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Pest Vs. Pet: How Having a Pet Affects Home Pest Control

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When it comes to your pets well-being and safety, there’s no room to mess around. We’ve got the answers for you about what pest control means if you have a furry friend living in your home.

Caring for your pet goes beyond making sure they’re exercised, well-fed, and loved. As a pet owner, it is part of your responsibility to ensure the safety of your fluffy friend with regard to health risks, like pests. Pests can make your pets sick, and without proper prevention, can cause infestations.

Why you need pest control–especially with pets.

Pets are known for attracting pests–especially the ones that go outdoors. Below are a few common pests that are the most likely to cling to your pets.

  • Mosquitoes
  • Ticks
  • Fleas

What do all of these pests have in common? One, they’re all itch-inducing and two, they’re all fairly difficult to get rid of. Which is why it’s important to prevent pests in the first place.

Preventing pests from the get-go

1. Keep your pet’s food and water fresh

A good rule of thumb for keeping pests away from your pets is by making sure their food doesn’t sit out all day. It comes as no surprise that pests love food. Especially food that sits so close to the ground–like your dog’s food bowl. Pests are also attracted to sitting, dirty water. Be sure to switch out your pet’s food and water bowls twice a day, and clean them with detergent regularly.

2. Store food in airtight containers

In addition to switching out food bowls and keeping them clean, it’s also smart to store food in containers, rather than bags. Leaving food in bags can lead to a potential pest disaster. Creepy crawlies are great at sneaking into gaps, cracks, nooks, and crannies. Storing your pet’s food in airtight containers will not only keep the food fresh longer, but will prevent unwanted pests from making contact with your pets.

3. Maintain Your Yard

Maintaining your yard in general can do wonders for your pest control efforts. Things like trimming your shrubs, cutting your grass and trimming away trees or bushes from your yard can be enough to keep pests at bay. The more grass and shrubbery you have, the more bugs you’re likely to find latched onto your pets. As a bonus, consider fencing your yard. Fenced yards not only keep your pet in, but they also help keep pests out. It is important to maintain the fenced yard and properly treat to be most effective.

4. Keep your pets clean.

Being a pet owner, you know how dirty your pet can get. Whether you have a dog who likes to get into the garbage, a cat who likes to get into the food on your counter or a playful pup that loves the mud–pets love to get dirty. And while it’s not always easy keeping them clean, it’s essential for keeping pests away.

Groom your pets regularly and check for any irregular bumps on the skin, as they could be ticks or other pests. Trim and clean pet brushes often to avoid spreading any pests your brush finds.

The Age Old Question: Is Pest Control Harmful to Pets?

As a pet owner, the well-being and safety of your pet is at the top of your priority list–as it should be! Wanting to keep your pet safe from pests, but also wanting to make sure that you aren’t dangering your pet with harsh chemicals, may have you wondering…”What’s best for my animal?” While we use only the best products that will leave your home and pets unharmed, there are additional ways to make sure your home is protected from pests, without harming your pets in the process.

Here’s how to keep your pets extra safe during treatment:

Follow the instructions

This one is simple. Most treatments come with step-by-step instructions for safe application. By following these directions, you’ll be sure that your pet and your pests are no longer in the same space.

Air it out

Make sure all the windows and doors are opened when you apply your treatment. This will allow chemicals to dry faster and will also allow your home to air out.

Reduce contact between treatment areas and your pet.

If possible, try to place your pets somewhere away from the treatment during and after. After a few hours, the toxicity of the treatment will lessen, making it safer for your pets to roam freely

Bring in the professionals

Though spot treatments and DIY remedies can be effective in the short term, for long-lasting pest control sometimes it’s better to leave it to the professionals. Upon hiring your professional pest control services, it’s important to let them know that you have pets. This way they can prepare to treat your home in a way that’s safe for your furry friend.

As a pet owner, you want a happy and healthy life for your furbaby. It is critical to understand what you can do to prevent pests from making contact with you, your pet, or your home.

At Killingsworth, we aren’t just your average, everyday bug exterminator. We use environmentally safe chemicals in our pest control management strategy that are both environmentally friendly and safe for you and your animals! To learn more about our pest control services and insect control visit our pest removal page.

Schedule our expert pest control service today! No one knows pests like Killingsworth.

Pest Vs. Pet: How Having a Pet Affects Home Pest Control

Bedbug inspection

How to Know if Your Hotel Has Bedbugs

Upon entering a hotel room, do you typically reach for the tiny toiletries, take a leap onto the bed, or perhaps start by inspecting for bed bugs? Knowing what to look for is essential. Anticimex Carolinas Service Manager Christian Tweed has shared valuable insights on identifying bed bugs in your hotel room and preventing them from hitching a ride back home with you. And if bed bugs do become an unexpected part of your vacation, remember that Clark’s Pest Control is here to assist!



Q&A with a Pest Professional


How do bed bugs get inside hotels?


Bed bugs are primarily hitchhiking insects as opposed to foraging ones, meaning that they get carried around on people’s clothes and belongings. Someone with an active infestation in their home can easily bring bed bugs to their hotel, but they can also be picked up during travel (airplanes, taxis, and rideshare services) and brought to a hotel room.


What do people misunderstand about bed bugs in hotels?


From a probability standpoint, all hotels will deal with bed bugs at some point in time. If you think about a bed bug’s method of travel, there’s literally nothing a hotel can do to stop them from being carried in. What I have realized is that luxury hotels are more likely to have an aggressive response to dealing with a bed bug case once it’s identified as they tend to have a higher quality of service and a reputation to protect. While this isn’t always the case, it has been my experience more often than not.

Got bedbugs? Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today!

What do you recommend travelers do when they get to their room to check for bed bugs?


Most hotel headboards hang directly on the wall. I start my inspection here before even looking at the bed itself. I have found bed bugs, their exoskeletons, and the telltale black stains they leave behind around the edges of or in the crevices of headboards. If the headboard looks clean, move on to looking over the pillowcases and comforter for any signs or stains. You can dig into the bedding as deep as you want here, but I encourage people to look over the top layer of things at the very least.


What are some lesser-known signs of bed bugs in your hotel room?


The specifics of the black stains they leave behind, which as gross as it sounds, are just digested blood as that’s all that bed bugs feed on. If the stains are on a hard surface, they will be small dots as if left behind by an ink pen and will smear into a brownish gray when moisture is applied. If they’re on fabric, they will usually bleed along the fibers making a small diamond, square or X shape.


If there are bed bugs in your hotel room, can they travel home with you?


They absolutely can, however this is easy to prevent. While staying in a hotel, keep as much of your clothing and luggage off the beds as possible. Storing suitcases in the bathroom might sound odd, but it’s an effective method of prevention.

Don’t tackle bedbugs yourself, call Clark’s at 866-781-4991!

What should you do with your suitcase if you suspect your hotel has bed bugs?


When arriving home from a trip, leave your luggage in the garage or on a porch and bring your clothes in one load of laundry at a time. If the clothes are dirty, wash them like you normally would, if they’re clean then run them through the dryer for at least forty-five minutes. Once your suitcase is empty, vacuum over it meticulously (don’t forget to empty the vacuum when you’re done), or if you’re in the right climate, expose it to heat for a few days by placing it in your vehicle (parked in the sun) or for a few weeks in your attic.


The Clark’s Solution


If you brought bed bugs back to you home, Clark’s is here to help. Our Bedbug Control service is designed to eliminate bedbugs and create a safe, comfortable environment.


A Clark’s Pest Professional will do an inspection and recommend a plan of attack to get rid of bed bugs now and prevent them from hatching in the future. Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today for more information.



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