If you have air conditioning, there’s a good chance that you’ve had to contend with bugs in the AC vents and inside the HVAC system. Unfortunately, you will find it nearly impossible to keep pests from invading your personal space without proper home and HVAC care.
If your home has bugs in the AC vents, you can schedule an HVAC service in Broken Arrow by Quality Heating, Cooling, and Plumbing to get them out in no time. Our team can diagnose whatever issues have drawn bugs to your home, repair them, and have the pests relocated.
However, you can perform some simple steps to make your home less appealing to bugs without professional help. Below, we will look at some of the reasons bugs invade your property to begin with, how to keep them away or get them to leave, and what to do if your pest problem keeps coming back.
Barricade All Entry Points
Taking your time to cover up all the imperfections on your home’s exterior drywall and the air vents themselves remains the best way to keep bugs from entering.
Unfortunately, even the smallest crack is enough of an access point for bugs to burrow into your AC vents and stay there, so you will need to be diligent to cover every possible entry. However, your solutions don’t need to be professional or permanent. Caulk and bug screens form robust lines of defense, but even placing duct tape or cardboard over holes can likely deter most bugs.
Fix Leaks and Clean Standing Water Quickly
Bugs love locations with quick access to food and water, so any home with a leak and undisturbed puddles quickly becomes hot real estate.
Bugs won’t take much time to move in once they sense valuable resources. But even if you’re already combatting bugs in AC vents, fixing a water leak and depriving their water makes a great way to get them to move on.
Invest in Landscaping
More often than not, bugs moving into air ducts and AC vents has nothing to do with the air conditioning itself. For example, poorly maintained lawns become one big thing that draws bugs to properties.
If your grass is tall and generally unused, bugs will settle in and make a home. And if any of that grass grows near your AC vent, that will be their next stop. You have two powerful ways to fight this problem: keeping your landscape maintained or moving anything that attracts bugs away from the AC vent.
The easiest method is to move bug attractors away from your home. Everything from trash cans to piles of grass clippings will capture pests’ attention, and keeping these things at least two feet away from your AC vent will encourage them to stay outside.
Investing in landscaping will also keep bugs away. Keeping your grass well-trimmed or installing a rock garden creates two popular bug deterrents that also enhance your house’s appearance. Between them, bugs will have nowhere outside to build a home and minimal water to sustain themselves.
Install Bug Repellants
The previous methods prove ideal ways to keep pests off your property, but what if you’re already dealing with bugs in the AC vents?
The easiest way to remove bugs already in your home lies in giving them plenty of reasons to leave. Fortunately, we can recommend several ways to achieve this. You will find several types of bug killers and repellants at department stores, but you can use even more commonplace things to create deterrents than those, including:
- Bug lights
- Bug traps
- Placing candles near the nest
- Lubricating the AC vent so bugs can’t stick
Run the AC Often
Nothing makes bugs in AC vents want to leave more than making their home too cold to live in comfortably.
Most pests move into your home because they seek protection against cold weather elements. And an AC vent that’s never in use fits that exact criterion. But cranking your air conditioning to its coldest setting will expose the bugs to the cold they were trying to avoid, and many will leave in search of a new shelter.
However, this is not an entirely effective method for a few reasons. Cold temperatures don’t deter every bug, and freezing them out will not kill them, so you’ll have to deal with the infestation for a while until they leave. But running your AC is a more humane and low-effort way to remove bugs in AC vents than the alternatives.
Keep the Air Vents Clean
Bugs are attracted to dirty, secluded areas where they know they can live, breed, and gather resources unbothered. So depriving them of that space by regularly cleaning your air vents will keep that area unappealing to pests.
Additionally, thorough enough cleaning will encourage the bugs that already live in your AC vents to leave. Removing all dirt and debris and covering the walls in robust cleaning solutions will make that area uninhabitable instantly, even if there were bugs previously living there comfortably.
Why Are Bugs in My AC Vents Anyway?
Bugs frequently travel into AC vents and HVAC systems for food. Many smell the Freon from the air conditioner. They will break into your home to inspect it, and what they find when they arrive is a dark and quiet space with access to even more food and water in your kitchen.
Unfortunately, you can’t remove that Freon scent that compels so many bugs. But you can make your home less appealing to pests with a few simple steps or by calling for professional HVAC help.
Keep Bugs Out of Your AC Vent With Professional HVAC Maintenance
There’s no better team to call than Quality Heating, Cooling, and Plumbing if your house has bugs in the AC vents that you can’t remove. Our HVAC experts can diagnose whatever issues attract pests and have those issues remedied and bugs removed in hours.
Learn more about AC maintenance services from Quality Heating, Cooling, and Plumbing here, or call us at 918-518-5900 to schedule an appointment.