It’s safe to say that every homeowner wants to keep their property pest-free. Pesky insects, mice, and other creepy crawlies tend to not be welcome in your home (unless you want to keep them as pets). Hence, it’s best to keep these destructive critters off of your home’s premises.
Here are eight tips to get rid of pests inside your house:
Call The Professionals
According to Yard Butler’s pest control services, the suggested frequency to get pest treatments for your home is at least once per quarter. But, some crucial matters might prevent you from taking home pest protection into your own hands.
For example, it’s that time of the quarter to rid the abode for any signs of pest entry or infestation. However, a massive work-related project is about to reach its deadline. This task needs your undivided attention, preventing you from carrying out pest maintenance for your home.
One way to solve this dilemma is to call the professionals such as this Long Island exterminator to do pest maintenance for you. Still, it doesn’t mean you should call just any company in the pest control industry. Make sure to consider some essential factors before signing any contract.
Interviewing your preferred pest control firm is an excellent way to get the answers to your burning questions. Those inquiries might revolve around topics like government certifications to operate, liability insurance policies, and potential value from the completion of the operation.
Also, don’t be afraid to be skeptical if the company guarantees that you’re going to get good or superb results from their services. Check online reviews or ask friends and relatives about what they think about this particular firm and its promises. Take the advice of the people you trust, especially if they already hired the same company before.
Know The Enemy
Sun Tzu, a renowned Chinese general, writer, and philosopher, once said, “If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.”
You can apply the lesson learned from the Chinese philosopher’s saying to home pest prevention. In other words, trying to keep those pesky critters away from your home without knowing about what you’re dealing with may result in additional complications.
For example, you attempt to kill a rat using a conventional mousetrap. This device tends to be relatively effective in trapping rats. However, these critters tend to be quite smart and may take revenge. So, if these creatures see that you’re the trapper, they may not hesitate to get revenge once they manage to escape.
Therefore, you must know your ‘enemies’ first to reduce the risks of unwanted pest behavior in and around your home. Keep in mind that a little research can go a long way. Take the time in studying the potential pests that may scurry into your dwelling.
Some relatively common pests that may enter your home include cockroaches, flies, and rodents. Cockroaches tend to like strong, oily odors. Furthermore, these filthy and gross insects tend to leave their droppings in dark, damp areas. Failure to clean these wastes may attract more cockroaches to your abode.
Conversely, flies tend to fly around garbage cans and rotting food. As for rodents, these critters seem to find it interesting to nest in locations with a strong scent of rat urine. Hence, if you see one rat, chances are others are already lying in wait nearby.
In summary, if you’re knowledgeable about the pests that may invade your home, you’d have a much better chance at keeping them away from your property.
Block Entry Points
Pests are living creatures, and they tend to seek shelter in different places. Unfortunately, one of these locations might be your humble abode.
One way to ensure you don’t get any of these ‘uninvited guests’ is to block their entry points. Again, it’s essential to know the troublesome critters that may enter your home. Otherwise, you might spend a significant amount of time, effort, and money on trying to seal every nook and cranny in the property.
Note that you don’t have to try and seal every crevice you see in the house. Instead, aim to close some relatively common entry points. For example, roaches and scorpions tend to like squeezing their small bodies into door and window gaps. You can solve this issue by adding weatherstripping around these openings.
Aside from door and window gaps, roof vents are also quite popular as entry points of some creatures. In particular, roof rats like to use these ‘tunnels’ as homes. Furthermore, these rodents may also use your home’s vents to travel across the different areas in the premises.
You don’t have to obstruct or remove the vents to keep these animals away from your home. Instead, you can install metal meshes or grate-like materials to each entry point. These materials still allow excellent indoor airflow while significantly restricting access to rats and other irksome animals.
Also, you might not notice immediately, but you might also bring pests into your home, albeit unwillingly. Some instances may allow you to accidentally carry creatures, such as crickets, bugs, and roaches, upon entering the front door. These animals may come from somewhere from your recent trip and go inside your luggage. Otherwise, you may have left the front door open, allowing these creatures to go in your dwelling to seek good food and shelter.
Therefore, check yourself and your belongings before opening the front door. Ensure that you’re not bringing any destructive critters into your home. Failure to notice annoying insects or rodents when you enter the premises may result in serious problems, such as bug or rat infestations.
Eliminate Food, Shelter, And Water Sources
Several pests tend to gravitate towards locations that serve food, shelter, and water. Hence, if you cut the supply of resources, these critters may not find your property interesting.
Start preventing pest entry by storing food properly. Ensure that no food product is sitting on a surface without a protective container. For example, unprotected peanut butter and jelly sandwich is an excellent way to attract rodents. Instead of leaving the sandwich on your kitchen table, place it inside a container. Otherwise, consider putting it in the refrigerator for safekeeping.
