It’s a disturbing fact of nature that spiders, moths, bedbugs, roaches, fleas, and body lice are all drawn to your closet like a moth to a flame. Not only can this be emotionally disturbing, but it can damage your high-value garments and even create unnecessary health risks.
Fortunately, there are a few things that you can do to help get insects out of your closets and keep them out for good. If you’ve got one bug too many already lurking somewhere in the dark depths of your closet, you might want to consider implementing one of the following tips to deal with the problem in short order.
Reduce Clutter
By their nature spiders, bed bugs and a lot of other bothersome closet insects like to hide in cracks, crevices, and hard-to-reach places. This includes the spaces in between stacked boxes, the corners behind totes, and piles of old papers. Getting as much “Clutter” out of your closets as possible reduces the available habitat for them to exploit when you aren’t looking.
Keep Clothes On Hangers
Hanging your clothes up on hangers does more than just help prevent wrinkles. It will also keep a lot of creepy crawly insects like spiders away from them. These are insects that can’t fly and aren’t going to care about something they can’t reach. If you were also diligent about getting the clutter out of their way, you’ll eave them with little habitat to exploit. These creepy crawly insects might just move on of their own accord.
Hang Accessories On Hooks
Insects don’t really have a sense of esthetic value. This means they are just as happy to infest your accessories as they are your garments. Adding hooks into your closet gives you a functional place to hand accessories like scarves and necklaces, to keep the creepy crawly insects out of the way. It will also make it easier for you to find what you need to find when you want to find it.
Install Wire Basket Systems
Wire basket systems are the new hot thing in organizational strategies. They are lightweight to the point that you can easily install them under shelves on special runners. This lets you pull the wire basket out as if it was a drawer. You can store a lot of lightweight loose items that might otherwise be in boxes or cluttering up the floor of your closet.
Use Shelf Dividers
Shelf dividers are a better alternative to cardboard boxes when it comes to keeping clutter and little crevices out of your closets. Best of all the help you get your shelves organized and keep them organized.
Hang Shoes Behind The Door
As freaky as it might sound, insects are often drawn to shoes. Particularly sweaty shoes or women’s leather shoes. Installing wire shoe shelves on the back of your door or hanging an over-the-door shoe pouch system puts them out of range and out of the scent biosphere of a lot of the crawling insects that are drawn to them.
Ways To Repel Insects From Your Closet
Even once you’ve gotten the bugs out of your closet, you are still at risk of them finding their way back in again. Especially with things like body lice and bed bugs that can infest carpets, and other parts of your adjoining bedroom. Though there are a few things you can do to help keep them from finding their way back into your closet that doesn’t involve foul-smelling chemical bug bombs.
Ultrasonic Insect Repellents
A lot of insects, like spiders, can hear sounds in the ultrasonic range that goes beyond what human ears can detect. Installing an ultrasonic repellent device at your closet door is a silent way to deter insects from reentering. It is especially helpful with spider problems.
Make Your Own Spider Repellent Spray
You can mix ordinary household things together into a solution to spot spray to help drive spiders and other larger insects away. This is as simple as combining 1 cup each of pepper and vinegar with 1 teaspoon each of both dish soap and oil. With a gentle mix, you can pour it into a spray bottle and spray the solution around any problem areas.
Citrus
Citrus-based, all-natural organic sprays can also help drive away a wide range of insects. They are preferable to using real citrus products, which might be able to deter spiders and many other common household bugs, only to replace them with an annoying fruit fly problem.
Mint Plants & Oils
Mint is also known to be a strong insect repellent. If your closet door is near a window with a fair amount of natural light, you could carefully position a mint plant. Though there are plenty of all-natural mint extracts and mint oils that you could just as easily use. Just make sure that they are made from real mint and not some sort of synthetic mint compound, which insects are not as likely to recognize. The net benefit here is that you also get a fresh minty odor in your closet and the surrounding room.
Hang Fresh Cedar Near Moth-Vulnerable Garments
The natural smell of cedar has been known to not only repel moths but can even kill some of their larvae. This is why you often see simple cedar blocks wrapped in plastic hanging in the shelving section of hardware stores. Here again, you get some natural insect repellent as well as the fresh odor of cedar. Just bear in mind that the cedar effect is only good for 6 to 12 weeks depending on the ambient humidity.
Conclusion
No one wants insects in their closet. Though there are a few things you can do to get them out of your closet and help keep them out in the long run. Start by reducing clutter and getting things as organized as possible.
From there make every effort to hang as many garments and accessories as possible. This will deter creepy-crawly insects, while also helping to get them organized. Finally, you can use all-natural odors like mint, cedar, or citrus to drive bugs away from your closet, while also adding refreshing odors to the surrounding room.
