Until you have a bug infestation, it’s hard to know just how incredibly invasive those critters can be. You start out seeing one or two and then all of the sudden your home is overrun by insects. It’s gross, and it can make it unpleasant to be in your home. The easiest way to avoid all of this? Prevention. We spoke with Katie Voytasek, the co-owner of LA Best Pest Control about ways to prevent bugs from invading your apartment and natural, DIY solutions you can use if you do spot a few.
Keep Your Apartment Clean
When it comes to preventing pests, the best tip out there is to keep your apartment clean.
The most important area to tackle? The kitchen.
“As pest control experts, what we see with small apartments is that tenants often have difficulty keeping their kitchen area very clean. This is definitely the first step to preventing pests,” says Voytasek.
Her kitchen cleaning tips include:
Never leave dishes over four hours.
Dump standing water.
Wipe counters under the dish rack every day.
Find a way to portion pet food, so it isn’t left sitting out. Pet food can attract roaches.
[tweetthis]Struggling with bugs in your #apartment? Use these prevention tips to keep them away.[/tweetthis]
Voytasek recommends the following natural remedies:
For ants:
Mix sugar and borax (a type of cleaner) with water and even a little peanut butter. It will form a paste. Smear it on cardstock and leave near the ants’ entry points. They will take it bit by bit back to their nests. She says, they should disappear in about two weeks.
According to her, this works much better than cinnamon, vinegar, or black pepper methods.
Mixing Equal sweetener with some fruit juice. This mixture acts as a neurotoxin to ants and will kill them.
Cream of Wheat can be left out near entry points. Ants will eat it and explode as it expands in their stomachs.
For roaches:
Place slices of cucumber inside a clean aluminum can. Leave it by baseboards where roaches congregate. The mixture of the scents will keep roaches at bay.
Mixing sugar with borax and sprinkling along baseboards is also effective at killing roaches.
Bay leaves can work too. Roaches dislike the smell and avoid areas with bay leaves present.
For bedbugs:
She suggests getting the bedroom and other affected areas steam cleaned to naturally eradicate bed bugs.
“Diatomaceous earth (a natural bug killer you can find at most hardware stores) is also very effective at killing bed bugs. This powder is made from fossilized aquatic organisms and dehydrates bugs when consumed. Sprinkle the powder on the affected areas, and it will kill the bugs,” she says.
When to Contact Your Property Manager
Let’s face it: sometimes when pests invade, there’s nothing left to do but contact your property manager and have them call in a pro. You don’t want to wait too long to call if the natural tricks we recommended won’t do the trick. If you hesitate for too long, the insects could cause permanent damage to your apartment.
“When the type of pest could cause structural damage —such as ants, rats, and termites— It is best to call a pro. The DIY methods I shared are some of the most effective we have found, but if the pest problems become worse, definitely call an exterminator. Pro companies can diagnose exactly where the source of the issue is and implement effective methods to keep pests away long term without tenant maintenance,” she says.
After your apartment is a bug resistant,
super clean haven, it will be time to tackle the outside. Learn how to
prevent nature’s most annoying pest, the mosquito, and you will be laughing!
Good luck and may the repellent force be with you!
