There's No Place Like Home
If Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz had been a cockroach, she may have clicked her 6 ruby slippers together and said, “There is no place like clutter, there is no place like clutter.” We all know that pests need the triangle of life: food, water and shelter. We provide all three requirements by the very nature of the way we live. Over the many years I have tried to help people with pest problems, I have come to learn that shelter, a.k.a. clutter, is the least appreciated by people. Many folks often ask what pests would be eating or drinking in their house. These are good questions to ask and answer, but many overlook clutter as a problem. Food and water are important factors in many pest situations but providing ample shelter in the form of clutter is often the most problematic. Clutter in a structure provides not increased square footage for the pests, but cubic footage. A pile of stuff in a bedroom, pantry or a garage is like a high-rise condominium for a bunch of bed bugs, cockroaches or rodents. And clutter doesn’t have to only be man-made piles of stuff. Outside, overgrown vegetation, piles of organic debris or even trees up against a structure can give pests refuge and harborage – the kind that every form of vermin dreams about. It is their Land of Oz.
Indoors or out, a pest management professional can put out traps and make chemical treatments to help control pests. Often, clients want “the good stuff” or “the strong stuff.” Well, short of using a blow torch, if there is a lot of clutter, any control success will be marginal. For effective control, you must get your clients to reduce clutter as much as possible. If items cannot be removed, proper storage is critical. Plastic storage bins with tight lids can go a long way to reducing access for pests. Storing items inches from walls and a few inches off the floor will also help reduce the areas pests like to harbor in and will give you a zone of space to check and treat when necessary.
Keeping pests from food, water and shelter is critical for control, but keeping them from clutter that provides ample shelter may be the most important. If you can reduce clutter at your pest control accounts, your management strategies will be more effective and you will not send Dorothy the roach home, you will send her packing.
Author: Dr. Eric Benson, ,PhD, BCE, Professor Emeritus & Extension Entomologist, College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences
