The best practice for preventing pest infestations is:

Regular cleaning and inspection are considered the best practices for preventing pest infestations because they focus on proactive measures that reduce the likelihood of pests entering or thriving in a space. By maintaining cleanliness, you eliminate potential food sources and breeding grounds for pests, thus decreasing their attraction to an area. Regular inspections help identify early signs of infestations or conducive conditions before they escalate into significant problems, enabling preventative action to be taken quickly.

This approach emphasizes a holistic strategy for pest control by combining sanitation and monitoring, which is often more effective and sustainable in the long run compared to reactive measures like extermination, which only addresses the problem after it occurs. Other methods, such as using chemical barriers or trapping, can be effective but are generally part of a broader pest management strategy that should include regular cleaning and inspection.