Your garage might seem like an unlikely haven for pests, but it can attract a variety of insects, including spiders, mice, ants, and more. It offers shelter from the elements and can become an ample source of food. Obviously, you don’t want these critters taking up residence in your garage, or anywhere else in your home. They may cause damage to your house and valuables and may even pose a safety risk.

How do you prevent an invasion of insects? Let’s find out!

Keep Things Clean

Keeping your garage clean and orderly helps to prevent insects from finding homes in your garage. Starting with the outside of your garage, you should ensure dead brush or debris aren’t piled up against the outside wall. These piles can provide shelter for spiders or cockroaches.

Once you’ve done that, you should clean the inside of your garage. Sweep away accumulated dust and debris with regularity and clean up any puddles or spills. Insects may also seek out damp conditions. It may be a good idea for you to set up a dehumidifier in your garage.

For storage, choosing plastic containers over cardboard boxes is ideal. Cardboard can be easily chewed through by ants and is even a source of building material for wasps and their nests. Meanwhile, plastic bins can be airtight and leave no space for insects to find a home.

Eliminate Sources of Food

Insects, like all pests, are attracted to reliable sources of food. Ensure that there are no sources of food lying around in your garage. Garbage cans or pantry items that are left open can attract a ton of insects such as ants or flies. Sweep up any crumbs and wrappers that have fallen on the floor.

Garbage cans should be stored outside if possible. If you do keep garbage cans in your garage, make sure the lids are kept tightly sealed. And it should go without saying that you should never keep compost bins in there.

Even pet food should be properly stored as, even if it is left there only temporarily, ants will find it. You’d be amazed at how quickly a colony of ants can establish itself when it finds a good source of food.

And once you start getting flies or other insects, that’s a source of food that will attract spiders. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up with a garage full of creepy crawlies.

Read more: 6 Spring Cleaning Tips For Your Garage

Seal All Entrances

Ants and other insects can find their way through some very small openings. Any crack could be a potential ingress point for pests. A garage isn’t typically as well-sealed as the rest of the house, so it can be a lot easier for pests to find their way in. Many homeowners also tend to procrastinate repairing damage around windows or doors.

Neglecting those repairs means your garage is much more vulnerable to invasion by insects and spiders. Once you’ve finished cleaning up, you should take the time to thoroughly inspect your garage for openings and gaps, filling any that you come across.

Small gaps can often be filled easily with expanding foam or caulking. Larger gaps may require wood boards to close. Gaps around doors, windows, vents, drains, and HVAC units are especially vulnerable to insect intrusion.

One vital thing to check is the weather stripping around your garage door. Weather stripping can crack and deteriorate over time, leading to gaps where there were none before. You should make sure you check your weather stripping on a regular basis. You can inspect it by turning the light off in your garage to see if there is daylight shining through gaps around the door or window. If your weather stripping is worn or damaged, you should call a garage door expert to replace it.

Keep Your Garage Door Closed

This seems like a no-brainer, but keeping your garage door open means flies, wasps, bees, and other pests can get in much more easily. Most people are good about keeping the door closed when they’re not around, but you should consider keeping it closed even when you are there.

A Wi-Fi-enabled opener can help you remotely check whether your garage door is open. It lets you check to see if you left it open and can even send you alerts if someone else opens it.

A broken garage door that won’t close completely is a big risk to your garage. It’s basically an open invitation to pests (and not to mention thieves of the human variety). It’s important you get your garage door repaired as soon as possible to protect it against unwanted intrusion.

Try Natural Pest Repellant

Even if you’re extremely careful, you can’t close every gap or remove every source of food. Pest repellant is another line of defense against insects. You can buy pest repellant at many hardware and outdoor stores. Making your own is not difficult either, as pesticides can be toxic to small children and pets.

One DIY pest repellant you can use is:

• Combine salad oil with horseradish, garlic and lots of cayenne pepper
• Let the mixture sit for several days
• Strain it and transfer it to a spray bottle
• Carefully spray the mixture in areas where you suspect pests are hiding or entering

The mixture can be very potent, so it’s best used sparingly in confined spaces and shouldn’t be ingested.

Vinegar can also be used as a short-term solution for pest control but doesn’t provide protection against serious infestations and will not keep pests completely away from your property.

Garage Door Repair in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba

Keeping your garage door in good condition is a crucial line of defence against the insect invasion. If you find that your garage door or opener need repair, you can trust the experienced garage door technicians at Creative Door Services™.

Whether you need to repair your current garage door and opener or the whole system needs replacing, you can count on us. We provide experienced services and high-quality garage door products from the top brands in the industry, including Genie openers.

Contact us today for more information about our products and services at one of our locations across Western Canada: Kelowna, British Columbia; Vancouver, British Columbia; Calgary, Alberta; Edmonton, Alberta; Fort McMurray, Alberta; Regina, Saskatchewan; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; and Winnipeg, Manitoba.