Pest Control in our household

Pests and insects carry disease-causing organisms. Rodents for instance usually carry bacteria that cause food spoilage and food poisoning. It is therefore important for any housekeeper to understand how pests breed and multiply so that appropriate and control measures can be undertaken.

Control Measures for Rats, Rodents and Mice
1. Maintain proper sanitation. Without food they cannot survive so do not give them access to food by covering all food and stagnant water.
2. Cover all possible entrances by using screen, by patching up holes and by closing doors all the time.
3. Use rat poison or rat baiting to eliminate rats.
4. Destroy their hiding places like crowded storerooms. Decongest the stockroom, fumigate and keep them clean .
5. Use rat proofing to get rats out of the building. It is easier to kill rats that are already inside.

Control Measures for Roaches
1. Preventive-proper sanitation , prevention of entrances and elimination of harborages.
2. Corrective- application of liquid pesticides like residual knockdown and spray insecticides
3. Thorough and frequent treatment is recommended

Control Measures of Flies
1. Start with sanitation , follow proper cleaning procedures and promptly remove wastes from the area.
2. Keep all garbage cans covered. Once disposed, clean the can thoroughly.
3. Treat all breeding places with larvicides.
4. Use residual spray, poison baits and space spraying control.
5. Open and clean floor drains at least weekly.
6. Don't allow food particles to accumulate in floor walls and junctions.
7. Remove all unused materials.
8. Daily clean toilets, lockers, garbage areas.
9. Use fly electrocutors
10. Do fogging at the end of the day when all food and utensils were put away and protected . Use non-toxic pesticides.

Control Measures Mosquitoes
1. Remove stagnant water/drain pool or drums of water
2. Employ mechanical control like screens and mosquito nets
3. Utilize larvae control. Pour larvicide chemical like kerosene and malathion on canals and other breeding places.
4. Utilize residual/knockdown spraying of non-toxic chemicals. Methods of application may take the forms of space sprays, residual smoke.
5. Apply repellant chemicals.