Is Your Pest Control Services Working?

The two main complaints on matters relating to pest control is treatment inefficacy and facing recurring pest activities despite efforts in engaging diligent pest control services. Rentokil shares on how to evaluate if your pest control solutions are working well for you and how to ensure optimal efficacy in keeping pests away.

Do you continue observing pest activities?

One of the basic and most straightforward way to gauge if your pest control has optimal efficacy is the recurrence of pest activities, where they still surface and infest in your premise. There should be a reduction in infestation level. Even though control and complete elimination is dependent on factors including the sanitation quality, housekeeping conditions, structure integrity and environment matters. However, if you observe the current condition still has persistent problems and no improvements from the start point, it is best to check with the pest control company on possible gaps and reasons leading to re-infestation.

Is there a surge in pest population?

Another alarming factor is the sudden surge or spike in pest population where volume of pests multiplies. It could be an acute and epidemic condition where conditions contribute to a sudden deterioration of the pest population. For example, you may be staying in a dengue cluster in Singapore where the existing mosquito control solution is not adequate to address the demand of the infestation. In addition, there may be changes to the activities taking place around the premise such as a construction work that promotes the risk of mosquito infestation, or forcing rats to relocate their hiding nests to somewhere else.

Read also: What are the top ten questions to ask about mosquito control?

There is a spread of pest presence at other locations

Do you notice pests at other parts of your home as well? For instance, you might be experiencing cockroach problems in the kitchen (one of the key risk areas of cockroach activities). However, cockroaches are also infesting in the bathrooms, living room and dining. There are a few reasons why pest activities spread. These include poorly managed housekeeping that offers food supplies, compromised pest treatment efficacy that causes an increase in cockroach population and multiple entries that allow roaches to enter. Above all, it is important to evaluate the credibility and quality of pest control services of the pest control company. This can help prevent the spread of pest problems.

You may also: Find out the various pest prevention tips for your home

Damages of property and furnishing start to kick in

Pests are capable of damaging property structures, furniture and ruining the furnishing and aesthetics of the home. Firstly, bed bugs can stain beds, carpets and curtains with their blood (either squashing their body or gorging after a meal). They dirty the surfaces with their shed skins or droppings. Secondly, termites feed on wood and attack on furniture, panels, walls and structure. They cause damages including malfunctioning of doors and windows, cracks and damages on walls, mud tubes developed and weakened stability. Thirdly, rats need to gnaw on items such as wire, steels and any hard materials to balance their incisors. This will damage cable, furniture, and any wiring, and worse of all may cause a short circuit or fire. It is important to start noticing such signs of pest infestation and ensure prompt pest eradication actions to prevent further damage to the home.

Hovering pests around food and drinks

Ever notice flies such as fruit flies or house flies hovering around your food and drinks. This could be an indicator that the flies control in the premise has challenges around effectiveness. Flying insect control solutions comprises several factors. Examples include adequate housekeeping and sanitation, correct placement of fly-traps with lure efficacy, possible development of larvae breeding sites along the floor or grease trap, manhole and edges of the kitchen and regular treatments carried out by pest control specialists. In addition, flies population can be caused by cross infestation. This is especially if the premise has poor proofing or residing in an open concept with flies entering from next door or poor user habits such as keeping the kitchen door open.

Five reasons why pest management is ineffective

It is not easy to pinpoint a specific reason why your pest management solution is not working well for you. Here are some possible causes of ineffective pest control solutions.

Lapses and gaps in pest control

The quality and completeness of the service is essential, as they will affect the effectiveness of the treatment. Firstly, you should ensure consistent and regular treatments at the recommended schedule to allow ongoing protection and control against pests. Secondly, evaluate the credibility and trustworthiness of the pest control company. Examples include their customer reviews, research backing, innovations and quality control. Thirdly, the quality of the active ingredient matters as some might have inferior control quality or shorter lasting residual effect. Finally, the application location is critical as missing out on hot spots can allow pests to hide and breed.

