8 Signs You Need to Call a Pest Control Service to Your House

Pest problems in the home are far more than an inconvenience. Full-blown infestations can result in large rashes of swollen, itchy bites, decreased indoor air quality, and significant property damage. In fact, pest infestations are almost always guaranteed to have a negative impact on resident health. Unfortunately, determining whether you need professional pest control isn’t always easy. Following are eight sure signs that you should call a pest control service to your house.

1. Evidence of Nesting

Certain insects and animals thrive naturally in the outdoor environment. With these pests, poisons, baits, and traps are only short-term solutions. You’ll also need to implement a variety of preventative strategies to keep these pests from returning. This will include eliminating accessible sources of food and water and sealing off entry points. This is certainly the case with rodents. Rat and mouse populations tend to flourish in areas where there is plenty to eat and a warm place for nesting. Rodents are prone to setting up their nests in dark and remote areas of the home. If you find a nest, call a reputable pest control service right away.

2. Phantom Sounds

One of the early signs of a developing pest infestation is phantom noises coming from remote areas. Scratching, thumping, screeching, or clawing could mean that you have raccoons, mice, rats, or even bats in the lower-lying areas of your home, in your HVAC system, or in attic areas. When these noises are persistent, and when they routinely occur at specific hours of the day or night, they shouldn’t be written off as air drafts, building settlement, or noisy heating and cooling equipment.

3. Foul, Pervasive Smells

Even after they’ve found a warm, comfortable home to set up camp in, pests still go through their normal life cycles. With certain infestations, the foul and pervasive odors are decomposition are virtually assured. As animals age, starve, get lost in HVAC ductwork or other enclosed areas, or encounter any poisonous bait that you’ve put down, this is a problem that can gradually render the living space uninhabitable. Pest control professionals can both eliminate current pest populations, and remove the decomposing bodies of any animals that they find.

4. Your Indoor Air Quality Has Declined

Even when pests don’t die in your HVAC system, they can still lower your home’s indoor air quality. Insects and animals shed fur and wings, lay eggs and leave egg sacs behind, and leave many other forms of detritus in their wake. Some of these things are captured and retained by HVAC air filters. Others break down and are continuously circulated throughout the indoor air.

5. People Are Suffering

When people are being actively bitten or crawled upon by pests, this is never a good time to attempt DIY pest removal. Whether your home is infested with bed bugs, surrounded and infiltrated by aggressive mosquitoes, thick with fleas, or crawling with cockroaches, it’s important to let seasoned professionals solve the problem. Most store-bought treatments for issues like these only work in the short term. That’s because these products kill off adult bugs, but leave eggs and soon-to-mature insects behind. Professional pest control treatments can quickly break breeding cycles so that no insects that are capable of reproducing remain.

6. Evidence of Property Damage

Termites, rodents, and many other common pests can cause significant amounts of property damage within very short periods of time. The more damage that they cause; the more value your home will lose. With widespread property damage, your house will be less marketable, and it will increasingly become less habitable as well. Having a professional extermination treatment performed will limit your losses, and ensure compliance with any home warranties and home insurance plans that you currently have in place.

7. You’ve Got a Recurring Pest Problem

If you’ve self-treated a pest problem in the past, but are now experiencing it again, having a professional perform a full property assessment is your best bet. There may be points of ingress that you have yet to identify, or you may need help breaking a breeding cycle. There are countless reasons why pest problems regularly recur. Getting a targeted and needs-specific treatment is always the quickest and most cost-effective choice.

8. Everything Is Greasy and Oily

Severely infested homes often have a greasy, grimy coating on nearly all indoor surfaces. This is the result of diminished air quality due to airborne debris. It can also be caused by oily, furry, and germ-ridden bodies passing over these surfaces. In severely infested buildings like these, residents tend to have higher rates of illness. Moreover, those already living with respiratory conditions like asthma and allergies tend to have heightened symptoms.

Professional pest control can provide fast-acting, needs-specific solutions to a diverse range of pest problems. Working with professionals is often far more cost-effective than treating infestations on your own. It can also limit property damage, promote higher levels of resident wellness, improve indoor air quality, and more.

Jason

Jason