5 Tips to Keep Pests Out of Your Car

There’s nothing people hate more than dealing with pests. And when you live in a house, especially in rural areas — that can be pretty difficult. Pests like cockroaches and other insects represent a constant nuisance. And not only that, but they can turn out to be harmful to your health — plenty of pests transmit potentially dangerous diseases! Considering this, it’s not a bad idea to do everything you can in order to remove them from your environment.

Unfortunately, that can be easier said than done. In reality, pests are more than capable of getting into places where you’d never dream of finding them — like your car! And yes, noticing pests in your car is definitely cause for alarm; but that’s why you need to nip this problem in the bud and work on removing them right away. Just remember — the main reason pests enter cars is the same reason why they’d enter your house — to lay eggs, find shelter, and potentially food. And we’re going to provide you with a nifty guide to deprive them of all of those things!

Don’t eat in your vehicle

Okay, so one of the first things pests will look for is food — in other words, organic matter. And your first thought might be that a car is a rather strange place to find organic matter; but remember, pests don’t need a lot of food. In fact — scraps of your own meals might be more than enough.

Now you can probably see where we’re going with this — one of the main reasons common household bugs might infiltrate your car is their attraction to your food remains there. And that’s why you should avoid eating inside your car whenever you can! Sure, we’ve all been there; we lead busy lifestyles, and you don’t always have the time to eat at home or at a restaurant. Unfortunately, a car takeaway meal can be a magnet for pests.

And yes, you might think that eating more carefully will be enough. But it doesn’t take an entire sandwich, burger, or a portion of Chinese food to attract them; all it takes is a couple of crumbs and some residue, and roaches and pests of all kinds will begin flocking to your car. That’s why you should consider one simple but a bi difficult-to-follow rule — no food in the car.

Yep, if you have children, this will be even more difficult — but that’s what it takes to keep your car pest-free! And when you do have to make an exception — which you will, sooner or later — immediately take your car for a deep clean; leaving us with a neat segway to the next piece of advice.

Constantly clean your car

Food is not the only thing that pests like — they’re also attracted to dirt in general, because they can extract all kinds of stuff from dirt that’s barely visible to us. That’s why it’s important to constantly keep your car clean of any dirt if you want to avoid pests as well.

And when we say that you need constant cleaning — you should remember that it’s not just about the frequency of cleaning. You need to be thorough as well. So, when you clean the car, make sure to go over your door sides, the space between all the car seats, and the carpeting in the car — each of these hard-to-reach spaces represents an absolute gold mine for pests, which are attracted to the food waste and dirt found there.

Make sure to vacuum these areas, and then disinfect them — and obviously, remove any garbage from your car each time you finish a drive. The same goes for spills of water, sodas, or other drinks; plenty of pests like humid environments, which is why you should make sure everything is dry.

Get rid of clutter

All of us tend to gather clutter, both in our homes and in our cars. But if you want to keep the latter pest-free — try to avoid cluttering the space up with tons of stuff. Sports equipment, cardboard, old newspapers, receipts from stores and gas stations — develop a habit of throwing all of this stuff out once you leave your car, and you will notice far fewer pests finding their way inside. And if you do need to keep some of this stuff in the car, find a plastic container with a hard lid that will keep pests from being attracted to the clutter.

Close any openings

Naturally, there’s no car that’s absolutely airtight — but you still want to ensure that the main entryways for pests are properly blocked. So, before you park and leave your vehicle — check the A/C vents, doors, and windows, as all of these need to be closed. You’d be surprised as to how many pests enter a car through open-air conditioning vents.

Resort to insecticides

At the end of the day, you may not have any other choice but to resort to insecticides. In the case you feel like you need to do this, make sure you contact fumigation experts who can do this for you professionally; the last thing you want is to fool around with insecticides yourself. After all, you’re going to be spending a lot of time in the car with closed doors and windows — you don’t want any fumes from the chemicals to remain and potentially harm your health or the health of your family.

And if you do use chemicals to get rid of pests, remember to still heed the advice we’ve provided to you above; if you don’t do all of that stuff, there’s no guarantee that pests may not just reappear after a while! We hope that this guide was useful to you and that you’ve learned something new on how to keep the pests out of your car. Make sure you are staying safe in these times we are all going through and have a good one, guys!