No one wants to wake up one day and realize their home has been invaded by bugs or critters, but it happens. Keeping pests away from your house requires everyone to practice good habits, including your kids. To help keep your home a pest-free zone, you should teach your kids these things.
Don’t Take Food to the Bedroom
You probably clean your dining area and kitchen a lot more frequently — and thoroughly — than your kids clean their bedrooms. So if you let your kids eat in their bedrooms, there’s a good chance leftover crumbs will build-up, along with random pieces of discarded food and dirty dishes. Before long, you’ll be calling a pest control company, like Moxie Pest Control in Dallas, if that’s where you live, to get rid of mice, ants, or other common pests. Another great resource is pest control Omaha if you’re in that area. But if you limit eating to the rooms or areas in your home specifically designated for eating, and clean these areas frequently, you’re a lot less likely to have a problem.
If you allow your kids to snack in their rooms, set some ground rules for cleanup. Don’t let them throw away food, snack wrappers, or anything else food-related in their rooms. Instead, be sure they take these items to the kitchen trash. Also, make it a rule that they have to remove any dishes from their room when they’re finished eating or, at the very least, on a daily basis.
Take Out the Trash Regularly
Ideally, if you want to keep your home pest-free, you should take your trash out every day. However, if you recycle or don’t have large amounts of waste, you may not fill a trash bag every single day. If this is the case, purchase an indoor trash can with a lid to keep food waste contained until you take it outside. At the very least, you should take the trash out every few days regardless of whether the bag is completely full. If you don’t want to waste trash bags and don’t have a lot of waste, consider buying smaller ones specifically for food waste.
Keep Doors and Window Screens Closed
You have to protect your home from pests year-round, but more so in the warmer months when your kids are more likely to play outside. Make it a point to remind the children to always shut exterior doors behind them and to minimize the number of times they go in and out. Also, be sure your children understand that they have to keep the screens in the windows. If you leave windows without screens open, it’s really easy for bugs to fly into your house.
Clear Out the Clutter
Pests love to hide in cluttered areas because they try to avoid human contact as much as possible. Because of this, it’s important to teach your children to keep things neat and organized as much as possible. While this is especially important in the garage, basement, and attic, it’s also important in other areas of your home, so consider helping your kids organize their things and teaching them how to keep them that way.
Also, as you go through your house, you may want to use a mixture of water and essential oils to help prevent bug infestations. Essential oils can be safely sprayed in your children’s rooms and common areas of your house to deter unwanted pests.
Wipe Down Surfaces Regularly
Wiping down surfaces in your home is an important part of deterring pests. So teach your kids to wipe down the kitchen and bathroom counters before they leave the room. This way they aren’t leaving crumbs or spots of toothpaste behind that could attract insects.
Remember, you can start teaching your children these habits at a young age. As soon as they are old enough, start assigning some of these things to them as part of their regular chores. Also, be sure to explain why you’re doing each task, so they know it’s all part of keeping your home pest-free.
