While a stream of ants heading toward your pet’s food bowl is an icky infestation, sometimes bug problems are less obvious. Here’s how to spot a pest problem before it becomes bad.

Spidey senses heightened?
The average household spider is typically harmless and is, in fact, helpful. They keep other bugs at bay.

If you just spy a spider every once in a while or only outside of your home, you might not have a pest problem in your house. If, however, you are seeing a lot of or a sharp increase in spiders, it could mean that you have a bug problem of a different sort.

Spiders are only going to live where they can find food, so it might be time to dig a little deeper to figure out if your home is a smorgasbord of creepy crawlies. Keep an eye out for flies, mosquitoes, moths, and butterflies, which web-building spiders love, and crickets, grasshoppers, and beetles, which are preferred by hunting varieties of spiders.

Check out the corners
While a dreaded sighting of mouse droppings is an obvious sign of infestation, you may have other clues first that you have a problem even if you’ve never spied a mouse.

Take a look in the corners of your garage and attic. Do you see bits of shredded paper and cardboard? If so, it might be a clue that a mouse is making itself home in your house.

Are weird smudge marks appearing on otherwise clean surfaces in your home? Mouse fur is oily and tends to leave marks when it comes in contact with surfaces. If you spot a dark spot on the bottom of a door, it might be a sign that it’s the entryway for your home for the local mouse population.

Hearing things?
Termites are one of the most dreaded of home pests and for good reason: they cause an estimated $30 billion damage annually to crops and manmade structures. The average cost of a termite repair for a homeowner is $3,000.

If you catch termites early, you may be able to avoid significant damage and major repairs. If your home or a nearby structure is newly infested, you may find piles of what appear to be fish scales. When termites look for a new home, they swarm and then shed their wings afterward. This is what you finding, and taking early action could save you a lot of money and headaches.

Later signs of termite infestation include mud tubes along exterior walls and piles of tiny wood pellets. Feel like you’re hearing things? If it’s a tapping sound in your walls, it could be the sign of a major infestation.

Check out next door
Do you keep seeing the exterminator van in your neighborhood? It could be a sign that you have an unseen or future pest problem on your hands!