Why Are Pests More Active In Summer
7 Reasons Summer Is The Season For Pests
Summer is prime time for pests. As the warm weather sets in, you may start to notice more ants marching through your kitchen, spiders spinning webs on your porch, wasps buzzing around your garden, and mice scurrying in the attic. But why exactly does pest activity increase when the temperatures rise? There are several reasons why summer creates favorable conditions for pests to thrive.
1. Warm Temperatures
Warmer temperatures allow many pests to be more active. These are cold-blooded creatures, meaning their body temperature matches their surroundings. When the heat outside increases, ants and termites can move and react more quickly. Their metabolisms speed up, allowing them to reproduce faster as well. Many of them that go dormant in winter become active again in the summer when the warm weather arrives.
Spiders also increase production of webs and eggs when it’s hot out. Higher temps give spiders more energy to spin bigger webs to catch food. The warmth also accelerates the spider’s life cycle and allows them to lay more eggs, leading to an abundance of spiders.
2. Availability of Food Sources
Summer provides pests with more access to food. Flowers bloom on plants, giving pollen and nectar to feeding bugs. Vegetation flourishes, with fruits and vegetables ripening on trees and in gardens, attracting hungry pests.
Outside, they can dine on decaying matter, plants, and other insects more readily available in hot months. Indoors, picnics and parties give crumbs and spills that draw ants, flies, cockroaches, and mice. Open windows and doors also allow summer pests easy entry to food inside.
3. Increased Reproduction
Hot temperatures and plentiful food enable pests to reproduce at faster rates, leading to an abundance of pests. The hot weather speeds up gestation times and allows them to produce multiple generations very quickly, causing a surge in the insect population.
For example, a single female mouse—just one—can produce up to 10 litters per year. In warmer months, mice litters contain more babies, sometimes up to 12 offspring. More mice are born and develop faster thanks to summer conditions.
This fast reproduction raises pest populations exponentially within just a few weeks, making pest survival more likely. More pests mean more of an infestation problem.
4. Daylight Hours
Longer daylight hours and extended hours of sunlight give diurnal pests like ants more time to scout for food. The increased daylight also offers nocturnal pests like mice ample darkness to search for food while homeowners sleep.
Additionally, some pests use daylight cues as a way to begin courtship rituals. Male ants and termites may fly outside seeking mates when triggered by longer daylight. Then the fertilized queens start colonies in protected places outdoors or indoors.
5. Increased Moisture
Summer rain and watering gardens create damp areas outside that attract snails and slugs. Woodpiles and crawlspaces can grow mold with humidity, giving nourishment to common pests.
More wetness allows odors and pheromones from pests to travel farther to signal others. This helps attract more bugs to your property. Wet conditions also enable mosquitoes, fleas, and other stinging insects to breed and lay eggs in standing water.
6. Lifecycle
Some pests time their lifecycles to take advantage of the summer season. Gypsy moth caterpillars emerge from eggs in early summer to feed on new tree leaves. By mid-summer they reach the next stage, pupa, and transform to moths later.
Codling moth caterpillars also use warmth to spur their growth. They feed inside apples and pears. At this season’s end, the caterpillars exit the fruit to spin cocoons and become adult moths.
7. Increased Human Activity
As humans spend more time outdoors, we unknowingly give pests access inside. Outdoor barbecues leave spills and leftovers pets won’t eat. These outdoor crumbs can attract ants, roaches, and mice.
Items like camping gear or sports equipment carried indoors after an outing may harbor ticks or fleas. Moving firewood indoors also brings them inside. Increased use of kitchens and bathrooms multiplies opportunities for them to sneak inside.
Conclusion
The warm temperatures, plentiful food supply, and ideal conditions of summer create a perfect storm for pests. Taking precautions like sealing entry points, cleaning spills quickly, and avoiding bringing outdoor items inside can help deter summertime pests. But even with great care, the summer months stacked in favor of pests make it challenging to control populations. Being vigilant to monitor and manage infestations promptly, or contacting a professional pest control service, can help minimize pesky pest problems.
