I work in pest control. Here are 5 things I never do in my home

Most of us only think about getting rid of pests when we wake up with bed bug bites or hear a mouse skitter across the kitchen floor. But the most effective tricks to deal with pests start well before those critters get established inside.

"Prevention is the No. 1 thing to keep in mind," entomologist Matt Frye, Ph.D., tells TODAY.com. "But it's the thing that's least likely to happen."

Too often, people are reactive rather than proactive when it comes to pests. "They don't take any action until there's a problem," says Frye, who is also an educator with the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell University.

And being proactive starts with knowing what's in your area and which critters are likely to be active during certain times of the year, he explains.

Regular newsletters from the National Pest Management Association are a great place to start, Frye suggests. And, if you do notice a bug or rodent inside, reach out to your local Cooperative Extension Office, which should have experts on hand to help identify the pest and treat the issue properly.

Searching for pests online doesn't always provide accurate photos or advice, he says. So getting expert guidance is always a good idea if you're not sure what you're dealing with.

More than anything, though, keeping your home pest-free is "just being a good observer," Frye explains. Here are the pest-management mistakes he wants people to stop making.

I never skip regular inspections.

When the weather gets warm enough, Frye takes a walk around the outside of his home to look for signs that pests could make their way indoors. Borrowing a technique from firefighters, he'll perform a right- or left-handed search, "keeping my hand on the side of the house and walking around," he says.

Once a year, Frye performs this search and looks for openings or gaps that could be signs of pest activity, evidence of rodents (like droppings or gnaw marks) and termite mud tubes. He's especially vigilant for any gaps where the foundation meets the rest of the building and around the sill plate. But watch out for your fingers — spiders may be lurking in those dark spots, he says.

“I do this every year because some of the materials may become brittle and break, and some may be chewed by a rodent if there’s pressure in the outdoor environment,” Frye explains.

He looks from the ground level up to about six feet and keeps a "probe" with him — usually a screwdriver — to poke around for areas that might let pests inside. Anything that the screwdriver can go into "would tell me, OK, this is something that I need to seal," he explains.

Then, every two weeks starting around June, he'll look for and knock down early signs of stinging insect nests in areas that could pose a risk to people, such as playgrounds or near walkways. If allowed, the nests will keep growing and ultimately require a professional to get rid of them, Frye says.

I don't let debris build up outside my house.

Debris around the house and in the gutters can make an attractive area for pests to gather, Frye says, so it's important to keep those places cleared out.

Keeping the gutters clean is especially important in the spring. "If there's anything in there that will prevent water from completely draining from the gutters, that's a really common mosquito breeding habitat," Frye explains. "People often overlook that when they're experiencing mosquitoes in their yard later in the summer."

Around the home, pruning vegetation will prevent the formation of those dark, moist spots that critters love. Frye recommends maintaining "a barrier of two to three feet between vegetation and the home."

The same advice goes for mulch: Avoid the temptation to put mulch right up against the foundation of the house because "that mulch is decaying organic material, which is attractive to a number of critters," Frye explains, and those critters may end up crawling inside if they get the chance. Compost and trash can be attractive to pests as well as wildlife, like raccoons, possums and coyotes, he says, so it's a good idea to keep that farther away from your house.

Finally, avoid placing woodpiles directly adjacent to your home because those can attract mice, Frye says.

I never use bug bombs to treat an infestation.

“A big no to bug bombs," Frye says, mainly because bug bombs aren't effective against bed bugs or cockroaches — the two pests that people most frequently try to eliminate with these products.

That's because bug bombs disperse their active ingredient onto surfaces while the critters they target are adept at hiding in cracks and crevices, where the pesticide won't reach.

"So if there are ants coming in and you deploy a bug bomb," Frye says, "you may kill a few foraging ants, but there's hundreds or thousands more back in the colonies that are not going to be affected."

The other reason to avoid bug bombs is that they're a major fire hazard, Frye says. They contain accelerants that can catch on fire and be explosive. Ultimately, they're a potentially dangerous waste of money, he says.

I don't let food sit in my pantry for too long.

Instead of letting stored grains sit in the pantry for months on end, rotate through your pasta, rice and cereal, Frye recommends.

"New boxes of pasta go in the back, open come up to the front so that if there are stored-product pests living in there, I'm not giving them all the time in the world to keep feeding on the pasta and then spread."

If you can, it's also a good idea to store those foods in airtight containers to keep pests out, Frye says. But depending on how many people you live with and how many people you're shopping for, it might be tough to maintain that, he adds.

I don't let humidity levels get too high inside.

It's generally recommended to keep indoor humidity levels below 50%, Frye explains. And during the summer, the lower the better.

That's because certain pests, particularly beetles, are attracted to damp indoor areas like basements, he says. "Running a dehumidifier is a good way to remove that moisture from the environment," he adds.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com