Flies have always been a nuisance to people and animals. They are troublesome, irritating, and they carry disease. Solomon noticed them enough to say that: “Dead flies make the ointment stink.”

Flies and ancient peoples

The ancient Phonecians thought that flies were the primal form of life. Wherever they saw rotting animals, and filth, flies seemed to rise up from it. They even develop a rudimentary religion based on this ancient version of  spontaneous generation, and they named their god ofter the creatures. In ancient Phonecian, the word for flies was zebub, the term for Lord, or Master was Baal, the Phonecian god was therefore called Baalzebub, the god of the flies.

Fly prevention

In spite of the reverence these ancient worshipers may have had for the fly, most modern people would prefer to avoid their presence. Here are a few things that you can do to control flies by practicing good fly pest control:

Excluding flies

Excluding flies from the home will follow the same rules laid down for exclusion in other parts of this site. See Preventing Pests From Coming In and, Outdoor Pests Indoor Pests Simple Pest Prevention Tips for more details.

The real problem is the outdoor problem. If they were not outdoors, they would not be coming inside to crawl across your sandwich and your tv screen. The pages listed above will offer more details, but we will cover a little of the information here.

Flies and pets

Flies like food, water, and shelter. Deprive them of these, and they go away. If you have pets, feeding more than they eat, will attract flies, their feces will also attract flies. Dog pens, because of the presence of the dogs, who themselves love the same things the flies love, will attract flies. Keep it as far from the home as possible, and keep it as clean as possible to prevent invasion.

Flies and trash

Flies like rotting food, and other rotten materials. Keeping trash cans sealed, and well away from the home will help keep them well away from your home as well. Keeping leftovers, and other food products that need to be discarded frozen untill trash day will also help.

Preventing and controlling rodents

Here we will separate rodents into to non scientific classes: Outdoor rodents, such as moles and gophers, and indoor rodents like rats and mice. We have discussed the outdoor type in several other places, and will focus on the indoor type here.

Both rodent types are really outdoor rodents, since all of the creatures we are dealing with come from outside your home. What we need to focus on, is the way that they get inside.

Preventing Rodents

They obviously don't just materialize inside your home. They have to have an opening of some type. The size of the opening needed for mice and rats to get inside is not all that large.

In fact, a field mouse can get through a hole about one quarter inch in size. That is the size of a standard pencil! A large rat can squeeze through a hole twice that size, or roughly the size of an old grade school pencil or crayon. That's all it takes. A gap in weatherstripping, an ill fitting door, or door sweep, a cable tv opening that might have been done a bit too aggressively, or a small plumbing or electrical opening will do.

The rodents you are attempting to prevent, are coming inside for the same reason you live indoors. They seek protection from the elements, food and water. If you have exposed food, nice dark hiding places, and a small plumbing leak, they will be happy campers in your residence.

The trick is to keep them on the other side of the wall. Rats and mice are notorious nibblers, and if they find a hole too small to gain entry, they will naw and nibble away until it is large enough to get inside.

A few basic  rodent prevention precautions

• Seal all the holes in your abode. A little stainless steel wool shoved and packed into the holes or crevices of an exterior wall followed by a nice bead of caulk will do nicely.

• Changing poorly fitted weather stripping, and repairing doors that don't quite fit, and worn door sweeps will keep the rats and mice from using them as a gateway.

• Check your roof, and roof vents to make sure that they are in good shape as well, and if not repair them. Soffit and eve vents should be screened with a fine mesh on the inside, and anything larger than an eighth of an inch repaired.

• Tree limbs touching the roof, or overhanging the roof should be trimmed to prevent rodents from riding them onto your roof, and into your home.

• Repeat the applicable steps listed, on the inside of your home. Keep food sealed inside containers, and fix any water leaks, and of course, keep everything tidy.

If you already have a rodent or two wandering around in your home, the next section should be of some help.

Trapping Rodents Rodent Control

"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am not sure in exactly what context these words were penned or spoken, but have always assumed that it was somehow related to innovation as it relates to basic human needs being the chief way to success. If I am wrong about that, please forgive me Mr. Emerson.

I have looked at a lot of mouse trap innovations, and have yet to see any that actually top the good old spring loaded mechanical apparatus that we have have all been accustomed to seeing from childhood.

