3 Reasons It’s Best Not to DIY An Insect Infestation
Insects in the home usually aren’t a big deal. We encounter them in our residences on a daily basis, and in normal situations, they’re irritating at worst, or even benign or useful, such as spiders feeding on other insects. But on occasion, some unfortunate homeowners find themselves in extraordinarily bad circumstances, with not just a few bugs here and there, but a full blown insect infestation. This can take many different forms, from finding out you’ve got bedbugs, to making the discovery there are termites in the wood.
Whatever the case may be, the natural response is to want to get rid of them. However, some may be tempted to save money—an understandable motivation—and try to deal with the problem themselves. This is rarely a good idea, and here are the top three reasons why.
1 - It Can Be Dangerous
In some cases, trying to eliminate an insect infestation from a home can present real risks to the home, the people living inside it, or a combination of the two. A wasp nest for example, poses a big risk to everyone in a residence once the wasps themselves realize they are being “attacked.” Unlike bees, wasps can sting a person as many times as they like, and attempting to remove a wasp nest without the proper protection, or using very basic solutions, like trying to knock it down with a broom handle, are an invitation to a massive attack.
On the other hand, a case like termites endangers the structural integrity of your entire home. If you find termites in your house and don’t have access to the right tools, you may be tempted to simply flush them out of the wood. Depending on where termites have spread, attacking the already fragile wood can put undue stresses on your home, especially if the termites have taken up residence in a supporting beam.
2 - It Can Be Ineffective
For many people, taking care of insects means dealing with the immediate threat at hand, usually with a flyswatter, or spray can of insecticide. For insects in smaller numbers, such as individual flies, this works just fine. However, in the case of an infestation, these standard tactics may not be so effective. While it’s true that brute physical force will always get rid of insects, one of the strengths of an infestation is the sheer, overwhelming numbers. For all the insects that you see and spray or step on, there are many more that you are not seeing.
In the case of something like bedbugs, it can be extremely difficult to even find and kill these pests. Without new, modern techniques for dealing with bedbugs, such as special heating chambers that furniture can be placed in, searching through a mattress or upholstery or frame of a sofa or reclining chair can be a tedious, ultimately fruitless effort.
3 - It’s Only Short Term
For serious of infestations involving hive insects, the only real way to deal with the problem is to control the population problem, and that means dealing with the queen. As long as you are only attacking workers and other servant insects, you are just stamping out an immediate threat. The queen is what continues to lay eggs that mature into new insects, and the problem will not go away unless you have the techniques, tools and know-how to find and address the queen problem.
You also need to take measures with your home to prevent problems from reoccurring. If mice, for example constantly enter your home in the winter, the mouse traps only fix a problem in the short term. In the long term, you need to find and block the entrances they are using.
Taking pest control into your own hands is definitely a way to both learn and save money. But if you want the fastest, surest results to eliminate a problem, get the experts to handle it.
