But where did the ants come from? More importantly, how can you stop them? When it comes to removing ants from your home, which products work best?

If these questions have been keeping you up at night, you’ve definitely come to the right place.

What Causes Ants in Your House?

Just like any living creature on this planet of ours, ants are looking for food, water, and shelter. Sometimes, when they can’t find those things outside, they’ll go inside your home.

Ants in Your Kitchen

If you don’t want ants in your house, cleaning your kitchen on a regular basis is
key. Since ants are attracted to both food and water, you should never leave your dirty dishes to soak overnight. Also, clean your kitchen counters immediately after preparing food or if you’ve spilled something on them.

Don’t forget to remove crumbs from your cupboards and move or throw away any containers with open food. You’ll also need to take your trash out regularly because that’s the number one spot ants want to visit.

Ants in Your Bathroom

In addition to your kitchen, ants might find your bathroom particularly attractive because of the drains and the moisture. What’s more, they can sometimes be attracted to the smell of chemicals, courtesy of the cleaning products you probably use.

So, after you’ve sanitized your bathroom, make sure to go over everything one more time with a clean, water-soaked cloth. To reduce moisture, always turn your fan on when you’re showering. What’s more, try taking a colder shower to avoid creating a sauna in your bathroom on hot days.

Potted Plants in Your House

Potted plants can be really useful to have around the house because they can clean the air a bit, help reduce stress, and are just beautiful to look at. However, they also might be the reason you have an ant infestation in the first place. After all, ants are attracted to sap-sucking insects that live in plants.

To get rid of the ants, you first need to take care of the insects they’re eating. If you can, pick some of the sap-suckers off by hand and try lightly spraying your plants with a garden hose.

How Ants Get Inside Your Home

Most often, ants will invade your home through some cracks or gaps. What’s more, they can get inside if your doors or windows aren’t properly sealed.

If you find any cracks or gaps, you need to seal them with caulk as soon as possible to stop the ants from coming inside.

Another way they could be getting inside is if you have trees or tall plants really close to your windows and doors. These create the perfect bridge for the ants to cross and get into your home. Therefore, you need to clear the immediate area surrounding your home and get rid of any tall bushes and plants.

Most Common Types of Ants You’ll Find

Pavement Ants

More often than not, pavement ants will appear in the hot months, like June or July, and nest in your walls, insulation, and under floorboards. They feed on pests, honeydew, sweets, and greasy food.

If you suspect that you have pavement ants in your home, try looking for them at night. You can search for their trail close to electrical wires and plumbing pipes.

Odorous House Ants

If you’ve ever stepped on or crushed an ant trail and thought you smelled rotten coconuts — you’ve probably found odorous house ants. These feed on a wide variety of foods, like sweets, fruit juices, meats, and pastries.

Odorous house ants move their nests almost once a month, so finding and destroying them can be pretty tricky if you don’t know where to look. Still, you can usually find them in insulation, walls, and window frames.

Carpenter Ants

Carpenter ants will burrow and tunnel through wood to create their nests. Thus, even though they don’t feed on wood, they can cause significant damage to your furniture or any wooden structures found in your home.

Carpenter ants primarily feed on sweets, juices, insects, and arthropods. However, they can also eat meat, eggs, and any greasy food they find. They’re mostly active before dusk until dawn.

Pharaoh Ants

Pharaoh ants belong to the fire ant family, and they can be pretty dangerous. They’re attracted to moisture and thrive on humidity. What’s more, pharaoh ants love feeding on dead insects, fruit juices, and grease stains.

If they come into contact with your food, it’s key that you throw it away immediately. Pharaoh
ants have been known to spread dysentery and salmonellosis. Most often, you’ll find them living in door and window frames, as well as walls and insulation.

The Dangers of an Ant Infestation

Having an ant infestation in your home isn’t just annoying — it’s downright dangerous. Ants
can cause structural damage to your home and destroy it slowly but surely.

For example, just like termites, carpenter ants can damage the wood structures and furniture found in your home. Even though they don’t feed on the wood, they will dig through it, making tunnels.

However, carpenter ants are pretty good at hiding, and it can be difficult to find their nest. A
surefire sign that you’ve got an infestation is if you see wood shavings close to your furniture. Also, if you hear rustling sounds coming through your walls, doors, or windows — you probably have carpenter ants.

But ants aren’t just a huge threat to your house — they can damage your health as well. For example, pharaoh ants can deliver a strong and painful bite. Even though they aren’t venomous, the bite can be excruciating, and you might require medical attention. What’s more, pharaoh ants can easily contaminate your food and infect sterile equipment.

You should also get rid of ants as soon as possible because they can attract other pests and animals to your home. In fact, almost every carnivorous animal that can fit an ant inside its mouth will eat it. If you don’t take care of the infestation, problems with spiders, snakes, and lizards will follow pretty soon.

How to Get Rid of Ants in Your House for Good

The ants you see lurking around your kitchen or bathroom are just scouts looking for food. Even if you kill them, it won’t make much of a difference because the queen is still alive. In fact, the only way to completely get rid of ants in your home is to destroy the colony.

1. Get to Know the Colony

Before you can successfully get rid of the colony, you first need to study the enemy. The easiest way to determine the types of ants you have is to see what kind of food they
like. To do so, I recommend setting up three different food traps to see which one the ants prefer.

Take three scrap pieces of tracing paper and some peanut butter, jelly, and honey. For the best results, you can put the honey in the microwave to get it to a liquid consistency. Then, put a spoonful of each on the scrap pieces of paper. Leave them close to where you saw the ants.

2. Set the Ant Bait

Setting baits to destroy the colonies is the most effective way of getting rid of the ants. The ant scouts will collect the bait and take it to their nest for the other ants and the queen to feed on. The borax you’ll be using to make your baits will interact with the ants’ digestive system, killing them slowly but surely.

Now, depending on the size of the colony, it might take a few days up to a few weeks to see some results. If the colony is big or has two queens, it may take a bit longer, and you might even have to set new baits. Nevertheless, setting baits is still the most efficient way of getting rid of the ants inside your home.

Making a DIY Ant Bait

As you’ll see, depending on the types of ants, they’ll start gathering around one particular type of food. Once you’ve figured out which one it is, it’s time to make the ant bait.

First, you’ll need to get some borax in either granule or powder form.

Even though borax is a low-toxicity pesticide, you should still be extremely careful when using it. Make sure to follow all of the safety instructions given by the manufacturer. Also, always keep the borax out of reach of pets and children.

Now, if the ants were attracted to the jelly, you’ll need to mix two tablespoons of it with a quarter of a tablespoon of borax. I recommend using mint jelly if you have it, simply because it attracts the most ants.

But, if they were attracted to either honey or peanut butter, you have to use a different mixture. Take two tablespoons of each and mix in half a tablespoon of borax.

If you’ve made the right bait and placed it in a spot where you last saw the ants, they should be swarming around it in just a couple of hours.

Commercial Ant Baits

If you don’t want to use the borax solution, there are a few commercial ant baits you could try. My two favorite products are:

• Terro Liquid Ant Baits and
• Home Plus Ant Killers.

Depending on how many ants there are, you might need to replace these after a month or two. Nevertheless, they work just as well as borax, are safe, and you can even use them outdoors.

No products found.

3. Clean the Trail

Now that the colony is dead, it’s time to get rid of any stragglers that might have survived. To ensure that the ants don’t come back, you have to clean the pheromone trail they’ve left behind.

In a spray bottle, mix equal parts of water and white vinegar or lemon juice. Then, take your bottle and spray the mixture all along the trail the ants have been using to get to the bait. Once you’ve erased the smell, the ants won’t know how to return to the colony, and their numbers will be decimated.

