Some of the commonest bugs we see indoors all over the world are flies, spiders, fleas and beetles. Nobody likes to see a bug in the house, so most people will go to almost any lengths to eradicate these common indoor bugs. The less common indoor bugs may be woodlice, earwigs, scorpions and millipedes or centipedes, although they are no less wanted.
No matter where you are in the world, it can be very hard to keep these common indoor bugs outside, unless you go to the extremes of keeping all your windows and doors shut at all times, which is obviously impossible. I now live in Thailand and I know for sure that this is not an option.
So, just what can you do about it? Well, let’s deal with all the flying bugs first, because of all the common indoor bugs, I think they are the most obnoxious indoor bug. They are very annoying, buzzing around your head and mosquitoes and other flies can produce painful sores and besides that, all flies spread disease. I hate to see them walking on food, knowing that they have more than likely just come off some dung heap somewhere and now they are spitting on my food to taste it with their grubby feet!
My first line of defence is fine-mesh door and widow screens. They are not dear and can be added retrospectively to any window. My window meshes slide, so they will protect only one half of the window at a any one time, but I do not think that’s a problem. You can still set up cross-winds, by opening two or more windows at opposing sides of a room. I just love to see the flies on the mesh trying to get in by day and the mosquitoes doing the same by night. At night, it is wise to turn on as little light indoors as possible so as not to attract these common indoor bugs.
My second line of defence is natural predators – lizards, like Geckos (Jin Jok, in Thai). Some people don’t like them in the house either and I can’t say that I’m all that keen on them indoors myself, but they are hard to keep out and they do consume hundreds, if not thousands, of indoor bugs every day. I particularly like to see them lying in wait on the outside of the mesh, ready to jump on any bug trying to struggle its way through the wires.
My third line of defence is an indoor bug zapper. You know, the electric, handheld bug zapper that looks like a toy tennis racquet. They are brilliant at trapping and annihilating any flying indoor bug. The bug literally explodes and vaporizes on contact with the fully-charged wires of the indoor bug zapper. If you haven’t tried using one, you really should. They are most gratifying. These three defences keep our house quite much free of flies.
The crawling common indoor bugs are not so much of a problem really. Door screens on self-closers will keep 99% of them out and the Geckos will help too. Spiders can get in fairly very easily, but then, I don’t mind them too much as long as they keep out of my way, as they consume other bugs too. They are on our side to be honest. However, for those who can not bear to trap them and throw them outside, the handheld indoor bug zapper works well on spiders too.
Fleas can sometimes be a problem, if you have cats or dogs, but then if you wash or dust the animal once a month, you should be able to keep these common indoor bugs under control fairly easily. However, there are two final methods that we employ. Every week, before we go out for the day, we spray every room with fly killer and every six-months we spray any rugs or carpets with a bug killer containing permethrin, which will survive washing and vacuuming for that long without losing its ability to kill common indoor bugs on contact. If you stick with these measures, you will be able to keep your home or office quite free of the most common indoor bugs and any less common indoor bug as well.
Have you ever heard of an indoor bug zapper? If you haven’t, or if you are interested in getting an indoor bug zapper, just click one of the links to our web site or blog.