Category
Step-by-step plans for pests already in your home: find the source, remove it, keep it from coming back, and know when to call a pro.
Fall invaders
Put sticky traps in corners and behind appliances, dry out the basement, switch outdoor lights to yellow bulbs and seal the gaps crickets use. Tell house crickets from camel crickets first.
Pantry beetles & weevils
To get rid of weevils, throw out infested rice, beans and grain, freeze anything you want to keep at 0°F for 4 days, vacuum and wash the shelves, and store dry food in sealed jars. Don’t spray food areas.
Mice
Mice in your couch? Don’t vacuum or shake it. Set snap traps along the wall beside it, soak droppings with disinfectant, then shampoo or steam clean. About $57–71 in supplies.
Cockroaches
Boric acid kills roaches, but slowly: puff a barely visible film into cracks and voids, never piles in the open, add gel bait, and expect results after a week or more. A pound costs about $19.
Pantry beetles & weevils
To get rid of drugstore beetles, find the infested food (often spices, pet food or old flour), throw it out or freeze it at 0°F for 4 days, vacuum and wash the shelves, and keep dry food in sealed jars. Sprays aren’t recommended.
Cockroaches
Bait, don’t spray: many pea-sized dabs of gel where German roaches hide, sticky traps to count them, and a new active ingredient when counts stall. Supplies run about $54; shared quotes for a full pro treatment run $450–$1,500.
Carpet beetles
Carpet beetles on the windowsill or larvae in a closet? Find where the larvae feed, vacuum, hot-wash or freeze what they touched, and spray only the cracks you can’t clean.
Rats
Rats in the attic are usually roof rats. Pre-bait rat-size snap traps on beams and pipes for a few nights, then set them; trim branches back from the roof, seal gaps at the roofline and vents, and clean up droppings the CDC way.
Fall invaders
Vacuum spiders, webs and egg sacs, set sticky traps along the walls, clear clutter and seal the gaps they walk through. Sprays only kill the spider you hit. About $26 in supplies; a pro charges $100–$500.
Mow often, rake out leaf litter, clear brush at the lawn edge and lay a 3-foot strip of wood chips between lawn and woods. Treat clothes with permethrin, dry them on high for 10 minutes after outdoor time, and check people and pets.
A small paper wasp nest you can reach from the ground is a DIY job: spray it at dusk, wait 3–4 days, then knock it down and bag it. Hornet nests, nests in walls and nests up a ladder are worth the pro’s $525 average.
Carpet beetles
Usually larvae wandering in from lint or wool nearby, not a mattress infestation, and they don’t bite. Hot-wash bedding and vacuum under the bed; traps cost under $8.
