Franklin Resident's Ultimate Guide To Home Pest Prevention  

At All-American Pest Control, our primary goal is to protect the health and property of residents in our Middle Tennessee service area from the harmful impact of insects and wildlife. For this reason, we often share pest prevention strategies in this little blog of ours. Back in February, we posted our Best Prevention Tips for 2019. Now, as we head into fall, which is the time of year when pests try even harder to get into Franklin homes, we thought that it would be a good idea to put out another list of great prevention tips. Then someone had the idea: Why not create the ultimate guide to home pest prevention. Well, we don't know if this will be the ultimate guide or not, but it will get you started toward changing the conditions that promote pest infestations inside and outside of your Franklin home.

Exterior Pest Prevention

• Caulk gaps around the outside of your home. This will help to keep pests out.
• Check the weatherstripping around your exterior doors. If you see gaps, replace the stripping or have the doors adjusted to seal things up. Make sure all your screens are in good working condition. This keeps flying pests out, especially overwintering pests like stink bugs and Asian lady beetles.
• Keep leaves raked up and away from your exterior. Leaves promote moisture and increase populations of moisture pests, among other things.
• Make sure your gutters are free of obstructions. Leaves and other debris can cause rainwater to pool and spillover, which leads to ground saturation near your home and attracts termites, carpenter ants, and other wood-damaging pests.
• Move bird feeders away from your outside walls. The seed that falls to the ground is highly attractive to mice.
• Trim back trees from your roofline. This prevents roof rats, squirrels, and other animals from climbing down onto your roof and accessing your Franklin home.
• Trim bushes in your landscaping to provide better airflow to resist the dampness that can increase pest populations. Trimming bushes also helps to reduce hiding places for wildlife.
• If you have firewood near your home, move it to at least 20 feet away and elevate it. Stacks of wood are a playground for many pests. Spiders establish themselves in wood to feed on those pests and termites feed on the wood itself.
• Remove objects from your yard that don't need to be out there. Some pests will use any object as harborage. They're not picky.
• Keep your lawn mowed and everything trimmed. Dense and wild vegetation promote pest activity and tall grass will invite meadow voles into your yard.
• Make sure exterior trash is in sealed containers. Pests feed on organic material in trash and also lay their eggs in it. Plus, sealing trash keeps the smells from attracting pests onto your property and near your home.
• If you see spider webs, clean them up. This can deter spiders.
  Keep exterior lights off that do not impact security, or consider replacing white bulbs with insect
• resistant yellow bulbs.

Interior Pest Prevention

• Clean spills up quickly to reduce attractants for ants and other pests.
• Vacuum routinely to reduce food sources for pests.
• Consider keeping fruit in the fridge to prevent fruit fly infestations.
• Keep on top of cleaning your cat litter box, it can be a source for fungus fly reproduction.
• Keep pantry food in sealed plastic containers to keep pantry pests from spreading between packages. Also, be sure to inspect packages at the store to make sure there are no tears or holes.
• Keep pet food in plastic containers with a sealed lid and only put pet food down during meal times.
• Remove webs when you see them.

Professional Pest Prevention

Homes that have the best protection from pests are homes with a residential pest control plan. In Franklin, and throughout Middle Tennessee, you can't beat All-For-One Complete Care from All-American Pest Control. All-For-One Complete provides coverage for over 47 common Franklin pests and gives vital protection from mosquitoes, termites and yard pests. If you'd like to learn more, we'd love to tell you about this affordable and effective program. Reach out to our Franklin pest control professionals today.