Cold Weather Pests

 3 Cold-Weather Pests In California You Don’t Want in Your Home

‘Tis the season for tree decorating, sipping warm beverages and unwelcome visitors. And no, we don’t mean your in-laws. 

You’re spending more time at home now that the weather is colder. And you may not realize that your warm home might also be a new home to rodents and spiders. 

And while you have extra visitors inside, you may notice that you’re missing a few outside. Find out below which bird species you can only get rid of during the fall and winter months.

Rodents

And by rodents we mean rats, mice and squirrels.

What’s The Problem?

There are three problems to consider when dealing with rodents – breeding, damage and disease.

Breeding

These rodents mate at the end of summer and into fall and winter. That means just as they are moving into your home, they are getting ready to have a litter. Your small problem can quickly become a big problem in only a few weeks or months.

Damage

Rats, mice and squirrels will gnaw on or burrow in anything they can sink their teeth into. Your upholstered couch in the living room? Yes. The insulation in your walls? Definitely. Your metal/plastic pipes and wooden beams/joists? You bet. Your electrical wiring? Absolutely, which is dangerous because of the possibility of electrical fires.

Disease

According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these rodents carry diseases like hantaviruses, the plague, West Nile virus and Lyme disease. None of which you and your family want to be exposed to.

What’s Our Solution?

We’ll book a time that is convenient to your schedule for your free inspection, let you know in advance when to expect us and one of our QualityPro trained technicians will check under, behind, around and above every nook and cranny of your home to check for evidence of rodents. Once we see what the trouble is, we can figure out the best course of action to help. Our customers usually need some combination of the following:

Traps

We’ll set up traps everywhere we see evidence of a problem. We’ll schedule a follow-up appointment every 3-7 days to check, remove dead rodents and reset the traps.

Traps + Proofing

We’ll do everything above, plus we’ll figure out how the rats are getting into your home and seal all entrances.

Clean Up

We’ll clean up and disinfect areas where we found rats to help reduce the spread of bacteria and possible disease. Think about your urine-soaked insulation, oven warming-tray full of droppings and any other combination of gross and disgusting situations. You don’t want to live in a litter box, do you?

Speaking of urine-soaked things, rats urinate EVERYWHERE. Why? Because they create scent trails for themselves and other rodents so that they can always find their way home…to your home. We guarantee a minimum of 95% removal of dropping and debris removal.

Bait Station Placement & Maintenance

This is a popular monthly subscription service offered to our customers. We’ll place tamper-resistant bait stations out in your yard to control and reduce the number of rats outside, which reduces the number of rats able to get into your home in the first place.

Spiders

There are many different types of spiders in Southern California. The most common spiders our customers deal with are Black Widow Spiders, Brown Widow Spiders and Wolf Spiders.

What’s The Problem?

Here’s another fun fact – Black widow venom is 15x more venomous than a rattlesnake’s. That fact alone is worth looking into solutions immediately. 

The brown widow spider’s bite isn’t less venomous than it’s black cousin, but it can’t inject as much. So while you may still have a reaction, it will not be like a black widow bite. Of course, that doesn’t mean you want it any more. 

A wolf spider bite isn’t particularly dangerous for adults in good health. But it can have negative effects for older adults, children and those with compromised immune systems.

What’s Our Solution?

Our customer-favorite solution is signing up for our Pest Membership Plan. We come out for an initial inspection and service where we identify your problem areas inside and outside. Our technician will make a recommendation about how often you should receive service and discuss it with you. Then we’ll visit monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly based on your technician’s recommendation, to make sure those pests don’t bother you ever again.

Swallows

It’s funny that we should add swallows to this list. Why? Because during the fall and winter, swallows are already gone. So why should you care now?

What’s The Problem?

Swallows are sneaky pests. They fly south usually between September and February. So it’s easy to forget about them during fall and winter. But, that’s the only time to remove their nests. It’s illegal to remove swallows from their nest between February 15 and September 1 – their breeding season.

Nesting Area

Because their nests are made of sand, silt and clay, there will be debris littering the ground below the nest. Mixed in and on top of the debris will be droppings. It can become a constant mess. Plus, their nests attract mites and swallow bugs (related to the bed bug). 

Bringing Friends

If you’re only crossing your fingers and hoping they don’t come back next year, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. When swallows return they bring more swallows back with them. More swallows means more nests. They can build up to three new nests per year. That means if you started with three nests and didn’t take action, you could have nine nests next year. And then 27 nests the year after. See why it’s something to take care of sooner rather than later?

What’s Our Solution?

Much like with the rodents and the spiders, we’ll schedule a window of time that is convenient for your schedule to come out to your home for a free initial inspection. Our customers usually need some combination of the following:

Clean Up

We’ll clean any problem areas, as bird nests and droppings can cause health concerns and can/will stain surfaces.

Bird Mite Extermination

We’ll provide treatment for bird mites (related to ticks and spiders) that are attracted by, you guessed it, birds and bird nests. They will bite you and feed off your blood. Their bites can irritate skin and be itchy or painful.

Bird Net

We’ll install a flame resistant, super-strong, knotted plastic (polyethylene) twine bird net. It’s available in three colors and each color comes with its own manufacturer’s guarantee – black (10 years), stone (three years) and white (three years).