There are many different pests that can cause problems in a home. While some homeowners deal with ant and fruit fly infestations, others deal with cockroaches and spiders. No matter what kind of pest infestations you're trying to prevent, however, a few simple tips and strategies can help.
Below we'll discuss 5 major residential pest control tips that every homeowner should use.
Pest Prevention Vs Treatment
When planning to protect your home from pests, it's important to consider the distinction between pest prevention and treatment. Remember that it's always best to be proactive and prevent pests from appearing in the first place.
By using preventive pest control when dealing with pests around your home, you'll save yourself some big headaches. You can also avoid needing to pay a lot of money for pest control chemicals and supplies or for hiring a professional pest control company.
Fortunately, there are some great things that you can do to help prevent pests from entering your home. For example, being mindful of the cleanliness of your home and the disposal of food and waste can go a long way in preventing issues in the first place.
While there may come a time to hire a professional pest control company, it may not be necessary if you take the right actions before you notice signs of trouble and experience an infestation.
Essential Pest Control Tips
If you want to prevent and eliminate pests in and around your home, there are some useful things that you can do that will help with this goal. Here are 5 major pest control tips that every homeowner should know.
1. Clean Your Home's Interior
One of the best things that you can do to keep your home free from pests is to take cleaning seriously. Many things can attract pests to your home. Insects and pests love a dirty, cluttered home, so by keeping your home tidy, you'll make your home less appealing to them.
One of the primary things to focus on when keeping your home clean is to avoid leaving scraps of food and crumbs around. You should pay a lot of attention to keeping your kitchen, dining room, and any areas where you eat as clean as possible. Be sure to sweep and vacuum on a regular basis to get rid of any crumbs that have fallen while cooking or enjoying a meal.
In addition to keeping your home free from food crumbs and scraps, also make sure that you keep everything else tidy as well.
Pay some attention to storage areas and spaces that are dark and that you don't visit as often. Dark and empty, unused spaces or spaces with boxes, shelves, and cabinets can be great places for bugs such as cockroaches to hide.
Ensure that you clean these areas up regularly and eliminate the build-up of dust to ensure that your home doesn't become full of unwanted guests.
2. Maintain Your Yard
While keeping the interior of your home clean and tidy can go a long way toward preventing pest infestations, you should pay plenty of attention to the outside of your home as well. Aim to keep your yard well-maintained and ensure that there aren't any areas on your home's exterior that serve as a great place for insects to get in.
When maintaining your yard, be sure that you're keeping everything clean and neat. Mow your grass regularly and ensure that fallen fruit, weeds, broken tree branches, and other debris is picked up as soon as possible.
Especially important is to get rid of standing water around your home. Make sure that you aren't leaving standing water around since these spots are well-loved by insects such as mosquitos, flies, and termites.
It's also important to take a look at the exterior of your home and eliminate entry points. Be sure to examine the windows, doors, and other parts of your home's exterior to look for cracks and holes where insects could get in. Then, seal them to prevent them from entering.
3. Use High-Quality Pesticides
If you already have a pest infestation, you'll want to take measures to eliminate it. Making use of pesticides can be well worth it and is one of the most effective ways to get rid of pests.
There are many misconceptions about pesticides, but the truth is that they're a valuable tool for keeping your home pest-free. Although using pesticides can help you get rid of pests effectively, however, you'll want to think carefully about which ones you use and ensure that they're the right choice for your home and the pest problem that you have. Be sure to purchase high-quality pesticides that are known to be safe for use around pets and children.
If you want to avoid the issues that come with using some common pesticides to get rid of pests, consider using a DIY alternative instead. Consider using Remedy if you're looking for a safer and more effective alternative to pesticides that come from big box stores.
If you decide to use pesticides and chemicals to get rid of pests around your home, be sure that you do it as safely as possible. Follow all instructions for any pesticides that you use to ensure that you'll have the easiest time protecting your home from unwanted pests.
If used in the right way, DIY pesticides can go a long way in controlling a pest problem and will prevent you from needing to call a professional.
4. Set Pest Traps
In addition to using pesticides and professional-grade DIY solutions such as Remedy, you should also consider setting traps in and around your home as well. Especially if you're already experiencing a problem with a particular pest, set up some traps to catch any that are hanging around.
There are various traps available for all different types of insects and pests that you may be dealing with. Plan on doing some shopping to find traps that are well-suited for the specific pest problem that you're experiencing in your home.
You may want to set up sticky floor insect traps, hanging fly traps, ant traps, a termite baiting system, or other traps that can help to keep your home free and clear from the insects that are present.
If you know that there's a particular insect in your home or a particular pest that's common in the area where you live, setting up traps proactively could be well worth it.
5. Try Natural Pest Control Remedies
Keeping your home and yard clean can do a lot to protect your home from pests and prevent them from entering your house in the first place. However, there are some DIY methods that can help scare away certain types of pests as well.
You might want to try some of these natural methods and remedies if you want to scare pests away with some simple things you already have around the house.
For example, white vinegar is known to deter ants, so placing it around entry points can scare them away from your home. Similarly, spiders are said to be averse to onions, so placing a bowl of onions around entry points could prevent them from coming inside. Coffee grounds can scare away certain pests as well.
Certain plants can help to scare pests away as well. Here are some examples of how you can scare away various types of pests:
- Basil - can repel mosquitoes, beetles, and flies
- Catnip - can repel ants and cockroaches and ants
- Chrysanthemum - can repel ants, bed bugs, beetles, cockroaches, fleas, and ticks
- Lavender - can repel fleas, flies, mosquitoes, and moths
- Rosemary - can repel beetles, cockroaches, flies, snails, and mosquitoes
- Spearmint - can repel ants, beetles, fleas, and moths
You might want to do some research on the particular pest that you have around your home. Consider scaring them away with certain scents or natural home pest control products in addition to using the other strategies listed above.
Finding Success With Residential Pest Control
If you want to handle residential pest control on your own as a homeowner, make sure that you know all of the most important strategies.
Keeping the interior and exterior of your home clean and tidy is a great first step. Using pest control products, setting traps, and trying natural remedies can be helpful choices as well.
Do you need help keeping your home free of pests? Get an instant quote today and start using Remedy to keep your home pest-free.
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