Domestic life is a dream for many people but can also be a nightmare. Some pests—like ants and roaches—can be dealt with using traditional methods; others may require more drastic measures. Here are some guides on how to keep these common pests away from your home:
Ants
Ants are perhaps the most common pest you’ll encounter in your home, but you can keep them away with a bit of forethought. Following are some suggestions for avoiding ant infestations:
- Food should always be kept in sealed containers since an ant is less likely to enter if there is less air around it accidentally.
- Since ant nests are often made of dirt and other materials that the ants have collected from their environment, spills should be cleaned up right once. These areas will continue to attract more ants if you don’t clear them up immediately away.
- Keep floors and countertops dry since ants enjoy moist areas (like rain puddles); therefore, doing so helps to stop them from setting up shop in the first place.
- Avoid leaving rubbish around and use handy trash cans (or if not available nearby, ask someone else who lives there if they know someone who does). Use plastic bags whenever feasible in place of paper ones, which tend.
Roaches and Beetles
Keep your house as spotless as possible if you have roaches and beetles. This is an effective way to keep bugs out of your home.
Food left on the counter or in open containers, including cereal boxes and takeaway cartons, may attract roaches. The same is true for dirty sinks and trash cans; they will immediately leap in if they smell food.
Lice
Little blood-eating insects known as lice reside on the scalp and transmit rapidly among persons who are near one another. In most cases, they don’t hurt their host, but they may be incredibly unpleasant if you have them.
The most effective treatment for lice is a strong shampoo that eliminates both adult lice and eggs (which are difficult to see). If your neighborhood drugstore or pharmacy does not carry this, you must purchase it online or from a different source that sells it in larger quantities. Depending on the type of shampoo you choose, the treatment will cost between $10 and $15 for each container; however, if any children become unwell due to these bugs, purchasing many bottles so no one goes through all three phases at once is advised.
Gnats
Gnats are small, winged insects that resemble mosquitoes. They’re attracted to light, moisture, and warmth. You’ll often see them hanging around your bathroom or kitchen at night—they fly in when the lights go out and then congregate around moist areas such as drains on walls or faucets.
They bite when they land on your skin and may cause itching and swelling if left untreated. Gnat larvae can infect humans with diseases like typhus, which can be lethal if not treated quickly.
Termites
Since they don’t need much area to establish an infestation, termites are among the most prevalent pests in the United States. Catching termite activity early on is crucial since they may also ruin structures by chewing through wood.
For homes, termite detection is essential because you want to know when they’re there so you can take the necessary action before too much harm is done. Don’t wait to call an exterminator if you see any indications of a probable infestation, such as little heaps of dirt or sawdust outside. Termites are renowned for swiftly destroying structures.
Even worse: if left untreated for a long enough period (especially if no longer anyone resides in the house), these colonies may expand into a full-scale invading force, destroying your home.
Fleas and Ticks
Fleas and ticks are not serious health hazards but are still annoying. If you have pets (or kids) who spend time outdoors, fleas and ticks can be a problem.
Treatment for fleas is straightforward: apply an insecticide to your pet’s coat with a spray bottle every few days for at least four weeks if you don’t see improvement after three treatments. For ticks, use an insecticidal soap or concentrate made for animals on the outside of their bodies once a week for about two weeks until the chemical treatment has killed off all visible parasites—then treat again once every month or two until you no longer find any nymphs at all.
Fruit Flies
Fruit should be kept chilled and dry while not in use to ward off fruit flies, which are drawn to the perfume of ripening fruit.
Apply caulk to fill in gaps or holes near your sink drain if you want to eliminate fruit flies. Make sure to clear any drains before using roach killers.
Rodents
Rodents can cause a lot of damage. They’re attracted to food and water, which means they’ll also be attracted to your home if you don’t keep it clean. Rodents are also an excellent source of disease transmission, so keeping your food and water clean is key when dealing with rodents.
In addition to the problem that rodents pose for health reasons (and the fact that they’re hardy critters), there’s another reason we want them out of our homes: they carry diseases such as hantavirus or plague! And if one enters through an open window or door during warm weather months like spring/summertime/fall (or even winter), more will likely follow soon after due to their high body temperatures during these seasonal times—which means we have another issue on our hands: attracting new pests into our homes.
How to naturally terminate pests
You can use natural repellents, pesticides, and mechanical methods to eliminate pests from your home.
- Natural repellents: Many plants are known for their ability to repel insects. Some of these plants include mints and lemon balm (lemon balm is also suitable for headaches), citronella grasses (which are sold as candles), or cedar shavings that you can keep in a box on the floor near where you sleep.
- Pesticides: A number of household products contain pesticides that will kill fleas, bedbugs, and other crawling insects without harming humans or pets. Examples include liquid dish detergent with borax added; sprays containing pyrethrum powder (a natural insecticide derived from chrysanthemum flowers); dry-type powders containing neem oil—a plant extract that repels many types of pests; granular baits placed under furniture legs; homemade traps made from peanut butter sandwiches packed tightly with peanut butter mixed with boric acid powder (boric acid kills roaches); traps baited with rice flour mixed with hot sauce—the more desirable the sauce gets over time inside these traps which attracts more cockroaches into them where they die; sticky glue traps placed around baseboards where bugs tend toward crawl on walls above them because it feels warmer there than outside during wintertime months when temperatures drop below freezing point out so stay warm at night.
Keep the pests away.
If you maintain your home clean, dry, and warm, you can do a few things to keep bugs away.
- Keep Your Home Clean: Providing your dogs with a clean environment can benefit them and help to avoid many of the issues that can occur when they have access to food and drink that isn’t in their box or litter box. This includes more than just vacuuming the floors; it also includes washing all interior surfaces with hot, soapy water once a week, sanitizing any potential entry points for pests, using traps in place of chemicals if at all possible, and caulking cracks around pipes (such as vents) where insects could enter your home.
- To prevent them from crawling through spaces between frames or pipes beneath floors or behind walls, make careful to caulk any cracks and crevices around doors and windows;
- Keep food trash in containers rather than leaving it out on the floor or countertops where rats may eat it; avoid attracting pests to your yard by not leaving pet food out overnight or leaving trash in the bins next door.
