Pests can be surprisingly resourceful, and they’ll do just about anything to get food and shelter. Even if you’ve followed some of the tips we’ve provided in the past, it’s easy to get paranoid that you’re not doing enough. After all, pests only need one way in to make themselves comfortable.

Trust us when we say we sympathize with that paranoia. That’s why we wanted to explain a few of the sneakiest ways pests can get into your business. If you actually are forgetting something, it’s probably one of these.

Tree Branches

You probably don’t picture mice, roaches, and fleas climbing trees and then leaping onto your building like spider monkeys. While it may seem crazy, pests of all kinds use tree branches to access your building’s roof tops and windows. Rodents, roaches, bed bugs, fleas, and more can all easily climb up trees and race along tree branches.

Once they’re up, they use the tree branch as a makeshift bridge to get close to a scalable surface. Once they’re on the roof, pests can use vents, chimneys, or other openings to get into the building. Look for tree branches that are either physically touching or hanging close to any part of the building. Have someone trim them down. Maintaining the trees near your building deprives pests of a surprisingly common infestation route.

Garages

Like windows and doors, garage doors have a rubber weatherstrip on their bottoms. This rubber strip seals the garage when the door closes. The soft rubber prevents damage when the door impacts the floor. Along with protecting the door, the seal also protects the garage and the home from weather and pests.

The seal created by the rubber strip fills in the gap between floor and garage door. This prevents wind and pests from sneaking under and getting into the garage. However, sometimes time and exposure wear down the strip. Tenacious pests may even chew through it. When gaps appear in a garage doors’ weather stripping, rodents and other small pests may be able to crawl under the garage to get into the building.

In Your Bag

It’s not fun to think about, but pests can and will sneak into bags to get into a building. Backpacks, purses, suitcases, food bags, and pretty much any else you carry around may be susceptible to unwanted hitchhikers. Especially if it has food, candy, soda, or wrappers in it.

Watch where you’re putting your bags. If you’re concerned at all about pests, carefully inspect whatever you were carrying the moment you arrive at your destination. If you can, consider throwing your bag into the dryer to heat up and kill little pests like bed bugs that may be hard to see. If you have to keep food in a bag you’re carrying around, keep it in a sealed plastic container. Try to make sure your bag doesn’t smell; if you can smell it, you can bet pests can too.

Air Vents

Yes, rats can Die Hard their way into your building, too. Air vents lead to small spouts on the rooftop, where they get the fresh air they circulate through the building. Pests that can access the rooftop can crawl into and down these spouts to get into the building. In particularly unfortunate circumstances, pests may even lay eggs or die in the vents, creating either a multi-generational infestation or a terrible smell.

First, find out if your building puts screens on their air vents and spouts. If they don’t, invest in a couple. Vent screens let air in and out just fine, but they’ll stop any pest looking for a way in. Even if you have screens, however, you may need to maintain, repair, or replace them periodically. Rats and other rodents may bite through steel screens if they get desperate enough, though it will take them a lot of time.

Don’t blame yourself or your co-workers if you end up with a pest infestation. Remember: you might be preventing pests to stay comfortable, but pests are trying to get in to survive. Their lives depend on breaching your defenses, so over the years they’ve gotten pretty good at it.

No matter how good they get, however, we’ll always be smarter and more thorough. Plug up all these vulnerabilities and stay vigilant, and you’ll be able to keep even the most resourceful of pests away. And if you need a little helping hand, all you have to do is call Assured anytime. We’ve yet to meet a pest we couldn’t beat.