You might also want to read: Everything You Need to Know About Vacuuming Ants

4. Clean Your Home

Now that you are absolutely sure that there aren’t any ants left behind, it’s time to clean your house. You can start by getting rid of any open containers in your kitchen, disinfecting countertops, and cleaning up any crumbs or spills. Then, move on to your bathroom, once again making sure that there is no moisture or water damage.

Once you’ve done that, you should clean your entire home one more time, just to be on the safe side.

5. Prevent Ants From Coming Back

If you want to get ahead of the problem, you need to make your house an ant-proof fortress. Luckily, there are a few items you can use to deter ants from coming inside your home ever again.

My favorite remedy includes half a tablespoon of cinnamon essential oil and a cup of water. You can put the ingredients in a spray bottle and spray the mixture in places where you’ve seen the ants, as well as where you think they might be entering your home. Repeat this once a day until you’re sure you haven’t seen any ants for a week at least.

If you don’t have cinnamon essential oil, you can use white vinegar instead and repeat the same steps. Also, if you love using a diffuser at home, now is the perfect time to put some peppermint oil in. Since peppermint is a natural ant repellent, it’ll keep the ants away.

Bottom Line

Having ants creep around your home is not only annoying but also potentially dangerous. They can contaminate your food, destroy your furniture, and bite you when you’re not looking — so it’s key that you take care of the problem as soon as possible.

The first step to keeping ants at bay is cleaning your kitchen and bathroom on a regular basis. Also, if you notice any water damage, fix the problem right away.

But if they still somehow find their way to your home, start setting bait traps immediately. Once the baits have done their job, you should get rid of the ant trails. Then, all that’s left for you to do is to tidy up your house one more time for good measure.

The post Why Ants Invade Your House and How to Get Rid of Them appeared first on HomelyVille.

Mouse urine stains are yellowish residues that can look either crusty or sticky when dirt and grime get stuck in them over time. They are usually found on walls, corners, and floors in rodent-infested homes or buildings. These urine stains are also accompanied by a pungent ammonia smell.

If you find a yellowish stain on your wall and suspect that it’s a urine stain, you need to make sure whether you’re dealing with a mouse infestation. Mice can quickly take over your home if you don’t act fast.

In the rest of this article, we’re going to talk about mouse stains, signs of a mouse infestation, and how to prevent mice from coming in at all.

Is Mouse Pee Sticky?

Mouse pee can be sticky, especially when left uncleaned for a long time. Dirt, dust, grime, and oil from mice hairs can get stuck in the urine and make it sticky. This stickiness is the reason why mouse urine can stay on the walls.

Like dogs, mice can smell their urine and tend to urinate in the same places. However, rodents are known to have weak bladders, which means that they pee quite a lot and go wherever they need to.

Mice can also pee about 1ml of urine a day. And if you have an infestation going on, you’ll know right away, because that musky mouse urine smell will make itself known–especially when you have lots of mice peeing and pooping all over the place.

Is Mouse Pee Dangerous?

One of the things that makes a rodent infestation such a big nuisance is the fact that these pests carry diseases. Isn’t it enough that they chew on our food and ruin our furniture? Well, not for these creatures.

Mouse pee is dangerous and should not be cleaned using bare hands. Viruses and diseases can be transferred from touching mouse urine, droppings, and even nests. Viruses can also be contracted from breathing in air contaminated with mice waste, such as when you vacuum an area with droppings or urine.

When you clean mouse urine or droppings, always wear gloves and DO NOT vacuum or sweep the area with mice waste. Use bleach or a disinfectant solution to thoroughly clean the area thoroughly.

How Does Mouse Pee Smell?

Mouse pee has a very pungent ammonia smell when new. Over time, mouse urine gives off a musty, stale smell similar to the smell of wet wood. During the early stages of an infestation or when you have only one or two mice, you may not detect this smell right away.

One of the signs that you have a large infestation going on is when you start detecting this stench, since having one mouse peeing around the house may not give off that strong odor as much as when a group of them do.

Other Signs of a Mouse Infestation at Home

If you have found a mouse urine stain but are yet unconvinced that you have a mouse infestation, here are other signs that will tell you for sure that you have a group of them growing under your roof. As soon as you detect any of these signs, call for pest control right away, as rodents carry diseases.

Chew Marks

If you don’t sniff around or look under your furniture, you may not be able to see the urine stains. But the chew marks are quite easy to find. They are commonly found on food packaging, kitchen furniture, and old, untouched stuff.

Mice chew to look for food, which is why you will see these marks on your food containers. But they also chew on stuff that you don’t usually move around to build nests. And when that happens, you’re in trouble. Because it means they are breeding!

Mouse Droppings

Rodents pee and poop everywhere. But they will usually leave these wastes in areas they frequent or en route to their hiding places. Mouse droppings look like black, crusty grains of rice. If you do find mouse droppings, you will also likely find urine stains nearby.

Take note, too, that mouse droppings are clues to where they frequent. So if you’re planning to set up traps, do so in spots where you find urine stains and droppings.

Scratching Noises

If you hear weird, scratching noises at night, don’t be scared. It could be just pesky rats chewing on something. Mice are nocturnal creatures, which means they are most active at night. So it’s at bedtime when you are most likely to hear these scratching noises.

When you do hear these sounds, try to determine where the sounds are coming from. If you have a room, such as an attic, that nobody usually goes to or that has lots of old, unmoved stuff lying around, you might want to check those.

Mice Nests

Mice build nests for breeding and to protect their babies. These nests are made of bits and pieces of materials that can be found in your home–clothes, furniture, paper, and others. Nests are typically hidden under large furniture or unfrequented corners of the home.

Beware, though, that when you have mice that are building nests, that only means that there are more of them now in your home. And unless you do something about it, they will continue to multiply. Yikes!

Mice Tracks

The last sign that indicates your house is infested with mice is that there are greasy, dirty mice tracks all over it. Often, these tracks can often be found where they leave droppings or urinate. It’s important to entail the help of a professional as soon as you notice these signs.

Final Words

Mouse stains are not only disgusting, but they’re also extremely dangerous. Even a whiff of air contaminated with mouse urine can expose you to a possible health issue. So, as soon as you notice signs of mouse pee, clean it thoroughly and call for pest control services to get rid of the infestation right away.

See also: How Do Mice Get in Upstairs Apartments?

The post What Do Mouse Urine Stains Look Like? appeared first on HomelyVille.

You can squish a bedbug if it fed not long ago because its body will be relatively soft, much like a cooked pea. Bed bugs have rather stiff exoskeletons that provide their bodies with a rigid structure. However, when fed, their shells soften and become easy to squish.

I will discuss more on what happens when you squish a bed bug in the next segment of this article. I’ll also give you tips on how to prevent or control bedbugs.

Why It’s Difficult to Squish a Bed Bug

Bed bugs, like most insects, have an exoskeleton that functions as the human skeleton. This hard shell gives their bodies structure, and it’s tough enough to keep them in form even under pressure. You’ve probably experienced this if you’ve tried to squish a bed bug before.

The inflexible nature of an exoskeleton is what makes insects with exoskeletons shed their hard shells as they grow. However, the rear section of bed bug bodies isn’t as tough as the front. Instead, it’s more flexible.

When bed bugs feed, the back of their bodies expands to allow for more “food” storage.” It’s as if your belly can expand to 3 times its original size to let you eat more. Therefore, the rear of the insect’s body is flexible and soft to accommodate more food, making it easy to squish when full.

What Does It Look Like When You Squish a Bed Bug?

It goes without saying that controlling bed bugs can be annoying, and you can resort to unconventional ways if the conventional methods fail. One of these unconventional techniques involves squishing them. Seeing a bedbug lingering on your sheets might scare you, and you might think of squishing it immediately. So, what does squishing a bed bug look like?

