Is it really necessary to call the pest experts? Couldn’t you handle the rat in the attic, or the bed bugs yourself rather than bothering your local pest control agency?
Our advice: don’t take pest problems too lightly.
Yes, you can try some home remedies and home maintenance tips to keep certain pests from invading your home. But they also have the tendency to hide their numbers for a long time. Before you know it there is a colony in your attic that’s very difficult to get rid of.
Or perhaps you respect nature so much that you don’t want to disturb any creatures on your property?
These facts will shed some light on why certain creatures require expert intervention. You don’t want to regret waiting too long before making that call.
Rats
The danger of having rats on your property is that they only take about three weeks to mature. Yes, that’s how soon they’ll start damaging wooden structures or stealing food from your cupboards and contaminating the area. And, depending on the type, as little as two weeks later—at five weeks old although some may only reach this stage at 12 weeks—they reach sexual maturity.
Once pregnant, the babies will arrive within weeks and with each litter there could be as much as seven more rats. They will then start to mature, eat your food and getting ready to have more babies.
Rats can live for two to five years—although many die within a year—and each year the females may have three litters.
Can you see how quickly you need to take action to prevent a huge infestation?
Rats are also not just cute little creatures. Unfortunately, they can carry diseases and cause you unnecessary expenses when they chew through wood, wires or other objects on your property. They may seem cute in the cartoons on TV, but don’t allow this small animal to cause havoc.
Cockroaches
Cockroaches are also pests that can increase in numbers very quickly, since the mother can carry up to 40 eggs at a time. These creatures go through three phases:
- Eggs
- Nymphs
- Adult stage
Eggs are carried in a sac—ootheca—outside the mother’s body or inside the body. The egg stage can be anything between two and seven weeks long.
From the sac or body, nymphs will appear and if you do see them, they’re light in colour. Over the course of about a year, they will undergo moultings and become the brown creatures we all know.
As an adult they can live for as long as two years, so don’t think they die off quickly and reduce the colony’s numbers. They’ll become more and more, affecting more of your property. For example, experts say a cockroach and her own young can result in as many as 300 000 cockroaches over the course of one year. That’s not a pest problem you want on your property!
The problem with cockroaches is that they’re unhygienic, able to carry bacteria and also allergens that can spark asthma attacks in some people.
Termites
A termite follows a similar cycle to cockroaches, starting out as eggs, becoming nymphs and then reaching adulthood. Interestingly, even though they start out looking the same, as they mature their appearance will be according to the role they’ll fulfil in the termite colony, for example workers or soldiers. This process is actually prompted by the queen’s pheromones that cause development according to the colony’s needs.
While that’s interesting, let’s get to the more important facts. They can damage wooden structures, your furniture and many other objects, resulting in expenses for property owners. You need experts to remove them as soon as possible, because:
- While a young queen may only produce around 20 eggs at a time, eventually there may be hundreds and even thousands.
- Eggs take only a month to hatch.
- Termites do damage in order to feed nymphs wood cellulose or plant particles, and this is why your property may come under attack from them; imagine having to feed thousands of these tiny critters!
The amount of food available will determine how quickly termites mature.
Bed Bugs
You often won’t notice bed bugs in your home, making it easy to live in denial of their presence and effect on your household. Unfortunately, they can lead to skin irritations, even if they don’t cause extreme problems such as diseases. And who wants these bugs in their beds anyway?
Here’s one more pest that can quickly increase in numbers. This is because:
- Female bed bugs can lay as many as five eggs on a day
- The female bugs can lay eggs every day
- Eggs hatch within seven days
- Moulting into adulthood can take only five weeks
These critters can live as long as a year and they’ll survive for quite a few days without a blood meal. So, when you return from your holiday, they’ll still be there waiting.
Too Creepy?
That information is enough to make your skin crawl, right? But all those facts will also inspire you to make the right decisions from now on in looking after your premises.
These critters are small but unfortunately their presence can’t be taken lightly. Is it time to dial the pest experts?