Today in the world of pest control in the NRV, our technician crew ran into this surprised bear near the Merrimac area of Blacksburg while providing a residential quarterly preventative pest control treatment. The morning before that was spent on our Christiansburg monthly commercial and industrial accounts: retail clothing stores, industrial warehouses, auto shops, restaurants and other retail stores.
Our technician's view near Merrimac. The bear was as surprised as he was.
That bear is getting ready to hibernate. A lot of the insects around your house are in the same winter survival mode, and the next few weeks are when it shows.
The first freeze changes everything
Right about now the New River Valley gets its first nights below freezing. Those first freezes are the signal every overwintering insect has been waiting for. Up to that point they have been spending the sunny afternoons sunbathing on the warm south and west sides of buildings, which is why a light-colored wall can look alive on a mild October day. Each one of them is searching for the perfect winter vacation spot to hunker down. That could be a tree hollow or a woodpile. It could also be your attic, the inside of your walls, or the rafters of a commercial building.
Once the hard freezes arrive, the ones that never found shelter are done for the year. The ones that did are inside something, and if that something is your house, you will be meeting them again in January.
Who is looking for a place to spend the winter
Wasps and yellow jackets. The colony itself dies with the cold. Only the new queens survive, and each one is looking for a sheltered crack to sleep in until spring. A queen that winters in your attic starts next year's nest a lot closer to home.
Stink bugs. The brown marmorated stink bug is the one everybody knows. They gather on sunny walls by the hundreds in October, work their way in through gaps around windows, vents and siding, and show up indoors on warm winter days.
Cluster flies. These look like a big, slow house fly. They spend the summer outdoors and crowd into wall voids and attics in the fall, which is where the name comes from. A sunny January afternoon warms the wall, and suddenly there are flies at the upstairs windows.
Asian lady beetles. Not the same as the ladybugs in the garden. They come in by the thousands, favor light-colored buildings, and leave a yellow stain and a smell when they are crushed, so please do not swat them on the drywall.
What it looks like from inside
You usually do not notice the move-in. What you notice is the first warm spell after a cold stretch, when the attic and the wall voids heat up and the guests wake up thinking it is spring. Flies at the window on a January afternoon, a stink bug on the lampshade, lady beetles collecting in a corner of the ceiling. By then they have been in the structure for months.
The time to deal with them is before the freeze, while they are still on the outside of the building and have not found their way in. After that it becomes a matter of managing them until spring.
Commercial and industrial properties get it worse
A big warehouse has more south-facing wall than any house, more lighting, more loading dock doors that stand open, and more ceiling to disappear into. Restaurants and retail stores have a different problem: a customer does not care that the fly at the window is a cluster fly and not a sign of anything wrong in the kitchen. That is why the Christiansburg accounts we took care of this morning are on monthly service and get looked at every single month, cold or warm.
If you have a commercial or industrial property that needs to control your uninvited winter guests, or you need pest control in Blacksburg, an exterminator in Christiansburg or help anywhere else in the NRV because the stink bugs are already on the siding, give New River Pest Control LLC a call or text at (540) 818-9375 to set up an estimate. The bear has his spot picked out. Make sure the bugs do not pick yours.
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(540) 818-9375