Pests can make your home so uncomfortable and you can end up hating being at home. Therefore, rather than waiting to take defensive actions when pests will already have infested your home, you better be offensive. Prevent pests from entering your home. You can use different methods to keep your home free from pests. There are also effective strategies you can use to remove pests from your home in case you already have them. Read on to discover more ways to keep pests out of the house:

Seal Any Gaps and Cracks

Always inspect your house for any cracks and gaps. These gaps and cracks are common at the doors and at the windows. They can also appear on your house’s exterior. You must seal every crevice as they can encourage pests to hide in and multiply. Cracks on your house’s wall can encourage bed bugs.  Wooden materials like doors and windows can also create a suitable environment for bed bugs.

You would not want to have bed bugs at your house as they can be so uncomfortable. Furthermore, pest control specialists at Pest Resources advise that you avoid having bed bugs at your house as their bites can cause you some weakness. You can also experience some asthmatic attacks with bed bug bites. Bed bug bites can cause rashes, itchiness, burning sensations or even hives.

Inspect your house foundation for any loose signs, gaps at the utility lines and any missing roof shingles. Check whether your water pipes, cable wiring and electrical wiring systems have some gaps. Seal these gaps with coarse steel wool, mortar, sheet metal or copper mesh. However, avoid using expanding caulk as many pests including rodents can chew it and have their way into your house. If your doors and windows are broken or warped, repair them. Eliminate every doors and window that do not fit your house accordingly. Be quick to repair any tears and rips on your screens. They can also encourage pests to hide. You can use screen mesh sizes of suitable sizes like 200 holes for every square inch. All these mesh wires are readily available at your nearest hardware stores.

Dispose Trash and Litter Accordingly

Did you know that garbage can attract pests? You can attract rodents and mosquitoes if you keep dump trash and litter near your house. Raches and ants also thrive in places with litter.  Yard waste also attracts pests. It can act as a hideout or food for different pests. Therefore, ensure you keep all your waste in air-tight containers with tight-fitting lids. Replace dirty cans with clean ones and regularly clean the area where your debris baskets sit to remove any spells. Avoid keeping litter, standing water and plant chippings in your decks, garages, yards and patios. All these can create a suitable environment for pests to live in.

Alternatively, you can store your waste in recyclable bags and containers. After disposing of the waste rinse these bags thoroughly. Also, store your recyclables in waste bins that have tight-fitting lids.  Therefore, rinse all the food items you transfer from your recyclables to the bin. This way you can easily keep your waste bins pest-free. Store wastebaskets outside your garage or home compound to keep pests farther away from your house.

The Right Light Bulbs Can Also Help

You can prevent flying insects from entering your house with the right bulbs around your windows and door areas. Therefore, you can replace all your standard mercury vapour lights with quality high-pressure halogen lights or sodium vapour lights. Choose bulbs that have some orange, pink or yellow tints as they hardly attract any insects. Change the location of your bulbs accordingly. Instead of placing your light bulbs on the wall’s exteriors near the doors, hang them on a pole farther away from the house.

Store All Food in Sealed Containers

Pests like rodents have a good sense of smell. Should you leave your food in open containers,  they’ll go for the food. To avoid such, keep your pantry foods like crackers and cereals in resealable bags or reusable containers. Also, clean your pantry area regularly to avoid attracting pantry-pests that would come to feed on spilt food. Remove any food spills from your pantry.

You can easily keep your house pest-free with the above simple tips. Clean your house regularly to remove any food spills. Keep your house dry as dampness can encourage pests to leave in your house. Keep litter bins away from your home as they can also attract rodents. Be intentional with the light bulbs you use. Effect food storage can also help you prevent pests. Keep your kitchen area clean and well maintained. Remember to check your house foundation for cracks and seal all the crevices which could act as a home for different pest types.

Critters are a natural part of our world. Whether we like it or not. However, for many people, the more common methods of pest prevention can be a somewhat excessive if not a little inhumane.

Luckily there are things you can do before resorting to extremes.

Prevention Is Better Than Cure

In each case, there are certain things or circumstances that attract or persuade these uninvited guests to move in. Granted, some areas are more prone to certain pests than others but that can make it much easier to figure out what pests you are at risk for.

