Easy Ways to Prevent Pest Infestation in Your Dumpsters

Do you know what is not amusing? Creepy crawling critters all around your property settled to make your dumpster their home! If you want to prevent pest infestation around your property, your dumpster is where you should start. As the saying goes, ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,’ your dumpster is a treasured breeding ground for cockroaches and other pests.
Proper care and trash handling are necessary to prevent roaches, rats, and raccoons from feasting on your dumpster. Moreover, appropriate disposal of your trash becomes fundamental in preventing a pest infestation. You can always consult a dumpster rental company to manage your waste disposal with comprehensive waste management solutions.

7 Ways to Keep Pests Out of Your Dumpster

Tightly close and properly secure your dumpster lids

The simplest way to keep the crawlies out of your dumpster is to make sure that the lid on top of the trash bin is shut tightly. Apart from the small pests, wild animals like raccoons can also treat themselves in your dumpsters. Self-securing lids are another way to ensure that the dumpster lids are always closed. You can also use bands and clips with hooks to keep it tightly closed.

Repair or Replace your damaged dumpster

You should regularly inspect your trash bin for holes, cracks, or corrosion. These holes and cracks provide spaces for any small flies or cockroaches to enter your bin. Use good-quality reinforcement tape from a hardware store to patch your dumpster. If the damage seems irreversible, consider changing your dumpster to prevent infestation.

Invest in Heavy Duty trash bags

Prevention is always better than cure. Ensure that your trash bags are wrapped tightly, especially if they have food leftovers. Consider investing in heavy-duty trash bags. These are good quality bags that are scratch-proof and don’t tear easily.

Clean your dumpster weekly

Garbage is gross. But it can be more repulsive to clean a dumpster after a few months if there is an infestation and the smell becomes intolerable. Cleaning your dumpster weekly is a good practice for hygiene and keeping those maggots away. This becomes typically necessary if you dispose of your kitchen waste in the trash bin.

Use ammonia

You can spray ammonia in and around your dumpster. Ammonia is a potent chemical. It will discourage any infestation and get rid of it if there is any. Moreover, it can be strong enough to prevent small rodents and raccoons from coming near your trash can.
Note – One needs to be careful when using an ammonia-based solution/spray. It is a strong chemical and is harmful to animals and humans alike.

Install motion-sensor lights

Remember all those Hollywood movies with cute raccoons? Well, those cute creatures can become your real-life nightmare if they start dumpster diving in your bins. If small animals like raccoons and rodents are an issue in and around your area, consider investing in motion-sensing lights. As the name suggests, these lights automatically switch on if they sense any motion, scaring small animals away from your trash bins.
This is a good solution for commercial property or restaurant managers who want to know how to prevent a pest infestation.

Build an enclosure for your dumpster

An openly placed dumpster gives pests and other animals more access to your trash. A dumpster or trash can enclosure is a worthy and cost-efficient idea for people who have an ongoing pest infestation. It is also a good investment for people who have small animals or bears running rampant in their area. The enclosures can be built out of metal, plastic, or wood. They can be either bought from a supplies store or made yourself.
Another alternative for people who don’t prefer enclosures built near their homes is to strap the dumpsters tightly near a pole or a tree.
These are several steps that you can take to deter pest infestation in your dumpsters. Preventing pest infestation in your dumpster is annoying; sometimes, the infestations can still occur and refuse to budge. In that case, any of the steps mentioned can be used together to remove it. One should take extra care while handling infestations as they can trigger health issues. You can also decide to approach a dumpster rental to make your waste management a much easier task for yourself.