5 Pesky Bugs Leaky Plumbing Attracts To Your Home
You know you should fix water leaks and drips in your home to keep from wasting water and running up your bill. What you may not know is a leaky drain or dripping pipe can attract household pests.
The dripping water plus an enclosed space behind a wall or under a sink creates a bug paradise. Here’s a look at some common bugs that are attracted to high humidity or damp wood that’s caused by leaky plumbing.
BOOKLICE
You probably have booklice in your home all the time. Their numbers swell when you have a leaking pipe that causes mold to grow under a sink or on a wall because booklice love mold.
They may have gotten their name from the fact that they are often found on moldy old books. These pests contaminate your food and destroy your paper documents and books. The best way to get rid of them is to dry out your home and remove the mold.
SILVERFISH
Silverfish love humid areas. If a water leak in your home is bad enough or goes on long enough that it increases the humidity, silverfish can thrive. They’ll flourish, even if the high humidity is in an enclosed place behind your sink. Once the colony is established, they’ll spread through your home and destroy books and documents.
They can wiggle inside cardboard food boxes and contaminate your food. Silverfish love to hide in folds of paper and clothing. They’ll give you a surprise when they scurry out of a book you pick up. Repair water leaks in your home and dry out the humidity with fans or a dehumidifier to drive these pests out of your house.
ROACHES
Roaches are pests that love humid areas and water sources. If you have a drip under your kitchen sink, it probably won’t be long until roaches are attracted to the water source and dampness. Roaches invade your food supply, and they are unsanitary.
You should eradicate them quickly, but they will keep coming back until your plumbing problems are repaired and the damp wood is dried out. Once you’ve dried out your home, you may need to use insecticide to get rid of lingering roaches.
CARPENTER ANTS
Carpenter ants are drawn to wet places that are out of the way of human activity. If you have a pipe dripping behind a wall, the ants can move in without you being aware of their presence.
Carpenter ants chew on whatever wood is in your home, but they love to live in damp wood. These pests can do a lot of damage to your home when their numbers grow. They are just as destructive as termites, so you definitely want to dry out damp wood in your home and give these pests the boot.
TERMITES
Termites have a reputation for destroying houses for a good reason. These bugs are among the most destructive pests to invade your home. There are different types of termites, but one type is drawn to moist areas. In fact, these bugs build mud tunnels to travel through so their environment is always moist and humid.
A water leak that keeps your wood cabinets, subfloor, or walls damp is a magnet for termites when there is a colony nearby. Termites alone are a good reason to have plumbing repairs completed as soon as you can.
If the thought of all these bugs moving into your home is creepy enough to make you want to repair your plumbing and dry out your house right away, brace yourself for even worse news: when your home develops an increase in bugs due to dampness, mold and water leaks, it changes the entire ecosystem in your house.
When you have an abundance of bugs, you’ll have an abundant food supply for other bugs that feed on them. That means you could see an increase in spiders as they move in to take advantage of the new food supply. The solution is to call Vines Plumbing to fix your leaks and repair water damage before you notice bugs so the pests won’t find your home so cozy.
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