In most cases, there are simple things you can do to prevent infestation. Unfortunately, there isn’t a one size fits all cure, it really differs from creature to critter.  You couldn’t try to implement a plan for ants and expect it to keep out rats and vice versa. Here are some of the more common pests what threats they pose and how to keep them away or deal with them in a less extreme way:

Rodents

Some people might find rats or mice or squirrels adorable and they could hypothetically be just that, when they’re in the wild, roaming free, and otherwise not infesting your home. Which is when they become a nightmare. Rodents are a very common problem due to their obscenely fast reproduction periods (for mammals anyway).Rats, for example, can produce half a billion descendants in three years. Two mice can easily become 50 to 100 mice in a matter of just 4 – 6 months.

Luckily, Squirrels only have mating season twice a year and a litter can be 6 – 9 adorable little baby squirrels. But that’s still 20 of these fluffy little fan-tails where there used to be only 2, in just a year’s time. The problem with any type of rodent is the bacteria they carry with them, they’re known to spread more than 35 diseases, most of which cause serious illness and some of which can cause organ failure and death.

They spread and cause diseases like Leptospirosis, rat-bite fever, salmonellosis and yes, they’re responsible for the relentless spread of the black plague (supposedly). The scary part though? You don’t have to come to direct contact with these critters to contract most of these diseases, simply inhaling their airborne bacteria that sprout from their urine and droppings can infect you.

What Attracts Them And How To Prevent It:

Pet food, overgrown and under-kept gardens, unsecured dumpsters and easily accessible sewers are common attractions to rats and mice. Squirrels are easily attracted by bird feeders, it’s advisable to remove bird feeders altogether or otherwise repel squirrels as they aren’t easy to get rid of. The attraction is what draws them in, but the truth is rodents will generally seek shelter anywhere they can get in. Attics, basements, broken windows, holes in the roof or walls or even leaving the doors and windows open for extended periods can allow them to gain entry to your home. Most rodents are decent climbers, but remember Squirrels live in trees. Trees that are close to windows will pose a risk for entry.

Before you start rodent-proofing your home you have to check if your home is infested already but be sure not to touch any wild animals you may or may not come in contact with. Then once you know it’s clear, be sure to conduct a proper inspection of your home and secure any potential entry point that they could use. Also remember to secure any dumpsters and trash, trim any nearby trees and add screen doors where you’d usually leave doors and windows open. Dogs and cats will also help scare rodents away but they’re at risk for spreading diseases if they’re bitten by a rodent.

Insects

Insects are certainly trickier to get rid of since they can slip into cracks that we can’t even see with the naked eye. Cockroaches are disgusting little buggers that reproduce at an alarmingly fervent rate. One female (and yes it only takes a female) can produce 150 cockroaches in the span of a year. If half of those are female and they lay an equal amount of eggs, you’re looking at 11 250 roaches in practically the blink of an eye. The Queen Ant can easily lay 300 000 eggs a day, and here’s the kicker – reproduction is her one and only purpose. That’s a lot of ants.

Mosquitos reproduce at an annoyingly effective rate. A female lays 100 – 200 eggs at a time, and those eggs are adult mosquitoes that can reproduce themselves in just 8 days.  Insects, believe it or not, can spread some pretty gnarly diseases themselves despite their size. Cockroaches, for example can aggravate asthma and allergies whilst also carrying nasty bacteria all over your home.  Amongst others, female mosquitoes can spread the Zika virus, malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever.

Ant colonies with a concerning amount of dangerous bacteria have also been discovered in the past, even though the risk is rather small that this could affect Americans. Ants do, however, pose a risk by spoiling food they come in contact with.

What Attracts Them And How To Prevent It:

For insects, the major contributing factor to infestation is food. Food that falls on the floor, or is left unsealed can draw them in like it’s nobody’s business. Always make sure to seal up any type of food and clean up spills as soon as possible. Cockroaches love cluttered, warm and damp places so make sure to do a deep clean at least twice a year. When you encounter ants, be sure to wash the immediate area with soapy water to wash away their tracks.

In Conclusion:

When you’ve done all you can to prevent infestations, and still encounter one, do call a professional, especially since most poisons and conventional methods can do a lot more harm than good.