Common Pests You’ll Find Around Your Home

No one likes to think of creatures and insects around their house, but you’ll find plenty of them. We coexist in a world with many other animals and sometimes, they’ll find their way to our living spaces.

The following are the top common household pests you’ll find in the UK.

Rodents

Unfortunately, rodents such as mice and rats are all too common in both cities and the countryside. If you have one or these creatures in your home or near it, you probably have multiples. They tend to reproduce quickly and can rapidly destroy your belongings.

Rodents tend to chew on everything, from electrical wires to furniture and they get into your food. Since they can spread disease, it’s best they stay outdoors. Live traps are a humane method of capturing them and moving them away from your home, but there are a number of other methods of exterminating them, including traps, poison, and an exterminator. You can also get a cat.

Signs you have rodents include droppings everywhere and teeth marks in your furniture, food, and anywhere else.

Flies

Flies of all types can end up in your home and they are rather annoying. However, worse than that, they can also spread disease and bacteria. Fortunately, they’re fairly easy to dispose of yourself. You can use fly control strips and other methods to ensure they are kept to a minimum.

Flies come in a range of types, from houseflies to bluebottles and fruit flies. However, they’re all potentially dangerous, so you should take steps to prevent them if possible.

Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are becoming more and more common and they spread easily between flats. They feed off of humans and can spread quite rapidly. It’s nearly impossible to rid your home of bed bugs on your own. In fact, it usually requires multiple treatments from a bed bug specialist to prevent them from getting further out of control.

Bed bugs don’t just live on beds. They like any soft surface, but will also hunker down in cracks anywhere they can.

Ants

Ants may not be dangerous, but they can be very frustrating to live with. You’ll find them in your home if they think there may be food, but most of the time, their nests are still outside. Look for the insects hiding under stones, paving tiles, and in the grass. You may be able to control them yourself, but you’ll need to make sure you have the right traps and chemicals.

In extreme cases, an exterminator may need to come in to kill off the ants. However, you should be able to reduce their numbers through traps and keeping the counters nice and clean.

Spiders

Most spiders in the UK are actually completely harmless , but people tend not to like them anyway. You can actually encourage them to stay if you like, since they will eat other insects and don’t get into your food. Spiders will attack flies and mosquitoes, so they are quite beneficial.

Unless you have a venomous spider in your home, you shouldn’t have to worry. Cobwebs can be a bother, but they aren’t dangerous and as previously mentioned, they catch other pests that might bother you more.

If you really can’t stand spiders, you should make it more difficult for them to come indoors. Then, you can call in a pest control service if you really need one. However, if you can manage, it’s best to dust around them and let the creatures be. They’ll help you out far more than you think.

Cockroaches

A nice warm house with a little food lying around is paradise to a cockroach. Like rodents, where there is one, there are more. They tend to congregate in the kitchen, hanging out in dark spaces, preferably where it is nice and warm.

They will get into any available food so that can make a bit of a mess. You may not be aware that you have any until you see the first one since they don’t tend to leave an obvious trail. You could have hundreds living in the kitchen without ever noticing. An exterminator is the best way to get rid of these.

Wasps

Wasps , while an outdoor pest, can be a real problem. Since they tend to sting and can be far more aggressive than regular bees, wasps are usually a big issue that you’ll need to deal with as soon as possible. If they sting you, you could end up having a bad reaction and possibly even ending up in hospital.

The trick here is finding the nest and disposing of it. However, this can be very dangerous to you since you’re likely to be stung multiple times and could have a bad reaction to that many stings. It’s best to bring in a professional who can take care of things for you. This allows you to stay away from the nest and the pest control person will be able to take care of the nest and ensure that there are no others around.

The exterminator will first seek out any nests and then kill off the insects. The nest generally stays put, but can be eliminated if need be.

Preventing Pests

No one wants pests in their home, but what can you do to prevent them? Well, there are a fair few ways to help reduce the chances of finding anything on this list inside your home.

Use window screens. These fine mesh covers for your windows will help prevent flying insects from getting into your home. You can easily leave the window open and nothing will get in. It’s also a good idea to protect your doors, or leave them closed. Window screens are effective against wasps, bees, and flies, as well as mosquitoes.

Keep your home clean. A cluttered home makes it easier for pests to find a home. They’ll settle right into the disaster and hang out there while you wonder why they’re showing up all of a sudden. It doesn’t need to be rubbish, but just piles of paperwork, extra blankets, or even laundry you never quite get to can turn into a haven for spiders and rodents. It’s best to clean up and make sure you have few places for your creatures to hide.

Never leave food out. Having leftover food out is a good way to attract ants, cockroaches, and rodents. They’re always looking for more food and will bring all their friends. The same goes for wasps, which tend to flock to anything sugary, such as juice or fizzy drinks. These are easily the biggest reasons wasps come into a home and once there, they get aggressive. Even a few crumbs in the sink can attract ants and cockroaches.

Get a cat. Cats are excellent hunters and you’ll find that most rodents will move out as soon as they smell a cat. If they don’t, they’ll be eaten. However, if you do have a cat, you should take care not to permit any poisons or traps in your home. These can be dangerous to a cat and you want to keep it safe.

Don’t pick up random furniture. It may be tempting to grab that beautiful sofa left outside your flat, but there’s a good chance it was tossed out for a reason. If there are bed bugs on it, the last thing you want to do is bring it into your own flat. It only takes a few small bugs to infect your entire flat and it can be very difficult to get rid of them.

By taking care, you can avoid attracting most of these pests in the first place. This will save you a lot of time and stress, but that doesn’t mean you will never have pests. You should know where to call if you do have a problem that is serious enough to warrant calling in a professional.

You should ensure that you know as much as possible about the pests that surround you. If you know there are a lot of wasps about, for example, you can begin to search out their nest. When the exterminator arrives, you can show them exactly where the nest is and return to the relative safety of your home while the pest control deals with it.

Are you in need of someone to handle the wasps around your home? Call Mr. Wasp and make an appointment today.