How Does Heat Affect Pests?
As the days get longer and summer is officially here, temperatures will continue to be high. Humans can effectively deal with the hot weather by using pools and fans to stay cool. Bee Smart Pest Control knows that pests are different. How does heat affect pests? Many pests are cold-blooded, which means they can’t regulate their own body temperature. When the weather gets hot, many bugs get active. They typically want to find somewhere cool and moist to stay safe. For many pests, your home is an excellent option. Some bugs have different behaviors due to the heat, described below.
How Heat Affects Flies
Flies are an interesting species and one that severely benefits from the heat. The common housefly can lay about 900 eggs in its twenty-one-day lifespan. At normal temperatures, the eggs take about 20 hours to hatch into the maggoty larvae that grow up into flies. Once the temperature reaches around 99 degrees, however, the fly eggs can hatch in around 8 hours. After the larvae hatch, it can take as little as four days for the maggots to turn into fully-fledged flies. Flies are a nuisance and are only helped by the hot weather.
Stinging Insects and Heat
Wasps, hornets, and yellow Jackets all thrive when it’s hot. Just like flies, they find it easier multiplying in extreme heat. A hive of yellow jackets can potentially double in size within a week of temperatures over one hundred degrees. While that’s unnerving to consider, that’s not the only effect heat has on stinging insects. Once it gets incredibly hot, wasps start needing more moisture. Their desperation leads them to be more aggressive as well as more likely to sting. In the later summer months, yellow jackets also start foraging for food, and a great source of their food is your garbage. The heat makes more, angrier stinging insects that want the resources around your home.
How Heat Affects Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes love the summertime. When it’s over 80 degrees they’re loving life and more active than ever. However, it can get too hot and dry for mosquitoes, which can lead them to become less active. Transitioning heat can create a cycle, where all start spawning simultaneously. The pests are active and work on feeding and mating. Then afterward they become less active as the heat becomes extreme. If extreme heat lasts long enough to dry up any stagnant water, it can prevent mosquitoes from breeding. Mosquitoes should be avoided at all costs, as they are carriers of many dangerous diseases.
Call a Professional
The heat makes all kinds of pests want to come inside and stay for the season. Wasps, mosquitoes, and flies are not only nuisances but can also sting or spread disease to your family. Bees Smart Pest Control can make a perimeter around your home to prevent any pests from entering. If you want to stay cool and pest-free this summer, Contact Bee Smart Pest Control online, or call us at 720-937-0527.