Any homeowner knows how terrible it is to have pests. Besides simply being unpleasant, pests carry disease and are a serious health danger. Use the advice from this article as a springboard to begin dealing with your pest problems.

If you are having an issue with stink bugs, remember not to stomp or smash on them. Doing so will release a foul odor into your home. Instead, use a vacuum cleaner to suction them up. It is important, however, that you change the bag after doing so or it will begin to smell as well.

You cannot afford to waste any time once you find out your home is infested. Put your valuable belongings in safe places and call an exterminator as soon as possible. If the exterminator you called cannot come to your home within the next couple of days, keep looking for another available professional.

Start from the beginning. If you are having pest problems, look to eliminate their source of sustenance. Your home is providing what the pests need; you need to work to eradicate that. Make sure you search for food scraps lying around, any water leaks in your plumbing, and openings in your home.

If you are seeing a large number of bugs indoors, slowly circle the perimeter of your house. Try to find any small openings where bugs could get in. Look closely near your chimney and the siding. If you locate a hole, buy silicone caulk and get the area fixed to the best of your ability.

You can keep ants away from the inside of your home using a mixture of sugar and borax. Start by mixing one cup of sugar and one cup of borax into a quart jar. Then, punch some holes in that jar’s lid. Sprinkle it near the baseboards inside your house and around the outside. The ants will eat the sugar and the borax will poison them.

Pest likes to hide in cracks and small crevices. You should get a caulk gun and fill all the small hiding places you can find. Check for new hiding places regularly and replace the caulk if you need to. You can spray paint over the caulk if you want to conceal it.

Did you know that bugs and pests can get into your home through cracks or holes in your walls? Inspect the outside of your home for any cracks or holes. Depending on the type of material your home is made of, fill them with caulk to keep out the bugs and pests.

Make sure that you are placing brushes a good distance from your home as these can attract insects. Various insects use this brush as their home and there is very little you can do to stop this. The bugs can make their way inside if the brush is too close.

When trying to avoid having pests in your house, realize that your yard is just as important to upkeep. Don’t let trash sit around outside and make sure that there’s no puddles or stagnant water collecting anywhere. Furthermore, keep your grass trimmed and the weeds to a minimal. You don’t want your yard to be a pest playhouse.

If you want to keep aphids from bothering your kitchen or any other indoor area, steal a gardening trick. Plant and grow chives or nasturiums indoors in pots or containers. Both of these plants are very successful in keeping aphids from injuring nearby plants, so also work to keep these little flies from bothering you indoors too.

If you have many mosquitoes in your yard, and possibly even infiltrating your home, try to eliminate any standing water. If there is a high population of mosquitoes on your property, they are breeding somewhere, and they can only breed in standing water. Dump anything that collects rainwater, dump kid pools and do whatever you can to eliminate breeding grounds.

One of the biggest sources of pests entering your home is the type of mulch you use on the outside garden beds. If you are using wood chips, termites are attracted to this and will get inside your home from it being in close proximity. Use rocks and stone in your garden instead to eliminate this problem.

You are gathering pests to your home by keeping that outside light on at night. Try to avoid lights too close to your home. You can reduce the pests’ chance of entering by using orange or yellow lights since they aren’t as attracted to them.

The cleaner your home is, the less likely you are to have bugs infest your home. Bugs actually feed off of the crumbs that are dropped on your floor or in your couch cushions. An unclean home is a perfect place for bugs and pests to breed and become out of control.

Use what you’ve learned to help rid yourself of pests. These creatures can be annoying and can become a real problem, so do what you can to get rid of them right away. Use the tips above to rid your home of pests.

Pest Control Tips You Can Use Today was originally published on Spring