Best Practices for Pest Control in Residential Area

Some people are fascinated by bugs, but there are people creeped out by them. But regardless of how you feel towards insects or pests in general, no one likes the thought of creepy crawlies invading their home. Keeping your home pest-free is important for many reasons. Some pests can cause damage to your home from the inside out. Pest control is the crucial action taken to keep the number of pests down to a level where the risk to people, their food, and their environment is minimized.

Do you know what the best practices for pest control for your home are? We put together a list of best practices for pest control in a residential area for you.

Pest Identification

First, you must know what pest you are dealing with to find an effective solution. Proper identification and management may require the assistance of a licensed pest management professional. Sometimes, different species need different tactics. After the pest is identified, other sources of information can be used to determine what tactics are best to use to manage it. Learning the signs of an infestation is essential, as it can help you catch the pests early and ensure you can take care of the problem before the population explodes right under your nose.

Most importantly, you need to determine where these bugs are coming from by inspecting the entry areas around your house. Pests can enter your home underneath doors and through small cracks. Look for cracks and find hidden areas that could allow pests to enter. Check around pipes, windows, doors, attics, garages, and crawl spaces. These are all areas where insects, rodents, and other pests can enter your home. Another vital step is to inspect your yard and the rest of your property to find areas of concern for future pest issues.

Odours are an unseen turnoff to your residents or potential residents and attract unwanted pests. The smell from your garbage may be utterly unpleasant to your nose, but for bugs like flies, it’s like a siren call. Thus, you should eliminate that nasty trash can smell. Many pests give off recognizable smells that are useful during the inspection that can be recognized by pest control professionals. For instance, experts say that mice give off a musty, urine smell, while rats smell like ammonia. Bed bugs have a sweet, musty odour.

Some experienced exterminators can even determine what kind of roach infestation you have based on the smell. Roaches have an oily odour, which some have described smells like “fecal soy sauce” (Jane McGrath,2020).

Some of the most common pests that are destroying your home (Jess Bolluyt, 2019):

Roaches

Cockroaches are the most common pests found in residential areas. Roaches like to live in small, tight, and dark spaces where they are hard to reach. They can turn almost anything into food. Water is a big attraction for them. If you suspect a problem with roaches, try to limit the amount of water around your home.

If you do develop a roach problem, it is crucial to call a pest control professional. They might be hardy and resistant to many traditional pest control methods, but a professional can help you get rid of them. You will get recommendations on how to prevent a recurrence in the future.

Rodents

You don’t want either mice or rats in your home. They make noise as they move through the walls and ceilings. They also chew up your belongings. They often left bite marks on food containers and their droppings around your kitchen. Professional pest control service providers can help you determine which rodent you’re dealing with so you know how to proceed in trapping them and stopping more from finding their way into your house.

Ants

Ants have a way of finding their way to the smallest of crumbs. Once they appear in your kitchen, it can be hard to get rid of them. Depending on the breed of ant, they may be mostly harmless, they might have a painful bite, or they may even be able to cause structural damage to your home. To control their infestation, consult with a pest control professional to help you get rid of them.

Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are often brought in from hotel rooms. They can enter your home undetected through luggage, clothing, used beds and couches, and other items. Their flattened bodies allow them to fit into tiny spaces. You must call a pest control professional as soon as possible to get rid of them.

Drain Flies

Drain flies live where you’d least expect to find a winged creature. It can be within the depths of your sticky, gunky drains. You will find drain flies inside your sink or shower drains because they feed on and lay eggs in the decomposing gunk that lines slow or clogged drains. Here’s how to remedy the situation:

1. First, determine from which drain they’re flying out. Chances are there’s a clog in that drain.
2. You’ll need to clear it before you can lose the bugs.
3. Use a pipe snake or pipe brush to scrub away the built-up slime.
4. Then open the P-trap underneath the sink to remove any remnants of the clog.
5. Close the system again, and finish by pouring an enzyme cleaner down the drain to remove the rest of the residue and any lingering drain fly eggs.

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes were flying around the world, leaving itchy bites on exposed skin and waking you up from your sleep with their annoying high pitched buzz. They may look harmless, but the numbers of dengue and malaria cases over the years have proven that mosquitoes are more deadly than they look. Whenever a positive case of dengue is confirmed, the fogging process is the best procedure to reduce the risk of transmission of dengue in a neighbourhood and its vicinity.

Spiders

Spiders are one of the most feared of all pests that we can find in the house. There are more phobias about spiders than any other past, and understandably so. Any sanitation step to remove favourable conditions is the vital step in spider control. Removing some infestation sources such as clutter in the yard and crawl spaces and any ground covers against the foundational walls will help to get rid of it.

Control measures

When houses and yards are kept clean, there is no food for pests and nowhere for them to live and breed. You can control pests by practicing good hygiene in the following ways:

• Clean up after meals. Put food scraps in the bin, and wash and dry plates, cups, glasses, cutlery and cooking pots after use
• Put all rubbish into the bin
• Wrap all food scraps tightly in paper before putting them in the bin
• Keep all the benches, cupboards and floors clean and free of food scraps
• Regularly clean behind stoves, refrigerators and other household appliances
• Keep food in containers with tight-fitting lids
• Use the toilet properly. Make sure that all urine and feces go into the pedestal pan and that the restroom is flushed after use
• Make sure the bathroom is clean, and the cistern works correctly
• Make sure that all septic tanks and leach drains are well-sealed
• Make sure that the community rubbish tip is operated correctly with the rubbish being buried regularly
• Use flyscreens to stop pests entering the house and seal holes around pipes

Relevant hygiene factors should be addressed as well to control domestic pests. Don’t be surprised if the pests will soon return if proper hygiene is not maintained.

Treatments

Sometimes, you might have a pest problem that is difficult to manage yourself. It is vital to make a connection with a reputable pest control company in your area when it happens. Atalian is committed to protecting residential buildings and families very seriously. That’s why we offer professionals to handle all your residential pest control concerns and to get the work done.

We can get rid of all your pests and also look deeper for long-term solutions to kill their survival chances. We will thoroughly inspect every inch of your residential area to tailor a long-term pest control management plan for your home. The best pest control action plans are designed to help guard your home against common household pests. This plan includes a pre-scheduled onsite inspection.

We will learn about your lifestyle habits and develop a customized plan from there onwards. This plan usually covers the interior and the exterior of your houses like lawn, trees, and shrubs. We don’t just care for your home, but also the green environment. After the initial extermination efforts, we will keep close contact with you. We will further schedule maintenance visits to keep track of the pest extermination progress.

On top of that, we play a consultancy role to show you how to maintain a hygienic environment to avoid future pest problems. We will work towards a long-term solution together to fight the creepy bugs that live in your house. Book us now!