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How insulation protects your home from pests in Corning NY

How Insulation Protects Your Home From Pests

We mentioned in a prior post that insulation helps protect your home from pests. In this post we’re going to take a deeper dive into how that’s the case.

An All-Around Solution

Did you know that insulation can help protect your home from termites, fleas, beetles, ants, cockroaches, and silverfish? That’s just to name a few. It can also protect against rodents and other larger pests. All this in addition to making your home more energy efficient, reducing noise, and guarding against mold and mildew. Did we mention it makes your home more fire resistant as well? It sounds almost miraculous, but it’s true. Insulation can truly be an all-around solution to several of your home’s enemies.

Certain types of insulation are able to work magic against pests. And perhaps the best news of all is that the solution is permanent. Once the proper insulation is applied you won’t have to worry about it ever degrading or needing replacement, and the pest control benefits go on and on.

But...

The Wrong Move

While it’s important to know how insulation can help rid your home of pests, it’s just as important to know that the wrong kind of insulation – or damaged insulation – can make your home a pest magnet.

The most common type of insulation also happens to be the most conducive to inviting pests into your home. The elephant in the room is fiberglass. Yes, behind just about every wall and in every attic in America is fiberglass insulation. It’s a pretty good insulator, and it’s relatively inexpensive. It also encourages pest invasions.

Fiberglass traps moisture which pests need to live. Rodents eat it. It leaves gaps and does nothing to seal cracks, which gives insects and spiders an open doorway. If your home has only fiberglass insulation then you have little or no protection against pests.

The Right Move

Let’s talk solutions.

While this post isn’t intended to be an advertisement for spray foam, the truth is that when it comes to pests, polyurethane spray foam is your friend.

Spray foam is an excellent pest deterrent. When properly applied it leaves no gaps, and pests won’t eat it or nest in it. It doesn’t sag or deteriorate, so it serves as a permanent pest deterrent. Open-cell spray foam allows water to drain out of it, which serves as a further deterrent to pests – there is none of the moisture left around that is so inviting to them.

The fibrous nature of fiberglass makes a perfect home for pests, but spray foam creates a solid, impermeable barrier that gives no place for pests to enter. Foam fills every gap, crack, and crevice, so it acts like a coat of armor, never giving pests a chance to gain entry.

With open-cell spray foam, it expands to fill every space around it. This takes away all the places where pests might try to build a nest.

Foam insulation provides year-round protection. It works when pests are seeking shelter from summer heat, and it works when they are looking for a place to hide or hibernate from winter cold.

A little-known fact is that spray foam will kill some pests on contact when it’s first applied. It’s hard to beat a solution that begins working from the very first day.

Another Solution

Now that we sang the praises of spray foam, let’s look at another good solution. Natural fiber cellulose, when combined with natural borate brings together the best of both worlds. Fiber cellulose is an excellent insulator, and borate is a potent pesticide. By treating the cellulose with borate, we have an excellent alternative to spray foam. The great thing about cellulose is that it can be applied over existing fiberglass without losing any of its protective properties.

Perhaps the best news about borate-treated cellulose is that it’s safe for humans. Skin contact with borates is non-toxic – it doesn’t cause itching, burning, or other irritation. And there are no harmful gases released into the air.

Now let’s look at some specific pests, and see how insulation works against them.

Cockroaches

Cellulose treated with borate works well against what is probably the most infamous household “guest” – the cockroach. When cockroaches crawl through treated cellulose, borate rubs off on their shell. Back at the nest, the cockroach self-grooms by eating the borate. This kills the cockroach. As a bonus, the borate is shed in the nest where other cockroaches eat it and are killed as well. Borate is beneficial not just for eliminating cockroaches, but for all types of insects that are self-grooming.

Rodents

Let’s talk rodents. These critters can be the most difficult to get rid of because they find insulated homes irresistibly perfect environments. Rodents like relatively dry places protected from the weather, and their favorite thing of all is a soft and warm place to build a nest. Some insulation—especially fiberglass—is perfect from the standpoint of the warmth and softness it offers. And since fiberglass doesn’t seal gaps or cracks, it makes it easy for rodents to enter.

The number one way insulation helps with rodents – and the only truly effective way to deal with them – is to prevent them from entering your home in the first place. This is where spray foam shines. It can, and should be applied to every crack, crevice, gap, or opening. A thorough inspection should be made before application to make sure that not a single potential opening is missed. Rodents will exploit the tiniest of opportunities, and even one missed gap can lead to an infestation. A rodent can squeeze through a space as small as 1/4” in diameter.

Termites

Just the mention of these nasty creatures can send shivers down the spine of the average homeowner. Termites are destructive, pervasive, and abundant in many parts of the U.S. Termite treatments by pest control companies can be invasive, and expensive. But the right kind of insulation can help.

Foam board, when properly treated with an insecticide, can be installed along the home’s foundation to prevent termite infestations. There are several caveats that go along with this, such as proper installation, factory treatment of the foam with the correct insecticide, and local building codes that govern foam board usage below grade. But by checking all the right boxes, foam board can provide a long-lasting barrier to one of the nation’s most dreaded pests.

What if I’m Worried about Pests?

Insulation can help! Beyond just helping to maintain a comfortable temperature, the correct type of insulation, when properly installed, will stand guard against pests 24x7.

An inspection by a qualified insulation expert and a consultation with that expert about your concerns and needs is the next step in learning more about the quality of insulation already installed in your home and the possible presence of any pests. At Koala Insulation, our technicians are experts in all kinds of insulation materials and installation techniques. Our experts bring state-of-the-art equipment with them to thoroughly inspect your home or building top to bottom, inside and out. They will give you a detailed assessment of your home. They will design a custom solution to meet your needs, and will help answer your questions about the effect pests may have had on your insulation. And since every building is unique, your expert may suggest a combination of installation options to protect your home from cold, heat, moisture, and pests.

Don’t forget that the investment you make today will reap years of energy-saving benefits. Contact us now to schedule a consultation to start your journey toward higher energy efficiency and better protection for your home.