by blogediter | Jun 23, 2023 | Chimney Plugs
Want to know how to keep wasps and flies out of your home?
We have 6 easy DIY steps that can help you keep wasps and flies out of your home, and stop other even more destructive bugs from infesting your home this summer.
My son loves bugs, he always has. Ant hills, spider webs, beetle burrows… He finds them all fascinating. However the rest of the family is not a fan, so I keep a pretty strict regimen of preventative measures to keep wasps and flies and termites and all kinds of creepy critters outside the boundaries of our house.
Here are some measures that keep wasps and flies out of our home:
- Wash fruit with vinegar water and keep it in the fridge. Fruit comes from all over the globe, and tends to have insect eggs and spores on it. I won’t bother you with the gory details, but you should really wash your fruit in water with a cup of vinegar. If you need to ripen some fruit, keep it in the shade on the back porch, not inside.
- Check and repair the loose and full open hidden openings to your house. Your dryer vent and fireplace damper are examples of loose openings. They close, but not tightly. You may wonder how to keep wasps from building nests in the chimney. Don’t rely on your fireplace damper to close your chimney tight enough to keep bugs or bats out. Install a wool Flueblocker or Chimney Balloon to seal it off super tightly. Clean the lint off flapper on the outside and make sure the hinge is working, so the flapper closes tightly when the dryer is off.Often a home builder will cut a hole in the wall of the home for a pipe or wires to come through, but they leave extra space around the hole. Use foam and caulk to close all of those penetrations in the homes envelope to keep wasps and flies out of your home as well as crawling bugs.
- Check the weatherstripping around your doors and put your porch lights on motion sensors. Weatherstripping keeps out the bugs, but it takes a beating over time as the door is used. It is very easy to replace weatherstripping with self-adhesive strips.Porch lights draw in flying and crawling bugs at night, and when you go through your door the mosquitoes and other bugs like a to hitch a ride into the house. Putting your lights on motion sensors limits the time your light it on, and keeps wasps and flies out of your home.
Sprayer to keep wasps and flies out of your home
- Keep shrubs from touching the side of your house and spray a boundary around your home. Keep your shrubs and other vegetation trimmed so it does not come in contact with your outer walls of your home. This will limit crawling bugs from getting in the walls. At the base of the walls spray a boundary spray. I use Taurus SC mixed into a garden sprayer, but you can use ready to spray kits like Ortho Home defense.Spray a 4″ to 6″ boundary on the base of the exterior wall all the way around the house and around each bottom level window. Give special attention to downspouts and any pipe or wire penetrations in the home envelope. Just be sure to follow the directions on the pesticide label.
- Trees are routes of bug entry too. Each year while I am on my roof cleaning the solar panels and scooping out the gutters, I use my bug boundary spray up there too. I spray the our edge of the roof deck by the gutters, and around any vents that come through the roof. I also spray the crown of my fireplace chimney and around the cap. This helps to keep wasps and flies out of your home, since they love to follow cooking smells down the chimney.
- Lets talk termites. If you live in an area with termites (like I do in SC) then you need to take them seriously. They can get inside of any house, and you wont even see their entry point since they are subterranean. Every 7 years I do a termite trench with Dominion 2L all the way around my home. Termite trenching is when you dig a 6″ trench line at the base of your outside wall you saturate the dirt with termiticide and put it back in the trench.
Termite trenching effectively creates a bug-killing moat around you home. If you are not so keen on that much shoveling, you can hire a company to do this for you. They often offer an insurance for their work called a termite bond. If you decide to DIY it, as always be sure to follow the directions on the label.
It is hard to keep wasps and flies out of your home, as well as ants, termites, cockroaches, spiders, etc… but it is worth the effort.
Maintaining a home is tough work, especially if you are a DIY kind of person. You can always hire a company to do this work for you, but it is worth the knowledge of knowing how to DIY it if you need to keep wasps and flies out of your home.
by blogediter | Jun 19, 2023 | Chimney Problems
How to stop bats and birds from entering your fireplace chimney
Have you ever spent your evening with all the doors and windows open as you try to coax a bat or bird out of your house? Then you know bats and birds are common pests that can find their way into your home through the fireplace chimney. Birds and bats eat mosquitos and are great to see flitting around your yard, but they are lousy house guests. So lets see how do I keep bats from coming down my chimney?
