In the previous post we looked at how to prevent pests from invading your home, and thus avoiding having to use toxic pest control products. However, no matter how diligent the home dwellers, sometimes a home will get pests anyway, and when this happens, you’ll need a way to get rid of them.
IF you go the conventional pest control route, you can lessen the impact of chemical dangers on your home by doing the following.
Try bates first. For mice and other rodents, plus some bugs, bates can often be used before sprays. Bate traps are better than sprays because while many bates still use toxic poisons, the poisons are in a controlled area vs. spreading out like a spray or powder. Also, bates can usually be hidden under cupboards where pets and kids can’t get to them.
Contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture to locate your local extension service office. What the extension office can do for you is offer other low-pesticide pest control ideas before you need to move on to poisons.
If you hire someone to eliminate pests make sure they or you locate the source of infestation before treatment. If you have a pool of water in your basement, and don’t fix it, the bugs will just come back.
IF You move on to highly chemical and toxic pest control…
- Use as little as possible and only where needed.
- Keep kids and pets out of the area.
- Read the directions on the pest control item, and never make up new ways to use the product.
- Only use fogging treatments when absolutely everything else has been tried. These fogging pest control products get everywhere in your home and linger, which means you’ve now sufficiently poisoned your entire living space. Egad.
Coming up; the last piece of our green pest control series – natural pest control options.