Bugs in the house

[The Sum of Awe]

I had just fumigated last week to prevent bugs from staying alive from being inside. It was supposed to work on gnats but I saw a gnat all day yesterday in my house! This stuff is supposed to last three months!

Today I just saw an ant crawling across my carpet! The fumigation didn’t work on ants.

What does one do to protect your house against bugs? I don’t have an infestation, it was just the gnat and the ant. AFAIK. But I’d like to be bug free as possible

 

[Subduction Zone]

I had just fumigated last week to prevent bugs from staying alive from being inside. It was supposed to work on gnats but I saw a gnat all day yesterday in my house! This stuff is supposed to last three months!

Today I just saw an ant crawling across my carpet! The fumigation didn’t work on ants.

What does one do to protect your house against bugs? I don’t have an infestation, it was just the gnat and the ant. AFAIK. But I’d like to be bug free as possible

Import spiders.

 

[exchemist]

I had just fumigated last week to prevent bugs from staying alive from being inside. It was supposed to work on gnats but I saw a gnat all day yesterday in my house! This stuff is supposed to last three months!

Today I just saw an ant crawling across my carpet! The fumigation didn’t work on ants.

What does one do to protect your house against bugs? I don’t have an infestation, it was just the gnat and the ant. AFAIK. But I’d like to be bug free as possible

Why do you think you need to “protect” your house from insects? Most are harmless and, given that they are everywhere outside, you will never be able to prevent a certain level of diffusion of insect life into the house. I agree there are certain types you want to keep out, e.g. bloodsucking insects or flies, but you can get screens for those if you have a real problem. I doubt any fumigation treatment can continue to kill insects over an extended period without also poisoning the human inhabitants.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Import spiders.

Those are scary

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Why do you think you need to “protect” your house from insects? Most are harmless and, given that they are everywhere outside, you will never be able to prevent a certain level of diffusion of insect life into the house. I agree there are certain types you want to keep out, e.g. bloodsucking insects or flies, but you can get screens for those if you have a real problem. I doubt any fumigation treatment can continue to kill insects over an extended period without also poisoning the human inhabitants.

Fair enough. Do most people just not care if they see a gnat flying around in their house then? I swear the last few years these fumigators did a good job of keeping gnats out of my house. And I’ve never saw an ant in my house as far as I can remember

 

[Subduction Zone]

Why do you think you need to “protect” your house from insects? Most are harmless and, given that they are everywhere outside, you will never be able to prevent a certain level of diffusion of insect life into the house. I agree there are certain types you want to keep out, e.g. bloodsucking insects or flies, but you can get screens for those if you have a real problem. I doubt any fumigation treatment can continue to kill insects over an extended period without also poisoning the human inhabitants.

I have heard too often of people complaining about "spider bites". People often have a weird confirmation bias. They get bit by an insect. But they never see it. See a spider in the house. And then assume that the spider bit them. Most spiders could not bite humans even if they wanted to. But they do catch, kill, and eat the insects that feed off of humans. In other words spraying for spiders in a house is self defeating. A week or two ago there was a young put trying to set up appointments for an extermination service. He was looking at some spider webs on the outside of the house. He first tired to go after the spiders saying how they could come in the house. When I explained why I was not afraid of spiders he went back to the webs and showed that he was trying for both roles from "Dumb and Dumber" when he tried to claim that spiderwebs attracted wasps.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Those are scary

Really? Geckos are friendly. They might even sell you some car insurance. But they also eat insects:

https://dengarden.com/basements/Lizards-for-Bug-Control

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I have heard too often of people complaining about "spider bites". People often have a weird confirmation bias. They get bit by an insect. But they never see it. See a spider in the house. And then assume that the spider bit them. Most spiders could not bite humans even if they wanted to. But they do catch, kill, and eat the insects that feed off of humans. In other words spraying for spiders in a house is self defeating.

