How to Detect Pests in the Home and Treat Them

Pest Detection

• 1). Walk around the house and look for animal droppings. One of the easiest ways to detect pests in the house is by locating their waste. For instance, mice and rats leave behind small, oval droppings. Termites leave behind discarded wings that look like fish scales. If you find foreign droppings in your home, use it to locate the source of your infestation.
  
  
• 2). Tap the wooden foundations of your home with a screwdriver. Listen for a hollow sound, which can be indicative of a termite infestation. Place the tip of the screwdriver against the wood and apply slight pressure. If the screwdriver goes through the wood, your walls are rotten, meaning you may have termites.
  
  
• 3). Listen for scurrying or rustling sounds behind the walls. Mice and rats will often build a den behind the walls, using wood shavings, carpeting and grass as a sleeping area. Rustling behind the walls may mean a pest is tunneling behind your walls.
  
  
• 4). Look for obvious signs of an intruder in your kitchen. Pests are attracted to your home for a reason -- usually it is food. Mice and rats will bite into food boxes left in the cabinets. The presence of maggots in your trash can is a symptom of a house fly invasion.
  
  
• 5). Look for signs of a pest invasion on your body. Bedbugs are small insects that nest near human hosts, usually in their beds. Bedbugs feed on human blood, causing red rashes and skin irritation. Head lice live on the human head, nesting on the scalp. Symptoms of head lice include scalp itching and irritation.