GREENSBORO, N.C. — If you're thinking it is way too cold outside and you want to stay in the house today, so are the bugs.
There could be a shocking amount of insects hiding in your home from the cold, and Jim Muir with Stark Exterminators in Greensboro said some of them could start popping up when we have that 60-degree day next week.
"A variety of different bugs will seek shelter in the wintertime, in your home, in your walls, in the window frames, and attics. We have a lot of stink bugs, ladybugs, and boxelder bugs. They tend to try to get into warmer spots so they can winter over," Muir said. "You could have thousands of bugs in your walls and you never know it. What happens when we get calls is when we get those sunny days, even if it's only 40 or 50 degrees, the bugs think that it's spring and start coming out, especially around the windows. So we'll wind up with bugs that are starting to come out of the walls or out of the attic into the homes, and people think that they're coming from the outside, but they've been in the walls all the time."
But Muir said there's no need to freak out. Most of the time the bugs are not a big problem.
"It's not? Other than their nuisance pest, they don't typically get into food sources. They don't get into anything," he said.
While most of the bugs are harmless. There is one exception if you've got a lot of ants in the wintertime. He said it could mean you have a leak in your house because they're attracted to big pools of water. So it's important to figure out where all those ants are coming from as fast as possible.