Would you spray insecticide upon moving into a new home just for proactive measure? (floors, fleas)
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I posted about buying used furniture and many agreed with my concerns about the unknown- bed bugs, roaches, etc that can lay dormant. That being said, if you were moving into a new home would you spray or "bomb" the house against bugs?? They sell those fogger/bomb things that allow you to set one off in each room and they protect against a multitude of insects.
Am I overthinking things or would this be a good idea to do prior to moving into a home? The house is in great condition but there was a dog living there prior. We planned on having carpets cleaned but I am wondering if spraying for bugs would be good to stay proactive against any potential critters that could have been a problem? As we all know, bed bugs and fleas do not discriminate. They can lay dormant in even the nicest homes.... Spiders too are a huge EEK factor for me and sometimes you don't notice the bug problem until you've moved in and unpacked things....
If you vote yes for spraying/fogging the rooms, would you clean the carpets FIRST? or would you spray the insecticide and then clean carpets?
I've moved into several previously owned houses and condos, and I have never done any spraying. And I never had any problems.
I would never live with wall-to-wall carpets, and would rip them out before I even moved in and redo the floors if necessary. But if I were ever going to live with someone else's carpets, I would definitely want them cleaned before I moved in.
As I inspect my houses for frame inspection, I sweep the floors and wall cavities as I inspect. This slows me down as I miss very few issues and is intentional on my part. I also carry a sprayer with a professional grade boric solution which is almost identical to the borates used in cellulose insulation. The boric solution is a multi-use spray in that is stops any fungus growth should there be any kind of leaks or flooding. It also stops bugs, including termites, from entering the house. I spray the exterior plates and spray the studs 24" up from the floor. This particular product is rated by OSHA to be a nuisance dust when dry so there's no harm to any person or animal should they get into it. If you use any kind of polyisocyanurate insulation board, ants LOVE the stuff and are a pain to get rid of. I spray the outside as well with the boric solution and will spray an agricultural permethrin around the outside when using this type of insulating board. I won't live with bugs and don't expect my homeowners to either. The only exception to this is if the H/O is hypoallergenic to any chemicals. Yes, that's a question asked at the plans orientation.
Before moving to Georgia I never needed pest control (having lived in every other region of the US, simply not needed). Here, I fogged the crawl space and attic and sprayed, multiples of times, the main living space inside and out. I also worked on the house for ~8 months before moving in (which is why I sprayed multiples of times) and after the first application I was sweeping up multiples of dust-bins full of roaches. Now days (2 years on), if I see more than one dead bug in the 6 months between spraying it's a unique experience.
Carpet? Of the 4 homes I only kept the carpet in one for any amount of time, and it was brand new/never lived in. Carpet is nasty stuff, easily the most nasty stuff I've had to deal with in life, and I prefer to not have it in my living space. People had issues with bugs in the used furniture, I have issues with the metric ton of "human debris" that stays in carpet no matter what you do. Yuck.
Termite treatment tends to kill more bugs than just termites, and you want that done if there are any signs of termites or there's no proof it wasn't done in the past few years.
Get raid fumigators (not floggers) Kills all the ticks and fleas (an everything else including mice rats etc) with no slimy poisonous residue. I would not want to move into a home without fumigating. If they had pets ticks and fleas are probably. Ticks can give you Lyme's disease and ruin your whole life. Yellow Sack spiders are common in houses and their bite is very similar to the brown recluse (I got bit once, it is very bad and takes 6 months to heal). Roaches are harmless but unpleasant. Some insects can damage your house wasps, can sting you, scorpions too.
Termite treatment is done only in certain states and some treatments (microwave, heat, injection) treat only specific parts of the house. So unless you are going to have the house tented, fumigators are your best option. Plus they cost about $50 and take 4 hours. tenting costs about $4000 and takes days.
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