3 Exterior Home Maintenance Tips To Keep Pests Away

Dec 23, 2020

The last thing you want to see in your home is bugs, rodents, or other kinds of pests. But sadly, by the time you notice an issue with any kind of pest in your house, you’ve likely already got a pretty decent infestation going on.

While you should definitely treat the pests that you’re seeing inside, you should also take some preventative measures to keep these pests or other pests from coming back into your home in the future. To help you see how this can be done, here are three exterior home maintenance tips to keep pests away.

Keep Vegetation Away From Your Home

Keeping pests from getting into your home in the first place should be your top priority for protecting your home from unwanted invaders. To effectively do this, you’ve got to think like a pest and try to understand what brings them into your home to begin with.

According to Lisa Jo Lupo, a contributor to The Spruce, having vegetation or other natural elements close to the structure of your house can act like a sort of bridge that allows pests to get closer to your house and then, eventually, find their way in. Knowing this you’ll want to do what you can to keep vegetation and other items away from your home. This might mean putting rocks around your home rather than using mulch and storing items like firewood further away from your house.

Seal Up Visible Vulnerabilities

To best deter pests from coming into your home from outside, you’ve got to make it difficult for them to actually get in anywhere.

To do this, Julie Martens Forney, a contributor to DIY Network, shares that you need to inspect the exterior of your home for any visible vulnerabilities where pests could make their way inside. This could include things like holes, cracks, or anything worn that might be easy for a pest to get through. If you do notice anything like this when looking at your home’s exterior, find a way to seal up this area so that there’s no longer any access.

Reduce The Presence Of Standing Water

One thing that can lure pests closer to your home and property is the availability of water. Especially for certain pests like mosquitoes, standing water is what they’re mainly looking for when coming to an area.

Because of this, Segun Onibalusi, a contributor to the Huffington Post, advises that you should reduce any standing water around your home. To accomplish this, you’ll want to make sure that the drainage on your property moves away from your home as well as dumping out anything that might accumulate water after a storm.

To help keep your home free of pests, consider using the tips mentioned above to stop them before they even enter.