How Your Yard Impacts The Pests Entering Your Home

It’s important to remember that household pests want the same things you do: food, water, and shelter. Unfortunately, we cannot stop every pest from ever entering our homes or yards, but there are a few things we can do to make the occasional intrusion happen even less frequently.

When it comes to any bugs, most minimization techniques involve getting rid of their preferred habitat–trees, decks, any tall vegetation. Unfortunately though, that would also mean getting rid of our own habitats, and neither of those options are fully possible-unless you want to live in an unsafe toxic living area that is. Here’s what you can do to have less encounters with the little critters in your yard and home:

• If you have any piles of wood, rotted stumps, and/or log remove them as termites eat wood and carpenter ants tunnel into the wood to nest. Maintaining 5-6 inches of empty space between soil and structural wood to prevent decay will also keep away termites and carpenter ants.
• Maintaining a dry zone around your home’s perimeter will keep termites, carpenter ants, and powderpost beetles away since they thrive in moist areas. In Utah these insects are more of a nuisance than a pest, as long as there is not a major infestation.
• In general trees, bushes, and other vegetation shouldn’t touch your house. Many pests will use these options as an overpass as a way to wander back and forth between entering your home and theirs. It helps to trim back trees, bushes, and anything else that may be touching the walls of your home.
• Puddles and moist soil can become a sanctuary for pests on the prowl for food so take measures to direct any water away from your house, drain puddles, and point sprinklers away from the building.

What else have you done to lessen your encounters with your tiny neighbors? We’d love to hear!

If you are having a serious infestation problem, please call Beeline Pest Control today!