I have read and heard from several people I have proposed pest control that it didn’t work for them in the past. Each time I have an exchange like this I ask what they did to prevent the bugs before their pest professional showed up to their home. Most of the time the answer was I didn’t do anything.
So, does pest control work? In a word, yes, pest control, when done correctly, does work. Whether you are a pest technician or a do it yourself type person, you can learn to use commercial pesticides and all about the different types of exclusion that assist with the many aspects of pest control.
The first thing you should know is that pest control is more than just spraying chemicals or setting traps and putting out bait.
Part of pest control is exclusion making your home less inviting for pests to dwell. Removing water sources and food sources is also a part of pest control.
Types Of Pest Control
Pest control or IPM (Integrated Pest Management) is split into 2 basic approaches which are preventative, and remedial. Preventative pest control is the approach to reduce possible pest problems or infestations before they start. Remedial pest control is done to respond to a current pest condition that already exists.
Preventative pest control takes time and is done over several treatments and years of tactics and service.
Remedial is a direct attack for the purpose of quick results and knockdown of pests in as little as 1 service and as many as 8 depending on lifecycle and what the target pest is.
There are several chemical and non-chemical tactics that help in the reduction or elimination of pests.
Most people want total eradication of a pest that exists, however, there are cases where it can be best to redirect or just reduce
a population so that natural predators can grow their populations to help continue the fight long after the chemical is gone.
Creating an environment that is not inviting for a particular pest is always the best first option. This can be accomplished by removing food, water, and shelter sources for pests.
Making sure that your pet’s food is put in a sealed container will help the attractive smell from inviting ants, neighbor pets and wildlife from making their way to your home.
Is Pest Control Worth It?
It is my belief that pest control is worth it. There are situations that will need to be addressed as your home can encounter pest issues that can’t be removed without pest control.
You can resolve the issue yourself with products and get professional results, or pay someone to do it, but no matter which you choose pest control is worth it.
Preventative pest control is for everyone, in fact, keeping things clean and foliage trimmed away from your home are all methods that should be done whether you think that putting out chemicals or pesticides is worth it.
In fact every single year there is an estimated 30 billion dollars in wood destroying damage from pests, and that is just scratching the surface.
—– Yes, pest control is always worth it. Whenever there has been a trace of a rodent, ant, roach… whatever the case is, you need to get it taken care of, if you do not resolve a pest issue it will become an infestation they will not go away on their own. Be prepared to take accountability for the problem and do what needs to be done either yourself or with a pest control professional. There are professional-grade products that I can recommend that will take care of your issues for you.
Everyone has been plagued with a pest issue at least one time in their lives and the result could have ended up a couple of ways
- Treated
- Untreated then treated
It may have been taken care of immediately or postponed but if it didn’t happen you would still have that pest problem today.
How Long Does Pest Control Work?
Most chemical applications for general pests will last anywhere from 30-60 days depending on the technology within the chemical and weather conditions.
Rodenticides will last indefinitely as long as they remain dry and attractive to rodents.
Termite applications mix in with the soil and they can effectively protect your home for 5-7 years.
How Long Does It Take For Pest Control To Work?
From the moment you spray chemical it starts to work, there are chemicals that deliver an immediate knockdown and there are chemicals that start to infect and chronically slowly take out large colonies. It can take a couple of days before you see a vast improvement depending on the issues you are dealing with.
Rodenticides can be tricky. There are 2 major ingredients that you can purchase and their names are similar but they have very different effects.
Bromethalin: is a very fast-acting ingredient it can eliminate rodents within a couple of days of consumption. This is a great preventative rodenticide that will stop rodents fast in their tracks.
Bromadiolone: This is something I use on larger infestations it takes several days for the rodenticide to eliminate rodents and the reason it is done this way is to invite the many members of the colony to partake in the spoils they have found, proving to get rid of the problem over time more effectively.
As a rule of thumb if you are just doing preventative pest management you can expect that the treatment will start to work almost immediately depending on the chemicals used and the application method.
As far as when you will see all your bug dreams come true and they have all disappeared forever, that is a dream we could all just hope for.
When Does Pest Control Fail?
Although pest control is very efficient there are times when certain treatments can be ineffective, here are some examples:
Incorrect Pest Identification: if you don’t identify the correct pest and you treat either the wrong area or use the wrong insecticide, this can prove to not work in your favor when getting rid of infestations.
Which leads me to say next that a proper inspection is always necessary when doing pest control to find any issues that may be causing the problem. In most cases, the reason that most pest applications fail is due to improper or no inspection.
Incorrect Pesticide Dosage or Application Method: If you are in a situation where the label was not followed properly either from under dosage where it doesn’t cause a lethal reaction or too much where a pest may have heightened senses and will avoid the treated areas for a time. In these instances, you may find that you still have a problem 1-2 months down the road when you still see the problem persists.
