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Hate Bugs? Here’s Where You Need to Clean

Hate Bugs? Here’s Where You Need to Clean
October 25, 2021

When you live in a building such as a condo, it can be easier to find bugs in your home. This is because they can travel via small nooks and crannies throughout the building. They can quickly take over a unit or an entire building if you don’t take steps to keep them away. You need to act the minute you spot a bug in your home. Here we offer cleaning and general tips that help reduce the risk for a bug infestation.

Cleaning tips to get rid of bugs

Watch for Pests

Your first line of defence is to keep an eye out for signs of pests in your home. This will allow you to head them off before they have time to bring in the whole community. For example, if you spot an ant, don’t be too casual about this. A single ant is a scout for the colony, they are looking for a possible home and you need to make sure they don’t find it too inviting.

At the first sign of any bug, start taking strategic action to avoid an invasion. Speak to your local hardware store to ask for specific items, such as traps and then start looking for areas the bugs can get in including:

  • Windows
  • Vents
  • Pipes
  • Under the bathroom and kitchen sink

Fill gaps with caulking or speak to your building management to find out what can be done to stem the flow of bugs in your unit.

Keep Your Home Clean

Pests are looking for food. Although the idea that bugs like “messes” is a myth, they do like crumbs and other food debris. Your best bet is to make sure your kitchen is spotless. This includes wiping down counters, tables and the stovetop after meal prep and sweeping and disposing of crumbs and dirt on the floor. This makes your home less hospitable so they don’t find anything that will keep them well fed.

Also, avoid eating anywhere other than the dining room or kitchen, as this just leaves more areas you’ll have to clean after you eat. Crumbs on the floor under coffee tables, for example, are harder to spot for you and easy to find for pests. And if, like most people, you hate and fear cockroaches, they do like paper. So avoid hoarding newspapers and magazines as this attracts cockroaches. Combine this with their hatred of light, and a stack of magazines and old newspapers is the ideal spot for them to build a home.

Seal Up Food

Your cupboards are full of packages offering easy snacks for pests. Be sure that you don’t leave any food out and that your cupboards are stocked with sealed containers. Consider putting everything in either Ziploc bags or containers with sealed lids. For example, items like cereal that come in a box can be decanted into a Ziploc and placed back in the box, so it’s harder for pests to get into your food.

You can also have containers labelled for staples like sugar and flour. Just rolling up the bag isn’t enough to keep bugs at bay. So make sure everything is sealed and the bugs will go elsewhere. If you have a pet, don’t leave their food bowls full. Only fill the bowl at mealtimes and empty out anything they don’t eat.

Keep Fruit and Veggies in the Fridge

Although some items like potatoes and tomatoes can sit on the counter, if you are worried about pests, keep them in the fridge. Tomatoes are better when kept out of the fridge, so you can consider buying them the day you need them. Ants and fruit flies are particularly attracted to fruit baskets!

Seal Your Garbage

Make sure all of your garbage bins have good lids to reduce the risk of bugs crawling into them. Pests like fruit flies can make their way into the garbage and also will hang around in your sink drain, hence their nickname ‘drain flies’.

Avoid Leaks and Drips

Bugs get thirsty just like any other living being. So you have to cut off their water supply. They are good at finding water including spots under the sink, as well as your tub and sinks. Check your home for dripping pipes and also wipe away excess moisture from the tub, shower and sinks so there isn’t moisture to attract bugs to your home.

Pay Attention to Spills

It can be easy to drip or spill small amounts of food you don’t really notice. Sugar sprinkles or cream drips when making a cup of coffee, for example, are enough to feed bugs. So pay attention to everything you prepare, even something as harmless as a cup of tea or coffee – and wipe away even tiny drops of milk or sugar grains left behind.

Make Natural Bug Traps

There are a few natural ways to get rid of or discourage bugs from living in your home including:

  • Fruit Fly Traps: Fruit flies are attracted by smell. You can put containers around your kitchen or rooms where you’ve spotted fruit flies with some wine or cider vinegar and cover them with plastic wrap. Then punch holes in the plastic. The bugs will crawl in but won’t be able to get back out.
  • Ants and Vinegar: Ants hate the smell of vinegar, so using vinegar to wipe down your counters, floors and cupboard shelves will keep them at bay.
  • Wipe Away Chemical Trails: Ants leave behind chemical trails to guide them and their army back to the new spot they’ve scouted. However, if you use soapy water in areas you’ve seen them, you remove the chemicals and even might kill some ants in their tracks.
  • Natural Ant Repellants: Vinegar isn’t the only smell ants hate. The smell of the following things you can find in your spice rack also keep them away:
    • Black pepper
    • Cinnamon
    • Mint
    • Red chilli powder
    • Turmeric
  • Cockroach Deadly Cocktail: Cockroaches are attracted to the smell of sugar and cocoa powder. You can create a trap with a mix of these powders in hand with some borax. The only thing is you then have these poisonous things sitting around in your home, not good for kids or pets.

Call in the Big Guns

If you’ve tried everything and the bugs just keep coming, don’t wait too long. The sooner you call in the professionals, the sooner you’ll rid yourself of the pests. If you live in a condo or apartment building let the management know right away.

To keep your condo clean and pest-free, you can also consider hiring home cleaning services. We’ll make sure your counters are wiped, your floors are sparkling, your kitchen is spotless and more. This can help keep those little buggers away.

To learn more about dealing with pests in your home, call Maid4Condos at 647-822-0601 or contact us here.

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