1. Use plants native to your area when you are landscaping. Native plants are already resistant to native pests, are comfortable with your climate and average rainfall, and they won't break out into the environment and eat the forest.

The single most important thing you can do to "pest proof" your landscape, is to build it with plants that are native to your area. Native plants will decrease your pest problems, lower your water and nutrient needs, and do a big favor for the environment!

2. Keeping vines and shrubs a foot or more from the home will improve your chances of keeping pests away. The same is true of the mulch.

3. Don't plant climbing vines around your windows providing a freeway for a pest convoy into your home. Climbing vines can slowly invade your tiny window openings, spreading them wider, and inviting insects to travel through the openings.

4. Don't leave jagged or ragged cuts, or part of a limb sticking out beyond the callous of the joint when you prune a tree. If you do, you are doing the equivalent of hanging a sign on the tree that reads: "Insects and Disease Eat Free Here!"

5. Avoid using manure that has not been composted as a fertilizer. Many weed Seed survive the animals digestive tract, and they have the manure to help them grow strong.

6. Bird seed, usually contain some weed seeds. Don't throw them where you don't want weeds.

7. Avoid anything that would weaken your plants, because weak plants invite disease and pests. Such practices as spraying water on the leaves of a plant in direct sunlight should be avoided.

8. Don't create low areas or places where water backs up and becomes a breeding place for mosquitoes, and a watering stop for other pests. If you have already done this, find a way to drain and fill the area, or find a better way of making a permanent drain. When building something, or adding on to your landscape take into account the effect of what you are about to do. Here are a couple of examples:

In some parts of the country, any concrete in full sun is a fire ant magnet.

Some types of lighting, directly on, or immediately adjacent to a lawn, may cause a June bug invasion. This invasion may be followed by a grub invasion, which may then be followed by an armadillo and mole invasion.