Neglecting to properly maintain your home just because you don’t want to clean is all fun and games until you have to deal with a pest infestation that happened right under your nose. There are plenty of homeowners who got so busy to the point that they can no longer clean their houses, but that doesn’t mean they go unscathed.
Not partaking in household maintenance comes at a cost that you might not be willing to pay. This is not to say that you should be cleaning every nook and cranny of your home every day just to avoid having house pests but keeping a regular cleaning schedule would be sufficient.
If you’re still having trouble with getting rid of pests even after doing regular household cleaning and maintenance, there are alternative solutions that you can try. In fact, here are some solutions that you can use to deal with infestations involving ticks, rodents, and mosquitoes:
Ticks
Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne illness in the U.S. because it affects as many as 476,000 Americans every year. This is because ticks usually cause infestations in backyards, especially during the summer and fall seasons. Plus, these pests can also transmit other illnesses such as anaplasmosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
They can be difficult to get rid of on your own without compromising your safety in the process, particularly because ticks can attach themselves to hosts for a few minutes up to a few days. That’s why instead of trying to deal with them alone, you should call tick control services to help you keep the pests away from your house and family.
But you can’t always call the professionals every time you see ticks around your house. What you can do to prevent ticks from seeking shelter in your backyard is to keep your grass mowed and your bushes manicured. You can also remove anything that may give the ticks a home, such as old furniture or trash.
Rodents
Leptospirosis often affects people with open wounds who live in areas that experience flooding because they come into contact with rodent urine, which can mix with the floodwater. It’s also possible to contract the disease when someone eats or drinks anything that rodents could have contaminated.
These pests are responsible for other rodent-borne illnesses like the Hantavirus and Lassa fever, to name a few. Dealing with rodents can be difficult because they are quick on their feet and don’t always leave a trail, but you can always depend on snap traps to catch the occasional rodent speeding by.
You can also block their potential entryways into your home by sealing all the cracks and gaps that you can find. This can include spaces around your doors, around your pipes, inside closets, or between floors. Plus, you should eliminate their food sources, such as your pantry and trash, so that you don’t attract them more.
Mosquitoes
Dengue and malaria kill more people every year than all the sharks around the world combined. That’s exactly why mosquitoes are considered the deadliest animal to exist, and not because they can tear humans to shreds in a matter of minutes. Their mode of operation is more subtle—through small itchy bites that leave red welts.
You might think that these itchy bites are nothing to concern yourself about, but on the contrary, they should be a cause for alarm. This is because mosquitoes can transmit infectious diseases from one person to another by injecting the skin with their saliva every time they bite to suck warm blood.
If you’re dealing with a mosquito problem, then the first thing that you have to do is get rid of all their potential breeding grounds. This includes anything or place that can hold stagnant water, which can include roof gutters, overturned pots that collected rainwater, or slopes in the yard that created puddles.
Another way to protect your family from mosquitoes is to use natural repellents such as peppermint or citronella when you’re outdoors because the pests don’t like their smell. You can also place bug zappers or mosquito traps in strategic areas around your home so you can kill the pests without having to move.
It’s never fun to realize that you’re dealing with a pest infestation in your home, especially if it has already spiraled out of control. So, before the pest situation becomes even worse, you need to keep your eyes peeled for potential signs of infestations and see to it that you’re cleaning your house regularly.
