVENT FALL & WINTER PESTS
- Periodically dusting, vacuuming, and deep cleaning is vital to controlling indoor bugs. Make sure to clean up food and drink spills right away and avoid leaving dirty dishes in the sink.
- Natural predators like birds can really help cut down on outdoor bugs, which will limit the indoor bugs you experience. Try installing baths or feeders to attract them to your lawn.
- Sealing your home might be the most important step you can take to prevent fall & winter bugs. If you haven’t already, carefully check the inside and outside of your home for potential entry points like cracks, holes, damaged weather stripping or seals, etc. Pay special attention to windows, doorways, baseboards, foundations, attics and basements. Seal or repair any holes you find using expanding foam, caulk, or another effective sealant. Having seals at the bottom of doors and garages is helpful, too.
- Limiting sources of light that attract bugs can help a great deal. Try swapping conventional outdoor light bulbs for those that don't attract bugs, such as yellow compact fluorescent lights (CFL), halogens, or sodium vapor bulbs.
- Treat your entire lawn monthly with non-toxic Natures Defender to kill & repel biting and damaging bugs in all stages of life.
- To prevent indoor bug problems, spray trouble spots, known entry points like doorways, window sills, and baseboards weekly with plant-based Ben’s Evictor.
SPIDERS
While spiders are usually helpful in limiting other indoor bugs, they can also be scary to see around, especially venomous types like black widows and brown recluses. Spiders can become particularly noticeable during the colder months because they emerge more frequently and in larger numbers due to their mating season.
What to do:
Spray any spiders you come across with Ben’s Evictor for a quick kill. To prevent additional spiders, you need to kill and repel other bugs, which is their primary food source, also using Ben’s Evictor.
FALL ARMYWORMS
The caterpillar stage of a small, ordinary-looking brown moth, fall armyworms might just be the most damaging lawn bug you’ll ever encounter. It’s not unheard of for these costly pests to destroy an entire lawn overnight.
What to do:
Treat your entire lawn & garden each month with family-safe, pet-safe Natures Defender
STINK BUGS
As the weather cools down, stink bugs can appear out of nowhere, often in the hundreds. Worse yet, their numbers will only grow from there—and fast! They don’t really do much damage, nor do they bite or sting, but having dozens of odor-producing bugs hanging out or dying & decaying is not a pleasant experience.
What to do:
To prevent stink bugs, spray your lawn with Natures Defender monthly or more as needed. Kill any stink bugs you see indoors with a quick spray of Ben’s Evictor.
CENTIPEDES
You tend to see more centipedes indoors during fall & winter, as they search for resources like food and water. While centipedes are helpful much like spiders, they can be unnerving to see scuttling around your home. To say nothing of their bites, which can be excruciatingly painful, even sometimes dangerous for kids and pets.
What to do:
Prevent indoor centipedes by controlling outdoor centipedes with monthly applications of Natures Defender. Kill any centipedes you see directly with a few quick sprays of Ben’s Evictor.
WASPS
Wasps can be really troublesome during the colder months, as they grow ever more aggressive as they rush to collect scarce resources for their queen. That’s why painful and occasionally life-threatening bites are far more common during fall & winter.
What to do:
Carefully approach wasp nests with a bottle of Ben’s Evictor, and saturate it with a dozen or so sprays. The wasps will fall to the ground, dying almost instantly. Exercise extreme caution to avoid stings.
SILVERFISH
When we find holes in clothing, rugs, and other fabrics we tend to blame moths—but did you know another bug is often to blame? Small scary-looking bugs, silverfish inhabit closets, attics, basements, and other storage areas to feed on delicate fabrics and other natural materials, costing you hundreds in damage. They’re also commonly found in spaces with higher humidity, such as bathrooms and kitchens.
What do do:
Kill, repel, and protect fabrics against silverfish by applying non-toxic Ben’s Evictor as needed. It’s safe for clothing, furniture, carpeting, and other textiles—it will not stain and dries quickly.
BOXELDER BUGS
Like stink bugs, boxelder bugs are harmless but super annoying—they produce a foul-smelling odor, too. As the temperatures cool, it’s not uncommon to spot hundreds of these bugs covering the outside of your home, shed, balcony, or deck. And just as they appear in large numbers, they die in large numbers, leaving behind a huge, stinky mess for you to clean up.
What to do:
To prevent boxelder bugs before they can become a nuisance, spray your lawn with Natures Defender monthly or more often as needed. Kill boxelder bugs directly with a few sprays of Ben’s Evictor.
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