How to keep insects and mice out of your home is one of the topics that concerns our readers the most, so without further ado – at Radar Pest Control, we give you the answer.
How to Prevent Insects and Rodents from Coming in Your Property?
Pests come to your home for three main reasons – food, water, and warmth.
With these in mind, here are some precautions you can take in order to minimize the chances of a full-blown rodent infestation:
- Keep food in sealed containers. Pests won’t have a reason to stick around if they can’t find any food. This also means not letting any spills uncleaned or any leftovers around. Even breadcrumbs can attract the attention of unwanted rodents. Don’t leave them any reasons to stick around your home.
- Fix leaky faucets. This is especially true for cockroaches, but not exclusively. Pests in search of water will be delighted you’d left them a plentiful source of life’s most precious elixir.
- Avoid clutter. Clutter provides a sense of security for pests. It gives them lots of dark places where they can procreate and feel safe they won’t be found. Declutter your place to keep pests at bay.
- Regularly wipe and disinfect your floors with detergent. This works great against ants. Since ants use chemicals to mark their pathways, you destroy their freeways every time you clean. Make sure to do it on a regular basis.
- Don’t leave your suitcase on beds or couches when staying in hotels. Bed bugs are horrible so if you want to avoid the unpleasant situation of coming back home with an unexpected souvenir from your vacation, don’t leave your clothes or suitcase laying on the bed at a hotel or motel. Leave it outside and perform a thorough inspection as you leave. Look at the bedframes, seams of the mattress and the mattress itself for bugs, eggs shells or dark spots. Once you’re back from your vacation, wash all your clothes at the highest temperature the fabric can take and throw them in the dryer (if applicable). This will reduce the chances of getting a bed bug infestation.
- Seal potential entry holes. Whether it’s mice, rats, or insects, pests need very small holes to get inside your place. Try to seal as many of them as you can find. This is especially effective against rodents.
- Quarantine any second hand/used furniture. Often it is pre-owned furnishing that will literally bring an infestation to your home. Even a foosball table could get your home infested.
“It’s much harder to deal with a pest infestation than to prevent one from happening”, tells us Alexander Crawley a pest control professional and entomology consultant. “You’re going to save yourself a headache if you perform a few simple tasks first,” the entomology expert adds.
The following tips should give you an idea of how to protect yourself from pests.
How to Deal with a Pest Infestation in Your Home?
Sometimes, no matter how much you try to prepare, you still can’t keep an infestation away. If that happens, do not despair! You can deal with the vermin in a timely manner and avoid an even bigger catastrophe.
Rats and Mice
Rats and mice are not to be taken lightly. If you’ve spotted one of these pestilent little critters, know that there’s probably many more where that one came from. Especially if you spot it during the day.
Aside from structural damage they could inflict by their constant gnawing, they can also spread infections and disease, directly or through their droppings.. Dealing with them may not be easy, especially if it’s a serious infestation, so don’t fret about calling in the cavalry and hiring professionals.
Do DIY rodent control at your own accord!
If you’ve decided to go the DIY route, then there’s usually two mainstream ways to go about it – traps and poison. This is on top of solving the reason for the infestation in the first place – usually food leftovers and clutter.
Pre-bait the Traps First
This means loading the traps with bait and placing them where you think there is a lot of foot traffic, without setting them.
Why do this? Because the rodents will eat the bait and get on familiar terms with the traps, labelling them as “safe”. Little would they know – the traps will be loaded next time around and they won’t suspect a thing.
Not only will this increase the effectiveness of the traps, but will also give you the chance to see whether you’re setting them in the right place or not. If nothing is eating the bait for a week, you’re going about this all wrong.
In case you decide that poison is the way to go, try powdered a corn cob. It’s safer for pets and wildlife and increases the chances of rodents dying outside as they run out to find water. It’s been in use for a relatively short period, but the results do look promising.
Insect Infestation
Dealing with insects is a pretty straightforward process. Fixing the problems that might lead to an infestation down to their very roots will definitely be the right approach.
Deal with food leftovers, clutter, fixing leaky faucets, and throw out your rubbish regularly. It will surely help you reduce the chances of an infestation. Diatomaceous earth might also work. But if it doesn’t, you’ll have to use insecticides.
In case of an ant infestation, you can use bait gel. The ants are attracted to it because and it’s easy for them to consume. Little do they know when they bring it into their colony, they will bring about the downfall of their entire civilization. In most cases when the queen gets poisoned, it’s game over.
Bear in mind consumer grade poisons don’t have a stellar success rate, but they might still be useful. If not, you can always turn to a professional.
Same goes for a cockroach infestation. Their baits work a bit differently, but consumer stuff isn’t strong enough to deal with a big infestation. Roaches don’t have any qualms about eating their fallen comrades. So once they get poisoned, the poison spreads by the alive eating the dead in a gross, almost zombie-like fashion.
And bed bugs, these pesky critters are known to even survive outside for an impressive period of time! That’s why ticks are not the only treat from walks in the park.
For anything else, just spray and pray.