What Can You Do to Keep Pests Out of Your Home?
There are always exterminators out there who are willing to help you deal with pest problems that can arise. If you’re a homeowner and notice pests or evidence of pest activity in your house, you can reach out to a reputable entity like Gecko Pest Control.
You can also pest-proof your home before you see evidence of any unwanted invaders. Pest-proofing your house is not usually very difficult, and taking a few simple steps can prevent you from needing to call an exterminator.
Let’s discuss how to take a common-sense approach to avoiding pests in your home.
Don’t Leave Any Food Out
One thing you can do to avoid pests is to put any food away when you’re done with a meal. Pests like ants, cockroaches, and rodents love humans who don’t bother putting away their leftovers.
If you eat a meal but still have some food left over, put it in a container and stick it in the fridge. That will prevent pests from smelling the food and being attracted to it.
If you order a pizza, for instance, put the box in the fridge with the leftovers in it, or take the remaining slices and stick them in a Tupperware container or a Ziplock bag. That way, you make your home seem less tempting to pests looking for a handout.
Seal Up as Many Cracks and Crevices as You Can Locate
Pests like to sneak into your home through any means they can find. Rodents will do this, and so will ants and other critters you don’t want anywhere near your living space.
Some of the ways pests can come into your home are fairly obvious. Check all your doors to see that there are no cracks under them through which animals or insects might come. Check the windows to see that they’re resting securely in their frames.
Some other ways into your home might not be as visible to the naked eye. You can hire a company to do what is called a home energy audit. Usually, HVAC companies will do this for you.
They’re auditing your home to see whether cold air is escaping from anywhere when you’re running the AC during the hotter months. They also prevent warm air from escaping during the winter when you’re running the furnace.
When you get one of these energy audits done, the HVAC company usually tells you where you can make improvements to keep the costs of your heating and cooling down. They will spray foam into any cracks and crevices to lower your energy costs.
However, when they do so, it also prevents many pests from getting in. Having this done can be a little bit of an upfront expenditure, but it serves two purposes. It keeps down your energy costs moving forward, and it also makes it a lot less likely that you’ll have to deal with common household pests.
Keep the Plants Outside
Many people like having plants indoors. The greenery makes them feel nice, especially during the winter when everything outside is brown and drab.
The problem with bringing a lot of plants and mulch inside is that bugs can live in them. If you have plants indoors, you often have to deal with gnats and other flying insects that will show up and torment you by appearing everywhere inside the house. You will be kept busy swatting at them.
You can prevent this by keeping your indoor plants to a minimum or keeping them outside entirely.
Dispose of Trash and Litter Properly
Trash and litter disposal is another way you can keep pests away. If you have a lot of smelly trash, like the results of cooking projects, make sure to tie it up securely in trash bags. Then, place the trash bags in your outside trash can and close the lid tightly.
Make sure to bring the trash promptly out to the curb on pickup day. Collect any debris the garbage truck missed and put it in sealed bags in the trash, so the smell does not attract pests.
Animals, especially rodents, will become more interested in your house if you have smelly trash close to it to which they can gain access. Sealing up your garbage as best you can and getting rid of it promptly should help you repel most pests that might get curious enough to try a home invasion.
Clean Your Drains Regularly
You might feel like you’re doing a pretty good job if you’ve sealed off all the cracks and crevices you can find. That is certainly one way to get rid of potential pest entry points, but have you thought about your drains?
Your drains are possible entry points for various critters. Some of them can crawl through your pipes and enter your home, particularly cockroaches and other small insects.
You can clean your drains regularly as a way to deter any invasion. You can use a drain cleaning solution that you can easily find at a store like Home Depot or Lowes, or you can order one and get it delivered through Amazon or another online seller.
Keep Your Home Clean
One further thing you can do to keep critters away is to keep your home as clean as possible. Cleaning disturbs any area where a creature or insect might be trying to nest.
You can vacuum the carpets, sweep and mop the floors, and do anything else that will keep your home neat and tidy. Doing this will get rid of any crumbs, and it will disrupt any pests that might be trying to make themselves comfortable in your living space.
If you follow the tips that we’ve suggested, you can often thwart pests before they become an issue. If they still get in after all of your best efforts, though, that is when you can contact an exterminator who can come and devise a plan for ridding you of your unwanted guests.