Posts Tagged ‘DIY’
Bug Off! 5 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Battling Household Pests
Posted on: March 2nd, 2023 1 CommentThe most common season for pests is spring and summer, when they like to form colonies or hide inside your home. With such inviting weather in the south, these unwanted guests tend to last longer throughout the year.
It can be annoying to deal with pests on your own and sometimes even challenging when you find a whole colony settled on your property. At this point, taking immediate action to terminate pests is much needed.
An ignorance towards pests is like giving a direct invitation to keep growing. But that’s not the only mistake you should avoid when dealing with pests.
We at Tabor Pest Control care for your home, so it’s better to seek advice from our experts about common mistakes to avoid when dealing with pests.
Mistake #1: Neglecting prevention
Let’s say you find a couple of spider webs in your attic. You decide to spray bug spray all over and hope whatever couple of spiders you have will die and won’t cause an issue in the future.
According to you, it’s obviously nothing to be worried about since you didn’t see spiders with your naked eye. Since it’s in the attic, you don’t think it would be much trouble as they’re mostly harmless.
Though spiders are considered one of the most harmless creatures and good for our ecosystem, some species are still quite poisonous.
- Whether poisonous or not, their bites are super painful, leaving welt-sized abrasions on the skin. It can be irritating and painful to treat such bites.
- Since there’re spiders in the house, there’s a good chance there’re other insects or pests on your property which become their meal.
You can’t guarantee that a simple bug spray will eradicate all spiders from your house, and they might be hiding somewhere you don’t know about, including small nooks and crannies in your home.
The best advice would be to call a professional from Tabor Pest Control for effective and immediate treatments.
Our experts can recognize a poisonous spider and find a suitable treatment to deal with things.
Tips to prevent pests
Here’re a few tips to prevent any pests from entering your home or property:
- Remove sources of food, water, and shelter.
- Store your food in containers with tight lids. Don’t leave any food out in the open. Dispose of your garbage carefully.
- When throwing away food waste, tie the bag properly and put it in tightly covered lid cans. Don’t let the garbage pile up; clear it out each day.
- Fix any leaks in your home, and don’t let water accumulate inside your home or outside the property.
- Check for cracks where pests can enter from.
- Don’t leave their food or water open overnight if you have pets.
- Get rid of accumulated waste inside and outside the home, like papers, piles of wood, and so on.
- Close any places you see open where pests can enter and hide, such as a hole in the porch.
- Keep your doors closed when not in use.
- Check your packages before taking them inside to see if there’re any pests.
Mistake #2: Using DIY remedies without proper knowledge
Of course, you can get rid of pests on your own if you know the specific species infesting your property and effective ways to deal with them.
When we find a pest, most people tend to spray different kinds of bug spray, believing the pests will die and the job is done. But you’re solving the issue on the surface without knowing that there could be a whole colony of them infesting your house somewhere you don’t know about.
This DIY remedy for pests without proper knowledge has various disadvantages:
- Failing to recognize the pest can lead you to buy the wrong treatment products.
- You might end up using too much of the wrong pesticide.
- Sometimes chemicals aren’t needed, and there’re other ways to control pest infestation.
- You won’t know the hidden places of the pest and where to apply a treatment. Poor handling could increase the infestation and spread to other parts of the house.
- This poor handling could lead to time, energy, and money loss.
This is why you need an expert who knows what they’re doing. In the long run, you would probably save lots of money by preventing pests from growing and damaging your property.
At Tabor Pest Control, we know which areas are the best hiding places for certain pests, so we make sure to apply effective treatments to prevent further infestation and deal with the present pests in a way that’s safe for your family.
Mistake #3: Delaying professional help
Once you recognize that you have pests on your property, it would be best to call for experts to deal with it to be on the safer side and have an inspection done.