Informative frubal

A week or two ago there was a young put trying to set up appointments for an extermination service. He was looking at some spider webs on the outside of the house. He first tired to go after the spiders saying how they could come in the house. When I explained why I was not afraid of spiders he went back to the webs and showed that he was trying for both roles from "Dumb and Dumber" when he tried to claim that spiderwebs attracted wasps.
Lol he’s not a convincing scam artist

 

[Subduction Zone]

Fair enough. Do most people just not care if they see a gnat flying around in their house then? I swear the last few years these fumigators did a good job of keeping gnats out of my house. And I’ve never saw an ant in my house as far as I can remember

Seriously I would take a look at your kitchen Are you talking about gnats or fruit flies? Try making sure that you leave no fresh fruits out. Wipe up spills immediately. Regularly empty the trash.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Seriously I would take a look at your kitchen Are you talking about gnats or fruit flies? Try making sure that you leave no fresh fruits out. Wipe up spills immediately. Regularly empty the trash.

To be fair I’ve slacked on the dishes

 

[Subduction Zone]

To be fair I’ve slacked on the dishes

That could be it. As @exchemist pointed out, you probably do not want some of the chemicals that they use to kill insects in your house. If there is no food for insects they cannot reproduce and you will not see them. Guess what? There will still almost always surely be a few. But when one sees too many it is time to clean up. Or there is the friendly alternative:

 

[pearl]

The Venus Fly Trap works pretty well, otherwise try Raid, especially for ants, works well.

 

[ChristineM]

We live in an area surrounded by forest with a river close by. Some of those insects are pretty big.

We are not too bothered about the odd insect. But we do spray repellent on arms and other naked bits to reduce bites (particularly from tiger mosquitoes) during the biting season.

And flies can be annoying. A handy airosol of Raid does the trick.

 

[exchemist]

Fair enough. Do most people just not care if they see a gnat flying around in their house then? I swear the last few years these fumigators did a good job of keeping gnats out of my house. And I’ve never saw an ant in my house as far as I can remember

Gnats are totally benign. Mosquitoes are another story of course. One or two ants is not an issue either. What is an issue is a lot of them, especially if they form into a trail. That means they‘ve found food and are organising themselves to collect it. You can get a crawling insect killer that stops that, which gives off very little vapour into the air. Not great if you have pets though.

 

[Valjean]

Do you really think the poison will remain in the air to kill flying insects? Houses aren't air tight. The air you're breathing now isn't the same air you were breathing an hour ago. I doubt the film of poison over everything else in your house is going to outgas enough, after a week, to kill a passing gnat.
According to ASHRAE standard 62.1 (“Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Residential Buildings”), houses should have at least 0.35 air changes per hour, and ideally, three to maintain a good indoor air quality.

The toxin on your floors, walls, furniture, &c might deter crawling insects like your ant; even kill them if they lingered long enough, but It's also hazardous to any pets and to yourself.
I'll guarantee that the insecticide used is more dangerous to you than either your ants or gnats.

Personally, I'd check my window screens if I were worried about flying creatures, and if ants were a problem I'd figure out how they were getting in and seal the opening.

 

[crossfire]

I had just fumigated last week to prevent bugs from staying alive from being inside. It was supposed to work on gnats but I saw a gnat all day yesterday in my house! This stuff is supposed to last three months!

Today I just saw an ant crawling across my carpet! The fumigation didn’t work on ants.

What does one do to protect your house against bugs? I don’t have an infestation, it was just the gnat and the ant. AFAIK. But I’d like to be bug free as possible

You can try old-fashioned fly paper. (I think they call them fly traps these days.)

 

[Father Heathen]

Import spiders.

And centipedes.

 

[Valjean]

And centipedes.

California gnatcatcher

Giant anteater. These should take care of the problem.

 

[Mock Turtle]

You can try old-fashioned fly paper. (I think they call them fly traps these days.)

I have used the transparent ones that stick to windows and these seem to work, even if it's not nice looking at the accumulation that occurs.

 

[Quagmire]

Those are scary

In North America the only spiders that can hurt you are black widows and the brown recluse.

Black widows are easy to spot, and letting wolf spiders and daddy long legs share your space will help keep the threat of brown recluse bites down (because they eat those).

I think a lot of people would freak out if they saw all the wolf spiders in my place. , but I'm always happy to see them. Their bite is poisonous too (although there's some disagreement about that) but it isn't much worse than a mosquito bite, and only happens once in a blue moon.

Wolf Spider