One of the best parts of owning a home is inviting people over. You get to show off your decor and interior design, all while making memories in a space you cherish.
Sometimes, uninvited guests will take up residence in your home when you least expect it. Pests are always looking for places to stay that provide them shelter and food. Households are the perfect combination of both.
To make sure you keep your home free of unwanted pests, try turning these tips into habits. Your home will be cleaner and safer for it, which will make it a much more pleasant place to live.
1. Keep Doors and Windows Closed
When you picture bugs getting into your home, you might think of all the microscopic spaces you have no control over. They might find a tear in your carpet or a hole along the edging of a room, but they’ll go for the obvious entrances first.
It’s important to keep your doors and windows closed whenever you can. Open them to enjoy the fresh air and pleasant weather, but remember to shut them when you’re done. Insects will inevitably fly or crawl through the open spaces and potentially start breeding after they get comfortable.
2. Inspect Your Screens Regularly
Your home’s windows most likely all have screens. Backdoors often have them, too. They’re a great way to keep kids safe inside and keep pests outside.
Still, sometimes accidents happen and screens become torn. You don’t need to buy an entirely new one if that happens. You can patch any screen up in a few easy steps. It’s good to inspect them for tears regularly and repair them as quickly as possible.
3. Clean Out Your Pantry
It’s easy to forget the food that gets lost in the back of the pantry, but pests never will. They’ll find that unused rice and sleeve of crackers and come back for more.
That’s why pest control experts always recommend cleaning out your pantry routinely, depending on how much food you go through. Weekly or once a month could be all you need to do to prevent infestation.
4. Put All Food Away
Pests will also look for food that’s left out after someone’s done eating. The last pizza slice on the coffee table or a spilled bag of chips under a bed are a jackpot find for hungry bugs like cockroaches or ants. Make sure everyone in your home is on the same page about cleaning up after they eat so this problem doesn’t occur.
5. Clean up Standing Water
You might accidentally splash water out of the sink when you’re doing dishes and not think about drying the mat under your sink. Standing water can actually be the biggest reason pests find their way into your home.
Silverfish, in particular, enjoy standing water. After they soak in it, they go on to eat almost everything in your house. Carpet, paper, curtains, pictures and even other dead insects are all a meal to them. They’re harder to get rid of, which is why you always need to dry any spills.
6. Vacuum Floors Frequently
A little vacuuming can go a long way. It picks up bugs like ants that may be crawling around in the carpet fibers, but also removes eggs and larvae. Vacuuming daily prevents bugs and helps remove them if you end up with a pest problem.
Schedule Everything
If you have a hard time remembering to use these tips regularly, add them to your schedule. Write them down on your to-do lists or in your planner. It may feel funny at first, but you’ll quickly form habits that will make pest problems a thing of the past.
AUTHOR: KACEY BRADLEY
Kacey Bradley is the blogger behind The Drifter Collective, an eclectic lifestyle blog that expresses various forms of style through the influence of culture and the world around us. Along with writing for her blog, she has written for sites like U.S. News, SUCCESS, Guides for Brides, Hotel Online and more!
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