Pests are pesky creatures that damage your home, leave signs of their residence, and in some cases, compete with you for resources. Nobody wants a house full of pests, but many people don’t know how to deal with them effectively, either. If you’re worried about an infestation of various pests in your home, consider trying out the following tips to rid your house of them once and for all.
1. Eliminate Standing Water
Water is just one resource pests need to thrive, but they can find food in other ways. As long as you have water in areas of your home with less traffic, you can believe that pests will flock to it and thrive in the area.
To eliminate all sources of water, you should be on the lookout for anything that can contain it. For example, if you have standing buckets in your garage, turn them upside down so they don’t store water and any pest’s access to it is cut off. By ridding them of spaces to get their resources, pests are more likely to move on to another place.
2. Tidy Up Your Kitchen
Loose crumbs can provide pests with nourishment to keep them coming back for more. Cleaning up any open dry food in your pantry can be an excellent way to stop these pests from breeding and thriving around your food.
In some cases, pests may already be in some unopened containers and should be dealt with accordingly. To stop them from coming back, you should consider checking everything in your pantry, washing it out and thoroughly cleaning everything. You should always store food in sealed, airtight containers so pests can’t find their way in.
3. Seal Cracks
Cracks in your home may allow pests to roam freely both in your home and inside your walls. By sealing cracks or gaps in your walls, you can prevent pests from entering your home without your knowledge. You can plug the more minor cracks with caulk, but you might need more intensive work for more significant gaps or holes. If you think there might be pests living in your walls, consider calling someone to check it out before you seal the crack up entirely.
4. Put a Lid on Your Garbage
Open trash cans may be a blatant invitation for pests to come into your home. Make sure that you secure all of your trash and remove it from your home frequently. Trash cans with sealed lids can help you keep pests out of your garbage, and it’ll prevent unwanted smells from attracting them or flooding into your home, too.
5. Look For Signs of Infestation
Infestations aren’t difficult to spot once you know what to look for. Mice commonly leave droppings in places they’ve been. Look for it in the corners of your garage, your kitchen or your bathroom. For an infestation of termites, you might look for wood pellets or sawdust indicating that termites have been active in your woodwork.
Once you know whether you have an infestation, you can take further steps to deal with it. It might involve cutting off the pests’ resources to food and water. In some cases, like with termites, simply getting rid of crumbs won’t help, as they feed on wood. To get rid of them, you should call an extermination company.
6. Check Your Exits
Gaps in doors and windows could allow pests to slip in without you noticing. If you find a hole at the bottom of your door or window, consider replacing your weatherstripping. Weatherstripping is easy to install yourself, and when done correctly, it can keep out unwanted pests and prevent the cold from coming in during the winter months. Weatherstripping can also make your home more energy-efficient — thus hitting two of your goals in one.
7. Eliminate Hiding Spots
Pests may accumulate in areas that aren’t kept tidy. If you have any messy rooms in your home, consider decluttering. Cut down on paper clutter and anything else on the floor that could make a great hiding place for pests.
Plenty of pests, like cockroaches and earwigs, only come out at night because they hate the possibility of being discovered. The fewer hiding spaces they have, the less comfortable and safe pests will feel about invading your home.
8. Get an Inspection
The most surefire way to eliminate pests and prevent them from coming back is to get someone to inspect your home and tell you where it falls short in defending against pests. From there, you may choose to hire an exterminator to rid your home of the problems for good. Once you know what to look out for, you’ll feel more educated and better prepared to deal with any future infestations or prevent them from happening altogether.
Give Pests a Reason to Leave
If you don’t make it easy for pests to hang around, they may start to see that your home isn’t worth the effort. Whether you make it impossible for them to stay or hire an exterminator to deal with the issue, you can rest assured that you’ll send a message that pests aren’t welcome anywhere near your home. You’ll be better prepared to tackle these issues in the future and can look forward to a pest-free home.
