Re: Is there such a thing as a "bug" free house?

 

Maybe not totally bug free, but certainly with very
minimal bugs.  You need to live in an area where it
gets very cold in the winter, cold enough to kill
everything that lives, like Minnesota.  Then, you need
a more modern house that is well sealed and has a
vapor barrier.  Finally, you need to keep the doors
closed as much as you can to keep the flying bugs out.

I see maybe one bug a year in my house, nearly always
in fall when they are half dead and looking for a place
to hide for the winter.

-john-

--
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John A. Weeks III           952-432-2708            john@johnweeks.com
Newave Communications                         http://www.johnweeks.com
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Probably not:  but we expect there to be differences
between houses in rural Florida and urban Seattle etc.
It may be helpful to discriminate between various
types of insects, winged or not (e.g. house flies or
ants) or according to the number of legs (flies,
spiders, centipedes.)  If insects "freak you out" and
you know they will appear,  it helps to plan ahead
i.e. decide whether to ignore them or catch and
remove them.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

 wrote:


No there isn't such a thing as a bug-free house. Bugs are a part of
the natural world, and are too numerous and adaptable to stop. What
you should have as your goal is "bug management".

Consider how bugs get into your home. It might surprise you that a
number of houses in Anchorage, Alaska have cockroaches. In such a cold
climate, that might be unexpected, until you consider that they can
travel inside moving boxes and stay in the warm indoor environment.
Exterminators can eliminate them quickly, and they don't return until
someone moves in from another place and brings new roaches.

Bugs also get indoors by riding on pets, having eggs on fresh fruit
and vegetables, on your clothing, or just flying in when the door is
open. They might also already have laid eggs inside a house during
construction, or have nests in an older house.

Beyond that, there are mites that live in your eyebrows and bed linens
that you can't even see. There are even bugs that help you to digest
food, and they live in your digestive tract. You'd starve without
them.

I've lived all over the USA, and all houses have bugs. The worst
situation was in New Orleans, with its "spruce goose" roaches. The
cleanest was Colorado, whose dry climate did not provide the right
environment for many critters. The Carolinas and Virginia have plenty
of creatures. Insects OWN Florida.

Any warm, humid environment is going to have lots of bugs. However,
they are fairly easy to manage, even without heavy chemicals. My
personal favorite method of control is the use of unpoisoned sticky
surfaces. Glue pads have handled the crickets that got into my garage,
and the mouse that got into my basement. Sticky strips have eliminated
the fruit flies that came in with my garden produce, and the house
flies that came in with me. Regular dog shampooing and flea medication
has prevented fleas from coming in with my dog. Leaving a few spiders
to do their work in my basement has kept some of the harder-to-see
insects from gaining a foothold down there. If you have a lot of
well-fed spiders, then you probably have a lot of tiny insects around.
Those spiders are eating something.

So, basically, your fear of bugs is pointless. They are here. Many are
beneficial, but the ones that are detrimental can be managed. You can
apply a ton of chemical poisons and risk dying of multiple cancers in
a couple of decades, or be smarter about bug management.

Keeping a clean house removes much of their source of food and is the
best method of controlling pests. Never leave dirty dishes in the sink
overnight. Take out the trash before you go to bed at night. Throw
away fruit before it rots. Vacuum your rugs regularly. Clean your
toilets regularly.

Anyone who thinks they don't have bugs in their house either has weak
vision, or is living in a fantasy world.

Mark

 
My personal favorite is house cats.  The rare bug that makes its
presence known  lasts about .05 seconds before Mighty Hunter pounces.
Mighty Huntress will launch herself into midair off of furniture to
catch any flying ones.  I had crickets in the basement of my house in
Maryland the first year... I'd see 2 or 3 a week during the spring and
summer.  Then I adopted my two cats, and the next year all I found was
the occasional leg.

--
Jennifer