Guarding against insect invasion

To help homeowners best protect against a variety of insects this season, Charlie Duckworth, insecticide expert with Spectrum Brands--a manufacturer of lawn and garden care, insect repellent, and household insect-control products--offers the following tips:

* Lights on sheds, pool cabanas, and various outdoor locations can attract moths, gnats, mosquitoes, and other spider prey. To protect home spaces from spiders, regularly use a vacuum cleaner to remove webs and egg sacs from these and other areas of the home.

* Silverfish are attracted to cereals and flour as well as to the glue and starch that can be found in clothes, wallpaper, cardboard boxes, and bound books. Remove these items from storage in basements or attics.

* To guard against cockroach invasion, use sealant to close cracks and crevices found in the basement or various outdoor locations around the home like sheds and garages. Also place roach baits inside cabinets and near water sources to control populations while you are away.

* Pesky fire ants can enter homes through foundations, cracks, attic vents, plumbing, and telephone and electric wire holes. To help avoid intrusion, properly store firewood outside the home, seal food, clean up immediately after preparing meals, and apply insecticide to fire ant mounds in the morning or evening hours when ants are in the colony nest.

* Wasps tend to build nests in roof spaces and wall cavities. To avoid infestation, seal foundation cracks and routinely check sheds and garages for nests. Wasp and hornet aerosol sprays work well and should be applied to nests at sunrise or sunset when wasps and hornets typically are inactive.

* To protect against flies, seal or caulk possible areas of entry--such as cracks and crevices in sheds, garages, basements, and enclosed porches. Fly strips also can be used.

* Gnats are attracted to moist areas, including potting soil, water hose heads, and poorly ventilated crawlspaces in basements and attics. Expose these areas to sunlight and airflow to evaporate the water source and diffuse groupings.

* To deter mosquitoes, eliminate pools of standing water and piles of cut grass and fallen leaves where they prefer to hide during the day. Also be sure to keep rain gutters free of leaf litter and other vegetation to help eliminate standing water trapped by this debris.

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