Squishing a bedbug will burst its full belly, and its contents (the blood it has been feeding on) will stain your mattress or sheets. The blood spatter could also cause your skin to itch or feel irritated. A pungent smell also follows the burst. So, think twice before squishing a bed bug.

Squishing Bed Bugs Results in Blood Stains

Squishing bed bugs will burst open their bellies, spilling their content and stain the surface you squish them on. Bed bugs feed on blood, so you’re likely to stain your duvets, sheets, or mattress if you squish bed bugs on them.

If you have white sheets, these stains can pose an even bigger problem. Remember, the blood from a bed bug’s belly is still fresh, making it more likely to stain. You know how difficult it is to remove blood stains. So, you better think it through before squishing a bed bug.

If you have to squish a bed bug, ensure it’s not on your bed or on a surface that’s likely to stain. Still, why squish it while there are more effective ways to remove bed bugs from your home?

Squishing a Bed Bug Releases a Pungent Smell

If you’ve squished a bed bug before, you know what I’m talking about. It’s too gross. Ordinarily, bed bugs have a foul smell even when their bellies are intact — it’s just not very strong. It’s the same smell you experience when you flip an infested bed.

When you squish bed bugs, the smell is more potent. Surprisingly, the unpleasant odor is actually a way for the insect to communicate with the rest of the gang that something wrong has happened. Therefore, the remaining bugs also produce the pungent smell to pass on the “message.”

Just like you’d communicate with your neighbors in an emergency by blowing a whistle, bed bugs communicate through the pungent smell. So, squishing one might trigger the rest. Imagine how many insects there could be, then try to picture all of them releasing the signal. It won’t be delightful, so you’ll probably want to avoid it.

Itchy Skin

The bedbug’s body structure gives you shivers and itchy senses.

Bed bugs excrete small anesthetic amounts on your skin, so you won’t feel their bite. About half of bed bug bite victims develop noticeable reactions.

Symptoms of bed bug bites include the following:

• Itchy skin
• Fluid-filled blisters
• Red swollen spots on the skin
• Blood stains on bed sheets due to scratching your skin

The symptoms worsen when the blood from a squished bed bug touches your skin. The blood on your sheets and duvets might touch the rest of your body, increasing the unpleasant sensations that come with bed bug infestations.

How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs

The first thing to do when you have unwelcome tiny guests in your home is to know why your home is infected in the first place. You might be fighting a losing battle.

Getting rid of bed bugs requires some serious diligence. You must stick to a removal plan until the last one is gone. Otherwise, a resurgence is possible.

Bed bugs are notorious for hitching rides on luggage. Sometimes you bring them into your house unintentionally through second-hand clothing and furniture.

Although there are claims of bed bug infestation in retail malls and movie theaters, you or someone else will rarely bring them into your house.

Therefore, bed bugs come from houses or places they have already infested. Be wary of them when buying second-hand household items and when you return from a holiday. They might be in your luggage.

Here’s how you get rid of bedbugs:

• Declutter your house. Bed bugs love to hide in cluttered places and crevices where it’s hard to locate. Use unique bed bug covers on infested mattresses to make it harder for them to reach you while you sleep.
• Regularly wash your sheets, bedspread, and anything that touches the floor. Cleaning your household items often will reduce the bed bug population. Also, remember to clean your laundry containers because they love hiding there.
• Try a heat treatment. Raising your thermostat’s target temperature won’t do the trick. There is special heat treatment equipment designed to get rid of bed bugs. This equipment operates at temperatures high enough to kill bed bugs. Usually, bed bugs die when their body temperature exceeds 45°C (113°F).
• Don’t always go for sprays. Getting rid of bed bugs from your house is a comprehensive approach. Integrated pest management methods might help reduce their population and limit the use of pesticides. Seek the advice of a professional if you need to use pesticides.
• Inspect second-hand or borrowed furniture units before bringing them into your house. Pack suspected items in a bag and freeze them for about a week.
• Install bed bug pitfall traps or receptors around your bed. This will prevent them from crawling from other places to your bed.

You can buy this ClimbUp Insect Receptor (Amazon) to monitor and trap bugs trying to climb up your bed. It has a dual-well design that helps you determine which direction the bugs are crawling from.

Final Thoughts

Sleeping on a bug-infested bed is one of the worst experiences you could imagine. The experience is made even worse by removal efforts that never seem to work. If you’re thinking of resorting to physical squishing, think again.

There are more effective ways of getting rid of bedbugs than squishing. The blood from squishing bed bugs stains your sheets and may cause you to have a skin reaction.

The post Can You Squish a Bed Bug? Let’s See What Happens appeared first on HomelyVille.

If one room has bed bugs, all rooms in your home may have bed bugs. A bed bug infestation will generally start in a single room and is contained for a few weeks. Then, as the bed bugs start to reproduce and grow in number, they’ll eventually spread all over the house.

In this article, I’ll take you through a detailed overview of how bed bugs spread from room to room and how to tell if the infestation is growing. Below, I’ve also shared dedicated sections with guides on stopping bed bugs from spreading, ways to rid bed bugs from your home, and steps you can take to prevent an infestation from happening.

Will Bed Bugs Spread to Other Rooms?

Bed bugs will spread to other rooms with time, especially if you don’t bother taking quick action as soon as you find them in one of your rooms. If you take a lenient approach thinking only a few bed bugs will do no harm, they’ll quickly multiply and infest the whole house in a matter of weeks.

At first, bed bugs will only inhabit one of the rooms in your home, typically the bedroom. They’ll hide inside your bed mattress and come out at night to feed on your blood.

Now, if you’re extremely lucky and don’t have any female bed bugs in your home, the few male ones in your mattress will feast on your blood for a few months and then die.

That said, if you have even one female bed bug, it can lay 1-7 eggs daily, averaging around 200-250 in her lifetime. Each egg takes roughly a week to hatch, and the hatchlings will start to lay eggs within a week or two.

As you can imagine, if left unchecked, a single bed bug can grow into a colony of thousands within a couple of months. Moreover, every single one of them will need to feed on the blood of humans or other mammals to survive.

This hunger, and the bed bugs’ amazing ability to find warm-blooded hosts, will lead them to other rooms where your family members or pets sleep, thereby spreading the infestation throughout your home.

How Do Bed Bugs Spread Between Rooms?

Bed bugs can’t fly or jump, and we rarely see them walking across the floor. So, how do they spread from one room to another?

Bed bugs spread between rooms by latching onto your clothes or pet’s fur. They can also directly move from one room to another if they sense a food source.

Typically, bed bugs will hide inside your clothes, bedsheet, and other types of soft fabric. They can also inhabit old furniture, soft toys, and used books.

Now, when you unknowingly move one of these objects with bed bugs from one room to another, the critters also get free transport to a different part of your house.

For instance, bed bugs can get carried from your bedroom to the laundry room by latching onto your bedsheets and pillowcases. From there, they can again latch onto other clothes. And as you take your clothes to different areas of your home, the bed bugs get transported as well.

Now, while hitchhiking is the bed bugs’ preferred way of transport, they can also move between rooms very quickly, especially if they sense a food source. Typically, a bed bug can cover 100 ft in an hour, whereas they can reach top speeds up to 240ft/hour.

However, if bed bugs move from one room to another, won’t we be able to see them?

Well, yes, but not always.

It’s important to keep in mind that bed bugs are as small as an apple seed and as flat as a credit card. As a result, they can easily squeeze into cracks in the walls, doors, electrical sockets, or piping and then travel between rooms.