These traps have been maligned by users for not being efficient, but the problem is not with our traps, the problem is in the implementation.

Let me put it this way: The mouse trap didn't work because of operator error!

These tips should help.

The old cheese on the mousetrap, made famous by innumerable cartoons is really not the best way to use it.

Peanut butter on the trap is now the common standard, but if you are like me, you have come back to traps to find them licked clean.

1. The best method I have found, is to glue a nut to the trap. This has resulted in a much higher rate of catches than any other method I have used. They can't lick it off, they can't steal it and make a run for the hole with the cat in hot pursuit.
2. If this method does not suit you, try this: take some white bread, squeeze it together in a small ball, and then press it around the bait holder in such a way that it cannot be easily removed.
3. In either method, set more than one trap per location. If one makes a catch, leave the other until you are sure that no others are scouting the same area.

Dealing with the mouse afterward.

This can be the most difficult part of the process. Let me offer a couple of suggestions for the squeamish:

1. When you hear the clap of the trap, don't rush in quickly. In most cases, the unfortunate little critter may have a little kicking and squirming to do. Wait until this is over.
2. If you use plastic grocery bags, get a couple of them, double them, put a hand inside, release the trap, and pick the mouse up with the bag. Pull the bag around the rodent, and tie it off. Drop the whole mess into another bag, and tie it off as well. Dispose of it in a suitable manner.

I do not recommend the use of glue traps. They can lead to some pretty nasty results.

"Why hasn't anyone told me about this before?" Our readers ask us this a lot. The fact is that pest prevention gets forgotten. People are more apt to wait until a situation becomes a problem and then treat the symptoms of the problem. Why has this bad behavior become normal behavior? To answer that, just follow the money!

No one but you will profit if you learn to use pest prevention as your first line of defense against pests. The pest control companies will not be able to charge you for extermination if you have nothing to exterminate. The chemical companies will not be able to sell their products if you are successful at preventing pests. The green pest control companies can't even charge for natural or botanical pest control services if you have nothing for them to control. None of these folks have an interest in preventing pests, only in treating the pests that are the symptoms of your pest problem.

That is not to say that they are being dishonest, they are not. They know that pest prevention works, they will even give you pest prevention tips along the way, but they will not give you all of the information you need. Even then, they are not deliberately omitting information, they are just giving you the information they can at the time. Some of them may, in fact, not be fully aware of some of the methods that can be used to control pests by using preventive pest control methods.

We have information available on this website which will take you through every step of pest prevention from beyond your property to the inside of your home, written in a step by step sequence which is easy to follow. We have separate, but related articles on specific pest control topics to further assist you in your pest prevention program, and it is all free!

We are not saying that following this program will always eliminate all your pest problems, but we are saying that this will work against the majority of your insects and weeds, if followed correctly, and will greatly reduce the amount of insecticide and herbicide needed, which will save you money, and improve your home environment.

Pest Control Insurance

You can buy pest control insurance. You can buy pre-paid pest control packages for all your pest control jobs around the house. You can buy foggers, and misters and granules and dusts and magic potions, and still not control pests effectively until you practice pest prevention.

To control pests, prevention is the first and most vital step. Without pest prevention, all the gadgets, and pest control insurance in the world will not be effective in the long run. Furthermore, you will be spending money and applying pesticides more frequently, the long term effects of which, will not be beneficial, and may actually be harmful to you, your children, and your pets. To add insult to injury, it will tend to be less effective on the pests over time. Is that what you really want?

Pest prevention starts at the core, stopping pests before they become a problem, instead of dealing with them when they have become a problem. Learning and practicing pest prevention is the best and least costly pest control insurance.

Let’s play with an analogy.

Let’s think of rain as being a pest problem. If it rains, and your homes roof leaks, standard pest control methods would be like a bucket that you would use to collect the dripping water coming through your sagging ceiling.

Pest prevention would be like you, taking the initiative to repair your roof, so you could stop having to use the bucket.

You can re-use the bucket many times, but eventually, your problem will become much larger, and much more costly, requiring more buckets, and at some point, some serious and expensive repair work.

