Will Leaving Fallen Leaves In Your Yard Attract Bugs Into Your Home?

There is mounting evidence that leaving the fallen leaves in your yard are good for the ecosystem. Not only do decomposing leaves add nutrients to your soil, they provide cover for wildlife like frogs and insects that need them to survive the winter. While native bees, luna moths, and fireflies will thank you for giving them plenty of leaf cover, the flip side of that is leaf piles can harbor the kinds of insects homeowners are less thrilled about.

Beetles, roaches, spiders, and termites all call leaf piles home as well. Mice and other rodents also seek out the warmth of leaf piles during the winter. While those pests may be annoying or destructive, biting insects like ticks also like leaf piles, which can present actual health concerns, as ticks carry a host of diseases.

The good news is that you do not necessarily need to choose between providing a habitat for beneficial insects and backyard creatures — like frogs and lizards — that actually help control pest populations and keeping creepy crawly creatures away from the house. You just need to be strategic about when and where you leave the leaves.

The obvious first step toward keeping unwanted bugs away from the house is to rake the leaves and move them far from your home. Clearing out the beds and other areas that are right up against the foundation of your house, and creating piles at the back of the yard or at the edge of any nature areas (if applicable) will move the bugs farther away from your home.

If you have garden beds that are not next to your house, consider adding the raked leaves to these beds as a free natural mulch that also provides the microorganisms that keep your soil healthy with the nutrients they need to thrive. If you have too many leaves to keep them all, consider mulching them using a lawn mower. You can let the chopped up leaves stay where they are and feed your lawn over time, or bag them and put them in a pile. If you are still worried about bugs finding their way into your home, consider taking other steps to keep them outside where they belong — explore these hacks to keep insects out of your house.