Creepy, crawly, and disgusting are just a few words that people use to describe insects. These annoying pests enter our homes when we least expect it, and start making a home for themselves. When this happens, it’s time to use some pest control, which you can do with the following tips.

Do you have a problem with fruit flies? You can get rid of them with a little apple cider vinegar! Pour some vinegar into the bottom of a tall glass. Add a little bit of dish soap. The fruit flies will swim into the glass, but won’t be able to swim out, and will drown.

Are you having recurring problems with fruit flies, even after you have eliminated them? The weak link might be your drains. Tape some plastic over it for several days to see if any fruit flies appear. If they do have fruit flies, pour boiling water down the drain to destroy them. This will stop the breeding of the fruit flies.

Make sure that you do not have any candy lying around the area of your home. Candy is made of sugar, which can attract a wide assortment of bugs. Therefore, the best thing that you can do is eat in the kitchen and make sure that candy does not get into other areas of the house.

Repair all of your screens if flying insects are prevalent in your area. In addition to preventing flying insects from entering, they can also deter those who crawl. Holes that are in your screens are an open invitation to let bugs into your home.

If you have a water leak, fix it promptly. Pests love water. Drips can be sensed from pretty far away. Don’t allow pests to invade your home because of a leak you can easily fix. Do some work to prevent having to live with rodents or bugs inside your house.

Make your own inexpensive ant traps using boric acid and sweet liquid. Mix a couple of tablespoons of boric acid powder into a cup of honey, molasses, or simple syrup. Pour the mixture into bottle caps or shallow plastic lids. Place these traps in areas where you have seen ants, but keep them out of the reach of children and pets.

Make sure your home’s roof and water sills are draining properly. Standing water can lead to pests. If you’ve got puddles forming that just won’t go away, look to the root cause and fix it. Sometimes it’s as easy as cleaning out a gutter. Otherwise, you may get more unwanted visitors than you bargained for.

Be very careful if employing poisonous pest control traps, especially the variety designed to kill ants. These traps contain poisoned food that ants bring to the queen who will consume it and hopefully die. However, the main ingredient of this poison is peanut butter which pets might enjoy, so keep them away from the traps.

Make sure that the gutters and pipes in your home are sealed if you want to prevent termites. This is an action that you will want to take immediately as termites can disrupt the infrastructure of your home and cost you a lot of money. Repair your gutters to reduce the chances of a termite infestation.

Pesticides can have devastating effects on the environment. You should carefully assess the risks before using these products. Do not use pesticides if you are located near a stream or a place where children play. If you use a pesticide inside your home, open the windows to let the toxic chemicals out.

If you are having problems finding all the silverfish infesting your home, this might help. Just take an old newspaper, wet it well, and leave it outside at night. The silverfish are attracted to the newspaper and you can get them all in one shot if you are lucky. You have to be quick when you throw away the paper, as the silverfish will scatter.

Mosquito infestations in your yard can be highly problematic, especially in the late summer. To prevent mosquitoes from infesting your yard and using it for breeding, make sure you don’t have any stagnant pools of water in your yard. Change the water in bird baths every week and avoid water build-up in sand boxes and other containers.

Wait until the evening or night time to get rid of bee hives or wasp nests. You can remove hives yourself with the help of a spray foam you can get at most hardware stores. The foams typically reach a long distance and are safe to use when the directions are followed. Nighttime is the best time to spray because the bees typically are not very active at this time. Wait until you know the bees are no longer living before removing the hive.

Insects may find their way into your home, but they won’t live to see another day. The next time a bug decides to set up camp inside your home, use these pest control tips on it. The bug and any of it’s friends that wandered in will be pushing up daisies.

Tips For Controlling Pests In Your Building was originally published on Spring