Did you know that April is National Pest Awareness month? Yeah, we’re pretty excited too! This is the perfect time to talk about some general tips for keeping your home protected from pests.
Not only is the spring season a fun time for doing home improvement projects and planning your summer getaways, but it is a good time to make sure that the winter weather didn’t cause any damage to the foundation, windows, and door jams of your home.
These are all perfect access points for pests, so you don’t want them to be left untended. Any kind of damage to the weather stripping or caulking around the windows of your home must be fixed and replaced.
If there are holes around the access points for your utility pipes and cable lines, you need to get those filled with caulking or expandable insulation sealant. Everything from mice to mosquitos can crawl through those holes.
Additionally, you want to walk the outside of your home and make sure there aren’t any areas of standing water where the irrigation or drainage is poor. If so, make sure to get this fixed right away as the mosquito breeding season is starting to ramp up and all they need is a single drop of water to lay thousands of eggs.
Some other general pest control tips from the National Pest Management Association are:
- Keep your landscaping and grass tidy and well-manicured to eliminate any hiding places for pests to stay.
- Clean the dirt, debris, and foliage from your rain gutters and downspouts. The standing water is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitos and when the water dries out, the dried leaves will attract wasps, bees, and yellow jackets.
- Keep your home as clean as possible. This is a good time to clean out the pantry and tidy up your food storage plan. Make sure that everything is in airtight plastic containers and that there are no crumbs or spilled dried goods.
Check the cabinets under your kitchen sink and bathroom sinks to make sure there aren’t leaks. This is the perfect place for a pinhole leak that will slowly drip water. And, with time, that small pinhole leak will cause significant wood rot, which is very inviting to termites and wood ants. Not to mention mold and mildew.
