You should know your enemies first. The common pests around the house are termites, cockroaches, rats, ants, and spiders. They not only slowly destroy your home but spread disease and infection.
The best solution always is to dial the phone to call pest control assistance. However, to get rid of unwanted kitchen pests, prevention is better than cure.
Table of Contents
DIY pest control tips for homeowners
Clean your bathroom
One of the best ways to prevent pests is to have clean surroundings, especially the bathroom since it is always wet and tends to attract all sorts of creepy-crawlies.
However, most household pest control tips do not include bathroom maintenance for some reason. So this will be the first room in your house that you should pest-proof.
Keep your bathroom dry and clean always. Clean the toilet bowl every other day and your sink once a week. Use an industrial-grade or any high-quality detergent.
Moss and mold are attracted to damp places and tend to live in shower curtains and drains. So make sure they are clean and dry. Check also if hairs or anything is clogging the drain and is covered.
The more your bathroom remains hygienic, dry, and forever clean, the more pests would stay away.
Clean your kitchen
Your kitchen is a place where you prepare food. So it is crucially important to keep it clean at all times since there is a danger in ingesting something dirty coming from pests in the kitchen.
As you may already surmise, dastardly pests like to live in an environment that is wet and grimy. So be mindful to always wipe the kitchen counters, drawers, racks, and the top of your stoves with a strong disinfectant.
Do not leave any food lying around since it tends to attract pests. These suggestions may not completely get rid of them but will significantly lessen their appearances in your kitchen.
Regular garbage disposal
To eliminate small pests in your house, set up a regular schedule for throwing garbage. It is an important chore since trash is like an all-you-can-eat buffet for pests.
In a perfect world, trash should be taken from your home and disposed to the local dumpsite every day. In reality, most local governments can hardly do that.
So as a homeowner, be sure to have another large garbage bin situated outside your home. It is where you deposit your indoor trash every day.
Stop standing water
If you want to know how to keep insects out of your home, one way is to get rid of any standing water. Mosquitos especially, since they thrive in dampness.
Standing water usually occurs after harsh rains. Due to improper drainage and the soil-type, water does not seep under the ground as supposed to.
Check on your drainage system: the gutter, downspouts, pipes, etc. Make sure everything is working they are supposed to, and nothing is obstructing them.
Do not leave any open cans, bottles, and buckets filled with any liquid and left standing, inside your home or outside.
Do not leave out vegetables and fruits
Food, when left outside in the air and sunlight for a long time, will eventually rot. If you want to know how to get rid of pests in your home, do not leave food out, especially fruits and vegetables. When they are left out for a while, flies and other insects would eventually converge them.
Put them inside your refrigerator instead. It will increase their shelf lives and stop the pest from coming inside your house.
Take care of your garden
If you want to keep pests out of the house, one thing that you should do is to properly maintain your garden. Check if there are any holes dug in the ground where water can collect.
If your garden also has a fountain or pond, be sure that it is clean and the water is always flowing and never standing.
Always cut your grass, prune your hedges, and clean your garden. If your keep your front and back yard in tiptop shape, pests would not dare live and breed in them.
Do not bring outside items inside your home
One of the ways of controlling harmful insects is not to bring in stuff meant for outside use to inside the house. Items such as your gardening gear: hoses, buckets, tools, clogs, etc. If you have a garden shed, leave them there.
It is for the reason that they are dirty and may have insects living in them, which you do not want entering your house.
The same thing with bicycles, kid’s cars, and other toys that are dirtied outside.
Your home is supposed to be a clean and safe haven, so be sure to not let in anything grimy to come inside and invite unwanted pests.
Install netting as window screens
If you want to keep insects out of the house, one way is to set up nets on your window to prevent crawling and flying pests such as mosquitos, flies, cockroaches, and spiders from coming inside.
The netting serves another purpose for ventilating your home and at the same time keeping the pests away. If you already have window netting installed, check if there are any tears and rips so then you can fix it immediately.
Throw away stuff that you do not need
One of the ways to get the best pest control for your home is simply not leaving unused things lying around. Do not leave any empty boxes or toys anywhere that pests would stagnate in. Either throw them away or them away from your house.
They would only become trouble spots for germs and pests. Any stuff that you have like, old shoes, plastic bags, torn baby strollers, etc.
If your home remains clean and uncluttered at all times, pests are sure to steer clear.
Seal any openings in your home
In learning about how to eliminate insects, check for any gaps or openings anywhere in your home. They tend to look for anyway inside.
Check your attic, garage, or anywhere that most likely insects might enter. Look at electric lines, water piping, and broken windows.
