"Regular House Cleaning Can Help Control Pests"
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Sunday, October 3, 2004

Treating a number of restaurants and institutional customers with food service facilities has highlighted a number of cleaning, hygiene, and sanitation issues that can benefit you, the homeowner. While almost 90% of your pest problems originate outdoors, once inside your home, sanitation and access to food and water perpetuate these unwelcome pest guests. Because both cockroaches and mice feed on the same foods we do, a dirty kitchen, poor food storage, and poor trash management act as breeding areas for these pests, allowing their populations to increase rapidly.

Entry areas including porches and mud-rooms are often the first entry points for pests. Use a “Webster” duster to keep baseboards and the corners of the ceilings clear of spider webs. In fact, the presence of spiders often indicates the presence of other pest populations that are attractive food supplies for these spiders. Toe-kick areas, baseboards, corners of floors, corners of ceilings, and door frames are popular areas for spiders to build their nests.
In the kitchen, family room or other locations where family members have snacks or meals, the smallest crumbs become a tempting meal to pests. Crumbs and other food particles find their way into corners, cracks, and other crevices long the baseboard with the normal traffic flow. As you vacuum, be sure to use the wand attachment and reach into corners and other crevices as well as behind large furniture. Don't forget to vacuum the cushions of couches, chairs, and other upholstered furniture. Follow your thorough vacuuming with damp mopping of all hard surfaces. Caulking all visible cracks could also make this cleaning job faster and easier in the future. Be sure the stove, walls, and cabinets around cooking areas are free from grease and that dirty dishes don’t stand in the sink or on counter tops. Trash cans need a plastic liner to keep crumbs from collecting in the bottom. Trash should be taken outside to a secure storage location daily.

In the laundry room, the warm moist environment can be an attractant to pests as is the lint and debris found behind washing machines and dryers. Using a long wand attachment, vacuum these areas thoroughly. Fill holes between washer hoses and drains so mice and rats can't come inside. Fill these with steel wool and caulk the holes both inside and out. It only takes a very small passageway for rodents to enter your home. In the pantry, make sure you have proper ventilation and again clean thoroughly and rotate food stocks. Pests often live in stored flour, meal, and other cooking products. Dried peas and beans can also be easy to enter food products for pests.

Homes that are cleaned and vacuumed weekly can look to reasons other than normal sanitation for their pest problem. Often the problem is due to products brought into the home from outside into the living area or garage. Examples are paper, cardboard, newspapers, and wood. Grocery store items are often packaged in cardboard or paper and may harbor roaches or their eggs deposited there from food warehouses or your grocery store. Remove all paper to control these inside pests. Also transfer any stored interior firewood to an outside location. Stacks of newspapers for later recycling, paper bags, and empty boxes can be harborage sites for roaches and should not be stored indoors.

As you put your summer clothes away and remove winter clothes from storage, be sure to thoroughly clean and vacuum your closet. If you noticed small holes in your wool coats or sweaters, you have a moth problem. Never allow clothing to lie in a neglected pile. Regular use of a strong suction vacuum cleaner with a crevice tool to remove lint, hair, and dust from floor cracks, baseboards, air ducts, carpets, and upholstered furniture is paramount. Also keep closets and dresser drawers clean. Regularly clean rugs where they fit close to the baseboards and under the quarter round. Launder and dry clean or steam clean clothes and other items before storage since egg-laying clothes moths are attracted to soiled articles. Ironing will also destroy all stages of clothes moths. Your pest management professional will treat all cracks and crevices in infested areas with a residual insecticide and provide additional information and assistance.