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Pests such as cockroaches, spiders, ants, and termites, not only damage your property but also spread infections. The best way to get rid of these pests is to call the pest control service. But before you go ahead and book pest control services, try out these top 10 pest control tips and tricks to ward off pests and keep your house clean and disease free.
Read on.
Top 10 pest control tips and tricks
1. Keep the kitchen clean
Pests thrive in dirty, damp atmosphere. To avoid pest infestation, keep the kitchen counters, racks, stove-top and drawers clean. Wipe them regularly with a disinfectant cleaner. Also, if there are food particles lying out in the open, they will attract more insects. This pest control tip may not completely eliminate the pest infestation problem, but it surely will reduce the number of pests in your house. Cleaning after pest control is also very important to ensure your house doesn’t get infested soon.
[Also Read: 5 Ingenious DIY Kitchen Cleaning Hacks For You]
2. Keep the bathroom clean
Most pest control tips for apartments don’t include pest control tips and tricks for bathrooms. But the above rule also applies to bathrooms as well. Keep your bathrooms clean and dry. Using a toilet cleaner, clean the pot every alternate day. Wash the sink at least once a week with a heavy-duty bathroom cleaner. Keep the shower curtain dry and free of moss. Make sure the drain is not clogged with hair and soap particles and is always covered. These small measures will keep the bathroom hygienic and pest free for a longer time.
3. Do not allow water to stand
Pests like mosquitoes breed in stagnant water. Clean the area around your house and make sure you get the drains running outside your house cleaned as stagnant dirty water in the drains can cause mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and malaria. Keep the buckets in your bathroom dry when they are not being used. The same goes for kitchen utensils. If you have an air-conditioner that eliminates water, don’t keep a vessel under it to collect water. Look for alternatives such as a pipe to carry the water out as soon as it gets there. Or empty and clean the vessel every day. Do ensure there is absolutely no stagnant water anywhere near or in your house. If you are wondering how to do pest control at home by yourself, you can follow some easy home made remedies to get rid of these pests.
5. Don’t keep fruits and vegetables out for long
Fruits and vegetables, when overripe, attract flies and other insects. Avoid keeping cut and ripe fruits out of the fridge for long. While some pests like fruit flies are harmless, the overripe, rotting fruits can also attract bigger pests like house flies, ants and cockroaches which are difficult to get rid of.
6. Dispose of garbage regularly
We often wonder how to clean kitchen after pest control but it’s fairly simple and garbage disposal is key. Ideally, garbage should be disposed of every single day. An accumulation of garbage can lead to rat, rodents and cockroach infestation. This gets worse when you find rotten food particles all around the house. This can lead to spread of diseases especially if you have pets and small children in the house.
4. Maintain your garden
If you have a lawn or a garden, fill in holes or pits where water can accumulate. If you have a pond or a water fountain in the garden, clean it regularly. Also, prune the plants on a regular basis to avoid wild, bushy growths. Maintain your garden, keep it neat and clean to avoid unwanted pests like mosquitoes, rats and ants.
7. Keep items of external use outside
If you have a kitchen garden or a lawn, it’s likely you may have furniture, shoes, buckets and other objects specifically meant for gardening purposes. Keep these objects outdoors and try not to use them for indoor purposes before cleaning them thoroughly. This is because bringing them in may unknowingly bring in many pests into the house as well. The same applies to toys such as battery-operated cars, bicycles, etc that your kids may use outdoors. Keep them secured in the garage or any other outdoor area and ask your kids not to bring them indoors.
8. Fix nets on windows
Fix nets on your windows to prevent pests such as house flies, mosquitoes, spiders and large cockroaches from coming in. These nets will not only help with ventilation but also prevent pests from entering. This is a pretty effective way to keep pests out of your house. Also, if there are any broken window panes or glasses, repair them at the earliest to prevent insects from entering. Check all the doors of the house too and carry out repairs, if necessary, to make your measures more effective.
9. Dispose of things you don’t need
An important pest control tip is to declutter your house. If you have unused boxes lying around in the house gathering dust, or toys your children have outgrown – get rid of them. These items only serve as hot spots for insects and germs. Sell or throw away any old item, including old baby strollers, shoes, packaging material, plastic bags, torn luggage, etc. If you are finding it difficult to decide whether to throw something or not, ask yourself this: Will I use this item in the next three months? If the answer is no, then it’s time to throw it out!
10. Contact a professional pest control service
While the above-mentioned measures can help reduce the number of pests in your house, you cannot completely eliminate pests without professional help. Pest control service on Urban Company helps you get rid of these harmful pests. Our professionals are well trained and use verified chemicals and measures to ensure the safety of you and your family.
Let us take a quick look at the benefits of getting a professional pest control service done from Urban Company:
- Thorough and safe: Our professionals ensure they use safe pesticides, disinfectants and other verified chemicals only. The new age pest control measures are comparatively safer and less harmful if used in recommended quantities. If you are doing pest control on your own, do wear gloves. So, you don’t have to worry about your family members or pets getting affected.
