Spring pest prevention tips

Spring is already here and you must be enjoying warm weather by now. It is time to say goodbye to the shivering cold nights and chilly outside wind. Finally, it is time to enjoy outside as well as the sun. However, while you are excited about the spring and coming summer, you may have to deal with uninvited guests as they are preparing to invade and they are also enjoying the spring. These uninvited guests are of course – the spring pests.

Even though winter was tough, you have been enjoying a pest-free home for months as these monsters were hibernating. As the temperature starts to rise, these tiny devils come out of their hibernation and start invading your home. You need to make sure that your house is pest-free before it’s too late. It is always a wise decision to prevent spring pests than waiting for the last hour.

What are the most common spring pests?

Ants

Ants are eusocial insects and they never live alone. So, when you see one of them, you probably have a group of guests for a long time. Ants live in a large colony made of thousands of working ants and a queen ant. Like bees, they work every day to feed their colony and antlings, and they need food, which by way, you might be providing. Even though ants are super-important for the environment, they can be problematic for you. Cover all the food containers including sugar, honey and biscuits. You should seal any cracks on walls or ground that these ants can use to enter your house. Salt, peppermint oil and talcum powder can work as a barrier and you can sprinkle them wisely at access points. If the problem gets bigger and they do not leave, you should use professional products to repel, kill them individually or destroy the nearby colony. You can also wash the colony with soapy water.

Bees

Who does not like to watch bees as they are beautiful flying creatures that are extremely important for our ecosystem and they help flowers and fruits pollinate. Moreover, they give honey which we love to have with bread, milk and other breakfast items. However, they can become a problem when they start to sting your children or pets and bee stings are painful. If you have flowers in your garden that bees love, your beloved pets and children can get hurt. Do not let them build a hive near your house! Check all the insect screens in your house and make sure they are not damaged. You should try to get rid of flowers that bees are most attracted to. They hate certain smells such as smells of eucalyptus leaves, lavender oil and citronella oil. If you see a hive near your house, you should hire professionals to get rid of the hive.

Cockroaches

Cockroaches can be found throughout the world and they are the greatest survivors. They are amongst the most filthy insects that carry bacteria while their droppings can cause itchy and painful allergies. You should clean your house and keep food and trash bins covered at night to keep them out of the house. Seal the cracks around windows and doors, and put baits where possible. Additionally, you can buy glue traps or repellents and put them in kitchen cupboards. But, surely prevention is better than cure, as they say.

Flies

Flies are the most annoying pests that invade your home in spring and summer. They love sweet dishes and they usually lay their eggs in dirty places such as garbage, rotting material and animal feces. They reproduce throughout the year but are more active during the hottest months. You should always keep your home and garden clean. Wipe any spills around your house and close all the food containers. Do not leave half-empty wine glasses and dirty dishes. However, if they have already invaded your place, getting rid of them is not as hard as with other pests. You can use fly screens on your windows and doors. Besides, you can purchase fly traps and multi-insect sprays.

Mosquitoes

Mosquito eggs are one of the things you need to worry about as they hatch early in the spring. Their bites are nasty, itchy and painful, and they transmit diseases like malaria, dengue and yellow fever. They can develop from eggs to the adult stage within 10 days. Adult mosquitoes are attached to standing water such as buckets, containers, pots and bowls in your garden where they can lay eggs. Find all the sources of standing water around your house and empty these sources. Keep your lawn grasses short as long grasses provide protection to these mosquitoes.

Spiders

Australia as we know is home to various deadly spiders that can kill people. Luckily for us, the most deadly ones do not come near our homes. But, you should be careful of the ones that do as their droppings and bites can give skin allergies. Clean up webs around your house if seen. They love cool dark places in summer such as letterboxes, shoes, outdoor furniture etc. So, you should not keep closed shoes outside at any cost and it is always a good habit to check your shoes before wearing them. Cats are known to control spiders, snakes and rodents. If you are not already a cat owner, then you should consider owning it. Besides, spiders do not like the smell of cedar, cinnamon, eucalyptus and peppermint. You can use cinnamon candles, and spray eucalyptus and peppermint oil in the areas where you see webs.

What are the ways to keep these pests away?

Depending upon what pest you are dealing with, you may need to control them differently, which we have already written above. However, you can always follow the below-mentioned steps to repel and control these pests in general.

1. Inspection and identification: You have to make sure that your home and garden is clean and tidy. You should also identify if these pests have already invaded your house.

• Check if fly screens are damaged
• Check garden regularly for long grass and bushes
• Check if entrances are sealed properly
• Check for standing water around your house
• Check for leaked pipes
• Check corners and ceilings for spider webs
• Check for any signs of pest droppings or eggs

2. Preventive measures:

• Make sure all entrances of home are properly sealed
• Clean your house thoroughly
• Fix the fly screens
• Fix the cracks and crevices on walls
• Empty garbage bins regularly
• Trim long grasses
• Remove standing water from containers in your garden
• Do not leave pet food outside
• Make sure bins are covered at all times

3. Treatment Selection: If everything else fails, use pest control solutions according to the pest and stage of invasion.

• Repellents
• Low-toxic sprays
• Insecticides
• Call the experts

As a final note, we recommend you to use as less chemicals as possible because harsh chemicals are not only dangerous around your children and your pets, but they also harm our ecosystem. To understand the drawbacks of using harsh chemicals, please read our article.

A pest-free home is a happy home. Being pest-free means you can enjoy the sun, long days, BBQ and time with your family during this period. No more strange odour coming from the carcass, no more annoying, buzzing pests around and no more worries.