Watch for these pests in your home during harvest season in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS — Fall harvest is right around the corner in central Indiana. Soon, farmers will be taking to their fields to gather corn, soybeans and other crops.

As fields begin to be disturbed, so too will the habitats of insects, mice and other pests. According to Marc Potzler, a Board-Certified Entomologist and Technical Service Manager for Terminix, many pests that live in fields in the summer target residential houses when their homes are disturbed during fall harvest.

“I think the most likely things people are likely to see coming out of fields during harvest time would be rodents,” Potzler said. “Mice and rats will burrow down into the soil around the plants. They’ll eat the corn, the other grains and vegetables and whatnot that are growing out there.

“And when the tractors come through to harvest all of that, it creates a big disturbance, which, you know, scares the rodents away from their burrows, and they look for shelter nearby.”

In addition to mice, Potzler said cluster flies, ladybugs, brown marmorated stink bugs and conifer seed bugs may also be attracted to residential homes when crop fields are disturbed. Potzler added that Hoosiers may be less likely to see insects enter their homes from fields because farmers spray pesticides on their crops to prevent bug-related incursions.

According to Potzler, insects tend to target residential houses when fields are disturbed because homes can help satisfy many of pests’ basic needs.

“No. 1, they’re looking for shelter because their home just got taken away from them because of the disturbance of the field,” Potzler said. “So, if they find a wood pile to nest in, if they find a hole in a wall they can crawl into, if somebody leaves the garage door open, they can get into the garage and nest inside there. So, a place to live is No. 1.

“Having food and or water close by is No. 2. And a lot of times people will leave, you know, grass seed in the garage, for example, you know, pet food is exposed and available. Maybe the garbage can isn’t sealed properly, and they can get into that. So, those are the two main draws that would attract a rodent into somebody’s house.”

Potzler indicated that there are ways to determine if rodents or insects have invaded a home without seeing them.

Oftentimes, rodents will make audible rustling, scratching or squeaking noises as they move around. Potzler said homeowners should listen for rodent activity in the morning and at night because mice and rats are crepuscular creatures, which means they’re most active at dawn and dusk.

Potzler added that rodents gnaw holes in walls to create shelter, break into food supplies, leave behind a urine smell and stockpile food debris.

According to Potzler, it’s more difficult to detect when insects enter a home than rodents. He said that the easiest way to find a potential insect problem is to monitor the outside of a home.

Potzler indicated that, if bugs are milling around on the side of a home when it’s warm outside, they may attempt to migrate indoors when it gets cold outside.

Potzler also encouraged homeowners to take preventative steps to stop pests from coming inside homes because it’s easier to keep insects and rodents out than it is to get rid of them once they’ve gotten in.

“Be proactive with it,” Potzler said. “Be expecting it and remember that there’s three things a pest needs — food, water, shelter. If you can limit one or more of those on your property, the pests are more likely to pass on by and go over to your neighbor’s instead of yours. So keep your house buttoned up at as tight as possible, keep your yard as tidy as possible. And keep your door shut, make sure your window screens are in good shape. You know, those are the best ways to prevent pests from getting in.”

Once insects and rodents get into residential dwellings, homeowners can attempt to use rodenticides, insecticides, traps and other common solutions to attempt to eradicate their pest problems. Potzler suggested that such options can be effective but are more difficult to execute than preventative methods like fixing screens, sealing cracks and holes with caulk and making sure doors are closed when possible.

“Well, prevention is worth a pound of cure, so if you can keep them from getting in in the first place, that’s your best bet,” Potzler said. “And that’s going to involve, if you’re doing physical exclusion, you’re going to be going around the outside of your house with probably a case of caulk to seal up any opening that you can find. These are sometimes very small openings, like between pieces of siding or around your soffits, where there’s any kind of openings in the soffit material.

“Most people would find it to be prohibitive just from the amount of time and the cost of doing it. So, getting a chemical treatment on the outside of the house is what most people tend to go with. And the important part is — get that done before it starts getting cold at night. So honestly, around this time of year is a good time to start thinking about getting that done. Once you get into the 50s, the 40s at night, those bugs are already inside the walls. And at that point, you know, they’re pretty much set up for the winter. Treatments after they get into the walls are much more difficult and less effective.”

Some homeowners may be inclined to try to wait out pests around their houses and see if they die off during the winter months. Potzler encouraged homeowners not to bank on cold weather solving their pest problems, as rodents can create shelter in snow banks and other areas to survive the frigid temperatures and bugs can undergo a “reanimating” process.

“A lot of people would think that if the bugs freeze, then they die off,” Potzler said. “But, you know, insects lived in the Midwest and the upper parts of the United States and even further north for millions of years. They’re well-adapted to freezing in the winter, thawing out in the spring and coming back to life if they can protect themselves by getting out of the elements. So, if they get caught outside — on the outside of a home, on the outside of a tree, on the ground — and frost builds up on the outside of their body, they’re dead.

“If they can get under the siding or inside the void or inside the attic, then they’re out of that frost line, and they can freeze. And as long as they freeze slowly, their body can adapt to it. They actually build up antifreeze — some glycol, glycerin — into their body cells, which prevents ice crystals from forming inside their body. So, they can survive sub-freezing temperatures and then reanimate in the spring when it warms up again.”

Potzler added that some bugs will freeze in attics and undergo the process of reanimating if there’s an abnormally warm day in January. That means homeowners may not see the pests that entered their home in the fall until spring or an unusually warm winter day.

According to Potzler, there is no clear-cut answer on exactly when to call a pest control professional to eradicate rodents or insects in the home.

“Everybody’s got different thresholds for what they’re comfortable with,” Potzler said. “You know, some people don’t want to see a single insect in their house, and in which case, they’re probably just gonna call an exterminator straight away, and that’s fine. A lot of guys want to try and do it (themselves). I say guys because I’m the same way. I want to try and do it myself first. And then once I screw it up, you know, then I’ll call the professional to come fix it.

“So, there are home remedies that you can try. There’s a lot of over-the-counter materials out there that, when they’re applied properly, can do good. The trick is knowing which product to use in which area, and what time of year to be really successful with it.”