A pest infestation in your home is the worst nightmare you can ever face. These pesky small, sometimes not-so-small, nuisances can make life a nightmare. And it’s not a matter of if they will strike, in one form or another; it’s a matter of when. Before you say your home is so clean no pest can find its way in, think again. Bed bugs, rodents, and cockroaches can crawl into even the neatest, cleanest, well-maintained homes. So, what do you do when they strike? Well, you need to get on the call with a pest exterminator. Before you panic, which you’re advised not to, seek the services of a pest control service. Or follow these tips to get the little irritants off your property.
Keep Your Home Clean
The best protection against pests is to keep them out. The least you can do is to keep your home clean. There’s something about a clean house that pests don’t like, especially if they can’t find something to eat. To make your home less attractive to pests, get rid of food crumbs and spills as soon as they occur. Keep your food in airtight containers and vacuum, mop or regularly sweep your house, and remember to take out the trash as often as possible. Keeping your home clean doesn’t make it pests-proof, but it makes it less enticing to pests.
Identify the Pest
The first step to dealing with an enemy is knowing them. You can’t fight an enemy you don’t know. Identify the type of pest you’re dealing with, as each requires different treatment strategies and approaches. Pest removal starts with looking for signs of infestation, which includes damage to your home or belongings, tracks, or droppings. Once you know what type of pest you’re dealing with, get a pest removal company to remove them.
Sometimes, however, it takes a pest expert extermination service to identify the type of pest you’re dealing with. They know what to look for and where. They also know what to do and the treatment to use once they identify the annoying invaders. So, save yourself the trouble and call the pest removal experts.
Find Their Source
After identifying the entry point of pests in your home, the next challenge is establishing the infestation’s source. For instance, you’ll need to locate the nest if you’re dealing with ants. If rodents have invaded your home, find their source of entry. An expert extermination service will start by addressing the source of pest infestation in your home to ensure the pests don’t return. Besides dealing with those already in your home, you want to ensure none gets in again, and they always do if their entry point is unknown. Once you identify their source, seal the entry.
Seal Entry Points
Besides keeping your home clean, you can keep the little bastards out by sealing all potential entry points. Entry points through which pests can enter your home include small openings and cracks. Inspect your home to identify these entry points and seal them. You can use caulk to seal gaps and cracks around doors and windows.
An effective way of sealing entry points is by weather stripping and installing door sweeps to seal gaps at the bottom of doors. Also, to seal gaps around pipes and other openings, stuff them with steel wool. Once you’ve sealed all the entry points, chances are your house will not get invaded, but pests are pretty ingenious. They can find their way into your home through other points, perhaps by burrowing through wood or underground. It helps if you’re prepared to deal with an infestation, should it occur, and the next step is critical.
Use Pesticides
The first line of defense after a pest invasion is using pesticides. Depending on the type of invasion in your home, you can choose from the many pesticides on the market. If you’re dealing with a pest infestation, pesticides can be an effective tool to eliminate them.
There are different types of pesticides, so choosing the right one for the pest you’re dealing with is important. Use algaecides to slow down or exterminate algae growth, antimicrobials, and disinfectants to control microbes and germs, such as viruses and bacteria. To deal with rust, mildew, or molds, use fungicides, and herbicides to inhibit or eradicate the growth of weeds and other unwanted plants.
To rid your home of insects, use insecticides or rodenticides to exterminate rodents such as gophers, rats, and mice. You can also make wood resistant to fungus, insects, and other pests by applying wood preservatives. Before using a pesticide, carefully read the label and follow the instructions. In most cases, it’s best to hire an expert extermination company for this task.
Use Natural Remedies
If you’re uncomfortable using pesticides, you can use various natural remedies to eliminate the pests. For instance, to repel ants, use peppermint oil, or eliminate bed bugs using diatomaceous earth. Sticky traps are also great at catching insects and rodents. Should you decide to use natural remedies to get rid of pests, remember that they’re not as effective as chemical-based pesticides. It’s always good advice to procure expert extermination services as they know which line of treatment works for what type of pests.
Call the Professionals
If you’ve ever dealt with a pest invasion, you know how difficult it is to eliminate them. Some, such as bed bugs, can be stubborn as they can hide everywhere and wait for weeks until their prey returns. Once you’ve tried all the intermediary remedies and the pests still refuse to leave, it’s time to seek expert extermination services. First, this is their trade; they do it almost daily and have dealt with the most stubborn pests. Secondly, besides having the requisite expertise, they have the right tools to eliminate the most stubborn pest invasions. In any case, once they get rid of the pests, they can advise you on maintenance and prevention strategies to make sure the pests stay off your premises.
Follow-up and Maintenance
Once the expert extermination company has eradicated all pests from your home, adopt prevention and maintenance strategies to ensure they don’t return. One of these is ensuring your home is always clean and clutter-free. Also, inspect your home regularly to flag and seal potential entry points. Only use pesticides if needed; even then, carefully follow the instructions.
