Tag
How to read the signs: droppings, gnaw marks, sounds, smells and tracks, and what each one tells you.
Cockroaches · Identify
A German cockroach lives about 3 to 9 months as an adult; an American cockroach can live over a year. How fast each breeds, how long they last without food, water or a head, and why bait beats spray.
Mice · Identify
A house mouse usually lives 9 to 12 months, though some reach 3 years. Females have 5 to 10 litters a year, so a mouse problem grows faster than it dies out.
Fall invaders · Identify
A spider egg sac is a small ball or teardrop of silk, white, cream, tan or brown, about ¼ to ½ inch across, tucked in a web corner. Which spider made it, how many eggs are inside, and how to remove it safely.
Cockroaches · Identify
Cockroaches eat almost any organic matter: crumbs, grease, sweets, pet food, paper, glue, hair, even their own droppings. Water matters more than food. Here is what to clear away first.
Mice · Get Rid of Pests
Mice in your couch? Don’t vacuum or shake it. Set snap traps along the wall beside it, soak droppings with disinfectant, then shampoo or steam clean. About $57–71 in supplies.
Rats & mice · Identify
Rat droppings are about ½ to ¾ inch long; mouse droppings average ¼ inch. How to tell them apart by size, shape and location, how to tell fresh from old, and what to do next.
Mice & rats · Identify
Yes, mice can climb walls: brick, wood, pipes and wires, and they jump about a foot. See what stops them, how rats compare, and which gaps to seal first.
Cockroaches · Identify
Roach eggs sit inside a brown, bean-shaped case ¼ to ⅜ inch long, with a dozen to 40-plus eggs. Sprays can’t get through it: vacuum up every case, then bait the hatchlings for a month.
Carpet beetles · Identify
Carpet beetle larvae are fuzzy, slow, tan-to-brown grubs about 1/8 to 1/4 inch long, and they’re the stage that eats wool. Vacuum where they feed, then hot-wash or freeze what they touched.
Carpet beetles · Identify
Hairy, or round like a tiny ladybug? Carpet beetle: it eats wool, not you. A flat, reddish-brown oval the size of an apple seed, or dark seam spots, means bed bugs.
Carpet beetles · Identify
A carpet beetle is a tiny round beetle, 1/16 to 3/16 inch, often on windowsills. Hairy larvae or bristly skins mean they’re breeding indoors. Flat and reddish? Likely a bed bug.
Mice · Traps & Baits
The best bait for mouse traps is a pea-sized dab of peanut butter or a food mice already eat. What to put on a trap, how much, and why mice lick it clean.
