Guarding against insect invasion.

• Position: Your Life

To help homeowners best protect against a variety of insects this season, Charlie Duckworth, insecticide expert with Spectrum Brands--a manufacturer of lawn and garden care, insect repellent, and household insect-control products--offers the following tips:

* Lights on sheds, pool cabanas, and various outdoor locations can attract moths, gnats, mosquitoes, and other spider prey. To protect home spaces from spiders, regularly use a vacuum cleaner to remove webs and egg sacs from these and other areas of the home.

* Silverfish are attracted to cereals and flour as well as to the glue and starch that can be found in clothes, wallpaper, cardboard boxes, and bound books. Remove these items from storage in basements or attics.

* To guard against cockroach invasion, use sealant to close cracks and crevices found in the basement or various outdoor locations around the home like sheds and garages. Also place roach baits inside cabinets and near water sources to control populations while you are away.

* Pesky fire ants can enter homes through foundations, cracks, attic vents, plumbing, and telephone and electric wire holes. To help avoid intrusion, properly store firewood outside the home, seal food, clean up immediately after preparing meals, and apply insecticide to fire ant mounds in the morning or evening hours when...