What Is an Overwintering Pest Treatment—and Is It Too Late to Get One?
By the fall, many Hudson Valley homeowners have already noticed stink bugs on the siding, lady beetles around the window frames, or slow-moving flies collecting on the sunny side of the house. The treatment designed for these insects is applied to the outside of the home while they are still gathering there, before they settle into the walls and attic for the winter. Whether it is too late depends on one thing: how many of them are still outside. If you are still seeing insects on your exterior walls on warm afternoons, a seasonal fall pest treatment from Hollenbeck Pest Control can still reduce how many make it inside.
What This Treatment Is Designed to Do
Several common Hudson Valley insects survive the winter as adults by hiding in protected spaces. The main ones are brown marmorated stink bugs, cluster flies, and multicolored Asian lady beetles. Some spiders and other insects also look for shelter around homes when the weather turns cold. Outdoors, these insects would use loose bark, rock piles, and leaf litter. A house gives them better protection inside wall voids, attics, soffits, and the gaps behind siding and window trim.
These insects are not coming inside to feed or breed in your kitchen. They are looking for a place to wait out the cold. That is why the treatment focuses on the exterior of the house. Our technicians apply an exterior treatment to the parts of the structure where these insects gather and try to get in, such as sunny walls, window frames, rooflines, soffits, and openings around utility lines. The goal is to reduce the number of insects that make it from the siding into the structure.
Our technicians also point out gaps that should be sealed, such as loose trim, torn window screens, and openings around pipes and wires. Treatment and sealing work best together. A treated wall with large open gaps will still let some insects through, and sealed gaps help the treatment last.
Why Timing Makes Such a Difference
Most of these insects move toward buildings from late summer through mid-fall. Shorter days and cooler nights signal them to start looking for shelter, and they gather on warm, sunlit walls, especially those facing south and west. On a warm afternoon following a cold night, large numbers may land on the same side of a house at once.
While the insects are on the outside of the house, an exterior treatment can reach them. Once they have crawled into a wall void or attic, it can no longer reach them. A treatment applied to the siding cannot reach a stink bug that is already tucked behind the drywall. This is the main reason we recommend scheduling the service before the fall movement is over.
Is the Fall Too Late?
For many homes, late fall is still within the window when treatment can help. The Hudson Valley often has stretches of mild weather in late October and early November, and insects that have not yet found shelter become active again on those days. If you are still seeing them on your siding, around your windows, or near your roofline, some of the fall movement is still happening at your house.
If several hard freezes have passed and you have not seen insects outside for a while, most of the ones near your home have either found shelter or gone dormant outdoors. At that point, an exterior treatment will do less for this season. A technician can look at your home and tell you whether there is still enough activity outside for the service to make a difference.
Calling now has another benefit. Even if most of the insects are already inside, an inspection can show where they entered. Knowing which walls, windows, or rooflines they are using helps you plan sealing work over the winter and schedule next year’s treatment at the right time.
What Happens if They Are Already Inside
Insects that get into wall voids and attics stay mostly inactive through the cold months. On sunny winter days, heat from the house and the sun warms the walls around them, and some of them become active again. They follow the warmth and light toward the living space. This is why homeowners find stink bugs on windowsills in January and cluster flies buzzing against upstairs windows in February. Those insects entered the house in the fall.
Vacuuming the insects you can see removes those individuals, but it does nothing about the ones still hidden in the walls. Household sprays reach only the insects in the open. Large numbers of insects that die inside walls can also attract carpet beetles and other insects that feed on dead insects. If your home has a heavy problem with these insects every winter, the most effective step is planning the exterior treatment for next fall and closing the gaps they are using now. Our post on Asian lady beetle and ladybug control explains more about one of the most common of these insects.
How to Tell Whether Your Home Needs It
Homes that have had these insects in past winters are likely to see them again, because the conditions that drew them in are still there. Houses with sunny exposures, older siding and trim, and nearby orchards, fields, or wooded areas tend to have more trouble. Cluster flies are more common in homes surrounded by lawns and fields because their young develop in earthworms in the soil.
Several signs suggest your home is a good candidate. You find stink bugs, lady beetles, or cluster flies indoors during winter. You see large groups of insects on your siding in the fall. You find dead insects collecting on windowsills or in light fixtures. Any of these is a reason to have a technician look at the house.
Our seasonal fall treatment is offered throughout our Hudson Valley service area, including Middletown, Poughkeepsie, Fishkill, Newburgh, Kingston, and Beacon.
Whether it is too late this year comes down to what is still happening on the outside of your house right now. Contact Hollenbeck Pest Control while the insects are still gathering, and a technician will tell you whether treatment can still help this season.