Insect & Pest Control
Pest control products include those for repelling or killing insects and those for deterring or killing pests like rodents. The products come in several applicator forms, including traps, repellents, sprays, and skin wipes with different insecticide or pesticide formulas and material. All are safe for indoor or outdoor use per directions. Each pest may have one or more dedicated control methods to eliminate them or keep them away from the home. Staples carries the most effective products from many brands, including respected names like Raid, d-CON, COMBAT, PiC, and OFF!.
Sprays and aerosols provide versatile insect control
A pest removal regimen includes trapping and removing or repelling bugs and vermin or killing them on contact. Many of the control products are sprays or aerosols to kill or repel specific types of insects.
Contact-kill sprays for flying insects target individuals or nests of wasps, bees, yellow jackets, and hornets that you need to eliminate from a safe distance. The sprays have powerful pumps, directing the spray up to 20 feet or more outdoors. Other aerosols are for indoor crawling bugs like roaches and ants that nest along floor-wall borders and interior crevices. The sprays come with insertable nozzles for directing the spray safely in narrow spaces. Most of these sprays not only kill the pests, but also leave behind a repellent barrier to deter further infestation. Other insect sprays are suitable for application on clothes or skin to ward off mosquitoes, gnats, or ticks outdoors.
Pest control for larger varmints
Getting rid of non-insect pests may require more diligence, depending on whether you choose to kill them. While users can trap gophers, moles, or other burrowers in cages and release them elsewhere, a less intensive and time-consuming alternative includes battery-operated sonic spikes. Drive these into the ground wherever there is a burrowed hole, and the stick emits continuous pulsations to drive the animals away.
Traps for killing rodents like mice are available in several styles, but many are messy and unsightly after the kill. However, some mousetraps hide the kill inside an enclosed and sealed snare. Users can bait the trap and twist a lid into place, activating an interior mechanism and exposing an entryway for the mouse. When the mouse enters, the trap snaps, killing the mouse and closing the entryway automatically. You don’t see the dead mouse or have to touch it to discard the entire trap. More standard traps, like mouse and rat glue boards without poisons or hinges to set, are available as well.
Are poisons available for rodents?
Many homeowners prefer killing rodents with poisons rather than trapping them. Bait stations, often with refillable blocks of poison, attract rodents into a feeding box, where they ingest the bait. The rodents go back outdoors to find water, but die from desiccation.
Are there alternatives to insect spray repellents?
Some pest control manufacturers offer individually wrapped towelettes moistened with repellents for wiping on clothes or skin for protection. Some repellents are available in non-DEET, natural formulas for those preferring a chemical-free application.
What other pest control methods are effective?
For indoor and outdoor ants, including carpenter and fire ants, use baited plastic and metal disks containing poison inside the disk. For houseflies, fruit flies, and moths, use nonpoisonous hanging glue ribbons with bait scents. The bugs fly to the ribbon and stick to the adhesive, where they wither away. Many ribbons hang inside an external cylinder, so they’re not an eyesore.