Stopping Outdoor Pests From Coming Indoors: 12 Simple Prevention Tips

The article on this page is original, but has been published in other places on the Internet.

Outdoor Pests Indoor Pests Simple Pest Prevention Tips

Keeping pests out of your home is pretty simple really. Just don’t give them what they are looking for. Deny them a place to live, food and cover, water, and a way to get inside. This article will describe a little bit about how to do just that.

Sometimes the pests from outside, like to spend a little time lounging around and snacking inside. It is far better to stop them from coming in, than to try to control them if they do. Here are a few ideas on keeping them outdoors.

1. 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.

2. Seal around all doors, windows, air conditioning, and plumbing coming into the house. Do this on the inside as well as the outside. Pay close attention to cable inlets, and all inside plumbing inlets.

3. Be certain that your door sweeps are all the way to the edges of the door opening, and reach all the way to the floor.

4. Check all weather stripping to make sure bugs can’t crawl through any gaps.

5. Keep brush and weeds as far away from the house as possible, so that the pests don’t have a base of operation nearby.

5. Rotting wood is the roach’s natural food, make sure that your immediate outside area is free of it, and anything else that might hide pests.

7. Check houseplants before you bring them inside when first purchased or brought in from your greenhouse, or after watering outdoors.

8. Check all shopping bags, fruits and vegetables carefully for insects.

9. It goes without saying, that your home should be clean, with no food sources for pests.

10. keep your trash can lids on, and the can away from the house as far as possible to keep flies away.

11. When you do see a trail of ants or bugs coming into the house, try to trace it back to it’s source, and plug that hole. A simple mixture of water, dish soap and vinegar will take care of the ones already inside.

12. If you have indoor pets, check them when they return from trips outdoors, for hitch hikers.

Of course there are always the things your mother told you. Things like: “Close the door when you go in or out.” You should have paid more attention, you probably wouldn’t have to be reading this list!

See our newly re written Bugs and Weeds website home page.

The success of pest control has a direct relation to the success of disease control. Our ability to prevent disease, is directly connected to our ability to prevent pests.

The connection is painfully obvious when we look at the names of some of our most notorious and most feared diseases like the avian flu, (bird flu) and some of the diseases transmitted primarily by pests, such as malaria, and dengue fever, transmitted by mosquitoes, and an endless list of diseases carried by flies, fleas, and cockroaches, to name only a few.

Pest control and disease control in under developed regions

In under developed regions, these diseases are difficult to prevent due to insect problems which are themselves difficult to prevent since the technology for pest prevention,  pest control, sanitation, and such advancements as equipment for draining swamps has not kept pace with the human population.

In developed countries, the problem of disease transmitting pest is less obvious, but still real. The threat is always present, and only a system failure or two away from rising up and destroying.

Pest treatments and disease treatments alone will not work

Our chemical pest control methods will go only so far, good pest prevention techniques will provide far better results in the long run. Our disease treatments will only go so far, unless we get rid of the cause of the disease. Keeping the same habits, will only produce the same results. Prevention is the answer for both. In fact, preventing pests will almost eliminate the disease problem in most cases.

It should be remembered that the use of DDT in our own country once destroyed bedbug populations to the extent that an entire generation or more was free of them. With it’s removal from the market, a gradual return of the tiny creatures has been experienced. Preventive measures were never really put into effect on a wide scale.

Evidence that chemicals alone do not work can be seen in areas where DDT is still used, but insects and disease still prevail. In such places, treatment for insects, and treatment for disease will never win unless wide scale prevention becomes the focus.