Practical Pest Control Advice You Need To Hear
Usually people call an exterminator when pests come calling, but you should attempt some self-help strategies before making this expensive choice. This article will give you some pointers and tips to help you do battle with household pests. Hopefully, some of these tips will prove helpful.
Use steel wool to fill up mouse holes. While rats and mice can easily chew lots of materials, steel wool is too tough. Use steel wool to clog any opening more than 1/2 inch in width. Small pests can squeeze through these tiny openings.
Don’t buy a home without having a professional exterminator examine it first. You might be able to spot some signs of pest damage, but it is hard to recognize which type of pest you are dealing with until you actually spot some bugs or rodents into the home.
Use a spray for outdoor perimeters to make insects avoid entering your house. Make sure you spray your home’s foundation, porches, steps, and other areas that are located near any windows and/or doors. When you’re spraying, look for crevices and cracks that make entry points for pests. Make sure you use caulk around these places.
Get an exterminator with a trained termite dog to find out if there are termites in your home. If an inspector checks your house on his own, he is only able to confirm that you are about one-third free of termites. However, trained dogs can verify that the entire home is safe. They can smell methane gas that the termites leave behind when they eat wood.
Food should always be properly stored and sealed within its container when not in use. Pests are very attracted to the smell of food, so avoid baiting them. Take the trash out when it’s full. Pests love the scent of garbage, after all.
If you find a lot of flying bugs or even bats inside your home, check the screens on your windows. Not only do they keep out the flying pests, but they help to keep out small crawling insects as well. If you have bad screens, fix them right away.
Outdoor Lighting
Outdoor lighting can look great when you have company over or if you’re trying to deter people from trespassing, but they can also attract pests. If you really need outdoor lighting, choose the color of the light carefully. Pink, orange and yellow lights attract the fewest pests.
Check your plumbing area if you choose to deal with your pest problem. Keep all sinks, pipes and drains free of clogs and check for leaks. Anything that might be found in your plumbing can be food to a wide range of pests and can even give them a great place to reproduce. Whenever you clean out your drains, you should make sure that you check them on a monthly basis.
Many people having difficulties can start solving their problems by taking one little piece of advice. Visit a home improvement or hardware store near you and ask for professional assistance. They can tell you which pesticides work best given your situation.
Have rodents made an appearance in the house? A crucial thing to do is look at the outside sections of your house to determine what cracks may exist that would allow rodents or small animals to enter. Cover these openings with scouring pads or use poison in these areas. In some cases, an odor repellent such as mustard oil will work.
Keep mosquitoes away from your home by giving them no place to go. Drain kiddie pools and buckets that are sitting on your property. Mosquitoes have the ability to breed anywhere a small amount of water is left.
Exterior lights can be prime sources of pests. Try keeping those lights far from the entrance of your house. Or you can use orange or yellow lights. They don’t like those as much.
If bugs keep invading your home, inspect every inch of your home and apply caulk to every single crack you find. Sprays and foggers can’t reach deep inside walls and behind cabinets where bugs reside and hide. Caulk should be used to seal any area where bugs can get in or out.
Spray beehives and wasp nest during the evening or at night. Hardware stores sell certain sprays that let homeowners remove them on their own. You can spray the foam from far away so that you can safely kill the insects. It is wise to spray hives in the evening when bees are less active, and watch closely to see if more spraying is needed. After you are positive that you’ve killed all the bees, you can remove the hive.
Reduce the amount of clutter and you will reduce the amount of bugs. Bookshelves and counters are just two places where pests live. Invest some time in reducing the clutter in your home to eliminate places where rodents and bugs like to nest.
With the knowledge you’ve just accumulated, you can now determine how to best combat your pest problem. If you apply what you have learned here, you should be able to handle the problem easily. Once they’ve left, you’ll be happy you took the time to learn how to eliminate pests from your home.