Your landscaping and garden are home to more than plants and vegetables. These areas are also a haven for insects, especially cockroaches. There are two critical triggers that bring pests like roaches indoors: seasonal changes and the availability of a food and water source.
Using Combat® Baits and Gels inside your home and around the exterior is a great way to prevent ant and roach infestations. But there’s more you can do, especially on the outside of your home. We’ve identified these five preventative tips you can use as a solid first line defense to help keep outside pests away:
- Seal off possible means of entry: Cockroaches can gain entry into the home via even the smallest openings. Make sure you seal gaps around doors, windows, cracks or holes near ground level on the outside of the house, and where utility lines come into your home.
- Eliminate possible sources of food and water: Cockroaches are scavengers and feed on all types of food. Make sure there are no leaky hoses or pools of standing water around the outside of your home.
- Remove insect havens from outside walls: Roaches and ants breed in piles of brush, leaves, and woodpiles. It’s important that you clear away all possible refuges where insects might take up residence. For instance, keep stacks of firewood well away from the house and dispose of old furniture and debris promptly. Additionally, plants, shrubs and trees should be located at least foot or two away from outside walls.
- Throw out old newspapers and magazines: Newspapers, magazines and books can also be a breeding ground for roaches. They can live off the glues used in book bindings, so inspect any paper products coming into your home, and avoid hoarding these in your garage or near the outside of your house.
- Long-term control of ants and roaches: Strengthen your defense line by keeping Combat® Baits in key areas around the outside of your house. Keep baits near where pipes enter the house, along baseboards in the garage, and near woodpiles, and replace baits every three to four months.
For more information on how Combat® Baits and Gels work and how to prevent ants and roaches from entering your home, view our helpful prevention video, or visit our Prevention Tips page.
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