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House of Horrors: How to prevent an insect infestation in your own home

The sight of an infestation might make your skin crawl, but there are a few ways you can prevent it from happening to you

Whether it's a snake in your living room, mice in the attic, or cockroaches in your coffee maker, during the summer months, creatures look for ways to get into your home.

They come in through every crack and crevice in even the cleanest homes, but there is a way to prevent your home from becoming a house of horrors.

Dr. Bruce Snyder is an assistant professor at Georgia College. He studies bugs, and centipedes are his favorite.

In the lab, the insects are contained, but outside? Millions just like them roam free.

“They’re a part of the ecosystem and they’re coming into your house because your house is in their environment,” said Snyder.

If they had their way, bugs would take over.

“Sometimes you walk into a room and shine a light and the whole wall starts moving almost,” said Ben Dupree.

Dupree is a manager for Arrow Exterminators and he says the sight of an infestation is enough to make your skin crawl. He’s seen it all from ant armies, to terrible termites and bugs with too many legs to count.

Allison Stover says even though ants look tiny, they quickly became a big bother.

“I would have a can of Coke on my nightstand and I would wake up and there would be a line of them from the wall right up to my nightstand and inside the Coke can,” she said.

She found them hiding in the carpet, marching across the hardwood floor, and seeping out of her walls into the bathroom and kitchen.

“I’m thankful it wasn’t cockroaches,” she said.

Exterminators say your kitchen lures bugs in with food, water and warmth. Look out for them in appliances like your stove, coffee pot and be especially careful of small appliances you purchased at a yard sale.

They’ll crawl through holes and cracks in your wall. Snakes like to find places to hide, like your dryer hose, and bats are prone to take up residence in your attic.

To prevent a bug battle in your home, the Environmental Protection Agency recommends sealing cracks and holes, checking boxes and bags before bringing them inside, and cleaning up clutter. Pests love cardboard.

Stover took matters into her own hands by spraying pesticides and laying out traps. She doesn’t mind these guys being outside, but she doesn’t want them coming back in.

Dupree says most of their calls to treat for pests are for German Cockroaches and bed bugs. He says bed bugs are so tiny, the naked eye can’t see them.

He recommends that you leave anything outside that you bought at a yard sale for a couple of days to get the bugs off, and sanitize when possible.

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