Now that it’s nearing the beginning of winter, it’s a crucial time to ensure you keep pests out of your home. Unfortunately, as the outside temperatures hit lower and lower temperature, you’ll notice more rats and roaches trying to make their house out of your apartment. However, there’s no need to fret, here are a few tips for keeping pests out of your home this winter.
Keep Your Home Clean
A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that the cleaner your home is, the fewer pests you’ll have in your house. After all, the more crumbs that pile up on your floor and countertops, the more you’ll notice ants trying to make themselves a nice meal. To prevent this from happening, you should clean your home on the regular, which includes sweeping, dusting, and mopping. Although cleaning your house every week may not sound like a lot of fun, having cockroaches roam your apartment sounds even less appealing.
Get Rid of Litter Around Your Home
Accompanying keeping your home clean, you should get rid of all litter in and around your home. This means crumbs should be gone from the floors of your house, as well as dirty clothes and trash. For areas surrounding your home, such as your yard or deck, you should ensure there is absolutely no litter, since it may attract less desirable animals like raccoons and rats.
Inspect Your Home for Cracks
Cracks or gaps in your home can lead to pests trying to make your home their own. Either you or a professional home inspector should look for cracks in your home, especially in areas like the floor, roof, and walls. If you do find cracks or gaps in your home, make sure you seal it with copper mesh or steel wool. Although expanding caulk may seem like an ideal option, most pests will merely chew through it.
Keep Your Doors and Windows Closed
Although it may seem obvious to keep your doors and windows closed during the winter, it’s especially important for keeping pests out. After all, the best way for insects to enter your home is through a small gap in your window. Some pests are even known for biting through window screens during the fall and winter. However, you can easily prevent this from happening by keeping your doors and windows closed and locked at all times. You should also consider having your windows professionally sealed for the upcoming winter season; it will save you a surprising amount on energy bills when the colder weather approaches. Not to mention it’s incredibly effective against pests trying to get in your home.
Use Different Interior Lighting
Believe it or not, the amount of insects you’ll find sneaking around your home primarily depends on the type of interior lighting you’re using. For example, more insects will try getting into your home by using incandescent lights over LED lights. Although it may not seem like it would make a big difference, using different kinds of light bulbs will reduce the number of insects trying to infest your home. Also, it’s a really good idea to set your lighting on a timer this winter, not only to save money on your energy bill but also to prevent yourself from keeping your lights on later than you need, which could spark the activity in insects around your home.
Properly Seal Your Food
If you don’t properly seal the food in your kitchen, your floors are more likely to be littered with crumbs. Also, bugs are more likely to make your kitchen their new home and have your unsealed snack their next meal. Fortunately, sealing your food has never been easier, thanks to ZipLock and only takes seconds to do. Although it may be a little extra work that may not seem that significant, you’d be very surprised how many bugs can get into your unsealed food. Plus, it makes your food stale quicker, and uneaten food in improperly sealed contained will go bad sooner.
Keep Your Drains Gunk-Free
Similarly to how you want to keep the rest of your home clean, you also want to keep your drains clean as well. Gunk and food in your drains can attract pests (especially small flies) and create an ideal breeding ground for them. Luckily for you, cleaning your drains are relatively easy to do and only require a few cleaning supplies. To ensure your drains are gunk-free this winter, you should inspect them once every few days. All it takes is one clump of food to clog your drain and cause it to get gunked up, which will ultimately lead to a mess of bugs in your home. Also, if you’re noticing your drains become more clogged and gunked than usual, you should consider reaching out to a local plumber, there might be something wrong with your plumbing. It may seem like an unnecessary step, but always helpful in getting pests out of your home once and for all.
Hire a Local Exterminator
If you already have an infestation of pests in your home, your best solution to get rid of them is to hire a New York exterminator & pest control specialist. Although exterminators can be expensive, their expertise and hands-on experience will be essential for kicking pests out of your home this winter. Plus, they have modern bug-control equipment that your local hardware store will likely not have. However, you shouldn’t only hire an exterminator once you have an infestation, you should employ one every few years to inspect your property for signs of an infestation early on. You’d be surprised how effective exterminators can kill a pest infestation before it gets too severe.
There are a number of ways you can work on getting rid of pests in your home this winter. Although this may not be exciting work to do for your home, it’s essential you start using the tips above to work on removing pests from your home. Even if a single insect starts making your home their own, you can only expect more to follow. Hopefully, this fall, you can start implementing the tips above, along with hiring a local exterminator, to keep pests out of your home this winter.
