Dealing with pests once they’ve infested your home is a long, laborious process than can cause emotional turmoil.
If your home is pest free, there are preventative measures you can take to stop pests from entering your home. A few precautions you can take are keeping your home clean and sealing any cracks, holes, gaps in the exterior of your home’s walls, and eliminating or minimizing alternative food sources.
Cleaning
Cleaning your home is obvious, but is the most essential for preventing pest infestation. Keeping your home tidy, clean, and sanitized can prevent a pest infestation.
Decluttering your home will eliminate spaces varmints can live in, especially rats and other rodents.
Keep your food stored in containers. Try not to leave food uncovered and out overnight.
Sealing
Ants and other bugs find their way in your home by crawling through cracks, holes, and gaps in the exterior walls.
Inspect the inside and outside of your home and ensure there are no damages. If there are minor damages, a little caulk can go a long way. Sealing any cracks, gaps, or holes in the foundation of your home will prevent pests from sneaking inside your home.
Make sure your doors and windows shut properly. If you have a crack or hole in your window or glass door, repair or replace them. If your window or door screens need repairs or replacement, fix or replace them as soon as you can. This will prevent a pest infestation.
If your basement windows have holes or gaps around the edges, properly seal them with caulk.
Minimizing
Minimizing or eliminating alternative food sources can prevent pests from visiting. Alternative food sources could be gardens, bird feeders, or even your garage.
Gardening is an enjoyable activity some homeowners engage in. Protect your garden from becoming a pest’s alternative food source by installing a fence or gate.
Keep bird feeders at a safe distance, away from your home.
Keeping your lawn neat and tidy and disposing of trash properly will also prevent pests from visiting. Keep your trash bin sealed shut and away from your home.
Hiring
If you’ve done everything to avoid an infestation and pests still manage to enter your home, there is a viable solution.
Rat removal services and other extermination services are always available. Hiring a pest exterminator will eliminate the problem and return your home to a pest-free environment.