In your application method, it is important to read the label so that you know what areas are okay to use a particular pesticide, any method that is not listed on the container of the product could be a vital mistake in taking care of the problem.
In the application method, it is also important to complete the full application any laziness or if you miss a step can make for pests that have found a loophole to still hang around.
Poor Timing Of treatment: The pest may not have been in the area or it may have been at a stage in their life cycle where it was not susceptible to the pesticide or other management choices.
Development of new infestation after the first treatment: It is difficult to know for sure what part of the lifecycle a pest may be in when you treat a customer or consumer may use a chemical that initially gets rid of some of the problems, but in many cases, they need another visit to ensure that the problem is eradicated.
For example, most chemicals that are sprayed will have almost no effect on a pest that is in the egg or larval state.
Structures that aren’t properly sealed: I see this a lot, a home where the crawl space door is broken or the foundation has a gaping hole.
The door trim or window trim is damaged screens missing on windows.
Vents are popped out or gable vents that don’t have screening on the inside.
Or maybe your HVAC unit is not caulked or siliconed to where it prevents bugs.
This is where IPM is integral in making sure that pest control does not fail. IPM is Integrated Pest Management.
The things I mentioned above only scratch the surface.
Yard Maintenance: You want to make sure you don’t have standing water in your yard or crawl space. You will also want to make sure that all trees and foliage don’t touch the side of your home, or hang over the top of your home.
Proper Food Storage and Disposal:There are also several things that you will want to account for with sanitation clean garbage cans and food kept safe and properly stored. Make sure your drains and pipes work properly and are pushing the water away from your home.
Pesticide Resistance: If you have a home that just seems to get the same pests over and over again, and you continue to use the same chemical to treat those pests the next generations can build up a tolerance to the pesticide.
It is a lot like getting a flu shot, you are given a part of the virus to build up an immunity.
So, the best thing to do to avoid this from happening is to switch up your protocols and use a different pesticide that the pests have not built a tolerance for.
So, in short, as long as you are deliberate and appropriately identify your problems and treat them well you will have success with your applications.
Just know that there are many pest issues that take multiple applications to get rid of and that preventative pest control also takes several applications before you are seeing fewer pests each time.
What Bugs Does Pest Control Kill?
In most applications, you will find that certain pesticides will get rid of or reduce the appearance of certain species of bugs. They make pesticides that can target a specific bug and they make pesticides that can target a large number of bugs. Only by reading the label can you know which bugs a pesticide can target.
Can I Do Pest Control Myself, and Make It Work?
Now that we know that pest control works I just want to list a couple of my favorite commercial chemicals I use and recommend you do too. These chemicals have given me the very best results in my many years of doing pest control. So, in other words, I would recommend to my mother to use these to get rid of her pest issues. Actually I take care of her pest issues currently myself.
For most general pests I recommend using Demand CS. With an active ingredient called lambda cyhalothrin Demand is a great way to treat most general pests, it lasts a long time and delivers an immediate blow when it comes to getting rid of most creepy crawlies. (see the price for Demand CS on DoMyOwn.Com).
Demand has a laundry list of bugs it can eliminate. The one thing it doesn’t handle well is ant colonies, it is true Demand can kill ants on contact, but that will not stop ants from coming back because the pesticide kills the immediate ants in the area too quickly.
Demand can be used inside or outside your home, and it is a commercial pesticide. Please use this product as advised.
I will tell you the best way to get rid of ants is to use a chemical calle Termidor SC. With an active ingredient called fipronil Termidor is a great colony killing pesticide. Termidor is an outdoor only treatment. It does not deliver an immediate knockdown blow. Termidor works well on most bugs and will have them eliminated in just under a week after one use.
There is a little bit of a caveat to this, Temidor though it is labeled for spiders does not work very well at eliminating spiders. For most everything else it is a sneak attack on several species of bug including stinging insects and termites as well. (see the price for Termidor on DoMyOwn.Com).
Optiguard is a great ant sugar bait. Since Termidor can only be used outside of your home and will take days to start getting rid of the ants Optiguard is a great way to keep the ants from spreading inside. This will take a little investigating to do this process correctly. You want to follow the ant trail back to the origin of entry. Don’t clog the hole with the gel bait, but apply it next to the exit hole so that the ants will go after it and take it back to their nest. (see the price for Optiguard on DoMyOwn.Com). If you want to take it a step further you can take the optiguard outside and find the trail coming to the inside and protect the gel by applying it underneath your siding directly along the path that the ants are traveling.
Summary
Pest control does work making sure that you have a little bit of know how will be the key to a successful application. There are several pesticides and opinions out there where everyone wants to share what they have heard or what they think they know. If you read the label and get an understanding of what you are doing before you do it, then you will be the expert on how to tackle your own pest problems.
I thank you for reading this and as always:
“Thanks for buggin’ out with me”!
