Do you want your home to be free of unwanted visitors in the form of pests? Do you want to take preventative measures before they settle into your home?
It’s time to avoid pest infestation before they begin taking root in your home.
Once pests settle into or around your home, it can be difficult to fix the problem. If you don’t want this kind of problem building up under your nose, take the steps/tips we outlined below.
Keep reading for 7 preventative pest control tips.
1. Give Your Home a Thorough Cleaning Often
Often, a clean home won’t attract pests. Make it a habit to clean your home often. Try your best to keep your home free of food bits, standing water, or clutter.
Mop and vacuum the corners and tight spaces in the home. Always wipe down your kitchen counters and food preparation areas. You want to always disturb areas where a pest may breed or feel at home.
Did you know that bed bugs can cause psychological issues? To keep them out, vacuum every other day or every week. Use a strong vacuum cleaner with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter.
2. Don’t Store Food and Water Where They’re Accessible to Pests
Do you know what causes a rat infestation in many homes? It’s the availability and accessibility of food and water to these rodents. Rats will start burrowing and making homes in your home if you often leave food and water open to them.
The same applies to other pests like cockroaches. Thus, you want to cut off these possible food and water supplies before they attract pests. Keep the home sanitized and cleaned often.
Keep foods in reusable plastic containers if you aren’t going to place them in the fridge or pantry. Areas where you throw trash, especially excess food or food bits, also need to remain clean. Try to remove or limit exposed water as well.
3. Clean the Drains
If you don’t often clean the sink and floor drain in your home, this is the time for it. It’s a preventative pest control technique to keep pests from breeding in them. They attract pests because of the gunk and debris buildup inside the drains.
Once pests start using your drains as a breeding site, it’ll be tricky to get them out of there. Thus, you want to make regular inspections and cleaning of the drains in the house. Don’t forget to include the drains in the basement and laundry room.
Use baking soda and vinegar as a homemade drain cleaner. Pour the baking soda down the drain first and then follow it up with heated vinegar so it foams. Cover the drain and let it sit for 15 minutes and finally run the hot tap or pour boiling water down for 30 seconds.
4. Seal Tiny Cracks and Gaps Into the House
One way to keep ants out of the house is to deny them entrance. You can do this by looking for cracks and gaps in the exterior of your home. Check every crevice and part of the home for possible entry points of pests into the home.
Once you find them, seal them up. Use sealants for the small openings in the walls. Don’t forget to check the corners of your ceiling as well.
If your doors already have warped wood, look up ways to repair or replace it. You want them to have a perfect fit if possible.
You can also cover up tears or rips in the doors/windows with mesh. Go to the local home and hardware store. Look for a mesh with 200 holes per square inch, which best works in keeping insects out.
Inspect and seal your doors and windows again after a few years.
5. Use Natural Insect Repellants
Do you have a garden at the back of the house? Try to plant blooms that repel insects like geraniums or citronella geranium. Geraniums work best at repelling cabbage worms, red spider mites, and leafhoppers.
Citronella geraniums or mosquito plants can repel mosquitos. They work well if you’ve got a fountain or a stagnant water feature in your yard. To repel fleas, use mint leaves soaked in water for 3-5 days.
Do you have trouble with flies entering your home? Try adding fresh basil and mint leaves with a slice of slime and split vanilla bean. Let them steep in white vinegar for two weeks, then strain into a spray bottle and spray away.
There are many more natural insect repellants. You can search online to see more. You can also read our other blog posts to learn what they are.
6. Rinse Recyclables Before Throwing Them in the Bin
We all want to do our roles in helping the environment recover. If you segregate your trash, make sure you keep the areas for it clean. For your recyclables, one way to avoid an ant infestation is to rinse them first.
It’s also better to use a bin with a tight-fitting lid for the recyclables bin. If your city or municipality gave you an open bin for your recyclables, rinse them instead. Try to rinse out all the food bits so they don’t attract pests to your bins.
7. Change Your Light Bulbs
One way to reduce flying insects around doors and windows is to use the right kind of light bulbs. You want to buy halogen or high-pressure sodium vapor light bulbs. Insects don’t notice yellow-tinted bulbs since the wavelengths of yellow are longer.
Remember that insect eyes are very different and more complex than ours. They have a harder time seeing warmer colors like red, orange, and yellow. If you want to use light that’s invisible to insects, red is the option.
However, red light doesn’t do a lot for our eyesight as well. Red isn’t too practical for outdoor lights, so pick yellow-tinted bulbs instead. You may also want to change the location of the light.
Try to position the light on a pole far from the house rather than on the exterior of your house. This will keep insects at a safe distance. Don’t worry because the light will still reach your porch for safety.
Keep Your Home Pest-Free With Professional Preventative Pest Control
That’s it for our guide on some useful preventative pest control. We hope you start practicing and applying these tips. It’s better to practice preventive measures than calling in an exterminator later.
Did you enjoy reading about preventive pest control? Do you need professional pest control for your home? If you do, we’re always available so get in touch today!