Insect infestations are never a pleasant experience, but the silver lining here is that they are usually avoidable. If you’re in the midst of an infestation, here are a few small steps you can take to ensure that your home stays pest-free.

1. Seek professional help

Start with getting the pests out as soon as humanly possible, by calling in a local pest control service. Pest control in Melbourne and other big cities, generally specialise in a variety of pests, from ants to possums, and everything in between. Established pest control services in metropolitan areas also prioritise using environmentally-friendly methods to ensure that their services don’t contaminate your local surface run-off or even negatively impact the area surrounding your property. Calling your local pest control service before taking any other steps will also allow you to gain valuable expert insight into how to further combat potential future infestations.

2. Use insect traps

It goes without saying that different pests require different traps. But for some pests, there are a variety of different options to choose from, and so you’ll need to assess what traps are most suitable for your home and family. For instance, insect sprays can be quite harsh on the lungs, and might not be the best option for those of us with pets and small children. Similarly, mouse traps can be effective when it comes to killing mice and rats, but the exposed bait might also inadvertently attract other unwanted house guests like ants!

For insects like ants, it’s always recommended that you opt for baited traps over sprays. Enclosed ant traps are useful when it comes to taking out whole colonies, as it allows worker ants to carry the bait back to their anthills, distributing the poisoned bait to a wider population and ultimately wiping out the entire colony. If you do have mouse traps, you should make sure to check in on them every couple of days to make sure they’re not attracting anything more than rodents.

3. ‘Food-free’ zones

Just as mouse traps can attract ants, so too can unattended pots of food, or spoiled fruit. It’s recommended that you regularly clear your kitchen and wash your rubbish bin to ensure that there are no odours that are likely to attract insects. Alongside this, it’s a good rule of thumb to implement ‘food-free’ zones into your home to decrease the likelihood of ants and other pests finding their way into your bedroom in particular. Eating in bed is a bad habit for more reasons than being incredibly bad for your digestion. Crumbs on your sheets and in your carpet are highly attractive to insects, as the extra insulation and added hiding spaces makes bedrooms an ideal location for worker ants to do their thing.

4. Address your cracks and openings

The easiest way to get rid of bugs indoors, is simply by making it increasingly difficult for them to get indoors in the first place. You should make sure that any cracks in your windows and other openings are taken care of with some sealant at the very least so that there’s less of a chance that pests will be able to find their way into your home. After you seal up these cracks, you can also use insecticides around your property to double your defences and ensure that all those nasty creepy crawlies keep a wide berth.

5. Don’t kill spiders!

Finally, the power of arachnids in combating insect infestations cannot be understated. With their position at the top of the insect food chain, spiders are actually amongst our greatest domestic friends, as the presence of one or two of them on your property will ensure that your local insect population stays stable, decreasing the likelihood of infestations developing. So next time you see a spider in the corner of your bedroom, don’t hoover that little fella up! If you really want them out, be sure to carefully trap them with a glass and a bit of card and carry them outside.

If you follow these five easy tips to a tee, chances are you’ll be living in a pest-free household in no time at all.

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