They may be looking for food scraps, or they may be looking for you! Inevitably, some will always find their way inside. If you notice an increase in their number, you may want to switch on your AC. Not only will it keep you cool, it can help to keep the bugs out!
Your air conditioner provides your home with cool air. However, in order to do so, it needs to expel heat by pushing it outside. This creates a bridge between the inside of your home and the area outside of it. An unfortunate byproduct of this bridge is that bugs can use this pathway to make their way inside.
No, keeping your house cold doesn't keep bugs out.
The air conditioning process generates heat, which cockroaches are attracted to. During the cold months, these pests can gain more energy from the generated heat. In hot weather, roaches will seek out your air conditioner as a comfortable place to cool off from the extreme heat.
Whether you use a central air conditioning system or a window AC unit, your AC unit offers an inviting environment with cool air, moisture, and food sources from dirty air filters. Bugs can enter through return vents, ductwork, and small gaps.
Bed bugs can't live in extreme temperatures—hot or cold. Temperatures over 120 degrees will kill them, but so too will freezing temperatures under 32 degrees. And even below 55 degrees, bed bugs struggle to survive and generally can't reproduce.
Eliminate any sources of moisture, such as leaky pipes, roofs and clogged gutters. Seal cracks and gaps around windows and doors with a silicone-based caulk. Remove trash often, and keep garbage containers clean and covered. Keep food in airtight containers, and clean up crumbs and spills immediately.
Many people associate pest infestations with warmer weather, but the truth is that pests can invade at any time of the year, especially during the winter. Many pests, including cockroaches, cannot survive the extremely cold temperatures outside and will seek shelter in buildings and homes.
Leaving the light on doesn't deter cockroaches effectively because they can navigate in low-light conditions. While they're mostly active at night, they may still come out in search of food or water. During the day, cockroaches hide in dark areas not directly exposed to light.
Cockroaches are repelled by the smells of peppermint, eucalyptus, lavender, citronella, and cedarwood oils. These scents can be used as natural deterrents to keep them away from your home.
So what are the magic temperatures that kill bed bugs? Research has shown that freezing infested items at 0 degrees Fahrenheit or heating them to 122 degrees Fahrenheit will do the job, but there are several other factors that must be considered, so let's take a closer look.
Leaky pipes, bowls of water for your four-legged friends, and even the drips from a faulty faucet can entice bothersome bugs — especially those who are attracted to moist, damp areas. Standing water can attract pests of all kinds, but even overly humid areas in your home can draw in unwanted intruders.
When the weather starts to cool off the bugs go away, right? Not so much. Though it may seem like pests secretly disappear during the cooler parts of the year, they're actually just hiding out. In some places of the world, cold temperatures are enough to kill off pests during the fall and winter months.
What Happens to Bugs When It Gets Cold? You may notice that a large number of bugs disappear in the winter, only to reappear when spring comes. Despite popular belief, most bugs don't die off in the cold. Although extreme cold temperatures can impact the overall insect population, most survive the winter chill.
Air conditioning cannot directly kill mosquitoes. However, air conditioning can make your home less hospitable to mosquitoes by reducing the humidity and temperature inside. Mosquitoes are less active in cooler, dryer environments, so keeping your home cool and dry can help reduce the number of mosquitoes inside.
How Air Conditioners Purify Indoor Air. Before air is dispersed into your home, it passes through an air filter, which pulls out particles such as dirt, dust, bacteria, pet hair, and human hair. The air filter prevents this debris from entering your home, and from being breathed in by you and your family.
Citrus is one of the scents cockroaches are most known to hate, notably lemon and orange. Keeping a dish of lemon juice on your kitchen counter can deter these pests, as well as placing lemon peels around the home to discourage cockroaches from coming out of hiding.
Will cockroaches crawl in your bed at night? Cockroaches might crawl over you, but they're unlikely to do so. While it's possible cockroaches may crawl into your bed or over you to reach a food source, they're generally afraid of humans and try to avoid them.
The scent emitted by the peppermint oil will act as a barrier, making these areas unattractive to roaches and encouraging them to seek shelter elsewhere.
Turning up the AC may not look good on your energy bill but at least your house will be cockroach-free. There's a reason why we see roaches in the summer, and they vanish during the winter – cockroaches hate the cold. Always turn up the AC. To save energy, you can turn on an overhead fan or buy a large fan.
And yes, even cockroaches aren't fans of temperatures this hot. You want to stay inside most of the day where it's cool, and so do they. Most roaches like moderate, slightly warm temperatures, around 75 to 85.
Your Best Bet for Deterring Cockroaches is a Clean Home
Take that away from them and their days are numbered, as long as you maintain it. Cockroaches can live up to three months without food, so they hide in dark corners of a property while they wait to go hunting at night.
Bugs hate the smells associated with repellency, such as lavender, citronella, vinegar, peppermint, and geranium. These oils are considered a natural way of driving away bugs from your home without harming you, your family, and other animals.