Where Are All Those Bugs Coming From!?

July 10th, 2018

Where Are All Those Bugs Coming From!?

Are bugs crawling out when you reach into the cabinet for cleaning supplies or snacks? Do they swarm around crumbs as you prepare for dinner?

Living with insects is upsetting, especially when you don’t know how they are entering your home. You may be surprised to learn that the unused drains in your home can actually become breeding grounds for bugs.

If you have any tubs, showers, or sinks in your home that aren’t used on a daily basis, they could be the culprit to your insect infestation.

Drains are Designed to Be Used Regularly

Take a glance below your kitchen or bathroom sink, and you will see a U- or S-shaped curved pipe that comes down from the drain opening. This portion of the piping is called the drain trap. Every time you use a faucet, the drain trap is designed to keep a small amount of water in the trap. This standing water serves an important purpose: it seals the drain, keeps sewer gasses from entering the home, and even keeps bugs out.

Drain traps exist even where you can’t see them easily. Showers, toilets, tubs, and washing machines also use drain traps. It is essential that you use each drain regularly, or else the water inside of the drain trap will dry out, leaving your pipes, drain, and home unprotected.

How Insects Make a Home In Your Drains

Bugs have a natural talent for finding any entrance they can find to enter your home. If you haven’t used your garage sink or guest shower for weeks or months, bugs like cockroaches will crawl up your drains and enter your home without any resistance from the drain trap. Since this entry and exit method is virtually invisible to the untrained eye, it makes an infestation in your home feel like a mystery.

The good news is that you can prevent this problem by purposefully running water down all drains in your home on a regular basis. This helps to keep the drain trap filled so that insects can’t intrude.

If your pest infestation ever becomes too widespread or chronic to handle yourself, call (813) 684-7336 to make an appointment with Green Solutions Lawn Care & Pest Control in Tampa, Florida. The experts at Green Solutions use environmentally responsible solutions to solve all your pest problems.