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Top Tips To Protect Your Home Against Pests This Winter

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With winter fast approaching and Christmas just around the corner, the last thing on your mind is likely to be pests. However, as much as you may not like it, pests like rodents and insects, are an incredibly common winter problem. When the cold weather hits and food is scarce, pests will look for anywhere that is warm and has food, which makes your home a possible target. If you don’t want your Christmas day to be ruined by unwanted house guests (and I’m not talking about the random cousins that shows up expecting dinner), then follow the tips below.  

 

  1. Seal it Up Tight

Even the tiniest of cracks or holes in your doors, window ledges, or walls can be a potential entrance for ants, beetles, cockroaches, mice, or even rats. Vents are another possible entrance. To avoid any creepy crawlies finding their way into your home, look out for these possible openings and seal them up. You may not be able to seal your vent, so be sure that you keep checking around the vent for any pests.

 

  1. Keep It Closed

It’s winter, and it’s cold, so why would you want to keep your windows and doors open all hours of the day? Whatever the reason, while your windows and doors are open, you are completely opening up your home to pests. Pests will consider an opening as an invitation inside, so unless you plan on throwing the local rodents a welcome home party, you should keep windows and doors closed as much as possible.

 

  1. Protect Your Food

There are two things that pests need during the winter; Shelter and food. While your nice and warm home may make a cosy shelter for pests, if they haven’t got any food available to them, then they might move on of their own accord. For this reason, avoid leaving any food out in the open, and use insect-resistant packaging wherever possible.

 

  1. Form A Barrier

Spray pesticide and insecticide around the perimeter of your home, especially near windows and doorways, as this will act as a barrier, and should keep out a lot of possible pests. Keep reapplying the pesticide everytime it rains or snows, and be sure to put some on the inside of doors and windows too, just to be on the safe side.  

 

  1. Call The Professionals

Unfortunately, you can work as hard as this, and put all of the preventative measures into place, and pests still might find a way into your home. After all, they’re trying to survive the winter, so they will do whatever it takes. If you find that pests have managed to get into your home, it’s probably a sensible idea to call pest control rather than try to deal with them yourself

 

A pest infestation is never fun, but if it happens during winter, it could completely ruin your Christmas. The tips above should help you to avoid this, but if pests do somehow get into your home, then be sure to contact professionals, rather than deal with the problem yourself.

Disclosure: This is a contributed post.

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4 Comments

  1. Kathryn J Bain
    November 25, 2017 at 6:11 pm

    Peppermint oil is one of the best ways to keep rodents away. I had a squirrel infestation in my attic a couple years ago, and someone suggested peppermint oil. I spray every week a couple shots in my attic and have had no problem since. Make sure to spray in the spring to chase them out instead of fall when rodents are beginning to build their nests.

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