Summer is a great time to take care of things that might have fallen by the wayside during the rest of the year. The sun is out longer, so you have more time in the day to spend outside. You might even have some little helpers hanging around the house now that school is out. Since you have some extra time, we’ve put together a list of some projects that help make your home a more pest free zone. Taking care of these items will help make your home more difficult for pests to get into, and less attractive to them in the first place.
Fix Your Window Screens
Window screens are incredibly useful, but unfortunately, they can be equally as fragile. The screens themselves rip fairly easily, and the frames on the outside are often made of thin metal, which bends easily, and can cause the screen not to fit anymore. Go around your house and check each of your window screens to make sure they’re in working order. Some problems can be easily repaired, such as small tears being patched, or a frame that can be bent back into place. However, if your screen is beyond repair, buy a new one. This is important in keeping your house secure and tightly sealed against pests.
Seal Up Cracks In Walls
The next project has the same concept in mind: sealing off your home to pests. If your doors and windows are all secured, the next thing you’ll need to do is check your walls for holes and cracks. Pests are very small and can fit into basically any holes that you can see light through. Walk around your house and look for any holes that pests might be able to make their way through, and fill them in with caulking.
Get Rid Of Yard Waste
If you have a dead tree stump or pile of green waste in your yard, it might be attracting pests into your house. Termites especially like to hide amongst these types of clutter piles, and keeping the piles close to the walls of your house might eventually lead to the pests making their way into your home. This summer, take some time to get rid of any unwanted yard waste, and if you have piles that you want to keep (for example, firewood) move it as far away from your house as possible.
Build A Barrier
It’s incredibly common for the exterior of your walls to be touching some sort of dirt. After all, shrubbery or gardens are often placed at the edge of your house for a nice decorative touch. In the same way that a wood pile too close to your home can cause pests to make their way inside, a dirt area close to your home does too. The best thing you can do to prevent this issue is installing a brick planter to isolate them. Or if there is dirt currently touching the walls, replace that dirt with some pavement to create a perimeter at least a couple of feet wide.