How to Know if Bed Bugs Have Spread to Other Rooms

You just noticed one or two bed bugs in one of your rooms.

How can you tell if these are the only bed bugs in your home? And more importantly, in case there are more, are they confined to that room alone, or have they already spread to other corners of your house?

The first thing you should do if you think you found bed bugs in one of your rooms is to ensure that they are indeed bed bugs and not some other type of insect.

If they are bed bugs, you need to act quickly.

Search every place around your home where bed bugs commonly hide out and look for signs of a bed bug infestation. If you notice bed bugs or signs of their presence in several rooms, it means they have spread throughout your home.

To help you out, I’ve prepared a guide on how to tell bed bugs from other critters, shared some of the most common places to search for them, and listed a few signs you should look out for.

Identifying Bed Bugs

There’s a wide variety of insects on the planet, and it’s easy to confuse them with each other. For instance, many people mistake fleas, carpet beetles, and cockroach nymphs for bed bugs.

Therefore, it’s important to ensure that you indeed have bed bugs in your home before you start worrying about whether they’ve spread and how to get rid of them.

A bed bug has an oval shape and is as flat as a credit card. In terms of color, they can have a reddish or brownish appearance, sometimes with black stripes.

If it’s fully grown, a bed bug is usually the size of an apple seed – around 0.3 inches in length, while hatchlings are much smaller. Anatomy-wise, bed bugs have 6 legs and short antennae that are segmented.

Fun fact: Dead bed bugs release a special odor that acts as a warning to other bed bugs about potential danger.

Places Where Bed Bugs Hide

Unlike most insects that build nests, bed bugs just crawl into places and live in groups. Their small flat body gives them a great advantage in finding residence inside small cracks and crevices around your home.

Initially, bed bugs will hide inside your mattress by burrowing a hole into the soft fabric. There they’ll stay hidden throughout the day and come out at night when you’re sleeping to feed on your blood.

Slowly, as the colony starts to grow, they’ll move on from the mattress and start taking refuge in your bedding. This can be inside your pillows, the pillowcase, bed covers, bed sheets, duvet, and so on.

As time goes by, they’ll travel beyond the bed and explore different nearby hiding spots. They especially love to hang around near old furniture, couches and sofa sets, carpets & rugs, cracks in the walls & floorboard, etc.

Overall, if something is soft enough to burrow into, or if it has cracks or ridges, a bed bug can hide or live inside it.

With this in mind, you want to thoroughly scan all the furniture around your home that’s soft like your mattress or has small cracks or indents.

Signs of a Bed Bug Infestation

Now that you know where to look for bed bugs, let’s talk about what to look for – the signs of a bed bug infestation.

That said, the most obvious sign you have bed bugs is if you see one on your bed or bedding or roaming around near a furniture or wall crack.

Besides this, you must also keep an eye out for potential clues bed bugs generally leave behind, signaling their presence. This includes the following:

• You have blood stains on your bed sheet or mattress. This generally happens if you squash a feeding bed bug during your sleep.
• You notice dark black spots on your bed sheet or mattress. These are bed bug fecal matter that they leave behind while feasting on your blood.
• There are small flaky insect exoskeletons in the size and shape of bed bugs. As a bed bug matures to adulthood, they’ll shed their exoskeletons about five times.
• There are eggs and egg casings near the places where bed bugs like to hide. It’s hard to tell whether the eggs are that of a bed bug or some other insect. That said, finding small pinpoint-sized eggs around your home is never a good sign.

If you notice these signs in different rooms, your home is infested with bed bugs.

How to Stop Bed Bugs From Spreading

As discussed, noticing bed bugs in one room doesn’t automatically mean that the insects have spread throughout the whole house. You might still have time to stop the spread and contain the bed bug infestation to just that room.

But how to do so?

Here are a few ways to stop bed bugs from spreading:

• Don’t move anything out of the room. Since the main way bed bugs travel from one place to another is by latching onto things, restricting movement can help slow down the spread.
• Wash the clothes and bedding that’s in that room separately. This will prevent the bed bugs from latching onto other items of clothing.
• Wash your clothes in hot water and then dry them at the highest setting. Bed bugs will die within 20 mins if you expose them to 118°F. In case a particular fabric can’t be washed with hot water, see if you can dry them at a temperature higher than 118°F.
• Wrap the mattress with an encasement. Covering the mattress with a bed bug-proof encasement like the Degrees of Comfort Mattress Encasement (available on Amazon) will lock the bed bugs inside, cutting them out of a food source and eventually starving them to death.
• Use a steam cleaner to clean the floors of the infested room. A steam cleaner consistently releases hot steam and eradicates any bed bugs hiding inside the floorboard.
• Use a vacuum cleaner to suck out the bed bugs in the mattress, headboard, or other furniture. Make sure to use a standard electric-powered vacuum cleaner because they have a stronger pull. Additionally, use one with a plastic hose since bed bugs can latch onto the ones that have brushes or bristles.
• Cover up any cracks, dents, or seams you have on the walls. Bed bugs might be using these small spaces to hide or travel through your house. Covering them can limit their movement, reduce hide-out spots, and kill the ones already hiding in them.
• Sleep inside the infested room. This might seem counterintuitive, but bed bugs need to feed on blood to survive. If you move to another room, they’ll leave the original room and spread across your home in search of a food source.

As you can see, containing a bed bug infestation in one room is no easy task. Not only do you have to go through this long list of preventive steps, but you also need to do many of these regularly.

It’s also important to take these preventive measures early while the bed bug population is still low.

However, if you tried following these steps to the best of your abilities but still found signs of bed bugs dwelling in other rooms in your household, you have a serious bed bug infestation in your home.

At this point, I’d refrain from trying any new DIY fixes as it’s extremely difficult to get rid of bed bugs by yourself. Instead, I’d recommend calling in a professional to help you out.

Conclusion

If one room has bed bugs, the critters have likely spread to other rooms as well.

Bed bugs will typically spread by latching onto your clothes, laundry, or pets and getting carried across your home.

They can also move quickly and will crawl through the narrow seams and cracks in the walls, electrical sockets, and piping to travel between rooms.

The post If One Room Has Bed Bugs, Do They All? (Bed Bug Infestation) appeared first on HomelyVille.

Mice get into upstairs apartments in numerous ways, including the AC/heating unit, plumbing, poorly sealed doors, windows, and siding gaps. They can squeeze and gain entry into your home through spaces only a quarter-inch wide. If their head can fit, they’ll get in easily.

Nobody wants to have mice in their home, but if you find one in your house, you have to get rid of it and keep others from coming in. Take a look at how mice access apartments on upper floors and how to keep them out of your upstairs home.

Different Ways Mice Get in Upstairs Apartments

Mice can get into upper floors of buildings or homes through multiple places. These include the following:

Mice Can Get In Through Open Windows

Mice are remarkable climbers and will slip into your apartment through an open window. They can use tree limbs touching your house as a ladder and then jump in through the window or gaps around the window.

Close and lock your windows to prevent mice from getting in if you don’t have screens. If the screens are in place, check for holes. Also, seal any gaps with hardware cloth or steel wool if your window doesn’t shut completely.

Mice Can Get Up the Stairs

Mice might not use the conventional route up the stairs like humans, but they can go upstairs if they choose. They usually have no problem climbing up steps unless the surface is slippery, such as stainless steel or slick plastic.

So long as there’s a grip, mice can climb any stairs, such as linoleum, carpet, tiles, and wood. Residential buildings are unlikely to have slippery stairs, making them easy for mice to climb.

Most mice species can also quickly jump a foot high, and they often do it without any trouble. Therefore, mice can jump up the staircase and sneak into upstairs apartments through the tiny space between the door and the floor. They can not only jump, but they also use the railing or handrail to make the climb manageable and faster.

