Household Pests

Insects are unwelcome visitors in our homes, but you don’t have to use toxic chemical sprays to control them. Look for natural and organic solutions to control insects inside your home. Safer® Brand offers a variety of insect control traps and natural aerosol products that are safe to use indoors.

 
 

Quizzes

Where The Pests Are

Household pests often seem to appear out of nowhere. The answers to these questions will help you understand their behavior and choose the most effective solutions.

1. Cockroaches frequent bathrooms as well as kitchens because those rooms:

a) Feature metallic fixtures

b) Tend to be damp

c) Rarely are carpeted

d) Are dirtier than other rooms

Answer: b. Moisture is almost as important to roaches as the food scraps they search for. Keep roaches away from sources of water by surrounding pipes and other damp areas with Concern® Ant and Crawling Insect Killer.

2. Housefly populations dramatically increase in:

a) Cold weather

b) Rainy weather

c) Hot weather

d) Dry weather

Answer: c. As temperatures rise, the life cycle of flies speeds up, producing more generations of the pests faster. When the weather heats up where you live, set up Victor® Poison-Free® Indoor Fly Traps to capture the adults and keep them from laying eggs that hatch into even more flies.

3. Bedbugs come out after dark and feed on:

a) Human blood

b) Cotton sheets

c) Mattress ticking

d) Down comforters

Answer: a. Bedbugs need a “blood meal” to molt, or shed their exoskeletons and grow larger. Stop the pests before they feed on you and your family with Safer® Brand Ant and Crawling Insect Killer Powder, which gashes the insects’ tough outer shell and dehydrates them.

4. The primary diet of yellow jackets changes in late summer from:

a) Flowers to flies

b) Honey to royal jelly

c) Ants to caterpillars

d) Protein to sweets

Answer: d. As the stinging pests are building their hive in spring and early summer, protein is most important to them. But at the end of summer, they flock to the high-calorie meals in sodas and other sweets. (By the way, yellow jackets are wasps, not bees, and they don’t make honey.) Keep them away from your picnics with the Safer® Brand Deluxe Yellow Jacket Trap. Eliminate individual yellow jackets and their hives with Safer® Brand Wasp and Hornet Killer.

5. Ants are always on patrol, looking for accessible sources of food, which they often get from:

a) Packages they chew open

b) Other insects’ nests

c) Pet food dishes

d) Candy wrappers

Answer: c. Even the tiniest scraps left in pet dishes are an easy meal for ants that may be overlooked when we clean up our own food waste. Put away pets’ bowls when they’re done eating and spread Safer® Brand Ant and Crawling Insect Killer where you see the pests most active.

6. Wool clothes often come out of storage with tiny holes because:

a) Moths make nests from natural fibers

b) Moth larvae feed on residues of sweat and food left on clothes

c) Moths chew holes in which they lay their eggs

d) Moth larvae pull the threads to build their cocoons with

Answer: b. The proteins in even minute amounts of human sweat and food left on clothes are enough to nourish moth larvae. Thoroughly wash clothes before you store them, and set up Safer® Brand Clothes Moth Traps to capture the adults before they lay eggs in your garments.

7. Stinkbugs enter homes in search of:

a) Warmth

b) Moisture

c) People

d) Light

Answer: a. The brown marmorated stinkbug was inadvertently introduced to North America from Asia in the late 1990s. In their natural environment, they hibernate in winter, but when they find heat inside of homes they stay active—and reproducing—all year long. Victor® The Ultimate Stink Bug Trap lures and captures the pests without poisons. Safer® Brand EndALL™ Insect Killer eliminates them on contact.

8. The “salt and pepper” found where an itchy pet has been sleeping is:

a) Dander and dust

b) Dead skin and shed fur

c) Dried sweat and deceased fleas

d) Flea eggs and dried blood

Answer: d. Adult fleas lay their white eggs on pets and leave behind pellets of dried blood they’ve sucked from their hosts for the larvae to feed on. Victor® The Ultimate Flea Trap simulates a warm-blooded host, which attracts the biting adults from their hiding places and captures them.

9. Mosquitoes are most active:

a) On warm evenings

b) On cool mornings

c) On sunny days

d) On overcast days

Answer: a. The types of mosquitoes most common in backyards have fragile bodies that dehydrate quickly in direct sun—but they need heat to keep moving, so warm evenings are ideal for them. Put up a bat house to attract the flying mammals that feed on mosquitoes by the thousands. Enjoy warm evenings outdoors yourself by setting up Mosquito Magnet® Mosquito Trap, which lures the pests away from you and traps them.

10. A pair of common house mice produces on average five to six babies per litter, and annually has as many as:

a) 3 litters

b) 5 litters

c) 8 litters

d) 10 litters

Answer: d. Female mice can reproduce every 30 days or so, and may gestate up to 10 litters in a year. That’s more than 50 new mice in your house each year. The Victor® Multi-Kill™ Electronic Mouse Trap eliminates up to 10 mice at a time, quickly and humanely, with no toxic poisons.

Posters & Checklists

Bug Out

Get to know the pests that invade houses and the most effective weapons you can use around family and pets to get rid of them.

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Safer® Brand leads the alternative lawn and garden products industry, offering many solutions that are compliant with organic gardening standards. Safer® Brand recognizes this growing demand by consumers and offers a wide variety of products for lawns, gardens, landscapes, flowers, houseplants, insects and more!

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