Three Pest Problems You're Likely To Encounter In Your New Manhattan Apartment
Posted on: 4 October 2016
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If you have just moved into a new Manhattan apartment, then you will likely run into a few pest problems. While Manhattan is a modern, metropolitan city, this doesn't mean that every apartment is going to be a spotless, pest free abode. In all likelihood you will have to deal with some sort of pest infestation, be it something relatively benign like cockroaches or something more troublesome like bed bugs. Here are three common pests and how you can deal with them.
Cockroaches
Ask anyone who lives in Manhattan and they will attest to the ubiquitous presence of cockroaches. The old adage about cockroaches surviving a nuclear holocaust seems to be right as these little pests are super difficult to get rid of. The one good thing about them is that they are rather harmless and don't transmit disease. However, that doesn't mean you should let them take over your apartment. The area where they are most likely to be found is in your kitchen. This is because they are looking for food. So it's important to always clean up your table and sink after preparing food.
When it comes to ridding them from your apartment, you have a few options. The most popular options are little "traps." These traps are little plastic discs that contain poison. The cockroaches crawl into the traps, eat the poison, and then die later. You can also get a spray to use in tight crevices that you can't fit the traps into.
Mice
You don't want to look up from your couch and see a little mouse running across your floor. You could always get a cat, but there are also solutions for people who can't have a pet for whatever reason. The first thing to do is figure out where the mouse is getting in. Look around the edges of your room and see if there are any cracks between the floorboard and walls. Even if the crack is small, a mouse can likely squeeze through. So get caulk and fill the hole. Next, pick up non-lethal traps. These are little traps that you can set around your apartment (behind a fridge, underneath your sofa, and so on). You can then take the traps outside and release the mouse.
Bed Bugs
Bed bugs are a nightmare problem. They bite you during the night and are almost impossible to get rid of on your own. You can't vacuum them away, and many alternative remedies such as putting all your linens in the dryer or placing your sheets in the freezer just aren't feasible. Even if you kill all the bedbugs from a single set of sheets, there are still bedbugs hiding in other areas in your apartment, sometimes in your mattress, which won't fit in the freezer!
The best solution to these persistent pests is to get a professional bed bug exterminator. They will come to the apartment, analyze the problem, and then use special poisons to kill every single bug in the area. The exterminator will also be able to inject poison behind the wall trim to get any bugs that might be hiding out back there. You are going to have to leave the apartment during the process, so arrange to meet a friend or have something to do. The fumes are toxic, so you cannot be in the apartment while the exterminator is working. Click here for info on extermination.