Pest Control Tips: The Ultimate Guide to Keeping Pests Away From Your Property

Pest Control Tips: A Guide to Keeping Pests Away From Your Property

Are you being bugged by pests around your home? Check out our pest control tips for practical advice about keeping pests away from your property today.

When you think of creating a sanctuary in your home, one of the primary things you would want is no unwanted animals in or around it. If that isn’t the case in your home right now, you are probably feeling unsafe and uncomfortable spending time at home, or even fearful to step foot outside.

There are many things you can do to prevent wildlife like flying squirrels, grey squirrels, and rats/mice in your home. Here are some useful pest control tips that you can start applying right now to keep your home safe from wildlife and other unwanted creatures.

1. Make Sure Your Yard Is Clean and Clutter-Free

If your yard is cluttered with garbage, old broken furniture, and other discarded items, then it’s going to be easy for animals like rodents, squirrels, flying squirrels, armadillos, opossums, foxes, bats, and snakes to make their home in, around, or underneath the items.

Animals are like humans in some ways, as they like to find a safe place to nest. So, overgrown weeds, piles of wood, and accumulated debris look like home to them and they are happy to nestle into it.

That’s why it’s crucial to clean out any garbage in your yard and keep it as tidy as possible. If you haven’t decluttered your yard in a while, make a weekend of it. Invite friends and family with a promise of a meal and beverages, but get it done.

Once you have a clean yard, it won’t be as attractive to unwanted creatures anymore, and it will be easier for you to spot any wildlife roaming about as well. It will also improve the aesthetics of your home, as it will look more inviting and pleasing to the eye. Your home value could possibly increase as well, which is a bonus.

2. Fill in Any Holes or Gaps in Your Home

Rodents and smaller creatures are quite wily. They will find gaps, holes, or any other openings in your home and take advantage of them. They are mostly searching for food to sustain themselves, and if they can get into your well-stocked home, the better for them. These nuisance critters are also at times searching for shelter, just a warm dry place.

That’s why it’s crucial to fill up any gaps in your windows, walls, screen doors, or anywhere else, as soon as you notice them. Even if the hole seems ridiculously small, small creatures like rats and mice can easily squeeze through it. So it’s important to close them off.

Leaving your home vulnerable for even a day or two to outside forces can be harmful. This is because if one rodent gets into your home, then within a few days, you could have many babies running around.

At that point, it becomes harder to clean up your home of such an infestation without professional wildlife and pest removal services. That’s why it’s better to do a preemptive strike and remove any possibility of them getting into your home in the first place. The more proactive you can be in this regard and close off holes, the more critter-free your home will be.

3. Put up a Fence and Keep an Eye on It

If you don’t have a fence around your home yet and live in an area with a lot of wildlife, then what are you waiting for? It might be a bit of an expense at first to put a fence around your home, but it will give you some peace of mind that you seek.

Fences are great at deterring wildlife and other pests from entering your property. You don’t have to fence off your entire property if your budget is low. However keep in mind that some animals will climb your fence if they want to be on your property badly enough.

Consider fencing off a part of your property where wildlife seems to migrate the most. For example, if you have deer munching on grass in a particular area, then consider fencing off that area (it will need to be 8 feet or higher for deer).

The cost of a professional fence installation will vary depending on the area being fenced, the materials used, and your location. If you are handy with tools, you could consider building a fence yourself. again keeping in mind that animals will climb said fence if their desire to be in your yard is high.

4. Eliminate Bird Feeders

Bird feeders are a neon beacon to wildlife inviting them to come over and have a nibble. Yes, you want to do good for the environment by feeding hungry birds. Unfortunately, it could make your home a party zone for all wildlife around like rodents, squirrels, and other critters.

This is even more true if you live in an area with high winds because it will constantly disperse the seeds around your yard, attracting even more creatures.

That’s why it’s a better idea to eliminate bird feeders all together and find another way to support the birds in your area.

5. Remove Food From Any Patio Furniture After a BBQ or a Party

BBQs or outdoor parties are fun until someone forgets to clean up, attracting wildlife and other pests to come over and clean up the food for you. Don’t make that mistake yourself.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you stop having outdoor parties. But make sure to take some time after each one to clean up all the food left behind as neatly as possible. Leaving behind even one or two sandwiches will entice wildlife to come and sniff out for more goodies.

And no one wants to wake up in the morning and find wildlife of all kinds roaming about their yard searching for food.

6. DIY Pepper Spray

Animals do not like hot pepper sauce. Maybe you understand their plight if spicy food makes you want to run away as well.

Either way, it’s easy enough to make a homemade pepper spray that you can spray in all the areas that wildlife critters like to frequent. All you need is some hot pepper sauce (make sure to handle it with gloves on), water, and a little bit of dish soap.

Mix it all up by using a commercial blender in a well-ventilated area, and then transfer it into a spray bottle. Spray your critter-friendly areas once a week. This should deter them from coming around, although this is NOT a permanent solution it can buy you some time to figure out your next steps.

7. Use Commercial Animal Repellants

Perhaps all you want to do is prevent wildlife from coming around to your property without harming or killing them. If that’s the case, then you can use commercially available animal repellants.

These are available in most online and offline home goods stores, and there are usually different ones depending on the kind of animal you wish to prevent.

You can put these all around your property, either by spraying or sprinkling them around. Follow the instructions for the animal repellant carefully, and make sure any pets or children in your home do not consume these products.

8. Get Professional Help

If you have done everything possible and wildlife or other pests are still entering your home as if it’s their own. Then it’s time for you to call in some professional help. Perhaps you have something specific that’s attracting all these critters to your home, but you aren’t sure what it is exactly.

The problem with nuisance wildlife is that they are hard to catch since a lot of them scavenge at night when you are fast asleep. That’s why professionals are the ones to call upon in such an emergency critter situation.

Professional wildlife and pest removal services like Perimeter Wildlife Control deal with dozens of homes weekly. They have likely seen and done it all. Additionally, they will be able to quickly identify why your home is such a haven for wildlife, trap or remove them, & give you a plan for the future.

Once they come in and deal with your pest problem, you will be able to breathe a sigh of relief. It’s well worth it to call such a service in and have them take a look at your critter situation, even if you are an animal lover.

Pest Control Tips: Get Your Home Critter-Free Again

Animals are smarter than you think. And even though they might be cute at first glance, having them show up in random places around or inside your home isn’t going to be fun for very long. This is especially true if you have young children, pets, or other vulnerable people in your home.

That’s why it’s important to use the pest control tips above to make your home critter-free as soon as possible. If you are searching for professional pest control services, then we are here to help. Contact us today and we will make sure your home is safe from wildlife again.