Late summer is a time of transition between the hottest days of the year and the upcoming fall season. While we try to enjoy the warmth and last few weeks of summer, spending time with family and friends, late summer pests are also soaking in the sun, becoming more active. The combination of heat and humidity provides an ideal environment for pests like mosquitoes, spiders, and stinging insects to thrive and multiply.
Spiders
Spiders are a common sight during late summer. You may see these 8-legged pests more frequently due to a variety of factors. During this time, spring spiderlings have had time to fully mature, leading to a significant increase in the spider population. In addition to more spiders, insects are often more active in the late summer, making it the perfect time to build large webs to ensnare prey. You may also find more spiders in your home. In the late summer, many insects will find their way into your home looking to escape the looming cooler weather. With more pests coming inside, your home provides a perfect hunting ground for many spiders.
Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes are the bane of every outdoor summer activity; they thrive in the warm, humid late summer weather. The warm temperatures also speed up mosquitoes’ growth and increase the availability of food sources for mosquito larvae. Together, this allows the mosquito population to grow steadily during the last few months of summer, making these pests more of a nuisance than ever.
Stinging Insects
Late summer brings a surge in stinging insects as they reach the peak of their activity. By late summer, wasp, hornet, and bee colonies have grown considerably, leading to an increased population around your home. Additionally, as summer wanes, there is lower availability of flowers and other food sources for these buzzing insects. With less natural food available, many stinging insects will begin crashing your picnic and infiltrating your garbage in search of sugary food or drinks.
Rodents
Rodents are a particularly unpleasant pest to have in or around your home. They can often be found in homes during the late summer and early fall as they prepare for winter. As the temperatures slowly drop, rodents, such as house mice and black rats, will begin gathering food and supplies to build their nests while also looking for a warm, comfortable place to spend the winter.
Keep Late Summer Pests Out With Griffin Pest Solutions
Late summer might mark the end of vacation, warm weather, and long days, but it doesn’t mark the end of pest season. Take back control of your home and enjoy the last of summer’s beauty without the hassle of unwanted guests. Don’t let these pests spoil your summer; call the professionals at Griffin Pest Solutions!
Griffin Pest Solutions has been serving the residents of Michigan since 1929. We understand the unique pest challenges in our region and take pride in using sustainable and environmentally friendly pest control practices, keeping you and your family safe while effectively eliminating pests around your home. Don’t let these summer pests turn into fall pests, contact Griffin Pest Solutions today and ensure your home is pest-free* in every season!
Stink bugs are Michigan’s newest invasive species. These smelly pests originally came to the US from Southeast Asia in 1998. Since then, they’ve spread to nearly every state by stowing away on packages and travelers. Stink bugs seem particularly prevalent in Michigan because our humid, heavily forested environments are perfect for them.
If you feel like you have more stink bugs in your home than most people, it’s probably not your imagination. They really do prefer some homes over others. Here’s what the nuisance pests want, why they’re so attracted to your home, and how to get rid of stink bugs.
What Are Stink Bugs?
The Stink bug that has invaded Michigan is known as the brown marmorated stink bug, or Halyomorpha halys. The brown marmorated stink bug is a marbled-brown colored bug with smooth shoulders, alternating black and white striping along its abdomen, and white bands along its legs and antennae. Their bodies are shaped roughly like a shield, and they’re almost as wide as they are long. Adult stink bugs only measure up to .5 to .75 inches long. Nymphs generally look red and orangish and get darker with age.
The ominous name comes from the fact that, when threatened, stink bugs secrete a foul-smelling odor. They also release that odor when they’re killed, especially if they’re crushed. Stink bug excrement and secretions can also stain surfaces such as walls and flooring.
Where Did All These Stink Bugs Come From?
Brown marmorated stink bugs are an invasive species originally native to Southeast Asia. They made their way to the US starting around 1998 and spread very quickly. In Michigan, they live around the tree fruits, vegetables, ornamental plants, and legumes they feed on. During the spring and summer, they’re common around farms and gardens where they may be considered serious crop-destroying pests.
