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Top 10 Pest Prevention Tips for a Pest-Free Home

Vic Culley • July 3, 2024

Your home is a place you’re supposed to be able to feel at peace in. It’s your sanctuary from a stressful world, and you should be at your highest comfort level when you’re at home.

Unfortunately, homes aren’t completely isolated from reality, and occasionally, quite a few types of pests can find their way in and ruin your peace. Some can even be dangerous or cause damage to your home.

Today, we’re going to go over 10 pest prevention tips to keep that from happening to you.

Let’s get started.

1: Pick Up Trash Immediately

Most people tend to be fairly good at this, but it’s always easy to have a rough day and leave food wrappers out, ignore the gummy bears the kids dropped between the couch cushions, etc.

Well, this is also one of the best ways to attract pests. Especially if you let those little everyday accidents become a habit.

Pests such as roaches, mice, and flies tend to be the most common pests you’ll attract this way, and they’re also some of the most annoying inside of the household.

Try to pick up trash as soon as you make it, and get it into a proper trashcan.

2: Use Closable Trash Cans

This goes with our first tip. Even if you’re great about throwing out the trash immediately, if there isn’t a lid covering it, flies and gnats can quickly start to lay eggs, hatch, and migrate all over your home.

Pest Prevention Tip - Use Closable Trash Cans

Small office bins that are mostly meant to hold papers and normal office waste don’t require this, but any bin that’s going to have food in it should be covered.

3: Minimize Hiding Spaces

If mice are an issue, this is one thing to take seriously. Even if you don’t have loads of food everywhere, mice will often come in from the outside to find a safe space within their preferred temperature range. If you give them lots of small spaces to hide in, you’re more likely to eventually see them.

Piles of clothes, stacks of boxes that you haven’t sorted out yet, and similar things all end up being good homes for mice.

4: Properly Seal Your Home

This is one tip that will do a lot more than just prevent pests. Go around your home, and look for small openings.

Over time, squirrels might have gotten into your attic by chewing through siding, you might have a small gap in a garage door, or seals on your windows and door frames might be worn out.

If you find any of those issues, take the time to get them properly repaired. This will go a long way toward keeping all kinds of pests out.

Of course, this doesn’t just mean that you need to look for damages. You also need to make sure you’re closing your doors and windows, and if you do open them, having screens installed will help dramatically.

Pest Prevention Tip - Properly Seal Your Home

Leaving a door open for your dog to go in and out of, not shutting doors during a big outdoor gathering, or leaving windows open without screens to get fresh air are all easy ways for a variety of pests to get into your home.

As another benefit, you’ll save on your energy bill by taking care of these problems. While pests get in, all your climate-controlled air leaks out of those little spots.

5: Close Your Outdoor Trash

The big trashcans you take out to the curb every week create problems in your home and outside of it.

Between leaking trash bags, not being washed regularly, and being stuck out in the heat, those things become breeding grounds for insects that will make your outdoor experience horrible. Worse yet, they’ll find their way into your home every time you open a door.

They’ll also attract animals like raccoons and opossums that can be dangerous for your pets, scatter trash and make the problem worse, etc.

Make sure you always keep your outdoor bins closed to prevent that.

6: Invest in Trash Can Locks

If you’re dealing with larger outdoor pests such as raccoons, just shutting your bins might not be enough. They’re smart animals, and they’ll often open them up, climb inside, and enjoy a buffet of your tossed-out leftovers.

Installing trash can locks, or buying outdoor bins designed to keep animals out, can stop that issue. Once they realize they won’t get a free meal at your house, they’ll look elsewhere.

7: Clear Brush and Foliage

Some of the worst pests you can deal with are squirrels and other outdoor rodents. They might not be in your home destroying your peace, but they will chew through your home, tear up power lines, and generally wreak havoc on your property.

They also love lots of foliage to play around in. Snakes, moles, and similar pests that are annoying or potentially dangerous are the same way.

Beyond keeping a well-groomed lawn, try to reduce the amount of foliage on your property. Overgrown bushes and trees should be removed or trimmed, long weeds should be plucked, etc.

Another thing you might not think about is your wood pile or piles of material you’re saving for whatever reason. They make great critter homes. While you can’t always warrant getting rid of those things, you should regularly ensure they’re not being taken over.

8: Get Rid of Standing Water

Out of all the pests we’ve mentioned so far, we can all agree that this next one is probably the worst. Mosquitos.

You don’t have to have food around you, you don’t have to give them any hiding spots, and they always seem to find their way inside. Well, getting rid of standing water will help put a stop to that. If it rains and water pools in outdoor items, dump it out. If you have bird feeders or fishponds, make sure the water is circulating at all times.

9: Handle Pests Immediately

You don’t want to leave pests alone and put off getting rid of them. If you spot them, handle them ASAP. The longer you put off handling the issue, the more they can breed and make problems worse.

10: Get a Professional’s Help

Every once in a while, you’re going to deal with pests. It’s just a fact of life. Dealing with them on your own can be difficult in many situations, and if the tips we’ve given here don’t work, save yourself the stress and call a professional to give you a clean slate.