For bed bugs, we recommend installing mattress encasements. Do a DIY inspection while laundering bed linens weekly. We do not recommend applying over the counter products. Likewise, using traps we have found only increases anxiety in occupants. The main thing with bed bugs is learning how to prevent bringing any bed bugs into the home. Consider limiting guests. Analyze the places that you and other occupants visit. And limit bringing used items into the home. A lot of people expose themselves to bed bugs at work. We recommend protecting yourself by changing clothes and shoes before entering the home.
For cockroaches, sanitation is key. They do not need much to eat. They can survive on the tiny bit of filth underneath your toilet rim. Yet they can become well established in homes that cook with oil. Grease residue around stoves is the most common factor in cockroach infestations. Empty your trash nightly and do a clean sweep of water before bed. Cockroaches need water. The more you dry out the kitchen and bathroom before bed, the better off you will be. I have seen roaches living off a damp kitchen sponge stored under the sink
For ants, the main thing is to perform multiple treatments. These ant colonies affecting your home are usually old and established. While one treatment can keep back them out of your house for the season, it’s not likely to last much longer than that. Of course, carpenter ant queens are in a tree outside and nests inside are in water damaged wood. Replacing water damaged wood is the best long-term control for carpenter ants inside. Treating the tree where the main colony is key too. Sometimes that tree is on a neighboring property. If you don’t have an infested tree on your property, you might want to get permission to treat your neighbor’s tree.
To locate carpenter ant nests, look for trails along your foundation and up trees. Do this a half hour after sunset.
As mentioned, you want to make the outside as dark as possible outside for spiders. Keep security lights on motion detectors or use yellow bug lights. Pull your curtains and do not store items close to the home, or have debris on the ground. While lights outside attract web-weaving spiders, debris clutter attracts active-hunting spiders. Brown recluse are an example of an active-hunting spider. Make sure you store firewood away from the home, and clean up fallen leaves.
Centipedes, silverfish and other basement bugs need high humidity. Running a dehumidifier helps prevent these pests. Along with installing glass block windows. Spiders can use window frames as a home or as entry into the home.
In a nutshell, every living thing needs food, shelter, and water to survive. As a homeowner, you can manipulate these things to control pests. This type of pest control is a cultural control method. Combined with chemical control, you can really knock a pest out. Use mechanical control methods wherever possible too. This includes vacuuming for fleas, using traps for roaches or picking bugs off your roses. If you would like to know what you can do to stay ahead of pests, so they don’t come back, please ask! We are all about educating customers on what they can do themselves. Things that doesn’t involve applying over the counter products.