5 common poor home habits that attract pests

Leaving food exposed, neglecting home maintenance, keeping the clutter under the sink, and delaying pipe repairs. Sounds familiar?

These are habits you unconsciously do are probably why pests keep re-entering your home. No matter how often you call for pest control, they just keep coming back after a while, and it is costing you so much money to constantly have to get rid of the house pests: cockroach, ants, and rodents to name a few.

With the first half of the year ending, there is probably a no better time to address these issues—do a home check-up, prioritise cleaning, check for any repairs, and see if replacements should be in order.

Continue reading as Rentokil recaps five poor household habits you have to break to step up your mid-year cleaning.

What attracts bugs and pests in your home

Leaving food exposed

Whether it is in the living room or in the kitchen, the habit of leaving your food exposed is a direct invitation for pests into your home. They could attract a colony of ants in a matter of minutes or become a midnight snack for cockroaches and/or rats. This is particularly true for certain foods such as:

• Baked goods
• Sugar or sweet treats
• Fresh produce such as fruits and vegetables
• Packaged foods (flour, pasta, cereal)
• Spills and crumbs
• Food wastes and untouched drinks

These further illustrate the necessity for regular clean-ups and making sure that you store your food in airtight containers and if possible, in the fridge. Above all, to dispose unwanted or finished dishes and food to avoid turning into decomposing matter. Find out why procrastinating housekeeping and home maintenance is so essential in terms of pest management.

In conclusion, leaving food out in the open not only attract pests, it has contamination risks should anyone starts eating them again. For instance, cockroaches can pass on their bacteria they picked up and spread diseases to the food you are consuming.

Neglecting home maintenance & repairs

Firstly, the tears in your window screens and gaps on your walls—if you will not pay attention to these areas, the pests might and they will use it to access your home. Secondly, some other home defects you might be neglecting could very well be a sign of an infestation. Finally, a case in point is the mud tubes or frass that may indicate a termite infestation. In summary, every day that goes by without addressing them is another day for pests to penetrate your home.

In addition, especially in more mature and aging properties, infrastructure starts to weaken. For example, pipes and plumbing starts to defect and crack causing spills. Water and moisture is a common pest infestation cause.

Keeping the clutter under the sink

It is probably a habit to keep paper bags, cardboard boxes, and plastics in the cupboard under your sink for further use. However, for all it is worth, it only draws cockroaches into your home, potentially citing the need for cockroach control. Alternatively, you can purchase home organisers to sort and pack these items neatly and appropriately.

In conclusion, clutter not only promotes pests to hide and harbour, it makes pest detection and observation more difficult. It is important to be fully aware of dangers of pests to your health such as cockroaches, ants and rats.

Saving the dishes for the next day

Pests like flies, ants, and cockroaches are attracted to leftover food. Therefore, you might want to think twice about waiting until tomorrow to do the dishes. If you look forward to being pest-free, wash your dishes after every use. Discover what cockroaches are attracted to in your home. Above all, undone dishes will leave a foul smell or bad odor due to its decomposing reasons. In addition, the build-up of grease and oil would risks choking your plumbing and attracting more pests to feed on in the long-term.

Procrastinating cleaning

The poor housekeeping habits mentioned above probably all boils down to your habit of procrastinating cleaning, with taking the time to take out the trash included. While the clutter is an annoyance for you, they could be a source of food, water, and shelter for pests—the things they need to survive. These explain why you should not procrastinate house cleaning.

In addition, another benefit of cleaning can help to spot potential pest infestation signs and improving the hygiene and sanitation standards during this COVID-19 period. Finally, it can help to remove stains and faeces from cockroaches that causes allergy to some people.

What you could be doing wrong

Aside from these poor cleaning habits, there are two other reasons you could be attracting pests into your home:

Attempting to DIY Pest Control

There are a few cases when DIY pest control works fine such as catching a single rat or cleaning your home to get rid of cockroaches. For the convenience and ease, most homes would store insecticides, stick-on traps for daily application and use. Secondly, some would use natural home pest remedies such as repellents and deterrent remedies. This includes common pest myths remedies. Above all, for pests such as termite infestation is complex to apply DIY pest control methods. In conclusion, it compromise on efficacy and effectiveness, but also implicate health and safety risks.

Neglecting to engage pest control company

In most cases, attempting to DIY pest control leads to another implication which is neglecting to engage a professional pest control company. Other reasons behind this could be:

• Perceived high cost investment
• Time and commitment involved
• Misperception that it is only for severe cases, unsafe, toxic, and ineffective
• DIY pest remedies can do the trick
• Pest control services are ineffective

Rentokil Pest Control shares a completed guide to pest control to clarify common queries and doubts. Queries on what about pest control in Singapore and how much should you pay for pest control.

Seeking 1 time-off treatment for quick fix

Unfortunately, there are many attractive but misleading recommendations on pest control services that has no downtime, cost very affordable and only require one treatment to see the efficacy. For some, they perceived to resolve the pest issue after one treatment.

Credible and effective pest management solutions requires on-going monitoring, inspection and routine treatments to keep pest infestation under control. Professional pest specialists will also advice on how can you prevent infestation as optimal pest control involves both the specialist and users to work together. It is useful to learn how to evaluate good or best pest control company in Singapore.

How often should pest control be done

While we are convinced pest control maintenance and protection is necessary, then how often should we engage these services? There are various considerations including the integrity of the property, nature of the environment, history of infestation, urbanisation matters and pest control procedure and quality done.

How to prevent pest infestations

These habits can be understandably hard to overcome. They have become part of your everyday life that you are doing them unconsciously and without realising their potential consequences. However, at least, you know now the repercussions they can bring.

Without a doubt, doing the exact opposite of these poor home cleaning habits can help prevent pests from entering your home. There are several pest prevention tips you can take, starting from keeping your home clean and in good condition at all times.

You can further reinforce these efforts by engaging a pest control specialist. Rentokil Singapore offers monthly pest control treatment to the different types of pest such as cockroaches, rats, ants and mosquitoes from resurfacing. We also offer long-term termite protection with 7 years warranty to prevent further termite damage to the home and control the termite colony.

Learn why pests are attracted to your home

Different pests has different habits, reproduction, life cycle and preference to harbour. Food, shelter and water are some basic pest survival needs. However, some of their food source may differ. What food attracts bugs? By knowing some useful pest knowledge, it can help us to determine on how to get rid of pests more efficiently. Here is a table of food menu options among common pests in Singapore.

ANTS

• Sweet food and liquid such as nectar and fruits
• Plants, seeds, vegetables, sweet corn, grain
• Insects and even ants among themselves
• Grass and leaves

COCKROACHES

• Food and fruits that we eat daily as meals
• Non-editable items such as glue, paper and leather
• Decomposed matters, waste and faeces
• Anything they can find around at waste bins

RATS

• Seeds, nuts, grains
• Fruits and vegetables
• Insects and animals
• Items found in compose heaps and trash

Get in touch with Rentokil Singapore to find out the treatments available. Call us at  (65) 6347 8138.