How Do Floods Affect Pests?

Some experts are saying that we’re going to get a lot of rain this year. And with more rain, comes a greater chance of flooding, which is why we’ve thrown together this quick article on how floods affect pests. Let’s see what we can learn in order to protect our Macon, Georgia homes.

Direct Impact

When areas flood, creatures living underneath the ground must find a new place to live. Even bugs that require lots of moisture, like millipedes and termites, will evacuate when the ground becomes oversaturated. This is why you’ll find hundreds of millipedes all over your exterior walls, deck, or patio after a torrential downpour.

Bugs aren’t the only things that live in the ground. Furry creatures that live in fields and forested areas can get displaced when flooding occurs. Water creeps in and they must leave their holes and tunneling for higher ground. This can bring them right into your yard and, possibly, into your home.

Indirect Impact

Fire ants pose another kind of threat when flood waters rise. Sure, they’ll be driven into your yard, like other pests, but their natural behavior to make a living raft can pose an indirect problem. When hundreds, or even thousands, of fire ants cling together, they form a floating raft. If you live near an area that is flooded, be aware that these living rafts can come ashore and all of those ants will be sitting on top of the ground. They won’t have to file out of their colony to attack you. They will have immediate access to your feet, ankles, and legs.

When heavy rains saturate your yard, it can make it more enticing to yard pests by wetting down wood products in your yard or pools. Wet wood is an attractant for termites, carpenter ants, and other wood-destroying pests, and those pools will lure wildlife with the offer of a nice drink.

What to do before the floods?

• Make sure you have your exterior walls sealed, window screens fixed, door sweeps in good working condition, and weather stripping seated properly.
• Be sure to check all your gutters to make sure they are not obstructed or broken, and that they function to channel water away from your home. Moist soil near a home, collecting pools of water, and wet wood draw many pests in.
• If you have stacked wood, piles of twigs, construction materials, or some other wood product piled in your yard, move them to at least 20 feet from your exterior walls.
• Have the professional pest technicians here at Active Pest Control Pest create a barrier that pests cannot penetrate.

Bugs and wildlife are a problem all the time, but heavy rains and floods can give them even more motivation to invade your home. Make sure they are unwelcome when they find their way into your yard, and be sure that your defenses are in place. Those flood waters will displace bugs and wildlife, but those creatures don’t have to find a new home inside your house. Get help from Active Pest Control by contacting us today.