9 Easy Ways to Keep the Backyard Bugs Away

by California Casualty | Homeowners Insurance Info | 0 comments

We love being outside in the summertime for a backyard barbecue or an evening gathering around the fire pit. Unfortunately, the bugs love it too. If you’re tired of itchy mosquitos, armies of ants, and other pesky pests, read on. We’ve got the answer for what bugs you!

Here are some of our favorite tips and tricks to keep backyard bugs away.

1. Start with scents.

Bugs hate strong smells of mint and citrus. They’re also not fond of some other scents. Here are some ways to use these smells against them.

• • • Put mint-flavored mouthwash in a spray bottle and spray your tables, chairs, and patio perimeter.
    • Place a few drops of essential oils on cotton balls and place them around your entertaining area. Choose scents of peppermint, citrus, lavender, or eucalyptus.
    • Make fly-repelling sachets of potpourri using cloves and bay leaves.
    • Burn a citronella torch or candle. Citronella is made from bug repellant grasses and helps to mask the smell of carbon dioxide and human lactic acid, both of which attract some bugs.

2. Place your plants.

Some herbs and flowers are natural pest deterrents. Bringing them into your garden and around your entertaining areas can help keep bugs at bay. These plants are often bug-specific.

• • To protect against mosquitoes, try basil, catnip, lavender, citronella, lemon-scented geraniums, lemon thyme, marigold, and rosemary plants.
  • To ward off flies, try basil, catnip, and lavender plants.
  • For moths and fleas, use lavender.
  • Chrysanthemums help protect against roaches, ants, ticks, and fleas.
  • Garlic and rosemary plants can repel biting insects.
  • A chive and lemongrass garden can ward off other pests.

3. Mind your mulch.

Too much mulch gives cockroaches and ants the perfect home for nesting. You don’t want that too near your entertainment area or your home.

• • Keep mulch at least 12 inches from the foundation.
  • Consider replacing mulch with inorganic rock or gravel.
  • Do make sure to have some mulch, grass, or ground covering. Yellow jackets make their nests by tunneling into bare dirt.

4. Turn on the fan.

Fans work in two ways to keep mosquitos away. Mosquitos aren’t strong fliers and so the breeze can prevent them from getting close. Fans also help disperse carbon dioxide and other chemical cues that mosquitos use to locate their hosts.

• • Turn on the patio fan or bring a portable fan outside. Both will work. Set them on medium or high settings.
  • Oscillating fans may be even more effective, as they help to move the air in different directions.
  • Consider several fans blowing in different directions to cover your entertaining area.

5. Redo your outdoor lighting.

Bright white or bluish lights attract insects because they emit shorter wavelengths. Bulbs that burn hotter also attract their share of bugs. Switch your outdoor lighting to reduce the number of your nightly “visitors.”

• • Replace white light bulbs with longer wavelength colors like yellow ones. The orange or yellowish glow is less visible to some insects.
  • Replace your incandescent and halogen bulbs, which give off a lot of heat, for ones that don’t. LED and fluorescent bulbs emit much less heat than others with the same wattage.
  • Reduce the wattage. Rather than 100 watts, try 60. Dimmer bulbs are harder for insects to see.

Pro Tip: If you are using older LED bulbs, you will need to replace them. Early versions had a coating that gave off more heat than current models.

6. Address standing water.

Standing water is the perfect nursery for mosquitos, gnats, and other bugs. Make sure you don’t have any standing water on your property, or if you do, take steps to eliminate or reduce the risk.

• • Remove standing water from gutters and downspouts.
  • Keep kiddie pools, buckets, and watering cans empty when they are not in use.
  • Get a birdbath with running water to reduce the chance of mosquitoes breeding.
  • Treat standing water with mosquito dunk pellets. This will allow them to fly but they will be sterile and cannot reproduce.

7. Build a bat house.

Attracting the predators that eat bugs can help you naturally reduce the insect population. One small bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes an hour, which is a great reason to buy or build a bat house.

• • Buy or build one that is at least 24 inches high by 16 inches wide.
  • Bats prefer to roost on buildings or concrete structures rather than trees. It helps protect them against their predators.
  • Mount the house at least 10 feet off the ground and 20-30 feet from the nearest tree if possible.
  • The location should have a nearby water source and at least 6 hours of daily sun.

8. Build a bug trap.

Commercial bug traps are available, but it’s easy to make your own from materials that you probably already have around the house. Put your bug trap outside a few hours before you entertain or anytime you want a bug-free area.

