How to Prevent Unwanted Wildlife Intrusions in Your Home
Home invaders don’t always carry crowbars and wear ski masks. Some are much smaller, sneakier, and furrier. Your home is subject to invasion by any number of pests, from insects to rodents. They’re less interested in your valuables than they are in your home’s ability to provide food, shelter, warmth, and places to have their babies. Even the most ardent animal lover doesn’t need the wild kingdom coming indoors. Pests can create bad smells by leaving feces and urine or perishing inside the home. They can also contaminate food as well and destroy utilities. It’s best to turn your home into an impregnable fortress against vermin. Read on to learn more about heading off an animal invasion of your home.
Watch for Points of Entry
The most determined animal can find the smallest point of access to your home and exploit it. A solid wall will stop most animals, but if there’s a hole, crack, or space anywhere, there’s probably an insect or other pest that will use it to get inside. As part of your home maintenance program, be sure to regularly assess your home’s exterior for points of entry. Seal cracks, gaps, and spaces where utilities enter your home with caulk and similar space-filling materials. Naturally, be careful not to leave doors or windows open, especially if the room hosts enticing food smells.
Gotta Keep Them Separated
Always keep this in mind with animals: there’s you, and there’s them, and we need to keep the two separate. Don’t make access to your home easy or enticing. Keep trees trimmed so that squirrels, raccoons, and other critters can’t access your roof. If they can easily reach your home, they’ll find a way in. Likewise, keep feeders for birds and other animals at a distance. Seed attracts other animals, and if they sense your home’s warmth, they’ll lose their fear and try to get inside.
Keep It Clean
It’s good advice in general to keep things tidy around the home. Decluttering, wiping things down, and sweeping don’t just make things neat and hygienic—they make your home a less desirable place for vermin. Cleaning up removes food particles that can attract all sorts of pests and eliminates hiding places inside and outside your home. Extend your cleaning efforts to all areas of your home; even your HVAC system can be destroyed by pests.
Secure Your Trash
Here’s one more tip on how to head off an animal invasion of your home. It might sound funny to suggest protecting your garbage, but unattended and easily accessed garbage cans and dumpsters are five-star restaurants for pests. Make sure to tightly tie garbage bags. If raccoons and other critters can’t smell trash, they won’t come looking for it. Lock up trash cans in an enclosure or in the garage until trash day, if possible. And take time to periodically hose down your garbage cans, especially in the hotter months. To a pest, stinky trash is cordon bleu!
