Why Is Year-Round Pest Control Important?
Every homeowner has their own opinions on professional pest control services. Some believe that the treatments are only necessary when there is a full-on infestation, while others prefer to protect their homes with scheduled services every month or season. If you fall into the first group — or a third group that doesn’t wish to receive professional pest control at all — there are plenty of understandable questions surrounding this process. What’s the difference between these products and the pesticides anyone can buy from the hardware store? How can a technician easily solve the pest problems that have been plaguing a home for weeks? And, most of all, why is year-round pest control important? These are the questions we are aiming to answer today, so let’s take a look at the main reasons why professional pest control is essential for any homeowner to receive throughout the year.
Ahead of the Curve
When you receive professional pest control on a regular basis, you are essentially protecting your home against any potential pest problems. Think of it as putting a shield around your property. When the technician applies preventative products and plugs any possible entry points — places where pests can enter — they are fortifying your home against local pests. The most efficient and cost-effective way to keep any home pest-free is to apply effective treatments before the pest problems develop. In short, it is ideal to receive preventative treatments rather than waiting for an infestation to occur before taking action.
Every season has common pest issues that make an annual appearance. Of course, pests can be found in any season, but there are certain species that predictably make a yearly appearance in a specific season. Some of the most frequent pests in each season include:
Spring: bees, mosquitoes, rats, mice
Summer: bees, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, ants, roaches, mosquitoes, crickets
Fall: spiders, stink bugs, rats, mice, crickets, centipedes
Winter: rats, mice, spiders, termites, ants, roaches
By receiving scheduled pest control services every season or month, the technician can adjust treatments as needed, depending on the current pest issues and present species. This makes for a more efficient treatment process that will actually get to the root of your specific pest problems.
The Contamination Factor
There’s no easy way to say it: pests are dirty. Most species spread bacteria and harmful pathogens to us, both directly and indirectly. Direct transmission is when the pest bites us or we consume food touched by the pest. Indirect transmission is when we touch items that those pests previously touched, like countertops. Speaking of which, the kitchen is where most contamination happens since hungry pests are desperate to get into our food and drinks. Rodents, roaches, and ants are probably the most common food-loving pests that invade kitchens across the country. They contaminate everything they touch because of the bacteria that collects on their bodies while they scavenge for food in the dirtiest of places. Some of the most prominent diseases that these pests transmit to humans include salmonella, E. coli, plague, hantavirus, and Typhoid fever.
Certain pests that have no interest in our food can still spread diseases to us. Blood-sucking pests, like mosquitoes and ticks, frequently spread blood-borne diseases to their hosts if they previously fed on an infected mammal. Since these types of diseases multiply within blood, the pathogens will spread in the pest’s gut until they can be transmitted to the next host through the pest’s saliva and mouthparts. Not every blood-sucking pest is infected with disease, but there are enough cases every year to make this a valid concern. Some of the most common diseases spread by these pests are West Nile virus, malaria, Lyme disease, Zika virus, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Infestations that involve any of these contaminated pests are some of the most nightmarish due to the additional risks. By receiving regular pest control services, the chances of your home being invaded by one of these critters is greatly reduced. The trained technician will be able to find any beginning pest issues and target the pests before they have time to spread out. More pests means a larger health risk to the residents of the home, so ending the pest problem before it can get out of hand is ideal. Plus, by receiving scheduled services throughout the year, there is a reliable resource if a pest issue does pop up in between the treatments, so you never have to tackle an invasion on your own.
Property Damages
While certain pests spread dangerous diseases to the humans and pets of an infested home, other pests specialize in damaging the house or yard itself. This is where pest problems can go from mildly frustrating to expensive. Wood-boring pests are one of the worst kinds for this specific issue. The structural damage that they cause will only worsen and spread with time, so timely treatments are crucial for these pests. Some of the most common types are termites, carpenter ants, and carpenter bees. They can chew through most types of wood — especially if there is any pre-existing damage — so they have plenty of food sources in a standard home. Frequent targets of these pests include walls, framework, cabinets, floors, and firewood.
