Common Pests in Southern California and How to Control Them

Whether they’re cockroaches, silverfish, moles, or something else, pests are always unwelcome visitors. Here are a few of the most common pests you’ll find in southern California, plus the best methods to get them out of your house.

Ants

Ants can be a significant nuisance in your home. Control them by planting mint around your home. Mint not only acts as a natural remedy against ants but also against most insects.

Using vinegar can also help get rid of ants and their chemical trail around your home. An alternative to vinegar is lemon juice. Cinnamon is also an effective remedy for killing ants around your home.

Cockroaches

Cockroaches are a common sight in many homes. They’re attracted to food and garbage. You can get rid of cockroaches in your home by spraying with boric acid. Boric acid acts as a natural cockroach killer.

Cut off the supply of cockroach food by disposing of any garbage around the home and cleaning your home regularly. Get rid of their hiding spaces, too, and increase the lighting in your home.

Sealing cracks around your home will close down the possible entry points. If cockroaches become a more significant problem, you can turn to Moxie Pest Control to help with the eradication process.

Silverfish

Silverfish aren’t fish. This pest is a small, wingless insect that’s silver in color. You can control silverfish in your home by:

• Spraying cedar oil with water along windows to repel them
• Spread dried bay leaves around your home
• Setting sticky traps
• Using baits with silverfish poison

Centipedes

Centipedes thrive in humid conditions and damp areas in your home. Cleaning your home thoroughly, especially the moist areas, will help get rid of centipedes.

Centipedes are carnivorous and will feed on other insects, such as cockroaches and spiders, as well. Ridding your home of other house-infesting pests will eliminate the centipedes’ food source.

Gophers

Gophers can pose a real hazard to your grass lawn, fruit trees, garden, or flower beds. They might also dig underground trenches, which can create dangerous holes in your yard. These tunnels destroy root pathways and weaken the structure of most walkways. 

Gophers can be eliminated by:

• Flooding their tunnels to chase them away
• Using gas in their burrows to flash them out
• Setting traps along their routes
• Spreading poison pellets in their tunnels
• Using cotton balls soaked in peppermint oil

There are also biological methods you can employ to prevent gopher invasion in your yard.

These include: 

• Lavender or rosemary plants around your home
• Replacing natural grass lawn with artificial grass. It is true that it is one of the benefits of artificial grass over natural grass.
• Garlic stakes

Moles

Moles pose the same threat as gophers around your home. You can effectively control moles in your yard using biological, chemical, and mechanical methods.

Using traps is a way to capture the moles burrowing around your yard. You can always hire an exterminator to set the traps.

Fumigants, repellants, and poison might also work, but be careful with how you use them, especially if you have pets.

Voles

You can set vole traps around your home in the voles’ paths or nesting sites. Setting baits using peanut butter might work to attract and capture the voles.

Get rid of the voles’ food sources to starve them and chase them from your garden. Set up a fence around your garden. Poisons will also prove useful, but be careful with how you use them or hire an expert.

Scorpions

Scorpions can pose a real threat if they invade your home. Keep your backyard clean and well-organized to prevent possible hiding places for scorpions. Keep the grass short and get rid of any bushes that may act as suitable hiding spots.

Bedbugs

Vacuum and clean your home regularly to help stave off a potential bedbug invasion. Steam cleaning will also remove bedbugs and any eggs in sheets and fabric around your house.

Washing all bedding and dirty laundry will prevent the spread of bedbugs. Lavender products will repel and kill bedbugs. Full fumigation can also eliminate bed bugs in every nook and cranny.

Spiders

Using vinegar to clean along windows and walls will help repel spiders. You can also spray with pesticides. Cleaning and dusting your home regularly gets rid of webs and potential nesting grounds.

Fleas

Vacuum your carpet daily and clean it entirely from time to time to keep fleas away. Use pet-friendly pesticides while washing pets around your home and get rid of tall grass and bushes in your yard.

These pets are all common in southern California. But with some simple DIY methods combined with help from the experts, you can get them out of your home once and for all.

Related Articles:

• 7 Common Household Pests and How to Eliminate Them
• Common Kind Of Pests And Tips To Control Them