Mice Can Get Inside Through the AC System

Mice can enter through small gaps and spaces around cables and pipes that connect the AC system to the interior of your home. As prevention, check for holes in the sealant around walls and doors. You can also put stainless steel pads around the pipes and cables because mice can’t chew through them, then seal the holes with caulk.

Air ducts also provide perfect hiding spots for mice. The rodents use them to move up and down different floors in a building, nest, and sleep between meals. Additionally, the insulation in the walls provides an excellent medium for mice to go around freely.

Mice Can Enter Through Holes in the Roof and the Foundation

Holes and cracks in the foundation provide an easy entry for mice into apartment blocks.

You can use sturdy materials like sheet metal, concrete mortar, and hardware cloth to seal holes. More importantly, avoid using less durable materials like plastics and rubber because mice can chew them.

Check vent flashings and roofing to ensure they’re adequately sealed. I recommend that you inspect the seals at least once every year.

Mice Can Climb Up Walls

Mice can easily climb up to 13 inches on a vertical and smooth wall. If the wall material offers a lot of grips, such as bricks, they can go further up. They can scale the exterior wall of your apartment building, and as mentioned, they can enter through a window, gap, or hole.

Not only can mice go up walls, but they can also travel inside a wall. Cavity walls with a rough surface or wood make it easy for the rodents to climb because they can dig in their claws. They use the internal structure to move from lower floors into the upper floors of multi-story buildings.

Mice Can Enter Through Plumbing Lines

Plumbing lines in apartment buildings allow mice to move to upper floors. These rodents are known to find their way through holes around oven gas and plumbing lines.

Mice can also enter through gaps around pipes under the bathtub, sinks, and washing machines. They can even enter via drainage pipes with poor or no sealing.

Getting Rid of Mice in Upstairs Apartments

When mice get into your upstairs apartment, it could indicate an infestation on the lower floors. Once you identify how the rodents got in, you can put measures to keep your home mouse-free.

Here are a few things that you can do.

Keep Your Apartment Clean

When your apartment isn’t clean, it provides numerous hiding spots for mice where they can feel safe and comfortable. Cleaning your home reduces hiding spots and drives mice away.

• Use bleach as it’s a great cleaning agent and an excellent mouse repellant.
• Vacuum regularly.
• Pick up and put away shoes, clothes, baskets, boxes, and bags.
• Sweep and vacuum or mop to keep random small items and crumbs off the floor.
• Move furniture from the wall to keep mice from hiding behind it.

Eliminate Access to Food

An effective way to get rid of mice is to remove what they love most. Mice thrive in places with plenty of food and always find their way into food cabinets.

So, make sure to store all your non-refrigerated food items such as coffee grounds, crackers, rice, and flour in air-tight, mouse-proof containers such as glass jars.

Take the trash out regularly and keep the lid on garbage closed to keep the rodents away. Taking out the garbage frequently prevents it from overflowing and attracting mice. Also, rinse off dishes immediately after use and place them inside the dishwasher.

Unfortunately, the mice might easily access food in another apartment in the same block. A constant food supply will keep them within the building and cause an uptick in the mouse population. Try to reach out and speak with other residents to remove the rodents’ easy access to food.

Block Entry Points

Having mice in your home indicates that your apartment has one or more entry points. Find the entry point and fix the problem to make sure mice don’t keep getting in the same way.

• Patch up holes.
• Repair loose or broken pipes and drains.
• Fill in cracks in walls.
• Install screens on windows and doors.
• Prune any tree limbs that mice might use as a platform to jump into your home.
• Seal gaps with caulk or steel wool. Although steel wool isn’t permanent, it keeps mice away from your space because they can’t chew it.

Set Traps or Bait

Load traps with tasty bait and set them to catch any mice in your house. Put the trap or bait wherever you find mouse droppings or in high activity areas, such as behind or under furniture and in dark corners.

The ideal places to set your traps include:

• Kitchen. Mice always look for food in the kitchen.
• Storage areas. Mice usually chew through different items to create a nest, and the storage area is full of items that can provide the perfect nesting spot.
• Bedroom. Mice like comfort and your bed and bedding provide just the kind of comfort they like.

Dispose of Trapped Mice

How you dispose of the mice depends on whether your trap kills or just contains the mice. Consider your health and wellbeing and the local laws when disposing of dead mice. For live mice, dispose of them in an appropriate place such as a wooded area, preferably at night.

Mice are nocturnal, and their chances of survival increase if you release them into the open at night. Also, wooded areas provide the necessary cover for the rodents to escape from predators.

Repel Mice

After sealing all entry points, clean your house regularly with bleach. As mentioned earlier, bleach is an excellent mouse repellant and a great cleaning agent.

Additionally, you can use natural mouse repellants to keep mice away, including the following:

• Cayenne or black pepper. Sprinkle generous amounts of cayenne or black pepper in places where you find mice. You can wrap the pepper in pieces of cloth if you have babies or pets.
• Peppermint oil. Soak some cotton balls in peppermint oil and distribute them strategically around the house. Change the cotton balls regularly when the smell starts fading away.
• Baking soda. Sprinkle baking soda in areas where mice frequent most and leave it overnight. Clean up the powder in the morning and repeat the process for several days.

Consider Keeping a Cat

Even after you’re certain your apartment is mouse-free, you must remain vigilant to ensure no other mice get into your house.

Consider getting yourself a cat. While it shouldn’t be the primary reason for keeping one, having a cat is an effective way of keeping mice at bay.

Conclusion

Mice can enter your house through tiny openings, and living on an upper floor doesn’t make you immune from these rodents. And while finding a mouse inside your apartment is anything but pleasant, fortunately, it’s possible to get rid of it fast and successfully.

Once you identify entry points, it’s critical to take the necessary steps to keep your home free of mice. Call the building’s maintenance team to make the necessary repairs. Additionally, if you have a mice problem, ask your landlord or property manager to hire professional pest control services before the problem escalates.

The post How Do Mice Get in Upstairs Apartments? appeared first on HomelyVille.

LED lights don’t necessarily attract spiders, but they attract bugs that are food for spiders. So if you have LED lights in your home and notice more spiders, it may not be the lights drawing them but rather the increased availability of food.

This article will explain a few things surrounding the relationship between LED lights and spiders, including why LED lights may attract spiders and what you can do to deter them. Keep reading.

Spiders Hang Out Near LEDs Because Bugs Like the Lights

It’s in the nature of most light-emitting devices to attract all manner of critters, including insects and arachnids. LEDs emit some blue light waves native to the spectrum that bugs can see. And that makes them more capable of attracting insects than other forms of artificial lighting, such as a standard incandescent bulb or a low voltage halogen.

So, the hungry spiders wander nearer to the LED, looking for an easy meal, and you end up with a spider problem on your hands. That’s especially true if you let them multiply, as one spider can lay up to 3,000 eggs in its lifetime! While not all spiderlings will reach adulthood, you’ll still end up with an infestation after a short while.

The key question is, how much activity will happen close to your particular LED light setup? If you’re using an outdoor installation where people might rest on benches under the fixtures or children might play nearby, spiders could become a substantial problem over time.

Are Spiders Smart Enough to Spin Their Webs Next to LEDs?

There’s no evidence that spiders are smart enough to spin their webs next to LEDs. They don’t necessarily know how to recognize the difference between an LED light and any other type of light. They likely know that the webs they build where bugs hang out can effectively help them catch prey.

That said, it’s no surprise if you find spiders spinning their webs near your LED lights.

