Keeping pests away from your home and garden does not have to be costly or involve chemicals that can be harmful to plants or individuals. Here are 7 ways to control pests using common home materials.
1. Remove Attractants:
The first line of defense in controlling pests is to remove anything that will attract them. Ants and other household pests are attracted by things like sugar or crumbs on a counter. By cleaning your counters and cupboards, you can remove what draws pests into your home. Other pests like dust mites can be attracted by dirt or dust collected in fabrics such as your carpeting or drapes. Still other pests like termites are attracted to exposed wood, especially if the wood is damp from water leaking onto it continuously. The damp wood is like candy to termite colonies. By cleaning and doing preventative maintenance thoroughly, you can help to prevent harmful pests from getting in and destroying your home.
2. Coffee Grounds:
Coffee grounds are known to have a repelling effect on pests like ants. If you find that ants are entering your home, find out where the trail is coming from outside and spread a line of coffee grounds along the wall outside your home to prevent ants from entering.
3. Catnip:
Catnip is known to have a repelling effect on cockroaches. While noxious to roaches, the catnip is not harmful to people or pets. Catnip can be placed in small sachets where cockroaches are located or it can be used in a spray along baseboards and counters by combining it with a small amount of water and simmering it to create a catnip tea. Caution: This should not be used in a home with cats.
4. Cedar:
There was actually a reasons why cedar chests and cedar lined closets were popular. Not only does cedar repel moths, it is also a repellent for pests like fleas. Cedar can be used in shampoos for animals as well as using cedar oil in a water solution to spray along baseboards. Cedar bark can also be used as a bedding in outside planters to help prevent pests from coming into the home. There are also products like cedar-filled sleeping bags that are available to help repel pests in bedding.
5. Flowers:
Your flower garden can be used not only to dress up your home, but also to keep unwanted pests away. Outdoor flowers like Marigolds, Lavender, and Hyssop are known for keeping pests away, along with plants that can be grown outdoors or indoors like Oregano, Parsley, and Rosemary. There are also plants like daisies and spearmint that attract beneficial insects that help to get rid of unwanted pests. Some of these beneficial insects include ladybugs, ground beetles, and Hoverflies, known for feeding on pests like caterpillars, aphids, and other pests that can destroy your garden.
6. Citronella Candles:
Citronella Candles are an easy and popular method of keeping pests like mosquitoes and other insects away. Made from an Asian grass plant known as Cymbopogon Nardus, Citronella is an oil that is most commonly converted into a wax-like substance for use as candles. Citronella oil has also been found to have pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory properties that help to promote relaxation and inflammation. Citronella has been used as a plant-based insect repellent in the United States since 1948 and has proven to repel mosquitoes that can carry the Zika virus or dengue fever.
7. Don’t stockpile:
Some of the most irritating pests a home can have are mice and rodents. They love to find places in a home that are dark and have stockpiles that have been neglected. If you have a place in your home, like the garage or a storeroom where you keep boxes of items for long periods of time, you can help keep mice out by rotating or moving the boxes around on a regular basis. This will help you detect if there is any rodent activity and make it hard for them to establish a place to create any more damage. Check locations like under sinks and pantries where you are known to store items as well.
For more information, contact Bennetts Services about ways to keep pests under control.
