Watch out for pest-infested houses when moving in Metro Vancouver

In our previous articles, we have discussed many useful precautions to take to prevent moving pests with you to your new house, including bed bugs. Most of these measures involve a lot of close inspection and thorough cleaning. Another thing to prevent pests in your new house, as obvious as it may sound, is to avoid buying or renting a house that has an infestation.

Although this is an obvious statement, it is not so easy to know what to look for when you are visiting a potential home to rent or buy. In this first of a two part article, we will discuss some things you can do before your house hunting process to prevent a buying or renting pest infested homes. In the second part of this two part series, we will provide some indicators to look for to identify pest infested homes.

Before visiting a potential home, do your research on pests in Vancouver

Do you know what the most common types of pests in British Columbia are? If you do your research well, you will even be able to determine the most common pests found in your city, or even neighbourhood. Depending on the season and the climate, as well as the cleanliness and the location of the home, there are specific types of pest infestations that a house may be more susceptible to.

Learn what pests and pest signs looks like before moving in Metro Vancouver

Having a list of common pests handy will allow you to know what to look for when you are visiting a potential future home, which may also be a potential pest-infested house.

Learn what common pests look like. You will then be able to readily identify them if you see active pests within the house.

Learn what fecal droppings of common pests look like and smell like. Some pests, like mice and rats, may leave trail marks in forms of urine stains and fecal droppings. Although this is not pleasant, knowing this will help tremendously in identifying a pest-infested house.

Know the commons spots to look for pests before your move

It is also wise to learn also where to look for these bugs within and without the house. Most pests like to be hidden. Take careful notice of the cracks and crevices of walls and cabinets. To prevent buying or renting pest infested homes, take special attention to areas like the kitchen and bathroom. Bathrooms have high humidity, which is a good breeding ground for many bugs and even moulds. The kitchen is also a good place to look since this is the place that is usually dirtiest and filled with food.

For example, cluster flies, a very annoying type of pest, breed within earthworms. They will migrate into buildings as winter approaches during the cold months of the year. Houses that have large lawns and earthworm-rich soil may get some cluster flies in the winter. If you visit a property that is at a risk of being infested with cluster flies in the spring or summer time, you may not see any clustering flies inside the house. But if you do your research, you will know exactly the kind of larvae or adult flies to look for when you are outside the house, in the yard.

Going into a property viewing without the knowing what to look for is very unwise. It is important to know what kind of pests you are looking for, what they look like, and where they may be hiding. As long as you do your research, it will be very easy for you to identify a pest-infested property. Do your homework beforehand to save yourself from making a bad move.

Contact Ferguson Moving 

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