Still, it’s worth noting that spiders don’t have only one web-building strategy. Some of them build their webs close to the ground, where they can easily ambush prey. Others make their webs in high places, which are less likely to be disturbed. So, even if your LED light attracts spiders, it’s not guaranteed that they’ll build their webs nearby.

Others will have multiple webs in different parts of the house, and the spiders usually only occupy one at a time. So, if you see many webs in your home, it’s likely that a cluster of spiders has moved in because food is abundant nearby.

Do Different LED Colors Attract Different Spiders?

Different LED colors may attract different spiders. For example, blue LEDs may be more likely to attract orb weavers, while white or yellow LEDs are more likely to attract jumping spiders.

However, this isn’t a surefire way to prevent spider infestations, as some spiders aren’t particularly picky about the color of light they hunt under.

Some people recommend changing the color of your LED lights to discourage spiders, but there’s no scientific evidence that this works. It’s more likely that any change in a light color will only confuse the spiders and make them even more challenging to find.

How to Prevent LED-Spider Interaction

Below are tips for preventing spiders from getting close to your LEDs:

• Install LED lighting fixtures away from where people will sit or play. This is the best way to prevent spider incidents from happening in your home or business. You also want to mount the LEDs high enough so that spiders don’t dangle near people’s heads.
• Spray pesticides or bug repellants in the areas around the LEDs. Doing so will help keep the spiders away from your lights and, hopefully, deter them from building webs. See also: Does Raid Kill Spiders?
• Use spider traps to catch the spiders before they have a chance to build a web. You can place the traps near LED lights or in other areas where you see a lot of spider activity. And you have to empty them after every few days, which is additional work for you. Another thing to consider is that they might not blend well with your decor.

Are There Natural Ways to Get Rid of Spiders?

There are a few natural ways to get rid of spiders. One way is to make your home less appealing to them. You can do this by reducing the air moisture, keeping your room clean, and using natural bug repellents like peppermint oil.

Spiders don’t like the strong scent of peppermint oil, so you can use it to deter them from building webs in your home or business. You can buy this oil at most stores, or you can make your own by mixing water and peppermint leaves. Another option is to place a few drops of peppermint oil on a cotton ball and place it in the areas where you see the most spider activity.

You can also use lavender oil to repel spiders. It has a sweet, floral scent that spiders don’t like. Like peppermint oil, you can buy lavender oil at most stores or make your own by mixing lavender flowers with water.

Diatomaceous earth is another option. It’s a natural substance made of fossilized diatoms, a type of algae. And it works by dehydrating the spiders when they come in contact with it. You can get it at most stores or online.

You might also want to read: How to Keep Spiders Away From Bed While Sleeping

Final Thoughts

The issue of whether LED lights attract spiders is up for debate. But there are many things you can do to prevent LED-spider interaction from happening in the first place.

It starts with installing lighting fixtures away from where people will sit or play. You can also spray your LEDs with bug repellants; that way, it’ll be hard for spiders to build their webs near the lights.

Traps are also a great way to kill spiders without spraying chemicals in your home. However, these traps might not blend well with your decor, so that’s one thing to consider.

Related: Are Mosquitos Attracted to LED Lights?

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Mosquitoes aren’t strongly attracted to LED lights or any light at all. They’re attracted to the carbon dioxide you breathe out. When mosquitoes sense carbon dioxide, they know there’s a potential prey around, hence why they come closer to the light sources because you’re there.

The rest of this article explains why mosquitoes always come around light though they aren’t attracted to the light itself, what makes LED light different from regular light to mosquitoes, and how light can affect how many come around. Keep reading.

Why Do Mosquitoes Come Around Light?

Mosquitoes, like other insects, fly around in search of food or prey for blood meals.

Female mosquitoes need blood meals from human beings to produce eggs, so they’re attracted to the warmth of our bodies and the carbon dioxide we breathe out — male mosquitoes are also attracted to these. But male mosquitoes don’t need blood meals; therefore, they’re not looking to bite. They usually need food and warmth only.

Mosquitoes come around light because that is where people are. In other words, mosquitoes are attracted to people — or more specifically, their bodies and breath — not to the light around them.

Do you know that the light around us confuses their sense of direction and interrupts their navigation as they try to find us?

Mosquitoes navigate using natural light, and because they’re nocturnal animals (active at night), their light sources are usually the moon and stars. They don’t see as we do, so their eyes are set at specific angles to help them navigate effectively with only the moon and starlight as they try to find food and prey. So, you see, they don’t need your bulbs.

When mosquitoes come across these bright light sources, they interfere with their regular natural-light navigation, and the mosquitoes get confused trying to find you. Many light bulbs emit some amount of UV light that’s somewhat similar to sunlight, and according to a study from Harvard University, mosquitoes can use UV rays to navigate.

That’s why mosquitoes are found around bulbs and light sources, even though they aren’t directly attracted to them.

LED Lights Can Reduce the Numbers of Mosquitoes

An LED bulb produces light through a light-emitting diode. It essentially means that LED bulbs use a different, more efficient mechanism from normal light. LED bulbs last longer and are more flexible and energy-efficient, physically smaller, and safer. These bulbs can produce white or colored light with low UV rays, and they’re free of the harsher chemicals in regular bulbs.

LED lights significantly reduce the number of mosquitoes attracted by external lighting. The most important reason for this is that the UV content from LED light is low.

Research from the Smithsonian Tropical Institute also suggests that lighting with fewer UV components can reduce attractiveness to insects like mosquitoes. That means though light doesn’t attract mosquitoes, LED lights help reduce the population of mosquitoes compared to regular light because they don’t give UV rays to aid their navigation.

LED lights also emit less heat than other types of light. The heat from lighting doesn’t contribute much to the attraction of mosquitoes to light; it’s just that the LED sources make that little contribution even less.

Certain Colors of LEDs Can Attract More Mosquitoes

LED lights come in different brands, shapes, and colors, so they have various levels of attractions to mosquitoes, primarily based on their colors. We’re all curious about how mosquito attraction differs based on LED colors, and several scientists have carried out research about it.

According to a study, green LEDs have the highest attraction for mosquitoes, followed by red and IR lights. Blue light and other warm-colored lights attract mosquitoes the least.

Keeping Mosquitoes Away

Using LED lights can reduce the number of mosquitoes swarming your yard, but they won’t keep them away entirely. Here are some hacks for keeping mosquitoes out of your house:

• Keep a bug-proof mesh on all windows and doors. Make the openings wide enough for ventilation but too small for mosquitoes to fly in. Routinely check for tears and openings in the screen.
• Remove standing water. Mosquitoes reproduce in stagnant water, and they don’t need a lot to do it. One bottlecap of water open for four days is enough for them to lay eggs and hatch them.
• Perform a routine cleaning for your gutters, open water reservoirs, or water toys. By doing so, you can prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs. Mosquitoes cannot breed without water. Even a bit of water is enough to encourage mosquitoes to breed.
• Use natural ingredients as short-term mosquito repellents. Lavender, Lemon eucalyptus oil, Cinnamon oil, Thyme oil, Soybean, Tea tree, and Neem oil are safe and efficient for creating DIY mosquito repellents.
• Keep vegetation low. Mosquitoes thrive in the cool shade of grasses, so you should keep your lawns and hedges trimmed. If you have any ditches that could collect water during rain, especially around grasses, they should be filled up with soil or any fillers.
• Make use of fans. Mosquitoes are weak fliers, so higher airspeed from a fan will help keep them away.
• Use insecticides with caution if you have a mosquito infestation. Insecticides can be dangerous when inhaled, so be careful.

Conclusion

LED lights, especially with blue colors, are an excellent choice for lighting if you’re looking for safe, efficient light with reduced attraction to mosquitoes. However, light isn’t nearly as strong as scent or heat in attracting mosquitoes, so using the safer LED lights won’t do enough to keep mosquitoes away.

