Other Common Pests

Other Common Household Pests

There are numerous other irritating and common pests that can invade the house, food, clothes and body. In most cases, professional help is not needed - basic good hygiene is half the battle, while support is on hand with the many chemical products available from supermarkets and chemists. Pest control companies are necessary if infestations are severe, and they will have licenses to use a wider range of chemical pesticides.

Bed bugs are pretty unpleasant bloodsuckers that hide during the day in dark, undisturbed places such as old and unhygienic mattresses, cracks in the floor, wall and furniture and behind peeling wallpaper. Bed bugs feed at night - on you - and can cause itchiness and irritation and red welts to appear in neat rows on the skin. More of a problem in hotels and hostels, if you do find yourself the unwilling host to bed bugs, discard mattresses or vacuum, seal and leave them in the hot sun for a while, wash sheets and blankets thoroughly, vacuum or steam clean carpets and clean curtains and other surfaces.

A pyrethroid insecticide can be used on surfaces and other likely hiding spots. Avoid second hand mattresses and bedding, as this is a common way for bed bugs to enter a house.

Another unwelcome blood-sucking parasite is lice. Species include body, head and pubic lice; body lice are capable of spreading diseases such as typhus. These lice are usually only a problem in overcrowded conditions, where the lice can pass from one person to another via their clothes. Body lice feed at all hours, and bites can form into an itchy cyst-like lump. Seek medical attention.

Fabric pests include carpet beetles, clothes moths and silverfish. Adult carpet beetles feed on flower pollen and often enter a house with fresh flowers, but it is their larvae that do the damage (this is the case with clothes moths, as well), feeding on animal fibres such as wool (clothes and carpets), silk, fur and feathers. Carpet beetle larvae are most at home in dark, undisturbed areas, where they will feed for up to nine months. Silverfish cause damage to cotton and linen, paper, bookbindings, glue and other materials. As is often the case, it is the dark, not-often-used places such as bookshelves, linen cupboards and roof voids that provide likely hiding places for silverfish, though they can be found throughout a house.

To eradicate silverfish, vacuum and spray with a residual insecticide, getting behind curtains and furniture, and into carpet edges and skirting. Mothballs will help prevent clothes moths establishing themselves in clothes that are to be stored away for any length of time. To control silverfish, store their preferred food - books, linen etc. - in well-lit and ventilated areas.