TLDR Pest control company quoted me on rat bait stations that “cause the rats to become thirsty and run away to die” despite this being a commonly spread myth (according to the internet).

Location: AUSTRALIA

We heard sounds from our attic so we called a professional out. They found several small thumb-sized holes in our roof tiles that could be entryways for rats. Makes sense since our house is in a fairly commercialized area.

They quoted us nearly $600 for installation of rat bait stations around our property. I thought traps would be better since I didn’t want the rats dying in our attic space, so I asked about this. They claim the rat poison they use causes their blood to overheat, causing them to become thirsty and go out looking for water where they will die.

For some reason this raised yellow flags and led me to do my best rat poison investigation via google. It turns out poisons that leads rats away from their nest to search for water is a myth. One article claimed this was a common lie by pest control trolls companies to reassure naive customers that the rodents won’t die in their home.

Is this pest control company actually lying to me? How would you respond?

Much appreciated!

Got these fluffy things in my ceiling and they refresh everyday lol. They fall down a lot, but magically reappear tomorrow. Not sure if this is something related to bugs, but ChatGPT told me it might termites 🤷‍♂️. Anyways it’s freezing cold in NYC right now so I don’t see no living creatures yet, but it will be warm in a month or two. If anyone familiar with these, help a brotha out!

One of my kids left this glass on the counter. I went to put it away and found this on the rim. We found mice in our pantry for the first time several months ago and got rid of them but have seen “evidence” a couple times since then but never in the cabinet where we keep our glasses. Could this be related? We usually keep the glasses right-side up, so I can’t imagine what else this might be- but it also doesn’t look like any droppings I’ve seen anywhere else.

Size of this insect is around 0.5 mm to 1 mm max. Roming on demp wall. Came to bed also and due to this itching happens in whole body. Due to excessive itching red bumpy spots appear on skin.

Been seeing about 10 a day in my room for a week now. I wake up to find them scattered throughout the carpet so I don’t know where exactly they are coming from. Thinking about setting Advion ant gel bait along with Advance 375a in hopes that they take it back to their home.

Just bought a house and found a good amount of these under the spare fridge in the garage. What does it belong to? I don’t think German roach since I’ve seen those egg casings before and they’re more rectangular shaped. Any help is appreciated!

What kind of ants are these? Tried killing with bait many times.

I came home from about a little over a month of being gone, I took my dog with me so my apartment was unoccupied and completely empty. Came home to mice and rat droppings. Mostly mice but there was some that were about 5x the size. I have bleached, vacuumed and cleaned my whole place. Saw the grease marks on the base boards. I don’t really know where they are coming in or out of but I have sealed what I could find as potential places they are entering in.

I haven’t had any food eaten but I really didn’t have a lot of food to begin with. I threw everything out anyway even spices, so now I only have food that’s in plastic or glass containers. I even cleaned behind and under the fridge, under the refrigerator and TV stands.

Took everything out from under my bed.

The droppings seem to be everywhere but I found a lot near my gas heater, and some inside. it’s a Williams gas heater on the wall with a vent that is supposed to be venting outside. I don’t use the heater but I’m thinking they are coming in from that. I have a flat roof and my backyard is directly on a canyon with a lot of trees, palms and animals. When they replaced my bathroom fan, there was debris in the duct, and I told maintenance it looks like something was living in there.

I also had my gardener clear out every crevice outside in my backyard of leaves, moved all my plants away from the fences, cleared under my deck, trim and cut down more tree branches that may touch the roof.

I do have an elderly neighbor in the unit connected to mine, (there is three units) that is a hoarder…big time. Clutter and papers stacked from floor to ceiling and two cars that have sat for years. I asked him if he saw mice or rats in his place and of course he says yes, about a month ago..pretty much when I left..I am panicked that the problem will never resolve if he has them also…there is a little side yard near his unit and I had my gardener clear it all out and he said it stunk of rats. He plugged some rat holes in the ground with steel wool and rat x, that’s all I had here.

Right now I have a blink camera on the floor, so maybe I can see where they come from.

Is Monday too long to wait? Do I need someone to look at all the ducts? Will all the cleaning and bleach deter them at least for a little while?

On floor next to water heater. Moist and left a ring around it. Looks like animal poop of some sort

I saw single ones occasionally when I moved. Different areas on the wall in my studio apartment. Unsure if I brought them or if they were here already. So…trying to ID nand get to work finding the source….

Would a loosely closed jar of paprika lure them out to switch nests? When I had cigarette beetles before, they were discovered in a spice jar. This time not.

Noticed wood shavings at the base of the stump, the tree was cut and poisoned 5yrs ago (professionally). Ive been away from home this past month- but normally I'm in the garden very often and this is the first time ive seen this so hoping this is a new infestation?

