When it comes to keeping your home pest-free, the best defense is a good offense. Even the tidiest homes can be invaded by a wide variety of pests, and most of the attraction to your home has nothing to do with cleanliness. Some might be in plain sight, like ants in the kitchen, while others may be lurking in hidden places, like termites in the walls.
A pest control professional is trained to spot invaders before you do.
With a trained eye, they can see signs like access points for termites or evidence of cockroaches long before you do and eliminate the problem before it becomes a bigger one requiring a costlier solution. Why is that important? Because pests can pose real health risks. Some of the most common pests, including rodents, ticks, and mosquitos can carry horrific diseases. Rats and mice can carry Hantavirus, which can be fatal to humans. Ticks are well known for carrying Lyme disease, an illness that produces flu-like symptoms and can have long-lasting side effects. Mosquitos can pass along devastating diseases like the West Nile Virus and Zika. Since you can’t identify which individual insects are carriers of these types of diseases, a zero-tolerance policy is the safest strategy.
Pest control is especially important around food prep areas.
Whether it’s a home kitchen or a busy restaurant, food preparation areas are ideal candidates for insect infestations. It’s like a smorgasbord for pests, offering a little something a lot of different types of pests–damp places, dark places, food scraps, and other enticements. The Centers for Disease Control reported that more than 48 million Americans (approximately one-sixth of the U.S. population) suffer from a food-borne illness each year. Pests such as rats, cockroaches and flies are the main culprits in spreading bacteria in kitchens. In fact, cockroaches alone can carry bacteria that cause diseases like Salmonellosis, Gastroenteritis, Dysentery, and Typhoid Fever. These are just a few of the 33 different types of bacteria they carry. Flies, such as the common housefly and fruit flies, carry the most diseases of any pest–more than 100 different pathogens.
You should have your home treated for pests inside and out each quarter.
Outside, your pest control professional will be looking signs of termite entry, as well as eliminating wasp nests, mud daubers, and spider webs. Outside spraying has a shorter efficacy period than the inside because it is subject to rain and sun, which dilutes its strength over time. On the inside, they’ll be treating to eliminate any of those pests who make it through the first outside line of defense. It’s important to treat both areas on a quarterly basis to keep invaders at bay and get rid of any trying to make their set up house in your home.
Most pest control companies offer free termite inspections.
A local pest control company like St. Petersburg, Florida-based Regional Termite & Pest Control offers free termite inspections and can offer solutions based on what they find. Serving the greater Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Ocala and their surrounding areas, Regional Termite & Pest Control offers both annual and quarterly pest control services.
