Ants, spiders and rats, 3 of our 4 most common calls, work straight through a Temecula Valley winter. These 8 cleaning habits keep them out: clean as you go, pull the kitchen appliances, seal the pantry and pet food, dry the bathrooms, clear the garage, de-crumb the couches, manage the trash and clean the yard at the wall.
Winter in Southwest Riverside County doesn't send pests away. It sends them indoors. Argentine ants trail into Temecula kitchens after the first rains, as UC IPM describes, roof rats move from the citrus tree to the attic when the nights cool, cockroaches follow the warmth and the water under the sink, and the black widows that are common around garages settle in behind the holiday boxes. The house is warm, closed up and, over the holidays, full of food.
Cleaning is the part of pest control you own, and done in the right places it matters more than most people expect. These 8 tips cover the places that count in Murrieta, Menifee and Wildomar homes. Tip 1 answers a question a lot of homeowners have: is it the deep clean or the daily habit that keeps pests out? Then we go room by room and end at the wall outside, which is where our visits pick up.
Tip 1: Which cleaning practice does most to prevent pests, cleaning as you go or a monthly deep clean?
Cleaning as you go, every time. A deep clean once a month leaves twenty-nine days of crumbs, spills and an open sugar bag, which is all the time an Argentine ant colony needs to find the kitchen and lay a trail the rest of the colony follows. The same goes for roaches, mice and pantry moths: they're recruited by what's available tonight. So the habit that works is immediate. Wipe the spill when it happens, sweep the floor after dinner, rinse the dishes instead of leaving them in the sink overnight, wipe the stovetop and the counter edge where the grease gathers, and take the kitchen trash out when it's full. Do the deep clean too, because it reaches the places the daily wipe doesn't, which is what the next tips are about. But if you only keep one habit through a busy December, keep this one. It's the practice UC IPM's own guidance on ants and cockroaches comes back to: take away the food and the trail has nowhere to go.
Tip 2: Behind the refrigerator and under the stove
A winter's worth of food lives there, and often the roaches eating it. The gap between the stove and the cabinet, the drip tray under the refrigerator, the coils behind it and the floor beneath both collect grease, crumbs and the odd pea for months, and they're warm and dark, which is why UC IPM lists kitchen appliances among the first places to look for cockroaches. Pull both appliances out, vacuum the floor and the gaps with a crevice tool, degrease the sides of the cabinets and the wall, and clean the refrigerator's drip pan and coils. Do the same under and behind the dishwasher where you can reach it, and run a cleaning cycle on the dishwasher itself, since its door seal and filter hold food. Wipe the inside of the microwave and the range hood filter, which drips grease onto the stovetop. Do this once at the start of winter and once after the holidays, and you remove the one food source the daily clean never reaches.
Tip 3: Pantry food, pet food and bird seed
Store all of it in sealed, hard containers, with the pantry wiped down around them. Winter is when the pantry fills: the holiday baking flour and sugar, the warehouse-store rice and cereal, the bulk dog food in the garage and the bird seed on the patio shelf. Every open bag is a target for Argentine ants, pantry moths, mice and roof rats. Move cereal, flour, sugar, pasta, nuts, crackers, chocolate and pet food into glass, metal or heavy plastic containers with lids that seal, and keep the garage bins off the floor. Check the dates and throw out the old packets at the back, because pantry moths come home from the store inside them and emerge in a warm cupboard. Then clean the shelf corners, the shelf edges and the floor under the lowest shelf, where the spilled rice has been sitting since summer. Give the pets their meals at set times and take the bowl up afterward instead of leaving kibble down all day and night. A sealed pantry is the difference between a scout ant that leaves and a trail that doesn't.
Tip 4: Why the bathroom matters for pests in winter
Because of the water. Pests need moisture as much as food, and in a closed-up house in winter the bathroom is where it is: condensation on the window, a damp bath mat, the slow drip under the vanity, the shower caulk that's lifted and lets water into the wall. Cockroaches, silverfish and earwigs follow that moisture, and UC IPM points to leaks and standing water as the conditions to fix for all of them. Run the exhaust fan during and after showers, and clean the fan grille so it moves air. Wipe the condensation off the window sill. Open the vanity, dry it out and fix the drip. Recaulk the tub and shower where the seal has failed, because that water is also what draws subterranean termites to the slab beneath. Hang the bath mat to dry and wash it. Pour a kettle of hot water down a slow drain and clean the overflow, which is where drain flies breed. A dry bathroom in January is a bathroom without silverfish in February.
