Pests are usually not a problem if they’re not touching you or contaminating your food and home. But oftentimes, they do, and that calls for the urgent need to get rid of them entirely.
Calling a specialist isn’t always needed, though, unless the infestation is dire and destructive. In doing so, you’d have to pay an expensive fee, but you don’t have to—if you know what to do.
So here, we’ll explore the 9 most common household pests and how to get rid of them. You can find useful information and tips about each critter, including where they come from, some natural and safe ways to deter them from taking over your house, and more.
The 9 Most Common Household Pests and How to Get Rid of Them
Without any further ado, here is our list of the 9 most common household pests and how to get rid of them!
1) Cockroaches
A cockroach is one of the most detested and common types of household pests. It has a creepy appearance with often a brown, oval body, six prickly legs, and long antennae.
There are many types of cockroaches around the world with the most common ones being the American cockroach, Oriental cockroach, German cockroach, and brown-banded cockroach.
What they can do
Crawling from just about anywhere, these egg-laying creatures can transmit diseases and cause diarrhea when the contaminated food is unknowingly ingested. Some can carry an unpleasant smell with them.
Besides that, they can leave feces in their path, saliva, and cast-off skin that can trigger allergic reactions or asthma in adults, kids, and seniors.
Where they come from
Most of the time, cockroaches come from outside of the house through openings or cracks, or are brought along by someone in old newspapers or cardboard boxes.
Because they love moist and dark surroundings, they can come up through open drains as well. Plus, since they feed on decaying food and things, they are often found in kitchens and untidy rooms.
Most cockroaches are nocturnal creatures so they come out only during the night. Although most prefer darkness over light, they creep in late at night or when the area is dark and no one is around.
How to get rid of them
There are plenty of ways you can do to get rid of cockroaches. The easiest and most practical way is to tidy up your room and remove food crumbs and litter in all its nooks and crannies.
In addition, make sure to leave spaces between your stuff to take out their place of hiding. And using a caulk, you can seal off cracks and openings in your bathroom, by which they can enter your house.
You can use insecticides if you want. But if you’d want a natural and chemical-free solution, mix equal parts of boric acid and sugar and apply this to areas where they are likely to occur to discourage them.
However, if your home has a severe and hard-to-control roach infestation, your best bet will be to call in a professional pest controller, lest the problem gets worse.
2) Mice
A mouse is a mammal with a pointed snout, tiny, sensitive ears, and body-length tail. Some are actually cute to have as pets, while other mice, like field mice, scavenge the house for food and refuge.
They differ in size and behavior and are great climbers. They are mostly active at night and very quick so may be hard to spot.
What they can do
Aggressive mice are very toxic and dangerous. They can gnaw at your belongings, chew off electrical wires, urinate in your room, and leave droppings behind.
Worst of all, they can also spread malignant diseases, including leptospirosis, salmonella, hantavirus, and lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCMV).
Since they can breed fast, an infestation is likely to happen if they are left alone. And what happens then is your home will be an uncomfortable and health-risky place to live in.
Where they come from
Mice can come into the house through holes, under the spaces of doors, tall trees or vegetation, among other places.
They will go look for food, potential shelter, and nesting places. So, it’s not uncommon to find them near garbage cans where there is spoiled food, unhygienic places, and basements.
How to get rid of them
You can declutter your home both inside and out, particularly newspapers and cardboard boxes, which the mice can use as a breeding ground.
Seal off any cracks and openings that are larger than 1/4 inch to prevent the scurrying critters from accessing your home.
Think back to where you sighted the mouse as well as check any footprints, gnawed snack bags, and pet food. That could give out a clue as to where the mouse is traveling, hiding, or nesting.
You may also want to leave mouse traps with a very small piece of bait. Experiment as to which kind of food that mouse is attracted to.
But, if your home has not only one mouse but a few or more, we advise hiring a professional to stop the infestation occurring in your house.
3) Bedbugs
Bedbugs are small, stout, and red-brown insects that feed on sleeping human’s blood. These insects often don’t grow any bigger than 0.5 centimeters and can be seen by a keen observer.
They can move as fast as a ladybug and spread to different places through the person’s garments, luggage, boxes, upholstery, and of course, bed linens.
What they can do
They bite the person’s skin for blood particularly on the face, neck, arms, and hands—exposed sections while sleeping. This produces red marks or blisters that run in a rough line or cluster.
However, they don’t spread harmful diseases unlike other pests. Also, it doesn’t matter to them whether the room is clean and dirty, just a warm host and lots of places to hide under!
Where they come from
They’re usually present in old beds, mattresses, box springs, clutter by the bed, and room baseboards.
Other hiding places they have include upholstered furniture seams, carpeting near baseboards, under light switches, and under peeling paint or wallpaper.
