© 2024 Rentokil Initial plc and subject to the conditions in the Legal statement
We spend a substantial amount of time in our cosy home for work, rest, bonding and catching up with culinary. However, regardless which part of the home you are at, you seem to spend your family time with household pests. To name a few, mosquitoes, ants, cockroaches come into your top of mind unwanted pests recall. There are some tips and tricks in organising your home to optimise pest prevention efforts. Rentokil shares ten easy tips to promote a pest free home.
Is the storeroom one of the most under-visited parts of the home? For some, storeroom cleaning only takes place once a year during the year-end spring cleaning. Yet, with proper organising and shelving, you can turn your storeroom efficiently to curb clutters and piles. For example, fix shelves and holders to house items that are lying around the living hall or kitchen. The shelves should be raised from ground up for easy cleaning as well.
Do you often leave a series of items around the kitchen counter top? For instance, used or unused jars and containers, packets and utensils? These accumulated items build up clutter and mess thus making cleaning more difficult. It also allows pests to feed on them and lurk around your kitchen. Organising racks and dividing compartments can store these visible items away, minimise water spills and prevent pests to have their hands on it.
Good, non-slip and super absorbent floor mat is essential in every home, not only to enhance safety level but also to trap those moisture and water excess. Particularly at commonly wet surfaces including the bathrooms, door entrance, balcony entrance and kitchen. Do you know? Water is one of the main and common culprit triggering a pest infestation. Not only pests require moisture to survive but it breeds mosquitoes too.
No doubt, granite or black polished finishing looks sleek and stylish, however it makes visibility more challenging to spot for residues, crumbs, pests’ signs and crawling pests around. Pests are usually brown, reddish or black in colour, and are flat with tiny size. Detecting pests is already a challenge, let alone against a dark background with a low contrast. When you are thinking to replace those tiles and surfaces, consider switching to a more vision-friendly colour choice.
Investing in adequate airtight containers or food jar and zip lock bags can make a difference in limiting food supplies to the pesky pests. Firstly, ants and cockroaches are attracted to sweets, starch, protein and fats while rats can chew off food packaging and feed on them. Make an effort to transfer and store your food and ingredients in these airtight containers and keep them away in your cabinets. It can help keep out of reach among hungry pests.
Simple home structure can help contain pests within a targeted location. Installing a divider with a door between the kitchen and living room or dining hall can prove pests that are surfacing in the kitchen. Efforts on pest eradication within the home is narrowed to just focusing the kitchen while maintaining pest protection in other parts of the home. This way, it helps to diligently conduct food preparation and consumption within the kitchen, thus minimising food and drink spills elsewhere.
Read also: Six ways of attracting pests in the kitchen
Having sufficient cabinets and storage spaces around the home helps to declutter common and open spaces. Pests tend to hide among clutters and items and because of the busy item placement, we either missed noticing them or have gaps in proper cleaning. Another common habit is to stack boxes and packaging on top of one another and on appliances as well. Declutter them away for easy cleaning and pest detection with adequate storage spaces.
If you are among the guilty groups of saving your dishes and cleaning the end of the day or worse of all, procrastinating until the next day, perhaps you should invest in a dishwater. Firstly, cockroaches enjoy lurking among soiled dishes and unhygienic sinks as they feed on decomposed matters and food waste. Secondly, utensils and cutleries might not be cleansed thoroughly leaving grime and grease behind that attracts pests. Finally, sinks will turn soiled and dirty with residues staining around the surfaces. Start your cockroach prevention efforts by paying more attention to the hygiene and sanitation standards of your kitchen sinks.
You may also like: Where are some hotspots that cockroaches are attracted to
You may close your doors to pest but what about indirect entries. Yes, with their flexible, flat and miniscule body size, they can join you in your home uninvited. They do not need big spaces or openings but as small as one centimetre like rats. Over time, a home structure will develop cracks, crevices, gaps and slits due to home denegation, usage and weather expansion. Seal those openings and pest proof your home such as door and window openings to prevent pests entering your home.
Bin is not just a waste bin to drop off your unwanted items and food waste. However, a bin that is properly covered with a lid (some comes with a pedal) and firmly secured without openings. Some homes tend to leave bin exposed that invites pests rummaging those decaying things and leaving a foul smell. For some, they leave waste in the bin overnight or only disposed of much later. This is a simple poor home mistake to correct that helps in keeping pest problems under control. You can start to get rid of cockroaches by adopting diligent waste management in your home.
