How to Keep Flying Insects Out of Your Home

Repairing Screens and Points of Entrance

• 1

  Walk through your home and carefully examine every window and door screen. Look for holes, rips or screens that are not properly attached to the door or window.

• 2

  Replace or repair any damaged screens. Purchase replacement screens or screen patches at a home improvement store. Also purchase required accessories such as spline.

• 3

  Examine all entry doors and storm doors. Your door should shut completely with no gaps or holes around the frame. Flying insects will find these and enter your home. Purchasing and installing weatherstripping or other material will fill the voids.

• 4

  Examine other possible points of entry such as holes in floors, ceilings or walls that lead to the outdoors, a basement, attic or crawl-space. Fill any holes. Expanding foam may work on many of these holes. Apply caulk to cracks and crevices. While it would seem that flying insects would not come in through many of these points, these insects often spend larval and nymph stages without wings and therefore crawl.

Using Insecticides

• 5

  Purchase a home insecticide you feel comfortable with. Many products are on the market for this purpose.

• 6

  Apply the product along the perimeter of your home, following the instructions carefully. Some products are meant to be applied to the outside of your home, while others are designed to be applied along the baseboards inside.

• 7

  Call an exterminator if you are not comfortable applying insecticides yourself. An exterminator can also determine exactly what type of insects to combat and recommend different applications.

Identifying Attractants

• 8

  Identify what in your home the pests are attracted to, often their food source.

• 9

  Remove the attractant by either cleaning, removing or sealing the food source.

• 10

  Clean regularly to repel bugs. Many bugs are attracted to filth or messy areas.