7 DIY Tips to Keep the Critters Out of Your Home

Our homes become some of the warmest and safest places for many different creepy crawlies during the colder months. During the fall, insects — called “fall invaders” — begin to seek shelter for the winter. You may not even notice them until the winter, but chances are you will have several unwanted roommates.

These bugs tend to congregate in the warm, sunny side of your home and will find their way in through little cracks and crevices, as well as vents, unscreened windows, and any other gaps they can find. Once winter arrives, bugs tend to become dormant and will not become active again until the spring. If you want to prevent bugs from spending the fall and winter in your home, follow these tips.

Clean Around Your Home’s Foundation

If there is firewood, stones, mulch, thick vegetation, or weeds around the foundation of your home, you have a perfect home for bugs in the warmer months right on your doorstep. Those bugs are going to invade the nearest structure come the colder months, and that will be your home.

If you can clean up around the foundation of your home and create a clean, dry border, this will discourage bugs from taking up residency around your home and mean that there will be fewer bugs around to come inside during the fall.

Have an Exterior Perimeter Treatment Performed

Before it gets cold, you can hire a professional to perform an exterior perimeter treatment, which will kill the pests around your home before they enter. This solution is a great preventative option and can prevent you from treating your home internally, which means less harmful pesticides in your home.

You can hire your local pesticide company to have an exterior perimeter treatment performed annually, just before the cooler weather sets in around your area. This procedure will take a lot of the stress and hassle out of preparing for fall because you know it will be remedied.

Pest Proof the Openings in Your Home

Bugs can quickly get into your home through open windows and vents, under doorways, and through cracks and gaps. Ensure that you are blocking off any potential entrances to bugs by adding screens to your windows, caulking cracks, and otherwise making your home impenetrable to creepy crawlies.

Keep Your Space Clean

Bugs gravitate towards messes, crumbs, and food, so keeping your place clean is a must to keep bugs at bay. Coming up to fall, it’s a good idea to ramp up the cleaning in your home to make your home less appealing.

Keep your kitchen tidy, vacuum regularly, and keep your bins sealed. This strategy won’t keep bugs out entirely, but it will mean that bugs are far less likely to congregate in your home. You will also want to clean any clutter inside your home, which can provide shelter for bugs, such as piles of paper, fabric, or any other old clutter.

Keep Food and Water Out of Reach

Leaving food and water out or in unsealed containers is a buffet for bugs and provides them with the sustenance they need to survive. Ensure you clean leftover food as soon as you can and keep fruit in the fridge or the cupboard instead of on the bench.

However, your cupboards are not impenetrable, so you need to ensure your food is not in open containers. Invest in some sealed containers for all your cereals, dry baking goods, and anything else bugs can access.

Turn Up the Heat in Your Home

The critters in your home love warmth, which is why they are in your home in the first place, and why they tend to congregate on the sun-facing side of your home. Bugs slowdown in the cold weather and go into a sort of semi-hibernation.

You can trick bugs into higher activity levels by turning up the heat and bringing on an early spring that will mean they come out of hiding, and you can more easily find them and kill them. You can trap them and release them outside if you’re feeling kind, but honestly, they won’t survive outside during the winter.

Get Your Home Fogged

If you have tried every other method for keeping bugs out, and you still aren’t having any success, you can try fogging your home on your own or by a professional exterminator. This process is a more expensive and time-consuming way to do things, but it will eliminate any bugs for the season.

Remove toys and other items from the area and move any plants outside to eliminate contamination by the fogging. You will need to stay away from your home and keep pets and kids out for three hours afterward.

You will need to work afterward to remove the smell and the chemicals from your home, such as washing all the exposed fabric. Vacuum your home every few days after the fogging is complete, and open the windows as regularly as possible.

Unless you take action, bugs are very likely to take up residence in your home during the fall and winter. Act early and take preventative measures before the season kicks in to stop bugs from getting into your home in the first place. Then, once the season starts, be sure your home remains inhospitable to bugs by ensuring it stays clean and tidy.

To talk more about your home, get in touch with our team today.