Frequently Asked Pest Control Questions

Frequently Asked Pest Control Questions

Why Hire Professional Pest Control?  

While there are a variety of different preventative measures that can help reduce your risk of an infestation, they are not always effective. Many pests like wasps, ants, and rodents are very persistent while others can be accidentally acquired regardless of your avoidance attempts – such as bed bugs. Furthermore, while some DIY techniques are effective, there are a fair amount that are ineffective and there is also the potential to run into a myriad of other problems including risk to your personal health and safety. Professional pest abatement with exterminators/pest control technicians keeps you safe, healthy, and ensures that your pest problems are handled quickly and properly. We focus on treating problems at their source and possess all of the proper tools and experience to effectively eliminate problems and prevent further ones from ever occurring.

How Soon After Treatments Will I See Results?

This can very much depend on the type of pest, the severity of the infestation, and what kind of treatments you want to use. Because this is a multi-faceted issue, let’s break these answers down by each category:

• Type of Pest: Some pests are easier to treat than others and will disappear far quicker, while others are extremely persistent or resistant to treatments. These pests include rodents and roaches, both of which require tougher treatments and a multi-treatment process in order to properly get rid of them.
• Severity of the Infestation: This somewhat speaks for itself. If you have a massive infestation on your hands, it will require more time and treatments to handle the situation.
• Kinds of Treatments: DIY treatments and professional pest control treatments often yield drastically different results. With professional intervention, you get certified experts that know all about pests and have targeted treatments that can remove infestations way faster than most DIY methods. Similarly, the different treatments you choose with your pest control company can yield faster or slower results. For example, chemical treatments for bed bugs can take longer and require a few treatments as opposed to a singular heat treatment which typically eliminates all bed bugs and their eggs in one go.

It’s important to note that it is normal to actually see an increase in insect activity following treatments. This is due to the fact that the insects are coming out of their hiding places, evacuating their nests, and are basically disturbed by the treatments that your technicians have applied. Following maybe 1-3 days of the increased activity, you should start seeing a significant reduction in pests overall (of course, the speed of this is dependent on the other factors above).

Why Doesn’t Pest Control Treat for Flies?

House fly infestations are not something exterminators can typically treat. While this seems odd at first, the reasons why are actually rather simple. The first reason has to do with the fact that fly infestations are typically caused by a stimulant. While this is often related to overall sanitation, this is not always the case. Frequently there are cases of concealed sanitation issues such as a bit of rotten food hidden in the depths of a cupboard, an expired animal (such as a mouse) under a deck or in a crawl space, or simply pungent garbage, that the homeowner may not even be aware of. The other reason is that these pests are typically airborne and don’t have a particular home or nest that treatments can target. Wasps, hornets, and yellowjackets are also airborne pests, but they have nests and colonies that can be removed and treated to end the infestation.  So, once whatever is attracting the flies is removed and cleaned up typically the flies will immediately start going away, so it is important to seek out the source that is baiting them in.

I Have a Clean House, So Why Do I Have Bugs?

Keeping your house free of clutter, clean swept, and wiped down certainly helps to prevent a variety of pest problems. However, not all pests are drawn to these conditions, which is why you still may experience an infestation in your tidy home. Pests such as termites, carpenter ants, and carpenter bees are drawn to the wooden fixtures of your home, which has nothing to do with messiness. Similarly, rodents may be drawn to the basic warmth and shelter of your home as opposed to a mess and bed bugs will inhabit any place that humans live regardless of conditions. There are a variety of reasons you may actually be facing pest problems with a clean home. So, if you find yourself still at the mercy of pests, it’s time to seek professional assistance. We will help you secure your home against these unwelcome invaders.

I No Longer See Any Pests. Should I Stop Treatments?

This can depend on the type of pest situation you had. If you had pests that can be taken care of/removed in a single treatment, then continuing treatments are typically unnecessary. These types of pests include bed bugs, who can be eliminated in a single heat treatment, and stinging pests like wasps, that can be targeted directly by removing their nest and eliminating the queen. However, with quarterly/year-round pest control, if you are no longer seeing pests – that means the treatments are working. Every pest control company has a story about clients cancelling their treatments because they think they no longer need the services, only to call back a few months later when the bugs start crawling their way back into their lives again. Pest prevention is an ongoing process, and for best results, continued treatments are ideal.