So, you found a cockroach in your house. You woke up with little red dots on your body. Or you trip over the tunnel-like lump in your garden...
It's important to get rid of certain insects and animals because they're destructive to our homes and landscaping. With that in mind, this article offers an insight into how to track down your pests and get rid of them.
According to many sources, bed bugs recently have reached epidemic proportion. A lot of people are bringing them home from hotels and into their houses and pest control companies across the UK are reporting an increase in calls about them.
Bed bugs are a natural hitchhiker, meaning anytime you're in a place that is infested with bed bugs, the insects can get into your luggage and clothing and they'll travel with you wherever you go.
Bed bugs feed on blood and leave small red marks where they have bitten your body. They mainly live in and around the mattress, headboard, couches, chairs, among others – so inspect those furniture pieces, especially in hotels.
They're very illusive, so they will be difficult to spot. They don't like coming out during the day, so you have to actually search for them – pull the sheets back and look behind them. The little insects are dark red in colour, and you might find most of them on the ribbon around the mattress and the frame of the bed. If you see them you're going to have to call an exterminator, because there's nothing on the market that a homeowner can buy that will work for them.
Your exterminator will investigate where the problem is and measure the severity of infestation. Sealing the mattress using a plastic wrap is an option as it prevents the bed bugs from escaping and so they will die. Your exterminator will also treat all other areas with chemicals to kill the insects.
They leave your gardem lumpy and bumpy, and they're hard to get rid of. Moles tunnel because they're looking for food, and earthworms and grubs are their favourites. If you have a nice, landscaped garden, chances are you have lots of earthworms and grub, so it's likely you'll attract moles. But you can battle them.
The best way to get rid of moles is to find their active runways. Mark their runway with a hole. If they seal it up, you know it's a runway the mole uses. The reason you're looking for active runways is because you need to know where to place poison or trap the mole. The best method of killing the mole is to place poison inside the active runway; when the mole comes through, it eats the poison and dies.
Rat poison rarely works on moles. And while homeowners can buy mole poison, it is not very powerful limiting success. Exterminators, however, have access to a powerful poison to get rid of the mole. Of course, if you don't want to go the poison route, there are other options. If you can trap the mole in one spot, you can drown or gas the mole, but you're taking a chance to trap them in a certain area.
There's an old saying about cockroaches: "If you see one, there's 100". A lot of calls about cockroaches come from seeing one crawling around, but when we get there to treat, we tend to find many more.
A home usually becomes infested with cockroaches because someone brought them in on their clothing or bag. They are small and like getting into very tight places, such as trouser legs or they'll hang on clothing itself until they get to a location and scurry off. Most people really aren't looking for them, so they probably don't notice them on their clothing or bag.
If a male gets into your home, there's a good chance you won't end up with an infestation. However, if you bring home a female with a fertilised egg capsule, she'll lay between 20 to 40 eggs in your house.
Even if you kill the one cockroach you see, you're probably barely even touching the cockroach population. It's best to call a local pest control company to get rid of the infestation.
Bats are pretty common all over the UK, particularly the small pipistrelle bat. If you have bats, it's very simple to get rid of them without the help of an exterminator. If the bats are living in your attic or garage, wait until August to get rid of them, because that's when the young are strong enough to leave their roosting area. When the bats head out of the house around midnight to feed, that's when you get to work.
Watch for the opening the bats use to enter and exit your house. You can usually find the opening by looking for the bat's droppings. They splatter their black droppings, which look like mouse droppings, against the wall near the hole. They do this because they're mainly blind, and can only find the hole by scent. Once you find the opening, completely seal it using caulk or steel wool.
If the bat is flying around inside your house, grab a tennis racquet and start swinging or simply open a door. If you open a door, the bat will feel the air movement and go outside on its own. It's inside by accident, and doesn't want to be there.
We get calls all year long about bees and wasps. The colony is easily eliminated with a residual chemical destroying the entire nest and then removing it. If you're not allergic to bees and aren't afraid of being stung, you can battle the bees yourself.
SDA Pest Control, "Long Acre",
Bluntisham Road,
Needingworth,
St. Ives,
Cambridgeshire
01480 465684