Livingston Reporting - page 351

What type of pictures come to your head when I mention the word VERMIN? Do you cringe? Most people don’t have images of cute, cuddly household pets. We think of bugs, squirrels, raccoons, beetles, maggots and other small creatures that cause ruckus and delay to normal life. Vermin removal takes time you don’t have. Vermin don’t always go away nice and easy. Most of the time it takes major dedication to completely rid yourself of pests. Vermin navigate by smell and nothing smells better than your trash. Your trash is like a mega phone broadcasting a signal to your home.

There needs to be a plan for managing your outside trash to make sure that vermin stay at bay. Once you have attracted these mega pests removing them is a difficult process. Vermin attract stray animals to your home. In turn the chaos that they attract will bring dirt and disease to your home environment. It is much less work on a homeowner’s part to manage their waste than to go through the processes of vermin removal. Managing the waste in your outside trash cans will eliminate the attraction of vermin to your home. This will decrease the possibilities of an infestation of vermin inside your home.

How can you minimize the attraction your garbage has to vermin? It is much easier than most would believe. First you will want to make sure that you have created a situation where it is virtually impossible for pest to get into your garbage cans. Many people who live where trash management companies are abundant have bins to hold their trash. Bins are a wonderful distraction for vermin but unless they are properly latched and sealed the critters can intrude. You will want to place latches on the trash that are sufficient in locking critters away. If you are out in the country where trash management companies are less abundant you will need to store your garbage properly until you can take it to the recycling facility. Many folks use bins made out of wood materials and chicken coop wire. A lock is place on the top portion of the bin to secure the waste inside of the enclosure. The chicken coop wire is used to provide proper ventilation so that the scent does not start to attract the vermin.

Another tip in minimizing the attractiveness of your trash is to bleach out all of the containers that hold trash. Keeping the containers clean and free of trash juice will make sure that vermin such as maggots don’t start to make a residence in your trash receptacles. Even the slightest crack or hole in your trash can enables the smallest of vermin to enter. The use of trash can liners can also help decrease infestations. Another tip if you find yourself with a crawling vermin infestation is to keep your trash cans in trays lined with water. Vermin cannot swim and will drown getting to the intended promise land.

Whatever you do to keep vermin at bay will help in the long run. Vermin removal is a long a tedious process so anything that you can do to maintain an environment that does not promote vermin will be beneficial. Another key is to help spread the word and promote cleanliness within the neighborhood. If everyone is taking an active role in preventing vermin than the neighborhood should stay vermin free.

Here is a riddle: It is inevitable. Every home owner will experience it at least once if not more. It is a nuisance. It leaves a trail. Sometimes it steals your food. It visits at night when you are least expecting it. What is it?

If you guessed mice you are correct! Mice are a problem because they destroy your home, carry infectious disease and are hard to rid of yourself. We would all like to believe that we can prevent mice from visiting our home. The truth is that no matter how sanitized your home is, no matter how many entrances and exits are blocked and no matter how much care is taken to prevent an attack it will happen. Whether children accidently drop cookie crumbs or a dish is forgotten in the sink mice will smell food and come running. Being prepared and not scared is the best option you have to rid your home of the mouse. Then you can start to plan against an infestation.

There are really three main ways to get rid of a mouse. Your humane options are limited but it can be done. The key with these methods are to release the mouse far away from his current environment. If death is the message that you would like to send to this mouse there are two different options snap/clap/sticky traps or poison. The disadvantages range from visually seeing a mouse suffer on a sticky trap, headless on a clap trap or decaying in your walls after having ingested poison. I know it is all a little graphic and overwhelming but these are the facts you need to face before one mouse turns into twenty.

There are advantages and disadvantages to all methods of mouse removal. Let’s begin by exploring the poison method. The major advantage is that you can cover a great deal of ground with it eventually you will hit the exact location of your mouse. This will bring the desired consequence and the mouse will no longer exist. The major disadvantages start with the fact that you are using a poison that could ultimately be ingested by something other than the intended recipient. A pet or child digesting poison could cause major medical issues. Another major disadvantage is the mouse will still live once he has taken in the poison leaving him to go back to his home and die. The bad part is that his home could be your cupboard. A rotting mouse is not a pleasant smell so I don’t think that is much of a solution to a household mouse.

