Things to Consider When Battling Pest Allergens

Asthma and allergy symptoms are on the move, and they are moving up in numbers and not down. While no one has a specific answer as to why this is happening, it is. Roach saliva, bodies, and droppings are an asthma and allergy trigger for many Americans. Rodent urine, hair, and droppings are another big concern for pest allergy sufferers. If any of these pest allergens are a trigger for you or someone in your family, you have to take action to reduce your exposure. There are a few things that you will need to consider when attempting to remove all pest allergens from your environment.

First off, you need to start where you live. Make certain that you have removed all allergen sources from your residential environment. If you live in a detached, single family house, this will be much more manageable. You can refer to our previous article on how to create an IPM for your home. But, if you live in a duplex, or multi-unit housing complex, the difficulty of task at hand has just increased tenfold. If you are having serious infestation issues with roaches or rodents and treat your unit in isolation, the allergen pests may just move away from your home until the pesticide wears off, and then return when your neighbor treats his home. It might take more work, but it is imperative that you contact the housing manager, alert them of the situation, and discuss if you can organize a “pest control day” where each of the housing units are treated on the same day. Also, if you housing manager enlists a pest control company to handles these issues, it might be worth asking if they are rotating unit treatment. This can be a serious problem, and contribute to ongoing pest infestation. You have a right to a clean environment free from allergen pests. Ensure that you are doing all the necessary steps regarding sanitation and prevention, but if actual chemical treatments are required, then the whole complex should be involved.

Next, if your home environment is cleared and cleaned of all allergen pests and you continue to have severe allergic symptoms, you must consider the other buildings that you spend numerous hours in. For our children, that is school and for adults, it is our work environment. These might be uncomfortable conversations to have, but if you feel that these areas are the source of ongoing asthma or allergy reactions, you should investigate it further. Contact your employments building maintenance to know the IPM protocol that is being enacted for the agency (after you’ve cleared it with your direct supervisor of course.) Schedule a meeting to discuss concerns about school buildings with the superintendent and/or their assistants. More than likely, your child is not the only one who is being affected. A quick look at the number of children with these types of allergies confirms that fact.

Remember, not only do the pests need to be exterminated, the whole environment needs to be cleaned and any feces, bodies, or urine must be sanitized and cleaned or they will continue to act as allergens.

Many pests like ants or flies can certainly be annoying, but when pests affect our health and quality of life, it’s no laughing matter.