• • Start with a 2-liter soda bottle. Take off its cap and throw that away.
  • Measure about 4 inches from the top of the spout and mark that. Use that line to cut around the bottle so that it is now in 2 pieces.
  • Insert the spout inside the open top so it points back down to the bottom.
  • Tape the pieces together to seal them.
  • Fill with soda or a sweet liquid to attract bugs, bees, wasps, etc.

Pro Tip: Fill a small bowl of apple cider vinegar and mix in a few drops of dish detergent. The scent will attract fruit flies and the soap will create a barrier that prevents their escape.

9. Keep it clean.

Keeping your patio or deck clean will help deter bugs. That’s because any morsel of food or sticky substance can attract them.

• • Sweep any crumbs. Wipe away spilled liquid.
  • Make sure all your garbage cans and recycling bins have covers to prevent breeding flies. Move them away from your entertaining spots.
  • Fill a spray bottle with a mixture of one part hydrogen peroxide to two parts water. Spray your patio or deck surface and perimeter. Be careful not to mix this with food or drinks.
  • Ticks like to hide in tall grass so keep your grass mowed and maintain your lawn. Trim back bushes or tree branches that touch your home, and which help pests get inside.

This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.

11 Ways to Reduce Allergens in Your Home

by California Casualty | Homeowners Insurance Info | 0 comments

As the weather warms up, seasonal allergies can collide with everyday household allergens to create the perfect storm of misery for allergy sufferers. If you or your family members are allergy-prone, there are steps you can take to minimize allergens throughout your home and throughout pollen season. 

These 11 tips can help vastly improve your home’s indoor air quality, helping prevent asthma flare-ups, new cases of mold allergies, and the need for bulk purchases of tissues and antihistamines! 

1. Clean well, clean often. A clean house is a healthier house. Regular, thorough cleaning of all surfaces and furnishings will keep allergen counts down, prevent mold and decrease pet dander. Besides the regular surfaces, keep in mind too that clearing out clutter is a big factor in controlling dust. One more reason to get rid of extra stuff! 
2. Vacuum regularly. Consistent vacuuming is a powerful weapon in removing allergens, toxins, mold spores, mites, and other offenders. Depending on your household’s activity levels and allergy sensitivity, you may need to vacuum as often as every other day or so. Use a HEPA filter in your vacuum and change it often. 
3. Control dust mites. These critters thrive in bedding and linens that aren’t cleaned often enough. Keep them in check by washing bedding, uncovered pillows, and kids’ stuffed toys in hot water each week, and dry with high heat. Zippered allergen-resistant covers for mattresses, pillows, and box springs are especially effective against allergy attacks. Avoiding heavy drapes, wall-to-wall carpet and overstuffed fabric furniture also control mites, as does humidity-regulating air-conditioning. 
4. Limit indoor greenery. House plants add beauty, but many times they can harbor mold. Try to cull out all but your favorites, and for the plants you do keep, lay down aquarium gravel on top of the soil to discourage mold growth.  
5. Get an air filter or purifier. Air cleaning devices can significantly improve indoor air quality (if you’re on the west coast, these are a lifesaver during wildfire season). Go for high-quality air filters such as HEPA or certified asthma/allergy ones. Choose from stand-alone filters or those designed to be installed in your central air system – or better yet, both! 
6. Stay ahead of pet dander. Keeping up with a vacuuming and cleaning schedule will help limit dander. You can also cover vents with material such as cheesecloth to catch circulating dander. Regularly wash and dry pet beds and toys. Bathe pets weekly and wear a mask when grooming them. And finally, if you’re able to resist the puppy-dog eyes, try not to let pets sleep in bedrooms.
7. Keep pollen out. Keep doors and windows closed and use the air conditioning to keep pollen, dust, and other toxins outside. Change air filters frequently, especially during pollen season.  
8. Prevent mold. Damp areas breed mold spores, which then travel throughout your home. Reduce moisture in the bathroom by running a fan during and after showers, minimizing shower time, and making sure wet clothes, towels, and bathing suits are hung or dried. To further limit the spread of mold, use dehumidifiers and/or air conditioning, use humidity monitors if needed, limit the number of houseplants and fix all leaks. 
9. Control pests. Prevent cockroaches and mice with traps or hire a professional exterminator. Repel them in the first place by always putting garbage, food waste, and recycling into containers with an insect-proof lid and emptying bins daily. Keep the kitchen free of crumbs and food scraps. Store pet food in sealed containers. Seal cracks and other possible pest entryways.
10. Dehumidify. Use a dehumidifier in especially damp areas such as the basement.
11. Adopt a no-smoking policy. Do not allow smoking inside your home. Besides a range of serious health effects, tobacco smoke can also cause asthma – not just for the smoker but for anyone exposed to secondhand smoke.

