I would be happy to point out some situations, in which you can or absolutely can't save on a pest control service. I will also give a bit of information on "Why" you should or should not save money or spend excessively. Let us begin...
Mice and rat control are "popular" services. Bestsellers, sort of speak. The reason behind it is that those animals are actually smart. And when it comes to their survival they can go extra lengths! A lot of people are scared of them, and are twitching just by the thought that those creatures can lure somewhere inside of their homes!
A rodent control service can cost you around $280 or £200.
It depends on your property and the treatment you choose, or rather the exterminator chooses for you. I often get calls from customers that are panicked and just want their place "bombed" against rodents. That is unnecessary in most cases. If you see a mouse in your house or a rat, that does not mean that your property is infested. You have to find several other signs to classify this as an infestation. It might just be a single animal looking for food.
I can advise you to place a trap or two around the property and wait for results. If you catch a rodent, but you continue to spot droppings or hear sounds from inside the walls.
Call a pest control company as soon as you can. Rodents reproduce fast!
However, if you catch a mouse and all the previous signs of rodent presence stop showing, you just might be lucky enough! You can go with a DIY solution, block the access to your home and place traps.
You do have to know, where and how to place those traps! Be extremely careful with your DIY rodent control. Rodents are constantly gnawing on something, PVC pipes, electric cables, isolation and much more. They can impact severe damage to your property that will cost you way more than a simple examination and rat control services from a professional, just keep that in mind and be ready to acknowledge your defeat if things get a bit out of hand.
There is no shame in that.
Note: If you have problems with other rodents like squirrels, it is better to call in a professional right away. A pro will resolve the matter quickly. The only reason for a squirrel to occupy your home is to build one of its own. They only nest inside your property, they are loud and unpleasant tenants! If you need a guide for DIY squirrel removals, we have covered that topic on a separate post.
Now, here it gets a bit tricky. You can "go easy" on some pest and for others, it is absolutely important to eradicate them as soon as possible! Let's list them below with a bit of info on each one.
Ants
Ants are not a big threat to you or your property. They are in it only for the food. Anyway, you can easily trace the line of ants to their nest. You can fill the hole from which they are entering your property, and stop them for a while. It is inevitable, they will find another way in or clear the one you just blocked. It is a matter of time.
The tricky part is that ant colonies can have more than one queen, meaning that they can spread pretty fast, the insect itself is not known of carrying any diseases, but it is carrying bacteria, which you don't want on your groceries. A professional ant control procedure will set you back around $250 or £180, again depending on your property. If you have pets and/or kids living with you, you should consider calling in a professional. It is unknown how many ant nests you have around.
Yes, it is a procedure that you might pass on if you change some personal habits and store your food well. Don't give the ants a reason to stay.
Actually, even after booking extermination, you will have to be careful and avoid dropping food around, not even crumbs!
Bed Bugs
Don't try to cut any costs from bed bug control! I repeat, don't be cheap, when it comes to dealing with bed bugs!
Those bloodsucking bugs are hard to take care of. I personally recommend several visits and treatments against bed bugs! They won't go away, because of a bit of salt under the bed, some store-bought "magic" spray or miracle homemade vinegar solution. Not if it is a full-blown infestation! Bed bugs are spreading extremely fast, they are happy to live in any piece of furniture, not only beds. They are adaptive and true survivors.
You want nothing but "The Heavy Artillery" against this pest! A lot of colleagues will advise on booking a simple one-off cheap visit, just to score you as a client. Don't go for that. Get the most extensive service you can find provided in your area.
If you leave the infestation to grow in your property, a heat treatment is inevitable and those are pretty costly. A bed bug heat treatment will be around $1300 or £900, once again depending on the size of your property.
Cockroaches
If bed bugs are survivors, those here are the ultimate survivors. The Bear Grills of pests!
Those creatures can eat almost everything from paper to themselves! They can survive without a torso or even without a head for a couple of weeks. If you are planning to deal with them using a homemade remedy, forget it! If you recently started seeing (or smelling) signs of a cockroach infestation, call in for a professional examination of your home. Talk with the exterminator and proceed after evaluating his/her words.
Get your hands on some cockroach gel. This thing is pretty effective because it is a tasty treat to them and it poisons their meat. When the cockroach dies in its nest the other roaches will eat its corps (that is what they do) poison themselves and so they pass the poison on. You can't rely simply on the gel if you are dealing with a serious infestation.
However, this remedy costs under $10 or £7 and by using it after a professional treatment will vastly increase the effect. You can also give the gel a chance, prior to calling in a professional. If it resolves the cockroach problem for you, great. If not, it will definitely help. The set back for gel baits is that they are dangerous to pets, so you can't just set them laying around the corners of your house if your cat is walking around. Not to mention if you have a child in the property...
