Prolonged drought is driving pests indoors

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The prolonged drought is impacting more than just farmers or your browning lawn. Creepy crawlers may be seeking a safe space in your home.

The impacts of the drought outside your house are clear. But it’s having a domino effect inside for many of you and that means more calls for pest control companies like Havard.

“Insects need a lot of the same things that people do,” explained Kyle Vines, Havard Pest Control’s North Mississippi Area Manager. “One of the big ones of which, of course, is water. So whenever we get these blistering hot days and not a lot of rain, there’s not a lot of moisture outside, they’re gonna go seek it wherever they can hang the place, there’s always moistures in your homes.”

Ants are driving up the calls but...

“There’s been an increase in pretty much everything,” noted Vines. “Roaches, what we call occasional invaders like your centipedes, millipedes, earwigs...anytime you have extreme climate conditions is going to change the way insects behave.”

If you’ve seen the pests and wondered why, you’re not alone.

“I thought it was the house I thought it was maybe the food we were keeping airtight bags and everything is that I was just like, What the heck is going on?” said Abigail Smith.

Abigail Smith and David Davidson couldn’t figure out the reason for the sudden influx of the critters.

“There’s just been a crazy amount of like sugar ants for some reason,” noted Smith. “It’s just been completely ridiculous with all of the bugs coming in and everything as I’ve never seen quite as many this is ugh... the roaches. "

“We’ve never had roaches before,” said David Davidson. “And I noticed like roaches coming in from outside. And I’ve seen them at the light door like the doorman too. So I know they’re coming from outside.”

The recommendation is to do a good check of windows and doors to make sure there’s a good seal. And you can get treatments around the house.

“And that’ll mitigate a lot of the pest problems that we’ve been having here lately,” added Vines.

Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.

Copyright 2023 WLBT. All rights reserved.