Additionally, they may be found in lodgings where a lot of people check in every day. Examples are guest houses, cruise ships, hotels, refugee camps, dormitories, and even trains and buses.
How to get rid of them
If your bed has a lot of crafty bedbugs, wash your pillowcases, bedsheet, duvet, clothing, and curtains. Clean them in hot water and dry them on the highest setting to kill them.
Use a hard brush to remove all the bedbugs and their eggs before vacuuming the bed. Do the same for the luggage or boxes beside your bed.
Vacuum all around your bed as well as the pillows and blanket on it regularly. Afterwards, place the vacuum cleaner bag inside a plastic bag and throw it in the garbage can outside your abode.
You can also encase your mattress in a bed-bug proof cover to prevent bedbugs from entering or escaping it. Keep the cover there for a year which is the maximum lifespan of a bedbug.
4) Ants
Ants are prevalent in different parts of the world. They can be found marching or running along walls and edges in homes on the hunt for food.
Their size should be between 0.20cm and 2.54cm. They work in a colony or army in unison to serve the queen ant and protect against threats from people, animals, or other ant armies.
Having an unusual appearance, abilities, and behavior, they are truly beautiful species if you look at the bigger picture. Nature needs them because they keep it balanced by eating away more irritating insects like fleas and bedbugs.
What they can do
As a pest, ants can be a nuisance because they persist in following the track to a sugary residue or just about any food. They can also contaminate food left out in the open and pass along the bacteria to your kitchen and dining utensils.
Also, if threatened or defending the colony, they can bite the person with their strong jaws. If the person does not disinfect or care for the wound properly, their skin can be infected and produce a blister with pus, after which will leave a permanent scar.
And if you have been stung, you could suffer mild to serious allergic reactions. This can be hives, chest pain, stomach cramps, swelling of the throat and tongue, nausea, dizziness, difficulty breathing, or a combination of these.
Where they come from
They come from anthills or nests from the ground. When you have uncovered food or treats that’s left on the ground for a while, it can seem that ants come out from nowhere.
As soon as they detect it, they communicate with the colony and send forth hordes of them into your house to carry or feed on the food.
How to get rid of them
To get rid of ants, you would simply have to keep your house clean of fallen crumbs, spills, and make a moat around your sugar container with a large, open container if they are adamant on getting to it!
Block out small cracks or pathways to your home for these industrious workers by using a sealant. You can also keep them at bay by mixing essential oils like citronella and peppermint oils and applying it in that place.
5) Mosquitoes
A mosquito is a flying insect that can bite or spread germs at home. It can live both indoors and outdoors and is more active in warm climates.
An adult mosquito can generally exist from 2 to 4 weeks, but this depends on the mosquito kind, temperature, humidity, among other factors.
What they can do
Male mosquitoes don’t feed on blood. On the other hand, female mosquitoes bite and suck out blood from a person’s skin, which allows them to lay eggs for new offsprings.
The activity of discreetly biting people makes them a great nuisance in your dwelling. Needless to say, it’s quite painful to be bitten, and the bitten area will become red and itchy.
Acting as a vector, they can spread disease like the West Nile virus and malaria. These can cause fevers and associated symptoms like headaches, body aches, joint pains, vomiting, diarrhea, rashes, chills, and flu.
If a person with a mosquito disease isn’t treated promptly, the condition may become severe, and in some cases, fatal.
Where they come from
They live and breed in dirty, standing water, which could be found in garden planters, buckets, blocked gutters, discarded tires, even children’s toys, and unmaintained swimming pools.
Similar to other kinds of pests, if you have dusty curtains, upholstery, or black boxes, it’s not surprising to find a mosquito going about near them.
How to get rid of them
As mosquitoes thrive in warm and swampy environments, you have to cut down tall grasses outside your house and dispose of all the dirty, standing water in your house.
You can also use a mosquito spray to ward them off or an electric mosquito killer appliance. They are attracted by the light the latter emits and will get a shot of electricity if they go near its high-voltage metal grids.
6) Termites
Termites are insects that feast on wood, in particular, logs, wood shavings, leaves, and soil. They can be cryptic and hostile, causing great damage to a home in a discreet manner.
With a social order composed of soldiers, nymphs, queens, and other ranks, they are often compared to ants. In fact, they are sometimes referred to as white ants.
But a phylogenetic study shows that they are more related to cockroaches than ants. And so, they’re classified in the insect hierarchy of Dictyoptera, same as the roaches.
What they can do
Being a detritivore, they feed on dead or decaying wood and plants for the cellulose in it. Cellulose is an organic fiber which provides them nutrients and energy to keep them going.
However, they also consume plastic, paper, and drywall. And you can just imagine the damage or destruction they can leave behind during a pest infestation.
