The Guest Room Has Been Shut Since June. Check It Before Family Lands.

Your sister lands Tuesday night. The guest room has been a closed door since June, and lately it’s where the beach chairs, the spare mini fridge and the Christmas bins live. Nobody has slept in that bed since Easter.

That’s the room most likely to surprise you. A space that stays dark, quiet and a little humid for months gives roaches, ants and silverfish all the cover they want. And if the bed or dresser came secondhand, it deserves a closer look before someone spends five nights on it.

Give it twenty minutes this week, with a flashlight, before you put fresh sheets on.

Start with the bed

Pull the sheets and the mattress protector. Run a flashlight along the mattress seams, the piping, the tag and the corners of the box spring. Then check the headboard where it meets the wall and any screw holes in the frame.

You’re looking for live bugs, pale shed skins and clusters of small dark spots that look like a marker dotted the fabric. Any of those means you should treat it as a possible bed bug problem and get an inspection before anyone sleeps there.

A futon, daybed or dresser that came from a yard sale or a relative’s garage gets the same look, plus the drawer joints and the back panel. Our guide to pests hiding in used furniture covers what to check on anything secondhand.

Then the closet and the storage bins

Guest closets in Florida turn into storage, and cardboard is the problem. Roaches like the corrugated gaps, and silverfish feed on the paper and glue. Open the boxes you haven’t touched in a while and look for droppings that resemble coarse pepper, egg cases, or shed skins.

If you find activity, move what you need into sealed plastic bins and get the cardboard out of the house. Don’t carry a box with live roaches through the living room to the garage. Bag it where it sits first.

Under the bathroom sink and the AC closet

The guest bathroom is the other room nobody uses in summer. Drains dry out, slow leaks go unnoticed, and the cabinet under the sink stays dark. Run water in the sink, shower and toilet, then look under the cabinet for damp wood, droppings or live roaches.

Do the same at the AC closet or air handler if it’s on that side of the house. Condensation lines and wet pans are an easy water source. A drip you fix now does more than any spray you put down. If the drain is backed up, call an HVAC pro. Pest treatment will not fix a clogged condensation line.

Windows, sliders and the door to outside

Cooler nights bring more than snowbirds. Rodents and roaches start looking for a way in as temperatures drop. Close the blinds, turn on the room light at dusk and look at the bottom of any exterior door or slider from the outside. If you see light coming through, so can a mouse.

Check window screens for tears and the weatherstripping on sliders that haven’t moved in months. Gaps under exterior doors are a cheap fix with a door sweep.

What not to do before they arrive

• Skip the bug bombs and foggers. They don’t solve bed bugs, can push roaches deeper into walls, and leave residue in the room someone is about to sleep in.
• Don’t strip a suspect bed and haul the linens across the house. If bed bugs are possible, bag the bedding in the room and wash it from there.
• Don’t toss the mattress on a hunch. An inspection tells you whether the problem is the mattress, the frame or something else.
• Don’t dry sweep or vacuum rodent droppings. Photograph them, keep people out of that area, and get proper cleanup guidance before anyone cleans.

While they’re here

Guests bring snacks, and guest rooms don’t usually have trash cans with lids. Put one in. Give them a luggage rack away from the bed so bags aren’t sitting on the mattress. Ask visitors to keep food in the kitchen, and empty that trash daily. If someone wakes up with bites, remember that bites alone can’t tell you what caused them. Mosquitoes, fleas and bed bugs can all leave marks. Look at the bed seams again before you guess.

When everyone flies home, give the room one more quick look before you close the door for another season. Luggage goes both ways.

When to call

Call for an inspection if you find any bed bug signs, roaches in daylight, droppings in the closet or under the sink, or activity that keeps coming back after you clean. Tell us which room, what you saw and when your guests arrive, and we’ll work around your schedule. For the bigger holiday picture, see keeping pests away this holiday season, or contact Pest Busterzz to book a visit before the house fills up.