Cabins are notoriously difficult when it comes to keeping out bugs and pests. There’s plenty of nooks and crannies for them to get into places they shouldn’t be. And because cabins are often remote, they entice critters for miles around as source of light, warmth, and food. Stay one step ahead of pests this season and use the following four preventative tips to keep them out:
Sweep It Clean
Keeping your cabin clean will reduce its attractiveness to unwanted visitors. Dust will attract bugs, so make sure to deep clean in all your corners and logs. Any food should also be sealed tight, and put away as soon as you’re done eating it.
Seal It Up
As cabins are lived in they naturally start to get cracks, gaps, or other small entry points that can be used by pests. Double check your cabin from roof to foundation for any holes that pests could squeeze through. These may be hard to find, and in some cases you may want to schedule an inspection for this purpose. One of the most commonly overlooked entry points into cabins is the top of a wood stove. Make sure you have mesh around the top of your chimney to stop birds from entering during warmer months.
Keep the Perimeter Tidy
It’s tempting to store things just outside entrances to your cabin, like firewood or tools. But for pest prevention, you want to keep the area immediately around your cabin clean. Remove branchy or grassy areas directly around the foundation. And keep large piles of firewood at least 20 feet away. Critters are drawn to firewood and environments that give them protection–and if these are near your cabin it’s more likely that they’ll end up inside.
Edit Your Light Sources
I’ll never forget the first summer in our cabin when we had unprecedented numbers of moths flock to our outdoor lights. What looked like hundreds of moths were drawn to the light of our cabin from miles around! And many ended up inside the cabin... We quickly learned to keep our lights low at night. Switching to yellow or LED lights will also make your cabin less attractive to moths and other light-seeking bugs.
The easiest way to get rid of bugs and pests in our cabins is to keep them from entering in the first place. Start with these four preventative practices–it will be much easier to prevent unwanted critters from getting in your cabin than to get them out once they’ve made themselves at home!
About Megan
Megan lives with her husband and son in an 800-square-foot log cabin in Jackson Hole, WY. In search of a simpler pace of life, Megan and her husband took a leap of faith to pursue their own cabin dreams: they quit their jobs, sold what they own, and moved across the country from downtown Austin, TX to their mountainside cabin in Jackson Hole, WY.
Megan runs her blog The Cabin Diary (www.thecabindiary.com), and can be found sharing day-to-day cabin life through social media (@thecabindiary).
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