Flies
Those are annoying, yes, but a threat, hardly. DIY methods, sticky strings, sugar water traps, electric zappers, all of those will do the job. If they fail, you may be dealing with a bigger problem and you should call in a pro to check things out. Flies are not dangerous to people, although some species are laying their eggs in food or inside living humans.
Beware!
If you acknowledge bigger traffic of flies in your home than usual, check your rubbish containers. Flies love rotting things. Professional treatments for flies are a rare thing, often on properties that were not in use for a long period and now are getting new owners. If you bought a house that was sitting unattended, it is a good idea to call in a pest control team to evaluate the entire building and plan your future treatments, flies are most likely not your only problem. In such a case, you can't spare the bill for treatment. Which would be around $250 - £170.
Fleas
Fleas are also bloodsucking pests, but unlike bed bugs, those are carrying diseases! A flea infestation is not something you should take lightly. Homemade remedies may bring them some discomfort, but it will only make them move from point A to point B and hunt you down there. If you have a pet, it gets even easier for them to move around the property. A single flea lives up to 100 days and it only needs one mate to produce up to five hundred larvae! They are fast, they can jump long distances and they have hard shells to protect them as well.
In case you see one, be sure there are hundreds more. Don't save from flea treatments and anti-flea products for your pets, it will turn out costly. You stand to spend $350 or £250 on extensive flea treatment.
Silverfish
If you see silverfish bugs in your home, know that they are not your only problem. A silverfish infestation is a sign of a damped area in your property. Maybe a gutter is not flowing right, maybe a rat gave a PVC pipe a bit of gnawing, who knows. Silverfish bugs love to hide in places that are warm and with high humidity levels.
They infest basements, attics, bathrooms, and kitchens. Those are the places where damps are usually formed. In order to deal with this pest, you need to take care of the damp. Those bugs are the reason why you should not cut expenses when building your pipelines, isolating your property or taking care of your gutters.
Silverfish can cause allergic reactions because of its skin particles floating around with the house dust. That's right, skin particles. Silverfish grow fast and they outgrow their skin often.
A silverfish treatment is around $300 - £200, add that to $500 - £350 damp repair expenses (best case scenario). And all that just because you saved from a $200 - £130 gutter cleaning procedure...
Spiders
If you have a lot of spiders in your home, not that you probably have other pests as well! Spiders are hunters, and they go only where they can find prey! It is important to know what kind of spider you are dealing with. If you can't identify it yourself call in a professional.
The best way to deal with this situation, and the one that will save you some money, is to call in for an examination of your property. After that is done and indeed you have problems with other pests as well, take care of the other insects, and leave the spiders to move out on their own.
In the UK the "Spitting Spider" is a common sight, and those little things could infest the inside of walls, so that is why it is always a good idea to evaluate your situation with a pro. If you are dealing with a normal house spider, just clean around more and look out for other insects to focus your resources on.
Moths
It depends on the severeness of your infestation. If you spot a couple of moths in your dresser rush out and buy a store-bought solution, or test out a homemade remedy. But if you spot more than 5, there are holes in your curtains, and one or two of your favourite dresses are ruined...
Call in the pros, because you are probably looking out for generations of moths.
Woodworms
This pest can cause a lot of damage to your property and furniture. They are gnawing on everything made out of wood and are unseen for most of the time. Don't panic if you see markings on a single piece of wood, it is not a rare sight, but if you have doubts better call in for a professional inspection. Woodworm treatment prices go around $350 - £280. A completely new wooden floor, a new balance beam for the porch, handyman services to repair woodworm damage, those cost way more.
Wasps / Bees
If you are having a nest on your property you should probably leave it bee. By the end of the summer wasps or bees will leave the nest and never come back. So it would be a complete waste of money and time trying to get them out earlier. Not to mention the stings and the risks, if you turn out to be allergic or have stung too many times and fall into shock. The risk is real and absolutely unnecessary!
But, if the nest is low and it is bothering you, it may be near your pet house or your child's playground. In that case, you should seek out help from professionals. In case of a wasp nest, pest control teams can take care of it fast and effective. They use products that are not available on the market. Remind yourself that fact, before you engage in DIY nest removal! If you are dealing with a bees nest you would have to call in a beekeeper to help out.
Bees are protected by government regulation and if you deal with them on your own you might end up not only with the unpleasant feeling of many stings, but also a lawsuit against you! A wasp nest removal will cost you roughly $140 - £100 and it can save you a lot of troubles and money! Don't go for DIY methods wasps are extremely aggressive creatures!
Takeaways
So you now know what pests could be treated effectively with DIY methods and what can't. You also know what expenses you can't save, because it will result in a much bigger bill in the end run. Hope you put your new knowledge in good use and save up some money.