Anyone who lives in Mississauga knows very well how annoying pests like ants, rodents, cockroaches and any other common pest found in the area can be. Often times, these pests take harbourage in our homes causing infestations that can get out of control very quickly if not acted upon immediately. In some cases, hiring a professional exterminator in Mississauga is necessary but more often than not you should be able to solve the problem yourself. By simply understanding the habits of these pests and knowing how to kill them or deter them from staying in your home, you will be able to exterminate most pests on your own, saving you the sometimes high cost that comes with hiring an exterminator.
This article will provide tips on how you can perform do it yourself in home pest control for some of the most common pests in Mississauga. There are, however, some common pests, such as bed bugs and termites, that are very difficult to exterminate and should only be handled by an experienced pest control company such as Pestend Pest Control Mississauga.
Preventative Pest Control
The best advice that any pest control professional would tell you is to reduce your chances of having an infestation in the first place. This requires some discipline but usually pays off in the long run. By simply keeping your house clean, getting rid of easy entrance points around the home and reducing the amount of places they can hide, you will significantly reduce the chances of your home becoming infested. For more detailed information on preventing a pest infestation in your home read this article.
Rodent Infestations
Rodent infestations in Mississauga are a common issue that homeowners can be faced with. The most common types of rodents infesting Mississauga residential and commercial properties are mice and, to a lesser extent, rats. Mice enter your home through small cracks in walls or the foundation of your home and hide in tough to reach areas such as in between walls and under floors. They can be detrimental to your health contaminating food with urine and feces so they must be taken as a serious issue.
In the case of a small infestation it is definitely possible to exterminate mice on your own using the tips below. For more severe mouse infestations, however, it is highly recommended to hire a mice control company in Mississauga to ensure the problem is taken care of properly so your family can feel safe again.
DIY Rodent Removal Tips
The best way to get rid of a small rodent infestation in your own is to use mouse traps with baits to lure the mice in. First you must determine where the mice are located in your home and common pathways they take to get to food sources. Since mice have bad vision, they usually travel along walls so they can feel the surface as they move. You should be able to determine their pathways by looking for feces along your baseboards and placing traps in these areas. Proper placement is extremely important to successfully exterminate mice so make sure to place them along your baseboards, placing two traps side by side to ensure they can’t jump over the trap. The three most most popular mouse traps used include:
- Snap Traps – These are the most popularly used mouse traps in Mississauga. Using a bait to lure the mouse onto the trap, a spring loaded mechanism will cause a metal piece to slam onto the mice’s body causing it to die.
- Glue Traps – Another common mouse trap, glue traps are similar to snap traps but instead of using a spring loaded mechanism to trap the mice, this one uses an adhesive on the surface of the trap to stop mice in their tracks.
- Live Traps – These traps are the more humane option leaving the mouse alive when caught so you can let it free in nature. Live traps also use a bait to lure in mice who get trapped inside the device by a door that shuts closed once a mouse enters.
Using traps alone won’t fully solve the problem. You must also remove any easy food sources that the mice are attracted to in your home and take away any potential hiding spots such as clutter and cardboard boxes.
Wildlife Infestations
It is beautiful to see wildlife going about their daily lives in natural settings, but when they enter our homes and infest our properties it can be quite frightening and even dangerous to you and your family as some of them can be aggressive and even spread disease to humans and pets. Some of the most common wildlife pests in Mississauga properties include raccoons, squirrels, skunks and opossums.
These wildlife species get attracted to residential properties due to easy food sources such as garbage and compost bins that are not properly sealed. Once they find an easy food source they search out harbourages around your home so they can always be near the food source. Some common places these pests call home are in the roof of your house, in wood piles around your house and under porches.
DIY Wildlife Removal
Removing wildlife from your property is a bit trickier than other common pests mentioned in this article and usually requires a qualified wildlife removal company in Mississauga like Pestend Pest Control Mississauga pest control to get the job done safely and properly. In the case of squirrels, raccoons and opossums you can try removing them on your own but it is highly recommended to call a professional even for these species to make sure they are completely removed and any access points are properly sealed. Skunks should always be handled by professionals due to their aggressiveness and dangerous diseases they can spread. To remove most wildlife from your property you can place trap cages with attractive food as baits to lure the wildlife species in. When placing these traps try to visualize the path they may take and place traps in those areas. Once they are trapped, take them far away from your home (at least 10 km) to make sure they can’t find their way back. Also make sure to seal any access points that you find so that any new wildlife families don’t fill the void, and remove any attractive food sources by sealing garbage, compost and recycling bins to deter any future infestations.
Ant Infestations
Apart from carpenter ants and termites that can cause structural damage to your home, most ants in Mississauga do not pose a serious risk to your home or your health. Some common ant species found in Mississauga homes include fire ants, pavement ants and pharaoh ants, all of which can form quite large colonies in a short amount of time.
Of these common ants found in Mississauga, the main ones you may find living in your home are pharaoh ants who usually live in areas where they can hide from humans such as under the floor, behind cupboards and in wall voids, always near a food source. The other ant species tend to live near the home and will enter through small cracks so that they can feed on delicious foods that they can find in your home.
DIY Ant Removal
Most of the ant species found in Mississauga are attracted to several different types of food but their favourite is sweet and greasy foods. Knowing this, the first and most important step in removing an ant colony from your house is removing any attractive food sources. To do this you must make sure that you always clean up any food remnants left around your house and use soap to wipe down any surfaces that had contact with food in order to remove the attractive scents. The best way to kill the ant colony that has infested your home is to give them a bait that they can take back to the colony killing all members. Place the bait near entrance points or in the common path that you have seen ants travelling on to make it easy for them to find. To make an effective bait for killing house ants in Mississauga follow these instructions:
- mix one part borax to three parts powdered sugar
- place small amounts of this in shallow dishes or in bottle caps
The sugar will lure the ants in who will not be able to distinguish between the borax and the sugar. They will then return to their colony with this borax and sugar mixture, eventually poisoning the entire colony. This method can also work for exterminating cockroaches from your home.