Do-It-Yourself Pest Control Myth Busting

Over the years we’ve seen a lot of people use some pretty strange methods for dealing with their own pest problems. While some of these odd methods have proven their effectiveness, most of them are basically useless old wives’ tales. Since figuring out what works and what doesn’t can be challenging and time-consuming, we thought we’d shared with you some of the most prevalent myths that we’ve seen out there when it comes to Do-It-Yourself Pest Control.

Myth #1: Repelling flies with a hanging bag of pennies in water

For ages, we’ve seen so many people use this method at picnics and campgrounds and they swear by it. Apparently the light refracted by water and coins is supposed to confuse a flies’ sense of direction. Science, however, has yet to prove the effectiveness of this practice. We found one study from 2007 where the bag actually attracted more flies and then there was an episode of Mythbusters a few years ago that found no difference between the number of flies.

Myth #2: Using cucumber peels to repel cockroaches

This is another folksy remedy that’s been going around for many years. You’re supposed to place fresh peels of cucumber on a piece of aluminum foil or inside an aluminum can and place it in your kitchen to ward off cockroaches. This is supposed to give off a smell that keeps the cockroaches at bay, but once again this claim isn’t supported by any scientific evidence. Most of the people we know how have tried this method found it completely useless.

Myth #3: Pouring boiling water to destroy an ant colony

While it is true that boiling hot water does kill ants on contact, the problem is getting that boiling water to hold its temperature while making its way through all of an ant colony’s tunnels. The ground cools off the boiling water much more quickly then you’d think and the majority of an ant colony is simply too far underground for the water to still be hot enough to wipe them out once it finally makes it all the way down.

Myth #4: Using cheese in a mousetrap

Yes, the cartoon mice have been deceiving you, cheese is not as irresistible as they would lead you to believe. Mice do prefer foods with high protein and fat content, so you’d think that cheese would be perfect mouse trap bait. However, mice also like sugar, so something like peanut butter is the perfect solution. It will also stick to the trap better than cheese, making it more difficult for some lucky mouse to make off with your bait.

There are some DIY tricks out there that will occasionally work to deter pests, but nothing beats having the expertise of a pest control professional like Emtec.