The Best Way To Protect Your Washington D.C. Property From Termites
10/20/2021
What's yellow and white and orange all over? None other than these sneaky insects with a penchant for wooden objects! ...
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Pest infestations are usually subtle. You don't wake up one day and find hundreds of bugs crawling around on your walls. On the contrary, they usually randomly appear every now and then. One day you're taking a shower and a centipede crawls up onto your foot. Another day you see a spider crawling up a wall near the light switch. For a few days, you hear noises coming from your vents and suspect that you have a mouse--but then the noises go away. Out of nowhere, a wasp appears in your bathroom and you put on four layers of clothes and a hat to go into the bathroom to kill that wasp with a fly swatter. There are many pests that can appear in your home and many ways they can appear. Have you wondered how they get in or what might be inviting them to invade your Maryland home? If so, we have some good news for you. Those mysterious pests aren't so mysterious. There are a few things that lure all pests to your home, and only a few ways they get in. Here's what you need to know.
What Attracts Pests
Pests are looking for three things: water, food, and shelter. If you offer pests what they're looking for, they're going to spend more time near your home.
- Water — Bugs and wildlife need water more than they need anything else. If you have stagnant water pools in your yard or moist vegetation, you'll attract pests.
- Food — There are many things that pests eat, including each other. If you have food that attracts one pest, it may become the food that attracts another. Some common food sources that attract pests are birdseed littered on the ground, sweet hummingbird sugar water, the nectar of flowers, honeydew from aphids and scale insects, plant sap, rotting organic matter in trash bags, and dog droppings. As you can see, this is quite a mix. Everything you can do to keep food sources away from your foundation perimeter will help to reduce pest populations.
- Shelter — Some pests are attracted to your home because you have objects in your yard that they can hide in or under. If you remove or store unnecessary items, you can reduce this attractant. Sometimes the shelter bugs and animals look to take advantage of is the structure of the home itself. Be sure to seal entry points and install fencing to prevent animals from using voids under your deck, porch, patio or stairs for harborage.
- One Extra Attractant to Consider — While pests don't require light to survive, some are drawn to it and it can be a strong attractant. Keeping exterior lights off at night or replacing white bulbs with yellow bulbs can help to reduce pests that are drawn to light.
How Do Pests Get In?
While the number of points a pest can get in through are vast, there are only a few ways pests will get into your home.
- Door Sweeps — Whether it is a bug squeezing through a hole in your door sweep or a rodent creating a hole in your door sweep, the sweeps on your doors are a common entry point because they are low to the ground and they can have gaps.
- Weatherstripping — Like door sweeps, the rubber weatherstripping around your exterior doors can develop gaps or holes. These can be exploited by many bugs, both crawling and flying. And rodents can make short work of chewing through the rubber material.
- Gaps Around Doors and Windows — If you have gaps on the outside of your frame, these can give bugs quick access to your frame voids and, ultimately, your wall voids.
- Gaps Around Pipes — When pipes are installed, they are sometimes sealed improperly, or not sealed at all. If you have a pipe with a gap around it, you have the perfect entry point for pests.
How to Keep Pests Out of Your Maryland Home
Reducing attractants and sealing entry points can have a big impact on the number of pests that get into your Maryland home, but for complete control of pests, there is only one solution: The smart application of EPA-approved pest control products. When the right pest control products are applied in the right amounts and appropriate locations, a wide range of pests can be reduced and repelled. Treatments of pest control products are best applied by a licensed and certified pest management professional. At American Pest, we use industry-leading strategies to control pests with the least amount of pest control product. Reach out to us and schedule a free estimate to learn what pest pressure you have around your home and what can be done to keep them from getting into your home.