Most homes are used as a source of study or work venue while the remaining time to catch up on entertainment. This means, bringing meals and snacks out of the dining hall or kitchen. The danger of doing so is leaving behind residues, food crumbs and bits and drinks’ spills. In particular, when these food sources get trapped amongst grooves of seats or in between furniture and flooring cracks. This creates a chance for problems such as an ant infestation as they have incredible preference for this food choice. These locations are also one of the most difficult to reach and clean spaces, thus accumulating food sources for pests to feed on.
Most bathrooms and kitchens come with hand and tea towels to wipe off wet hands and items. However, for convenience and time saving sake, we have the habit of flicking our wet hands, utensils and cutleries to drain off excess water. When this happens, water spills and drips will remain on surfaces and on the floor, thus attracting pests.
In fact, one hidden pest from most individuals’ eyes such as termites requires loads of water to survive. This is especially so for wooden flooring and kitchen-built-in concepts that bears a risk of resulting in a termite infestation. The challenge for most homeowners is that signs of termite infestation are never obvious until the condition turns serious.
In such a warm climate in a tropical city like Singapore, dehydration is a big concern not just to individuals but also to plants and greenery. To ensure we are not drying up and withering the plants, we tend to over water them. When this happens, there are puddles collected in the flowerpots or trays and on the floor. Mosquito breeding takes place with just a twenty-cent coin puddle and places us at danger of contracting dengue fever caused by Aedes Mosquitoes. With the rising dengue cases in Singapore, it is essential to take extra precaution in ensuring mosquito prevention efforts are in place.
Indulging in hearty meals especially after a long day of work is rewarding. However, leaving the overly prepared exposed on the dining table is a common home mistake that promotes pest infestation. These foods should be either well covered with a lid or stored in a food container or thermal flask for later consumption. Besides attracting pests, it minimises the risks of contamination that causes food poisoning symptoms. Start to enhance your family’s health and safety but adopt these simple habits of home pest control.
We can spend time sprucing up home or fixing DIY home decor, however housekeeping and home maintenance is a common procrastination. Firstly, sweeping and mopping is a regular and ongoing cleaning regime to remove not just dirt, dust and food bits but possible traces of pests and their eggs. This helps to get rid of ants by eliminating their basic needs including food, water and shelter. Secondly, wiping clean surfaces from grime and grease promote a healthy general wellbeing but also remove pest attractants that triggers a cockroach infestation. Thirdly, the bathroom is a house to pests such as ants, cockroaches and termites. Keeping them clean can prevent pest harbourage due to moisture availability. Finally, you can take the opportunity to detect unusual home signs relating to pest infestation amidst the housekeeping process. Read more to find out why we should not procrastinate housekeeping.
So, what do pests feed on and do they have any particular diet favourites. Here is a list of their common food craves which happens to be our staples as well.
In addition, they also do eat non-organic items such as a series of non-edible food among humans including paper, cardboard, plastic, cellulose, wood and books. This whole list summarises the entire chunk of food supplies and availability in the entire home! Thus, pest control services are critical to deal with the constant opportunities to breed pests around every day.
There are only the few and common specific locations within the home that pests lurk around. Imagine, we have unwanted guests spending time with us every day in almost every part of our cosy home. Rentokil Initial summarises a list of their internal and external hideouts.
There are many reasons why you find pests in your homes and how it got into your home in the first place. Regardless if you have kept the home spot clean or diligently engage in pest control. Pests invade home due to several factors.
Firstly, it is inevitable for pests to travel from its surrounding into your home and enter through door gaps or opened windows. Secondly, homes wear and tear overtime resulting in cracks and crevices for multiple pests entries. Thirdly, some pests are cross-infestation by nature, such as bed bugs or other crawling pests that hitch on you as you return home. Fourthly, due to environment and situation conditions such as nearby construction or rainy weather, pests relocate and seek alternative shelter. Finally, termites are pests that exist in homes 24/7 unless there is a termite control in place to eliminate the termite colony. This is due to their presence underground, just right below our home and they make their way up as they construct mud tubes to travel back and forth for food.
With the many risks and challenges in dealing with pest elimination, it is also not possible to keep pests under control. Besides ensuring a good housekeeping regime, proofing your home adequately, you should engage a pest control company to keep in checks for you. Professional pest control specialists not only do the regularly scheduled pest treatment for your home, but also provide useful recommendations and prevention tips. It is highly recommended to opt for integrated pest management that covers not just the treatments but overall safety wellbeing.
Call Rentokil Singapore at (65) 6347 8138 for a pest control solution today.