How to Keep Your Home and Garden Safe From Pests

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Pests can ruin your experience of feeling safe and comfortable at home. They damage your belongings, eat your plants and food, and can even spread disease. It makes sense that you’d want to keep these pests away from your home and garden so they can’t cause any trouble.

So, how can you prevent pests from invading your property and what can you do if they’re already there?

Compost Carefully

If you grow plants, you might also use a compost bin. Composting is a really useful thing to get into because it can be a free source of food for your plants. A compost heap will also cut down on the amount of landfill your household produces, so it’s better for the environment.

However, if you don’t compost properly, you might introduce pests into your garden. 

When composting, only put raw vegetable scraps and cardboard or paper into the compost bin. Any cooked food or meat scraps will start to smell and will definitely attract pests like rats. You should also use a compost bin that doesn’t allow animals easy access to the scraps inside.

Ideally, a compost bin should drain so any excess liquid goes away. You want to create a good environment for decomposers like worms and other bugs, but without providing a home or a feast for pests that can cause problems.

Maintain Your Property

Pests are incredibly good at finding ways into areas that they aren’t supposed to be in. This includes your home and garden. 

If you have a garden fence or wall, make sure that it’s secure and doesn’t allow larger animals into your garden. If you live near the woods, roaming deer can cause major problems because they can eat all of your plants very quickly.

Yes, deer are cute, but not when they’re on your property.

Pests especially thrive in areas that aren’t being maintained. You can maintain your home by checking for cracks, structural problems, holes in the roof, and potential gaps in your doors and windows. Window screens can be a great way to keep things out of your home even when the windows are open in the summer.

You should also maintain your garden and make sure that you don’t have any infestations that you haven’t noticed yet.

Protecting Your Plants

If you have a garden, pests might be your nemesis. There are a few ways to protect your plants from weeds and insects that could bother them.

While using things like pesticides and herbicides might seem like an obvious option, they aren’t the only solution. They are easy to use and very effective, but the chemicals do stick around, and this could cause issues to the health of your soil. This also means that you have to wash everything before eating it.

Slug pellets can stop slugs from getting at your plants and are very effective, but pets might eat the pellets and get sick.

So, what else can you do if these options might not work? 

Natural methods like crushed eggshells and sharp grit around your plants can deter slugs. While they aren’t as effective as pellets, they are safer to use. You should also check your plants each day and remove any slugs that are nearby. 

As for other plants, you might find that introducing natural predators can be very effective at getting rid of bugs like aphids. Ladybugs, for example, will kill all the aphids in an area. 

You can get rid of weeds by using cardboard or other materials to slow their growth and remove them when they do pop up. Use netting to keep birds and other animals away from your plants as they grow.

Dealing With an Infestation

What if you already have an infestation?

Depending on the infestation, you might be able to deal with it yourself or it could be best to call an exterminator. Different types of pests require different types of management.

In any case, the important thing to do is to find the source of the infestation. If something has gotten into your home, try to work out where the pests are coming in from. If you can’t find the entry point, an infestation expert should be able to find it for you.

You might be able to remove an infestation simply by cleaning up an area. Some pests thrive in untidy areas where they have a lot of sources of food and shelter. If the area is cleaned up, the pests might leave for a different home. 

In a lot of cases, however, you will have to deal with pests more directly.

Ants, Termites, and Wasps

These are the most common insects that might develop into an infestation. Ants are most interested in food, and you might be able to direct them elsewhere by cleaning up any food left around. If there is a nearby ant’s nest, however, you might have to get rid of it.

Wasps are often looking for a home. Unfortunately, they can be dangerous and will damage nearby structures to make their nests. You can deal with a small wasp’s nest yourself by hosing it down, but you do risk getting stung. It’s often best to call someone who can deal with them more safely and stay out of the area. You should definitely keep kids away from wasp’s nests.

Termites can be a major problem because they cause structural damage. If your home has wooden beams or supports, for example, termites will eat right through them. If you’re wondering how to get rid of termites, the best option is often to get an exterminator service in as soon as you think you have a problem. The sooner you act, the less damage your home will have.

Pests can be a pain to get rid of, so the best way to deal with them is to usually keep up with your home maintenance and don’t give them a chance to get established.