How to Avoid Pests During the Winter

It’s that time of year again. The temperature’s dropping, the days are getting shorter and you’re in desperate need of some warmth. That’s right: it’s winter! But along with all those cozy nights by the fireplace comes something unwelcome — pests. You’d think that since winter weather is so harsh, there wouldn’t be any bugs around to bother us. But that’s not always true. It just means that pests like spiders and rodents have a harder time surviving in their usual habitats due to a lack of food, water, or shelter… that’s why your home becomes a haven for them as well. Luckily for them (and unluckily for us humans), these pesky critters exist year-round no matter how well we seal up our homes during this season.

Here are some surefire ways to keep your home pest free this winter.

Seal up your house.

• Seal up your house. A pest-free home is a happy home, and sealing up any openings in the walls and windows can help keep bugs out. Look for cracks around doors and windows, and seal these with caulk or weatherstripping. Inspect your attic, basements, and crawl spaces; if there are gaps between the floor joists or other places where pests could get into your home, fill them with steel wool or foam insulation before sealing them shut with caulking.
• Invest in screens for windows and doors (and check them regularly for holes). For extra protection against flying insects like wasps or hornets that can get through small openings on their own, use fine mesh window screening over all exterior entrances to ensure they’re near impossible to penetrate from outside the structure of your home – not just a few inches away from it!

Store food properly.

It’s important to store your food properly. Pests are more likely to infest open packages and containers than they are sealed ones. If you want to avoid pest problems, it’s best to keep your food in air-tight containers. You can purchase special cans or containers that have a vacuum sealer built right in, or you can use the traditional method of covering everything tightly with foil before putting it away. Don’t forget about other alternatives like Ziploc bags!

Keep your house clean.

If you want to avoid pests in the winter, a good first step is to make sure that your house is clean. Having a tidy home means that there is less mess for critters to feed on and fewer places for them to hide. Clean up after yourself: When preparing food, clean up crumbs right away. Also, keep garbage cans free of odors and wipe down any surfaces that might have food residue on them (like tables and countertops).

Clean out the fridge and freezer: Wintertime brings cold weather which can be tough on appliances like refrigerators and freezers; it also causes bugs like cockroaches or mice who seek warm places with lots of food inside! If you’re going away for an extended period of time (more than a week), consider hiring someone. They’ll take care of all those pesky little chores so that when you return from vacation – your house will feel fresh!

Keep the humidity low.

A dehumidifier can help you keep the humidity low, which will make your home less attractive to pests. If you have a basement or crawl space, a dehumidifier can also help keep moisture levels down there as well.

Your goal is to keep water from sitting in puddles or sinks for long periods of time. You should try to avoid letting water sit in any one place for more than an hour (it’s okay if it sits there for a few minutes). If possible, try not to run the faucet constantly when it’s not needed—this will reduce how much wastewater needs to be drained out of your home and into the sewer system or septic tank.

Maintain proper ventilation.

To ensure that pests don’t find their way into your home, you need to keep your doors and windows closed during the winter. That said, it’s important to allow fresh air into your home as well. While most of us are keen on keeping cold air out during this time of year, you should be sure that there is enough ventilation along with it in order to combat mildew buildup and other moisture damage.

To accomplish this task as effectively and efficiently as possible, open all vents for maximum circulation—including those in your bathrooms and kitchens where heat escapes easily. Additionally, consider using fans throughout your house to circulate the hot air produced by any heating devices such as fireplaces or furnaces (though these may not be necessary for some climates).

If you’d like an extra layer of protection against pests coming through small cracks around windows or doors—and who wouldn’t?—consider installing weather stripping around them as well; this will help keep out pests while still allowing fresh air inside

Keep an eye out for bed bugs.

Bed bugs are often found in the winter. These small, oval-shaped, wingless insects feed on blood. Bed bugs usually hide in cracks and crevices during the day but come out at night to feed on their hosts (you). To reduce the risk of exposure to bed bugs, keep your home clean and vacuum regularly. If you find signs of bedbugs such as fecal spots on mattresses or sheets, live insects inside crevices around headboards or other furniture, or discharge marks from crushed bodies (which look similar to those left by carpet beetles), see a professional pest control business for treatment advice and follow their instructions accordingly to avoid spreading them around your home!

Don’t ignore signs of mice or rats.

If you think it’s a good idea to ignore mice and rats, think again. It might be easy to ignore the signs of rodents in your house, but they can cause serious damage and spread diseases if not removed.

When looking for signs of mice and rats, look for droppings (like small pebbles) or nests around your house. If you notice any of these things outside your home, then it’s likely that there is a mouse or rat problem inside as well! They like to make their homes near food sources so check for crumbs in cupboards and pantries as well as along walls near cabinets where they can hide when people are nearby.

If you have already discovered evidence of mice or rats in your home then take action quickly! Here’s what you should do:

• Remove any food sources such as pet food dishes outside since these could attract pests into the house;
• Seal off holes around pipes using steel wool;
• Purchase snap traps from an outdoor store if there aren’t any problems inside yet;
• Call pest control services if infestations are severe enough that snap traps aren’t working

The winter weather might help you avoid some pests, but there are other steps you can take to keep them away all season long. While the winter weather may help you avoid some pests, there are other steps you can take to keep them away all season long.

We hope we’ve given you some good ideas for how to avoid pests during the winter. Remember that no single method can keep all pests away, so it’s important to use more than one strategy at a time. And don’t forget that if you do see signs of an infestation, don’t wait! It’s better to catch these issues early on before they get out of hand and become even harder to handle later on.