10 Ways to Keep Your Home Pest Free This Summer

Pests can easily ruin a beautiful summer day. As long as they stay outside, bugs can be essential for the delicate balance of the ecosystem. However, when they get inside your home, they can cause major headaches. Bugs may not only bite and sting but also cause illness and disease in your family or pets. If you're looking to get rid of the bugs this summer and keep your home pest-free, there are a variety of options.

Keep Your Home Clean

Bugs are often attracted by the smell of food. Just like humans, they need nutrition to survive. A dirty home may mean crumbs and old pieces of food are left sitting around. To a bug, finding just a small crumb or old piece of food is like a feast.

Keep things clean by regularly wiping down surfaces and cleaning up old messes. After each meal, be sure to check for food that may have been left behind on tables, countertops, and floors.

Leaving food around will not only attract the bugs but will help them thrive. A few bugs can easily become a large colony or infestation with the proper source of food. However, if pests are cut off from their food source, they won't be able to survive. Keeping things clean is the best way to prevent an infestation from the beginning.

Keep Things Dry

Bugs are also frequently attracted to damp areas in your home. Leftover water from a shower, faucet or kitchen sink can leave behind a sticky residue. Frequently, the same areas become wet over and over becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other pests.

Areas of standing water outside of your home can also be problematic. Because standing water is such a popular gathering place for mosquitoes and other types of pests, it's common that several different types of pests will gather and breed. These bugs are not only irritating when you're outside, but can quickly make their way into your home.

To reduce your risk of a bug infestation due to dampness, be sure to mop up dry spots around your house with a towel after using a shower or sink. Pay special attention to areas that are more likely to attract and hold water. Also, be sure to avoid generating areas of standing water in your yard. You may need to water your yard less frequently or consider adding a drain field.

Cover Your Food

Bugs are able to smell food from an incredible distance. Another way to ensure the bugs stay outside is to cover your food. Leaving food out after meals quickly attracts flies and other pests. While a few crumbs left behind after a meal may attract 1 or 2 bugs, leftover food can attract a whole swarm.

Take Out the Trash

Bugs' favorite type of food is the kind that's been sitting around for a few days. Old food sitting in trash cans produces a pungent smell that can attract bugs from several feet away. This can quickly cause a huge problem as it causes bugs from the outside to come in and bugs from the inside to congregate in large numbers.

Old food in the trash not only attracts bugs but gives them fuel to reproduce. Old food in trash cans can provide an ample food source for bugs to eat and thrive for days. This provides the bugs with a safe breeding ground.

Regularly taking out the trash can eliminate the risk of bugs being attracted by the smell. After taking out the trash, look for leftover food and residue at the bottom of the bin.

Perform Regular Checks

Performing regular checks to look for bugs can allow you to catch the problem early, prior to the formation of an infestation. Look in high-risk areas, like around the edges of your house and corners. Bugs like to hide in dark and damp areas, so be sure to check areas that frequently receive water.

Catching the problem early can help you to treat it prior to it growing worse. You may need to buy repellent or call an exterminator company to treat the area. The important thing is removing all the bugs, or else even small amounts may continue to multiply.

Watch Your Animals

Animals can easily carry bugs in and out of your house. Ticks, fleas and other pests may shelter in their fur, deep out of reach of your eyes. As your pet climbs onto the furniture or lays on fabric, pests embed themselves where they don't belong. Given the chance, they quickly begin to multiply.

To prevent pests from entering your home, cats, dogs, and other household pets should regularly be checked for hiding pests. Washing, brushing and providing regular flea treatments helps to remove pests buried deep in their fur, preventing them from entering your home.

Look For Entry Points

One of the best ways to prevent bugs from entering your home is to limit the number of ways they can get in. Bugs can sneak through impressively small areas. Even if you can't see the area, bugs can squeeze the cracks and crevices in the foundation.

To prevent bugs from entering your home, seal all the cracks and crevices you can find. Check not only the foundation but also windows, doorways, and other areas that are prone to allowing an entry point from the outdoors.

Buy or Make Repellents

Sometimes, bugs enter your home whether you keep it clean and sealed or not. When bugs do manage to find their way into your house, insect repellent can be one of your only options. Repellents can kill off existing bugs and prevent further manifestations.

When it comes to repellents, you can buy harsh chemicals from the store or make your own. The internet has several safe recipes to use in your home. Be sure to find a repellent that will directly target the insect you're battling against. Manufacturers frequently make repellents specific to ants or roaches. Choose the correct one for the most success.

Keep Your Yard and Garden Clean

Bugs can hide and breed in long grass and overgrown gardens. An overly robust amount of bugs on your property can be bad enough. Even though they may breed outside your home, the bugs outside can quickly make their way outside.

Frequently cut your grass to keep them from hiding in your lawn. Keep your garden well-manicured to keep vegetables healthy and your home free from bugs. You can also purchase bug repellents safe for gardens to prevent them from gathering outside your home.

Hire an Exterminator

A few bugs in your home can quickly become an uncontrollable infestation. This often goes beyond a few simple tips to reduce the population. When you have an infestation, you need professional help. Hiring an extermination company is the best way to get rid of pests fast.

General Exterminating does professional exterminating on Long Island, servicing Suffolk county and Nassau county. Their efficient extermination services get rid of bugs fast. Whether it's mosquitos, ants, or roaches, their exterminating on long island will help your summer be enjoyable and pest-free.

Conclusion

Bugs are easily attracted by food and water. Ridding your house of these elements by frequently cleaning your home and mopping up damp areas can help prevent bugs from being attracted to your home. However, sometimes these strategies aren't enough. An infestation can quickly grow in just a few short days. During these times, you need more help.

If you're in need of an exterminator in Suffolk or Nassau County, General Exterminating offers a variety of professional services to keep your summer pest-free. Flies, roaches, bed bugs, and mosquitos will all disappear with a simple phone call. Whether you live in Suffolk County or Nassau County, their exterminator services can help you get back to relaxing in the summer sun quickly. Call your top exterminator in Suffolk today for more information.