Pest Be Gone! Cheap Ways to Keep Your Home Critter-Free
Sometimes the best way to keep the critters out is to play the preventive game. Here’s how to keep the bugs out and confidently say, pest be gone! and mean it.
House pests are notorious for making residents uncomfortable in their own homes. They’re also quite an embarrassment when visitors come. Worst of all, they can cause diseases to family members and their neighbors.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that from 2004 to 2006, over 640,000 cases of people affected by pest bites and contamination were reported. Ill-reputed pests include mosquitoes and ticks.
There are many chemicals used to get rid of pests, but most seem to have lost their forte and are also quite expensive for constant purchase. This brings us to natural pest repellants that can be made at home with products we already use in the house.
Common house pests include spiders, bed bugs, cockroaches, fruit flies, mosquitoes, house flies, rats, and ants, among others.
Once critters are in your home, it’s a bit hard to drive them away and you may have to rely on a professional service such as those provided by kykopestprevention.com. Sometimes the best way to keep the critters out is to play the preventive game however. If you’d like to take matters into your own hands, here’s how to keep the bugs out and confidently say, pest be gone, and mean it!
Vinegar
Vinegar is hands-down the best natural pest control homemade remedy on a cheap scale. I use white vinegar to clean vegetables, leaving them bacteria-free, and apple cider vinegar to clean my floors, sinks, and walls, making my home a pest-free site.
Vinegar is known to scare away pests like termites, ants, house flies, and fruit flies, among other house pests.
To kill termites, mix about half a cup of vinegar with a quarter cup of lemon juice, then spray the mixture where termites reside. The acidic solution will kill the termites on the spot, and they’ll also scare spiders away. You may want to spray regularly to ensure you kill all available termites.
If this doesn’t get rid of all termites, it’s advisable to hire professionals to do tent fumigation. This is the right solution for areas where termites have widely spread.
To get rid of fruit flies, you can mix vinegar with dishwashing soap and warm water in a jar and leave it open to trap all these tiny pests.
Coffee
Yes, get that espresso working for you and kill those pests. While your house will be smelling like Birch Coffee and Starbucks, its effectiveness is visible. Also, let’s be honest, the scent is quite compelling, isn’t it?
Coffee is also a good plant fertilizer, in case you were wondering. So, coffee is known to be a good mosquito repellant. But, right before we get into burning coffee grounds, how about you get rid of that bush or swamp bringing mosquitoes into your home?
Alright, now get the coffee grounds in your coffeemaker and place them in an aluminum foil. Place a table or stool outside in your yard, take a plate, and set the foil in the dish and onto the table.
Add two to three drops of barbeque lighter to the grounds and light it using a long matchstick. Once the coffee grounds start burning and smoking, that smoke will repel mosquitoes from your patio. Take precautions by keeping your children and pets away from the burning coffee grounds.
Peppermint Oil
Rats must be the ultimate most irritating pests to invade a home. They will chew on your clothes, books, wires, and any wooden surfaces, create burrows in your home furniture and car seats, and they will contaminate your stored food with droppings spreading diseases and causing illnesses to your family.
To get rid of these creatures, and create a family-friendly home, use peppermint oil which contains a scent that throws out all rats. All you need is a spray can and the oil. Fill the jar with about a quarter cup of water and around 40 to 50 drops of peppermint essential oil.
Shake for a couple of seconds and locate mice entry points where you’ll then spray the solution. In these entry points, you can also close them up with cotton balls after spraying the cotton balls with essential oil. Places to ensure you spray are:
- Under kitchen sinks
- Uneven garage doors
- Gutters and downspouts
- Chimneys
Peppermint oil is also known to repel beetles, aphids, lice, flies, caterpillars and other common pests. For these, you can apply the oil in corners, edges, or around the areas the pests like to gather.
Hot Sauce
Probably one of the most common house pests is cockroaches. When I see a cockroach, I immediately think of dirt. The best way to attract roaches is to leave dirt lying around the house.
This is why I practice cleaning the kitchen floor and counter immediately after cooking. I also prefer cleaning dishes after eating rather than leaving them in the sink till morning.
Unfortunately, you may be as thorough as possible but still find these little critters running around your house. In this case, I always recommend hot sauce, which is my go-to repellant for Cockroach Control.
In this case, I always recommend hot sauce, which is my go-to repellant for cockroaches.
Take a spray bottle – as usual – and add any spicy sauce available in your kitchen cabinet. Mix it with small amounts of water and spray every opening and wall edge. A great tip to get rid of cockroaches is to sprinkle on their eggs as well.
Cockroaches are known to leave eggs behind when they escape repellants or leave to find food. This is why you may vigorously clean your house and, days later, start seeing tiny roaches running around. Again, notorious hideouts include beneath kitchen sinks, cabinets, and wardrobes.
Since you’re dealing with a spicy condiment, be sure to wear gloves and use protective eyewear. Once done, wash your hands and face with soap to avoid touching your eyes with hot sauce remnants.
Pest Be Gone for Good!
The best solution for pests to be gone is always keeping your house and equipment clean! Thoroughly wash your home from the inside out with soap and warm water, and rinse with plain fresh water.
Remember you can include vinegar in all your cleaning to create a double detergent. Check out our blog posts for more inspirational, educational, and entertainment content.
