With the holidays in full swing, many families around the Country are getting their holiday decorating plan figured out.
During the rest of the year, holiday decorations are kept in attics, garages, shops, and storage lockers waiting for the appropriate time to start decorating.
Unfortunately, while your holiday decorations are out of sight and out of mind, they are very interesting to many pests as a means of food and shelter.
As you are pulling your decorations out for setting up – and stowing away after you have used them, make sure to keep these things in mind:
- If your tree or decorations have been stored in a cardboard box, make sure to check the boxes thoroughly before opening them or, pulling anything out of them. Cardboard is especially interesting to pests for building nests, and they will chew into the corner and sides of the box, and possibly nest inside of the box.
- When you are picking out your tree, make sure that it is fresh and green. A dried out tree is a fire hazard in your home, and a welcoming home for pests. You could be bringing in a whole nest of insects into your home.
- If you have decorations that are made from candy canes or salt dough, don’t store them in cardboard boxes. Keep them in plastic or metal containers that are sealed tightly and can’t be chewed through. If you make a gingerbread house, take some pictures of it and then discard it once the holidays are over. Do not store it for next year.
- If you have a wood burning fireplace, make sure that you store firewood appropriately so that you are not bringing spiders into your home. Wood piles are a favorite place for spiders to make a home. Also, if your wood is piled directly on the ground, it will get moist from the ground and grow mildew or mold, and will attract wood-boring insects.
There’s nothing worse than opening your holiday decoration boxes to find an infestation of pests or insects. Make sure that you follow these tips when opening pulling your decorations out and putting them away.
