Blog Post

5 Things to do After an Extermination

Once the pest control services have left your premises, you can heave a sigh of relief, secure in the knowledge that a crisis has been averted. However, you do need to take care of some things in order to ensure the absolute safety of you and your loved ones (not to mention pets!) Plus you don’t want those pests coming back to ruin your peace of mind all over again either. Follow the steps below to see what needs to be done in the wake of pest control.

Keep your children and pets away from the contaminated areas.

Some kinds of insecticides take time to work effectively. For example, if your house was infested by fleas, the exterminator would get rid of these by spraying a pesticide that takes a long time to dry (anywhere between 3 to 5 hours). Make arrangements to take yourself and your family elsewhere while this is drying, and ensure that your children and pets do not stray into contaminated areas until they have been properly cleaned.

Get rid of any food that may have been contaminated.

You should ideally have done some prep work before pest control makes a call. This includes taking out all food items from the cabinets and drawers. If however, there were open containers inside the cabinets, you need to throw them out immediately. Pesticides can prove to be extremely toxic, so don’t take any chances with you food. Do this even if the food was inside an open bag in a sealed container, since pesticides have a sneaky tendency to make their way inside.

Clean up the residue

Before the extermination process, you should have removed dishes and utensils from the cupboards and cabinets, or covered them up. If you haven’t done that, however, then the pesticide or insecticide used by the exterminators will film the dishes, and this may not be easily apparent to you. You will then need to carefully wash each item in hot water before placing food items on or in it.

Additionally, there will also be residue left on the cabinets and cupboards too. So it’s not just the dishes you have to clean. You also have to thoroughly wipe down the countertops, cabinets and other areas in order to ensure the kitchen is safe to cook in again.

Remove all food sources immediately after eating.

This healthy habit needs to be incorporated by all the members of your family. If you keep leaving food items out, or don’t quickly clean up after eating, you might see those roaches making a grand re-entry into your home. Clean up your counters and don’t leave open containers or fruit and veggies out. Make it a point to clear away all leftovers.

Kill any cockroaches or fleas that you see after pest control.

Be on the lookout for any critters that managed to escape, and eliminate them before they have a chance to breed and overtake the house again.