Only YOU can prevent pests
What can you do to prevent pests? A lot, actually. The pest control industry can seem quite complex. If you have ever had a pest infestation, you have experienced this first hand. Pests damage homes, create health problems, and frustrate people to no end. Pests only survive if adequate food, water, shelter is available. If you can eliminate one, or preferably all, of these factors pests will look elsewhere to live. Yet, if there is enough food, water, and shelter for humans to live, then there is probably enough for pests to survive as well. Therefore, keeping a home or building pest free requires extensive pest knowledge and diligence to execute preventative strategies.
Food
What kind of food do pests like? That all depends on the species. Insects can derive energy from any material containing carbs, fibers, sugars, or proteins. For example, insects such as fleas feed on the nutrients in blood while cockroaches only need basic organic material to power their bodies. But for most pests, human food is the source of their energy.
So how do we keep our food out of the hands of pests? Clean, clean, and clean. All those chores that we push aside until we feel like doing them need to start happening more often. Dishes need cleaning, counter tops swept, trash taken out, underneath side of refrigerators and stoves cleaned, and food put away and sealed out of reach of wandering bugs. Less obvious food sources include pet food and over watered flower pots.
Water
Not all pests need a seperate source of moisture to survive. Many get their water from their food source, but others do need moisture to survive. Therefore, eliminating moisture around your home reduces the number of pest species you need to worry about.
Moisture can originate from a number of sources. These can be divided in to two categories, moisture from inside the home (sink, showers, dishwashers, etc.) and from outside the home (rain or the soil). We can easily manage water coming form inside the home. However, moisture coming from outside the home proves more difficult to contain. Rain water can seem into the crawl space, attic, or walls if the structure was not build effectively. Another common culprit is the crawl space. Moisture naturally releases from the ground – maintaining proper crawl space conditions ensures limited moisture under your home
Shelter
Pests find shelter inside our home, or directly outside our home. Both of these shelter areas can lead to pest problems. Often, pests find the shelter directly outside our home first, then move inside finding better shelter.
Shelter areas directly outside our home include landscaping mulch, pine needles, and rocks. While these materials may be visually pleasing, they provide perfect homes for many crawling insects. We recommend a thin layer of rocks as the best pest resistant landscaping. Leave piles, fire wood stacks, and untrimmed foliage also provide prime pest habitat.
Inside the home, pests look to take shelter in dark, hard to reach places. Pest professionals recommend keeping rooms tidy, spacious, and clean. Things like over crowded kitchen pantries, cluttered garages, messy bed rooms, and overloaded boxes in the attic all create prime pest harborage.