The study conducted in 169 apartments in Brooklyn and Manhattan concludes that making your home an unattractive place for pests by fixing leaky pipes, filling cracks in walls and gaps under baseboards and thoroughly people can keep their places safe from pests, reported journal ‘Scientific American’.
A single use of these techniques — named integrated pest management or IPM by pest control professionals — in these apartments eliminated more cockroaches and mice than repeated applications of pesticides in other buildings, said Daniel Kass, lead author of the study.
In addition, presence of asthma-triggering allergens related to cockroaches were between 40 and 70 per cent less in the residences using preventive techniques than those using standard insecticides, Kass said.
Good housekeeping techniques not only minimise chemical use, but they are even more effective at controlling pests than hiring an exterminator to spray powerful, toxic pesticides, the study concludes.
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