Unlike a bucket though, with normal pest control systems, you have to pay for them each time you use them, and you will have a growing and more expensive problem the longer you wait.

Wouldn’t it be smarter to repair the roof at the start? Of course it would! But, the roof only leaks when it rains…

There are many openings in a home, these are a few of the ones we should be concerned with when it comes to pest control. The bugs inside your home come from somewhere. They come into your home from the outside.  Keeping bugs outside is a matter of excluding them by sealing all the potential inlets. What are these inlets? We list a few of them below:

Weep holes

Weep holes are brick mortar joints without the the mortar. There purpose is to provide ventilation and drainage for the area between the interior and exterior of the home. It is important to keep these holes from being blocked by dirt and debris. It is also important to keep mulch away from these openings. Note that this one has grass and debris inside.

Plumbing and electrical openings like the one pictured below, should be sealed. Insects and spiders can make their way through the smallest of openings and into your home. This one has an opening that a pencil could fit through.

Door and window casing cracks should be caulked or otherwise sealed periodically. If they are not sealed they will become a doorway for pests to come inside.

Vents like this soffit vent provide ventilation for our homes. The one pictured here is screened on the inside to prevent pests from using it to get into the home.

Communication cables like this television cable and phone cables provide another opportunity for insect invaders to attack.

Although rain gutters are not openings, they still have an effect on pests. Insects like to make homes in the gutters when they become full and clogged, and they will eventually make their way into your home. Clogged gutters will cause rot and rot leads to holes, and holes lead to invasion! This photo is a good argument for keeping trees trimmed away from the home.

For a more detailed list of what you can do to keep bugs out of your home see Bug Prevention in the Home or, Prevent Bugs At Home

This is a list of tips, practices that will help you to keep pests out of your lawn, landscape, and house. The tips mentioned here are a small part of the much larger central focus and concept of this website, which is an overall pest prevention program. This is IPM, or Integrated Pest Management beginning where it should begin, by preventing the pests from the start. If these tips make sense to you, you should check out the rest of the site, starting with How To Use This Site, or our easy to follow Main Directory.

This should require no explanation, it is just plain and simple. Stopping pests before they start makes more sense than having to control them when you have an infestation. Like house fires, or auto accidents, it is smarter to avoid them, than to deal with the consequences, no matter what kind of insurance you have!

When we talk about controlling pests, we are really starting somewhere about mid way through the process. Controlling them usually means we already have them. The best time to start, is long before the problem starts.

The best place to start is before we have the pest. Would you prefer to have good medical care after an accident, or the ability to avoid the accident?

Listed below are a few tips on keeping pests out of your environment. Some are for bugs, and some for weeds, and I am sure you can come up with some of your own.

• Don’t “over water” your lawn and landscape beds. Many weed pests, and bug pests enjoy excess water, and may decide to take up residence in the new sea side resort in your landscape. Over watering fuels fungus, and bacteria as well.

• Scalping your lawn, weakens the scalped areas turf, and allows weed invaders to take the place of the weakened grass.

• Waiting too long between mowing’s, can allow weeds time to reach seed head maturity, and plant themselves in your nice green lawn. Too much growth also provides cover for insects.

• When you have waited too long to mow, change your mowing height, so that you take off less leaf blade, and then mow again in a few days at a lower cutting height. Do this in increments until you reach your desired cutting height.

You should never remove more than one third of the top at a time. Taking too much off at once will leave your lawn in a weakened condition, inviting more bugs and weeds to take over.

• Don’t fertilize too late in the year. If you do, you may be fertilizing winter weeds instead of grass.

• Avoid aerifying late in the fall. Aerifying at that time, will plant the weed seeds that would have otherwise rotted on top of the ground.

• Use good cultural practices, like proper fertilization, mowing, and irrigating so that you avoid those bare spots that invite weeds to live in your lawn.

• Avoid mowing weedy outside areas before you mow your lawn. If you have to do this for some reason, stop and thoroughly clean your mower between the two areas.

• Don’t create low areas or places where water backs up and becomes a breading place for mosquitoes, if you have already done this, find a way to drain and fill the area, or find a better way of making a permanent drain.

• Mow away from your landscape beds and garden to avoid throwing grass, weed clippings, and seed into them.