Furthermore, don’t forget to take out the trash. Litter and waste piled up in an area of the property are like a buffet to animals, like rats, raccoons, and skunks. Hence, always make an alarm to remind you when the garbage truck passes by your area.
Also, consider taking some time to remove tall grass and weeds from your lawn. Both of these lawn elements can be excellent shelters for different insects. If you don’t remove these bugs soon, you might see them lurking inside your house. Spend one Saturday or Sunday morning per month to mow grass and remove weeds from your garden. Doing this task can help you eliminate some essential resources for pests, allowing the property to remain bug-free for extended periods.
Clean Work Areas
Many household pests seem to find dirty and unhygienic places attractive and comfortable. Therefore, leaving your work areas cluttered and riddled with junk may invite a pest infestation.
Ensure that you keep your work area clean and organized after every workday. Spend a few minutes after doing tasks to clean the space. Put garbage in the bin and use a vacuum cleaner to remove dust and dirt from the immediate vicinity.
Moreover, avoid eating or drinking in your home office. The crumbs and spills left behind will attract ants, cockroaches, rodents, and other pesky critters into the space. If you can’t avoid leaving your work behind, but you need a bite to fill your grumbling stomach, consider bringing your task into the dining area.
Remember, never leave areas in your home unclean, such that food particles are still scattered on the floor. If you do, your house might be the next shelter for several uninvited creatures.
Bathe Pets
Your furry four-legged companion might bring unwanted visitors into your home, too. The pests that you should be wary about in this regard are fleas and ticks, which are blood-sucking creatures that tend to live under other animals’ fur.
Although both insects are blood-sucking critters, fleas and ticks are different bugs. The former are about the size of a pinpoint needle. They’re wingless insects that can jump quite high. On the other hand, ticks are close cousins to spiders as they’re part of the arachnid family. Ticks are larger than fleas, and they’ll move to different hosts if they desire.
Bathe your animal companion regularly. In return, you can eliminate and prevent the presence of fleas and ticks in the property.
Use pet-friendly shampoos and conditioners to ensure that your animal friend remains flea- and tick-free. Furthermore, you can keep ‘Fido’ or ‘Fifi’ clean and dirt-free as well.
Aside from bathing your pet, you can also use other preventive techniques to ensure these specific pests don’t enter your home. For instance, run a flea comb on your pet’s hair every time the animal comes in after playing in the yard.
You can also use diatomaceous earth (DE), which is a fine, talcum-like powder from marine plankton. Using this product in common flea and tick entry points may help drive away these blood-sucking bugs.
Remember to keep your pet’s ears, eyes, and nose covered as you apply DE, shampoo, or other flea- and tick-removal products. Some of these products may be harmful to the animal’s well-being if they come in contact with certain body parts.
Wash Beddings Regularly
You don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night feeling itchy. Moreover, it’s a horrific sight to see your skin filled with red spots. These signs are quite common if your bed has a bed bug infestation.
Thankfully, you can prevent this problem from happening with the correct pest prevention techniques. One excellent way to prevent bed bugs from infesting your place of sleep is to wash your beddings regularly. Doing this will help remove bed bug eggs. Dry-cleaning can also help kill any existing bed bugs on the fabric.
You can also bring the beddings to professional cleaners. A reliable laundry service should have the expertise and tools to remove bed bug eggs, larvae, and adult bugs from the fabric.
Also, understand that these pests might find your bed attractive due to dirt and extra moisture. Hence, you must keep your beddings as clean and dry as possible.
Aside from washing your beddings, you can also leave them in an area that has a temperature of about 120 degrees Fahrenheit (about 49 degrees Celsius). This temperature makes the fabric uninhabitable for all stages of the insect’s lifecycle.
Plant Plants
Some plants can help repel pests from your home. For example, petunias may create alkaloid substances that work as ‘biological weapons’ against specific insects. These natural chemical compounds may harm bugs upon consumption. Thus, petunias can be excellent deterrents for insects like aphids and beetles.
Another excellent example is basil. Basil isn’t only an ideal ingredient to add extra spice to different recipes. But, this relatively small plant may help kill mosquito eggs as well. Plant basil near gathering areas to help protect your home from mosquitoes.
Moving forward, you can also plant marigolds to help keep aphids and mosquitoes out of your property. These plants tend to give off limonene, a substance that can help kill certain bugs.
Other plants that you can cultivate to prevent pests from entering your home are lavender, mint, and chrysanthemums. However, if you see an insect crawling near your plants, take the time to investigate the critter. Note that not every insect can bring harm to your home. Some bugs might even prove to be beneficial for your plants’ overall well-being.
Conclusion
Every seemingly little effort you spend to keep your home pest-free will accumulate over time. Consider following the eight tips mentioned in this article so your household won’t have to worry about cockroaches, mosquitoes, fleas, and rodents. But, if you think that pest prevention seems like a job that you can’t handle alone, consider calling industry professionals from the start.