Post Construction Pest Maintenance

I wanted to touch on a subject that already has me worried post-construction, an issue we have had to deal with a new construction home we rented, and our last home that we owned (also a new construction).

Pest Control.

Yes, I know. I don't even like to think about it, because if you will it, it will come. And I cannot, under any circumstances, deal with pests. I CANNOT.

In our rental, we had to deal with horrible, horrible ant infestation. Most of the time, no food or anything like that was involved, they were simply scouting and searching 24/7. It made our lives a living hell, I had nightmares about being overcome with ants (waking up and finding them crawling behind your headboard WILL scar a person), and I just never felt comfortable eating or cooking in the house, for fear of what might come.

Unfortunately, our landlord was of the slum variety, and refused to do anything about it. We lived with that for three long, unhappy years.

In the new construction home that we bought, we faced similar (worse) issues. You have to understand that when new homes are built, the homes of these (innocent, yet dastardly) critters and their nests are being disturbed, and they have to find somewhere to flee to--typically inside of your brand new constructed walls, or in garages, when they have the opportunity to sneak in.

In our case, they were field mice, and they set up shop in our garage. We discovered this a month after we closed on the house, and never having to deal with anything like this, I had a complete meltdown and seriously wanted to sell the house, rather than share my space with mice. And ants too regularly invaded our upstairs master bathroom, of all places. I think they were after my body scrub or something, who knows?

I don't do well in high stress situations, as you've probably figured out by now.

It never occurred to us to hire a pest control place to control ants, we just thought that it was something we would have to live with. Mice on the other hand, I had a service out the very next day, and they promised to get the rodent situation under control. Not only would they set out traps and bait for the mice, but they also offered to come out and dispose of any dead mice I would find, since they figured out that I'm not dealing with a full deck and would probably faint or something if confronted by a dead rodent.
Thankfully, the mice never entered our home, so that wasn't something I had to be concerned about.

The pest control service came out every other month and sprayed the outside of our townhouse and the garage, as well as maintained the mice bait. From the day I hired them, I never had to deal with any pests the entire time we lived there. It cost about $44 and I was billed every other month, so about $22 a month. A little pricey, but totally worth the peace of mind of knowing that I could leave a pie cooling on my countertop overnight, and not wake up to find it infested with ants.

I should also point out that the mice situation got so bad, our HOA stepped in and paid for pest control for the ENTIRE neighborhood, as did the nearby shopping centers and restaurants. It was truly a community effort, and the problem was eliminated very quickly, so that's definitely something you might want to bring up to your HOA if you experience a rodent problem. Chances are, everyone in the neighborhood is dealing with it too.

I do know that builders now will do treatment pre-drywall to discourage termite infestations, but I'm not sure about any other type of pests. Unfortunately, it wasn't something I brought up in negotiations, but I wish that I had! Doing a little research on the subject, there are all sorts of new systems available pre-construction that will pretty much eliminate the threat of pests in new home construction.

We plan to be pre-emptive this time around when it comes to controlling pests, and we're not waiting for them to show up before doing something about them. The day we close, we hope to have a pest control company out and securing the house, especially since we are an end unit, we've very close to a dirty and unfinished pond site, and they are digging empty lots for more new home construction, so we are really at risk for being targeted by pests.

Better safe than sorry and freaked out, that's my motto.