A wooded back-yard ravine, a roomy third-story with dormered windows, a separate pantry near your kitchen to stash supplies to last months during the winter.
Each of these features may have helped persuade you to buy your dream house, but they also appeal to another group of residents you didn’t invite onto your premises: Insects that like to nibble on packaged food, rats that scarf down the dog food you left in your garage and squirrels that find a warm, dark place to sleep in your attic.
You aren’t at the mercy of vermin, however. There are preventive measures you can take to lessen the chances that unwanted visitors will move in, and there are ways to get rid of any that end up invading your yard or house.
Chicagoan Carolyn Funk, district manager for a trade publisher, found that she no longer needed an alarm clock once cooing pigeons moved onto the window ledge outside her bedroom. “They made a lot of noise early in the morning,” she said.
After talking to an employee at Bird-X Inc., a Chicago-based company that makes a variety of products to repel birds and other pests, Funk tried the company’s spiked needle strips, which consist of heavy plastic lengths with pointy prongs that make it impossible for birds to land, let alone set up housekeeping.
Other homeowners have had to deal with equally unpleasant pests, but within their homes. Bill Adler Jr., author of “Outwitting Squirrels” (Chicago Review Press, $11.95), who lives near a park in Washington, D.C., found raccoons living in an interior space in his own home.
“They’d get up in the night and run around. They liked the shelter and entertainment we provided. We had to hire a trapper who set a trap and closed the hole where they entered,” he says.
Arthur Marks, president of Marks Pest Control in Chicago, says the two most frequent problems his company now encounters in the area year-round are house mice and Norway rats. Come summer, Asian ladybugs take over.
“It has to do with the urbanization of once vacant areas. When you eliminate green areas and put down concrete and blacktop, you bring on other problems–pests and animals. More rubbish and refuse in unsealed containers also create problems.”
To help, many owners have their homes sprayed annually, perhaps quarterly.
But experts like Marks suggest using minimal pesticide sprays and, in particular, avoiding liquid aerosols as a way to cut down toxicity.
Instead, he and others suggest non-toxic baits such as glue trays.
“You can put a few pairs in places where they won’t be stepped on, or where a pet won’t roll around in them, such as behind a refrigerator or door, and check them frequently to see what you’re catching,” he says.
Good prevention should involve better sanitation. Don’t leave out food such as half-eaten candy bars. Close containers and boxes of food. Eliminate drips because water attracts pests.
Throw out or recycle containers and cans with any residue such as soda and protect the perimeter of your home so pests never get inside, says Michael Bohdan, author of “What’s Buggin’ You” (Santa Monica Press, $12.95).
A former regional director of the Texas Pest Control Association, Bohdan has a degree in zoology and operates a pest control service as well as the Cockroach Hall of Fame in Plano, Texas.
You can also put bait and traps in areas where you don’t have a problem but might anticipate one, such as behind a refrigerator.
Don’t forget to monitor those areas, says entomologist Marc L. Lame, a professor of environmental management at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Bloomington.
The best solution is keeping pests out in the first place, says Marks.
Lame advises repairing broken screens, sealing windows and doors with weather stripping, sealing loose doorjambs since a mouse can enter a space even a quarter-inch wide, and cleaning out fluorescent lights that attract bugs, though they get in there and die.
You should also trim bushes and trees. They can create a perfect place for rodents and insects to hide, experts advise.
No matter how terrified you may be of some animals and insects, don’t freak out over one spider or ant and automatically “nuke’ it,” says Bohdan, who refers to those with such a phobia as “bug-brained.”
“They stomp on every spider they see, crunch every beetle and molest every moth. They fill their homes with so many bug-bomb fumes, they end up risking their own health more than the insects’. Some bugs are actually helpful and won’t hurt you,” he says.
Bohdan instead recommends an “integrated pest management” approach, which means to first identify the pest, know its biology–mosquitoes like water, for example–know the action threshold, or whether the population you see is large enough to constitute infestation, and then plan a safe, effective action, preferably in a low-impact way, rather than with a pesticide.
If you can’t identify the pest in the first place and it’s small, tape it to a piece of paper. If it’s large, put it in a bag. Take it to your exterminator (these days usually called a pest control specialist), who will know how best to attack the problem.
“There are ants that prefer sugar or protein and ones that go through the conduits in between walls. Methods to control them vary,” Marks says.
Specialists also know about new products. Aventis Environmental Science in Montvale, N.J., recently registered its Termidor termiticide with the Environmental Protection Agency.
The liquid treatment, which can only be applied by a licensed pest control operator, creates a transfer effect so that the termites, which are social in nature, pass along to one another the clear treatment that kills them because of its active fipronil ingredient, says Cindy Mannes of Aventis.
The effect works within three months or less and lasts as long as five years.
Bird-X Inc. offers other products besides its spiked strips, including electronic devices that repel birds and other animals through unpleasant sounds or unpleasant tastes, though none harm the animals.
To achieve the best results from your pest control operator, become an active partner, adds Lame.
“Instead of just letting him or her spray or place baits, be sure they come with a flashlight and check the house thoroughly for signs of infestation,” says Lame. “Ask what monitoring devices you should use, discuss alternatives, and find out if you’re doing a good enough job regarding sanitation.”
Raccoons
Raid garbage cans and gardens in search of food. Sometimes climb into chimneys or attics.
Ants
Enter homes to search for food. Nest in moist wood, such as in porch steps and attics.
Asian lady beetles
Enter homes through cracks and damaged screens. Only a nuisance because of their great numbers.
Rats
Enter homes at night, contaminating food supplies. Able to climb walls, squeeze through half-inch openings and gnaw through hard materials. Need water to survive, unlike mice.
Cockroaches
May be found wherever food is prepared or stored. Contaminate food supplies and damage wallpaper and clothing.
Pigeons
Seek areas to roost, such as ledges and air conditioning units. Corrosive droppings damage property and can pose a health risk.
Termites
Feed on the wooden understructure of buildings, especially where the wood is moist.
Squirrels
Seek shelter during the fall and winter, or when wooded areas have been replaced by homes. May damage insulation and wires.
Mice
Burrow into homes in search of food and shelter, especially during cold months. Prefer grains, seeds and sweets, and gnaw boxes and papers for nesting.
