Saturday, August 3, 2013

Be Your Own Bug Man



            Owning a home is expensive, we all know it. If it is not a minor repair, it is a major repair. Maintenance on a home is year round, and pest control around the house should be done year round as well. Fortunately, doing a general pest treatment around your home is easy and very inexpensive. A basic pest control treatment around the house typically includes a perimeter spray of both the inside and outside of the house.  
Before you begin to treat the home you will want to make sure you have all of the necessary tools. These things include but are not limited to: an insecticide concentrate, one or two gallon pump-up hand sprayer and personal protective equipment which is typically, a mask, gloves and protective eye wear  Next, make sure you have pump up sprayer to apply an insecticide with. If throughout the year, you also use your sprayer to use herbicides such as round up or a broad leaf weed killer, we recommend owning two sprayers and keeping one for herbicides and the other for insecticides so that any residue left in the tanks does not accidentally get sprayed in an area you would not want it to. Once you have all the necessary equipment to perform a general pest treatment around your home, you will want to select the insecticide that is best suited for your needs. While the end results of the chemicals are all very similar, they all have slight differences that you will want to take into consideration when making a decision. For instance a product like Viper has a great knockdown but also a strong odor. D-Fense SC has no odor and great residual, but the initial knockdown is not as fast as Viper. Once you have determined what you are looking for in an insecticide, you will want to look over the labels of each product to ensure that it lists the particular types of insects you want to kill. Most general insecticides cover the basic list of pests that are likely to enter your house; we refer to these insects as occasional invaders.

Okay, so you have ordered your chemical and necessary equipment, and thanks to Solutions Stores, it arrived in just two or three days, what is next? Before you begin spraying, examine the product label again and determine the proper amount of chemical to mix with a gallon of water. To mix the product best, we suggest pouring half of the water in your sprayer then add the chemical followed by the remainder of the water. Once the lid is on, shake thoroughly. Beginning with the outside of the house, spray approximately six inches up on your house and six inches out from your house on the ground; this creates a 1 foot wide barrier from any invading pests. Also, spray around any door or window frame as well as any weep holes your home may have. On the inside simply spray all cracks, crevices and baseboards. An even coating is all that is needed. After all the spraying is done, stay away from any treated areas until the chemical has had enough time to dry. All in all, the spraying should not take any longer than an hour and can potentially protect your home for as long as three months from occasional invaders. Owning a home is expensive, doing your own pest control is not! 

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