In the insect world, your house is a warm, inviting hotel. Food crumbs and moisture can attract bugs for an all-you-can-eat-buffet, no matter how clean your home is. Ants, flies, termites, and roaches are just a few of the bugs that can make anyone throw in the towel and admit defeat. Once they have invaded, they establish colonies that make it seem the war will never end. So, it is important to remove insects from the home.
This article discovers ten ways to remove insects from the house. Before we provide you the tips on how to remove insects from home; we will explain to you why you should remove insects from home. Bugs are more than just unsightly; they can cause serious problems within the home as well.
- Allergies and asthma: The waste that insects can leave behind can have a serious effect on asthma sufferers. Additionally, insects can cause allergies not just from a bite or direct exposure to the bug, but from its waste products.
- Carriers of disease: Some bugs, such as mosquitos, are well known to cause malaria and other infectious diseases. The fact that they are not alone in causing disease is a little less known. Cockroaches and flies carry diseases such as dysentery, cholera, and salmonella.
- Structural problems: Some insects, such as termites, are directly responsible for structural damage to a house. Others, such as mosquitos or slugs, may be attracted because of a problem with the structure of the house such as a leaking foundation or plumbing problem. If there are insects in the basement, it could indicate a bigger problem than the insects themselves.
- Destruction of your possessions: Insects contaminate food sources, laying their larvae in things such as flour or pasta. Other insects, like crickets or months, will eat chew cloth items, or in the case of the fabric loving stink bug, will leave a lasting odor that is nearly impossible to eliminate on items that are stored.
Now, here are ten ways to remove insects from the house. So, follow these solutions and make sure no insects ever raid your home again.
Remove Insects From the Home:
1. Don’t just kill the bugs you see
For every bug you see, there are hundreds more that you can’t. Bugs live in colonies, and in order to kill the entire population, you need to have a more global approach. Commercially made bait traps not only kill individuals, but they are also designed to allow the bugs to carry the poison back to their colonies to kill them all.
Using a can of insect killer on just the bugs you see is only one step; you need to wipe out the whole colony to get rid of bugs from the house.
2. Ultrasonic pest repellents
These are designed to be plugged in and emit a high-frequency sound that keeps the bugs at bay. Roaches, fleas, spiders and more will be driven off by an ultrasonic pest repellent. If you have a rodent as a pet, however, you will need to choose some of the other ten ways to make sure no insects ever raid your home again.
Because the repellents work on mice as well, it will definitely have a detrimental effect on hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, rats, or other pets in the rodent family.
3. Plants
Some plants are natural pest repellents. Planting these along the foundation of your house may do the trick to remove insects from the house. Here are just a few:
- Chrysanthemum
- Chive
- Lemon Balm
- Myrrh
- Tansy
- Marigold
- Rosemary
- Mint
4. Let your helpers live
Spiders may be frightening, but their natural diets are the very insects you want to keep out of your home. In the garden, spiders and many small snakes feast on our bug buddies; if they aren’t hurting anything, try to leave them in the garden where they belong.
Some species of bugs inside your home are eating larvae or feasting on smaller insects like mosquitos and ants. So, identifying the helper bugs and keeping them alive is the step you need to take to remove bad insects from the house.
5. Keep it dry and clean
Basements are damp, which is just the environment insects love. If you have water bugs or other basement dwellers, get a dehumidifier and dry out the basement. Outside, standing water is a mosquito playground; dump buckets or any other still water sources that you may have outside your home.
Ants and roaches enjoy tasty morsels we leave behind, so make sure to bag all foods left on the counter, clean up all crumbs thoroughly, and use a trash can with a lid.
You can make a vinegar and water mixture to spray down the counters; not only will they be squeaky clean, but bugs hate vinegar, too. With this tip, you can naturally get rid of bugs from the house.
6. That sinking feeling
Many bugs love to hang out in our kitchen sink. To get rid of insects in the kitchen, make sure your drains are clear of food, wipe the sink thoroughly, and fix any leaking faucets.
As an added drain cleaner, pour one-half cup of baking soda followed by a one-half cup of vinegar down the drain, allow it to sit, then rinse it all down the drain with hot water.
7. Season your foundation
Many common seasonings are bug repellents. You can go to any dollar store and find large cans or bottles of them, and sprinkle them all around the foundation of your home. Some of the seasonings on a bug’s most hated list are:
- Cinnamon
- Pepper powder
- Garlic
- Basil
- Lemon
- Peppermint
- Spearmint
- Clove
- Vanilla extract
- TurmericOnion
Additionally, insects hate vodka, witch hazel, lavender, tea tree oils, eucalyptus, and citronella. By using these common seasonings, you can remove insects from the house naturally.
8. Diatomaceous earth
This is an excellent solution for many kinds of insect issues. Diatomaceous earth can be sprinkled under sinks, around the foundation of your home, and in hidden away areas of the house to repel bugs. Not a poison, the earth actually dries out the insects from the outside in, and while it feels like the softest baby powder to humans and animals, it has edges that are very sharp to insects.
9. Use Oranges
Limonene is a natural pest repellent, found in quite a few commercial bug killers. The limonene will kill insects outright, and many bugs will avoid the smell of oranges. You can place the peels around the foundation, or make a spray by boiling the peels in water. Bugs also dislike the smell of lemon, so boiling lemon rinds into a spray can help repel the creepy crawlies.
10. Block them out
If you can see where the bugs are gaining entry, take some caulk or other medium and fill in the cracks. Replace or repair screens that have any holes in them; even household tape can repair a small hole in a screen until you can get it replaced. Remove any tempting insect items from in front of the house, such as stacked firewood or rubbish bins.
When to call professional removing insects?
Some insects are notoriously hard to eradicate. Termites can cause a lot of damage quite quickly and require the help of a professional to flush out their colonies and kill them. Additionally, if you can’t seem to control the colony, you may need an expert to come to your home.
- Bed bugs and fleas are both very hard to control, and they multiply so quickly that you may have a hard time fighting an infestation.
- Cockroaches can only be controlled if no other home or apartment near you has them; if you suspect that you are surrounded by roaches, you may need to call in an exterminator and coordinate his visit with the other affected homes.
Otherwise, you may find the answer you need right here in our list of the top ten ways to remove insects from the house. So, follow these solutions and make sure no insects ever raid your home again.