• Don’t leave jagged or ragged cuts, or part of a limb sticking out beyond the callous of the joint when you prune a tree. If you do, you are doing the equivalent of hanging a sign on the tree that reads: “Insects and Disease Eat Free Here!”

• Use plants native to your area when you are landscaping. Native plants are already resistant to native pests, are comfortable with your climate and average rainfall, and they won’t break out into the environment and eat the forest.

• Avoid using manure that has not been composted as a fertilizer. Many weed Seed survive the animals digestive tract, and they have the manure to help them grow strong.

• Bird seed, usually contain some weed seeds. Don’t throw them where you don’t want weeds.

• Avoid anything that would weaken your plants, because weak plants invite disease and pests. Such practices as spraying water on the leaves of a plant in direct sunlight should be avoided.

• Remove any brush or debris which might provide a staging area for an insect invasion. Keep such piles as far away from your landscape as possible.

• As much as possible, keep areas adjacent to your property, such as right of ways, clean and free of brush weeds and debris. If it is someone else’s property, or a vacant lot, get permission from the owner first. Bugs love hiding places where they can congregate before an invasion.

• When building something, or adding on to your landscape take into account the effect of what you are about to do. Here are a couple of examples:

In some parts of the country, any concrete in full sun is a fire ant magnet.

Some types of lighting, directly on, or immediately adjacent to a lawn, may cause a June bug invasion. This invasion may be followed by a grub invasion, which may then be followed by an armadillo and mole invasion.

• Avoid lawn compaction. Areas with heavy foot traffic, are likely to have poor quality turf, and are subject to invasion by weeds that like compacted areas. If you have compaction, loosen it by aerifying.

If the area is getting traffic because it is convenient, you could make a paved foot path through the area, or you could plant or build something that would discourage people from walking that direction.

• Don’t build, or buy a home next door to a swamp!

Non toxic pest control cannot be accomplished with pesticides, whether those toxins are chemical or natural. All pesticides are toxic, they cannot be made non toxic. Any product with the greek word “cide” attached to the end is dangerous! It may not present extreme danger, but it does imply at least that something is intended to die as a result of it’s use. They are not non toxic pest control!

This is true of both commercial chemicals, and the so called “non toxic”, botanical pesticides. They are all intended to kill something, and in the wrong situation, at the wrong time, they can all be dangerous to human beings. Nerve damage that results from pyretherins such as ground chrysanthemums, is just as permanent as nerve damage done by synthetic pyretheroids. Non toxic pest control should be, well, non toxic.

There is a way to accomplish non toxic pest control, without the use of any toxins of any type, and really, without any sprays, powders, granules, mists, or compounds of any type. This Type of pest control is accomplished through understanding the nature of pests, and dealing with them accordingly by altering the environment.

These environmental alterations include such things as mechanical controls like removal, (mowing weeds before they reach seeding stage) and exclusion, (sealing doors, windows, plumbing). It may involve the introduction of native species to control pest problems, which would be considered a biological control, and changing the makeup of the plant life in an area to bring it in line with a more native habitat for the same reason.

This non toxic form of pest control should be the basis for any sound integrated pest management program, and is the best place to start in any home program. The pest control program is simply, pest prevention. This site is dedicated to pest prevention and it’s use as the primary method of non toxic pest control.

We are not opposed to the use of pest control products. The judicious use of these products may be needed, but, with good pest prevention practices, are needed far less, and far less often.

Why do we say that pest prevention is the “greenest” pest control? Well, we have our reasons, and we listed some of them bellow.

• No energy spent on the shipment of raw materials for the product to a factory.

• No energy to manufacture the product.

• No energy spent to ship raw materials for packaging.

• No energy to manufacture packaging.

• No energy to ship raw materials for labeling.

• No energy to manufacture and print labeling.

• No energy spent on storage at the factory.

• No energy spent on shipment to a warehouse.

• No energy for storage in a warehouse.

• No energy for shipping the finished product.

• No energy for displaying in a retail store.

• There is no packaging to end up in a landfill.

When you look at each of the steps involved in getting any product, chemical, or natural from raw material to you, you can see that all of the steps put together make one very large carbon footprint! Wouldn’t it be better to just stop them before they get started? That is what this site is all about!