DIY Pest Control

DIY pest control is fast becoming the popular choice for all homeowners, as it is generally a cheap and efficient means of kerbing the problem of pests in one's home. But before we get into that, lets define pests. Pests are basically animals or even smaller organisms that threaten humans, whether they are harmful to people themselves - such as rats, which have negative effects on one's health, or whether they affect a human's environment - such as the damage that termites carry out on a wooden home - they are still a terrible nuisance and nobody wants to have them around and living in the same space as your family and children, spreading disease and filth.

The smaller types of pests include flatworms, nematodes and insects amongst others, and the larger pests are rats, while there are also funguses that are harmful and weeds are considered pests to one's garden as well. The good thing is that all of the above pests can be removed via DIY pest control means. Pest control has been around for ages, although many people consider it a relatively new invention. Raccoons are a problem here in the US, as they are forever getting into the garbage, but they are not quite the same type of nuisance as cockroaches for instance, which are extremely difficult to kill. Other annoying pests are houseflies, which won't just disappear, but hang in the air like a cloying mist, while laying their rotten maggots in the trashcan.

Chemical DIY pest control is by now over 4500 years old and actually started in the time of the Sumerians, when they made use of Sulfur to get rid of insects. In these times, poisonous plants were also often used to get rid of pests, while the Chinese of ancient times made use of chemical insecticides. During the time that machinery become the popular choice for farmers in agriculture, pest control also grew in popularity and new formulas were developed to reduce the pests within their crops. Pyrethrum and Derris were two of the most widely used insecticides of this time. Although insecticides and pesticides have changed over the years, they still work to get rid of many of the pests that plague our homes today.

Other types of pests that need some sort of DIY pest control are bedbugs. Bedbugs reproduce at an alarming rate, each one laying around 500 eggs and feeding off humans blood as they sleep at night. You will find that they live in mattresses, within the carpet and floors - basically any warm crevice that is open for inhabitance. If you find out that you have bedbugs in your home, don't worry - it is not because your home is dirty, they live in all types of conditions, even the most sterile of bed linen. To get rid of them, it is best to purchase some sort of pesticide and then spray your mattress and leave it out in the sunlight for a few hours.