(Newswire.net — December 28, 2015) — As more buildings are being built, there is less time to focus on protecting these buildings from pest. New York City’s Integrated Pest Management Professionals, UltraPro Pest Protection, has provided a list of 10 steps property managers and owners can take to protect against pests.
10 Way to Prevent Pests from Entering your Building
1. Understand pest pressures in your area
Being familiar with structural local pests will help you plan for what will be your most common threats. It’s important to know the different species of pest and their seasonality so you can better plan your integrated pest management procedures.
2. Analyze the physical structure for each building
When you choose a location to build, you have to put into consideration the vegetation, surfaces, underground utilities, and other buildings. All of these are important to make sure unwanted pests do not come into your building uninvited. For example, if you are choosing a place in a rural area where there is a lot of vegetation, there is probably small mammals in the area. In this situation, you have to make sure there are no gaps present from the foundation all the way to the roof to keep your building protected.
3. Design according to pest tolerance
Some ants can just be a nuisance in your home, but they could be life threatening to patients in a surgical facility. During the design phase, you should be careful about the amount of security you need when it comes to outside pests. A health facility will need a lot more protection than a home would. Make sure you have a careful and secure plan before you build in order to prevent these pests from coming into your building.
4. Use pest-resistant materials
There are many materials out there that can protect your building from pests. Many of them will say “resistant to pests” while others will completely ensure protection. Conduct research when deciding on what materials you are going to use before you pick them. Just because the label says it will protect your structure from all pests does not mean that it actually will.
5. Create ways for easy inspection
You can assist pest control professionals by making it easy to reach areas such as the foundation, false ceilings, and triple wall voids. Built-in access to these areas will make it easier for them to reach these areas and stop pest infestations before they occur. This could potentially save you thousands of dollars in repairs for wood replacement as well as the health of the people in the building.
6. Minimize the amount of moisture in a building
Architects and builders know that buildings should not contain moisture, and there are also many building codes that are designed to prevent this as well. Moisture in a building will promote decay as well as infestation from pests such as termites, cockroaches, rodents, and many other pests. You can prevent moisture from getting into your building through proper guttering, downspout placement, and other similar procedures.
7. Seal off all openings
Although you need some openings like crawl-space and soffit vents, there are certain building codes that require you to screen those openings to avoid pests from entering your building. By sealing off these openings from the outside and inside, you will improve your chances of an infestation coming into your building. Pests like mice can get into your building through gaps as small as ¼”, so make sure you close off any gaps you can find.
8. Eliminate potential places for pests to hide
Pests want places to hide where they will not be disturbed. By decreasing the amount of inaccessible spaces, you will be able to help prevent pests from entering your building. You can do this by getting rid of spaces created from false ceilings, uncapped concrete blocks, and gaps behind permanent machinery. If you design it to not have those spaces present, you can better manage pest control in your building.
9. Use slabs and foundations to help with pest prevention
Foundations and slabs are a huge component when it comes to pest prevention. If you do not have a strong, solid foundation, pests such as rodents, cockroaches, ants, and many more will be able to get into your building through the cracks. Termites are one of the major insects that affect buildings. Once termites get in, they can completely destroy buildings. This is why it is important to make sure there are no cracks in the foundation and that the expansion joints are inserted properly. There are plenty of ways to help prevent these issues through appropriate concrete admixtures, monolithic pours, and pest-resistant mesh covers over joints.
10. Make buildings unattractive to pests
There are many ways to prevent pests from wanting to come into your building. First, make sure you have proper outdoor lighting. Poorly designed lighting and poorly placed lighting can attract insects and guide them to get into your building. Vines on the sides of buildings can serve as a roadway and a food source for rodents, which will make them attracted to the building. Bushes and shrubs are another way for rodents and insects to get into your building if they are planted too close to the building’s foundation. Finally, do not plant trees too close to your building. The branches can reach the roof of your building, which will create a bridge for rodents and insects looking to make it inside your building.
Designing a building may be hard, but designing it to prevent pests from getting inside is even harder. If you follow these points listed above from UltraPro Pest Protection, then being able to mitigate and manage pests on-site will be a much easier task.
About UltraPro Pest Protection
With over 30 years of experience in eliminating bed bugs, termites, and rodents, UltraPro Pest Protection is emerging as New York and New Jersey’s leading pest control service for homeowners and commercial businesses.
For more information, visit ultrapropestcontrol.com