Damaged Gutters Can Encourage Pests

Do you have uninvited guests of the six-legged variety?  Try though you might to rid your home of them, do they keep popping up?  If this sounds like a familiar situation, the source of your pest infestation could come from an unexpected place:  Your gutters.

Damaged or clogged gutters could very well be the only invitation pests need to invade your home.  Let’s take a look at some of the most common gutter-dwelling pests and the steps that you can take to get rid of them.

Mosquitoes

Is there any bug more despised than the common mosquito?  These disease-carrying pests are the scourge of the summer months and can make even the hardiest outdoors adventurers miserable.  Mosquitoes thrive in wet locations as they lay their eggs in standing water, so any puddles on your property should be drained to prevent their proliferation.  If you’re done your due diligence and you still get swarmed whenever you leave your house, chances are your gutters are to blame.

Clogged or warped gutters may provide the perfect environment for mosquitoes to reproduce, so make sure to have your gutters cleaned regularly and replaced if necessary.

Carpenter Ants

These harmful pests are found throughout the US, but are most common up here in the North.  They get their names from their method of building colonies, boring into soft wood to create their galleries.  Though not as voracious as termites, carpenter ants can cause irreparable damage to the wooden structures in your home. 

Gutters clogged with decaying plant matter like leaves and twigs are especially enticing for carpenter ants as they prefer the softer material.  As their colony grows, they will look for any openings into your home such as exterior areas that are water damaged due to improperly functioning gutters.

Prevention is always better than the cure, so it’s best to make sure your gutters are always clean and functioning properly so that carpenter ants aren’t attracted to your home in the first place.

Wasps

Though not nearly as destructive to property as some of the other entries on this list, badly clogged gutters make an irresistible location for wasps.  Clogged gutters are just dry enough for them to build their nests, damp enough for them to easily hunt for prey, and just high enough off of the ground that wasps might choose them to set up shop. 

Though harmless to the integrity of your home, wasps can be extremely dangerous to remove, so it’s best to not attract them by getting your gutters regularly cleaned.

Roaches

Nobody’s day has ever been made better by spotting a roach.  Not only are these creepy things notoriously difficult to exterminate, roaches are known to carry disease, meaning that you want them as far away from your home as possible. 

The best way to prevent a roach infestation is to keep a tidy home, but if you are fastidious in your cleaning and still find them scurrying around, your gutters are likely to blame.  Clogged gutters provide sustenance for roaches as well as cover.  Once a nest is established, roaches will look for a way inside your home.  If your gutters are not regularly cleaned, you could very easily have a roach problem on your hands.

Termites

The bane of homeowners everywhere.  Termites devour wood and establish colonies that can very easily go unnoticed until it’s too late and they have destroyed sizable portions of your woodwork.

The good news is that paint is an excellent deterrent for termites as they are unable to chew through it.  The bad news is that damaged gutters can rip paint off of the exterior of your home, and water damage resulting from improperly aligned gutters can provide just enough of an opening for them to gain purchase and begin their invasion.

If your gutters are sagging or unmoored, you should have them repaired as soon as you possibly can.

If you’ve got a pest problem, call us today for gutter cleaning or repair.  Take back your home with gutter services from DanDan the Gutter Man.