How To Prevent Bugs From Entering Your Home (The Place You Didn't Check)

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The last thing you want is for bugs to enter and end up living in your home. There's nothing worse than going into a room and discovering you've got a bug infestation. Depending on where you live, the likelihood of certain types of bugs coming into your home can differ, but there are a few common entry points that little critters use to hunt out food and a warm place to breed in your space. One particular place that you might not have checked is your dryer vent. A dryer vent is what connects your tumble dryer pipe to the outside world, to release moisture and hot air, and it's vital that you keep it clean for many reasons –- the risk of bugs coming in being one of them.

The most common reason why this ends up happening is because the vent becomes clogged with lint, which means it can prevent the damper system from working as it should, resulting in the vent being open for longer periods of time, allowing pesky bugs to crawl in. What you're going to need to effectively clean out your dryer vent is a vacuum with a long nozzle attachment, a dryer vent cleaning brush, a bowl of soapy water, and a clean cloth.

Safety always comes first, so make sure you unplug your dryer before you proceed to clean the dryer vent. It's a good idea to give the vent hose a good clean first, as lint can easily build up in here, too. The best tool to use is a dryer vent cleaning kit –- you can pick one of these up from Amazon for under $20. Simply push it back and forth down the hose to remove any buildup, and simultaneously use your vacuum to get rid of the clumps. Now, you want to repeat the exact same process with the dryer vent. The final step is to check your exterior vent cover. Use a cloth dipped in warm soapy water to give it a good clean and to remove any dust or dirt. 

Once you've taken these steps, you may be feeling like your vent cover isn't quite up to scratch. Ultimately, this is the entry point for critters and will make it either easy or hard for them to get into your home through your dryer vent. A standard plastic louver cover perhaps isn't the best choice out there. Instead, consider replacing it with a metal one. Metal covers often have a magnetic door, which means they only open when they are in use and will be tightly shut when they're not, minimizing the opportunities for bugs to get in.