Pest Control is Home Maintenance
Pest prevention is an important part of maintaining your home. And just like changing the oil in your car so you don’t have engine problems or replacing old hoses to your washing machine so you don’t have a water problem, making the effort to exclude pests and eliminate their food sources prevents having big pest problems in the future.
Chances are, you are already doing other preventive maintenance in your home. Many people have security cameras and signage to deter crime and to provide evidence in case of a break-in. We buy and maintain smoke detectors and fire extinguishers so we are prepared for a fire. Pest prevention allows us to stay ahead of pest issues that can cause sanitation issues, are a negative factor in home cleanliness/appearance, and can even cause physical damage to our homes.
It is also important to be proactive with pest control because pests reproduce very quickly. For example, one mouse reproduces an average of 8 times in a year, with an average of 6 new mice each time it reproduces. In turn, these mice are able to reproduce with each other at the age of 3 weeks. You can imagine how mice populations explode very quickly! In fact, we see a lot of home sales that are contingent on pest issues being resolved, especially issues pertaining to rodents. Before a home is sold, it’s common for an inspector to find signs of mice in an attic or basement causing delays and frustrations in the home selling process.
Like other areas of preventive maintenance, it takes ongoing effort to make sure our homes stay in their best condition. Pests are always looking for new ways to get into your home in search of food, moisture, and shelter. Homes often provide more of these survival factors than the pests’ own natural environment does! This means that pests are continually looking for ways to get into your home… through utility lines, chewing into your home, and any unsealed gaps or holes.
Don’t be fooled. A common mistake some homeowners make is to cut back on pest prevention measures when there is no obvious pest activity. But that would be like wondering if you really need to treat your lawn because you don’t see any weeds, when one of the very reasons your grass looks so good and healthy is because of the weed preventer and fertilizer you applied. The same holds true for pest prevention. Not seeing pests doesn’t typically mean that your pest problem is gone, what it actually means is that your pest solution is working. There will always be more pests trying to find a way into your home so pest prevention will always be required in order to keep your home pest-free. Once people stop pest control, the defenses that were built up begin to break down over time, exposing the house to similar pest vulnerabilities as before.
How PTS Can Help
Protective Thermal Solutions offers a pest prevention program for every commercial building, home and every budget. Our professional pest control technicians ensure that your home’s pest-entry points are sealed off and maintain a year-round barrier around your home, so you don’t have to deal with frustrating pests no matter what season it is.