The weather might be cold, but that doesn’t mean that pests won’t get in your house. For many, the cooler seasons are a prime time for getting inside the home. The cold weather drives spiders, cockroaches, rodents, stink bugs, silverfish, and other types of bugs inside for warmth and shelter, just like us. To protect your home from winter pests, try these tips.
Start Outside
Image via Flickr by Bart Everson
Bugs often take up residence outside before making their way inside, using debris and leaves as cozy places to hide. Make sure they don’t have anywhere to set up camp as the weather starts to get colder by following these simple winterizing tips. Otherwise, bugs will sniff your home out as an nice place to spend the winter.
Clean your gutters to remove a habitat that pests can use to hide from predators, rest their weary heads, or reproduce in. Prune tree limbs to make it hard for them to get into your space. You should also move firewood away from your house and make sure plants and mulch are not touching your foundation. Replace your outdoor lights with sodium vapor lights, which don’t attract bugs.
Clean Up
Cleaning sounds easy enough, but keeping out pests requries different techniques and a more detailed approach than you may be used to. While cleaning up your kitchen sink and countertop are part of a normal routine for most families, doing so with vinegar is not. Vinegar removes the scent of food from your kitchen. Some bugs will come into your kitchen looking for food. Others will come into the kitchen following those bugs because they see them as food. Both types will stay away if there is no food to be found.
Don’t forget to sweep the floor and empty your garbage often, and remember that other rooms have hiding spaces that should be addressed. Remove piles of clothes, papers, and books from the floor. These stacks create dark hiding spaces for bugs that crawl.
Remove Entry Points
While you won’t be able to find every pest entry point unless you have microscopic vision, you will be able to find most of them. Using caulk from a hardware store, you can seal up small holes, the spaces where pipes go in and out of the house, and cracks near the windows and doors. Installing a door sweep at the bottom of your door will block the natural gap between the door and your floor.
Trap Them
Setting out sticky traps may not be ideal, but it will stop the things that crawl into your space. Put them in strategic areas – specifically doorways and corners – to stop bugs in their tracks.
If you’re like many people, the thought of sharing your house with pests this winter doesn’t give you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Save yourself a lot of grief by following steps above before you snuggle up in your warm blanket. Each will help protect your home from pests without taking too long to complete.
