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   Home Pest Control found in House & Home  :  Home Improvement A   A   A
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Home Pest Control
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No home is entirely immune to pests. But with just a little knowledge, you can keep a small problem from becoming an infestation—in many cases, without using harmful chemicals at all. Learn to tame:
  • Crawling pests, including ants, bedbugs, cockroaches, fire ants, and termites
  • Flying pests, including bees, flies, gnats, mosquitoes, and wasps
  • Mammal and rodent pests, including mice, moles, raccoons, skunks, and squirrels
 
 
 
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Home Pest Control Basics

A home pest is any species that causes damage or is otherwise unwanted in the home. Home pests include many different types of creatures: indigenous insects, rodents, and mammals native to an area, as well as nonindigenous species that were originally imported for constructive purposes.

Pest Damage

There are three types of damage that home pests cause inside and outside a home: physical, medical, and economic.

Physical Damage

Physical, or aesthetic, damage occurs when a pest harms the structure or appearance of your home, furnishings, possessions, or lawn and garden. For example:
  • Aphids and carpenter bees can leave a sticky yellow waste that can discolor the sides of a home or leave a sap-like resin on the paint of your car.
  • Mice can leave droppings in cupboards, indicating an infestation of mice who are nesting and feeding.

Medical Damage

Some animal species are vectors, or potential carriers of disease. Mosquitoes and rats (and the fleas they carry) can be vectors. Mice can be vectors for a plethora of infectious diseases, parasites, and bacteria. Medical issues related to pest infestations include:
  • Allergic reactions: The dander that mice leave behind, the feces that dust mites leave in your carpet, and the toxins that mosquitoes, wasps, bees, ticks, and bedbugs can inject into skin can all cause allergic reactions ranging from a slight sniffle to a total shutdown of the respiratory system (also known as anaphylactic shock).
  • Viral infections: West Nile virus, hantavirus, enceph­alitis, and certain types of viral meningitis have been attributed to mosquitoes, ticks, mice, and rats.
  • Bacterial infections: Bacterial meningitis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, salmonella, and E. coli have been traced to mice, flies, fruit flies, and other pests that tend to invade pantries and kitchens.
  • Parasites: Tapeworms, hookworms, and roundworms are all associated, though indirectly, with mice and other small indoor mammals. Recent studies show that field mice that wander indoors can spread deer ticks, which are the primary vector for Lyme disease.

Economic Damage

Economic damage from pests encompasses anything from the destruction of a particular crop to the complete loss of a house’s structural integrity. For example:
  • Termite damage often goes unnoticed until small holes appear in ceiling beams or in baseboards. Superficial damage usually indicates more extensive structural damage to support beams, which may or may not be visible during a casual inspection.
  • Structural damage due to carpenter ants is usually less severe than damage due to termites, but it may become extensive enough to warrant a renovation if the infestation is not cleared within a few years.
  • The presence of rats can cause indirect economic damage to a business, as rats can bring on medical damage via the spread of salmonella and other bacteria to dishes, foods, and surfaces. In addition, the nesting habits of rats can cause structural damage.
 
 
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Home Pest Control Chart
 
 
 
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