The bad news about allergies? They will always be around us. The good news? We can do something about them! A thorough spring cleaning can get you on the right track (not sure where to start? – check out our tips here!). After that, consistently following the 11 steps above will help reduce allergens and improve your indoor air quality all year round – which will in turn keep you and your family healthier and safer for years to come. 

This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.

Choosing the Right Home Security System

by California Casualty | Homeowners Insurance Info | 0 comments

You’ve got a few tools at your disposal for protecting your possessions. First, there’s homeowner’s insurance in the case of theft or loss, but you can also take steps to prevent theft in the first place, by getting a quality home security system.

There are lots of great options out there, and as technology continues to progress, the choices keep expanding. In fact, it can all be a bit overwhelming, so let’s dive into the top considerations you’ll want to look at when choosing a security system – including your first decision point: whether to go with a DIY or a professionally installed system.

DIY vs. Professionally Installed

DIY systems come as packaged kits that you need to install yourself. For most, you’ll be doing the security monitoring, usually via a smartphone app, but some require you to pay for professional monitoring. Professionally installed systems, on the other hand, are installed by a technician, and monitoring is done by the company (trained dispatchers verify triggered alarms and dispatch authorities when needed).

DIY Systems:

Pros

• • • Flexibility in tailoring a system to your needs
    • Less expensive and usually no monthly fees

Cons

• • • Requires you to install the system correctly
    • You’re responsible for monitoring (i.e. not missing a smartphone alert!)

Pro-Installed Systems:

Pros

• • • System is expertly installed by a trained technician
    • 24/7 monitoring by professionals who can dispatch at a moment’s notice

Cons

• • • More expensive, with installation and monthly service fees (as well as potential false alarm fees, add-on components, and other fees)
    • Usually require multi-year contracts

Popular Systems

Here are some of the most well-known and top-rated systems on the market. In your research, you may find others as well.

DIY Systems:

• • Cove
  • Ring
  • Simplisafe
  • Frontpoint

Pro-Installed Systems:

• • ADT Security
  • Brinks Home Security
  • Vivant Smart Home
  • Xfinity Home

7 Additional Considerations

As you further hone your choices – be they DIY or pro – here are some other things to take into account.

1. Wireless vs. wired. Systems can be wired or wireless (or sometimes have elements of both). The basic difference is that your control panel and network of sensors are on either a cellular or a landline connection. What you choose will depend on what you need from the system. That said, always make sure to choose a system that includes two-factor authentication for extra security.

2. Pick a system that fits your lifestyle. For instance, is it mainly for when you’re out of town, or also while you’re at home? Do you want it to do smart-home integration, like turning lights off/on, controlling the thermostat, or have sensors for fire, water leak, and glass breaks?

3. Tailor it to your home. For instance, homes with large yards or outdoor areas typically need cameras; condos or apartments can get away with simpler systems.

4. Do your research. No matter if you’re installing your own system or going with a company, learn about all the components available – oftentimes, your system will be a tailored combo of what makes the most sense for keeping your home safe and secure. Systems can include any of the following: control panels, base stations, keypad, locks, contact sensors, motion sensors (interior and exterior), entry sensors, key fobs, glass break sensors, security cameras, door and window sensors, and a variety of different alarms and/or sirens. Most also have signs for your yard or windows to advertise that yours is a secure home.

5. Freedom vs. convenience. If going the DIY route, weigh whether you want the added security of having professional monitoring or if you want to do this yourself. If you’d rather not have that constant responsibility (or stress), that will limit your choices for DIY systems.

6. Conduct due diligence. If you’re leaning towards pro-installed, make sure you get three custom quotes and are clear about how the contracts differ and their terms. Also, take advantage of an in-home consultation if the companies offer it.

7. Check with your local police department. Some municipalities require that anyone running their own security system with professional monitoring obtain a permit. This ensures that their law enforcement and authorities are aware of alarm systems in their jurisdiction.

Choosing the right home security system is a highly personal choice that depends on your lifestyle, budget, home features, and the value of your belongings. Do your research and take your time – but also give yourself a high-five for taking action! Security systems can not only save you money from potential theft, but also prevent the trauma of dealing with a break-in (no one needs that stress right now!). Good luck and also remember to make sure your home insurance is up to date.

This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.