How To Protect Your Plants During Fumigation

Summer is the perfect time of year for termites to swarm around your home and yard. They thrive in the damp, warm environment created from the combination of hot days and heavy afternoon rains. So, right now you might be beginning to make some plans to fumigate your house this fall. You’ll do plenty of research about how you can prepare your home for fumigation. You’ll make plans to get your family and your pets out of the house for a few days.

But there’s one thing you may not have thought of yet. What will you do to protect your indoor and outdoor plants?

As you make your fumigation preparations make sure you consider the following accommodations.

Protecting Your Indoor Plants
This will be easy to remember. If you want your indoor plants to survive, remove them from your home before it is tented. Just like any other living being in your family, the gases used during fumigation are unhealthy for your indoor plants. When your plants absorb the gas it will damage them on a cellular level and make it impossible for them to recover. Remove any living indoor plants from your home and store them in an area that will not be covered by the tent. If you don’t have a garage or other covered storage area for them, place them in an area of your yard where they will get appropriate sun and water.

Protecting Your Outdoor Plants
As with your indoor plants, your outdoor plants should not be subjected to fumigation chemicals. Before the day your tenting begins you should do a thorough walk around your house and take note of all plants that are within three feet of your home’s exterior. Any potted plants can be easily pulled away from the foundation to make room for the tent, but you’ll need to make plans for any other plants.

The gas used during the process will kill the flowering portion of any plant within the tenting barrier, but may not necessarily the effect roots. One excellent way to protect your plants’ roots is to saturate the soil around your home to prevent the gas from absorbing. This will ensure that your plants can eventually grow back.

If you love your plants as they are you may also consider digging them up and transplanting them into a pot or to another part of your property. If handled carefully your pest control team may be able to drape the tarp in such a way that the gases don’t impact your plants at all. Make sure you speak with them in advance so you can plan appropriately.

If you’re a plant lover you know how important indoor and outdoor plants can be to their owners. They help create a beautiful living environment, they clean the air, and they make you feel calm. So, it’s important to consider your greenery when you begin to make arrangements for your home fumigation. If you’re ready to start this process and are looking for the right pest control company to assist you, give us a call. We’d love to help give you the peace of mind that comes with ridding your home of unwanted pests.