Whether it’s termites or bed bugs, most people can universally agree that insects don’t belong in a home. Not only do they create unsanitary living conditions, but they’re also irritating and a hassle to deal with for homeowners. Preventing bugs from entering your home can be a challenging task. After all, research from the Smithsonian University suggests there are approximately ten quintillion insects alive today, a number so large most of us can’t even comprehend it.

While it may not be possible to eliminate bugs, you can adopt preventative pest control measures to help you keep your home bug-free. 

Keeping Bugs Out of Your Home

There are several ways homeowners can ensure their homes remain free of bug infestations. These include:

Sealing Doors

Sealed doors can keep unwanted intruders like bugs out of your home. Many doors often have a small gap underneath their base, allowing for insects to sneak in. Sealing this gap by installing a steel or aluminum threshold underneath the door can help keep your home bug-free. In addition, you can also combine this with a door sweep for added protection.

Similarly, we recommend applying a door-seal kit or weather-stripping to the perimeter of the door’s frame to prevent bugs from entering through the top and the sides of the door. However, these methods won’t work if you don’t close your door, which is why we also recommend installing a hydraulic door closer. 

Adding Screens to Your Windows

Many homeowners rely on natural ventilation, especially during the summers, opening the windows to allow air circulation. Unfortunately, opening windows also means giving bugs and other insects an open invitation to entering your home. We recommend you consider installing screens to keep bugs out of your home.

Fix Any Cracks

Most bugs can enter your home through the tiniest of cracks, given their minuscule size. Therefore, fixing any gaps in your doors and windows is crucial to keeping your home bug-free. Start by assessing the exterior of your home to identify any holes in the foundation. Ensure that you also look for loose bricks and rotten wood because their decaying nature can make your home vulnerable to bugs. We recommend using mortar or cement for fixing foundational cracks, while the caulk is a quick and cost-effective way to address any minor openings.

Dispose of Trash

Properly disposing of trash is also vital to keeping your home bug-free. Trash sitting idly in your home can be a feasting ground for many pests. We recommend keeping food trash in the kitchen and not dispersed throughout your home. In addition, using compost bins can help secure your trash until you empty it. Daily emptying of the trash is a solid practice to keeping your home clean and preventing trash from piling up.

Sealing Pipe Penetrations

Most homeowners have dealt with utility installations at least once in their lives. Most professional installers will often ensure that they seal the penetrations around the pipes with caulk or sealants. However, some installers neglect to do so, resulting in openings forming for pests to enter your home. We recommend checking the piping inside and outside your home to ensure no gaps exist for pests to crawl through into your home. Sealing these gaps with some caulk or sealants can secure your home from bugs.

Dealing with a Bug Infestation

If your home has a bug infestation, you need to hire a pest control company to get rid of them. Homeowners in Ohio can rely on Xterminator Pest Control to keep their homes bug-free. We are a professional pest control company offering our services to residential and commercial clients. We help homeowners by providing various pest control services, ranging from termite control to bed bug removal.   

Contact us today to get your bug problems sorted.

Pests can harbor in the nooks and crooks of your house or office, and removing them can be challenging. An average household can be home to more than 100 different bugs. 

If you’ve never had a pest problem, you should count your blessings. If, however, you haven’t been so lucky, you definitely should read this guide to prevent it from happening again.

Five Common Pests

Some of the common pests are mice, rats, ants, cockroaches, and termites. Cockroaches are the most common pests. They can easily spread viruses like salmonella and hepatitis and contaminate the food, fabric, and paper. 

Mice can easily enter and damage your property. You can spot them if you come across their droppings, which could either look like rice or huge coffee grounds. Mice chew and urinate on things like your clothes and rugs. Their waste also spreads diseases. 

Rats, on the other hand, are bigger than mice and easy to spot if you see them running across your lounge or yard. They also transmit diseases and use their teeth to gnaw at wood and wires, and other things that may be expensive to replace.