Where they come from
An insect can often be found not far away from its source of food. They should be found in most moist and warm areas with decaying wood and fallen trees.
So, that also means you may find them on rotting wooden floors or walls, or damaged trees at your home. Look for soil-colored mud tunnels as this is evidence that there were termites feeding through the wood.
How to get rid of them
To kill the pests, you’d have to lure them out using termite baits, use an effective termite-killing product outside your house, and spray boric acid in your interior walls and floors.
Apart from that, heat is a great termite killer for those that plan on doing DIY. You simply have to heat the affected space to about 49 degrees Celsius, which should eliminate them.
However, for truly big infestations, it’s best that you call professional termite exterminators so that they can get to the root of the problem.
7) Fruit Flies
Fruit flies are insects that are attracted to ripened and fermenting fruits and vegetables. They have large, red eyes, tan front and black rear body.
It only needs a week to grow from a larva to an adult. The adult size is small, measuring approximately 0.32 centimeters.
What they can do
If you have fresh produce from the grocery or garden or spoiled fruit, it can be prone to fruit fly infestation. Fruit flies lay their eggs near the surface of those foods.
Thus, they can transmit bacteria onto the veggies and fruits you have at home. Although they are nuisance pests, they can affect the health negatively when the contaminated food is used as an ingredient or eaten.
Where they come from
With their small size, fruit flies can come through windows and doors even if they are screened. You have to choose 40cm mesh screens that have very small openings so that they can’t enter.
They can reproduce in moist areas or equipment, such as garbage disposals, house rags, empty bottles or containers, and mops.
How to get rid of them
To keep fruit flies away, you should either eat, dispose of, or refrigerate over-ripened fruits. Remove the wounded or cracked portions in a fruit or vegetable to be sure it has no eggs or larvae.
You might also want to consider putting together a fruit fly trap. All you need is a glass jar, pour a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar or put a slice of banana, fold and place the paper funnel on top of the jar and watch the swarm go in and stay in the jar.
8) Wasps
Wasps can be a pest at home if it has a nest somewhere close by. Small-waisted, they have a bright black and yellow body, venomous stingers, and tenacity to defend their nest or young.
They differ physically and behaviorally from bees and ants. They are grouped in the suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera.
These insects can range in different sizes between 0.64cm and 2.54cm depending on their species and age.
What they can do
When provoked or threatened (or they simply think you are a threat), they can fly to you aggressively and sting you. This is what makes them predatory domestic pests.
Because its stingers don’t have a barb—unlike that of a bee so you don’t have to remove it from the skin—it can sting a person repeatedly and inject venom too.
Normal stings only give you minor discomfort like swelling and itchiness on the stung area. Whilst those with venom can hurt a great deal more and can cause severe reactions to those allergic to it.
Where they come from
They come from the outdoors and can build a nest near your home, such as beside your window with a damaged screen or in front of your garden shed.
How to get rid of them
Since it’s incredibly painful to be stung by a wasp and even fatal for children and elderly with poor heart and lung conditions, it may be better to hire a wasp exterminator to deal with them.
Don’t even try to hose them as they can just grow more aggressive. So, it’s best to stay away from them for the time being while you wait for professional help.
9) Fleas
Fleas are flightless parasites feeding on humans and pets. They ravenously ingest blood from their hosts to survive even as much as fifteen times their body weight.
They have a reddish-brown appearance, and oval abdomen. With the naked eye, you can only see them as small dots hopping around.
What they can do
These blood-sucking insects can feed on animals and humans. It bites the exposed skin and draws in blood to fill itself.
If you are bitten by a flea, you will feel pain and itchiness on your skin. By scratching the bitten section of your body, it can invite secondary bacterial infection, so you have to avoid that.
In rare instances, they can also transmit diseases to humans, notably the alarming murine typhus and the bubonic plague.
Where they come from
Fleas are taken in homes through their animal hosts. They are spread easily from one animal to another and can start their infestation.
And as to where they originate, they mostly hide in dark places like a tall bush or grass waiting for a pet or person to go by before they jump on them.
How to get rid of them
To vanquish these nasty creatures, you should wash your bedding in hot water, vacuum your upholstery, floors, and mattresses, and better yet, call a professional for steam carpet cleaning.
If you’re looking for a DIY solution, use anti-flea chemical sprays to eliminate the larvae, pupae, eggs, and adults. Make sure you wear gloves and that everyone, including your pets, is outside the house, while you’re doing it.
And that completes our list for today! Hopefully, you’ve picked up some things from this article to stop the advance of the pest and completely bid them adieu!
As you’ve seen in this article, some pest problems can be too risky to do yourself. So, for serious infestations, it’s best to call in the professionals before the situation gets worse.
