As a homeowner, you need to protect yourself from bugs and pests. To take proper care of your home, you should be aware with some of the most common pests and suggestions for home pest control.

Some people think bed bugs are a joke. They were almost completely eliminated in the United States by the end of World War II. Unfortunately, since the 1990s, they have had a revival. The threat from bed bugs is more real now more than ever. Bed bugs feed exclusively on the blood of living mammals. These pests like to make their home in your bed, with your warm body as a source of food.

Bed bug bites may be entirely unnoticeable, or they can be more pronounced. Bites from bed bugs can range from barely noticeable to irritating welts. Signs and symptoms of the bites may be more noticed at night than during the day. Minimize the risk of bed bug bites by maintaining a clean living area. Home pest control starts with maintaining a tidy residence. Frequent vacuuming is advisable. Your bed should be sealed in tightly woven covers which should stay zipped for at least a year, as bed bugs can live up to an entire year without feeding. Seal up any cracks in the walls or the headboard to stop their entry. Once you have bed bugs, it's too late to merely keep a clean bedroom. The insects will need to be exterminated with insecticides, which need to be both effective and safe for use in living quarters. This may not be a DIY job - consider bringing in pros to deal with the problem.

Most homeowners will have to deal with an ant problem at some point. Ants can enter your house through the tiniest cracks. When one ant locates a source of food, it begins to leave an invisible trail of pheromones behind for many, many other ants to follow in its wake. Ants live in colonies and are able to quickly move the colony for new food sources or to avoid threats. Most home-based pest control treatments are not thorough enough to truly eradicate an existing ant problem. They will not get rid of the many thousands of ants in the colony who are not visible. Do it yourself ant killing kits also often fail to account for the many, many different varieties of ants which require different treatments. One size fits all approaches are a gamble. Seeking professional help is a wise idea.

Rodents come in many objectionable types, a few of which are mice, rats and squirrels. Rodents share one identifiable trait: large, nasty front teeth. Rodents can cause harm to your home and cause damage. Mice will eat your food, and they can contaminate far more food than they can eat themselves. Mice reproduce rapidly, with a single breeding pair being able to easily produce hundreds of offspring in a year. Rats are disease carriers, both directly and indirectly as hosts of parasites. Rats colonize holes in walls, attics, burrows, under porches and other places that are hard to reach. Common do it yourself baits and traps are generally ineffective. Some pesticides you can use yourself are effective, they are also effectively poisonous to humans and pets.

One of the more destructive pests that threaten your home are termites. Termites can be very damaging to your home's foundation which can result in expensive repairs and can decrease the value of your property. These can be destructive, while eating through paper and wood in your home. Spotting winged termites indoors always indicates a significant infestation. This is most likely to happen between the months of March and May, when winged termites are triggered by the warming weather to emerge and start new colonies. Termite problems are best left to the pros. As a home seller you may be legally required to disclose termite treatment history. Explaining to a potential buyer that you did not adequately fix a serious problem could be disastrous.

As mentioned above, dealing with a termite infestation is not something you may want to try on your own. Termites have a tendency to sneak in through areas of the house which require advanced carpentry skills simply to gain access to. The typical equipment which may be used to eliminate termites by a pest control company includes pumps, up to hundreds of gallons of liquid pesticide, high capacity tanks to hold all that pesticide, masonry drills and soil treatment rods. Insecticide must be injected into the foundation walls and alongside the foundation. Obviously, this is neither a wise nor safe project for the average homeowner.