What’s Attracting Pests To Your Home?

There are many different problems which might make a home less homely. However, my least favourite by far is infestations! There are few things I hate more than living in a house where I know all kinds of horrible bugs and pests are crawling around. Infestations might feel like they’re completely out of the blue. However, sometimes they can be sparked by other, seemingly minor problems around the house. I’m sure you don’t want to go on inviting pests into your home! Here are a few common problems which are linked to infestations.

What's Attracting Pests To Your Home

Image: Public Domain Pictures

 

First of all, trees and shrubs touching your home. That branch that’s always tapping on the roof might have been annoying to start with. You get used to these things after a while, but trees touching your house could be the cause of a pest problem. Ants and rodents are notorious for using trees and other plants to access a house. Once they make it onto the roof, it’s only a matter of time before they find a critter-sized opening for their purposes. If you’ve got shrubbery against the side of your home, this can also encourage moisture. This, in turn, leads to rot, ruining your home and attracting further pests. The easiest fix is simply trimming back the vegetation around your home, leaving a gap of at least three feet.

Another issue is soil touching the siding of your home. Similar to the shrubbery, this makes for more moisture in the walls and causes rot. This will then attract carpenter ants, moisture ants and the odd group of termites here and there. Once a colony of these bugs get in, they can be very hard to force out. Furthermore, they can approach larger creepy crawlies which prey on them, and getting rid of scorpions is a whole different matter! Fortunately, there’s another simple solution to this. Dig the mulch and soil away from the walls of your home, as well as any decking or extensions you have. You don’t need too much of a gap, but you should be able to see the foundations of the house. Just make sure you don’t leave it in a big pile graded towards the house. This will let water run down it, cause the exact same problem, and attract the exact same pests!

 

If you have a crawl space under your house, then it’s important to deal with any gaps around the edges. This makes it easy for rodents to get in, and make themselves a cosy little home right under you. Sure, there won’t be any effects straight away. Over time though, the insulation, wiring and vapour barrier will take damage. This is caused by the rodent’s faeces, urine and perpetual chewing! If they’re left alone for long enough, these kinds of pests are certain to find a way into your home. The easiest fix to this problem is hiring a contractor to patch up any access points around your crawl space. If the only hole you can see is in the vent screens, then simply take these out and replace them. Obviously once you’ve worked at fixing this, you don’t want the same problem to spring up again. You can do yourself a favour by using thick hardware cloth to patch up the screening. Fix it in with steel staples, screws, or some other heavy-duty fixture.

What's Attracting Pests To Your Home 2

Image: Wikimedia

 

Finally, blocked gutters. This is one of those home issues which just seems to happen without you noticing it. When the gutter’s completely blocked up, you obviously notice it overflowing when it rains. However, gutters can take a lot of leaves and other debris before they stop functioning properly. All this built-up gunk is what you need to look out for. If this kind of moisture gets into the siding, then it will cause decay and attract a range of insects. Furthermore, having a lot of water stagnating in the gutters creates a wonderful breeding habitat for mosquitos. The fix is simple, and probably something you should be doing anyway. The gutters need to be checked on and cleared out regularly. Even if you don’t get that many dead leaves around your property, it’s worth getting the ladder out and having a look. You’d be surprised at the kinds of junk that end up in house’s gutters!

If you want to avoid infestations in the future, then be sure to check for these problems. Getting pests out of your home can be a real challenge. However, if you watch out for these problems, you’ll avoid all kinds of problems in the future.

 

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