Basements: Easy Access for Pests

Basements, especially unfinished basements, are often the source of pest problems in the home. Typically the place for forgotten storage or used mostly as a laundry room, entry points and old drains can go unnoticed and create pest problems.

Drain Flies
You know that old drain in that old sink that no one uses downstairs? That drain just might become drain fly city if left to its own devices. Moisture left in the pipes will help grow organic material that will in turn play host to drain fly larvae in the burgeoning pest home that used to be your basement if it is not properly taken care of.

Drain flies, also known as moth flies, are rampant breeders and enjoy flying clumsily close to their home. These tiny flies, only about 1/5^th of an inch in length, are dark in color and can easily become a major nuisance as their numbers increase.

If having annoying flies buzz around your house wasn’t annoying enough, seeing their wiggling larvae (picture really tiny maggots) in the drain is something most homeowners want to avoid.

American Pest’s recurring services are designed to guard against pests of this nature. Our highly trained service technicians know during a routine interior treatment, that drains must be a target to prevent bigger problems in the long term.

Mice & Rats
Rats live in the sewer, and unless they are mentoring some pizza-loving reptiles, you don’t want them in your house. But that’s just what could happen if a basement toilet runs dry. The pipes become a rat and mouse superhighway from the sewer into the basement. Easy access to stored items in the basement are what a rat dreams of.

Mice and rats are also excellent at slipping through tiny spaces underneath doors, around windows, and through holes in walls made for cables and other wires to come inside. Open space as small as a dime can allow a mouse access to your basement.

Once in the basement, mice are known for gnawing through just about anything in their search for food. Materials like cardboard and paper are no match for the tiny but razor-sharp teeth of mice and rats.

Sealing entry points and determining the very best trap for any current rodent issues are one of the many skills held by American Pest technicians.

Sealing entry points not only keeps mice and rats outside where they belong, but other pests such as camel crickets (A.K.A. “sprickets”), and house centipedes as well.