The common indoor bugs we see anywhere in the world are flies, spiders, fleas and beetles. No-one likes to have insects indoors, so most people go to just about any extremes to eradicate these common indoor bugs. Less common indoor bugs may be woodlice, earwigs, scorpions and millipedes or centipedes, although they are no less unwelcome.
No matter where you are in the world, it is very hard to keep these common indoor bugs outside, unless you go to the extremes of keeping all your windows and doors shut at all times, which is quite impossible. I now live in Thailand and I know for certain that this is not an option.
So, just what can you do about it? Well, let’s sort out all the flying insects first, because of all the common indoor bugs, I think they are the most unpleasant indoor bug. They are very irritating, buzzing around your head and mosquitoes and other flies can produce irritating sores and besides that, all flies carry disease. I cannot bear to see them walking on food, knowing that they have more than likely just come off some dog’s muck somewhere and now they are spitting on my food to taste it with their stinking feet!
My first line of defence is fine-mesh door and widow screens. They are not dear and can be fitted retrospectively to any window. My window meshes slide, so they can cover only one half of a window at a any one time, but I do not think that’s a problem. You can still create cross-winds, by opening two or more windows at opposite sides of a room. I love to see the flies on the mesh struggling to get in by day and the mosquitoes doing the same by night. At night, it is best to switch on as little light indoors as possible so as not to draw these common indoor bugs.
My second line of defence is natural predators – lizards, like Geckos (Jin Jok, in Thai). Some people don’t like them in the house much either and I can’t say that I’m all that keen on them indoors myself, but they are hard to keep outside and they do eat hundreds, if not thousands, of indoor bugs every day. I particularly like to see them lying in wait on the outside of the mesh, ready to jump on any bug trying to struggle its way through the wires.
My third line of defence is a handheld bug zapper. You know, the electric, handheld bug zapper that looks like a toy tennis racquet. The come in two forms: battery and rechargeable kinds. They are brilliant at catching and destroying any flying indoor bug. The bug literally explodes and vaporizes on contact with the fully-charged wires of the indoor bug zapper. If you haven’t tried using one, you really should. They are most gratifying. These three defences keep our house quite much free of flying insects.
The creeping common indoor bugs are less of a problem really. Door screens on self-closers will keep 95% of them out and the Geckos will help too. Spiders can get in fairly easily, but then, I don’t mind them too much as long as they keep out of my way, as they eat other insects too. They are on our side to be honest. However, for those who can not bear to trap them and throw them outside, the handheld indoor bug zapper works well on spiders too.
Fleas can sometimes be a problem, if you keep cats or dogs, but then if you wash or dust the animal once a month, you should be able to keep these common indoor bugs under control fairly easily. However, there are two final measures that we employ. Every week, before we go out for the day, we spray every room with fly killer and every six-months we spray any rugs or carpets with a bug killer containing permethrin, which will survive washing and vacuuming for that long without losing its ability to kill common indoor bugs on contact. If you stick with these methods, you will be able to keep your home or office quite free of the most common indoor bugs and the less common indoor bug as well.
Have you ever heard of an indoor bug zapper? If you haven’t, or if you want to get an indoor bug zapper, just click one of the links to our website or blog.
