Pests can be a nightmare for homeowners. They come in all shapes and sizes, not to mention the different types of damage they cause. For one reason or another, pests will start to invade your home.
What you need is a pest-proof plan. You can’t always expect the little critters to show up. But, when they do, you must know what signs to look out for to catch an infestation earlier on. The earlier you handle them, the better.
You need to know these signs if you want to get rid of them before it becomes a bigger problem.
- An Increase in Noise at Night
A sudden increase in noise coming from your home or office at night is one sign that pests may be present inside your walls, making nests out of insulation material and other materials found there. This could include scratching sounds, scurrying noises, gnawing sounds, and, more importantly, the buzzing sound a colony of bees makes when a nest has been disturbed or damaged by people going about their daily lives while unaware they’re being stung.
- Tiny Scurrying Figures
Pests are attracted to food, trash, and other organic materials. This is good news for you. If the pests come in from outside, they will be forced to run through your house before exiting the outdoors again. If you notice them running around, especially near doors or windows that have been left open, this is a sure sign that they have found a way inside.
- Possibly Entryways
If you see pests in your home or office during the daytime, there’s a good chance they are living indoors and not out. What you need to do next is figure out how they got in. To escape from something, you must know where it is and where it came from. You can set up traps to catch pests as they go around to investigate your home and office.
- Insect Droppings
Pests like to eat and drink, and they leave signs of their visits all over the place. Inside your food cupboard, you may find droppings or tiny holes in packaging material such as boxes or plastic bags that contain edibles. When you open a box of cereal, for instance, bugs will have chewed their way through the paper and have left tiny piles of droppings there that resemble sawdust.
To address this problem, check under your sink, compact areas behind heavy appliances, and anywhere that food is stored or prepared for signs of bugs having left their calling card.
- Holes in Wood
Holes in your wall or floorboards can be an indication of a termite infestation. While it may not look like much initially, this may give way to bigger problems. You should call for regular termite inspections for your home or office to ensure termites aren’t destroying your property. Termites will eat through wood and leave a trace, but they’ll also eat through other materials as well. If you see holes in walls covered with wallpaper or plaster, this might be the work of termites.
- Mold
Signs of mold are an indication that there’s moisture around, which insects like to stay away from because it affects them negatively. This is because of the way they breathe, through small holes found all over their body. If these are covered with mold, the pests will die.
If not, this can lead to another infestation because mosquitoes breed in standing water and other types of insects. Mosquitoes are dangerous because they can spread the Zika virus and other diseases, so you need to make sure they don’t breed on your property.
- Unusual activity around the plants
A sign of pest infestation is activity around your plant life. Pests like to eat plants and plant life. They can find a way inside through the roots of a plant growing indoors or a crack in the wall where there’s vegetation near your foundation. Moisture from rain can also be trapped if an eave trough system runs alongside your house and stops at ground level.
What you need to do is keep your home or office clean and free of garbage, dead leaves outside near the foundation of your house, around windows where plants are growing indoors, and anywhere else that might be infested. The more you check for signs of pest infestation, the faster you will stop them from making your home or office their favorite place to live.
Be aware of these signs of pest infestation. Clean up your act and have your property regularly inspected if you want to get rid of them for good.
