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What is a Pest?
Most people think of insects when you mention pests but the definition is a bit wider than that. A pest is basically anything that is an annoyance to people. That includes insects, fungi, weeds, foul odors et..
What is Pest Control?
Pest control is just that control of pests. To properly control an insect you need to know a little about it. Improper applications yield poor results. An example is mosquito control. While aerial spraying will kill lots of adult mosquitoes it doesn't do anything for the larvae in stagnant water. The adults live just a couple of weeks. If you can eliminate or treat the stagnant water sources the mosquito population will drop dramatically and you will have much better long term results.
Common Pests
Roaches
The most common cockroach that invades homes is the German Cockroach. They tend to live in wall voids and tight areas. Likely areas to find them nesting would be the around the motor wiring under the refrigerator, in void beneath cabinets, along plumbing chases, above suspended ceilings, behind wall cabinets, behind baseboards, behind window and door casings et.. My first choice for controlling them would be using a poison bait like MaxForce Roach Bait Gel. Baits use a very small amount of active ingredient, are easy to apply and are not very messy. The only real downside to baiting is it tends to take awhile to get satisfactory control (2 to 4 weeks). If faster control is desired I would choose an insecticide dust. Something with boric acid and pyrethrum. When using dust the goal is to get a light coating back in the voids where they live. You will need a small hand duster with a slender nozzle and you may need to drill some holes to get to areas like wall voids.
Fleas
Fleas have become much less of a problem since the introduction of products like Frontline. We have a few options on how to treat for fleas. All start with a very thorough vacuuming of the entire house. Move things, get under cushions and inside closets. Dispose of the bag. Treatment option 1 is to use a product like Frontline on your pets and keep up good vacuuming habits. Option 2- Use total release foggers that contain the chemical brand Precor. This works best in uncarpeted areas. Option 3- Direct surface treatment. For this you will need a sprayer. If you want a quality sprayer I suggest a B&G Brand one gallon stainless steel one. The goal here is to get a uniform amount of chemical spread over all of the floor and fabric covered furniture along with any other areas you suspect. Your sprayer should have a fan spray setting. To practice a little and get a feel for for the sprayer fill it with just water now find a piece of fairly smooth concrete like a sidewalk. Practice by walking backwards and spraying with a left-right sweeping motion. If you have dry spots your moving to fast. If you have puddles your moving to slow. Properly label insecticides will give specifications on strength and amount to use. Try to follow them.
Ants
There are several types of ants and treatment can vary quite a bit. Carpenter ants for instance are likely living an a wall or similar void and dusting of the nest area works very well but you have to find the nest area. With most ants you can watch their activity and track them back to the nest. Then you can treat the nest directly. Otherwise I suggest using an ant bait. Please note there are two types of ant baits. One for protein eating ants and one for sweet eating ants. If you can't determine what kind of ants you have you might want to use both and see which one gets eaten.
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