How to Get Rid of Bugs
Species
How to Get Rid of Bugs
Every household pest is looking for the same three things: something to eat, water and a protected place to live. Take those away and your home becomes a poor place for insects to settle. Wipe up crumbs, fix dripping faucets and leaky pipes, and clear the clutter where bugs hide. The most effective step is keeping them from getting in at all. Walk around the outside of the house and look for gaps around doors and windows, cracks in the foundation, and openings where pipes and wires pass through walls. Seal those with caulk, weatherstripping or screen.
It is far easier to keep bugs out than to kill them once they are living inside.
Start by Naming the Bug
There is no single fix for bugs, because what works on a lawn pest is useless against a bedroom pest. Get the insect identified first. A clear photo or a specimen in a sealed jar is usually enough for a pest professional or your county extension office.
Once you know what you have, these habits help with most true bugs:
- Switch porch and patio lights to yellow bug bulbs or warm-toned bulbs, which draw fewer night-flying insects to your doors.
- Check new plants, secondhand furniture and luggage before bringing them inside.
- For chinch bugs, water St. Augustinegrass properly during dry spells and avoid heavy nitrogen fertilizer, which favors them.
- Hand-pick stink and leaf-footed bugs from garden plants and drop them into a bucket of soapy water.
Common mistakes:
- Crushing stink bugs, or vacuuming them with the household vacuum, which leaves the odor behind.
- Setting off foggers for bed bugs. The mist doesn’t reach the seams and cracks where they hide and can push them into other rooms.
- Treating a whole lawn for chinch bugs when yellow patches are really from drought, disease or gaps in sprinkler coverage.
- Dragging an infested mattress through the house without bagging it, which can scatter bed bugs along the way.
A professional treatment begins with identification and an inspection to find where the bugs are coming from, followed by treatment aimed at that source, sealing or exclusion work where it helps, and a follow-up check. For warning signs, see bug infestations.
- Cut off their food supply wherever you can.
- Clean spilled food and drinks right away, including sticky spots under appliances.
- Pick up pet food bowls after meals instead of leaving them out overnight.
- Close the cracks and openings bugs use to get inside.
If bugs do get in, store shelves carry many insecticides for home use. Read the label, use only products made for the pest and the place you are treating, and follow the directions exactly. When a problem is large or keeps coming back, it is time to call a pest control professional.
You will also find plenty of home remedies online, and their results are mixed. Soapy water sprayed directly on soft-bodied insects such as aphids can kill them on contact. Wiping counters with vinegar removes the scent trails ants follow, though it does nothing to the nest. A shallow dish of soapy water can catch some crawling insects overnight. Other popular tips, such as cornmeal for ants or garlic, basil and essential oils as repellents, have little evidence behind them. Home methods may knock down the insects you can see, but they rarely reach the source, so a problem that persists usually needs an inspection.
Bugs Species
Bugs Species
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