What Insects are Trying to Invade Your Home This Year?

Creepy crawling little bugs can be a nightmare. Especially when they are in your house. My wife recently had a big garden spider walk across her arm while sitting on the couch. And this guy was sitting in the passenger side of my vehicle yesterday. Not something you want to find while traveling down Bluff St. 

You may have noticed each year there seems to be problems with different bugs. A few years ago hornets were everywhere. The next year was flies, then grasshoppers and black widows. 

Jim Park with Baird’s Pest Control talked to me about why this happens. There are a few reasons different bugs come at different times. 

There are hibernation patterns with different bugs. Hibernation when an insect slows down its metabolic rate to survive the cold or low food sources. We are all fairly familiar with the seventeen-year cycle for Secaidas. Many other bugs also have these patterns. Crickets and grasshoppers have a 2-year lifespan in which they hibernate a couple times. 

Mating patterns will cause a bug population to increase in certain years and weather conditions affect what bugs thrive. Drought conditions can cause grasshoppers to increase while wet soil makes it better for cockroaches. 

Here are the bugs you can expect with the different weather in the year according to Parks. 

• Cold weather will cause spiders, cockroaches and stink bugs that want to get out of the chilly weather and into your home where it’s warm. 
• Cool spring will give you your bugs in the grass like moths and earwigs. 
• Heat will get you ants, spiders and scorpions. 
• This year, because of all the water expect a lot of cockroaches as spring moves to summer.

To avoid bugs in your house, seal your doors with thresholds, caulk the windows and patch any cracks in your walls and foundation. Also, spray regularly.