Whether you see a rodent crawl through the hallway or notice ants in the sink, no one wants to find pests in their personal space. As the property manager, it’s part of your job to prevent pest invasions on your rental property to the best of your ability. 

While a lot of preventive pest control involves the cleaning responsibilities of the tenant, there are things the property manager can do to prevent infestations in Tampa rental properties. 

1. Set Expectations For Your Tenant 

When your tenant moves in, if you fail to provide expectations on how they should treat your property, you may be disappointed with the results. 

Explain cleaning guidelines in writing to prevent miscommunications over the phone or in person. If you have a conversation with your tenant about your expectations over a phone call, following up via email can ensure nothing gets lost in translation. 

The minimum cleaning guidelines you should set for your tenant should include the following: 

• Taking out the trash regularly.

• Sweeping, mopping, vacuuming.

• Cleaning up after cooking and eating.

• Regularly cleaning bathroom appliances, toilet, sink, and shower.

• Reporting any plumbing issues immediately, such as leaks.

Emphasizing that this will prevent pest invasions can help motivate your tenant. If they understand the consequences of improper cleaning, they may be less likely to assume you’re being petty. 

2. Ensure You Have A System For Trash

Throwing away trash is an essential part of pest control. Pests like sugar ants, pavement ants, and American cockroaches in Tampa are attracted to garbage and will flood your property if you do not control them regularly.

Your role is to ensure you have suitable systems as the property manager. Keeping a dumpster on the property and supplying garbage cans to your renters is essential. 

Contact services in your area if you need assistance, such as to supply a dumpster or provide waste collection services. 

3. Be Responsive To Your Tenant 

If your tenant contacts you with a pest concern, such as seeing signs of termite damage, it’s crucial to be responsive. That is because if the matter requires a pest control service, you are legally required to be involved in the process. 

After discussing the concern, if the renter gives you contact information to a pest control company, it’s necessary to contact the company immediately. 

While cleaning is essential for preventative measures, inspections, exclusions, and other pest control services can be vital in keeping pests away. 

4. Learn About Pests

It’s necessary to learn about the possible pests if you want to understand how pest control works.

Common pests in Tampa are: 

• Sugar ants

• Fire ants

• Ghost ants

• German cockroaches

• American cockroaches

• Rodents

• Mosquitoes

• Termites

Different pests leave different forms of damage. For example, chewed-up wires may result from rodents, while decaying wood may be from termites.

Other pests, such as ants and mosquitoes, are more nuisance than damaging. The only exception is carpenter ants, which can damage the wood in your home. 

Mosquitoes, on the other hand, can come with health risks. Viruses such as Zika and Malaria are out there. However, the likelihood of catching a mosquito-borne illness in Tampa is extremely low. 

You can do certain things to prevent mosquitoes on your rental property. First, it’s essential to know that mosquitoes reproduce in shallow, standing water. 

That means puddles, containers, objects pooling water, or untreated pools could be attracting mosquitoes, so it’s crucial to take action so you can reduce the population. 

Ways to reduce standing water:

• Ensure gutters are draining properly. 

• Bring empty flower pots, spare tires, buckets, or anything that can fill with water inside or under covered areas. 

• Make sure you attend to your pool regularly. 

• Replace bird bath water regularly.

• Ensure the lawn isn’t overwatered.

It’s difficult to prevent mosquitoes in Tampa without the help of a pest control company, but understanding these details is a great starting point. 

5. Seal Entry Points

When pests are inside your rental property, it means they have an entrance. Understanding common entry points and sealing them can help prevent severe infestations. 

To find rodent entry points, you can look for signs like droppings, grease marks, bite marks, and footprints. Common spots are cracks and gaps in your foundation, windows, pipes, or electrical wiring. 

Having these entry points sealed is the best way to prevent an infestation. If you don’t want to do this yourself, you can always get help from an expert who can provide rodent exclusion services. 

Ants can enter your property through even tinier entry points. That could be the smallest gaps in your door and windows or even faulty plumbing. 

To seal ant entry points, you can have your plumbing checked out, seal visible entry points with caulk, or contact a pest control professional who can do all the above.