How To Keep Pests Out Of Your Home

No one likes pests in their home.

Unfortunately sometimes when we get rid of pests, such as mice and rodents, their odor can linger.

Clear The Air Odor Eliminators will eliminate those odors easily and safely. Check out our tips to keep pests out of your home:

Rodents and raccoons:

• Raw bacon or peanut butter makes good bait for a mousetrap. Make sure a mouse will have to tug the trap to remove the bait. If you’re using peanut butter, dab some on the triggering device and let it harden before setting the trap. If bacon is your bait, tie it around the triggering device.
• If a raccoon sets up housekeeping in your attic or chimney, chemical repellants such as oil of mustard, are temporarily effective. (The smell may bother you as much as it does the raccoon.) Your best bet is to let the animal leave, and then cover its entrance hole with wire mesh so that it cannot return.
• To keep rodents out of your house, seal every opening they could squeeze through. Some need less than 1/4 inch of space. Put poison in deep cracks or holes, and stuff them with steel wool or scouring pads pushed in with a screwdriver. Close the spaces with spackling compound mixed with steel wool fragments.

Insects:

• If your home becomes infested with fleas, vacuum rugs thoroughly before spraying, and throw the dust bag out at once.
• Keep ants away from your home with a concoction of borax and sugar. Mix 1 cup sugar and 1 cup borax in a quart jar. Punch holes in the jar’s lid, and sprinkle the mixture outdoors around the foundation of your home and around the baseboards inside your house. The ants are attracted by the sugar and poisoned by the borax.
• If you have cockroaches, sprinkle borax powder in the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Avoid sprinkling where children and pets could be affected.

How To Keep Rats Out Of Your Home And Yard

Don’t let rats invade your home.

Both rats and mice can cause major destruction to your home. Clear the Air would like to share some tips to avoid a rat infestation in your home.

First you need to check to see if you have rats. Look to see if you see mouse or rat droppings. In your yard, you can check weedy places, under boards and dog houses or near garbage cans to see if a rat has made a burrow or nest. Also any holes or edges around your home and yard with chewed edges are sure signs of a rat or mouse.

Rats and mice breed fast. A mouse can have several young when she’s two months old. Then, two months later, her young will breed. In the meantime, the mother will produce another litter. So you must keep working to get rid of them. Here are some tips to keeping them out of your property:

• Keep garbage in tightly covered cans. Feed dogs and cats in a dish, then take up the food they don’t eat. Don’t leave it out for rats and mice.
• Remove trash, old boards, weeds and junk cars. Rats and mice like to hide in such places. Don’t pile wood against the house. Store wood and other materials at least a foot off the ground.
• Keep doors closed. Cover windows with screens. One-fourth inch or smaller mesh will keep rats and mice out. Keep floor drains tightly sealed. Cement or caulk around pipes and cables where they pass through walls. Mice can get through any hole that will admit the tip of your little finger.
• If you use poison or a trap to kill your rats, chances are the rat will die in the wall of your home. This can cause a horrendous odor and thankfully Clear the Air has an easy solution to rid your home of that dead rat odor. Click here to learn more about eliminating dead rodent odor.
• Birdhouses and seed should be on poles and in trays rats can’t get.
• Roof rats get into your house from tree branches that hang over the roof. Keep trees cut back and cover any openings in the eves.

Keep Rodents Out Of Your RV

While your RV is in storage this winter, you will want to keep unwanted animals out of your camper. We have some helpful tips from Ehow.com about deterring rodents from your RV.

Remember, if you have the unfortunate experience of opening your RV to find rodents have made their home in your RV for the last few months, eliminate the odor with our collection of Odor Eliminator Products.

Mice and other rodents frequently enter campers and cause damage to the interior. Mice enter through small holes in the exterior of the camper; these holes are usually located on the underside of the structure. Pest control precautions are especially necessary before storing your camper for the season.

What you’ll need to deter rodents from your RV – A can of expandable foam, glue traps and ultrasonic rodent deterrent.

• First you will want to search the exterior of the camper for any holes.
• If you find any, point the can of expandable foam at the holes. Depress the can’s nozzle, and fill the holes with expandable foam. Repeat this process around all unwanted openings.
• Next you will want to place mousetraps around the outside of the camper. This will hinder the mice from entering your camper.
• You might want to also install an ultrasonic rodent-control-device. These devices emit sounds that deter mice from entering the camper.
• Lastly, spread mothballs around the inside of the camper. Please note, if you place mothballs inside the camper AND place your Odor Eliminator Bags in the camper, the bags will work to eliminate the moth ball odor, thus less efficiently removing any dead rodent odors. Our suggestion is to take the moth balls out of your RV should you already have odors from rodents, then place the Odor Eliminator Bags in the camper.

Have questions about odors in your RV? Please contact our customer service (located in the USA) and we’d be happy to help answer any questions you may have.

Tips to Keep Pests Out!

No matter where you live and what type of house you live in, there will always be some sort of “pest” that will try and get into your home.

If you have had an exterminator come out, your problem is temporarily fixed.  However, it is now up to you to ensure the pests stay away from your home for good. The five tips below are basic and straightforward and in no time, you will have a home that is as clean as it is pest-free! Here are some tips on keeping bugs and rodents from coming back.

Clean up after yourself – Pests, like ants for example, will be attracted to anything with a sticky or sugary surface.  Pay special attention t your counters, cabinets, floors and tops of your refrigerator.  Basically, anywhere that a sugary residue could be hiding is pretty much a guaranteed target for ants to swarm to.

Water Waste – Pests love pools of water and if you have any kind of water collection forming inside or outside of your house, its time to get rid of that.  The sooner you eliminate leaks, puddles, etc, the sooner you can eliminate lingering pests.  Even something as simple as a damp cloth in the bathroom will attract ants.

Seal Your Food – Keep food in sealed containers.  Simply loosely wrapping up bags of chips or cookies are an easy way to pests to make themselves at home feasting on your food.  Make sure all food is sealed in an airtight container and stored in cabinets.

No Cracks or Holes – Small areas such as holes or cracks in the walls and floors are an inviting place for pests to call home.  Make sure to seal any pest friendly areas of your house.

Be Proactive – If pests have taken over your home before, it is likely it will happen again.  In order to make sure they don’t come back, get in the habit of hiring an exterminator on a regular basis.  Preventative visits may be all you need.

If you have a rat infestation and the exterminator comes and the rats are poisoned, most likely you will sooner or later experience a foul odor coming from the walls.  Instead of knocking down walls to remove the decaying rat carcass, simply place Clear the Air Odor Remover Bags throughout your house and the odor will be eliminated.  Read more on Removing Dead Rodent Odors here.