Once you find them, apply a caulk sealant or foam insulation to plug them in. That way insects and other pests would not have a way in.
You can also use copper mesh to block the holes. Use a screwdriver to poke a handful of mesh inside. Once the hole has been filled, seal it with a layer of foam.
Set up another source of pest food
If you are a humanistic homeowner that does not want to even hurt a fly, there is another house insect control that you will appreciate: bird feeders.
Animals are attracted to any kind of food. Instead of the pests wanting to enter your home to look for food, they would be drawn to the bird feeder.
Set it up as far away from your house as you could. Do it in a way that the pests would not make a connection that it is related to your home.
If you have a garden, a bird feeder can also draw scurrying rodents towards it. But if you have wild animals as pests, then that needs another solution.
Homemade insect repellants
There is the best home pesticide that you can concoct in your home with ordinary household ingredients.
Natural mosquito repellant:
- Peppermint
- Basil
- Citronella
- Lavender
- Garlic
- Catnip
- Lemon balm
- Eucalyptus
- Rosemary
- Marigold
You can use either ingredient on its own or you can mix them up to be more effective.
Homemade mosquito spray made from mouthwash and beer:
- One sixteen ounce bottle of mouthwash
- Three cups of Epson salt
- three 12 ounce bottles of stale beer
Mix everything in a bowl until everything is dissolved. Then pour the concoction into a spray bottle.
Mosquito repellant from apple cider vinegar:
- Two ounces of apple cider vinegar
- Two ounces of water
- Twenty-five drops of “Bug Off Oil”
Put everything in a bowl and mix it. Pour it in a spray bottle.
Ant repellant:
- One-fourth cup of white vinegar
- Two cups of water
- Ten drops of eucalyptus or peppermint oil
Mix all the ingredients and pour inside a spray bottle.
Spider repellant:
Cut up one onion and place it inside a bowl of water. Leave it where spiders congregate, and they will leave soon after.
Fruit fly repellant:
Take one large bowl and fill it up with apple cider vinegar. Put a plastic wrap covering over the bowl and poke holes in them.
The fruit flies are drawn to the sweet smell and enter the holes but cannot get out.
Aphid repellant:
If you want to know how to get rid of small insects, especially aphids in your garden, use bananas, specifically, a banana peel. Leave it near the plant stem. It will repel aphids and small insects.
Another ant repellant:
Cornmeal is especially effective for ants and very deadly. Ants love cornmeal and will bring each morsel back to their colony.
However, they could not digest the food and die soon after. Wait a few days to be effective.
Dust mite repellant:
- Lavender
- Eucalyptus
- Peppermint or clove oil
Mix them up and put them in a spray bottle. Spray on any furniture or beddings affected by the dust mites.
Keep your firewood away from home
Even though that firewood is crucial to your home, having it nearby can do more harm than good. A stack of wood can serve as a hiding place for all sorts of pests.
They might use it as a springboard for their entry into your house. So store it in a separate enclosure, maybe a shed, to keep any pests away.
Weatherstripping
Whenever winter comes, it is always a good idea to weatherstrip your home with felt and bristles to keep coldness from entering your home. It also serves another purpose of keeping insects away.
Make it a habit to substitute any torn or worn-out weatherstripping materials to block any insects from entering, and always keep doors and windows closed.
Coffee grounds
If you want to stop insects from getting in-house, another good solution is coffee grounds.
After drinking your morning cup of freshly-brewed coffee, rather than throwing the coffee grounds away, save them for another purpose. Any type of pests cannot stand the smell of coffee grounds.
Leave them in areas that you think pests always congregate, to get maximum impact.
Check your chimney
Bigger pests like rats and birds may try to look for a way inside your home. Your chimney serves as their good entry point.
They would not only cause harm but can take along small insects with them. Put in a chimney screen and cap to block them from entering your home via the chimney.
Cut plants close to your home
Insects will always try to find a way inside your house by any means necessary. One way they can enter is through any shrub, bush, or tree branch that may be a little close to your home.
Take out your garden shears and cut away anything plant limbs protruding inside. Be sure it has at least a six inches space in between so that creepy-crawlies would not have a bridge to cross over.
Bedbugs
Bedbugs have a way to stick in your clothes and travel with you wherever you go. They like damp places and can live and breed in couches and beds.
If you arrive from a vacation, clean them instantly to deter them from multiplying. If the sun is out, leave your couch or mattress outside for a few hours. It will dry them up and kill the bedbugs.
Out of season beddings and clothing
Clothes and beddings you have stored for another season are a breeding ground for bugs. Take them out from storage and check if there are any insect eggs.
You can leave them out in the sun for a few hours or thoroughly wash them.
