The presence of pests is often associated with being untidy, but your efforts at running a clean ship can go only so far as pest invasions are concerned. Sometimes, these unwelcomed creatures can catch us unawares and wreak havoc. As such, knowing your foe and how to rid them from your house is essential.
Putting up the right fight is something that will embrace more of preventive measures than treatment. Understand each type of pest can prove useful since it arms you will all you need to know about what you are dealing with and how to eradicate it, hopefully for good.
Preventive measures should be your first line of defense against all manner of pesky creatures, and this will have you heading in the right direction when trying to stop a full-blown pest infestation at its tracks. Below are a few pest prevention tips worth employing in your home.
- Prevention
The best strategy to use when battling pests is a defensive one, and it starts with determining the type of foe you are up against. In this, you need to know the pest invading your property, their breeding cycles, habitat, and diet.
When you know this information, you can make use of the correct things that will kill or eradicate them as well as avoid the things that attract them to your home. You will also know how to restrict their entry into your house. Of the many prevention measures that you can have in your home, none is essential than hygiene. The other is to ensure that all possible entry points that these unwelcome creatures use are sealed off.
- Be Clean
Running a clean ship plays a vital role in keeping a pest free home. Most unwelcome creatures such as flies, and some rodents are attracted to your property by dirty conditions. However, some pests don’t need dirty environments to thrive, but a significant number of them relish dirty and damp places for their survival.
Many pest control specialists consider this measure as the top-most rule to keeping the home free of flies, rats, roaches, and ants. Exercising such hygienic standards should be in and around the house. It encompasses the need to handle and store foods properly, cleaning all surfaces; especially in the kitchen and bathroom, and keeping to proper rubbish management (having all bin lids closed, and ensuring proper collection and disposal) of the rubbish. It also includes maintaining the clean grounds by cutting the long grass, trimming the bushes and shrubs, making sure there is no stagnated water around in and around the property as well as cleaning the drains.
Regarding proper waste management, all leftovers should be kept in sealed containers and store accordingly. Any rubbish that is perishable should be placed in a polythene bag and thrown in the bin, and the lip closed securely to avoid attracting dogs, cats, and wild animals such as squirrels and raccoons from savaging in the containers.
- Keep Your Window and Door Closed
As mentioned earlier, not all pest need unsanitary conditions to thrive; the cockroach is an excellent example. As such, do not think that having a clean house is all it takes to keep out pests. You also need to ensure that they do not find a means of gaining entry. For this, you should check and seal off all entry points. Start with the spaces in the doors and windows.
Also, bug-proof the vents as you inspect the roof, walls, and floors for any crevices that the small rodents and bugs can use to enter your home. Keep in mind that leaving the doors and windows open, though necessary for airing the place, does increase the risk of a pest infestation especially if you have dirty grounds. Also, leaving them open during a pest extermination treatment is counterproductive, you should only open them a few hours after the procedure to air the house.
- Arm Yourself To The Teeth
Some pests are elusive and seem to have mastered the art; it is when dealing with such creatures that you know which tools to use to ensure that you put up a winning fight against the invaders. For instance, the use of poisons can be useful when getting rid of insects such as ants, mites, and roaches. The use of metal and glue traps can prove to be useful when having a home run down by mice, rats, squirrels, and raccoons. So, which is the best solution for what pest infestation? You should know the answer to this question before you start the pest extermination and extraction.
- Baiting
Baiting is one of the simplest methods of managing a pest infestation. But it is a solution that works best for certain types of unwanted and unwelcome creatures. It will be a foolish option when dealing with tiny things such as mosquitoes, flies, mites, bees, wasps, roaches and other insects. Baiting can prove to be a useful pest control method for large animals such as mice, squirrels, rats, and raccoons.
It is an excellent choice if you are among the many homeowners that do not believe in killing. You can capture the creatures and then take them to far away into the wild to release them. You can get different baits for different pests at the local home improvement and hardware stores or from your local pest control specialists.
- Fumigation
It is considered as a highly drastic answer to dealing with unwelcome animals. Fumigation is a chemical warfare that can be technical or simple in execution. It involves the introduction of a noxious substance that is lethal to the pests that will kill them or make them infertile when they breathe it in or come into conduct with the chemical.
The use of insecticide sprays is a simple form of fumigation, and the most complex is tenting. Fumigation can work when dealing with tiny creatures such as mites, ants, and roaches that hide in small, tight crevices. It can also be used to deal with some rodents such as rats and moles.
- Poisons
The use of poison is not that far off them fumigation since it involves the use of a substance that kills the pests. However, the use of poisons is recommended for big creatures and is often combined with baiting.
- Know When to Call In the Experts
From the above two tips, it is evident that you should know your foe before taking the necessary measures. But sometimes, the situation may turn out to be a bite that is more than you can chew. You may have put up the right measures only to see no good results. At times, you may be dealing with pests that have a very high reproductive rate. Whichever be the case, you should consider bringing in the experts. Do not throw in the towel, instead take things to the extreme, and this means calling the exterminators. Remember to ask them for tips on how to control pests in your home once they are done and long after they have left.
