Do you have a pest control service?

[imeverywoman]

In the spirit of curbing our monthly spending, I recently cancelled Orkin. I'm miserable. I have ants all over the outside of my house and it's making me seriously nuts.

 

Yes, I know the chemicals are not good for us, but they only spray the outside of the home.

 

Do you have a pest control service, and if so, may I ask how much you pay?

 

Thanks!

Buggy-phobic Itchy-scratchy

[Spy Car]

Yes, I know the chemicals are not good for us, but they only spray the outside of the home.

 

 

That's fine...as long as you or your children never go outside ;)

 

You won't get rid of ants with sprays anyway. But you can bait them with boric acid or borax and kill the whole colony. A google search will lead you to directions. Better, cheaper, way less toxic.

 

If you do need to "spray" the ants, try soapy water (pepper-mint soap is especially good) but any soap works.

 

Fire Orkin. And do your pocket-book, your family's health, and mother nature a favor. Win, win, win.

 

Bill

[Night Elf]

Our service does inside and outside and costs us $75 per quarter. We also pay the extra fee for termite prevention which is like $300 per year for them to come out and check the termite detectors in the ground around our home. We live in a heavily wooded area and we consider pest control a very important part of our household expenses.

[jananc]

We live beside a lake, and pest control is a necessity for us. We have those fast-running, creepy looking long-haired centipedes in our finished basement. Our pest-guy comes once a quarter, and we'll see one or 2 right about the time he's due. That's how we know it's time for him to show up again :tongue_smilie: We pay $85 per quarter.

[Tree House Academy]

Yes...it is called my husband with a bottle of Seven dust. :) And it works GREAT!

[Sophia]

Unfortunately, pest control became one of our monthly expenses when we moved to Ga.

I have tried eliminating it because I hate the expense and knowing chemicals are being sprayed outside on a monthly basis (every three months for termites),

but I hate those icky flying cockroaches even more and the pest control does keep them at bay.

eta: he only sprays outside. That works well enough.

[Spy Car]

Yes...it is called my husband with a bottle of Seven dust. :) And it works GREAT!

 

And will kill everything that moves, including honey-bees. Very irresponsible.

[mcconnellboys]

No, my in-laws and their horrible overusage of chemicals turned me off of such things years ago. I had carpenter ants under a window last year and I had the minimum amount done (but you wouldn't believe all the stuff they tried to sell me on). It worked beautifully. You simply don't need monthly spray. If anything, all it will do is build up resistence in some types of insects.

 

And I'm not really sorry to say anymore that we have long-legged centipedes around here some, too. They don't bother me or my stuff at all. And because of them I *don't* have tons of poisonous spiders in my basement as some others here do (pest control easily kills the centipedes, but the poisonous spiders are extremely resistent).

 

In the spring, we have some tiny ants that like to explore and come in. We buy those little ant traps and set them beside any door or window where they come in. These work just fine to eliminate them. There are other natural things you can use, too, such as red pepper flakes, etc. What will work best depends on the type of ant you have and what they like to eat.

 

Or, get a can of some type of all purpose spray and spray it outside any door or window where you feel you need it - only when you need some. It doesn't take much and will work for months afterward, generally, unless you have so much rain that it all gets washed away.

 

There's just way, way too much overkill on the amount of chemicals that are used (good for the company, as they make more money, bad for everyone and everything else - and unnecessary)....