Ants are pretty easy to spot as they are everywhere once they manage to find their way into a home. They’re mostly found near a water or food source. Termites, however, are the hardest to notice as they’re not found on the surface. They live off of the timber used to build the structure of your abode. If you’re unable to catch them fast, they can spread easily because they lay hundreds of eggs in one day. 

How to Catch and Prevent These Pests?

You can prevent many pest infestations by ensuring all your food and water is stored in airtight containers, and no crumbs are left anywhere. Cockroaches can be removed by spraying everywhere or using gel bait, and their resurgence can be prevented by putting traps everywhere. 

To catch mice and rats, rodent control is the immediate solution. You can also lay traps for mice and rats. 

Ants also feed on anything they can find in your kitchen, so the best prevention is to keep your kitchen clean. Any cracks can cause the ants to enter and find some sticky leftover food to feed on, so you need to wipe all surfaces clean and close off the entry points. Plantings near the edge of your property can also attract ants, so you might want to remove those too.

Darkened wood, blistering or tunneling is a sign that you have termites living with you. They can not be prevented if you don’t ensure the place you’re renting or buying has well-ventilated timber, as moisture builds a home for termites. However, termites can only be removed by hiring pest control services.

Call the Experts

If you’ve tried everything and still can’t get rid of these annoying infestations, it’s time to hire your nearest pest control services. Xterminator has a treatment plan for any type of pest infestation, from bed bug treatment to termite treatment plans. 

Learn more about us and contact us for same-day service and consultations. 

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Having a home infested with termites is every homeowner’s worst nightmare. Termites affect up to 600,000 households in the US annually, costing homeowners more than $3,000 on average. Termites not only make your home an unsafe living place, but they also significantly lower your home’s value.

Termites feed on wood and wooden surfaces. Since wood is the most commonly used material for residential projects in the United States, most homeowners will likely end up having to deal with them at one point or another.

Although many do-it-yourself solutions exist, we recommend hiring a pest control company to help solve your termite problem. Here are some facts detailing why termites are a significant issue and why homeowners should prioritize termite prevention.

Termites Never Sleep

One of the reasons why termites can be so troublesome is that they never sleep. Termites are constantly working – days and nights – to build their colony and feed on wood. Their ability to work non-stop makes them very efficient but highly destructive. 

Termites Also Consume Other Materials

People often believe that termites only feast on wood, but that’s not true. Termites are also known for chewing through drywall, plastic, plaster, and stucco. Some types of termites will also expose the cracks in your concrete or mortar, making them formidable foes within your home.

Termites Form Massive Colonies

Termites can form massive colonies if left unchecked. Termite colonies often consist of numerous types of termites, each performing a specific task. These colonies have a king and a queen termite, and they direct the worker and soldier termites to their functions. Moreover, they produce more than two thousand eggs a day, causing the colony to grow exponentially. Termite colonies can frequently comprise over a million termites, and it’s not atypical to find houses infested by multiple colonies.

Home Insurance Policies Don’t Cover Termite Damage

Homeowners should know that most home insurance policies don’t cover termite damage. The insurance providers consider termite damage to be preventable, which is why they refuse to cover damages. 

Homeowners can take proactive measures to prevent termites from colonizing their homes. Eliminating any leaks in your home can prevent moisture, which in turn prevents termites from entering your home. Moreover, we also recommend stacking firewood and lumber away when you’re not using them because they can attract termites.

Termites Travel More Than 100 Meters

Many homeowners are often unaware that termites can travel over 100 meters searching for food, meaning that if your neighbors are facing a termite infestation, there’s a high chance that termites have also infested your home as well!

Getting Professional Help for Termite Extermination 

If you’re looking for exterminators in Cambridge, OH, we can assist you. Xterminator Pest Control is a pest control company in Ohio, providing pest control services at affordable prices. Our company caters to the pest control needs of residential and commercial customers, and our services range from offering termite control to conducting bed bug removal.

Contact us now to ensure your home is bug-free.