For nearly 40 years, the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) has been celebrating April as the National Pest Management Month, an occasion created to “honor the professional pest control industry for playing a key role in in protecting both health and property from significant pest-borne threats.”

The National Pest Management Month’s goal is to raise awareness about the serious health and property threats posed by common household pests such as ants, termites, rodents, and stinging insects. Additionally, April marks the beginning of the pest season, offering an excellent opportunity for homeowners to take preventative measures against pest insects along with cleaning, landscaping, and other spring chores.

Also taking place in April, the Bed Bug Awareness Week (20-26 April) is a campaign created by the National Pest Management Association in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help homeowners learn more about how to detect, treat, and prevent bed bug infestations. Greenleaf Pest Control is proud to join in this important industry effort and remind the public about the many dangers of bed bugs in advance of the summer travel season.

7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Attempt to Treat an Infestation Yourself

Pests are a problem for everyone, everywhere. No matter where you live, at some point in your life you will probably see an ant scurrying across your kitchen floor or a spider dangling from the living room ceiling. Savvy homeowners may treat pests just like any other household problem and attempt to take matters into their own hands, but often they end up aggravating an existing infestation and spending much more money in the long run.

Although they may not appear this way, many home pest control situations are either too complicated or too dangerous for homeowners to tackle themselves. Some treatments require extensive knowledge about pest biology and behavior, while others involve the use of toxic pesticides or specialized equipment. Hiring a pest control professional to treat existing infestations and prevent future ones is the best possible decision you can make, for the following reasons:

1. Pest control experts are trained to handle and remove infestations that require the use of chemical pesticides without causing injury to your family and property.
2. The products used by professionals are more powerful and more effective than the off-the-shelf pesticides available to consumers.
3. Rather than just eliminating the existing infestation, an experienced pest control professional can create a custom management program that takes into account multiple factors, including the size and type of property, the species of pests, and the most successful treatments.
4. Reputable pest control companies offer an effectiveness guarantee for the services they provide. Some promise that their treatment will keep pests at bay for a specific amount of time; should pests return on the property before the guarantee expires, the company will provide additional treatments at no charge. Others will offer a money-back guarantee for customers who are not satisfied with the results, even after additional treatments.
5. The pest control treatments used by professionals are designed to be not only effective, but also environmentally-friendly, being able to eliminate pests from your property at no cost to the environment.
6. You can choose to sign a contract with a pest control company to proactively treat your property at periodic intervals in order to make sure your home remains pest-free throughout the year.
7. You actually end up saving money by hiring the services of an experienced pest control company than by attempting to battle the insects yourself. Without understanding the pest’s biology and behavior or having the proper tools to remove it, you are bound to spend much more on baits, sprays, and dusts (probably to no avail) than on effective pest control services.

Protecting Yourself from Bed Bugs, Still the Most Feared Household Pest

While ants, termites, cockroaches, and stinging insects can certainly wreak havoc on your property, the infamous bed bugs remain the most difficult to manage household pest, according to a previous NPMA national survey.  Here are some of the preventative practices the Association recommends to keep bed bugs at bay this spring and summer:

• Never bring home second-hand furniture, especially mattresses and box springs, without previously inspecting it for signs of a bed bug infestation
• Wash and heat your linens, blankets, and bedspreads at regular intervals to eliminate potential bugs and their eggs
• Eliminate excess clutter, especially near beds and clothing, to reduce the number of hiding places
• At hotels, perform a thorough inspection of the room before unpacking your bags. Pay close attention to the bed sheets, mattress seams, and headboard for stains that may indicate bed bug activity
• During a hotel stay, keep your suitcases in protective bags to prevent bed bugs from nesting inside
• Thoroughly vacuuming carpets, floors, bed frames, upholstered furniture, and all cracks and crevices around the house can help reduce the number of bugs significantly

Successfully eliminating a pest infestation is never an easy task, and this is why you should never treat it as a do-it-yourself project. If you want to rid your property of destructive pests and minimize the risk of a pest re-infestation, hire the services of an experienced pest control company to help prevent illness and damage to what you value the most: your family and your property.

 

About the Author

Daniel Mackie, co-owner of Greenleaf Pest Control, is a Toronto pest control expert well-known as an industry go-to guy, an innovator of safe, effective pest control solutions, and is a regular guest on HGTV. Mackie, along with business partner Sandy Costa, were the first pest control professionals in Canada to use detection dogs and thermal remediation for the successful eradication of bed bugs. In his free time, he is an avid garde