How to keep insects away from your home?
When we ask ourselves how to keep insects away from our home, we most often think of mosquitoes in the summer. However, various other insects also operate through different seasons, so this issue is a year-round problem that the average home owner faces.
What you want to achieve is to prevent insects and pests from getting inside your home, as well as make sure that nothing attracts them to it in the first place. This means that inside the home there must be no smells and conditions that attract and favor the arrival of insects. In the same way, the exterior of the home must not become a nest and hotspot for insectsof any kind.
The more unattractive the environment and interior of your home are for insects and pests, the less they are they to come, and the less they will try to find reasons and ways to stay in your area.
In this article, we will show you 5 ways to keep insects away from your home.
Install a mosquito net
You can install a mosquito net, or insect screen, on all types of openings in your home, from windows to balcony doors, and thereby create a barrier against insects that simultaneously still allows air to flow through your building. A mosquito net of any shape is the simplest and most effective way to keep insects away from your home.
It is essential to maintain the mosquito net and its integrity, that is, to check whether there is damage to the edges of the mosquito net or the net itself. Any kind of damage could allow small holes or openings through which insects could find their way in again.
However, the maintenance of mosquito nets or insect screens is so simple and quick that it does not in any way represent a negative element of its use and implementation in your home. In our previously published article, discover the reasons why you must have a mosquito net.
Although you will secure all window and balcony openings with mosquito nets, you should understand that insects can find their way to the interior of your home through other openings and cracks. Cracks in doors, window frames, pipelines and similar other elements of your home can allow a large number of insects and pests to enter your home, and represent a frequent and safe breeding ground for them.
Remove water sources
Many insects, especially mosquitoes, are attracted to water. Mosquitoes, for example, release their young in the water, where their larvae then develop. Even the smallest puddle of concentrated water can represent a potential nest for insects of this species.
It is therefore important to be careful about leaving behind any form of water in canisters, toys, plastic containers, etc., that is, any form of container that could retain water after, for example, rain. Homeowners with backyards are also advised to clean up fallen branches and leaves, as they too can create puddles after rain and become an attractive breeding ground for insects.
It is also advisable to arrange the garden itself in such a way that the trees and their branches, as well as for example decorative stones, are not too close to the home itself, since insects can hide and multiply in such places.
Depending on the type of insect, the development of larvae is possible within 4 days, and for this reason, any form of water surface should always be cleaned in a timely manner. Although the mosquito net from the first point of this article will prevent the insects themselves from entering your facility, this point will prevent the multiplication and creation of a large number of insects around your home. In other words, it will keep insects away from the exterior of your home.
Use plants and natural methods against insects
Many insects, especially mosquitoes, cannot stand the scents and essential oils of plants such as lavender and calendula. Decorate your facility and yard with these plants, and you will also work on keeping insects away from your home!
Other herbs that can be used are for example: basil, lemongrass, rosemary, mint and sage.
You can also use garlic in the fight against pests. Cut them into small pieces or crush a few pieces of garlic and mix them with warm water. You can then use the mixture as a spray in a bottle and thus keep insects, especially mosquitoes, away from your home.
Alternatively, you can also leave pieces of chopped lemon around your home, since citrus smells do not suit most insects. It is recommended to keep the garden tidy and mow lawns, meadows and plants in order to reduce the number of attractive places for insects to hide and multiply.
Keep your home clean
We have already mentioned cleaning the yard of your home (especially in terms of preventing the creation of larger water surfaces), but it is also important to keep the inside of the home clean. Insects will be attracted to various foods, and in accordance with this, it is necessary to have tightly sealed storage rooms or bins where you keep your food.
It is also important to timely and properly throw food wastes in the trash and empty the trash before it begins to degrade inside your home. The smell of food that is starting to decompose will attract insects before you yourself start to register a stronger unpleasant smell, especially during hot and dry summer days. That is why it is advised to clean the home well and regularly throw away the garbage before it starts to rot.
Use a vacuum cleaner to go through the home and make sure that leftover food is not left in hard-to-reach places, because insects can start to gather in such locations. Clean up excess products, boxes and other less essential elements inside your home so that insects cannot gather under and around them in a way that is difficult for you to notice.
Insects usually like to stay and multiply in dark, dirty and untidy locations because they feel safer there. It is recommended to clean the segments of your home that are often forgotten, such as the surface under and around the bed as well as the refrigerator itself. In principle, if a certain corner of the home is more difficult to access, it is likely to be more attractive to insects and pests. It is precisely such places inside the home that should be kept especially clean.
Separate the exterior and interior of the home
This way of keeping insects away from the home is very simple – do not bring household items and tools that you use when working in the garden inside the house. The same is advised for apartment owners – do not enter the apartment with shoes and boots after coming from outside. Set aside a part of the home for such cases, or thoroughly clean all items and things before bringing them into the home.
It is also advisable to arrange the garden itself in such a way that the trees and their branches, as well as for example decorative stones, are not too close to the home itself, since insects can hide and multiply in such places.
The same applies to the toys your children play with around the house, bicycles and similar means of transport, as well as pets themselves, which are always, if not exclusively inside the home, recommended to be washed before returning to the home.
When cleaning tools and items, before going to other segments of the interior of the home, washing and cleaning will often be done primarily inside the bathroom. It should be understood that the bathroom itself therefore needs to be regularly deep-cleaned, since it has an affinity for the creation of various blockages when cleaning coarser and heavier dirt.
What if insects and pests keep finding their way into your home?
You probably realized that the battle with insects revolves mostly around the discipline and organization of cleaning and decorating the home – both outside and inside. If you secure the outer boundaries of your home, whether it’s a house with a garden or an apartment, you won’t have to worry about insects inside your home either. If you don’t offer them anything attractive inside your home, they will have less desire and reason to come.
However, sometimes there is such a small hole or a part of the home that is inaccessible to you that insects and pests still find their way through. In such cases, many will turn to the use of chemical and synthetic agents in the hope of stopping the further arrival of insects by creating a deadly climate for them.
However, if you are not able to find a specific source of entry, i.e. a crack through which they come, even after using chemical agents or natural alternatives, over time the insects and pests will start coming again. When they see that the situation is “under control” again, they will start attacking again.
It is one thing to work on the symptoms of the problem, another on the source of the problem.
When you are not able to solve the situation with insects and pests on your own, and you followed and performed all the above-mentioned methods of keeping insects away from your home, then it is recommended to call for professional help. Using their tools, professionals will analyze the entire situation of your home in depth and find cracks and paths through which insects enter and then adequately seal them.
Aluminium shutters with a mosquito net as a solid method in the fight against insects
Secure your home against intruders by installing EUX aluminium shutters with mosquito nets. Shutters will protect your window and its frame, and through the built-in mosquito net, your home from insects. This will reduce possible cracks and damage to the window itself, and through the mosquito net on the shutter you can be sure that the window openings will be fully protected against insects and pests.
Why not completely secure at least one part of your home from insects and intruders? This will free up more time to check and maintain other elements of your home that could be potentially allowing the arrival of insects.
References
[1] Fortuna – Shutters with integrated mosquito net
[2] Dinata – Shutters with a mosquito net
[3] Insect repellent
[4] Insect
[5] Mosquito
