5 Simple Ways To Keep Your Home Pest-Free For Your Family’s Safety
Keeping our homes pest-free is of utmost importance especially if we have small kids. In fact, even if we do not have children at home, we should prevent pests from infiltrating and taking refuge in our house at all costs.
5 Simple Ways To Keep Your Home Pest-Free For Your Family’s Safety
What are common household pests?
Some of the most common household pests that you’ve probably encountered in your home are rats and mice, cockroaches, mosquitoes, bed bugs, and even ants.
Those pesky animals seem to be appearing nonstop from out of nowhere, so getting rid of them can be quite a challenge. They can give homeowners quite a headache because those pests will really make them think of ways to get rid of those critters.
Why do pest infestations occur?
There are several reasons why pest infestations happen at home. Some of the most common reasons would be because those animals are seeking shelter. Rats and mice would usually make a comfortable burrow in a quiet corner of a room or even outside in the garden.
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Aside from shelter, these animals also need food so maybe they found a steady food supply in a home. Cockroaches, ants, and rats would usually feast on food on the table especially if these are left uncovered.
At times, pests stay in a certain area because that’s their common habitat such as beds in the case of bed bugs.
How common household pests pose health risks
Many of these everyday pests carry bacteria and other microorganisms that may be harmful to our health. These can pass bacteria when they come in contact with our food, clothes, utensils, and other items at home.
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Rats and mice are most closely associated with leptospirosis that is caused by bacteria coming into contact with the saliva of animals. Leptospirosis, if left untreated, can cause respiratory problems, liver failure, kidney issues, meningitis, and even death.
Cockroaches, on the other hand, carry germs that may cause a number of diseases like diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, and typhoid fever, to name a few.
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As for mosquitoes, we are all aware of the dangers of dengue fever that may also cause severe complications to people of all ages.
Also, what can be more irritating than red and itchy insect bites? Not only that, those bites can bring in even more severe infections.
One rather recent incident that happened to our two kids was when they were bitten by bed bugs. We didn’t have any problem with bed bugs in the past so we weren’t quite familiar with how their bites looked like.
We initially thought that the red bumps were from ants but they were too many to be caused by ants. We saw that our kids were becoming too uncomfortable with the little itchy swellings so we were in a bit of panic at first because we didn’t know what to do.
We only realized that those bites were from bed bugs when our nanny brought up the possibility of their presence in the bed foam. We immediately went into action to get rid of bed bugs and we were just glad to have exterminated them from our home.
How we control pests in our home
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To be perfectly honest, it involves a lot of hard work when it comes to warding off pests. I sometimes feel like it’s a never-ending process but what can we do, that’s just how it is because those pests will eventually come back and raid our homes again when we become negligent.
Anyway, here are some of the things that we can do to mitigate pests at home:
1. Keep surfaces clean
Keep tables, chairs, and kitchen bars clean and free from crumbs and other pieces of food. That way, it won’t attract insects and other pests in your home.
2. Keep trash outside your home
Food waste and other organic trash are also very attractive to flies and even rats. They feed and nest on these items so it’s a good idea to keep these things out of your home.
3. Install screens on doors and windows
Installing screen mesh to your windows and doors are also an effective method to ensure that insects and rodents are kept out of your house.
4. Regularly check walls and dark corners
You will never know where those bothersome pests are hiding so it’s also advisable to regularly check the dark and damp corners of your house. You might be surprised to find out that they’re just there and able to evade you because they lurk in an area that you rarely check.
5. Hire a pest control specialist
If worse comes to worst, hiring a pest control specialist is a good decision. I remember our experience when we were living in a condo unit. Our room was infested with German cockroaches, a common occurrence in that building we were told.
It’s great that the building management has allocated one free pest control service for all tenants each month. It’s a professional service that we would be otherwise unable to do by ourselves.
Epilogue
Pests are a nuisance at home but more than that, they pose great risks to our health because they carry bacteria and other microorganisms. As such, we should exert all effort to keep our homes pest-free.
It just takes some simple methods to keep pests away but if things become out of hand, we can always hire expert pest control services.
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