Most people would like to think that they aren’t sharing their abodes with any uninvited guests – specifically, the animal kind. The truth is that rodents and wild animals will often find ways of entering homes to search for food, warmth, and shelter.
You’re likely reading this blog post today because you have a feeling you’ve got a pest problem in your property. For example, you might have heard strange scratching, tapping, or ‘running’ sounds under your floors or in places like your kitchen or attic.
You will undoubtedly want to make your home safe and secure, both for yourself and your family. Here are some practical steps you can take to ensure that happens:
Seal any obvious exterior holes
The first thing you should do is survey the outside of your home and look for gaps in the brickwork or wooden panels. All animals will take the path of least resistance to gain entry to your home, so any holes should be fairly obvious.
When you’re looking for holes where animals can squeeze in and out of your home, it’s best to survey all-around your home – not just the ground level areas. Many wild animals can climb up walls and trees, so be sure to check your roof tiles and soffits for holes or damage.
Once you’ve identified those holes, you should take steps to seal them as soon as possible. You can employ many methods, such as laying new bricks or wood and effectively replace any damaged building materials.
If you’d prefer not to do such remedial work yourself, it makes sense to enlist the services of a professional contractor.
Hire a pest control expert
Once you’ve taken care of any likely exterior areas where uninvited animals could enter, the next step is having a professional check for signs of animals inhabiting your home. Companies like Pest Authority will do a thorough survey of your home’s interior.
They’ll then determine likely hiding spots through tell-tale signs such as animal urine or feces or chewed-up furniture and wiring. The pest control firm you hire will set humane traps to catch those animals and recover them from you when they’ve been caught.
Be sure to check with the pest control experts that the traps they use are safe around children and your family pets.
Keep your trash secure
Wild animals partly get attracted to people’s homes because they believe those houses have some food available for foraging. The first thing they’ll do in their hunt for food is search through the trash, especially if they can smell something appealing to eat.
The sad truth is many householders don’t keep their trash secure when it’s outside. Garbage that’s easy to rummage through will attract rodents and other wildlife in the neighborhood, especially if trash bags get ripped, and their contents are strewn all over the ground.
Make sure you put your garbage in strong, airtight containers if you aren’t already doing that. Also, consider storing those containers in a secure storage area for extra protection against wild animals. Take a look at the Home Depot website for some ideas.
Install fences around your home
Does your home have sprawling lawns and no fences surrounding your property’s boundaries? If that’s the case, you’ll be making life easy for unwanted animals to enter your grounds and find a way to get inside your home!
Fences are effective at stopping larger wild animals like deer and raccoons from gaining access to your house. There are many different styles of fencing you could install, so you’ll easily find a style that blends in with your home’s exterior design.
Ensure There Aren’t Gaps and Entry Points in the Roof
All kinds of pests, including birds, can enter your home through the roof if there are gaps there that make this possible. Ensuring you don’t give pests any kind of easy access to your home is obviously key, so it makes sense to have roof inspections carried out at regular intervals in order to avoid problems.
That way, any issues present in the structure of the roof can be dealt with as they arise and you won’t run the risk of letting any pests into your home without even realizing how it happened.
Fit motion-activated lights outside your house
Wild animals will usually make an appearance outside your house in the evening when everyone in your home is safely in bed. Those animals will find it easier to traverse the exterior of your house if they know they won’t get disturbed by humans.
But, the one thing they won’t expect is bright LED lighting shining on them as soon as they get near to your home! Motion-activated lights are cheap to buy and easy to install. What’s more, you don’t need to wire many lights as you can purchase battery-powered ones.
Final thoughts
Rodents and large wild animals don’t need to be a problem for any homeowner. With a few simple preventative measures, you can significantly decrease the likelihood of uninvited animal guests from entering your home and disrupting your family’s lives.
The above methods and strategies work well in most situations. Of course, if you’re feeling a bit out of your depth tacking the problem, hiring an expert pest control firm will help.
Speak Your Mind