Insect Proofing a Home From the Outside In

Keeping bugs out of your home is no small task, especially since a lot of the things that bugs like to eat, including you, are inside the home. However, there are many things you can do to try and pest-proof your home, from the outside in. Here’s some tips.

Outside Your Home

1. Keep your yard clean! It’s always a good idea to get rid of debris like grass clippings and leaves, especially around the foundation of your home. Also, make sure your window wells and gutters are clean. Keep trees and bushes from touching your home, as these can provide “bug highways” into your house.
2. Buy a bird bath and put up a bird feeder! Birds are excellent predators of pests, and more birds means less bugs.
3. Want to do what you can to attract beneficial bugs? Planting flowers can attract parasitic wasps that prey on other bugs, and attracting ladybugs can help kill of aphids and other plant killing bugs.
4. Perform a walk around of your home on a regular basis. Check for places bugs could get in, and seal them. Also, keep an eye out for mud tubes or other indications that there are bugs that could be more than just pests, like termites.

Inside Your Home

1. Add screens to all your windows, and use 20 mesh or finer. You’ll want to ensure that ALL openings are taken care of, including ventilation openings. Keep your screens maintained. They can stop most bugs just by themselves.
2. Make sure all of your exterior doors have door sweeps. If light can penetrate anywhere around an exterior door, so can bugs. Also, check that  your garage door is fitted with a rubber seal. Sliding glass doors are seal able too, with some foam weather stripping you can get at any home improvement store.
3. Caulk any cracks you find. For bigger openings, fill the space with a material that matches the surrounding wall.
4. Seal utility openings and chase pipes. “Great stuff” really is great stuff when it comes to sealing the areas that your AC’s refrigerant lines or any other exterior wires enter your home.
5. Repair leaks! Pests love moisture, so if you have a leaky pipe or something else causing standing water, make sure you address it.
6. Sure sealable containers in your pantry. Indian meal moths and other pests are attracted to pantrys for just this reason.
7. Clean regularly. bugs don’t need a lot of food to survive, so make sure you clean any areas that you normally wouldn’t, like in kitchen crevices or between cabinets where crumbs might be sitting.

If you’d like to have us come out and inspect your home and take care of any pests that have made their way inside, or treat your yard to prevent pests from making it there in the first place, just give us a call. Quality pest control is what we do, and we would be thrilled to help.