Spring is the time when flora and fauna boom and the weather starts to feel perfectly warm. However, the season also brings a lot of bugs and pests around owing to the humidity, making your home susceptible to pest infestation of all kinds. Managing the increased pest activity during spring is integral to having a worry-free experience and keeping your home’s foundation strong all year long. But how do you ensure that your home is bug free?
In today’s blog, we’re going to look at the importance of bug proofing your home and understand the tips you can use to bug proof your home – DIY style. Afterwards, we’re going to consider the type of situations where professional help will be more suitable. Let’s begin!
Types Of Pests To Look Out For
Irrespective of your residence location, you’re more than likely to see an increased amount of rodents, termites, and carpenter ants around your home as the sky begins to clear up and spring approaches your door steps.
By understanding how and in what conditions these pests appear can help you prepare to ward them off in advance. It’s important to understand that rodents and termites can cause significant damage to the structure of your house, affecting both the foundation and aesthetics of your property. By detecting the presence of these pests early on, you can protect your property from extensive damage.
How To Bug Proof Your Surroundings For Spring?
Here is a five pronged approach to DIY bug proofing your surroundings for spring:
Inspect Your Surroundings
Inspecting your surroundings for signs of pest infestation is the first step to controlling excessive pest activity and acing your spring DIY prep. Start by checking all the common entry points and consider a solution for them. This can include all the small cracks, tears, and gaps on your doors and windows, walls, ceilings and floors; but also encompasses the leaks around the plumbing system, which can become a breeding ground for many of these pests.
You may also want to pay attention to the kitchen and pantry area as stored food and crumbs left around the house can attract pests like rodents, especially if the food is going bad. A common sign of infestation is rodent droppings and gnaw marks, shed skins of cockroaches and a musty odor, and discarded wings of termites and a hollow wood sound, especially in the basement area.
Seal All Entry Points
Once you have identified the potential gaps and have checked your property for pest infestations and bugs, you must start sealing all entry points across your property actively. For your doors and windows, you can use weather stripping. Don’t forget to use caulk around the window frames to add an extra layer of protection. For all the pipes and wires in your home, use expanding foam to seal the electric wiring.
You can also use this for your AC units. Walls and foundations are best filled with silicone caulk for long lasting results. If you’re worried about smaller pests sneaking in through the vents and chimneys, you can use a mix of fine metal mesh screens for complete protection and coverage of areas such as your attic and basement.
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Use Natural Deterrents
Using natural deterrents is one of the many eco-friendly pest control methods that you can adopt to DIY prep your home before spring. To ensure that no bugs invade your home, you can use a combination of essential oils such as tea tree, peppermint, and lavender. You can also use vinegar and bay leaves to achieve the same result. Some people use products like Diatomaceous Earth (DE) to dehydrate the insects in their home.
Spraying or keeping any of these around any entry points like windows and doors will effectively make it difficult for pests to enter or survive in your home. For the outdoors, that is your lawn and garden, you can use a garlic and onion spray or a strong neem oil spray to deter various pests. You can also plant basil, mint, and marigold in your garden for repelling bugs.
Build Bug Hotels
It might sound like contradictory advice, but building bug hotels in your outdoor space such as lawn and backyards is a great way to attract various beneficial insects to your green space. Not only is it a smart way to contribute to the local ecosystem, but these larger and helpful bugs can get rid of pests in your outdoor space, making your home spring ready.
To create a bug hotel, all you need to do is some wood and bamboo, along with a hammer and some nails. Make sure to add different compartments for different types of bugs so that they don’t turn to each other. Place the bug hotel against a flat surface to protect it from winds. The insects in here can also act as a source of food for birds flying nearby, making them a smart and simple addition to your outdoor space to keep your home bug proof.
When To Call A Professional?
Here are some reasons why you might want to consider calling a pest control professional for your spring prep:
Severe Pest Issues
If you’re facing extensive pest issues that are complex in nature and can’t be controlled with DIY solutions, it’s important to take proactive steps and find the right pest control service for your home.
Pests like termites need to be eradicated from the root of your house, while larger pests require proper removal. Choosing a pest control service for rodents, stinging pests, termites, ants, and spiders is important to cover all the bases and avoid complex pest infestation issues down the road.
Lack Of Specialized Equipment
Even though you can seal entry points at home, basic tools and hands can’t mimic the specialized pest control equipment like chemical sprayers, ultraviolet light traps, foamers, dusters, and hose.
All of these equipment are essential for a successful pest and bug removal service and work as higher quality of pest repellents and eradication as compared to more natural options of pest control found in homes.
Neither does a normal individual have the knowledge to operate these equipment. That’s why it’s important to find an experienced pest control specialist with an array of equipment and tools to make your spring prep seamless.
Safety Concerns
When dealing with pests, both big and small, there’s always a risk of safety. Maybe you’re not experienced with the tools that you’re using, or the pest infestation is so vast that you don’t have the skills to manage them appropriately.
Showing a lack of awareness in these situations can cost you in the long run, because either the pest infestation won’t be completely gone, or it will come back too soon again and could be even more extreme.
Whatever may be the case, letting a professional pest control specialist know and handle the bug proofing of your property is the best way to keep you and your family safe from pest infestations before the spring comes around.
Long-Term Pest Control Solutions
While it might be tempting to do a comprehensive spring DIY pest control prep with natural solutions, they’re only temporary in nature. But if you want long-term solutions for pest control in your property, professional pest control help is integral for a successful pest management operation.
Since bugs and other pests are notoriously persistent and difficult to remove, having a professional pest control specialist handle your bug proofing can make it easier for you to manage the foundation and aesthetic integrity of your property.
It’s A Wrap
In a nutshell, protecting your home from bugs is an essential part of your spring DIY prep. Understanding the type of pests to look out for and using methods like inspection, sealing entry points, using natural deterrents, building bug hotels, and having a comprehensive plan against pest infestation are some of the tips you can use to bug proof your home.
However, if the pest infestation becomes unbearable, starts to concern your safety and you want long-term solutions for pest infestation, it’s a good idea to seek professional help as soon as possible.
<p>The post Spring DIY: Bug-Proof Your Home & Know When to Call a Pro first appeared on CCR-Mag.com.</p>
