If you've chosen to rent a storage unit to house some of your infrequently-used belongings -- holiday decorations, hand-me-down clothing, or childhood mementos -- you're likely looking for as many ways as possible to make your storage unit just like home. One way to accomplish this is to be proactive when it comes to keeping your storage unit free from insect and rodent pests. Read on to learn more about how you can prevent pests from entering your unit, as well as how you can eradicate them if they do show up.
Preventing pests from entering your unit:
The types of items that you store in your self-storage unit will dictate the types of pests that you'll need to protect against. For example, if you're primarily storing books or other paper or wooden items, you'll need to be especially careful of paper-eating insects (like moths) or rodents. If you're storing clothes or upholstered furniture, you'll need to keep an eye out for silverfish and silk moths. By knowing what pests will be drawn to your unit, you'll be able to do more research into how to target them.
It's also important to avoid keeping food items (even nonperishables) or any sources of water or moisture in your unit. If bugs or rodents have to escape your unit to find both food and water, it's likely they'll choose to settle somewhere more accessible to the necessities of life.
Eradicating pests from your unit:
Unfortunately, you aren't able to control what your storage unit neighbors keep in their units, and someone keeping food or other desirable items could lead to an infestation in all the surrounding units. If this happens, there are a few things that you can do to improve your odds of permanently eliminating pests.
First, you'll want to remove any items from your unit that have been damaged or appear to serve as a home to these pests. If these items can't be thoroughly cleaned, you shouldn't put them back into your unit, as this will risk reinfestation.
If your problem is primarily rodent-related, old-fashioned snap traps placed around the perimeter of the room should take care of your issue. You'll need to visit your unit frequently at first to remove and replace these traps. Depending upon the extent of your infestation, you may want to combine these traps with some rat poison to ensure that all rodents in your unit are dead.
For insect problems, the most effective solutions are often the simplest. Sprinkling borax powder around the perimeter of your storage unit will kill off roaches, silverfish, and a variety of other pests. If you continue to notice problems, you may want to enlist a professional exterminator to apply poison throughout your unit -- but be sure to check with the unit's management first to ensure that this is permitted. For more information about storage units, contact a professional like those at Epic Group Inc.
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