Do you like to do a little spring cleaning? If so, take a moment to consider how your spring cleaning can reduce pests around your home and prevent pests from getting into your home. Here are five great spring cleaning tips that have an impact on pests.
Five Ways Your Spring Cleaning Can Deter Pests
1. Removing Clutter
When you have items in your yard that don’t need to be there, they can promote pest activity. Mice and rats will hide in the cavities of objects in your yard. Spiders will set up webs on objects to catch prey. Moisture pests will hide under objects that block the sun. Pests that are thigmotactic, and like to be squeezed into tight spaces, will squeeze under hard objects. Removing or stowing away unnecessary objects will reduce pest populations.
2. Trimming Tree Branches And Vegetation
If you have a dense tree canopy, it can cause the perimeter around your home to be damp or moist. This is attractive to many pests, including cockroaches, centipedes, silverfish, termites, carpenter ants, and more. When you trim tree branches, you let the sunlight in to dry up the moisture. Trimming branches away from your roof-line can have another impact on pests. It can remove bridges for pests to get onto your roof and explore your roof for vulnerabilities.
3. Cleaning Gutters
When your gutters are clogged, it can lead to over-saturation of the ground near your foundation walls. This can lead to wood rot, mold, fungi, and an increase in pest activity. This is an important time of year to make sure your gutter system is clean and working the way it is intended to.
4. Removing Leaf Litter
If leaves are piled up near your home or underneath exterior structures, like porches, decks, and patios, they will not only promote moisture, they will provide a food source and habitat for many pests. Raking leaves up is one of the best things you can do to reduce pest populations and decrease your chances of an infestation inside your home.
5. Removing Spider Webs
Spider webs can be an eyesore and ruin your curb appeal, but do you know that a spiderweb can also add to your pest problems? A web can have a silk egg sac with hundreds of eggs inside. In a matter of hours, you can have three hundred or more spiderlings hatching from those eggs and exploring the exterior of your home. If you’re thinking, “Um. NOPE!” We’re with you. It is best to remove those webs before the eggs hatch.
One Way To Add Even More Protection
Once you’ve cleaned things up, it is time to turn your attention to sealing gaps and cracks pests can use to get into your Ventura County home. The tools for this job are a caulking gun, some expanding foam, and a foundation repair kit. Do a detailed inspection of your exterior and patch up any potential entry points. Be sure to replace or fix your screens, door sweeps, and weatherstripping as well. While you can’t entirely exclude pests from your home, you can deter them by removing entry points.
How Ventura County Pest Control Can Help
Whether you do a spring cleaning or not, the service professionals here at Ventura County Pest Control can help you keep pests out of your Ventura County home. Our general pest control plan provides ongoing treatments that will create a barrier around your home that repels, excludes, and eliminates pests. If you have questions about this service or you’d like to meet with one of our expertly-trained and fully-licensed pest control professionals, reach out to us today. We’re standing by to assist you with this important protection for your health and property.
