We all love a long weekend, especially the extra long Easter weekend. It’s a fantastic opportunity to pack up and head out of town for a few days. Being that it’s quite a short break, many families don’t opt for full-time housesitters and leave the house locked up until they return. This can be a recipe for disaster – a pest disaster, that is.
Prevent a pest problem this Easter
Even just a few days of leaving your home unattended can be the perfect opportunity for a number of pests to invade your home, if you don’t prepare. So if you’re planning on going away for the Easter break, make sure you follow the steps below:
1. Ensure all food items are properly stored
This is one of the biggest things you can do to ensure your home stays pest free for when you return. We’re talking more than just rolling up open packets of food and throwing them in the back of the pantry. We’ve mentioned before that all opened pantry items should be kept in airtight containers and it’s never more important than when you’re not at home for a few days to keep an eye on things. The last thing you want to come home to is a colony of ants tracking through your kitchen and weevils in your pantry items.
2. Pack away the pet food
If you’re heading out of town and locking up the house, we recommend you don’t forget to store pet food before you leave.
(Just a quick note; we never recommend that you leave your pets unattended at home for extended periods of time, so it’s best you leave them with family or friends or take them with you).
Just like human food, make sure all pet food is stored in airtight containers. Leaving pet food out can attract ants, cockroaches and a number of other unwanted pests in your home – so make sure all traces of pet food is well contained before heading off.
3. Trim any vegetation away from the house
This might not be as obvious as the first few steps, but having trees or vegetation physically touching your home means ants have a direct path into your home. Keeping your plants well-trimmed, and back from the house, will help prevent pests like ants or termites from taking the express lane straight into your home.
4. Take out the rubbish
Sure this goes without saying, but before heading away for a few days, make sure you empty your bins! Leaving your kitchen bin full of food scraps is a sure-fire way to come home to maggots, cockroaches, rodents and other pests.
5. Do the dishes
Similarly, don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink, or in the dishwasher. Ensure all plates are dried and put away, or if you’re lucky enough to have a dishwasher at home, just set it on cycle before you depart. You might think that your dishwasher is sealed away from pests such as cockroaches, but if you leave food scraps sitting there for days, THEY WILL FIND A WAY!
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As with all pest problems, prevention is always better than treatment. You can reduce the chance of coming home to a pest problem simply by following these steps above before you leave for the Easter break. And if you do happen to be faced with some unwanted house guests, contact David at Progressive Pest Management to fix the problem.