In New York, you’re used to seeing plenty of bugs in the spring and summer. One of the advantages of cold New York winters is that many pests cannot survive them. But do all insects die during the winter? Unfortunately, the answer is no. There are a number of pests that stick around during winter, plaguing your New York home or business.

What Pests Live During the Winter in NY?

Here are five of the worst winter pests you may have to deal with during New York’s cold season:

Cockroaches

If you have lived in New York for any length of time, you are well-acquainted with cockroaches. Some roaches, especially German cockroaches and American cockroaches, move in before it gets too cold and will live anywhere in your home that’s dark and close to sources of food and water. You will often find them in basements or storerooms, and they will feast on whatever food you happen to leave laying around.

Any management of a cockroach problem must include a maintenance program from Pestech. We’ll be sure to tell you exactly what you can do on your end through effective communication. Remember, when it comes to roaches only a team effort will control their population.

Spiders

Pests tend to swarm to homes to find harborage during the winter. If you have small insects in your home, you might also have a sizable spider population. These pests are occasionally dangerous, and should be addressed with a preventative service or program. Spiders usually keep to themselves, but if they think you’re a threat they will bite, potentially causing extreme injury.

Rodents

Like most warm-blooded creatures, rats and mice do not do well with cold and want to find a nice, warm home as soon as they sense winter is going to strike. If you leave them any opening to your home, you can be sure they will find it.

When they do, it can be a disaster. Rats and mice live in places like your attic, chewing up insulation and electrical wires as they make their nest. They will eat your food and leave potentially contaminated droppings around your home, where your family can accidentally handle or ingest them. These pests need long term service as any small entry point will continuously be used as a rodent highway.

Carpenter Ants

If you’re lucky, any carpenter ants in your neighborhood have decided to find a place to hibernate in the winter. However, often New Yorkers are alarmed to discover that these structurally damaging insects have torn up wooden beams in their home. Once that happens, you have a big problem.

While they don’t eat wood, carpenter ants carve tunnels into the wood of your home to nest and live. As long as they can find some moist wood for water, they can do damage to your home all winter long and beyond. To avoid a carpenter ant problem during the winter, make sure you don’t have any moist wood in your home. If you do have water damaged wood (from a roof leak, weeping window well, etc.) make sure to have it replaced, as wood inside of wall voids will not dry on its own.

Flies

Cluster flies commonly enter a home during the fall and overwinter there until the spring. Typically, this means that you won’t see them during the winter, but on especially warm days they will emerge en masse. This is referred to as a “False Spring”. Without year-round coverage from Pestech, they have the potential to spread disease by walking on food surfaces and food itself.

Contact Pestech for Winter Pest Control Today

Pestech has served homes and businesses in Batavia, Utica, Wappingers Falls, Ferndale and other locations with pest management solutions for many decades. We offer an Integrated Pest Management approach that we believe is the safest and most efficient way to control your pest problem.

To manage your winter pests in NY the right way, contact Pestech for a pest inspection at 1-800-287-BUGS or get in touch online today.