The next method of mouse removal is traps. There are two major traps; sticky ones and snap traps. Snap traps cause immediate death. They work by placing bait on the end of the trap and the mouse steps onto the trap releasing a clasp that basically snaps the mouse’s neck. The advantage of this method is that the mouse does not suffer and his death is immediate. One disadvantage is that mice are sneaky and can steal the bait without getting trapped. You might find yourself in a cat and mouse type battle. Sticky traps work in a similar fashion. The good thing about sticky traps is that there is no way a mouse will steal the bait. The minute the mouse steps onto the trap they are stuck. That is a major advantage to sticky traps. The disadvantage is that you are left removing a mouse that is suffering and still alive from your home. If you want to lessen the cruelty you are left to kill the mouse yourself. Removal is not an option. If you try to remove a mouse from the sticky trap you will see that all you are doing is tearing the apart.

The humane method is of course the one I would advocate for. There are two major disadvantages to this method. It takes planning and effort on your part. Also you will need to release the vermin in an environment that is far enough away that they don’t remember the path into your home again. The advantage is that you using a non-lethal method of mouse removal. Mice are basically a pest. They are pretty harmless to most households and can be dealt with fairly easily without causing harm to you or the mouse. A catch and release method involves minimal clean up and you won’t be scarred by the mouse’s death.

Whatever method of mouse removal you choose in your home the key involved is to be prepared. Mice can strike at any time, during any season. As mentioned above keeping a clean home will eliminate the draw a mouse has on your home. However even the best laid plans can fall apart. All it takes is one crumb or dirty dish and a mouse can scamper into your life.

Bedbugs are creepy little critters that invade and spread in the correct environment. They are persistent and hard to get rid of. Bedbugs are able to hide in the smallest cracks and crevices where they breed and are not easily found. These critters are nocturnal and only come out when most people are asleep. This makes getting rid of bed bugs very difficult. Another thing that makes them so difficult to get rid of is that they can live for long periods of time without food and can survive traveling long distances. They reproduce quickly laying approximately 300 eggs that hatch every 10 days. These reasons make it difficult to keep bedbugs at bay. Prevention is the key element in keeping your home free of bed bugs.

To keep your home free of bedbugs you will want to avoid bringing them into your home in the first place. Many people believe that travel within the United States and abroad is making the resurgence of bedbugs possible. When people travel from one place to another they can unknowingly carry these tiny creatures with them. Bedbugs thrive in tight dark spaces. Luggage makes a perfect home for traveling bedbugs. In order to keep your luggage free of bedbugs follow these tips.

1) When traveling keep luggage zipped and elevated on a luggage rack at all times. Many people believe it is best to keep luggage in the bathroom. This environment is not one that seems to draw bedbugs.
2) You may hang your clothes using caution. It is unadvisable though to make use of hotel dressers.
3) Make sure that when you arrive home that you instantly wash and dry your laundry. It is important that you leave your luggage in the garage until you have time to thoroughly inspect it for bedbugs.

In order to be extra cautious review the hotels you are looking at staying before booking a room. If a hotel has multiple reports of bedbugs it is best to book elsewhere. Once an infestation is reported it is difficult to ensure complete bedbug removal. You can improve your chances of not getting bedbugs by taking the following precautions.

1) When arriving at your hotel ask to inspect your room before settling in.
2) When inspecting a room look for telltale signs of bedbug infestations. You will look in the seams of the mattress and furniture for molted skin and light brown fecal matter.
3) Check in nightstands and headboards, cracks are perfect hiding spots for these nasty nuisances.
4) If you see any signs of bedbugs request a different room or for that matter find another place to rest your head.

Remember prevention is the only way you can truly keep your home bedbug free. Take the necessary steps to avoid an infestation because bedbug removal is a long a tedious process that is never a hundred percent effective.