Top 3 things to do to avoid attracting pests

Many of us have – at some point in our lives – encountered a pest problem. Be it the Christopher Columbus-eque ants trooping through your kitchen like brave voyagers seeking new lands, or the cockroaches that invade your home through skillful and tactical espionage, pillaging your kitchen at night.

You may be thinking “Why my home?”, and dreading the thought of inviting friends over for tea due to a fear that your pest cohabitants may join your guests for the festivities. You may have spent copious amounts of money on store-bought insect repellents only to have your home life develop into a game of cat and mouse as insects scamper away to live another day.

What if I told you that some of our hygiene habits may have attracted these pests into our home. Like humans, pests require food, shelter, and water to survive. Here are a few hygiene behaviours you can change to make sure that pests don’t come back.

1. A sweep a day keeps the ants away:

Sweep, mop or vacuum regularly, ensuring that you cover even those hard to reach corners. Make certain that no crumb is left behind. Clean immediately after spilling or preparing food, this will prevent those David Livingstone impersonators – ants and other insects – who are prepared to venture through your house in search of food.

2. Remove garbage and put all food in sealed containers

Because garbage is an easy source of food for all types of pests, I’d advise you to seal all garbage containers and try to have them as far away from the house as possible, once full. Furthermore, I’d advise you not to have any open food lying around and that all food be sealed in containers. This includes pet food – make sure that you do not leave pet food in out in the open for too long. This is the one case where the phrase “sharing is caring” can definitely be ignored.

3. Clean exterior drains regularly

You may easily overlook hygiene practices for areas outside of your house, but you’ll be surprised to find that neglecting such acts is like rolling out a welcome mat for unwanted pests. Cockroaches are known to breed in drains as they get great access to food, water and shelter when left unchecked. Rentokil offers an exterior drain treatment service as an additional preventative measure against cockroaches invading your home.

Pest control is often ignored until pests and the damage they have caused is discovered, however, through sustained good hygiene and sanitation practices and preventative pest control you can ensure that both you and your family stays healthy and that your reputation with your friends remains intact.