The following are the benefits of hiring an expert for pest prevention:
- Prevention of property damage
- Reduction of health risks
- Savings in the long run by preventing property damage
- Expert knowledge of all kinds of species and correct identification of pests
- Use of safe and effective treatments
- Implementation of preventive measures
- Scheduled inspection and treatments once you decide to use their services
- Minimal disruption to your daily activities
- Availability of emergency services
When you see hints of pest infestation or the bug season is nearing is the best time to hire a professional to deal with bugs and save you time and energy.
Hiring an expert would be beneficial in finding out when are the peak bug season and which species of pests could cause infestation. They would apply preventive measures to control, manage, minimize, and eliminate several insects and pests from your space.
To hire an expert, call us now at 877-448-2267.
Mistake #4: Not addressing the root cause
Sometimes even when property owners get pest control services done, they would often and quickly face the problem with pests again. It’s not because the professional didn’t do their job correctly, but it’s because homeowners failed to address the root cause of the infestation in the first place.
How clean and properly organized you keep your property matters the most.
Of course, if bugs want to enter your home, they will go through any means, but when we pay attention to keeping things clean, we eradicate 90 percent of the chances of pest infestation.
When your home is cluttered, it’s in the most accessible condition to attract different species of pests and come live there. When one enters, other insects could be easily found inside as well, as they live in a food chain system feeding off each other.
Another root cause is when you don’t get home maintenance done consistently, and this has a greater chance of infestation not being discovered.
A regular inspection can help you discover things faster, preventing property damage.
Address the following issues:
- Keep your home organized and clutter-free. Pests could get attracted toward any piles of clothes or waste material.
- Keep your home clean, and make sure you clean your kitchen each day before sleeping. Do spring and autumn cleaning, which amounts to two times cleaning of the whole household, including all the nooks.
- Timely get your home maintenance. It can help find any existing pests.
Mistake #5 Using harmful chemicals
Most often, when people try to find which effective treatments would kill pests on their property, they search online. Without proper research, people could end up using pesticides which could be pretty harmful to you and your family.
Though pesticides kill or control pests, including bacteria, fungi, other organisms, insects, and rodents, they could be potentially harmful when not used properly.
According to a survey, 75% of U.S. households used at least one pesticide product indoors during the past year. When used indoors, this worsens indoor air quality.
Along with pesticides following are other possible sources that cause harm as well:
- Contaminated soil or dust coming from outside
- Stored pesticide containers
- Household surfaces that collect and then release the pesticide
In households with children under five years old, almost one-half stored at least one pesticide product within reach of children.
Exposure to such pesticides can irritate the eye, nose, and throat, possibly damaging the central nervous system and kidney and increasing the risk of cancer.
Symptoms that one might suffer include headaches, dizziness, muscular weakness, and nausea.
All of this majorly results from when you don’t know which pesticides to use and in what quantity. Most of the time, you don’t even need to use harsh chemicals to kill pests.
Things to remember when using pesticides:
Here are a few things you need to remember about using chemicals to avoid exposure:
- Use according to the directions mentioned on the product’s label.
- Mix and dilute outside.
- Apply in recommended quantities. If you don’t know about desirable quantity, don’t use it.
- Increase ventilation when using pesticides.
- Ensure family members and pets are not inside the home when using chemicals.
- Use non-chemical methods where possible.
- Don’t store pesticides inside the home. Keep them outside in your garage; if not needed, dispose of them carefully without harming the ecosystem.
- Keep your home clean and organized by regularly allowing ventilation.
Most importantly, call a professional to prevent chemicals’ harmful and unnecessary use.
FAQs
1. Keep your house clean and organized.
2. Avoid any unnecessary pile-up of waste materials of any kind outside the home.
3. Dispose of garbage in a closed bag and put it in a can with a secure lid. Dispose of your waste daily.
4. Avoid accumulation of any water indoors or outdoors.
5. Get any nooks or crannies with spaces in them filled up.
6. Fix any holes in your patio.
7. Keep your doors closed when not in use. Keeping doors and windows closed can get insects to come in easily without notice.
8. Add screens on windows to allow ventilation but not allow any insects to enter.
Tags: DIY, Harmful Chemicals
Posted in Prevention & Control | 1 Comment »