It might also help to hire a professional pest control and maintenance service to inspect your home for telltale signs of an invasion. The best treatment for pest invasion is prevention. The next best is maintenance and follow-up to make sure once you exterminate pests, they don’t return.
Exterminating Ants
Among the common pests are ants that usually come to look for food. The problem is that they’ll return once they find food in your home. To control them, first establish the type of ant you’re dealing with. This is because each species necessitates specific treatment. The U.S. alone has 1,000 known ant species, but few are more common. These include the Sugar ant, Argentine ant, Fire ant, Harvester ant, Pharaoh’s ant, Odorous house ant, Thief ant, Carpenter ant, and Black house ant. After identifying the type of ants you’re dealing with, set up ant baits along their trails. Ant baits are pesticides that unsuspecting ants carry back home, effectively eradicating an entire colony.
You can also control ants by keeping your home clean. Promptly get rid of spills and food crumbs since they are attracted to them. Ensure food is securely stored in airtight containers and tidy the kitchen. If the infestation starts getting out of control, call for expert extermination services to stop the invasion.
Rodent Control
Like rats and mice, rodents usually inflict severe damage to your home and other belongings. To check their invasion, establish their entry point into your home. Should you find gaps or cracks, seal them up. To fill the gap around pipes and other openings, use steel.
Next, use traps to catch them. You can use live traps, glue traps, or snap traps. Set these up in areas frequented by rodents. You know your traps have worked if you encounter dead rodents, which you should dispose of immediately. If the infestation is pervasive, get an expert extermination team with experience in rodent removal to deal with them decisively. Such a team has the right pesticides and traps to exterminate the rodents.
Termites Control
Termites can eat wood and cause untold losses in your home. While they are stubborn to eliminate, a good termite services company with the right tools and pesticides can quickly get them off your grounds. Although dealing with small termite infestations is possible, larger colonies require an expert termite service company.
Termites live in colonies. They eat dead plant material such as decaying logs, wood chips, cardboard, soil, and leaf litter. How you exterminate termites depends on the species, and several exist. While they look like flying ants, they have distinct features that set them apart, one being that they don’t have the tight waistline of flying ants. Instead, their center body is segmented and thick. Besides, while flying ants have shorter rear wings than front wings, the two sets of wings that termites have are of equal length.
The different types of termites include subterranean, dry wood, and damp wood termites. They gobble up wood as they travel along flooring, wood lumber, floorboards, and other materials, sometimes compromising the structural integrity of a building. They can cause damage to your carpeting and furniture as well.
The best treatment for termites is to ensure they don’t find their way into your house by keeping it dry. The downspouts should direct water away from your home’s foundation. Also, deal with roof leaks and plumbing issues immediately. A flooring contractor and a roofer can quickly identify signs of a termite infestation. Also, to keep termites away, clear your gutters regularly, as this is a favorite spot during summer, and don’t have piles of lumber or firewood lying near your home. Also, ensure the tree branches on your compound are not near your house. If you have to, get a tree removal professional to trim branches or cut trees that pose termite danger to your home.
Cockroach Control
This is another pesky pest commonly found in homes. Moisture and food are the two things that attract them to your home, so keep it dry and clean. Seal all gaps and cracks, and remember to store your food in watertight containers.
You can use insecticide sprays and cockroach baits to keep them away. The latter is a pesticide that roaches eat and then ferry back to their colony, eliminating the whole colony. Use insecticide sprays to exterminate cockroaches upon sighting them. For a large cockroach infestation, contact cockroach expert extermination services near you.
Bed Bug Control
The most difficult pest to eradicate are bed bugs. You’ll often find them hiding in crevices and cracks. The problem you’ll have controlling them is that many pesticides don’t work on them. But here’s what you do: first, wash all your clothes and bedding in hot water. Next, thoroughly vacuum your furniture and mattress and seal gaps and cracks. A bed bug pesticide or spray should remove them, but use them as instructed.
Besides pesticides, there are natural remedies you can use, such as steam or diatomaceous earth, to scald and eliminate them. For large bed bug infestation, call an expert extermination company so they can get rid of them once and fall.
Getting rid of a pest invasion is a stubborn task. However, an expert extermination company can eliminate and keep the pesky pests off. Keep your environment clean and seal all cracks and gaps so they don’t use them to enter your home. You can also use natural methods to eliminate pests or chemical pesticides to kill the more stubborn ones.
Pests can infiltrate all areas of your home, including the deck, and sometimes you may need to hire a wildlife control company to take care of other related nuisances, such as raccoons. Besides taking preventive measures so that pests don’t enter your home, there are effective chemical pesticides that can deal with more pervasive infestations. A professional pest removal company will know what to do.