- Affordable: Urban Company’s pest control services are highly affordable.
Table 1: Cost of pest control services for different apartment sizes
| Service offered | Cost for 1 BHK | Cost for 2 BHK | Cost for 3 BHK | Cost for 4 BHK | Cost for 5 BHK |
| Cockroach, wall insect and ant control | Rs 999 | Rs 1,099 | Rs 1,199 | Rs 1,499 | Rs 1,649 |
| Cockroach control | Rs 799 | Rs 899 | Rs 999 | Rs 1,199 | Rs 1,299 |
| Termite control | Rs 3,699 | Rs 4,199 | Rs 5,499 | Rs 6,899 | Rs 8,299 |
| Bed bug control | Rs 1,499 | Rs 1,899 | Rs 2,399 | Rs 2,799 | Rs 3,349 |
| Rodent control | Rs 699 | Rs 799 | Rs 899 | Rs 999 | Rs 1,099 |
| Wall insect control | Rs 699 | Rs 799 | Rs 899 | Rs 999 | Rs 1,099 |
| Ant control | Rs 699 | Rs 799 | Rs 899 | Rs 999 | Rs 1,099 |
- Customisable: Depending on the area and scale of pest infestation, you can choose from various packages on our website.
Table 2: Types of pest control services and treatment methods used by Urban Company.
| Services Offered | Treatment Method Used |
| Cockroach, wall insect and ant control | >Pre-treatment inspection to assess infestation level >gel baiting and residual spraying is done to free your house of these pests. |
| Cockroach control | >Removal of cockroaches using gel bait and residual spray |
| Termite control | >Injection treatment using professional grade chemicals |
| Bed bug control | >spray treatment to remove bed bugs |
| Rodent control | >controls mice and rats >high quality gel baits and glue boards to exterminate rodents |
| Wall insect control | >use of residual sprays to prevent wall insects from spreading |
| Ant control | >use of residual sprays to prevent ants from spreading |
- Guaranteed results: Once you get a pest control done, you can rest assured that your home will be free of pests for the next 4-6 months.
Follow the points mentioned above and you will be able to keep insects and pests out of your home.
Regular inspections should be conducted in areas where cockroaches like to live; they prefer areas that are dark, warm and moist.
Be sure to check behind refrigerators, sinks and stoves, as well as under floor drains and in any gaps behind machinery. Because they can flatten their bodies to fit into tight areas, you may also find them under rubber mats, behind wallpaper or in wall cracks.
Aside from the insects themselves, some signs of cockroach infestation are:
- brown, oval-shaped droppings (smaller roaches may leave droppings that resemble coffee grounds)
- a strong oily or musty odour
- oval-shaped egg cases
Remember, no food business has ever had ‘just one’ cockroach and don’t be fooled into thinking otherwise. If you find any signs of cockroaches, you will want to act fast!
HOW TO STOP THEM FROM GETTING IN
Cockroaches enter food businesses seeking warm, damp shelter close to food and water. They are not instinctively drawn to messy environments, but unsanitary conditions can exacerbate the problem by:
- producing strong odours that attract cockroaches (e.g. garbage, compost, grease, meat, sugar, starch)
- providing ideal conditions for living and breeding
- making it more difficult to spot signs of infestation
Good food storage practices, effective waste control and good general sanitation are your best defences against cockroach infestations.
To make your food business less attractive to cockroaches, do everything you can to cut off their access to food. Clean and sanitise food contact surfaces, equipment, utensils and dishware at least once daily, and be sure to clean and sanitise cooking equipment frequently to remove grease and other food residues.
Clean up spills promptly and thoroughly, inside or outside the building. It may be inconvenient to drop everything to clean up a spilled soda but a pest infestation (especially cockroaches) is far more inconvenient, costly and time-consuming.
Have a daily or weekly cleaning schedule that includes hard-to-reach areas (e.g. underneath shelves in food storage areas, inside cupboards, underneath bar fridges) to ensure that crumbs, spills, grease and debris are removed regularly.
Remove waste from the kitchen frequently and arrange for regular garbage collection. Don’t forget about recycling — cockroaches can be attracted to food remains inside the packaging and in the recycling bin. Line indoor containers with plastic bags and regularly clean and sanitise garbage and recycling bins.
Store food in tightly-sealed containers at least six inches from the ground and two inches away from the wall; make sure containers do not have cracks or other entry points.
Consider painting a white strip (or use white painter’s tape) around the edge of the floor in food storage areas to:
- remind employees not to store food up against the walls
- make it easier to see signs of pest activity near stored food items (e.g. hairs, droppings)
It can be difficult to know if you have a cockroach infestation until they have multiplied to large numbers. Place glue boards in corners, in food storage areas and in other dark, damp places to ‘spot check’ for roaches and monitor them regularly. If you catch a cockroach during surveillance, you know you have a problem and can act quickly to correct it.