Bats can carry diseases, so there are dangers of bats in chimney, and you can’t safely smoke out bats in chimney. You may be wondering how to tell if bats in chimney. Bats in chimney sound like a quiet squeaky bike wheel, and they make a scuffling and scratchy noise as they climb. Bat removal from chimney cost stat at $120 for the service call and it usually cost another $100 for the relocation of the animal. So it is best to keep them from entering and claiming your chimney for their home.
Birds can make a mess and damage your chimney and home. Birds can make obnoxious noise and bring in flammable nesting material that plugs the chimney. Also their droppings smell very bad.
You cannot burn or smoke out birds either. But, if you have bats and birds in your chimney, there are a few things you can do to get rid of them and prevent them from coming back.
Listed below are 4 steps to stop bats and birds from entering your fireplace chimney:
1. Seal up any entry points. The first step is to seal up any entry points that bats or birds could use to get into your chimney. This includes any cracks or holes in the seam between where the brick chimney meets the homes wood or vinyl exterior. Inspect the crown and the flashing of the chimney and see if there are cracks they are getting through.
2. Install a chimney cap with a screen. Some chimneys have not cap at all, some have a cover with no screen, some have a screen with no cap. The best cap is one that is galvanized or stainless steel, and has a cover and a screen. A cap like this will last a long time, and prevents bats and birds from getting in, while still allowing smoke to escape. You can get a cheaper powder coated or painted sheet steel chimney cap, but they rust our fast and won’t last long.
3. Use a Flueblocker of Chimney Balloon. If you don’t want to mess with a cap at the roof, Don’t rely on just your metal damper to keep out bats or birds. They can get through a metal damper without even slowing down. Metal dampers are loose and warped, so a bird or bat can slip right past a damper. You will need a tight seal from a Chimney Balloon or wool Flueblocker to stop a bat or bird.
Bird in fireplace chimney flue
4. Call a professional. If you have a serious problem with bats or birds getting in repeatedly or nesting in your home, you may need to call a professional. A wildlife removal company will be able to safely and humanely remove the pests from your home, and troubleshoot the areas that may be letting them in. Sometimes the chimney is not the only location they gain entry.
Getting help stop bats and birds from entering your fireplace chimney
by blogediter | May 10, 2019 | Gas Logs
Q: I have a set of gas logs that are un-vented. Am I able to use the Chimney Balloon to completely seal off the outside air and use the fireplace at the same time? I have a damper and would keep it closed, but I would be afraid the “auto-deflate” option might kick in on me. – NE
A: Dear NE,
Even if it is a vent free gas log If you light a fire under a Chimney Balloon it will burst and deflate. The heat will sneak up past your damper and get the Chimney Balloon to its burst temperature point.
However, it does benefit you to have the Chimney Balloon in while the vent-free gas log unit is not in operation. – Jason
by blogediter | Feb 25, 2019 | Chimney Plugs
Q: Jason, See below. There doesn’t seem to be enough room under my damper to use the Chimney Pillow/Balloon. There is plenty of drafts. – SZ
A: SZ, Thank you for the pictures. they are very descriptive. With this application, I would tend to recommend to put the Chimney Balloon above the damper. I see you have what appears to be sufficient room below the damper if you open it up to get the handle out of the way, but I think the best route would be to measure above the damper with a folding carpenters ruler. I have attached a diagram of your chimney if it does have a smoke chamber above the damper in the flue, If you install it high enough you may even be able to close the damper after the Chimney Balloon is installed. I am just taking a guess that this fireplace does have a smoke chamber, but even if it doesn’t I think the best install location is above the damper. See the diagram below. – Jason
by blogediter | Apr 30, 2018 | Chimney Plugs
Flue Walls Slant
Q: Inside my fireplace, about 29″ up from above the opening is the damper. Just below the damper and each of the four sides or slit type openings. I do not know why. Maybe for air? I just saw the picture from SH and that is what mine likes like except all 4 sides slant in. It is about 10×10 at the damper. – KT
A: Dear KT, Since the sides slant on all 4 sides we will have to do the install high or low. We can use a HEK extender and a small 12×12 Chimney Balloon to install above the damper, or we can use the ledge that is generally just on the lintel and install a larger 36×15 Chimney Balloon. The lower install is easier but the balloon may be slightly visible from the room. _ Jason
