A Month-by-Month Pest Calendar for Milwaukee Homes

How should a Milwaukee homeowner read a pest calendar?

A pest calendar is a plan of when to look and when to act, not a forecast of what will arrive. The sources give a few dated points for Milwaukee, and the rest of the year is a time for general inspection and maintenance.

Most pest calendars give a list of pests by month, as if each pest had a fixed season. The sources this site relies on do not support that for most pests in the Milwaukee area. They give dates for three autumn invaders and a general account of the weather that brings them, and the calendar below keeps to those. Where the sources are silent, the calendar says so, and the homeowner can ask the technician for the general inspection that fills the gap.

The most useful way to read the calendar is to work back from the first date. The mid-September entry sets the deadline for sealing, and the late-summer survey is the step that meets it. The autumn months are the time to watch, and the winter and spring months are the time to check what was sealed. The calendar is a sequence of decisions rather than a list of pests.

• Work back from the mid-September entry
• Treat the autumn as the time to watch
• Treat the winter and spring as the time to check

What does the year look like, month by month?

The table below sets out each season with what the sources describe, and what the homeowner or the technician should do in that period. Where no sourced pattern exists, the entry says general inspection.

The table is the core of the calendar. The first column is the period, the second is what the sources describe for that period, and the third is the action. The entries for the cold months are short because the sources describe little activity in those months, and the action is a check of the seals and the moisture.

A homeowner who keeps the table on the wall of the basement or in a notes app will have a plan for the year. The most important row is the one for late summer, because a missed sealing visit in August is the most common reason the autumn is harder than it needs to be.

Why does the sealing date matter more than the spray date?

The sealing date matters more because the entry is decided by the gaps and the timing, and a gap closed before the flies move is worth more than any indoor treatment. The sources point to sealing first in every case where they give advice.

A homeowner who waits for the first fly on the window is already behind the entry. The UW-Madison material describes the flies coming in large numbers, and a few sightings can be the start of a much larger movement. Sealing before that date keeps the gap closed when the flies arrive, and the result is seen in the rooms, not only in the report.

The same reasoning applies to boxelder bugs, which move indoors in the autumn. The UW-Madison Insect Lab advises sealing exterior entry points before they come in, so the sealing date is a fixed point of the calendar. A spray is not a substitute for that date, because it does not close the gap the insects use.

• Sealing closes the path before the insects move
• A spray does not close the path
• The sealing date is a fixed point of the calendar

What should the homeowner watch in October and November?

In October and November the homeowner watches the sunny walls, the window frames and the rooms that get the most sun. A rising count in one room is the sign of a gap nearby, and it is reported with the room and the date.

October is the busiest month for the autumn invaders in a Milwaukee home. The sunny walls warm in the afternoon, and the insects gather there before they move. A short walk around the outside of the house on a warm afternoon shows which walls have the most activity, and that is a useful record for the next sealing visit.

November brings cooler days, and the activity drops, though the sources note that boxelder bugs are active on warm fall and winter days. A homeowner who sees bugs on a warm November afternoon should not be alarmed, but should note the wall, because the report of activity in late autumn is evidence for the next year's sealing plan.

• Walk the sunny walls on a warm afternoon
• Note the wall and the room with a count
• Report activity in late autumn for next year's plan

What happens in winter, and when is the seal check?

In winter there is little sourced activity, and the work is a check of the seals after the cold. The seal check is done in late winter or early spring, and it is the step that lets the next autumn start from a known position.

Winter is a quiet month in the sources, and the homeowner's main task is observation. Freezing and thawing can open a caulk joint or lift a mesh, and a seal that has failed over the winter is a gap for the next autumn. The check is done from inside, with a light at each marked point, the way a technician would do it.

The seal check is also a chance to review the record of the previous autumn. A point that was sealed and that failed again should be marked for a different material, and a point that was not reached should be reached this time. A calendar that ends with the check is a calendar that starts the next year on firm ground.

• Check each marked point from inside with a light
• Reset any seal that has opened
• Review the previous autumn's record
• Change the material at any point that failed twice

What does the calendar leave open?

The calendar leaves open the months and the pests the sources do not describe for Milwaukee. The homeowner should treat those months as inspection months and ask the technician for a general visit when a sighting is reported.

The Milwaukee sources do not describe the rodent, mosquito, cockroach, ant or stored-product pattern for the city, and the calendar does not fill those gaps. A homeowner who sees one of these pests in the spring or summer should not assume the calendar is wrong. The sighting is a reason for an inspection, and the inspection records what is found.

The calendar also leaves open the city's own figures for housing and weather. The sources give the population and the 2010 storm, but not a seasonal pest count, so the calendar makes no claim about how many insects a month will bring. Any number a homeowner sees in a neighbour's report should be checked against the sources before it is used as a guide.

• Rodent, mosquito, cockroach, ant and stored-product patterns: not in the sources
• Seasonal counts: not in the sources
• A sighting outside the calendar is a reason for inspection

How do you use the calendar when you talk to a technician?

Bring the calendar to the first call and mark the sightings against it. A sighting in a month the calendar marks as quiet is still a sighting, and it should be recorded with the room and the date.

A technician works from dates more than from impressions. A homeowner who writes down when a fly or a bug was seen, where, and how many, gives the technician a timeline that can be compared with the sources. That is more useful than a general description such as 'there are bugs in the autumn', which every house has at some point.

The calendar also helps the technician plan the return visit. If the sealing was booked for the first week of September and the flies were seen in late September, the record shows where the gap was in the plan. The homeowner and the technician can then decide whether the next season should start earlier, and the calendar row for late summer is changed accordingly.

• Record each sighting with date, room and count
• Compare the record with the calendar rows
• Move the sealing date earlier if the entry came first