Planting Rose Bushes This Spring Just One of Several Helpful Tips from Farmers Insurance to Make Season Safer and More Colorful

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Apr 03, 2014, 04:30 ET

LOS ANGELES, April 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Farmers Insurance, one of the nation's largest multiline insurers, invites consumers to mark the arrival of spring as an opportunity to make their homes and automobiles safer with a series of easy-to-implement consumers tips. For example, many homeowners who have started their spring flower planting have chosen roses as the flower of choice, not just for their beauty, but because of the added benefit that thorny bushes under windows or other entrances can help deter burglars.

"Farmers wants consumers to know there are easy and useful things they can do to better protect the things they care about," said Paul Quinn, Assistant Vice President of Farmers Insurance. "Spring time is a great time for homeowners to take a few minutes to improve their lives and make their homes and automobiles safer."

With the advent of a new season, Farmers suggests now is a good time to:

Update passwords – There has been a great deal of attention recently about cyber security breaches and their impact on consumers. Homeowners can help protect themselves by regularly changing their passwords. And while they're at it, they shouldn't choose passwords that are too obvious, like birthdays, names of pets or favorite animals, etc.
Check car tires – For many drivers across the country, this past winter was tougher than most. With the skies clearing, now would be a good time to inspect tires for any unusual wear and tear and to check the tread depth. Using a penny to check – inserting a penny headfirst into the groove, if the top of Lincoln's head is completely visible, it's time to get new tires,
Clean the chimney – Not only was this winter tougher than most, it was also colder than most. For many homeowners, that means the chimney got a lot more use than usual. Rather than waiting for next winter to arrive, have your chimney professionally cleaned now and avoid the rush later in the year,
Avoid animals on the road – As the weather begins to warm, it's not just we humans who start spending more time outdoors to enjoy nature and our surroundings, our wildlife friends – from deer to squirrels and raccoons and other furry friends – also wander out onto our roads. Drivers should watch for more animals on the road and should be extra cautious at dusk and at dawn since that is when deer are most active,
Pool safety – The warmer weather will also sound the clarion call to hit the swimming pool and the spa. If these have been out of use for the winter, be sure that all the equipment is in proper working order before anyone puts a toe into the water. Also, review all the usual safety tips with youngsters who may use the pool – no swimming alone, be sure to have a portable phone nearby in case of emergencies, keep children away from drains, pipes or other openings, and this would also be a good time to take that special first-aid/CPR class you've been promising to take,
Smoke detectors – An oldie but a goodie. Virtually everyone is aware that when we change our clocks for daylight savings time we should also change the batteries in our smoke detectors…but how many of us have actually done it. So, here's your second chance, go change the batteries now,
Prepare for emergencies – While it's never too late to develop an emergency plan, it's much better to do it now, before the actual emergency. Every person should know what to do in the event of a tornado, wildfire, hurricane, earthquake, flood or other event that tends to occur. Farmers has a web site, www.farmers.com/disaster_plan to help homeowners get started.

Additional tips to help consumers are available at smart.farmers.com.

Farmers Insurance Group of Companies is a leading U.S. insurer group of automobiles, homes and small businesses and also provides a wide range of other insurance and financial services products. Farmers Insurance is proud to serve more than 10 million households with more than 20 million individual policies across all 50 states through the efforts of over 50,000 exclusive and independent agents and nearly 24,000 employees.

The Farmers Exchanges are three reciprocal insurers (Farmers Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange and Truck Insurance Exchange), including their subsidiaries and affiliates, owned by their policyholders. Farmers Group, Inc., along with its subsidiaries, manages the non-claims insurance operations of the Farmers Exchanges. Farmers Group, Inc. is wholly owned by the Zurich Insurance Group. For more information about Farmers, visit its Web site at www.farmers.com or at www.Facebook.com/FarmersInsurance.