However, if you are paying a professional service to help you get rid of creepy bugs in your home, there is a sense in which things have already gone too far. Whenever possible, it is far better to prevent infestations before they ever occur. But what can you do that will minimize the chance that your home will ever suffer from a serious infestation?
Read on to learn all about the top tips for preventing and controlling creepy bugs in your home!
1. The Best Pest Control Is a Clean Home
Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to preventing bug infestations is that bugs tend to avoid clean homes.
Clean homes do not provide bugs with a good environment. The cleaner your home is, the harder it will be for any visiting bugs to find food, water, and shelter. That means that keeping your home clean may do more than anything else you can do to keep your home from ever suffering from an infestation.
Of course, not everyone always feels motivated to keep their homes as clean as possible. However, knowing that it can help you keep bugs from invading your home might provide you with the extra motivation you need.
On top of that, it is more important to keep certain parts of the home clean than others. For example, kitchens sometimes provide plenty of nourishment for bugs due to food and water being left out or falling on the floor. Making a special point of keeping your kitchen clean can minimize the chance that any visiting bugs decide to bring others along with them.
Plus, you can focus on simple tasks like taking the garbage out sooner rather than later. The longer you have old food sitting in your trash can, the higher the chance that it will attract bugs to it.
2. Use Fresh Air for Preventive Pest Control
Stale air is another big attractor for many kinds of bugs. That means that keeping your home full of fresh air can help keep it empty of bugs.
Of course, keeping your home full of fresh air will provide many other advantages as well! To improve ventilation in your home, consider making it a habit to open up some of your windows throughout the day.
Just make sure that they have screens in them. That way, your windows will not act as an easy entry point for any bugs that happen to be passing by.
Sometimes, bugs enter your home or get around through air vents. If you're worried about this possibility, it can be worth sealing up some of your air vents, at least temporarily.
Moist air can also attract bugs to your home. If your home humidity is high, consider investing in a dehumidifier.
Of course, if you use a dehumidifier, you will want to keep your windows closed for maximum effect. Some homeowners find that the best strategy is to keep the windows open during the day and then turn on a dehumidifier at night after closing the windows.
3. Vacuums Are Great Home Pest Control Products
If you spend a lot of time cleaning, you might be shocked to discover that bugs infest your home anyway. However, this sometimes happens because your cleaning tools are not as effective as you would like.
For example, some vacuum cleaners are strong enough to pick up superficial amounts of dust but not strong enough to pick up bugs like carpet beetles. On the other hand, if you find a powerful vacuum cleaner, it will help you get rid of any visiting bugs that you might not even have noticed. On top of that, having cleaner carpets will make them a less hospitable environment for pasts.
4. Treat Your Pets
Unfortunately, sometimes our pets are an easy way for pests to get into our homes. If you notice your pets scratching themselves a lot, they might have bugs on them. Ignoring that kind of problem can lead to a bigger infestation that affects your whole home.
If you notice any signs that your pets might have fleas or other pests on them, consider taking them to see a vet. As long as you get rid of fleas soon, there is only a small chance that you will end up with a full-blown infestation on your hands.
5. Keep Creepy Crawly Bugs Out of Cracks
If you take a slow walk around your home and look at all of the walls, you might notice that there are a surprising number of cracks in them. Many pests get inside through exactly these kinds of cracks.
The good news is that sealing up cracks in your exterior walls is easier than you might think. Often, all you need to do is get a caulking gun and use it on every crack you can see. As you do this, try to be thorough and fill every crack you can find after careful looking.
The more cracks you can fill, the lower the chance that a bug will manage to get inside your home through a crack you missed. However, as long as you fill in the majority of cracks in your home exterior, there is only a small chance that any remaining ones will let bugs in.
6. Store Wood Away From Your House Perimeter
Many termite infestations start because of nearby stores of wood. If you do have any wood around your home, make sure to keep it as far away from your exterior walls as possible.
The same applies to any wooden objects that touch your home's walls. If you can't move all such objects away from your home, make sure to keep them in good condition. If they are wet and decaying, they can provide the perfect entry point for termites to enter your home.
7. Let Animals Help With Creepy Looking Bugs
If you want to prevent infestations, it can be helpful to encourage animals to help you. If you see spiders in your home, you might want to let them be.
Although a spider might seem like a creepy bug with lots of legs, spiders do not tend to cause actual infestations. Instead, they prevent them by eating small pests that might come to your home.
Bats and birds are other animals that can help eat any insects that are hanging around your home. You can encourage birds to spend time around your home by putting out a bird feeder and a bird bath.
If you happen to find bats near your home, you might want to let them be rather than take any steps to get rid of them. If you want to have more bats near your home to get rid of insects, you can even try installing a bat house on your property.
8. Wash Your Bedclothes With Heat
Bed bug infestations can be extremely difficult to handle once they begin. However, you can often get rid of the first few bed bugs in your home by washing your bedclothes with as much heat as your washing machine and dryer can provide.
Although bed bugs can sometimes survive colder washes, turning your dryer to its hottest setting will kill any bed bugs that might be hiding in your bedclothes.
9. Invest in Pest Control Treatments
Many pest control treatments can help you create a perimeter of protection around your home that insects will be reluctant to cross. Consider learning about some of the pest control treatment options out there that you might be able to apply on your own.
Some people prefer to avoid pest control treatments because they are worried about harsh chemicals. However, you can also use some natural ingredients to help repel pests. You can create effective DIY pest control treatments out of things like vinegar and essential oils.
10. Work With Pest Control Services
If you are unsure about how to deal with a specific kind of pest, you might be able to get a little bit of help by calling up pest control services. Sometimes, you will need a very specific strategy to handle a certain type of insect. You might also need to call pest control services to help determine what kind of insects you have found in your home.
Follow the Top Tips for Preventing Creepy Bugs
If you have ever had an infestation of creepy bugs before, it makes sense that you would be willing to put in a lot of work to prevent another one. The good news is that preventing future infestations is much easier than dealing with ones that have already started. We hope that these tips will help you keep your home as comfortable and free of bugs as possible.
To learn more about how you can find pest control help at home, contact us here at any time!