by Jonte Rhodes

Created on: February 24, 2009

Pest control is something that often frustrates many people, and the fact is that finding permanent solutions of pest problems is tricky. Many people tend to make mistakes when trying to keep pests at bay also, although fortunately there are usually ways to avoid them in the future. There are also a number of preventative measures that can be taken to ensure that pests are discouraged from bothering you again, rather than having to repeatedly use insecticides and the like.

One of the most common errors that people tend to make when trying to control pests in or around their home is simply that they only use short term methods. Rather than filling up that mouse hole in their house they instead simply kill the mouse currently inhabiting it again. This of course only invites another mouse to take up residence, and the problem is never fully solved. This problem happens frequently with every type of common pest, and is very common in cases where people try to pet rid of the pests themselves

A surprisingly common mistake that many people use is to leave harmful poisons and insecticides around in their home or garden where they can kill other species. Usually the kinds of chemicals that can kill troublesome species (which tend to be very hardy) will also kill all manner of other species that come into contact with them. This can often cause imbalances in the environment in your garden, and can even cause more pests to appear rather than removing the problems that you already have.

A good example of overkill affecting the other species on your garden is that species such as wasps and ants actually kill and eat many other pest species as well. So successfully removing ants and wasps from your garden will often cause a rise in the levels of flies, spiders and woodlice. The reason being that with the removal of predatory species, other equally annoying herbivorous species will be able to breed uncontrollably. So often pest problems can shift rather than being completely solved without the right approach

Taking a more proactive approach to keeping pests away is generally more effective in the long haul than simply killing them. What this basically means is discouraging the pests from wanting to come into your home or garden before it has actually happened. Often pests invade a house simply because they were tempted to by the actions of the people inside, not because they are trying to be particularly vindictive. Pests, like all animals are opportunists, and in this respect

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