5 Pests That Are Likely Living In The Basement Of Your Northern VA Home

Many Alexandria, VA homeowners have great reasons to be concerned with pest infestation occurring in their home. Unwanted pests such as crickets, spiders, millipedes, centipedes and even mice can be a threat to the peace of mind of many homeowners for good reason.

Most of the pests that decide to move into your basement are there because basements are often dark or damp and are basically environments that people neglect. Basements are also ideal homes and nesting areas because there is relatively little foot traffic or disturbances to the room.

What Can Homeowners Do?

These pests come in through various places such as open windows, cracks, and even up from the foundation to name just a few. Despite what you might think, the pests don’t always win. You actually have a lot of options to keep them out of your basement. Here are ways to prevent both rodents and bugs from coming in:

STEP 1: The first thing you will need is de-clutter your basement and clean every corner of it. We recommend that you use a vacuum to reach every corner and under furniture and shelves. This will remove cobwebs, loose fragments of trash, etc. Make sure you go ahead and vacuum any of the items you have stored away.

STEP 2: Next, move the furniture to the center of the room and get some caulk out to go over every corner and seem of the basement. Don’t forget to fill in tiny holes and cracks. And be sure to caulk the window edges as well. Mice will obviously come in through larger holes you may have along corners, so you may need to cover up these openings by fixing or adding a new baseboard.

STEP 3: The use of an insecticide to rid any bugs that have survived your first pass with the vacuum should be left to the professionals. You don’t want the last few to gather and begin to nest and give you another problem in another few months.

STEP 4: Add a dehumidifier to dry out the air in the basement. Remember, bugs prefer damp places. It’s time to get that moisture out of the basement for good. This will work great for spiders, crickets, millipedes, centipedes and any other type of bug or insect that has been calling your basement home.

STEP 5: To get rid of mice who might try to find another way in you’ll want to set up a couple of traps. Traps differ – some will kill mice while others won’t. There are traditional snap traps, specialized glue traps and even a very safe live traps. We recommend calling in a professional should these methods not work in your favor. Rodent problems can be persistent and it takes a trained professional to identify the problem and create a solution.

STEP 6: After you have cleaned out your basement and applied the techniques above, it’s a great idea to follow up every few months or so to ensure that pests haven’t returned.