Your home should be your safe space, the one place in the world where you can feel utterly and completely at ease. However, for thousands of homeowners, their indoor allergies can make their homes feel like a nightmare instead. If you are suffering from indoor allergies, it might not be your fault. The culprit behind your sniffles might very well be a different and slightly smaller unwanted roommate–pests! Continue on to learn about how pests can affect your allergies–and even trigger asthma– and how to take your home back from these creepy crawlers.
How Can Household Pests Affect Allergies?
Although it may seem unlikely, indoor pests can actually be the ones to blame for your sniffles and sneezes. Indoor pests aren’t just cringe-worthy to have around–for those who suffer from allergies, they can also be the cause of your misery. But how can such small animals wreak so much havoc on your health?
Pests usually start out on the outside of your home, and when they enter, they can bring allergens inside with them and spread them around your house–exposing you and your loved ones to the allergens that you are trying to avoid. In addition to spreading outdoor allergens, pests can also be allergens themselves. Your loved ones can easily have allergic reactions to the bugs’ bodies, their droppings, and the nests that they create.
The word “pest” doesn’t just refer to bugs–rats and mice inside your home can trigger allergies as well. When mice and rats are inside your home, they can spread diseases and trigger allergies, and even aggravate asthma symptoms. Their dander can cause allergic reactions to those who are allergic to animals, and their droppings and saliva are not only unsanitary, they can cause severe allergic reactions, too!
Keeping mice, rats, and bugs out of your home is a great first step to eliminating indoor allergy triggers from pests.
Can Roaches Affect My Asthma?
Although many different pests can give you grief, cockroaches are the culprit that causes the most damage. Many folks can have allergic reactions to not just the bodies and shells of cockroaches, but their droppings and saliva as well. You can even have an allergic reaction to cockroaches even when they are dead–their decomposing bodies can trigger allergies too. The trouble with cockroaches is that they are good at hiding–you may not even know you have some in your house. Unfortunately, if you’ve found just one or two, there are likely many more hiding away.
Unfortunately with cockroaches, it’s not just a few sniffles that could be triggered. Cockroaches can even trigger severe asthma attacks indoors–where you are supposed to feel safe. For those with severe allergies or with asthma, cockroaches are a real nightmare that can be dangerous, and even more so for families who have sensitive people like infants, small children, and the elderly.
Simple Pest Prevention Tips
One of the best ways to ensure that you don’t have allergy-triggering pests in your home is to ensure that they can’t get into your house in the first place. Below, we outline simple prevention tips that will help keep pests out.
- Check your home for pest entry points. Bugs and rodents can enter your home through the smallest of openings in your doors and windows, but also through cracks in your foundation and even in your attic! Check your home regularly for these entry points, and when you find them, be sure to seal them up quick.
- Clean up your yard. When you have a lot of plant matter and other yard debris outside, you are inviting pests to make themselves welcome around your home. After getting close, the natural course of action is for them to try to get inside where there is food and a home for them to survive in. Avoid attracting unwanted pests by keeping a clean, debris-free yard.
- Keep food properly stored. The food in your home may be meant for you and your family, but it looks downright delicious to potential pests! Keep them from turning your home into a buffet by keeping your food in airtight containers such as plastic bags and storage jars. Most pests are simply hungry, so taking food out of the equation helps deter them that much faster.
- Stash your trash. Pests aren’t picky, so they’re more than happy to make a hearty meal out of your garbage. To keep pests away, ensure that you take out your trash often, and store it away from your home. That way, if bugs do get to your trash, they’ll be far away from your house.
- Keep your home tidy. One of the best ways to reduce allergens, even if pests are present in your home, is to keep your house as clean as possible. Add vacuuming and mopping to your regular routine, at least three times per week. In addition, make sure to dust your home and clean your duster after you finish, and wipe down surfaces after you use them. A clean home will have fewer allergens overall, and will also help to keep pests away!
Professional Help is Best
Even if you follow every single one of the pest prevention tips mentioned above, it’s likely that you will still experience allergies triggered by household pests. The truth is, sometimes professional help is the best way to keep your allergies at bay and to protect your family from the health hazards that come with having pests in your home.
Here at EnviroCon, we offer quarterly pest control services that can rid your home of allergy-triggering household pests and finally provide you with some relief. With quarterly treatments, your home will be pest-free all year long.
Sick of struggling with indoor allergies? Learn more about our pest control treatments today.