Holiday Guests Coming? A Pest Check for the Week Before

A pest check before holiday guests arrive takes about an hour, and doing it a week or more ahead gives you time to act on what you find. Look at four places. Check the guest bed for bed bugs: the mattress seams, the headboard and the nightstand. Pull the stove out and look behind the fridge for roaches. Go through the pantry before the baking starts. And walk the patio where everyone will sit at dusk. If you find something, call as soon as you can so there's time to get a visit in. If you want the yard sprayed for mosquitoes before the party, that's a separate event spray with its own timing, below. In South Florida, holiday pest prevention isn't about mice and firewood. It's a busy kitchen, a full pantry, guests who traveled and an evening outside.

The kitchen's hidden spots

More cooking means more crumbs and grease in the places nobody cleans. Before the big meal, look:

• Behind and under the fridge and the stove, where spills collect.
• Under the sink, around the pipes and the back of the cabinet.
• Along the dishwasher edge and the gap beside the stove.
• Inside the cabinet hinges and the corners of drawers.

Small, light brown roaches that dart away when the light comes on are usually German roaches, and they live indoors. See small roaches in the kitchen for what that means. A store spray tends to scatter them, so it's better to call before the cooking starts.

The patio at dusk

Holiday evenings in South Florida are often spent outside: the lanai, the pool deck, the backyard roast on Nochebuena. Walk it a week ahead and tip out water in plant saucers, buckets, toys and the cover on the grill. If the bites come at dusk near the water and you can't see what's biting, read about no-see-ums on the lanai.

For a party, we also do one-time event sprays. From our mosquito spray before a party guide: "Book it at least a few days ahead, and a week or more is better in spring and fall, when weekends fill up." And "A day or two before the event usually works well, and we'll set the exact day with you." See mosquito control for regular service.

When to book a pest check before holiday guests arrive

If you find something, call as soon as you can. About a week before guests arrive is a good target for a regular visit, because it leaves time to get on the schedule. Roaches and bed bugs don't always clear up in one visit, so the earlier you call, the better. The event mosquito spray follows its own timing, above. Wondering what happens on the visit itself? See your first pest control visit.

We start with an inspection. For roaches, we use a bait-first approach and crack-and-crevice treatment where they hide, never on counters or anywhere food goes. For bed bugs, we'll tell you what we found and what bed bug treatment would involve. Keep kids and pets off treated areas until dry, and follow your technician's instructions.

Hosting paying guests instead of family? Our vacation rental pest checklist is built for turnovers.

Our general pest control plan is $125 per quarter, about $42 a month, and monthly or custom schedules are quoted after the inspection. For plan customers: "If pests come back between visits, so do we, at no extra cost." There are no long-term contracts and no cancellation fees, just a simple service agreement. We're family-run and licensed, with 30+ years in the business, and hablamos español. Browse more guides.