Tip 5: What to clean in the garage this winter
The walls, the corners and the boxes themselves, because the garage is where winter pests live. Black widows, which UC IPM describes as common around garages, block walls and clutter in Southern California, turn up behind the stacked bins along the garage wall. Roof rats and mice come in under the door and nest in the cardboard. So once at the start of winter: pull the boxes away from the walls, knock down every web with a broom and look at what's in them, vacuum the corners and the base of the walls, sweep the floor and check the door seal for daylight. Then swap cardboard for plastic bins with lids and store them on shelves. Check the bird seed and dog food bins while you're there. Brown widows are a different spider and stay outside, so give the patio furniture the same treatment on the same afternoon. The eaves and cobwebs get brushed on each of our visits, and the garage is the place to do the same yourself between visits.
Tip 6: Couches, car seats and kids' rooms
Treat them like the kitchen, because to an ant they are. The couch cushions, the recliner mechanism, the drawer in the coffee table, the gaming chair and the car seats collect a winter of popcorn, crackers and candy, and a trail of Argentine ants to the living room sofa in Murrieta is a common sight in the weeks after the holidays. Once a week in winter, pull the cushions, vacuum the frame and the crevices, and empty the drawer. Run a crevice tool through the car seats and the door pockets, and don't leave the fast-food bag in the back seat overnight, since the car in the driveway is also a route for rodents. In kids' rooms, clear the snacks from the desk, the bed and the toy box, vacuum under the bed, and make a rule about where food is eaten. Keyboards, controllers and the TV stand get a wipe too. Nobody needs the house spotless. What matters is that there's no food source that never gets cleaned, because that's exactly what a scout ant is looking for.
Tip 7: Trash, recycling and compost
They're the biggest food source on the property, so they need lids, rinsing and distance. Inside, use a kitchen can with a lid that closes, take the bag out when it's full and wipe the can itself, since the juice at the bottom feeds ants and flies for weeks. Rinse the recycling, because an unrinsed soda can is a sugar source and a jar with a smear of peanut butter is a rodent's dinner. Outside, keep the trash and recycling cans lidded, hose them out now and then, and move them away from the wall of the house, since the gap behind the cans is a favorite rat runway along the side yard. If you compost, use a closed bin, keep meat and dairy out of it, and site it away from the house and the fence line the rats travel. Collect the dropped fruit under the citrus and don't leave the dog's food or water out overnight. UC IPM lists exposed garbage and pet food among the first attractants to remove for both rats and ants, and the side yard in winter is where the two overlap.
Tip 8: Leaf litter, mulch, woodpiles and the eaves
All four stop pests at the wall, and the eaves are the one most people skip. Start at the base of the wall. Rake the leaf litter and pull the mulch back from the stucco so the weep screed shows, because earwigs, as UC IPM describes, shelter in damp mulch and in leaf litter, and Argentine ants nest in the moist soil against a foundation and trail in after rain. Cut back the dense shrubs along the house so the wall dries. Move the firewood up onto a rack and away from the wall, because the woodpile is where black widows and mice spend the winter. Cut any palm frond or vine that reaches the roofline, so the roof rats lose their bridge. Then look up. Cobwebs under the eaves, around the porch light and in the corners of the patio cover are where spiders sit and where the next generation hatches. A broom on a pole does the job between our visits. A clean wall is the last line before the kitchen.
Common questions
Can I clean my way out of an ant or roach infestation that's already started?
Cleaning takes away what's feeding it, and for a scouting ant trail that's often enough. An established Argentine ant colony or a cockroach population behind the stove needs treatment as well, because the colony or the egg cases are in places cleaning doesn't reach. Our technicians hold state licences, and the cleaning is what keeps the problem from coming back. Ring (951) 535-4220 with a description of what you're finding.
Which rooms need the most attention for winter pests?
The kitchen first, behind and under the appliances and in the pantry, because food is what brings ants, roaches and mice. The bathroom second, for the moisture. Then the garage, where the black widows and the rodents settle in behind stored boxes. Laundry rooms and mudrooms collect lint, damp and pet food and get forgotten. Outside, the base of the wall and the eaves.
Does cleaning replace a pest control service?
It removes the reasons pests come in, which is most of the job, and it makes a service work better. What it doesn't do is reach the colony in the block wall, the widows under the eave or the rodent route along the roofline. That's the part our visits handle, and if pests show up again between plan visits, we return at no charge.
What should I wipe an ant trail with?
Soapy water on a cloth, as UC IPM suggests. Wiping the trail removes the scent line the rest of the colony follows, so the next ants out of the gap lose the route. Then find and clean whatever drew them: a sticky jar, crumbs under the toaster, the pet bowl. Our ant control page covers what we do when the trail keeps coming back.
Which winter pests does cleaning help most with?
Argentine ants, cockroaches and mice, because all three come for food that's left out. Cleaning helps less with spiders and earwigs, which come for shelter and for the insects they eat, so for those the garage and the base of the wall matter more than the kitchen. We handle all of them across the 20 cities we serve.