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Last Updated on by Zunaira
Elimination of household insect pests is necessary because they cause various allergies and diseases. Besides insects, some common household reptiles like lizards are also problematic. They can infest kitchens and bedrooms and even harm your pets. Thus, kicking them off from your home is a mandatory practice. Here are a few methods of removing lizards, rats, and other insects from houses.
Methods to remove lizards
Many effective natural remedies and insecticide sprays to kick off or kill lizards from homes are available. From countless methods, a few of the most effective ones are:
1. Naphthalene balls
Naphthalene balls have a pungent smell that helps to keep lizards away. So, put these balls in your kitchen cabinets, cupboards, drawers, or at every corner of your home. Lizards will stay out of these places because of that pungent smell of naphthalene.
2. Coffee and tobacco balls
Coffee and tobacco balls are among the best ways to get rid of lizards. Make balls by mixing coffee and tobacco powder. Then stick these balls to matchsticks and toothpicks. Place them in your cupboards and drawers. When lizards eat them, they will die immediately.
3. Eggshells
Lizards find eggshells’ smell very irritating and pungent. These shells also induce fear into lizards by creating an impression of a giant creature. That’s why they like to stay out of your home premises if eggshells are hanging over there.
4. Lemongrass
Lemongrass has a citrusy smell that effectively keeps lizards away from homes. Keep some lemongrass blades around and inside your home, especially at corners. Lizards will automatically stay out of your homes.
5. Onion and Garlic
Lizards cannot tolerate the strong smell of onions and garlic. Onions have sulfur that is intolerable for lizards. Similarly, the pungent smell of garlic slices is also effective against lizards. So, place onion and garlic slices around the corners of your home and keep lizards away.
6. Pepper spray
Take some pepper powder and stir it into water. Spray this mixture on walls where you see lizards. Pepper spray cause irritation to lizards. They are allergic to pepper sprays, so they will stay out of your homes.
Read more: How to Get Rid of Molds on Walls?
7. Chemical sprays
Some chemical sprays are incredibly effective against lizards. The active ingredients of these sprays are poisonous to lizards. Thus, by these sprays, they may die at the spot or run away out of your home. Some famous lizard killings sprays are:
- Kingtox Classic Green Spray
- Cobra Lizard Killer
- Mortein Crawling Insect Killer
Methods to remove rats
You can get rid of rats by keeping your home clean and removing all the hiding places for rats. Besides this, the following methods are beneficial to make your home rat-free.
1. Poisonous baits
Poisonous baits are great when it comes to killing rats. Rodenticide baits with bromethalin, cholecalciferol, calcium, zinc, and aluminum phosphides are very effective against rats. It would be best to place these baits outside of your homes because they are also dangerous for human life. To keep your children and pets safe, you should keep baits in enclosed stations. For almost 10 rats, 1 oz bait block is enough. When lizards eat the bait, they will die at the spot. Moreover, you need to supply fresh baits for at least 10 days to eliminate rats’ activity.
Apart from chemical baits, some foods are also used as poisons for rats. Chocolates, peanut butter, beacon, gumdrops, avocado skin, etc., are poisonous to rats. Hence, you can also utilize these food baits to kill rats.
2. Rat traps
Rat traps are designed to catch rats and kill them ultimately. These traps have a fast-closing jaw that kills rats and other rodents. You can find some good wooden and mechanical traps online. Besides this, glue traps are also helpful for hard-to-reach areas like under refrigerators and stoves. Once a rat gets caught in a trap, you can dispose of it in the outside trash can after its death.
3. Dry ice
Dry ice produces carbon dioxide. This gas anesthetized rats and ultimately killed them. So, placing dry ice at the burrow entrances is an excellent way to get rid of rats. Due to its danger to human health, you should use this method in your home gardens. Avoid using dry ice inside your house. You need to follow some precautionary measures while dealing with dry ice. It can damage your skin, so wearing gloves and a protective shield is better.
4. Natural deterrents
Some natural ingredients are very beneficial for keeping rats away from homes. You can spread peppermint oil, cloves, and black peppers outside of your home. Rats are allergic to these home ingredients and will never enter your home. Other than this, you can also spread crushed peppers along burrows and holes to irritate rats. Even after their complete elimination, you can prevent their reentry with these simple natural ingredients.
Methods to remove snakes
People in some areas of Lahore, especially the residents of DHA, complain a lot about snakes. If you are one of them, you can remove snakes and keep them away from your homes by following the given methods.