Be sure to combine other measures like repellents, insecticides, and other healthy practices to keep away mosquitoes and the diseases they carry!

Related: Do LED Lights Attract Spiders?

The post Are Mosquitoes Attracted to LED Lights? appeared first on HomelyVille.

However, while most people try to avoid spiders at all costs, others don’t shy away from killing them. But that begs the question of whether you should kill spiders, and more importantly, whether doing so attracts more. Let’s find out!

Should I Kill Spiders?

Like any creature, spiders have an important place in the ecosystem. More specifically, in nature, spiders regulate the density of other invertebrate herbivores and predators due to their broad appetites. And, by consuming agricultural pests, such as beetles, caterpillars, and leafhoppers, spiders reduce crop damage. When it comes to households, spiders help by eating other insects that could harm or pester humans, like mosquitoes, flies, and bugs.

Therefore, it’s easy to see why most scientists don’t recommend killing spiders, even if they are present inside our homes. As a matter of fact, research shows that without spiders, humanity would face widespread famine and would eventually go extinct. Unfortunately, few people can control their fear when faced with a spider, which usually leads to the spider’s death.

Does Killing a Spider Attract More?

Most people know that killing some insects has a tendency to attract other members of the same species. For instance, whenever you kill a bee, there’s a high chance that a couple more will show up soon and check the remains of their brethren. Things take an even scarier turn when their queen gets killed, as thousands of bees will flock towards it.

However, spiders aren’t as family-minded as bees and spend most of their life alone, hunting and fending for themselves. As a result, they’ll not seek out other spiders, regardless if they are dead or alive. So you don’t have to worry about dealing with an army of spiders after killing the one that’s pestering you at night.

Nevertheless, a spider’s carcass has the potential to attract other insects, and, in some circumstances, other species of spiders. As an example, the brown recluse spider has a tendency to scavenge the dead bodies of other insects. Therefore, it is possible they could be attracted to another spider’s carcass, even though the possibility is fairly low.

See also: How Long Will a Spider Stay in Your Room?

How to Get Rid of Spiders Without Killing Them

As previously mentioned, you should do your best to avoid killing spiders as they are extremely useful. However, it’s hard to deny the fact that some spiders are simply too annoying or even dangerous to ignore. But, if you find yourself dealing with spiders, there are a variety of ways to get rid of them without actually using lethal force.

Peppermint Spray

Peppermint is a spider’s worst nightmare, making it a perfect anti-spider solution. All you need to do is fill a spray bottle with water and add 25 drops of peppermint oil. Then, spray the mixture throughout your place or directly near a spider and watch it run as fast as it can away from your home. And best of all, you can find peppermint essential oils at most local or eCommerce stores, so no need to worry about that.

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Eucalyptus Oil

Eucalyptus oil is very similar to peppermint spray and is hated by insects, especially spiders. Just repeat the same procedure as the one explained above, and replace peppermint with eucalyptus. Not only will spraying this around your home help you get rid of spiders, but it will also prevent them from coming back.

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Vinegar

Vinegar is the most accessible and used home remedy for spider infestations. So, if you are dealing with spiders, just add half a bottle of vinegar to half a bottle of water and spray it all-around your house. And, if you want to take things even further, you can place vinegar bowls in dark corners or areas in your house where spiders tend to hang out.

Red Night Lights

Generally speaking, insects are attracted to bright lights. However, spiders are the opposite, as they prefer dark environments and have a hard time handling light. As a result, you can use a dark red night light to make certain rooms uninhabitable for spiders. You can also use red night lights in combination with any of the previously mentioned methods for more effectiveness.

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The Bottom Line

Overall, while killing a spider won’t attract more, it’s always a good idea to avoid doing it entirely. And thanks to all sorts of nonlethal methods, anyone can get rid of spiders without hurting them. So, next time you encounter a spider, think twice about stepping on it, as one day, that spider could save you from a mosquito or other pest.

You may also like: How to Keep Spiders Away From Bed

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Though the internet is filled with innovative ways to free a house from these annoying pests, none of them seem to work effectively. They either can’t remove all the ants, or they involve such chemicals that are unsafe for use in your home.

Luckily, there is an easy way to rid your home of ants, and it requires something you most likely already have at hand: a vacuum cleaner. The following sections will tell you everything you need to know about vacuuming ants, including whether it is effective and how you can do it safely.

Is It Safe to Vacuum Ants?

A common misconception a lot of people have is that it is unsafe to vacuum ants. Some believe the insects would jam their vacuum cleaner, while others think the vacuum cleaner simply isn’t able to get all of the ants at once. Both assumptions are wrong.

Regardless of which type of vacuum cleaner you have, ants will not be able to do it any harm. If you have one with bags, you should simply replace the bag after vacuuming the ants. If you have a vacuum with a container, the cleaning process is even more straightforward. So, your vacuum will be perfectly fine either way.

As for the other belief, it simply isn’t logical. You know a quality vacuum cleaner can suck up just about anything (whether you want it to or not). Thus, a few ants or a few dozens of them will not be a problem in any way. In fact, vacuuming them up is an effective way to ensure you actually get all of them, and you can do it in just a minute or so.

Although it is, as you have read, a completely safe process, vacuuming ants does require some careful planning. You need to ensure that the cleanup is meticulous after you are done.

How to Vacuum Ants Effectively

Get your vacuum cleaner out as soon as you notice a big group of ants in one part of your home. Vacuum the ants as you would virtually anything else, but make sure you get all of them.

A vacuum is an effective way to remove ants if they are in a single line or concentrated around the same area for some reason. Simply run the vacuum over them, and they’ll be gone in the blink of an eye.

All of that was the easy part. Getting rid of the ants is actually the most important part of your task. Why is that, you are probably wondering? Won’t vacuuming ants kill them instantly? Well, it actually won’t. Ants are extremely sturdy beings, as you probably know by now.

Some of them might die when you vacuum them, either due to the pressure or by getting slammed into something hard. However, the vast majority of the ants will stay very much alive, and you need to ensure they never come back to infest your home again.

So, cleaning out your vacuum is actually the essential task that you need to handle. How you will do that depends on the type of vacuum cleaner that you have.

Use a Vacuum Cleaner With Bags

If you have a cleaner that uses vacuum bags, you need to make sure you have a spare bag at hand before you suck up the ants. That is important because you will have to dispose of the bag full of ants as soon as possible.

However, you can’t just throw the bag into your trash can and call it a day. Ants will eventually break out of it. Then, it will take them only a few minutes to infest your home again, and you will be right back where you started.

To avoid that, you need to take the bag as far away from your home as possible. Wrap it up in a garbage bag, and get rid of it safely at a dumpster/disposal site somewhere else.

Alternatively, you can put some diatomaceous earth in the bag. Seal it, shake it, and dispose of it in your trash can. The earth will kill the ants instantly, as it is a known and successful solution to dealing with most common pests. Yet, it is harmless for you and your pets, so you can safely use it around the home and leave it in your trash can.

The ants will be dead within minutes, and you will be able to rest easy knowing they won’t come back into your home again. Still, if you don’t have this solution at hand, taking the bag to a dumpster away from your home is a good enough fix.

Use a Bagless Vacuum

Cleaning out a bagless vacuum is an even easier task. Here, you don’t have to buy a new bag and spend time replacing it. You simply need to clean out the vacuum container after you are done vacuuming the ants.

Pour everything into a trash bag, and clean the container thoroughly after that. You don’t have to use any special cleaning supplies. Just wash everything the way you usually do, and you’ll be good to go.

When it comes to disposing of the trash bag containing the ants, you can follow the same instructions as above. So, either use diatomaceous earth or dispose of the bag somewhere else.

