09/21/2026
It’s that time of year. Whether we like it or not fall is coming. We took a few days off last week for the annual trip to Kingsbury area to go SXS riding. The leaves haven’t changed too much but they’re starting to. While to many people that means it’s time to go leaf peeping soon, but to those of us in the pest management industry it means it’s time for the over-wintering insects to start seeking warm places to spend the winter. Cluster flies, western conifer seed beetles, Asian lady beetles and other insects are often attracted to homes this time of year. They’ll gather in the warm surfaces of a building, particularly on the south and west facing areas where the sun is warm during the day. As the nighttime temps drop they’ll seek out small cracks and crevices around doors, windows, eaves etc. where they sense the warmth from inside the building. They gather in wall voids, attics, etc to rest for the winter. Some times you may not even realize they are there until later winter, when on sunny winter days as the sun gets stronger and warms those areas and causes them to resume activity. That’s when you often first see them, they’ll gather around windows on the sunny side of the house. The same things happens again in the spring as they search for access to go back outside. Once they are inside it’s fairly limited what can be done to control them. Usually vacuuming them up from window sills is about the best solution. If every spring you find sluggish flies, beetles, etc. Around your windows this is the time of year to consider doing something to prevent that. Caulking around windows, doors, gaps around eaves can help prevent these insects from getting inside to over winter and is highly recommended where possible, but for many homes, there are so many small gaps, cracks, and crevices that these insects can get in that’s sealing them out can be very difficult if not impossible. If the situation is described here, sound familiar to you because you deal with this every year now is the time to do something to help prevent that. I can treat the exterior of your home in all these areas conducive for these insects to eliminate them as they try to get in and to help prevent you from having a problem with these insects in the late winter and early spring.
While a treatment cannot totally prevent every insect from getting in, it can dramatically reduce the numbers of these pest that you will deal with later.
If every year you find lady beetles, cluster files, conifer seed bugs in your house, give me a call, send me a text or message me for a free inspection and quote for service to preventively treat your home to avoid dealing with these nuisance pest.
Over wintering insects, yeah, we do that.