1. Mothballs
Mothballs contain naphthalene which is an effective snake repellent. You can put these balls in holes and cracks where you feel a snake can enter your home. You can also place them around the boundary walls of your house. The pungent odor of naphthalene keeps snakes away from your home premises.
2. Clove and Cinnamon Oil Spray
Take clove and cinnamon oil into a spraying bottle in equal quantity. Both these oils have snake repellent properties. You can spray this mixture directly on snakes if you see them. But be very careful, as snakes will run away in the opposite direction of the spray.
3. Commercial Snake Repellents
Many commercial snake repellents are available in Pakistan. Snake baiting poisons are the most common ones. Place these repellents at the entry points from where snakes can enter. They will die at the spot after eating those baits.
4. Diffusers and Fumigants
Snakes dislike the odor of ammonia, lemongrass, onion, garlic, smoke, and vinegar. Thus, the combination of these fragrances works great against snakes. You can add the essential oil of onion, garlic, lemongrass, and vinegar into diffusers and fumigants to keep snakes away from your home and gardens.
5. Snake Repellent Plants
Planting snake-repellent plants in your home garden is an excellent precautionary measure that you can take to keep snakes away. These plants have different characteristics to work as snake repellents. Some have a strong odor that irritates snakes, while some have a frightening appearance for snakes. You can plant the following snake repellents on your lawns.
- West Indian Lemongrass
- Marigold
- Onion and Garlic
- Snake Plant
- Clove Basil
- Sarpgandha
Methods to remove insects
Other than lizards and rats, some household insects also need to be removed from houses. Here are some of the most common household insects and their elimination methods.
Cockroaches: Cockroaches are abundantly found in homes, especially in kitchens and washrooms. Borax powder is an amazing cockroach killer. For better results, you can combine borax with white sugar and spread this mixture on the places where you find cockroaches’ activity. By consuming this powder, a cockroach will face dehydration that will cause its death. Besides this, diatomaceous earth is an organic insecticide for cockroaches. Sprinkle it over places where you find maximum cockroach activity to kill them.
Cockroach baits and chemical sprays can also help remove cockroaches from your homes. Raid ant and roach killer, Mortein spray, and Ortho home defense insect killer are the few famous and effective cockroach killers.
Flies and mosquitoes: Using air fresheners that have cinnamon, eucalyptus, peppermint, and lemongrass smell is effective against flies and mosquitoes. They do not like the scent of these natural ingredients and will stay away from your homes. Other than this, just like cockroaches, fly and moth killing sprays are also available in the market that helps eliminate flies and mosquitoes from houses and offices. Light traps with electric zap are another excellent option to trap and kill them.
Bugs: A mixture of baking soda and diatomaceous earth is an instant killer for household bugs. This powdered mixture dries up the bugs and will cause their death. In addition to this, peppermint oil spray is a natural insect repellent that works amazingly against bugs.
Termites: Sprinkle borax powder to the termite-affected areas is an effective solution to get rid of termites. You can also use this powder in water and spray it over wood furniture to get rid of termites. Another popular method to keep your house termite-free is drilling termite insecticide near the soil around your house. Besides this, you can also dig it inside your home into the flooring with drilling. Drilling is a common and convenient method to get rid of termites for a maximum period.
Ants: To remove ants from houses, a spray mixture of half vinegar and half water will be effective. It kills ants at the spot, and you can remove them later with a damp paper towel. Besides this, various natural ingredients like peppermint, tea tree oil, eucalyptus, and lemon are used in sprays to kill ants. Other than this, chemical sprays to kill ants are also available in markets.
A pro tip: Call a professional insect pest management team
The best way to get rid of household insect pests is to invite a professional insect pest management team to your house. The team will thoroughly inspect the house and recommend the necessary measures and ways to kick off insects out of your homes. They will permanently eliminate insect pests from your homes with a more professional approach than yours.
FAQs
1. Which insect repellents are used against flies, cockroaches, and mosquitoes?
Mortein, Kingtox, and Cobra are the few insecticide sprays that are effective against flies, cockroaches, mosquitoes, and many other insects.
2. Does phenyl tablets are effective against lizards?
Yes, phenyl tablets or balls are effective in keeping lizards away from houses. These tablets have a sharp pungent smell that lizards do not like, so they stay out of your home due to the smell of these tablets.
3. What is the best method to kill rats?
Rat traps are considered the best method to kill rats. These traps have a jaw that immediately grabs the rats and kills them. Rats get attracted to traps because of the food pieces that are kept over these traps.