A home activity that is procrastinated by many, one of the basic home maintenance essentials is to ensure a diligent housekeeping regime is in place. For instance, vacuuming and sweeping the floor, mopping and wiping of surfaces, dusting of appliances and décor and steaming curtains and blinds.
Kitchen is one part of the home that should not be neglected. This is especially when there is availability of food sources that attract pests during food preparation and consumption activities. This includes any ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, sugar or juice, crumbs and bits, waste and scraps and even water. Find out why it is not recommended to leave unwashed dishes in the sink or not disposing the trash promptly.
Bathrooms are another critical hot spot for pests. This is due to the spills and water drips after a face washing or shower, and possibility of cockroaches climbing up sewers and pipes, and entering into the bathroom as a result. Toilet scrubs, removing bulks of grease, trapped hair, and keeping surface dry can improve quality of sanitation standards.
A familiar scenario where either you receive pipe leaks from your neighbour or vice versa, this could warrant a need to conduct a plumbing or piping check. With moist, integrity conditions and wear and tear, there may be defects and cracks or the pipes that cause water leaks, or poor plumbing functionality that causes chokes and poor drainage. Besides promoting pests due to its moisture, it will result in an unpleasant experience with presence of odour and dealing with neighbours’ complaints.
Highly utilised functions in the home, particularly with the warm weather, most homes would rely heavily on air-conditioning. Firstly, there is an accumulation of dust, pollutants and particles over time. Compromised air quality with clogs can result in allergies or respiratory symptoms. Not forgetting, the foul smell that is coming from the mold or bacteria not filtered and cleaned that is certainly unhealthy and unpleasant for a home stay.
Outdoor maintenance is critical as well. We may not spend much time outdoors; however, we should not miss out on this area as well. Landscaping is essential because it helps to keep the outdoor greens in shape. For example, removing any unwanted weed, trim scrubs, plants and trees, removing any rotten wood furnishing, and decomposed greenery. Rotten, decay and moist wood, dead trees, mulch, can attract a termite infestation. Above all, with a connection from outdoors leading to your home, termite can find their pathway in so long as there is moisture for them to nest and navigate around. Read here to find out the difference between subterranean and drywood termites.
One main cause of pest infestation is due to the multiple entries they can find around your home to enter. Even with just a one-millimeter gap is all it takes for a pest to enter. To name a few, ants, cockroaches, mosquitoes and even rats require proofing to prevent them from invading a premise. Causes of infestation of these gaps and holes are due to old or poor integrity structure, defects, weather expansion or past renovation works or interior décor activities that leave holes and cracks around. However, the damage found on the wall could be due to a termite infestation. Find out if your home has an existing termite problem.
There are occasions where DIY-self-help patch work and remedies may not help if the condition of the home or any defects and damage is beyond our help. For example, self-patch jobs may not work on damages to the door frames or kitchen cabinets that are built-in and connected. Replacement of doors and reconstruct the entire kitchen furnishing is required. In worse cases, ceilings are damaged or show signs of collapse that require a proper renovation. Lastly, cracked and split floors leaving cracks and crevices can trap food debris or encourage pest harbourage. Re-tiling or sprucing with new laminates can promote pest prevention.
There are home remedies you can proactively take on towards pest management. Firstly, do self-detection and inspection around your home to look for potential signs of pests. This includes droppings, strong musty smell, shed skins or eggs lying around. Secondly, you can apply repellent and preventive aids such as bait traps, gel and the use of insecticide spray. Thirdly, be more aware and take note of the time of the day you spot physical pests running around. Heavy cockroach infestation could result in seeing cockroaches in the daytime looking for food. Above all, it is good to seek professional advice from pest control services experts to help perform a pest identification.
Pest complaints are one of the common conversation topics among families, friends and colleagues. Rentokil shares some of the common home complaints commonly suffered by many.
There are many self-help and DIY tips to eliminate home pests. However, that may or may not work due to various reasons. While most methods do deter and repel pests to some extent, these home remedies are generally short-term and quick fix with minimal to no effect.
Using pandan leaves based on a popular pest myth to get rid of cockroaches will only result in further infestation due to its food source made available for pests to feed on. Cockroach prevention begins with good housekeeping and removing their breeding source.
Getting rid of ants with chalk and cucumber peel only deters ants from location to location. It does not eliminate the root source.
Applying baking soda or cinnamon to remove bed bugs will not address the massive reproduction and quick spread of their presence of bed bugs. They usually hide in hard to see and reach spaces as the mattress seams which these sprinklers may not cover them. Professional bed bug control is necessary. This avoids additional investments incurred to replace mattresses, furniture and curtains.
Getting rid of mosquitoes will not work with just protecting yourself with lemongrass or citronella elements. Adult mosquitoes and larvae are still present to breed and seek their host for blood.
Termite prevention with orange oil is a said myth that may have limited efficacy to eliminate the colony. Rather, it may be hazardous due to its flammable and acidic component.
Dr. Chan Hiang Hao, the Medical Entomologist of Rentokil Pest Control debugs various pest myths applied on ants, cockroaches, mosquitoes and rats. To find out which pest myths are not true, read here.
An assuring way to protect from pest damages and harm is to engage a reliable pest control company to design a suitable pest elimination solution for you. Besides delivering pest control services for residential settings, the pest control specialists will also advise you on several matters. For example, pest type species, key risk areas with pest activities, causes of an infestation and additional pest prevention tips to manage pest problems better. Some of the home pest control programmes include:
Termite control solutions that help eliminate termite colonies and prevent further damage to a home with seven years warranty.