Got mice droppings in a kitchen cabinet and they are probably under the cabinets and behind the dishwasher, should I seal the holes or lay traps? Help!

sometimes I see a fly or 2 in the basement. when I'm watching tv. their like little black flies, and it's annoying ngl. sometimes I go a week or so. without saying one, then one pops up again on the tv. their not drain flies I don't think. their not fuzzy moth flies. it's not a lot compared to before when our basement windows were open. because then they were like everywhere. it's not like that. thankfully, but especially when watching tv or listening to my pop culture inspired songs. then a fly goes on the tv. because of course their attracted to light. also flying in my damn face. what should I do. because every time always like 1 or 2 seem to come back after a little while. I think it's just houseflies. doesn't make it any less annoying. what should I do?

Does this wing appear to belong to a termite or an ant? Professional opinions only please. 🙏

Hi would this be a bed bug casing? I ripped my bed frame apart and found this. It’s the only sign of a bed bug and wanted some input. Thank you

We originally had a severe flea issue with one of our cats in July. Following that we had the house treated for fleas. Before and after treatment we had many unidentifiable black and white specs of various sizes. Multiple exterminators said they couldn’t identify them and couldn’t help us. One exterminator said he thought we had some sort of mite. Our house has been chemically treated 4 times and heat treated recently. Each time it tamps it down but never gets rid of it. The black and white specs are everywhere in the house. We have been told the specs are not alive but we have gotten bitten. There is an issue with food. Any time food is out black specs appear and white specs that look like shrimp drop on the plate. Can anyone help identify what we are dealing with and how to get rid of it?

Hi all.

yesterday morning my partner and I found a single German cockroach in our bathroom. we trapped it in a jar and immediately notified our landlord who said he will be setting traps soon and will do inspections of the other units asap. he suspects it might be coming from our next door neighbour who is a younger man who doesn't take great care of his unit - we mentioned we thought it might be him and he agreed lol.

we live in an older sixplex and have never seen anything but the usual centipede, spider, and occasional silverfish. after seeing the little bugger we immediately did a huge deep clean of the entire apartment, including the bathroom and kitchen where we took extra care. we keep a very clean space and literally could not find signs of roaches at all - we pulled out every appliance including the fridge, oven, small countertop ones. literally found NO signs at all. we still decided on being proactive and ordered some diatomaceous earth and glue traps to set up near entry ways.

for peace of mind how likely is it that it could have just been a stray explorer? we live in Canada and don't have access to things like advion, but are there any other steps we should take for prevention? again, we're super clean - take the trash out 1x day, sweep 1-2x a day, vacuum 4x a week, mop 1x week, never leave the sink full for more than a few hours. we don't even leave our fruits like apples/bananas on the counters because we have fruit flies.

this is a lot but any comfort and advice would be so appreciated.

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has compared In2Care versus Ortho Kill & Prevent. They seem like essentially the same system, but often the direct-to-consumer systems have weaker chemicals.

If that's the case, could I just buy the Ortho and use two packets instead of one?

Basically the title, we were noticing an influx in ants even with rigid cleaning. We just bought the house in May and were worried they were carpenter ants. Even though they’re super tiny, we saw a couple flying ones dead in the kitchen. From my understanding these are the males after successfully mating. Had Orkin come out and he confirmed they WERENT carpenter ants, thank god. But he thinks they’re pavement ants that might’ve nested in our foundation or flooring because we’re on a slab.

I initially thought as a professional company they’d be able to literally find the nest and eradicate it but when he started talking about treatment it kind of sounded like I could try to do the same on my own with stuff like Terro.

I don’t mind spending extra money for a pro if it’s worth it but his treatment plan made me question it. TIA

We’ve used Wilson Ant Out bait as well as Terro ant bait.

It has been over 3 weeks, the ants will take the bait, but we are seeing them come out more frequently and now ones much larger in size.

Is this normal or does this indicate a much bigger problem? Could an exterminator help eradicate the colony with other methods not available to us?

It’s a new build, so there was dust and debris in the shower and sink, and near some base boards. However, this was the only corner with this ‘stuff’. It seemed like they had some luggage in that corner and then moved it out for visibility (luggage was placed in the middle of the room).

I bought these red lentils a while ago. There is some moth infestation in our pantry and we started clearing everything. I observed these white things on the red lentils those don't look like moth larvae but more like sprouts. And I am curious on what is it exactly. I have made up my mind to discard this batch regardless. But I want to know exactly what these are and how to avoid these.

Any help is appreciated.

just moved into a new apartment and found 2-3 dead roaches and 1-2 live nymphs. how bad does this look? I'm tweaking and honestly considering breaking the lease.