5 Things Every Exterminator Wishes They Could Tell You

Kitchen

If you are like most people, you probably want your exterminator in and out of your house as quickly as possible. Yet, if you were to stop and ask for their advice, you might be surprised by what they had to tell you about household pests:

1. Cleanliness Doesn’t (Completely) Prevent Infestations

Even if you vacuum every day and keep your kitchen completely spotless, it does not mean that your home is going to be immune to insect infestations. It’s true that pests are drawn to dirty dishes in the sink and food left on the counter, but they are also attracted to moisture sources in your home, like gutters and spouts. Exterminators say that you can somewhat prevent bugs from gathering in those places by cleaning gutters regularly, draining tubs immediately, and directly outdoor spouts at least three or four feet away from your home.

2. Do Not Try to Solve Every Problem Yourself

One of the biggest pet peeves of exterminators is when clients attempt to resolve pest infestations themselves–and do it wrong. Sure, you can go to the hardware stores and purchase an array of products to exterminate the pests, but unless you know what you are doing, you could actually do more harm than good. For example, using a bug bomb to rid your home of bed bugs will only scatter the bugs around your home without killing them.

3. Hire an Exterminator Who Knows What They’re Doing

It sounds counterintuitive, but an inexperienced exterminator will make it seem as though they have never made a mistake, while one who knows what they are doing will admit that they have had to fix a mishandled job at least once in their career. You obviously want an exterminator who knows how much product to use and where to put it in your home, otherwise, their services could be a waste. Do your homework to see how long they have been in business, make sure your exterminator has the required state and national licenses, and ask if they have an entomologist on staff.

4. Don’t Fully Trust a House Inspection

While having an inspection done prior to buying a house is never a bad idea, your exterminator will tell you that you should not fully trust it. Inspections are purely visual, so if there is no pest activity when the inspector is at the house, they will mark it down as having no pests. Yet, the pests might be active at a different time of day than when the inspection was done, so it’s a smart idea to also ask the seller for pest control records.

5. Not All Pests Are Bad

Obviously, pests like termites are bad and can wreak havoc on a home if not exterminated. Yet, there are many other pests that reside in your home that are not harmful (and some are actually beneficial!). For example, ladybugs and beetles eat other, smaller bugs that can damage plants inside your home or in your garden. And spiders may look terrifying, but most of them (aside from brown recluses and black widows) are doing you a favor by eating all of the smaller pests inside your home.