Your home is your castle… or at least it should be. Think about it. It’s the place you come to try and relax in after a hard day’s work. It should be your sanctuary, a safe place for you to take the weight of the world off your shoulders.

Plus, you work hard to earn money to keep up the appearance and function of your home. It’s something you should be proud of, because you probably work hard at it like most Americans.

But sometimes little critters and pests come into our lives who have the same idea we do. They want to settle down in a nice, warm and comfortable home. But they have an even better deal because they don’t have to pay rent or the mortgage. All they have to do is move in and take over. And in the process they can make our lives miserable. Hearing or seeing critter feet go pitter pat in the day and night is not what you want to come home to.

Why they’re a big problem
Pests are a problem because they carry myriad diseases and they can also create structural damage in your home. For example, termites in a crawl space can gnaw away at wooden floorboards until they are structurally compromised. This means that when you go to sell your home, the inspector will notice the damage and by law has to report it. Let’s be honest, how many people are willing to deal with a termite problem before they’ve even moved into a house? This could potentially translate to lost money and a lost home sale… And it all started with a few pesky termites.

Be aware of the signs
Many homeowners understandably go into denial when they see signs of pests and critters take over their home. No one wants to deal with an insect or pest invasion and many times you don’t see any blatant signs of a problem anyway.

So the first step to making sure you don’t have a pest problem, is to be aware of changes in your home. For example, if you see mouse or rat droppings, that means you have a rodent problem. There’s gray area there, except for maybe the mouse’s coloring. Ants are usually pretty easily seen running around floorboards of a home. Other pests are a little harder to spot. If piles of dirt or mud move around your crawl space or outside your home, you need help to get rid of the termites in your home.

Obvious signs of a pest problem are if you see a rat, hear one in your cabinets, your pets are frantically scratching or searching at floorboards or hear them scratching in the walls or ceilings at night.

Simple preventative measures
Are you itching just reading this? Well, there are a few things you can do around your home, which will help prevent critters and pests from moving into your home. But if they have already moved in, these things can help so an infestation does not happen again in your home. Remove any wood piles around the home. This will keep pests from wanting to congregate in these wood piles. Do not keep junk cars, piles or lumber or other large structures the rodents and pests could live in. Try and keep your home’s foundation Brand Viagra clear of leaves, mulch and other natural materials. Keep moisture out of your crawl space using a high-strength dehumidifier like the SaniDry CSB, which is made especially for crawl spaces. Critters and termites will be less comfortable in your crawl space if you take moisture out of the structure. Installing a crawl space vapor barrier keeps insects and pests out of your home very effectively and also creates great storage in your crawl space. These are just a few things you can do to ensure insects and critters do not target your home as their next place of residence.

Call a professional
If any of these are present in your home, call a professional pest control operator immediately. Pest control operators work in the field each and every day and they are usually more effective than homeowners in trying to solve the problem by themselves. Why not take advantage of the experience and know-how pest control operators have, and use it to get rid of the pests in your home? Not only will the experts get rid of the pests in your home, but it will be much less frustrating than having to learn and research solutions all by yourself.

Author Bio: To contact a pest control operator in Alabama, call Alabama Professional Services today. Marianne Snyder frequently writes about home improvement topics such as basement waterproofing, crawl space repair and energy efficiency.

Category: Home/Home Improvement
Keywords: pest control operators, bug infestation