There are few things worse than seeing a mouse scurry across your basement floor or a cockroach run behind your refrigerator, but these moments do happen whether you live in a city, suburb or rural area.
Zach DeVries, an assistant professor of urban entomology at the University of Kentucky explained that a lot of pests that we don’t want in our homes live around us all the time.
“And our homes just kind of get plopped down in the environment wherever it may be, even if it’s in the city, we’re plopping a home down where a lot of these things live,” DeVries said.
“And we established that home is our space where there shouldn’t be insects, but the insects don’t necessarily respect those boundaries. They just move about their environment wherever it may be,” he noted.
The key to keeping pests outside of your home is about making your space inaccessible to them and devoid of the things they want (namely food, shelter and water), according to DeVries.
Below, experts detail the common home habits they avoid to keep their homes as pest-free as possible:
They don’t ignore holes in window screens.
Matt Frye, a rodent and structural pest management specialist at the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell University, said he likes to do all that he can to keep pests from entering his home in the first place.
“Some of those [things] are pretty basic, like making sure that windows are screened and that screens are not torn in any way,” Frye added.
“Once we open up our windows in the spring and summer, there’s a difference in air pressure inside that can draw critters into structures,” he said.
At night, if there are lights on in your home, some insects will be attracted to it, he added.
“And so having the screen in place will keep them from coming inside,” Frye noted. If you don’t have screens in your windows and want to open them up during warm weather, it’s a good idea to install them. Or, if your screens are ripped, you should patch them or replace them.
They don’t pretend it’s OK to have an exterior door that isn’t properly sealed.
You should also make sure your doors are sealed properly, DeVries said. How can you tell?
“If you shine a light on one side [of your door], if you see the light coming through on the other side … there’s probably an insect that can crawl under there,” DeVries noted.
Sealing up this area can help keep insects or other pests from getting in your home.
“That really goes a long way now, it’s not going to solve all your pest problems, [but it’s] going to solve a ton of them,” DeVries said.
They don’t let old pantry items sit around.
“With our pantry, I’m pretty strict about a first in, first out policy — whenever we buy new cans, new pasta, whatever, I do bring the old ones to the front and put the new ones in the back,” Frye said.
And, there’s a serious, pest-related reason behind that move.
“That’s beneficial for two reasons. First, it helps us remember we bought this special type of grains that we never used if it’s in the back, but also all those grains have the potential of being infested when you purchase them at the store with things like Indian meal moth or rice weevil or other types of pests that infest the grain,” said Frye.
“If you never rotate that stock, you can have an explosion of pests in your kitchen, all coming from one box of old pasta that will spread to other grain-based foods,” he said. “So, rotation is important.”
They don’t store firewood or trash receptacles against their home.
While it’s natural to store firewood, trash cans, composting bins and recycling bins against your home, it’s something pest control experts say you should avoid for a few reasons.
Firewood can be a nesting site for mice, along with other insects and spiders, according to Frye, who said he’d never store firewood against his house for that reason.
The same goes for trash receptacles, he said.
“It’s convenient to have your firewood, your compost and your trash bin right up against the house, but it’s not ideal for deterring pests,” Frye noted.
They don’t ignore nearby new construction.
According to Mary Ellen Welch, a family and consumer sciences extension educator at the University of Connecticut, you should pay particular attention to your home — and any pest-inviting bad habits — if there’s any sort of construction near it.
If there’s a vacant home or space nearby, and construction all of a sudden starts, it can disturb any rodents or insects living there, she said.
“Oftentimes, people in the area may even have an influx of mice or rats in their own house that leave the one where there’s a lot of construction … so, you will need to be cognizant of that,” she said.
Mice can fit through a dime-sized hole, which means making sure your home is properly sealed very important, she noted.
And, if you have an older home that can’t possibly be totally sealed, try to make your space as unappealing as possible to critters.
They don’t let water accumulate outside.
“A big one in more residential areas is reducing standing water outside, so kids toys, dog bowls, bird baths, tarps … all of those can accumulate water, and that will serve as a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and mosquitoes don’t travel too far from where they are breeding,” Frye said.
“So, if people are out on their patio. and they’re being bit by mosquitoes, it’s likely that they are breeding those mosquitoes somewhere on their property,” he said.
If you notice mosquitoes in your yard, do a walk around your outdoor space and look for standing water. If you find it, dump it out, he said.
“The one that’s often missed is gutters, because gutters can become clogged with leaves or seeds from trees, and then that can have standing water, which can also breed mosquitoes,” Frye added.
They don’t let things like clutter and dirty dishes get out of control.
You likely know that it’s best to keep your home clean and clutter-free — although with the demands of a busy life, it can be hard to do. But, Welch stressed that it’s important to keep your home in good repair.
“Pests, they are always looking for access to your home, for shelter and for food and water,” Welch said. This is what motivates them to come inside of homes, she noted.
If you don’t leave our clutter (which can provider shelter) or old food or water, it will make your home less appealing to pests, she said.
“It’s really critical to develop a routine of removing clutter, cleaning and disinfecting commonly used areas,” Welch said.
DeVries added that taking out the trash regularly is another important way to limit the insects in your home. By neglecting to take out the trash when it’s full, “you’re leaving food and things available for them — and the longer it’s there, there’s more chances that something’s going to get in there and start to eat and grow and reproduce,” DeVries said.
It’s also helpful to store food in sealed containers and not to let items like fruit go bad and attract flies, DeVries added.
“People should really try to schedule times to work on some of these tasks so that they don’t forget or it doesn’t become so overwhelming for them,” Welch noted.
They don’t ignore a pest problem.
Even if you follow all of the rules mentioned above, there is still a chance you may find the occasional pest in your home.
If you do notice a pest problem that you don’t want to handle or need additional help with (such as with roaches or rodents), you should call a licensed and insured professional, DeVries said.
But, if you don’t have the money to spend on a pest control service or need additional advice before hiring someone, there’s a free option, too.
“The other thing is utilizing the extension system in their states. A lot of people aren’t familiar with this, but they can reach out to universities … [they] usually have somebody there who, part of their job is to help out people in their state or area or region, deal with these problems,” DeVries said, “so, I handle a lot of calls.”
People may call to ask for advice for dealing with flies or termites, for example — or whatever unwanted insect or rodent they’re seeing in their space.
“Part of my job is to help them, walk them through that. And I might not be able to go out there and do the treatment, but I can give them some educated advice … so that they can make an informed decision of what the best next step is,” DeVries said.
“And anybody who lives in the US is going to have the option, they have an extension system in every and all 50 states that they can reach out to,” he said.
All in all, you don’t want to have pests in your home. Pests like rodents, roaches and mosquitoes can carry bacteria and diseases, while other insects bring an unsettling “ick” factor to your space.
“Any steps that we could take to eliminate their breeding and prevent the adults from emerging is great,” Frye said.
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