Insects are creepy, with their speedy little legs, their beady little eyes. The ick factor jumps in the summertime, aka breeding season, when one (or many) may visit your home. But with these strategies, you can easily enforce your "no guests with six or more legs" policy.
Follow these four tactics for defending your home against insect invaders.
Keeping bugs out of the house
Prevent your home from being an insect haven with these tips.
Don't serve them dinner: In addition to regular kitchen cleanup, don't forget to wipe splatters on blender bases or stovetops, and sponge off dribbles from syrupy foods like honey. Put out pet food on a schedule rather than leaving it for grazing.
Dry up water sources: Repair leaky faucets and under-sink pipes; the droplets they leave look like watering troughs to a thirsty bug.
Dim the lights: Moths and cockroaches are drawn to the glow. For doorside fixtures, switch to yellow bug bulbs, which critters aren't attracted to and which are available in newer CFL and decorative styles. Or put lights on motion sensors so they'll turn on only when someone comes home.
Cut outdoor attractions: Clean up leaf debris along the house's foundation and put firewood piles at a distance. Drain garden hoses and repair pooling downspouts lest they provide love nests for mosquitoes, which can breed in just a bottle cap's worth of water. Seal garbage cans and scoop up pet waste from the lawn ASAP — big draws for flies.
Boost your defenses
Beyond the bug-barricade basics (like patching any holes in screens), check your house's exterior for cracks around pipes or in the foundation where bugs can enter; caulk around them. Also try adhesive sweeps (find at hardware stores) at the bottom of exterior doors to thwart spiders.
Getting rid of infestations
They've infiltrated! Attack with weapons that work:
Baits (which serve up poisoned food) are more effective than traps to solve an ant problem; the workers will bring the nefarious nibbles back to the colony. Some ants have a sweet tooth, while others prefer protein, so buy some of each type of bait — the uncovered gel or paste kind is better (though don't around pets) than the enclosed hockey-puck-like type. Don't freak out if you see more ants at first (if it's working, they'll swarm the baits), and try not to disturb them — they follow a scent to where others have found food. For roaches, try the double whammy of baits and sticky traps.
Vacuum up spiders and their webs, emptying the vac into a trash bag and sealing it.
When to call in the pros
Give up the fight when DIY methods don't work; you're dealing with a destructive, formidable foe (think termites or bedbugs); or you're just too grossed out.
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