• Ants may be coming inside your home for food or shelter.
• Insecticides are good for controlling an area for a short period of time.
• Bait is best in most cases. Ants will take the food back to the queen. When she dies from the bait, the colony will die with her.

Bees, Wasps, Hornets

• Spray insecticides (like RAID) are best defense against nesting flying pests.
• Spray the nest at night or around dawn. This insures that the population is at the nest. Also, you’ll be less likely to be stung as they’re less aggressive at these times.
• Remove the nest when after everything has been sprayed.

Earwigs

• Earwigs like moist places.
• Eliminate moist areas around the home’s foundation, crawl spaces and entry points using chalk or salt.
• Insecticides will help around the foundation of the house.
• They’re attracted to light like most bugs. Dimming or removing outdoor lighting may help thin the population.

Flies

• Sanitation is the best defense against most flies.
• Put away any food that is out.
• Clean all counters and floors of food and debris.
• Throw out the garbage.
• Keep lids on garbage cans that are inside.
• Fly paper does indeed help control the population, but won’t eliminate the problem.

Rodents, mice, or rats

• Own a female cat. They’ll hunt and kill the mice for you without help from you.
• Place mouse traps in areas you’ve seen the rodent previously.
• Use peanut butter or cheese to bait traps.
• If problem is large, use poison bait to quickly reduce the population.

Termites

• Your best bet is to call an exterminator, pronto.

General

• Be careful with poisonous baits with pets or children around the house.
• Remove any food sources pests may have access to by putting all food into containers and cleaning up any crumbs or mess on the counters or floor.
• Insecticides generally repel bugs rather than kill them. Despite this, they’re still helpful when it comes to pest control.

Also remember mice, rats and any other rodent for that matter, are smart buggers. There’s a reason they do lab tests on them. Because of this, place the traps in their locations for a couple days before setting them to trigger. Most rodents will grow accustom to the trap being there, increasing its likelihood for success when actually baited and loaded to trigger.

• If you can, have an example of the pest that you want exterminated handy to show to the exterminator. This helps the exterminator decide which products and pest removal options to use in your home. If you are afraid to have a physical example handy, use a picture instead.
• Pick up any trash or debris that might be on the floor. This will make it easier for the exterminator to spray inside the house. It also makes it easier for the exterminator to move around inside your home.
• Sweep around any areas that are going to be sprayed. A dirty floor is almost impossible to spray properly. As a result, be sure to sweep around any areas that are going to be sprayed. This will make it easier for the chemicals to do their job properly.
• Throw away or put away any food that’s not inside a container. This is important because most sprays that are used to kill pests can end up inside open food containers. This makes the food inside the containers uneatable. As a result, it’s vital that you don’t leave food out prior to the exterminator’s visit.
• Put away any household chemicals that might interact with the products that are used to kill pests. Many household chemicals don’t interact well with the products that are used to kill pests. As a result, be sure to put away household cleaners, detergents and bleach products. This will prevent any unwanted chemical interactions from occurring.
• Finally, Keep your pets away from the areas that are going to be sprayed. Most pets are very sensitive to the chemicals that are used to kill pests. As a result, keep your pets away from any areas that are going to be sprayed to protect them from inhaling any of the chemicals that were sprayed in the house.

General extermination services include treating the inside and outside of your place. Exterminators will check the inside and outside of the place where rodents love to hang out-walls, plumbing, dustwork, debris in the yard and drainage areas.

If you need traps, they will be set where humans and family pets would not be harmed.

Basic costs for rodent extermination are:

Rodent removal: $150.00-$200.00
Rodent extermination for the outside of the place: $5-$10 per month per box.
Emergency service(after hours): $100.00

In order to ensure you have found a reputable exterminator, please consider these key points:

• make sure they are licensed.
• carry their own liability insurance.
• no hidden fees-like per animal, per visit, per trap fees, rodent disposal fees.
• a guarantee that the job is done or they will come back.

Corporate Pest Control – Waste of Time and Money?

Not surprisingly, many people have trouble paying a company such as Orkin to perform a maintenance extermination treatment when off-the-shelf treatments are so much cheaper. You’ll read on consumer report websites about how the “Orkin Man” only really checked for rodent holes and insect nests, couldn’t check certain areas due to insurance concerns, and charged far more to do a visual inspection and treatment then it would have cost you to do the extermination yourself.

These complaints are very valid and true, however, there are two kinds of consumers out there and only one ever speaks out. See some people have no problems with DIY type jobs, and for them Orkin is a “huge rip-off” (or whatever other term you’d like to use). These folks will research what they need to do and then do it. However, there are just as many people who simply don’t have the knowledge to perform pest control on their own even with research. Some people are “grossed out” by most pests as well, which is another reason people would hire a company to do it for them. Basically, if you feel comfortable enough to buy a pest control spray or look for home remedies then Orkin’s prices will be a problem. If you are in the other group, then the price for a professional exterminator will probably not bother you.

That aside, you’ll find that Terminix’s rates are similar to Orkin’s and are probably competitive with local pest exterminator companies. Expect to pay about $700 for annual protection against bugs, rodents, and other pests. Individual pest control visits will likely cost you between $60 and $100. Large scale extermination jobs, such as termites, will be upwards of over $2000 depending on the size of the home and the yearly renewal price of the contract.