We all hate insects finding their way into the house, do we not? But I do not like squashing the ones that do get in either. However, I reside in northern Thailand, 100 yards from thousands of acres of sodden rice fields.
The farmers spray their fields with pesticide to decrease the number of insects, but inevitably there are still quite a lot here, particularly in the two monsoon seasons.
Therefore, we have had to secure our home and ourselves against pests, mostly of the flying kind, but not all of which bite by any means. In the monsoon periods of the year, which are approximately May to June and August to September, the foremost offender is the mosquito. There is no malaria where I am, but they are still not nice. Simultaneous with the mosquitoes are the midges, but they are not nearly so numerous.
Whilst it is not raining, the common household fly is a nuisance. You just are not able to teach a housefly not to sit on you or your food, I have tried it numerous times. The lessons almost always result in the death of the student by corporal punishment.
On random rainy days hordes of other kinds of flies will hatch out within hours - you can see masses of them coming out of the ground like bees, but they more are similar to lace wings. In fact, they are termites They are completely innocuous, to humans but they fly into your hair and everywhere else.
Then there are a few varieties of fly that eat rice or humans if they get in the way, but they appear to favour rice.
The first thing we did was have fly screens fitted into our windows. That helped a lot, but everyone kept leaving the doors ajar. Then we had screens inserted into the door frames. That really was good for everything apart from midges and baby mosquitoes that seem to be squirming through the mesh.
We solved that issue by spraying the mesh with permethrin once each few months. I am fairly certain that no insects get into our house via that route any longer.
However, some insects were crawling in under the doors, because there were no thresholds or draft-excludes - a draft in Thailand usually being more than welcome. So, I fitted draft-excludes to the doors.
That stopped the scorpions, spiders, millipedes, centipedes and beetles, although some spiders appear to abseil down from the attic into our living quarters. I do not mind spiders so much as long as I do not see them, because I know that we have a mutual enemy, namely flies.
House flies still come in sometimes, especially when visitors and their kids are around. However, the type of spiders we have most of, do not appear to make webs. They stalk their prey and then jump on them; and they are very quick.
Despite that, we spray the floors and the tops of the walls with permethrin every month or two as well. This stops the ants from entering the house via the attic and mops up any crawling insects that have gotten in through an open door.
Another important entry route into your house for bugs is your pets. You have to take care of your cats and dogs. Groom them frequently, fit a collar which has been impregnated with pesticide, bathe them in insecticidal shampoo and dust them with flea powder.
The farmers spray their fields with pesticide to decrease the number of insects, but inevitably there are still quite a lot here, particularly in the two monsoon seasons.
Therefore, we have had to secure our home and ourselves against pests, mostly of the flying kind, but not all of which bite by any means. In the monsoon periods of the year, which are approximately May to June and August to September, the foremost offender is the mosquito. There is no malaria where I am, but they are still not nice. Simultaneous with the mosquitoes are the midges, but they are not nearly so numerous.
Whilst it is not raining, the common household fly is a nuisance. You just are not able to teach a housefly not to sit on you or your food, I have tried it numerous times. The lessons almost always result in the death of the student by corporal punishment.
On random rainy days hordes of other kinds of flies will hatch out within hours - you can see masses of them coming out of the ground like bees, but they more are similar to lace wings. In fact, they are termites They are completely innocuous, to humans but they fly into your hair and everywhere else.
Then there are a few varieties of fly that eat rice or humans if they get in the way, but they appear to favour rice.
The first thing we did was have fly screens fitted into our windows. That helped a lot, but everyone kept leaving the doors ajar. Then we had screens inserted into the door frames. That really was good for everything apart from midges and baby mosquitoes that seem to be squirming through the mesh.
We solved that issue by spraying the mesh with permethrin once each few months. I am fairly certain that no insects get into our house via that route any longer.
However, some insects were crawling in under the doors, because there were no thresholds or draft-excludes - a draft in Thailand usually being more than welcome. So, I fitted draft-excludes to the doors.
That stopped the scorpions, spiders, millipedes, centipedes and beetles, although some spiders appear to abseil down from the attic into our living quarters. I do not mind spiders so much as long as I do not see them, because I know that we have a mutual enemy, namely flies.
House flies still come in sometimes, especially when visitors and their kids are around. However, the type of spiders we have most of, do not appear to make webs. They stalk their prey and then jump on them; and they are very quick.
Despite that, we spray the floors and the tops of the walls with permethrin every month or two as well. This stops the ants from entering the house via the attic and mops up any crawling insects that have gotten in through an open door.
Another important entry route into your house for bugs is your pets. You have to take care of your cats and dogs. Groom them frequently, fit a collar which has been impregnated with pesticide, bathe them in insecticidal shampoo and dust them with flea powder.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several topics, but is at present involved with the Dust Mite Pillow Cover.. If you would like to know more, visit our website at Bed Infestation.