Keeping a Pest Free Crawlspace

The crawlspace underneath your home is the gateway for many pests to welcome themselves into your home. There are air ducts, pipes, wiring, and several other areas in the crawlspace that will allow rodents, and other pests, easy access and mobility. The best way to avoid having to hire a pest control professional to eradicate the pests in your crawlspace is to prevent them from entering into it.

There are several ways to keep your home pest free, but a lot of those ways will take time and be a continuous process. Even though you may treat your home one year for a pest, the very next year, another family of the same pest might move in. Therefore, the treatment may be needed each year to avoid further infestation.

Tips to Prevent Pests from Using Your Crawlspace

Everyone would like to get the extra hand up and prevent having to hire a professional. It may not always be ideal to perform the inspection and prevention methods yourself, especially if your health or body condition does not allow for you to enter a three to four-foot crawlspace. Hiring someone, or recruiting a younger, more able bodied family member may be the ideal choice.

Here are a few tips that you can implement in your crawlspace that will keep the critters and insects out.

Protect from the outside. Concrete can keep many critters from entering your crawlspace through burrowing. Moles, mice, and other pests can easily enter through burrowing without being seen. In order to prevent this, protect the outside of your home by digging a small one to two-foot ditch around the base of your house and fill it with concrete. You can cover the top with a small layer of dirt to prevent the concrete from being seen from above.

Minimize shrubs and brush near the home. Mulch, shrubs, flower beds, and other brush can cause easy access for rodents and other pests to enter your home. Remove this, up to a foot, away from the base of the home. You will also be eliminating the amount of moisture that these items allow to build up in the crawlspace of your home.

Seal it off. Corners, cracks, walls, and other areas that are not properly sealed can be gateways for pests to enter into the crawlspace. By examining the exterior of the home, and inside the base of the home through the crawlspace, you can find these areas of entrance and eliminate them. Foam insulation, caulking, or wood can be great ways to seal off these openings.

Use traps. If you suspect that you may already have pests in your crawlspace traps can be an easy way to find out. You can lay them out near the areas that you believe a pest may be present. Although this also consists of inspecting the traps to remove any pests, it can be the difference between removing the pest or having to fix duct work or other destruction that the pest may cause if not caught.