The landscaping around your home provides many benefits; it improves the value of your home by increasing curb appeal, it reduces your energy bill by providing shade and reducing the heat in your home, it improves the air quality in and around your home by cleaning pollutants out of the air, and, if used strategically, it can help to reduce a pest infestation at your home.
It is important to be proactive when thinking about pest control, and that means starting your pest control efforts now and moving forward. You can rid your home of pests once they have settled in, but prevention is the best pest control measure.
Some of the landscaping measures that you can take to reduce the appeal of your home to pests include:
- Pests love weeds. They provide food, water, and shelter for pests in your lawn and around your home. Make sure to pull weeds from your garden and use a natural weed killer in your lawn to keep pests away.
- Pests love long grass. When your grass is allowed to grow long, it provides the shelter and protection that pests love. When you cut your grass short on a regular basis, pests are not attracted to your yard and they will move on to another location.
- Pests love mulch. When you put mulch around your trees, bushes, and garden boxes it’s job is to trap moisture and protect your landscaping from the direct sunlight. But, the mulch also attracts pests because of it’s high moisture content. If you do choose to mulch down, make sure to keep it away from your house.
- Pests love a full gutter. Keep your rain gutters clean and dry. When the leaves and debris in your gutters mix with water, it forms a substance similar to mulch … which will quickly attract pests. Since your rain gutters are attached to your home, this gives pests a direct path into your attic, roof, and house.
Keep your home well-landscaped and beautiful PLUS pest-free this summer by following these tips for pest control with landscaping.