Pest control is an ongoing battle in some countries and with some businesses. Restaurants and hotels must be compliant with the law in this area, or risk being fined, or even shut down.
According to IBIS World, the pest control industry was worth over $18 billion at the end of 2021. That figure only refers to the US, across the world, this sector is even greater.
Of course, it isn’t just restaurants that suffer from pests. Houses, condos, apartments. These can all end up playing host to unwanted insects and rodents.
While there are indeed experts out there who specialize in tackling these pests, perhaps prevention has its place too. After all, if you can prevent pests from entering the home, then you won’t need to eliminate them later on.
What are the most common household pests?
The list of little mites and rodents that would like to make a home within your walls seems almost endless. The most ordinary and frequently spotted household pests will depend on which region and even which country you live in.
However, there are many pests that can be found commonly. These are to be found in the list below here.
- Rats and mice
- Ants
- Cockroaches
- Drain flies
- Bed bugs
- Dust mites
- Silverfish
- Wasps
- Fleas
- Termites
- Beetles
Some bugs are actually very hard to spot, and you may not realize they are there until they have managed to reproduce hundreds of thousands of times over. Some pests including dust mites and bed bugs reproduce wildly. One female bed bug can be responsible for hundreds of eggs alone.
Do you need professional assistance in dealing with pests?
If the thought of hundreds of bed bugs is giving you nightmares then look for a local pest control service. For instance, entering pest control Barking and Dagenham into Google will bring up all the local pest control experts in that area.
However, you might be able to control them yourself, if you are fortunate to have caught them in time. Or you can perhaps prevent some pests from ever entering the home.
How can you control pests from taking up occupancy in your home?
Bed bugs are pernicious little creatures that hitch rides from one location to another. Preventing them from arriving in your home may not be an easy task, especially if you love to travel the world.
Nevertheless, many other pests can be avoided, or at least deterred, from trying to invade your home.
Methods for doing this include removing easy access. This means attending to cracks, and other possible entry points. Some pests such as bats and birds can find their way in through damage to the roof.
Clutter, log piles, and refuse, are all attractive to certain pests. Mice can hide amongst piles of rubbish, and log piles can attract a variety of insects. They can also make good homes for some more pleasant creatures such as the hedgehog though.
Taking out garbage frequently, removing food waste, and cleaning regularly, are all critical in helping with pest prevention. Indeed, cleaning is one of the top tips for keeping a home pest free. Deep cleaning mattresses, carpets, and upholstery can rid a home of dust mites, or at least keep the numbers down.
Look for areas of dampness too. Some pests are attracted to damp areas of the home, so leaking pipes or damp basements can provide the environment some pests search for.
Removing food sources is also key to preventing pests. Once you make entry difficult and change the habitat to be less enticing, you then need to remove any access to food.
What do these pests do when they are in the home?
Some pests cause absolute chaos and leave destruction in their wake. Rats and mice love to chew through all kinds of materials. This even includes electrical wiring. They can damage walls, and even chew through thinner ones, and skirting boards.
Some pests will also spread disease, and cause other ailments in individuals. Bed bugs can be simply an irritant to some, but to others, they may have serious allergic reactions.
Rodents can spread a number of diseases, and according to the CDC, the list includes lovely illnesses such as the plague and leptospirosis. In fact, there are somewhere in the region of 35 known diseases that rodents can carry and transmit.
Other pests such as ants invade food and pose nothing more than a nuisance, Although, some types of ants can be destructive in the same way that termites are.
Summary
There are a number of ways to handle pests in your home. These include calling out pest control, searching for natural remedies on the net, or using store-bought chemicals.
Although there will be times when there is no choice but to call out professional pest control experts, there is also great importance in prevention. If you do suspect you have a problem though, it is best not to delay, otherwise, it could turn into an infestation.
