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Getting roaches to completely go away will take a lot of effort, and they hardly ever go away on their own. You will likely need a combination of home treatments, like roach sprays and traps, and regular visits from an exterminator, to control an infestation. It can take awhile for these treatments to start working, and you’ll need to stay on top of replacing old traps and having additional extermination services, plus keeping your home clean and decluttered, to deter roaches.

Bed bugs bite your body to feed on blood. When they bite, they inject an anticoagulant, which is why you may see blood stains on your sheets if you have an infestation. The bed bugs tend to bite in clusters, so the bite marks will look like itchy, red spots in zigzagging lines of three to five bites per cluster on your skin.

The bites are itchy, but for most people, they do not cause serious or long-term health complications. Itching the wound excessively could lead to an infection, and some people are allergic to bed bugs.

When it comes to keeping birds from doing their business on your porch rails, you have several DIY options and home remedies you can try: 

• Tie a fishing line from one end of the deck post to the other. Birds won’t be able to see the line across the railing, so they can’t land on it.  

• Hang wind chimes close by, which may scare birds away. 

• Apply a bird gel repellent to the railings, which contains smells that birds generally don’t like. Or, similarly, you can apply citronella or lemon oil around the railings, since birds don’t like strong smells.

Squirrels have a strong sense of smell and can be deterred by various scents they dislike. Effective options include peppermint oil, rosemary, garlic, cinnamon, white vinegar, coffee grounds, and predator urine. Squirrels also have a strong aversion to capsaicin, the compound that makes chili peppers hot, making capsaicin-based repellents a good choice for protecting specific areas like gardens or bird feeders. For a DIY solution, you can create a garlic and vinegar spray and apply it daily. Additionally, placing strong-smelling items like certain soaps or dryer sheets near where squirrels frequent can also be effective.