There isn’t anything worse than finding that pests have infested your home – and on top of that horrible feeling you get just from knowing they are there, you now need to get rid of them. This can sometimes be much easier said than done.
Before you start panicking, here are five simple steps to follow, which should make it a much easier task:
- Find the source
First things first, you need to find out what type of unwanted ‘house guests’ you have (if you don’t already know) and where they are coming from. Once you know what you are dealing with and how they are getting into your home, it will be much easier to evict them. This won’t always be obvious, but you can start by looking for signs that, depending on the pest, might include – droppings, footprints, holes in walls or doors, gnawed belongings, webbing, nests, buzzing noises, feathers or the bodies of insects.
- Research the best way to deal with it
Now you know what has invaded your home it’s time to find out the best way to deal with it because you will approach specific pests in different ways. A simple Google search will bring up plenty of tips and advice for your individual case but a common way to deal with pests is by using traps. This could be electric mouse traps, snap traps or live traps. However, there are also repellents and natural methods, such as sprays – which work just as well.
- Set some traps
Once you have researched the best way to deal with your specific pests, it is time to try out a few. You don’t want to just set up one trap and then sit back and see what happens. The more you set and the more ways you try, the quicker and easier it will be to eliminate the problem.
- Call in the experts
If you find you can’t deal with the issue yourself, or simply don’t want to, then call in the experts and let them deal with it for you.
- Clean your home
Pests don’t only cause stress and hygiene issues, they can also cause damage to your property. So, once the issue has been dealt with and the pests are gone, you need to give your home a deep clean and repair any damage. It is particularly important to repair the area where they gained access to your home to avoid them coming back!
You may also want to look at other ways to avoid them coming back. For example, to avoid wasps you could hang a false nest outside your home as wasps don’t tend to build their nests next to one another. Likewise, if you don’t have a cat you may want to consider getting one – place the litter tray in the area they have (or could) appear because the smell of their urine alone can scare off mice and rats.