Professional pest control companies are seeing record increases in the need for their services. With increasing awareness of certain pests, like bed bugs, and increasing environments for others, like mice and rats, people are often turning to professional pest control to combat the pests invading their home.
But knowing whether to invest in a pest control business means knowing whether this trend is likely to continue. All signs point to the increase in pests, and need for their removal, continuing to increase in the future. So why is the pest population increasing?
Urban Developments
More and more of the world’s population is urbanized. Urban areas are primed for pest population expansion in many ways. Cities and urban areas are inherently dirty; people live very close together, making it easy for pests to spread; there are fewer uninhabitable areas between one host area and the next. With urban areas providing such great homes for rodents, bugs, and more, it makes perfect sense that an increase in urban areas means an increase in pests.
While homeowners might be concerned about the cost of professional pest removal, the alternatives are often even more expensive. One way for homeowners to assuage their concerns is to look at pestcontrolreviews.com before they decide which company to work with.
Weather Changes
Most of the world agrees: the weather in the world is changing. Our overall climate is warming, and huge storms are becoming more common. This has many different effects on the human population; what this means for pest populations is that the times when they used to die off – especially due to extreme cold – is no longer as much as a threat. With fewer pests dying during cold snaps, the overall pest population increases.
Chemical and Behavioral Resistance
Pests are finding ways to avoid typical pest control methods. For example, rodents have been seen to avoid regular snap traps and the carb items that are usually used to attract them, or to deliver poisons. Other insect and bug pests have developed resistance to many of the chemicals that are available to a homeowner. Using these chemicals even though pests might be resistant means that the resistance is strengthened. When homeowners buy professional strength chemicals and use them incorrectly, they may not kill an entire pest population, which will yet again cause more resistance in the overall population.
When you’re moving into a new home, meanwhile, it’s a good idea to have the home treated before you move in, as part of prepping your new home. Once your things get moved in, the process of treating for various pests can become much more complicated. If you know your items are clean before you move out, and you know your home is clean before you move in, you’re much less likely to have pest problems down the road.
Decreased Tolerance For Pests
Another reason that humans are calling more pest removal professionals is simply this: we are more aware of pests than we used to be. For a long time, it was assumed that certain areas of town would have fleas in the carpets, mice in the walls, and cockroaches in the kitchens. Cats were kept to deal with rodents, and feral cats in the streets would often keep the overall population down.
Now, however, people are much more aware of the various diseases that are spread by pests like rodents and insects, and therefore much less tolerant of their presence. This is particularly important when selling or moving into a new home. It’s a good idea to have your home treated before trying to sell your home; if you have pests you’re not aware of that become obvious during showing or inspection, that can dramatically affect the process of selling.
Environmentally Friendly Tech
There is some evidence that as humans adopt more environmentally friendly technology, they are actually more likely to see an increase in pests in their homes. This happens for a few different reasons. First, as we adopt cleaner technology, substances that might have been deadly to pests are no longer in the home. This is good for people, but it may also help pests thrive.
Other new technology, such as LED lights, appear to be more attractive to certain pests. Some bugs are likely to be attracted to LED lights, for example, when they might have fled from traditional lights. The frequency for LED light is higher, and seems to be more attractive to certain types of bugs.
