If you love to travel, there’s nothing better than coming home after a long trip, relaxing in your own bed, and unwinding in a comfortable space. However, what can severely hinder your ability to relax is arriving home only to notice that your home has been taken over by pests while you were away.
Luckily, there are steps that you can take to keep this from happening to you. To help you see how this can be done, here are three tips for preventing household pests while you’re away from home.
Make Sure Your Home Is Sealed Up Tight
The very best way to keep pests and any other unwanted house guests from coming into your home while you’re away is to seal everything up tight.
Just like you lock your doors and windows before you leave, Luck Kehoe, a contributor to Good Housekeeping, shares that you’ll also want to fill in any cracks and block any holes that you notice leading into your home from the outside. This should include the gaps around your doors, around your windows, and around any openings where utilities or other items come into your home from the exterior. By giving pests no way to enter into your home, they’ll be forced to seek food or shelter elsewhere.
Eliminate Garbage From In And Around Your Home
As was mentioned above, one reason why pests will try to get into your home is because they think that they can find food there. To combat this, you’ll want to ensure that nothing in your home becomes a homing beacon for pests while you’re away.
According to Lisa Jo Lupo, a contributor to The Spruce, the best way to do this is to eliminate all garbage from in and around your home. Especially if your garbage contains old food items or something that smells like it could be eaten, you’ll want to get that out of your home and as far away as possible.
Trim Back Exterior Vegetation
Sometimes, pest wind up entering a home simply because of proximity to where they’ve been hanging out in their natural habitat. If you were home, you likely would be able to notice if this is happening and then stop it. But if you’re going to be away, you’ll want to take some preventative measures to avoid this.
One way to do this, according to Jenny Stanley, a contributor to the Family Handyman, is to trim back any exterior vegetation that’s getting close to your home. This will help to create a buffer around your home so that pests that eat or live around that vegetation won’t have easy access onto or into your home.
If you’re wanting to take steps to ensure that no pests take up residence in your home while you’re away, consider using the tips mentioned above to properly prepare your property before your departure.
