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5 Reasons Your Newly Built Home Has Bugs
The home is fresh, clean, and has that new home smell. You walk into the open, empty space and see all the possibilities of what is to come. As you survey the room you are shocked and horrified to see that you are not the first residents! A spider has set up its webby bed in the corner. Ants have found their way to the kitchen sink. The revelation that your newly built home has bugs in it before you’ve even had the chance for a good night sleep hits you like a ton of bricks. How is it possible that a new home has bugs already?
It is really hard to believe that a brand-new home can have a bug infestation on the day of closing. But the reality is it happens. In fact, most new builds are likely to have bugs of some sort lurking, even if the bugs are unseen.
Reason #1 – You Built Your Home on Top of Their Home
Let’s face it, pests were on the land for generations before any human arrived. The trees, rocks, and dirt all made nice comfy homes for the bugs until the construction crew cleared it off. Even if a builder could bulldoze all the bugs off the property, they can burrow down deep to find protection or come back from elsewhere, especially when they spot a hiding space under a fancy new rock made of thick concrete with squared edges. Yep, what you call the foundation of your new home, those critters call a rock. Have you ever picked up a rock in the forest to see all the bugs under it? Bugs love the dark, damp, protected environment.
Reason #2 – Construction Sites Get Messy
It’s a construction site. with hard-working humans who like to eat their lunches and drink their drinks. Trash happens. Flies can smell sweet crumbs from leagues away. Ants are happy to carry away all the leftovers their colony can gather. If the construction site is manicured and clean, then rodents will gladly dumpster dive for food, shiny electrical wires, and pretty pink insulation. Hopefully, the rodents are taking them back to store in their home and not eyeing your vacant attic.
Reason #3 – Materials Brought in Carry Bugs
The materials your house was made from can carry bugs. It is difficult to tell if the bugs were carried in with the material or if the bugs were born of the materials used in building your house. In drier climates, there are lumber yards that have scorpion problems. Not a pleasant thought considering it could take years to fully eliminate hardy scorpions that got established inside of a home’s walls. In the rare case of the ichneumonid wasps or “wood wasps”, the wood framing can have baby larvae in it. It only becomes obvious as wasps actually come out of the woodwork! Imagine the horror of seeing wasps drilling holes in your new home’s drywall as they emerge.
Reason #4 – Landscaping Has Bugs
Have you ever picked through a pallet of sod? If not, then try it and you will be hard pressed to find healthy green sod without a roach in it. Bugs love water, so well-watered plants in crates and 5-gallon buckets are likely going to have bugs crawling in their soil.
Reason #5 – Your Home is Attractive
The home breathes cool moist air that bugs are attracted to. A bug’s life is dependent on water, and moisture means water. During the cold season, the home radiates heat, and bugs’ keen senses pick up on that. Plus, bugs are constantly foraging. Even when they have food supplies, they are looking for more. Even an empty home void of “food” is a target, because insects don’t just eat human food. Paper, drywall, carpet, wood, other bugs… all these things are attractive to various bugs.
