Useful Tips to Keep Pests Away from Your House

Owning a house used to be one of my dreams. Recently, after purchasing a brand-new house with a beautiful floor made of wood and a very well-designed interior, I achieved my initial dream of owning my own comfortable house. I found out pretty quickly though, that my house wasn’t as comfortable as I had initially thought, due to the presence of some uninvited guests. Pests! Therefore, I decided to provide an article about useful tips I have learned to control pests and help you keep your house really comfortable as well.

We generally think of older houses as having pest issues, but even modern homes can be infested. Even the fanciest homes can have fleas, bugs, insects or rodents inside. Even if you have never experienced this,  I recommend you pay attention to the article anyhow, as you never know when you may need my advice!

I don’t have just one single piece of advice, as controlling pests isn’t as simple as that. There are, in fact, hundreds of different recommendations I could make. To keep things simple, though, I’ll divide the article into different areas of the home and look at what needs to be done for each. Hopefully you’ll find something valuable that you can use.

Exterior cleanliness  

Firstly, I want to mention the exterior of house. In my own experience, prevention is always the priority. I’m sure we’re all in agreement that stopping pests from getting inside in the first place is better than waiting for them to invade every room. I recommend that all house owners put a new task on their list of household chores: to clean up the surrounding garden area of the entire house. This includes the garden, yard, fence, and swimming pool areas.

Many of these  positions are usually humid and shady. According to experts, insects and their larvae have a tendency to gather in dark and wet spaces like these. Insect pests have a good fertility and can multiply rapidly within a very short space of time, distributing their eggs in large amounts. These eggs are uninvited hitchhikers that get picked up whenever you or your pets accidentally pass through. For the house which is hardly cleaned outside, there is no doubt a very real threat of a pest infestation.

Interior cleanliness 

Secondly, we need to be sure to keep the interior of the house clean. From a very young age, the adults in the family taught us that cleaning the house was an essential daily assignment. It’s simple enough even for a child to understand that the cleaner and tidier the house is, the less danger of pests your family will have.

However, in reality, houses are not always perfectly cleaned up. We all know that nowadays houses are bigger but the time we have for cleaning them is less. It’s also impossible to clean the entire house every day, so there are always some undisturbed places for pests to hide in.

More seriously, pests such as termites adore any house which has wooden floors. For this kind of house, wood treatments are essential, including washing the surface with foams and spraying it with other repellents. There are a lot of tasks to be done if you have wooden flooring, so my recommendation is to organize your time for chores and make a schedule to stick to. If it is available, you should set aside a day on the weekend to clean the whole house with other family members. I use this method and cleaning time has actually become a fun time for my family and I. Another way is to clean a single room thoroughly every day and rotate until the entire house has been done.

I have a tip for you from my own experience when you’re cleaning: normally, a quick sweep or vacuum followed by mopping, would remove the dirt from your floors. However, to properly control pests, you need to get into the corners of the furniture and between the gaps in the floorboards, drains and faucets. I usually need help from a small knife. Use a knife to scrape out any dirt before vacuuming. For the drains, it’s a good idea to use some chemical products to make sure they are clean and properly disinfected.  Remember to vacuum the furniture and wash your pets’ bedding regularly as well.

Pets 

Thirdly, you need to keep your pets clean and pest free. Raising a pet is a common thing nowadays so if pet owners don’t control pests on their animals, it could lead to a terrible infestation of harmful pests, especially fleas. Pets such as cats and dogs are playful and like to go outdoors and wander around instead of staying all day inside the house. As I said before, fleas and other pest are unwelcome hitchhikers. While outdoors, our pets pass through many places where millions of eggs, larvae and adult pests are waiting to catch a ride. Because of their fur, it’s sometimes hard to identify whether our pets have pests or not.

We need to bear in mind that fleas multiply rapidly and once they’re on our pets can invade our homes in just a few days. To keep fleas away from your house, it’s important to keep them off your pets first. Use flea shampoos, combs and collars if necessary. Ask your veterinarian for advice on the best products for your pets if you aren’t sure.

Fragrance oils

Don’t be confused by this part. I totally understand that fragrance is no longer a part of most household chores or of pest prevention! It sounds a little bit strange on a list such as this. However, I’ve mentioned it due to how effective essential oils are at preventing pests. Some insects are extremely sensitive and can be repelled by strong smells. In my opinion, using fragrances is a really smart thing to do as they’re safe for your family. Nowadays, many interior designers even adopt fragrance as a décor element. Combined with beautiful decor, fragrances can easily blend in and contribute a pleasant atmosphere to the house. There is a huge range of scents for home owners to choose from. Good ones to start with are tea tree, lavender, rose, lemon or cinnamon. They are all easily available online or from your local market and are strongly disliked by insect pests. I highly recommend them!

All the above tips are designed to keep your home pleasant and pest free. Prevention is better than cure! I hope that my recommendations give you some help with controlling pests and keeping your home and garden safe.  Thanks for reading..