If you have termites, the answer is yes. You don’t want to take any chances that those hungry creatures are living in your walls and eating away at your home’s framing.
For bugs like crickets and spiders, keeping them out of your home in the first place is the most important step.
Professional pest-control products are more potent and last longer than the ones you can buy in home stores. And a professional will re-apply pest-control products on a monthly or every-other-month schedule, which might be hard for you to commit to.
Still, there are a few simple things you can try before calling a pest-control professional:
- Replace your bright white porch and landscape lights with yellow “bug” lights. They don’t attract as many bugs.
- Seal cracks and holes around the inside and outside of your home that allow bugs to walk right in. Check around windows, doors, dryer vents and the entry ports for plumbing and cables.
- If you can’t seal an opening, place a screen or another barrier around it.
- Trim bushes and plant flowers so they’re at least 12 inches away from the walls of your house. Pests, especially crickets, love moist, lush leaves. If foliage grows too close to the house, the critters will find their way indoors.
- Buy inexpensive granular food bait at any home store. Place it around the outside of your house as directed. Some cricket baits are safe for indoor use. Carefully read the labels and keep children and pets away from the products.
- Use sticky, non-toxic traps—like a Roach Motel—to snare crickets indoors. You can make your own by mixing some molasses with water inside a jar.
- If you see a lot of crickets, suck them up with your vacuum cleaner. It won’t kill them, but it will collect them so you can flush them.
- Crickets love moisture. Lower the humidity in your home. Fan-dry damp areas and remove standing water so it doesn’t lure them.
- Keep your house clean. Critters love to hide among debris and clutter.
#Pests
###
