Four Tips Homeowners Should Know To Avoid Thanksgiving Pests

With Thanksgiving coming up, it’s getting colder outside, which means more pests will be trying to get inside homes for the winter. Rodents, cockroaches, and ants are the most common winter invaders. Knowing what to do to prevent these pests from getting into your house is key in keeping your home safe from pests for the winter season.

Problems Pests Bring

Each cool-weather pest brings different issues when invading a home. This means there isn’t one simple way to deal with all of them at once. Rodents such as mice, rats, squirrels, and other small furry mammals are probably the most infamous. If rodents get inside your home, they can cause serious problems. Rodents look everywhere for food and will chew on nearly everything, meaning that you could be faced with exposed or gnawed wires, punctured pipes, and other structural damage. And a lot of rodents carry bacteria and diseases, including salmonella, rat-bite fever, and even the plague. Due to this, rodents are some of the more dangerous pests to have inside a home and should be dealt with immediately.

Cockroaches are notorious for being gross pests. They are small bugs with hard outer shells and wings. Cockroaches may not do as much structural damage as rodents, but they are just as dangerous bacterium-wise. Cockroaches can carry dysentery, typhoid, and polio. These alone should be enough to make you want to get rid of them as soon as possible.

Ants are probably seen as less dangerous than rodents and cockroaches. While generally, this is true, there are still many diseases that ants can carry that can cause serious harm to humans. Ants can carry E. coli, streptococcus, and salmonella. These tiny pests may seem harmless, especially the ones that don’t bite humans, but they can be just as bad as the other two to deal with.

Prevention Tips

Knowing how to prevent these pests from getting in can save not just your home, but you as well. Dart pest control has four tips for keeping pests out.

• A great tip that will help against all types of pests is keeping your house clean. Pests will usually only take root in your home if there is a food source, and by cleaning up food messes and keeping food secure, you eliminate this attractor.
  
• Remove clutter both inside and outside your house. Pests will search for hiding places everywhere, and by removing clutter, you take away their ability to hide from you.
  
• Another great tip is to seal any cracks or gaps in the structure of your home. These pests, especially ants, can fit through incredibly tiny holes and gaps, which means that the slightest opening could lead to an infestation. By sealing these, you remove the most common entrances that pests use.
  
• Keeping your trash in a sealed space helps as well. Most pests will dig through the trash for food, and if they find it, they’ll suspect more is in your home. If you don’t let them in the trash, they can’t see any food around your home, making it less attractive to them.

If pests have already invaded your home, it can be nearly impossible to get rid of them on your own. The most effective way of getting rid of pests is by contacting Dart Pest, Lawn & Wildlife. Reach out to our professionals today!