Common Pests In Apartments
No matter what time of year it is, pests are always around. For those who live in apartments, not only are you still susceptible to pests, you’re also more likely to get them more often, even if you live on higher floors! Luckily since most apartment complexes are design in very similar layouts, knowing where to look and how to deal with common pests in apartments can be a quick and simple problem to deal with in its infancy. Wait too long and there’s a good chance you’ll have a major problem, and potentially let it spread to your neighbors.
Knowing what the most common pests in apartments are, how to prevent them and when you need the help of professionals is key to keeping your apartment pest free with minimal effort.
The 5 Most Common Apartment Pests
- Spiders – Most commonly found in ceiling corners, outdoor storage closets and laundry rooms
- Cockroaches – Seen under laundry room appliances, outdoor storage closets, water heater closets
- Silverfish – Often found along baseboards and ceiling corners when they’re moving about
- Ants – Usually spotted in kitchens, pantrys and anywhere else food and crumbs may fall
- Rodents – Regularly found in outdoor storage closets, pantrys and food storage closets
Why Pests Love Apartments More Than Houses
We often see apartment complexes with pest infestations on a grand scale and the reason for that isn’t as complicated as it might appear. When compared to a non-apartment housing, apartments see a higher occupant to square foot ratio, which as we’ve seen throughout history, wherever humans congregate, so do pests!
And while you might be thinking to yourself that your apartment unit doesn’t have a pest problem, your next door neighbor might and since your units are housed in the same structure, their problem could easily become your problem.
It’s important to note that as a community in general, we can prevent pests as a community too. Ensuring that you’re preventing pests in your home tips the odds in your favor, your direct neighbors favor and other buildings near yours as well. In the long run, the saves everyone time, money and effort and that includes you!
Preventing Common Pests In Apartments
Knowing both what pests to look for and why you often see them in an apartment is only half the battle, preventing them is the other half! For many of these pests, sealing and storing food properly will help keep your apartment free of a lot of pest related activity. If pests happen to be in your walls, there’s not much you can do about it other than call your local pests control service, but you by ensuring your food is secured, there’s a good chance they won’t bother sticking around.
It also doesn’t hurt to know where pests are coming in if they are already. Any entry point for one pest could easily be used by many others so preventing that should be a major priority to stop the flow of pests and allow you to remove existing ones more effectively.
Regular cleaning of your apartment is also a great way to ensure you don’t see many pests like spiders that tend to spin their webs in the high corners of your ceiling. Taking your vacuum or a broom to clean up webs, even tiny ones will help ensure you don’t see more spiders laying eggs in the future. Regularly vacuuming your floors, carpet and hardwood can both suck up unseen bugs, but also any food particles that they may be trying to feast on, keeping them around. This goes for wiping down counter tops with disinfecting wipes for any food or liquids. And of course, cats work great for rodents.
Should any of that not work for whatever reason, or you’d prefer to have the professional handle it, give your local MasterGuard Pest Control a call and we’ll be happy to send out a technician for a free pest inspection of any apartment!
Surprise Common Pest #6 In Apartments: Bed Bugs
In the pest industry, it’s well known hotels can often be a breeding ground for bed bugs. Checking for them is among the first things a traveler should do when first entering any hotel room, the reason being bed bugs get into a persons home 95% of the time attached on clothing, furniture and containers like luggage from traveling. And as we now know, if you have a neighbor who has traveled recently or travels often, there’s always the chance they spread bed bugs throughout the entire building over time.
A quick, but thorough inspection along the seems of furniture and stored clothes should quickly determine if you have a problem. Where there’s one bed bug, there’s definitely more. Should any sign of a bug that looks similar to this picture be present, give us a call immediately and we’ll send out a technician to do a free inspection to get the full scope of the problem and address the solution with you in no time getting you back to pest freedom!
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Sources:
“A Cat Is The Best Natural Mouse Deterrent – How To Get Rid Of Mice” how-to-get-rid-of-mice.com, https://how-to-get-rid-of-mice.com/mouse-deterrent-cat/