7 Ways to Fight Home Pests ...

Have them spray the perimeter to help keep the bugs outside where they belong. Exterminators offer a wide range of ways to help keep your home pest free throughout the year. It's not cheap to call one in, but then again, it isn't cheap to repair the damage that pests like termites and mice do to your home either. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

Pests love it when you leaves a mess - that's how they eat! Each time you leave crumbs under the table, or a bag of chips out on the counter, you are making your pesky friends, especially mice, very happy! Keep your food messes cleaned up and out of reach. Those nifty hanging basket things are great to keep mouse attractants like candy bars, chips, crackers, etc. in. This will keep them off your countertops and out of your cabinets.

Exterminators hate nothing more than to be called to spray for termites, and pull up to your house to see mulched flower beds all around your home. One local exterminator refused to even spray for some family friends until they had removed all the mulch from around their house. My father-in-law explained that it was because mulch is rotting wood which feeds and attracts termites to your home. If you're going to mulch, make sure that you only mulch things several yards from your home.

Before you even start seeing results of pests in the home, it's a good idea to go ahead and set a few traps or throw out some poison to nip the problem in the bud. Sticky traps work well, but I personally don't like them. I don't like to have to deal with the mouse being alive and suffering - I am merciful. I choose the old fashioned, split second death ones instead. There are also some traps that allow you to catch the mice alive and take them somewhere to release them. The only problem I see with these is that you risk them coming right back into your home. You can also get traps for ants and roaches as well.

Though foggers require you to leave your home for a while due to the fumes produced, they are effective for killing things like spiders and roaches. Older homes have major problems with brown recluse spiders or "fiddlers". Though for the most part, they're not deadly, they can deal nasty bites that, if not treated, can lead to the bitten area rotting away. These spiders do as their name suggests, and hide in the darkness, so you rarely see them during the day. Because of this, foggers seem to be the most effect way to get rid of these little devils that hide in the shadows.

For some reason, insects have an aversion to cucumbers. You can use this to your advantage by taking cucumber peels and placing them around the point of entry for pests like ants. Other things that work is mint leaves, lemon or citrus oil, peppermint oil, cinnamon or cayenne pepper. Simply place any of these items around the point of entry and your ants will not cross over. Now, they may work to find another way in, but if you continue blocking the paths, you will stop the trail!

If you have issues with mosquitoes hanging around your home and coming in, plant lemon grass around your home. It's a natural deterrent to them, so you have less worries. You can also spray a mixture of citrus oil and ammonia around your home and yard every couple weeks to ward them off as well.

And that is some ways to keep them pests where they belong - outside! These winter months seem to be the worst for mice problems, since they're looking for a warm, cozy place to bed down. So, if you don't already have issues with them, prevent the issue from coming up! What pesky pests to you have to fight? How do you get rid of them?

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