Pest Control Services Near MeIntegrated mosquito control programme including fogging, larviciding to eliminate mosquito breeding sources and placement of mosquito traps at hot spots.
Common pest treatment such as cockroach control and managing ants’ infestation in a home can be frustrating to live with when it comes in groups.
Bed bug treatment is often sought for. Dealing with bed bugs can be a challenging task given their tiny and flat body size and speed of spreading from room to room. Three-time residual spray and steam treatment is carried out to control the entire lifecycle of a bed bug.
Dengue cases in Singapore are still on the rise with an alarming figure of over 6,500 cases till date and with over 111 active dengue clusters. Mosquito prevention forms a critical and an essential home maintenance checklist in keeping your family safe from dengue fever. Firstly, understand what causes a mosquito infestation. This includes poor housekeeping, letting potential water receptacles to lie around and inadequate home maintenance. For instance, plant watering habits can lead to water build up or hardening of soil that makes water absorption poor. Secondly, be more observant and vigilant towards signs of mosquitoes. For example, do you notice larvae breeding along gully traps or the drains, and presence of flying adult mosquitoes? Thirdly, is your pest control solution complete with dengue control and sound pest education?
While we are familiar with the deadly Aedes Mosquitos that bite us as hosts to aid in their reproduction, unfortunately, there are still many uncertainties and misconceptions around mosquitoes and the dengue disease.
Seeking professional pest advice and useful housekeeping recommendations can save unnecessary stress in pest issues troubleshooting. This is because, pests are experts in hiding well. Additionally, they can reproduce and spread quickly and cause harmful health risks and structural damage. Similar to medical diagnosis and prescriptions, pest experts such as Rentokil initial can perform pest identification and trend analysis. In addition, study the environment for risk factors and surrounding consideration. Thirdly, they can recommend suitable and relevant treatments to resolve the pest infestation. This includes undergoing a more intense flush out solution or light and basic maintenance programme. Fourthly, they will advise on essential do’s and don’ts of a premise that promote pest harbourage. Finally, they will engage you with ongoing communication and treatment to ensure the pest problem is well controlled. Above all, for pests that are more complex and complicated to identify due to its habitat nature such as termites, pest control experts will use innovative termite inspection for homes to detect termite activity and movements through Microwave technology.
The Alabama Cooperative Extension System creates integrated pest management guides for major row crops; small and stored grains; pastures and forage crops; commercial turfgrass; noncropland; houses, buildings and grounds; commercial trees and ornamental crops; commercial horticultural crops; and homeowners lawns and ornamental and garden crops. These guides are compiled by both current and former Extension entomologists, plant pathologists, weed scientists, and a pesticide education specialist. Each IPM guide provides information on the selection, rates, application, and safe and proper use of pesticides.
The Alabama Cooperative Extension System creates integrated pest management guides for major row crops; small and stored grains; pastures and forage crops; commercial turfgrass; noncropland; houses, buildings and grounds; commercial trees and ornamental crops; commercial horticultural crops; and homeowners lawns and ornamental and garden crops. These guides are compiled by both current and former Extension entomologists, plant pathologists, weed scientists, and a pesticide education specialist. Each IPM guide provides information on the selection, rates, application, and safe and proper use of pesticides.
Because the status of pesticides is constantly changing, some that are currently listed in the guides may no longer be legal. Also, some recently labeled pesticides may not yet be included. For these reasons, anyone preparing to use a pesticide should always consult the current pesticide label on the container before application.
Chemicals are listed both by common names (lowercase letters) and by trade names (all capital letters). Some chemicals are available only under trade names and, therefore, their common names may be omitted because of space restrictions. The presence or absence of any particular trade name in no way indicates endorsement or discrimination on the part of Alabama Extension.
Recommended uses of pesticides are based on research, field trials, demonstrations, and experience. Because of variations in environmental conditions and methods of application, these recommendations do not assure that your results will always be the same as those obtained in research.
The label on every pesticide container presents information that is essential to safe and proper use, handling, and storage of the pesticide. Users are responsible for adhering to label information and should always review it thoroughly before applying the pesticide. Applying rates that exceed the recommendations or shortening the waiting period from application to harvest or grazing can cause excessive residues that are illegal according to state and federal regulations.
There are a myriad of pests that can cause problems at your establishment. Those problems can range in severity, but at worst they may include the destruction of food stores, food inspector violations, the spread of bacteria and disease, or the sullying of your reputation. Some pests are more common than others. These include cockroaches, flies, mice, mosquitoes, and rats.
Cockroaches are unhygienic scavengers that may carry certain bacteria that can cause illnesses if left on food. Additionally, they serve as an allergen source and an asthma trigger. Cockroaches are typically found in dark, moist places, such as behind refrigerators, sinks, and stoves, or under floor drains and inside of motors and major appliances. They can enter through small holes and cracks in the building, or they can come in on bags or other containers.
Flies are known for spreading at least 200 known pathogens and parasites to humans. They rarely bite or sting humans but because they often land on dead animals, rotten food, manure, and trash, they pick up and spread diseases that are harmful to humans.
Mice and rats are dangerous and destructive pests. They carry and transmit viruses, bacteria, and other diseases. Additionally, they can be responsible for causing damage to your property, chewing through walls and wiring, and getting into food.
Mosquitoes bite humans to consume blood. While doing so, they can also transmit harmful, and sometimes fatal, diseases, including Zika virus, yellow fever, dengue, and malaria.
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