The ideal stink bug hideaway has several distinctive features. First and foremost, it needs to be warm. Stink bugs can’t survive freezing temperatures for long periods of time, even in diapause. Next, it needs to be quiet and inaccessible. Stink bugs are completely defenseless while they’re in diapause, so they need a place where they won’t be in danger. The darkest, tighter, and more secluded the crack, gap, or alcove, the better.
As you might imagine, stink bugs most often take shelter in attics, basements, crawl spaces, and other out-of-the-way locations. They’re especially fond of small, tight cracks they can slip through to stay hidden and safe from would-be predators. When spring comes, the stink bugs simply crawl out from where they got in. Almost all the stink bugs you see in your home in spring were probably there all winter. In spring, stink bugs already got in, and now they’re trying to get out.
Why They Are a Problem
These pests might (certainly!) smell bad, but they are not dangerous. For most homeowners, they’re a minor, if smelly nuisance. Stink bugs feed on outdoor and indoor ornamental plants, such as shrubs, hostas, bushes, and gardens. Their secretions and excrement can also stain furniture and other surfaces such as floors and walls. The bugs may move into homes during the winter, but they don’t nest, reproduce, or lay eggs in homes.
The real reason experts consider stink bugs such an issue is because they feed on vegetable, fruit, nut, legume, and vegetable crops. Crop yields in the Eastern United States have been significantly affected by stink bug damage in the past. In other words, stink bugs are an invasive pest that affects food supplies more than individual homes. Controlling them remains important even if they don’t directly bother you.
Why Are Stink Bugs in My Home?
Now that you know what stink bugs want, you can probably guess why there are so many near you. Yards with gardens, fruit trees, thriving ornamental plants, or berry bushes attract stink bugs during the spring and summer. Homes that receive a lot of sun exposure during the day are particularly attractive to nearby stink bugs. If you have a thriving yard and your home gets plenty of sun exposure, then it’s a great destination for stink bugs all year!
The biggest problem is that they will enter your home starting in fall given the chance. Stink bugs need to shelter in warm environments if they’re going to survive the winter. They’ll find cracks and gaps around the areas where they congregate and use them to enter your home.
How Do You Get Rid of Stink Bugs?
The best way to deal with stink bugs is to keep them out in the first place. Most home infestations happen in early winter when the bugs seek shelter to keep warm. Replace damaged screens and weather stripping, secure window and door framing, and seal gaps in your foundation or walls. Stink bugs crawl into homes through air vents and chimneys so install screens over these openings. Pay special attention to problem areas of your home, such as the attic or basement.
We know it’s tempting, but don’t crush the stink bugs you run into in your home. When stink bugs are crushed, they automatically excrete their foul-smelling liquid odor. Not only does this stink and stain surfaces, but it also attracts other stink bugs! Instead of crushing them, we recommend you vacuum up the stink bugs you find. After you’re finished, throw out the vacuum bag in your outdoor dumpster. Wipe down surfaces where you found stink bugs with soapy water.
Check areas where stink bugs may have hidden when they were congregated. They’re fond of entering buildings through cracks in windowsills, door frames, and baseboards. Wash these areas with soapy water and seal them with caulk. Stink bugs hate the smell of soap (natural enemies, we suppose), so washing their usual entrances will help keep them away. Remember, stink bugs are surprisingly flat, so they can fit through cracks smaller than you’d think.
Stink Bug FAQ
What do stink bugs eat?
Stink bugs will eat just about any food crop from apples to soybeans to pecans. They are a dangerous nuisance to gardens, orchards and farms capable of attracting others when a food source has been located. They also eat other insects and insect larvae.
Do stink bugs bite?
No. Their mouths simply aren’t designed to pierce human skin. Beside their defensive (and offensive) smell, stink bugs aren’t harmful to humans unless you are allergic to stink bug toxin.
Do stink bugs fly?
Yes. They have two sets of wings that they use to find food and mates.
What does stink bug “stink” smell like?
