Pests infest your home looking for food and shelter. You can make your home uninviting to pests by sealing cracks and keeping your house clean.
Keeping your kitchen counters, stations, and cabinets clean is an important first step. Leaving food out is a free invitation to pests. You should also rake moisture-wicking mulch turn the soil in your garden regularly, and keep trees and bushes trimmed. Calling Pest Control Allen TX experts is the first step in your pest control journey.
Vacuuming
If you want to make your home less inviting to pests, the first step is cleaning up. Keep the areas around your home free from debris like trash cans, wood piles, and plant containers. Cut back any vegetation that comes in contact with the foundation of your house and trim tree limbs that are too close.
Inside your home, vacuuming regularly can help to deter pests by eliminating crumbs and spills that they can use as food sources. Make sure to get into corners and other crevices where crumbs can hide. Keep up with regular sweeping and mopping to eliminate moisture in your home as well. Pests like cockroaches, ants, and rodents love moist places and can enter your home through leaky pipes and faucets.
The kitchen is one of the most popular spaces for pests to find food and shelter, so it’s important to keep it clean. Throwing away food and garbage daily, sweeping the floor frequently, and keeping counters, stations, and cabinets clean can help to keep pests away. Vacuuming your kitchen can also help remove crumbs and spills before pests have a chance to feast on them.
Vacuuming can also be helpful when it comes to removing stink bugs from your home. These pests can be a real pain to deal with, so making sure to regularly and thoroughly vacuum your home can help to keep them at bay. A vacuum that has a disposable bag can be very useful for removing stink bugs without getting their stench on you while squashing them.
Another way to prevent stink bugs and other pests from entering your home is to keep indoor plants that are known to repel them. Plants like mint, thyme, chives, eucalyptus, and lavender are all known to deter stink bugs. If you’re having trouble with pests in your home and DIY methods aren’t working, a professional pest control service can help. They can treat the area and seal cracks to keep pests out for good. A basic treatment can take under six hours, with full results in about a week.
Sealing Cracks
The tiniest cracks and crevices around your home, garage, or shed are a grand entrance for mice, rats, cockroaches, and other unwelcome guests. One of the most effective DIY pest control tips is to seal these entry points. This is best done with caulk, which can be found at your local hardware or grocery store for a reasonable price. Using a flashlight, do a walk-through of your house or business with a caulking gun and a tube of caulk to look for any areas where critters might be sneaking in to cause damage or to eat and sleep. Seal holes, gaps, and cracks focusing on doors, windows, the foundation, and any vents that are not properly closed or sealed with caulk or metal wire mesh.
Another easy DIY pest control tip is to remove food sources from the home. This is especially important in the kitchen and dining areas, where food crumbs, leftovers, and stray utensils can quickly attract pests. Also, be sure to clean up spills and messes promptly, as this will help prevent pests from making their way into the house to find water and shelter.
Lastly, it is a good idea to keep the foliage on any trees and bushes surrounding your property neatly trimmed. This will prevent pests like ants and carpenter ants from climbing over the foliage and entering your home through cracks and crevices.
There are many other easy DIY pest control tips, but these are some of the most common and most effective for first-time homeowners. By following these simple tips, you can make your new house or apartment a less attractive environment for unwanted guests and keep them away for good. Remember to check back for more tips and don’t forget to use Modernize to find trusted professionals to perform any home improvement or maintenance jobs. With our easy online platform, you can easily compare estimates from multiple pros near your home and then schedule the services at a time that works for you! Get started today! Then, after your project is complete, you can relax and enjoy a bug-free home.
Keeping Your Yard Clean
While keeping your house clean can help fend off pest infestations, you also need to keep the surrounding area as clean as possible. This includes making sure to regularly trim your yard, empty trash frequently, and avoid accumulating piles of leaves or branches that could attract rodents or insects. In addition, make sure your gutters are not clogged and that water drains away from your home.
These steps should prevent pests from finding food or shelter near your home, limiting their access to the inside. However, you should still take steps to seal any cracks, gaps, or holes that may invite pests into your house. Look for these entry points around doors and windows, in the garage or crawl spaces, behind shutters and vents, in the basement, and near outdoor faucets and hoses. Use caulk, weather stripping, and screens to fill in these entrance points.
Another great DIY pest control tip is to spray your perimeter with an insecticide or repellant. This creates a line that pests will not cross, and while professional services can provide regular spraying for your home, you can do this on a DIY basis by purchasing a commercial product and following its instructions.
Finally, you should try to avoid attracting pests into your home in the first place by using a variety of safe homemade remedies and natural deterrents. Vinegar, for example, can kill or repel several different pests, including fruit flies, mosquitoes, and ants. You can also use diatomaceous earth, boric acid, and pepper as quick home solutions to ward off pests.
These are some of the most effective and affordable ways to fend off common household pests, but if you find that your home is plagued by a pest infestation, you should contact a professional for full treatment. A professional can treat your entire home in less than six hours, and you should see results within a week. This is much faster than any DIY method and more effective than simply buying a store-bought pesticide or repellant. You can also check out our blog for more tips on controlling pests in your home!
Keeping Trash Out
As a homeowner or renter, you want to do everything possible to keep pests out of your home. Besides being annoying at the least, some of these pests carry diseases and can be dangerous for humans or pets (like raccoons). The first step is limiting their food sources. This is why keeping your garbage bins sealed and not feeding wildlife in the yard is a great start.
In addition, you should also avoid bringing pests into your home. This includes avoiding grocery store cardboard produce boxes, checking your bags and containers for bugs before bringing them home, and cleaning out the washroom regularly. This will help to eliminate the food source for cockroaches and other pantry pests, as well as the shelter for rats and mice.
Garbage that is left out too long is one of the biggest attractants of pests in the home. It can encourage gnats and flies, ants, roaches, mice, and rats to scavenge in your kitchen and even make their way into the house. Taking out the trash daily and using sealable garbage cans will go a long way to deter pests.
You can also deter pests by removing rotting wood from around your property, sealing cracks in walls and the foundation, and trimming overhanging branches and bushes. If trees or bushes hang over the roof, they may allow pests to enter the house and cause structural damage. You should also check the condition of your windows, doors, and screens regularly and repair any areas where rodents or insects can enter.
General cleaning and routine home maintenance go a long way to prevent pests from infesting your property. If you sweep away spider webs, clean off the front porch and check for holes in screens, regularly rake wet soil and mulch around the house, and cut back shrubs, you can greatly reduce pest populations. These measures will also keep your home looking better. This will be more appealing to potential buyers or tenants and give you a sense of pride in your home.