How to Keep Bugs Out of Your House
The best place to start if you want to keep bugs out of your house, is not in your house, or the exterior walls of your home! The best place to start, is the farthest distance away from your house, which is still your property.
The edges of your property are where your bug problems begin. To keep bugs out of your house, that is where you need to start. Bugs do not magically appear in your bedroom, they have to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is outdoors.
The more pests you prevent from the far reaches of your property, the fewer you will have trying to get into your home.
- Start by clearing away any brush, weeds, rubbish, or rubble. That is what insects use for cover. If you remove the cover, they will fall back to the next available cover, which will probably be your neighbors yard, so after you do this, you might want to share this article with him. Now move inward, remove the things that provide cover throughout your lawn, and mow your lawn more often. I know it is a pain, but it really helps. If the grass is high, insects use it to provide cover for sneaking closer to your home.
- As you move closer to your home, look at your trees, are they hanging over your roof? Are they touching your roof? If they are then they are providing a place for pests to use to get to the top of your house, so, for heavens sake, get out the saw and trim them back. Don’t just cut the ends off, but trim them back to a lateral branch. If you do this improperly, you could cause an increase in pests, and disease in your trees. Keep your own safety in mind, use ladders cautiously, and pay special attention to power lines. What good would a pest free home environment be, if you were not there to enjoy it?
- Your landscape beds next to your home are an important area for your pest control efforts. The typical landscape bed is a hotbed for pest activity. Keep vines away from the walls, they provide a road for insects. The same is true for the shrubs in the bed, they should be cut back a foot or more from the wall. Landscape mulch should be kept at least a foot from the homes exterior. This is not standard landscape practice, but it needs to be done.
- Regulate your irrigation carefully. Too much water invites all sorts of critters into your place.
- Now, to the exterior of your home. Seal everything! cracks, openings around doors and windows, replace worn weatherstripping, caulk around frames, caulk around all pipes, wires, cables, inlets, and anywhere else a bug might get through. Make sure all eve and soffit vents are screened. The same goes for your dryer vent.
- Do the same inside, with all the corresponding areas. Every hole in the outside will have a corresponding hole in an inside wall.
