Sometimes there is nothing more annoying than an infestation of pests at home or at your place of business. They can create damage, cause noise, cause infections or just creep you out!
Bed Bugs
Bed Bugs are one of the trickiest pests to control. Bed Bugs have a cute name but are quite the nuisance. They are blood suckers so they will bite you for their food. While they don’t fly, they are pretty fast. When the female lays eggs, they are about the size of dust so incredibly hard to see. Bed Bugs can live for up to a year! So when you take your countermeasures to stop them, you are going to want to make sure you follow through. So how do you stop bed bugs once they have infested your bedroom? It’s not an easy process.
- Wash all sheets and cloth items found in the room. Dry them on the highest setting to burn out the bed bugs. If you have something that can’t be washed, but can be put in a dryer like a pair of shoes, then you put them in the dryer at the highest setting to burn out the bugs regardless.
- Make sure you have a quality vacuum. You need to vacuum every single possible seam and cranny in the mattress. Use a strong brush to get into the stitched crevices and then vacuum some more. Hopefully your vacuum uses bags. If so, the bag should go into a sealed plastic bag before disposal. Goal #1 remains containment with Goal #2 eradication.
- You can replace your mattress if you want. If you do so, you have to make sure you finish eradicating the bed bugs from the entire room before you bring it in. Otherwise they’re just going to create the city of “New Mattress” to replace Mattresstown.
- If you don’t replace your mattress then you have to place a tight sealed cover on your mattress for a period of one year. This should keep the bed bugs in, and your body unbitten.
Termites
Termites will eat away your house without you realizing. You should check for Termites fairly regularly. All you need is a screwdriver and some lighting. Visually look for potential locations of termites and then push the screwdriver into the wood to test how strong it is. There are two types of termites. Subterranean termites live underground in warm regions like Florida or Texas. Drywood termites live in the wood, and can be there or anywhere else as well. Once you have termites it’s time to deal with them. Termites like dark wet areas so here’s how you can start getting rid of them.
- Cardboard Trap! - If you put some strips of wet cardboard near the infection, the termites will be drawn to it. (Cardboard, wood, same thing to the termites) Let the termites infest. Take your trap outside, and burn it to cinders. Repeat as necessary. This won’t get them all, but it’ll get a lot and feel oh so satisfying.
- Use Sunlight - They hate that. If it’s not your house itself but something that has the potential to be set outside, do that for a few days. Then the little jerks will eventually die from the heat and sunlight. Avoid attempting in winter.
- Beneficial Nematodes - So these Nematodes to a termite is essentially a mongoose to a snake. Though they go after the eggs and larvae instead of the termites themselves.
- Call a professional - They know what they’re doing
Rodents
There are too many methods for getting rid of rodents depending on the specific type of rodent. But if you are looking to do it here’s a pretty simple plan.
- Set Traps (Humanely if that’s your thing, non-humanely if that’s needed)
- Mark the perimeter of the house and high travel areas with scents and repellents to push the rodents towards your traps.
- Seal the house so the rodents can’t escape.
- Dispose of the rodents
Rats spread the black plague. Never forget the lesson medieval Europe taught. Don’t let rats infest your homes and bite you.
