When pests invade your home, they can bring disease, and at the very least, they leave droppings, get into food, and even cause damage. While you aren't opening your front door to pests, there are some common mistakes you may be making that actually help pests invade your home with ease. Check out these five mistakes to avoid.  

Having Holes and Gaps in Your Home's Exterior

If a storm causes a tree to smash into your living room window, you aren't going to leave the window broken. It allows bugs, animals, wind, and rain to enter. However, there are other gaps in your home's exterior of which you may not be aware. These are small, but so are pests, making them great entryways for insects. One of the most common areas where you might find small gaps is around windows. Windows expand and contract in the heat and cold, which can cause gapping around the frame over time. Use spray-foam insulation in a can around any windows and other holes in the exterior walls. Even if you can't see the hole, the foam will expand as it dries to fill in everything.

Allowing Plants to Grow Near Your Home

Many people love the natural beauty of climbing plants, such as climbing ivy. In fact, so many people love the look that they let it climb right up their house's exterior walls. Unfortunately, this is another invitation to bugs. Plants provide food and hiding places for pests, so they will be attracted to those plants near your home. The closer they get to your home, the more likely they are to enter. Climbing ivy or similar plants also make great ladders for pests to reach open windows.

Keeping Old Stumps or Rotten Wood in Your Yard

If you've recently cut down a tree in your yard, you may have a stump because they can be difficult and expensive to remove. However, that stump can no longer survive, so it begins to rot, which attracts pests. Many bugs love rotting wood because it provides shelter and food (particularly for wood-eating bugs like termites). It is particularly important to remove any rotten wood that is close to your home for the same reason it's never good to keep plants too close to the home. Similarly, as a tree stump dies, it promotes new growth, which can attract more even more bugs.

Stacking Firewood Close to Your Home

There's another type of wood you may have in your yard: firewood. If you have a wood-burning stove or a fireplace you frequently use, you likely have stacks of firewood, and the most convenient place to keep them is near your home. No one wants to run across the yard to find some firewood on a cold winter evening. However, keeping that firewood near your home also attracts pests, including wood-eating pests. Worse, it gives them a great hiding place, and if the wood is stacked up directly against the exterior of your home, pests simply have to find a single hole to get inside without you even spotting a single bug.

Providing Food and Water for Pests

Last, pests need food and water to live, and if they find easy supplies inside your home, they aren't going anywhere. Start by eliminating any food sources by keeping your kitchen clean and food sealed tightly. If you have pets, don't free-feed them, so the food isn't out at all times. Finding the water supply may be more difficult, especially if it is a leaking pipe hidden in your walls or basement. If you have a birdbath or similar water supply outside, keep it away from your home.

Bugs and rodents would love a chance to live inside your warm, comfortable home with you, and there are many ways you are welcoming them inside. If you've noticed pests inside your home or you are concerned you may have an infestation, contact a pest control expert at a company like Jones Bros Capitol City Pest in your area today.