Preface
The habit of maintaining a pile of unnecessary items and cluttering the house is known as hoarding. Regardless of whether it is done intentionally or un-intentionally, its effects are terrifying and scary, especially when it comes to pest infestations (including bed bugs). This article aims to pose as a warning sign to all homeowners and highlight specific problems that arise due to hoarding.
Problem 1: Rampant Pest Populations
This is the obvious problem when it comes to hoarding and keeping one’s home messy. Random food cartons lying around, hard to clean stains everywhere, abandoned furniture in corners, all gives room for pests to live peacefully, eat happily, and their population to increase, consequently.
Whether it is the garage or the bedroom, hoarding excessively gives more hiding spaces and larger chance of survival to the pests in your home.
Problem 2: Pest Droppings
In a hoarding/messy home situation, bed bug feces and other pest droppings easily go uncleaned. This leads to a very nasty and unhealthy home that is dangerous to live in. When the bedroom is cluttered with mess that is not cleaned for weeks or months, bed bugs can easily hide, multiply, feed, and make the bedroom extremely dirty.
Here is a corner of a mattress completely covered in bed bug feces. Hoarding within the bedroom can make this type of mess go undetected and uncleaned for a long time.
Other pests can be even more harmful: when you hoard, mice and rats have many hiding spots and harborages available due to the immense gaps and clutter and only a narrow walkway for humans which keeps the rodents safe. In such conditions, mice urine and droppings can easily add up! Did you know mice droppings can contain disease and can be harmful for humans?
Problem 3: Expensive Services
Hoarding can cause hardship to any pest control exterminator to inspect and treat your home. Choosing to provide gaps and clutter for pests to live in contradicts your hiring of a pest control company! It can take multiple visits to solve any problem and thus, the cost will be higher for you.
Solutions & Conclusion
Investing in good cleaning supplies and making a habit to vacuum, mop, and re-organize is a good start. Many homeowners who think they have bed bugs are usually misidentifying carpet beetles and a quick inspection helps them save time & money (the general solution for carpet beetles goes along the lines of vacuuming well and maintaining cleanliness).
Cleaning up and repairing is the most sensible remedy that should come to any homeowners mind when dealing with a pest problem.
With a proper plan to stop hoarding and organize the messy home, many pests may be easily taken care of such as fruit flies, and the population of other pests may drop significantly, such as spiders. If other severe problems persist (rats, mice, bed bugs) then hiring a pest control expert can be your next step.
