Spring Cleaning Practices For a Pest Free Home

This article is a general DIY guide to preventing and controlling pests through regular cleaning practices during the spring season. Here you can find detailed pest control care steps and recommended products for various pests you might encounter in the spring.

With spring weather arriving this leads to the blooming of flowers, weather becoming warm, and animals or insects beginning to move. Spring also signifies to homeowners, the time to clean up our homes and living areas. However, this will be a time to perform extra steps during your cleaning to ensure that pests will be removed or prevented from your home.

The change of moisture in the air combined with the increased temperatures beckons insects like beetles, spiders, ants, cockroaches, wasps, and bees from hibernation or promote breeding activity. Not to mention that the warmth, protection, and aroma of food coming from your home is especially luring to these pests.

Taking care of your home now helps to prevent these pests and potentially others from causing havoc and some destruction as the warm weather continues into summer. While spring cleaning in and around your home, be sure to follow these simple steps and products throughout the DIY guide to keep springtime pests from infesting your property.

Organize and Declutter Storage Areas

After winter has ended, spring is an ideal time to clear out any potential dirt, clutter, cobwebs, or pest droppings that might have gathered over the previous seasons. Excessive objects, holiday décor, cardboard storage boxes, and piles of paper can provide ideal hiding spots for pests like beetles or cockroaches.

Besides the appeal of a suitable home, these areas also provide pests like spiders an ideal food source as insect population increases. To avoid unwanted pests: sort through your belongings and food items to remove any expired, damaged, or unneeded items from your closet, cabinet, pantry, shelves, attic, basement, garage, and other storage areas.

Once your belongings have been sorted, place all non-perishable items previously stored in cardboard boxes within plastic containers to deter pests. Storage items in plastic containers should be pulled away from the side of walls to eliminate pests travel. We recommend using plastic containers to store all items since pests cannot easily travel, chew, or crawl through these for nesting and feeding activities. 

To futher avoid pest activity, you may place food items in sealable plastic containers. Make it a point to place all near expired foods at the front with the newest food products towards the back to decrease food aromas and attractants for pests.

Keep Garbage Containers Clean

Since trash cans are always full of dirt, debris, and thrown out food they are prone to attracting numerous pests. Food waste is one of the biggest attractions for pests like ants and it is there that more pests may occur. Be sure to bag all food waste in a sealable plastic garbage bag then in a prompt manner take it from inside of your home to an outdoor bin that is several feet away from the homes foundation.

After your garbage has been properly disposed take your garden hose and clean the inside of the garbage bin. For those hard to remove spills at the bottom or side of the trash can use dishwashing soap to get a complete, deep clean.

Once your garbage container has been completely cleaned on the inside you can then thoroughly rinse the outside to remove any extra dirt or food residue. Allow the trash can to dry before placing a new sealable garbage bag.

When you collect the garbage from inside of your home make sure to properly close the lid of the outdoor or indoor garbage can when done. While this step may sound simple most homeowners would be surprised at how pests can find their way in through the smallest crevice or opening.

Vacuum and Mop Your Home

Many pests are aggressively searching for food from crumbs, spilled trash liquids, to even your pets food. For this reason, regularly mop and vacuum the interior of your home and unkempt dark areas such as underneath beds, refrigerators, furniture, and other hard to reach areas where pests may hide.

Floors would benefit from a steam clean to remove pests eggs, the pest itself, or other natural debris that some pests may require for their nests.

Wipe Down and Dust Surfaces

Insects and other pests like rodents are known to infest kitchen areas because this space provides easy access to food and water sources. They often travel throughout homes while scavenging for crumbs left behind from meals, adhesive residue from liquid spills, and overripe fruit sitting on countertops.

Although these items do not sit on surfaces for very long their aroma is enough to entice numerous pests. Remove all food items from their storage site and pull your counter and kitchen appliances away from their original spot including fridges against walls.

To clean dust, dirt, and spider webs out of reach use the JT Eaton Yellow Cobweb Duster. This easy to use duster head has specially designed small nylon bristles to remove the most stubborn of debris. Dust and debris in out of reach corners like ceilings or behind appliances and or shelving can be treated when the duster is attached to an extension pole. After dusting, wipe down the kitchen countertops, pantry shelves, baseboards, underneath and behind appliances, and around sinks with a warm soapy cloth.

Once pantry shelves have been cleaned and cleared, you will want to spray a residual insecticide like Novacide Flea & Tick Killer. This aerosol product controls pests such as ants, cockroaches, and other types of pests while also stunting insects from reaching sexual maturity with its insect growth regulator (IGR).

To use Novacide Flea & Tick Killer, you will want to shake the aerosol can thoroughly before application. Hold the can from a distance of 36 inches and direct the spray towards the area to be treated. Perform a spot treatment at the back and sides of shelving where there are cracks and crevices. Wait until vapors, mists, and aerosols have dispersed and the treated area has been thoroughly ventilated before returning items of their original place.

Address Moisture Issues

The transition from winter to spring means dealing with a wide variety of potential moisture issues such as rain, snow, runoff, or buildup of organic matter. Pests are drawn to moist areas because they are seeking a water source or they may thrive in a damp environment.

Leaky pipes, blocked rain gutters, pools of water around homes foundation or in walls, and buildup of moisture around AC vents and pipes can attract a variety of pests from bees to wasps. Seal off points of entry by caulking around pipes, door and window frames, voids, and holes in and around your home. Larger voids that cannot be easily sealed will need to be filled with copper mesh.

With a gloved hand, clear out organic matter such as leaves from your rain gutters to eliminate moisture issues and suitable habitat attractants for pests. Promptly repair other issues that may be causing water buildup in and around your home to deter pests like cockroaches.

Perform Perimeter Treatments

When cleaning is complete inside of your home and all potential pests have been removed you can proceed with outdoor treatments. Spring is an important time of the year to spray for insects since this is the most prolific period for breeding and other activity in your homes turf.

Even if you did not have pests issues the previous year, it may still be susceptible to infestation during the spring. To fully control spring pest activity you will need to perform perimeter spray treatments with a broad-spectrum insecticide. Supreme IT Insecticide is a broad-spectrum suspended concentrate labeled to treat 70 different pests including cockroaches, wasps, beetles, bees, and ants.

Determine how much Supreme IT Insecticide to use by measuring the square footage of the treatment site. Find this by measuring the length and width of the treatment area in feet then multiply (length X width = square footage). For general pest applications, use 1 fl. oz. of Supreme IT Insecticide per gallon of water per 1,000 sq. ft.

We recommend using a handheld pump sprayer for better application control during spot and perimeter applications. Spray around the exterior foundation of your home going 2 to 3 feet up and 6 to 10 feet out from the structure. Once applied, this product will repel pests for up to 90 days effectively preventing pests from entering your home.

Key Takeaways

When Should You Start Spring Cleaning?

• Spring cleaning should start at the beginning of March to the end of April when pest activity is beginning.

What is the First Spring Cleaning Task to Take?

• Cleaning your home should first begin with decluttering and organizing storage areas. This will help to eliminate unnecessary items and make way to easily clean hard to reach areas.

What is the Last Thing To Do For Spring Cleaning?

• Vacuuming and mopping your floors should be the last step to take when cleaning the interior of your home during spring cleaning. Reason being is you are effectively eliminating any residue dust, dirt, and food that was missed during previous cleaning methods. Once cleaning in homes is complete, spray on a quarterly basis with Supreme IT Insecticide on the exterior of homes to continue repelling pests.