Since the pandemic came to our shores, several brick-and-mortars were forced to close up shop, pushing thousands, even millions of Australians into unemployment. Luckily, many savvy business owners had a great workaround for the widespread economic lockdown: remote work.
But as companies allowed their workforce to perform their jobs in the comforts of their own homes, this presented another hurdle: creating an optimum home-office space.
While it may be comfortable working in your personal sanctuary, you can still get distracted. As much as you’d want to focus on daily tasks, it’ll be hard to ignore piling trash bins and cluttered corners. After all, maintaining the cleanliness of the house means you wouldn’t have to worry about invasive pests.
No doubt, pest infestation is a major concern for anyone working at home. These highly virile creatures have to be kept at bay or you’ll suffer dire consequences once their population suddenly booms.
Sadly, controlling pest infestation isn’t something you can do all on your own. You will need to get the right procedures done or your unwanted guests will keep coming back to disrupt your workspace.
Before you go about planning how you can exterminate these crawling health threats, let’s get to know when they usually become active, what are the common pests to prepare for, as well as the proper steps to follow when they’re already terrorising your remote work space and keeping you from being truly productive.
Spring Is the Time of the Year
No matter the season of the year, there will always be pests crawling around. Working from home makes it even worse because now, you have to solve the pest problem yourself. No more janitors scaring them around or exterminators coming to inspect the premises every day. Nevertheless, spring is the season when you see most vermin coming out to make a home out of your house.
By this time, termites, fleas, and wasps start to awaken from hibernation. While you can’t wish them all away, having the knowledge of when they become the most active allows you to prepare for an inevitable invasion during the prior season.
Common Pests to Deal with When Working from Home?
Termites
Spring is swarm season for termites. These insects feed on wooden sections of your home, causing your property to deteriorate from the inside. The wooden table that you use for work can be in danger from them as well.
And if you see them swarming, you unfortunately won’t be able to tell where the infestation is occuring. It may be best to leave the detection to pest control experts.
Solution: Even if an infestation hasn’t gotten worse, call Pest Police to do a thorough inspection and proper extermination. They also have the best resources to get rid of any existing infestations.
Rodents
Another pest that could disrupt your home’s ambiance are rodents. Mouse and rats are typically drawn anywhere food is stored but feeding off clothes in closets aren’t unheard of. You will have a hard time getting rid of them once they nestle into your space, but there are simple ways to keep them from running down the home.
Solution: First, you could try and seal possible entry points like damaged walls or cabinets. Second, never leave crumbs behind; this, along with opened jars, attracts mice and rats. Any container that has edible contents should all be sealed, too. And do regular decluttering so they will have no place to hide.
Mosquitoes
Mozzies may be small and all, but they’ve caused more human deaths than any other pest or animal on the planet. Even when they start sucking your blood, you may sometimes won’t feel a thing, which is why it’s best to start inspecting their potential habitats before their population grows in the spring.
Solution: The most effective way to control them is to hire pest exterminators. They are equipped to kill such deadly insects. Another possible way to prevent them from biting you is to wear insect repellent lotion or wear sleeves when you’re working.
Roaches
Can you focus on your work while roaches are crawling across your home office desk or flying around? While these roaches may generally be thought harmless, they actually bring diseases wherever they go. You might not notice it yet but your cup of coffee may already have cockroaches dipping in it and that won’t be good news. Without you knowing it, you might get infected by the viruses they carry and disrupt your work routine when you least expect it.
Solution: Make sure you don’t leave your workspace wet at any time because cockroaches are attracted to moisture. Check your pipes, taps, and cabinets for possible leaks, too. Also, keep your home office room well-lit to discourage cockroaches since they have a preference for dark spaces.
Clean Your Personal Space All the Time!
To prevent any pest from growing in number in your house is to clean the space, especially your designated work space. Although some can work in a dirty and cluttered room, the problem with overlooking dust and dirt is that these attract pests that can potentially carry life-threatening diseases.
If you want to enjoy working from home without worrying about your health and safety, these are tips to remember:
- Before you set up for work, sanitise your table and your other devices using alcohol. Simple wiping will do.
- If you’re one of those people who bring their own food and drink to the work table, be sure to, at least, clean everything up and not leave a single crumb. Complacency in this case could pretty much be an invitation for pests to come to your home office room.
- Organise your stuff. If you have books or papers in your workspace, declutter them because they could be possible hideouts for silverfish who can eat through your most important documents like hot knife on butter.
- Buy brushes to remove accumulating dust from your keyboard and other peripheral devices attached to your laptop or computer.
- Cover your work table with cloth after you work. This is a way to prevent ants and other small insects from infiltrating important devices.
Monitoring Is the Key!
Focusing on your work can be challenging, but it shouldn’t keep you from maintaining the cleanliness in your house. You can check the general state of your space once you’re done working or during the weekends.
Keep an eye on different entryways that you find in your property such as a damaged door, broken window frames, cracked walls, tunnels, air vents, damaged ceiling, and roof leaks. These can become possible entry points of creatures such as mice or even birds. Remember, it would be difficult for you to notice them coming into your home if you are busy with work.
If the access points are not easy to seal, you can hire a handyman to fix everything. But even after everything is fixed, you still need to call pest management companies to check every nook of your home and determine how else pests can get inside. Seeking their expertise on the regular should help keep any unwanted guests off your property, allowing you to work peacefully in the process.
Hire Professional Pest Control!
Because it can be difficult determining on your own whether a pest infestation is serious or not, calling pest exterminators is necessary for keeping your home workspace pest-free. And if you’re swamped with work, all the more reason to call upon pest control Melbourne experts.
With a certified pest control company sorting out pest threats, you can gain quite a few advantages.
For one, their years in industry makes them well-versed with handling different types of pests. They know where to look to spot common ones and can recommend a safe and effective solution to free your home of creepy-crawlies.
Being professionals, pest control teams also use a number of powerful equipment that you might not have at home. Those are then paired with effective methodologies that allow them to detect a variety of pests with absolute ease. In other words, you can expect them to get the pest inspection and treatment done within a reasonable timeframe and without delay!
Of course, dealing with professional pest exterminators means that you can get honest quotations. No need to second guess how much you will have to spend for a pest inspection and treatment package as they’ll give you a comprehensive quote when you call them for an enquiry.
Best of all, a pest control Melbourne company like Pest Police inspects your place in adherence to the relevant Australian Standards. We are fully Australian Standards-compliant so we follow stringent guidelines set for pest inspections as well as furnish termite inspection reports that insurance firms will recognise and approve.
Can the Pests in the Home Office Be Exterminated?
With swift intervention, you can keep your home workspace from harbouring potentially dangerous pests. However, you have to be decisive when you find these nuisances crawling or flying around since completely disrupting your work is a cinch for them. In the meantime, be mindful of what you bring to your work table and keep your stuff organised. Long story short: maintain a tidy work environment. You can never go wrong if you do this religiously.
Before roaches, mice, rats, silverfishes and termites come to share your personal workspace at home, discuss your pest concerns with our certified pest control team! Call us at 1800 737 876 for all your pest inspection and extermination needs!