Rodents are in a league all their own. Rats and mice have open-rooted teeth, which means they need to constantly chew on hard objects to keep their teeth filed down. Otherwise, their teeth will continue growing and become too long for the rodent to eat anything! This unfortunately means that rodents will chew on anything they find in a home, especially once they start reproducing. Since their teeth are strong enough to chomp on most household materials, rodents can cause an extensive amount of damage in a matter of weeks. One of the worst scenarios is when they chew through electrical wiring. This is actually a leading cause behind many house fires, as rodents cause about 20% of undetermined house fires every year.
Instead of waiting for a pest problem to occur, the most cost-efficient way to protect a home is with seasonal pest treatments. Any one of these pest problems could end up costing you thousands of dollars in damages if they go unaddressed for too long. Repairing and replacing all of the wood that termites ate through is expensive enough of an endeavor, never mind actually eliminating every termite in the infestation. When the technician visits for the scheduled service, they will look for any signs of early pest problems as they apply preventative treatments. Paying for high-quality pest prevention on a scheduled basis instead of paying far more to treat pests and repair damages is undoubtedly the better choice, in our opinion.
No Need For DIY
There are plenty of DIY projects and improvements that homeowners can make to their greatest investment. So why add trial-and-error pest control to that list? Store-bought sprays and treatments make bold claims about how quickly they will get rid of pests, but that’s just it: quick fixes do not equal long-term solutions. A strong spray or trap may eliminate a few of the ants, roaches, or spiders invading your home, but they are no match for an infestation. Eusocial insects — ants, roaches, termites, wasps, etc. — live in massive colonies that cannot possibly be squashed with a simple spray. These pest problems require the treatments and knowledge of a trained professional because they know the signs of an improving or worsening pest problem.
Along the same lines, DIY pest elimination is not the type of fun project we recommend tackling on the weekends. It feels like there are a number of videos and blogs that detail the supposed “easy solutions” to any type of pest problem. As with the store-bought products, these methods and life hacks may work against a few creepy-crawlies, but they are no match for an entire invasion. Trying to solve an infestation, whether inside or outside, with untested methods will likely cause even more of a headache for you later. Eusocial pest invasions, wasp nests, rodent infestations, and mosquito swarms are all best solved with targeted treatments that are applied by a trained professional, not time-consuming methods that don’t get to the heart of the problem.
Besides saving time and money, utilizing professional services can actually be safer for you and your family. The technicians complete extensive training on what the products are, how to apply them, and where to concentrate the applications. They will use the least amount of products possible in order to be both more efficient and more safe. Plus, as the technician applies the necessary products, they can be on the lookout for any other pest issues that may have escaped your notice. The convenience, expertise, effectiveness, and safety of receiving regular pest control services, versus trying to solve pest issues with unfamiliar products, are invaluable reasons why seasonal pest control services continue to be a worthy investment of your time and money.
Kick Pests to the Curb with Pointe Pest Control!
At Pointe Pest Control, we understand the importance of a pest-free home or business in every season. We know that pests never take a vacation, so we don’t either. Our team is fully trained and experienced in solving all kinds of pest problems. We begin every service with a thorough inspection of the property to search for all signs of pest activity and determine which species are involved. These findings will then inform the customized treatment plan that we create on-site. We believe that pest control should not be “one-size-fits-all” since no two problems are the same, so all of our treatments are completely targeted to solve the specific issues at hand. For a free quote on our efficient pest control services, contact our knowledgable team today!
Citations
Earl, J. (2022, November 11). Do you need pest control in the winter?. CBS News. Available at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/do-you-need-pest-control-in-winter/ (Accessed on December 20, 2023).
Rats cause house fires. (2023, February 6). Automatic Trap. Retrieved December 20, 2023, from https://www.automatictrap.com/blogs/rats-trapping-college/how-rats-cause-house-fires
Why it’s important to have year-round pest control maintenance. (2019, June 25). Carolina Pest. Retrieved December 20, 2023, from https://www.carolinapest.com/why-its-important-to-have-year-round-pest-control-maintenance/