Depends on who you ask. Common descriptions include rotten vegetables, cilantro, skunk spray and burnt tires. The odor – however it appears to you – usually dissipates within and hour.
Get Rid of Stink Bugs For Good
If you’ve got a home infestation and you’re still wondering “How do I get rid of all these stink bugs?” Call or contact Griffin today. We handle stink bugs in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. We’ll clear your home and keep stink bugs from coming back.
When you think about late summer bugs, chances are you picture them outside. When it’s hot and humid out, like it tends to be during Midwest summers, pests like rodents, centipedes, and spiders don’t have much reason to get into your home.
As soon as summer starts to end, however, pests start looking for a place to wait out the winter– a place like your home! Late summer tends to be the worst time of year for pest infestations for that exact reason. Here are a few of the sneaky snowbirds you can expect in the next couple weeks, and what you can do about them.
Rodents
Michigan’s rodents start preparing for winter early. They get aggressive in the pursuit of food, they start stockpiling resources, they dig burrows for themselves, and–of course–they sneak into homes. The earlier a rodent can find a warm, dry, dark place to nest over the winter, the better. As soon as the sun starts setting earlier, expect rodents to be hard at work preparing for cold.
Rodents will infiltrate a home by any means necessary, and they have plenty of means. First, they’ll look for cracks, gaps, and holes like openings in window sills, door frames, floorboards, or utility lines. Next, they’ll try burrowing to get at the foundations or insulation in the basement. More than anything, rodents target places where they can get food. Regular vacuuming and cleaning up after meals becomes even more important in the fall. You don’t want to advertise that your home is open for rodent business!
Spiders
Spiders begin mating around early September every year, which is one of the few things that will prompt them to leave their webs and get moving. Spiderlings in egg sacs stay warm during the winter. Adult spiders need to survive long enough to lay eggs, which means they need to find shelter. Between the need for shelter, the need to find mates, and the fact that a lot of their prey is fleeing indoors, homes start to look really appealing to spiders this time of year.
Spiders get into homes the same way other pests tend to: by finding their way through the cracks. Spiders are excellent climbers, so don’t think any crack or gap is too high or inaccessible for them. The best way to prevent spiders is to prevent other pest infestations. If spiders can’t hunt prey, they won’t want to hang around. Clearing away clutter will also help keep spiders from taking up residence.
Cockroaches
Cockroaches don’t hibernate, nor can they survive freezing temperatures for long. Both the common species of cockroach (American and German) highly prefer warm temperatures. American roaches seem to feel that 70 degrees is juuust right. Unfortunately, it gets worse. Like spiders, cockroaches tend to mate while sheltering indoors. They’re even known to settle in with their families after the egg sacs hatch. Any roaches that get into your home in late summer could be the first members of a multi-generational infestation.
Cockroaches want to live in confined, warm, dark, and humid places where they feel comfortable and safe. That means your basement, attic, and crawlspaces are prime real estate–especially if they’re messy or cluttered. It’s a good idea to organize and tidy up your basements and attics every late summer. Clear out anything you don’t need, organize boxes, and repair sources of undue moisture like humidity and plumbing leaks.
Stink Bugs
Just because they’re a relatively new nuisance to Michigan doesn’t mean the Brown Marmorated stink bug hasn’t acclimated to their new home just fine. Unlike many pests that inflict themselves on Michigan households during late summer, stink bugs actually hibernate during the winter. They’re not mating and laying eggs in your home; they’re just sleeping. Even hibernating stink bugs can’t survive the cold, however, so before they hibernate they have to seek out shelter. They’ll even let themselves out in the spring!
Stink bugs frequently get into houses by squeezing under worn-out weather stripping, damaged screens, or gaps in window and door frames. Like spiders, stink bugs are very good climbers, so they’ve been known to use chimneys and air vents as access points, as well. Replacing chimney and vent screens will go a long way toward securing your home, especially if you replace worn weather stripping and window frames at the same time.
Want some help making sure you’re totally pest-proofed for fall? Give Griffin a call today! Together, we’ll make sure your home keeps you warm and leaves pests cold.
