Common Pests Found In Cities And How To Deal With Them

No matter where we go, or how much nature we replace with our own concrete jungles, pests are there nipping at our heels, and surprisingly, despite not having a natural habitat to thrive in, common pests found in cities are often more difficult to get rid of than their rural counterparts, but as we often say, knowing is half the battle. Learn what to look for and easy ways to delay the inevitable pests that will crawl you way below!

The Rat

If there’s one pest that’s become synonymous with the word ‘pest’, especially in cities, it would be rats. Often underestimated as being just another nuisance pest, rats are actually incredibly intelligent creatures, and that makes them all the more difficult to get rid of.

Rats have an excellent memory and will remember exactly where they found food or shelter, as well as how they got there, even if it was just a one time, short visit. Coupled with their keen sense of smell, a lack of resources isn’t an issue with them, capable of finding food almost anywhere they go. While they have poor sight and are color blind, they sport amazing hearing as well. Rats are capable of having up to 20 babies at a time, allowing their numbers to swell easily when not kept in check. It would only take two brown rats, for example, a single year to produce more than 10,000 offspring in less than ideal conditions.

One of the reasons rats are so difficult to get rid of in general is their resilience to their environment. They’re capable of surviving falls from up to 50 feet with minor injuries and jumping nearly 3 feet from a standing position. Rat teeth are capable of chewing through some of the toughest materials without showing signs of wear, like wiring, metals, stone, and even glass.

The Cockroach

One of the most dreaded pests known to all of humankind is the cockroach. Literally every culture on the planet for all of known history has dealt with cockroaches. It’s because of their amazing resiliency that they’ve been around for over 200 million years before us, and because of that same resiliency that they’ll be around far after us as well.

The best method to dealing with cockroaches is to trap them and/or use pesticides for them to absorb via direct contact or consumption. However, pesticides are slowly becoming less and less effective leading to traps being used more frequently for eventual collection and final disposal.

Fact is, cockroaches are one of the hardest pests to get rid of you on your own. Whether you use us, or another pest control service, we highly recommend using a professional service to fully handle any cockroach problem you might have.

The Ant

Ants are amazing insects. Their ability to navigate their way through almost any obstacle and leave a trail for their fellow ants to follow allows them to scout nearly everything around that they might make use of. With their ability to climb vertical surfaces with ease and their tiny size, it’s only a matter of time before ants pop up in the vast majority of properties.

It’s because of that that almost nowhere is safe from ants and while they’re not terribly hard to get rid of compared to many other more resilient pests, an ant infestation is no joke. Given ample resources, ant populations can explode and become far more than a nuisance, taking over entire surfaces and wall interiors before you know it.

The Bed Bug

One of the most unfortunate pests to have to deal with, bed bugs tend not to wander in to your home from the outside, but are physically brought in by you, or another occupant or visitor at your property. While in 99% of cases this isn’t intentional, once they’re in, they settle down real quick. What we mean by this is bed bugs don’t thrive well in the wild, but do well inside man made structures where they tend to cling to furniture, clothes, and many other types of fabrics that often get touched by people where bed bugs can transfer to the person themselves, their clothes, furniture they may be moving into their property, luggage they’re brining home from vacations.

You may be thinking that even if they do get brought into your home, so what? However there lies the problem, you won’t even know you’ve done it till they start becoming more and more apparent, leaving bite marks on you overnight, which is how most people start noticing they’re experiencing an infestation.

The Spider

Spiders are definitely one of the creepiest pests to have. In most cases, the average spider problem won’t be something serious like a black widow or wolf spider infestation, but many spiders, poisonous or not, will bite if they feel threatened whether you know they’re there or not.

Though spiders prefer to stay away from people and seclude themselves in dark corners, this gives them the perfect opportunity to go unnoticed until they become a problem. Luckily for us, spiders can be easily removed and prevented with simple pest control and preventative treatments, not to mention simple DIY pest control can generally prevent spiders from becoming a problem if done routinely.