The kitchen should be the heart of any home. Unfortunately, your kitchen is easily the most likely place to find household pests.
Scary, when you realize how many diseases or bacteria insects and rodents carry with them!
Still, it’s probably a bad idea to be spraying heavy chemicals strong enough to kill disease-carrying pests around your food, not to mention your family!
You Can Get Rid of Pests without Poison?
There are plenty of safe, eco-friendly options that keep pests away, and also keep your food safe to eat. Keep your kitchen safe from infestation by following these simple tips!
Create a Natural Spray
Lemon juice has long been used as a natural disinfectant, but it’s also a great deterrent for insects and rodents!
Pests hate citrus. You can create a simple at-home bug spray that is totally safe to use, by soaking the zest of your citrus fruits in water for a few days. You can use orange, lemon, or grapefruit.
Once they’ve been soaking for a while, simply strain the zest itself, and you’re left with citrus water. You can pour it into a spray bottle and keep it under the kitchen sink, so you’ll always have it on hand!
Use Strong Smelling Food
Some people are sensitive to particularly strong flavors, like onions, garlic, cinnamon, and cayenne.
Lucky for us, so are plenty of household pests! Sprinkling onion, garlic, or cayenne pepper around your kitchen, or adding it to a spray, is a good way to keep pests away.
Ants are particularly attracted to sugar and sweet things, so use cinnamon to keep these common household pests out!
Use Cucumbers to Repel Cockroaches
Cucumber is refreshing, and great for your skin! It has a mild scent that isn’t too sweet, and won’t attract insects.
But I bet you didn’t know it repelled cockroaches! Slice up some cucumbers in your kitchen, or infuse the water jug in your fridge with cucumbers, to keep cockroaches away from your food and your family!
Seal It Up
Most pests are drawn to food sources, especially sweet-smelling stuff. Keep your containers airtight and make sure to put a lid on everything from your fridge, or your pantry.
A great way to plug up cracks in your baseboards, walls, and floors is to plug them up with steel wool.
The same stuff that makes scrubbing easier in your kitchen, is the perfect kitchen-safe way to stop mice and rodents from entering.
They can’t chew through steel, even the small fibers in your steel wool. So keep everything in your home sealed tight, and nothing will get in!
Keep Pet Food Safe
Pet food and water is a leading cause of an infestation. You may be an expert at keeping your own food safe and sealed off, but don’t forget about your furry friends!
Standing water can attract mosquitoes and other flying insects, so make sure to rinse the water bowl often. Commercial pet food has a lot of sugar and natural sweetener, which is sure to attract ants or flies in your home.
Reorganize Your Cupboards Regularly
Keep pet food dishes away from your own food. Wash bowls often, and use natural cleaners like lemon and vinegar to repel pests. And keep your pet food sealed off, no matter how much Spot wants his snack!
Nesting insects, like cockroaches and ants, love to nest in soft loose items. Keeping your cupboards clean is a good first step. You need to make it part of your regular kitchen cleaning routine.
Move items around to clean and reorganize cupboards, linen closets, and the space under the sink.
This makes it less likely to find anything like insects or rodentsnesting in your home, or leaving dropping.
Do Some Gardening
The best way to keep the outside from coming inside is to take care of your yard.
- Trim back trees that touch the house to stop aphids and other insects climbing into the windows looking for warmth and food.
- Keep the grass short to protect against ticks that can latch onto your clothing, and make their way into your home, and your bedding!
- Lining your garden beds with natural insecticides like citrus water, jar lids full of beer, or strong smelling herbs can help control the pests in your garden,
- But, you may need to watch for spiders, ladybugs and other natural insect-eaters making their way inside!
Use Ultrasonic Sound
It’s not exactly natural, in the traditional sense, but it is a safe and sustainable way to get rid of household pests.
Ultrasonic sound waves are sounds too high for human ears, but hey’re loud enough to be a deterrent for everything from mice, and cockroaches, to flies.
There are several types of ultrasonic pest repellent devices on the market, so check electronic pest repellent reviews online, or ask when you buy which is right for you.
In Conclusion
Your kitchen is what makes your house your home. But your family meal shouldn’t be interrupted by unwanted guests.
Keeping your family free of dangerous chemicals while keeping your home pest free is not complicated. You have options for all natural cleaner, and there are simple ways to keep pests out of your home.
Failing that, there are non-toxic, non-invasive forms of pest control you might consider. Whatever it takes, it is possible to keep your family dinners safe from both pests, and chemicals!
Author Bio
Stephen Hockman is the brainchild behind Trusty Joe, a resource for helping people find the coolest gadgets for their homes at the cheapest prices. He also share tips, tricks and hacks on how to live a better life as a homeowner on the Trusty Joe blog.
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Our kitchen is most likely their best dwelling place and the most common area where they start having their colony particularly the ants and cockroaches which usually lurks underneath our sink.
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You’re right! I didn’t know cucumber can repel cockroaches. Now I know, thanks to you! :)
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