It is important that you never use any insecticide or harsh chemicals on the vacuum container and your vacuum in general. It will damage it, and it can be hazardous to you and your family. Stick to water and natural pest killers instead.

Benefits of Vacuuming Ants

Though there are many ways to kill ants in your home, none are as effective and successful as vacuuming them. Here are all the benefits of using your vacuum to get the job done.

Easy and Efficient

As mentioned above, vacuuming up ants takes less than a minute. With just a few sweeps, you can get rid of them all. Using other cleaning methods will never be that quick.

You Need No Special Equipment

The only tool that you need for this task is something most people already own: a vacuum cleaner. You might also need a spare vacuum bag if your cleaner requires one and a trash bag to dispose of the ants/vacuum bag.

Either way, you already have everything you need, with no need for going shopping. Of course, if you decide to kill the ants with diatomaceous earth, you will have to buy that, but it is not the only way to get rid of them, as you have read.

So, you can remove those pesky ants as soon as you spot them, without wasting any precious time. And when it comes to pest infestations, every second counts.

It Is Eco-Friendly

Vacuuming up ants requires no chemicals. Thus, it is a fully eco-friendly way to dispose of the annoying pests. You will not be putting yourself or your family at risk, and no harmful emissions will go into the atmosphere.

The only minuscule impact this method has on the environment is the small amount of electricity you will spend as your vacuum runs. Compared to how harmful and detrimental to the planet other techniques are, that impact is pretty much nonexistent.

It Is Affordable

If you opt for any other way to kill the ants, you will have to spend quite a bit of money. Whether you go for bleach, baking soda, different harsh chemicals, or anything else, you will have to spend money on it. With a vacuum, these expenses are eliminated. 

What’s Next?

As with most pests, it is vital that you take some preventive steps after getting rid of them. That way, you will ensure the ants don’t return in the future.

To that end, there are a few things you can do. First off, keeping all surfaces of your home clean is pivotal. Then, you should try and keep all your food in sealed containers. Ants are always drawn to food, so making sure none of it is easily accessible or just lying around is key.

You can also take the time to seal any cracks and small entrances to your home. Moreover, you should spray an ant barrier around your home as well, especially your garden. Doing all of that will help keep ants as far away from your house as possible. Then, you won’t have to worry about vacuuming them again.

To Sum Up

As you have read, vacuuming up ants is an easy and effective way to get rid of them for good. It is crucial that you dispose of the ants properly after you are done vacuuming them, as the process itself won’t kill them. Then, you ought to take preventive steps so that they do not return again. That way, your home will be ant-free forever.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Vacuuming Ants appeared first on HomelyVille.

But why do spiders come to your room in the first place? How long do they stay? And should you throw them out immediately or let them be? Read on to find out!

What Attracts Spiders to Your Room?

The main factor that determines where a spider will make camp is the opportunity of prey. If there are insects in your room, no matter how small, a spider will come in hopes of catching them and feeding on them. Spiders also enjoy warm and dry areas. That makes the corner of your room a perfect place to live.

Though it might appear so, spiders actually aren’t attracted to light. If you see them hanging out near your lamp or any other source of light, it is only because other insects are there. Catching them while they’re flying around disoriented is easy for the spider, which is why they stay close.

What Should You Do If There Is a Spider In Your Room?

Most spiders you can find in homes are pretty harmless. The species that can harm or even kill humans rarely live near homes. So, you shouldn’t worry about the spider in your room or under your bed hurting you in any way.

Besides, spiders are much more afraid of humans than most people realize. As soon as a spider sees you near, it will run away and leave you alone. Moreover, it will never bite unprovoked, no matter how scary it might look.

Spiders just want to catch insects in your room and live in a little corner. Thus, if you are not afraid of seeing them up there, you can leave them be. After all, the spiders will rid you of annoying flies and mosquitoes and keep your room insect-free. With them, you won’t have to worry about any bugs at all.

How Long Will the Spider Stay?

If you decide to let the spider stay in your room, it will live there for as long as there is enough food. However, spiders are extremely resilient creatures, so they don’t have to eat that often. Even if they catch just a fly or two every other week, they’ll be more than fine to stay in the corner of your room.

Spiders also have a long lifespan. Certain species common to homes can live for months and even a year. So, you might hang out with this particular roommate for quite a while.

If the conditions are warm and the food is never scarce, the spider might even decide to have its offspring in your room. However, that rarely happens, as a spider usually barely has enough food for itself, let alone a bunch of babies. If it does and you notice eggs in the webbing, it might be best to remove them. One spider might be useful, but a dozen is a problem.

What If You Don’t Want the Spider to Stay?

Despite being quite useful and unobtrusive, spiders aren’t exactly the most popular roommates out there. If you’re scared of them and can’t stand the sight of them in your room, you can get rid of them as well.

Anything will work, from taking the spider outside and letting it go to vacuuming it along with its web. You will have to do that a lot, though, because spiders are bound to come back to your room over and over again as long as other insects are present.

It is pivotal to remove spiders from your room if you know you are allergic to bug bites in general. In cases like that, it is always better to be safe than sorry. Vacuum your room frequently, and pay extra attention to hidden spots behind your bed and other furniture, as that is where spiders can hide for months.

If You Scare Spiders Away, Will They Come Back?

A lot of people are scared of just taking spiders away from their rooms and letting them go, thinking that they will remember them and come back. Although the spider might come back, it won’t be because it remembers you or wants revenge.

Instead, a spider might come back to the same room if its web is still somewhere in it. That is why it is pivotal that you remove the web as well. The best way to do it is to vacuum it. Cover the entire room and be thorough, and you won’t have to worry about any spiders coming back at all.

If you are still worried, then killing the spider might be the best idea. After doing so, you’ll be sure the same spider surely won’t come back.

How Do You Keep Spiders Away From Your Room in the Future?

1. Repellent Sprays

Spider-repellent sprays are the best way to keep these creatures away from your room once and for all. You simply have to spray the corners of your room and hidden places behind furniture from time to time, and you’ll be golden. Just make sure you vent the room right after and only sleep in it after at least a few hours have passed.

2. DIY Remedies

If you don’t want to buy the spray and want something more natural, you can spray a few drops of peppermint essential oil in your room as well. Spiders cannot stand the scent of it, and they won’t come back to a place as long as it is present.

Most repellent sprays are actually based on the oil, so you’ll be taking a more natural route while still doing something effective. Still, make sure you don’t inhale the oil, as it can cause nausea and dizziness.

Aside from peppermint oil, you can also try getting spiders to stay away with the help of vinegar. Take a spray bottle and fill half of it with white vinegar. Then, top the rest of the bottle with water. Shake the bottle so that everything mixes nicely, and you’re ready for spraying.

Just make sure you don’t spray your furniture with the vinegar mix. Due to its acidic nature, it could damage the finish on your shelves or closet. So, only spray the walls behind the furniture. The best way to avoid mistakes is to move the furniture slightly and then spray behind it safely.

3. Regular Cleaning

Finally, always make sure your home is clean. Spiders can hide in places you can’t easily reach, which means you might have spiders in your home without even knowing they are there.

Thus, try to clean and vacuum your home at least once a week. That way, you’ll ensure no spiders can come in and make camp in your room or home.

To Sum Up

Spiders are often found within homes, either in the corners of rooms or in dark places behind beds and other furniture. They come to your room in search of food and can stay there for months or even years if there are a lot of insects to feed on.

You can either let the spider stay and rid your room of annoying bugs, or remove it from the room. It all depends on whether you are scared of spiders or allergic to them. Hopefully, this article gives you an idea of how to do both of those things safely.

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