Innovation vs traditional pest control tools

As pests start to gain more resistance to chemicals and leverage on their capabilities and strengths to escape the lure and bait, it is crucial to optimise the control standards by utilising innovation and cutting edge technology to control pest infestation. For instance, rats are smart pests that hide well and avoid unfamiliar environment settings. Using digital rat control solutions with sensing technology can heighten the detection level while strategising the placement of units more effectively. In addition, pest population can increase in large volumes quickly and require innovative solutions to control the large activities quickly. For instance, the In2care Mosquito Trap is designed to control both mosquito breeding and adult mosquitoes, while helping to spread the active ingredient to other sites that mosquitoes visit to widen the control reach.

Lack of housekeeping and sanitation measures

Cleaning up the place is not just an one-off remedy. Some may wait till the year end season to conduct a full spring cleaning regime. Housekeeping is an ongoing and continuous effort to keep the place clean, dry, free from debris and waste that pests go after. Most pests favor the most unhygienic and dirty condition. For instance, flies are attracted to foul smell from the waste bins and cockroaches feed on decaying matter. In addition, we tend to neglect corners and gaps that harbour particles and food sources, greasy and oily sinks and floor traps and build-up of grime at neglected spaces. All these poor facility maintenance habits can promote pest attraction over time. Get your spring-cleaning tips in maintaining pest-free homes here.

Condition of homes that allow pest entries

Pests are tiny and for some, flexible and flat. Any possible cracks, holes, gaps and crevices are no challenge for them to enter. Such pest entries’ points can happen because of several factors. These include structure defects, aging conditions, wear and tear or natural openings such as ventilation, balcony doors and windows kept open. Some ways of pest proofing include fixing insect screens or protectors to keep pests away. Seal up those cracks and openings with minor renovation or keep doors and windows when unused. For some cases such as termites, they travel underground and make their way up with mud tubes. In this instance, a termite treatment is recommended to build a barrier surrounding the home. This helps prevent termite infestation entering into the home.

Substituting pest control with DIY remedies

Thanks to the vast contents and resources you can find on the internet, forums, blogs and other educational sites, we are swarmed with multiple DIY and self-help pest control remedies. Some popular pest myths such as placing stashes of pandan leaves, spraying citronella or lavender, utilising vinegar, garlic and cloves and even using egg shells are still practiced today to deter pests away. For the more adventurous, they will improvise their lure and baits with borax or cleaning agents for pest eradication. Finally, there is also a group who will rely on insecticide spray and stick-on baits. They are randomly placed around the home deem as pest-risk. They typically will not work in terms of efficacy. Over time, they may worsen the condition or put ourselves at risks at time of application.

You may also like: Find out the common natural pest myths adopted by many

Five useful pest prevention tips to adopt

So what can you do to help ensure a pest-free environment besides engaging in professional pest control services?

• Always remember to keep the place clean and tidy, clear up food debris and spills, dispose waste regularly (and ensure a cover lid is on), remove unwanted junks and cartons and vacuum upholstery including curtains and furniture.
• Do not allow wet, moist, damp and slippery surfaces in the home. Water and moisture attracts pests as one of their food sources for survival. Furthermore, pests such as mosquitoes require water to breed. In addition, moist and damp conditions promote pests attraction such as termites, booklice and rats.
• Check for any possible signs of infestation or pest activities. These include their smear marks or foot prints, droppings, blood or urine stains, unfavourable and distinctive smells, sounds including scratching and head banging (or clicking) and physical pests crawling around.
• Shutting off entries by keeping doors and windows (and all possible entries) closed to pests at all times. Installing traps, insect screens, mesh, door proofing and any other proofing applications to deter them from entering your home.
• Maintaining a sound and consistent pest management for your home. Residential pest control includes treatment for common pests including ants and cockroaches, ad-hoc treatments such as sudden pest invasion in getting rid of bed bugs, or epidemic conditions with mosquito treatments to fight against dengue fever, and dealing with complex pests with termite control where professional termite inspection using Microwave technology is used to detect termite presence.

Call Rentokil Singapore at  (65) 6347 8138 for pest control services today.