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Well, good morning and happy September Las Vegas and all our surrounding towns and friends. This is Matt over at American Pest Control. We are coming to the end of the rope of summertime, and it looks like we are going to have absolutely beautiful temperatures this September. With the end of the summertime extreme heat, we begin to slip slowly into the not-so-pesty season. With that, I want to take some time to talk about this time of the year.

Now, fall and winter doesn’t mean that all the pests go away entirely. Fall temperatures are still mild and cockroaches, crickets and other small crawling insects are still out and about. Ants will still be out in fall too, even more so than in summer. Birds will be looking for nests and rats will be feeding outside at night at this time. Scorpion season is on the way out soon, though until we get the first actual frost of winter, be prepared for at least a few occasional invading scorpions. In my opinion however, September and October are the height of black widow season, so this is not the time of the year to just cancel pest control. To put things simply, pests will be out in fall, but not nearly as much as summertime at night. Keep your pest control service but lets also talk about somethings we can do to prepare for summer and maybe even save yourself some money in the process.

First thing I want to get out of the way is bird work. Wintertime is a great time to have your home inspected for birds or potential bird nesting sites on your house. You can save a ton of money having preventative measures installed on your home for bird prevention and you can save even more money having that done in winter. That includes having removal, clean-up and prevention jobs so save some money and have it done in winter. Let’s also talk about your lawn. If you have a grass lawn, you are so much more likely to have ant problems and other various insect invaders than someone with a desert landscape lawn. I know that a lot of folks in the valley and folks from other grassy parts of the country love their grass lawn. I grew up with a grass lawn here too, but grass just makes more problems here in the desert. Obviously watering and manicuring all the grass is expensive and there are incentives for landscaping your lawn into a desert style lawn. Plus, you get the benefit of less pests around and inside your home, so it seems like a win to me.

I’ll also bring up some general maintenance projects that can benefit you in keeping the pests at bay. Your kitchen backsplash, your wall-to-floor baseboards and various wall and ceiling fixtures can all be sealed up with simple caulking to keep those cracks and crevices from allowing unwanted visitors into your home. I’d also suggest putting an end to spring cleaning, move it backwards, and rename it to winter cleaning. Wintertime is when you move a lot of your holiday decorations in and out of the house, and that can bring spiders that have been laying in wait for a meal into your home. Winter is a great time to move the beds and furniture away from the walls to get those dust bunnies, and to get any pesky spiders out of the house too. Don’t forget about the tool shed and the pool containers too. A lot of things can hide in those places during winter. Having a home inspection done can benefit you as well, especially if you have a crawlspace or attic vents, and if you have home addons. Gaps, missing vent, and missing screens can all give cold rats access into your warm home so get that taken care of.

So, make some projects in the wintertime and you may just have a less buggy summertime. Some of these can be bigger projects that you may need to hire out for, but some can be simple things you can do yourself. Everything I’ve covered can also save you a ton of money in the short run and over time too so take my advice to heart. Hopefully it helps you out. Enjoy the fall season and have fantastic day.