How Can I Make My Home Free from Pests?
To make your home pest-free, you can do the following:
- Block and seal all possible entry points
- Keep your kitchen and home clean
- Keep your yard and outdoor area clean
- Hire a pest professional
Protecting your home from pests
The key here is to apply one-time actions (block entry points) and carry out ongoing prevention measures (keeping your home clean). It also helps to hire a pest professional so your home can get an appropriate and tailored treatment (especially if it’s about termites).
A pest professional can also identify potential vulnerabilities and entry points of rats, possums and other pests. A professional inspection can expose those potential problems and can actually save you hundreds or thousands of dollars in expensive treatments later on. An inspection done once a year could be enough to prevent pests from invading your home (as well as stop them from establishing a nice habitat in your place).
As much as possible, avoid using pesticides. Concerns about toxicity and environmental impact discourage their use, whether indoor or outdoor. Your food and personal items might also get some of the chemicals. In addition, other animals and your neighbours will be exposed to the pesticide.
Instead of using pesticides, you can do the following to prevent pests from coming and staying in your home in the first place:
- Keep wood, rubbish piles and other potential nesting grounds off the ground
- Ensure a tight lid on your outdoor trash bins
- Remove any accessible sources of water in your kitchen and bathroom (cockroaches love those places and they need water daily to survive)
- Seal cracks and crevices where cockroaches and other pests might enter
Ongoing prevention goes a long way in keeping pests far from your home. After all, pests need an easy and reliable source of food and water. If you deprive pests of those, they won’t stay at your home and they will look somewhere else. Also, they won’t be able to form a nice habitat in your home or somewhere nearby. They prefer building a habitat where food and water is always nearby.