Some of the most common indoor bugs we see anywhere in the world are flies, spiders, fleas and beetles. No-one likes to have a bug indoors, so most people will go to just about any lengths to eradicate these common indoor bugs. The less common indoor bugs may be woodlice, earwigs, scorpions and millipedes or centipedes, although they are not less unwelcome.
No matter where you are in the world, it is very difficult to keep these common indoor bugs outside, unless you go to the extremes of keeping all your windows and doors shut all of the time, which is quite impossible. I now live in Thailand and I know for certain that this is not an option.
So, just what can you do about it? Well, let’s deal with all the flying bugs first, as of all the common indoor bugs, I think they are the most unpleasant indoor bug. They are very irritating, buzzing around your head and mosquitoes and other flies can create painful sores and besides that, all flies spread disease. I hate to see them strutting about on food, knowing that they have probably just come off some dung heap somewhere and now they are spitting on my food to taste it with their grubby feet!
My first line of defence is fine-mesh door and widow screens. They are not expensive and can be added retrospectively to any window. My window meshes slide, so they can cover only one half of a window at a any one time, but I do not find that a problem. You can still set up cross-winds, by opening two or more windows at opposing sides of a room. I just love to see the flies on the mesh trying to get in by day and the mosquitoes doing the same by night. At night, it is wise to turn on as little light indoors as possible in order not to draw these common indoor insects.
My second line of defence is natural predators – lizards, like Geckos (Jin Jok, in Thai). Some people don’t like them in the house much either and I can’t say that I’m all that keen on them indoors myself, but they are hard to keep outside and they do eat hundreds, if not thousands, of indoor bugs every day. I particularly like to see them lying in wait on the outside of the mesh, ready to jump on any bug trying to struggle its way through the wires.
My third line of defence is an indoor bug zapper. You know, the electric, handheld bug zapper that looks like a child’s tennis racquet. They are brilliant at catching and annihilating any flying indoor bug. The bug literally explodes and vaporizes on contact with the fully-charged wires of the indoor bug zapper. If you haven’t tried using one, you really ought to. They are most satisfying. These three defences keep our house pretty much free of flies.
The creeping common indoor bugs are not so much of a problem really. Door screens on self-closers will keep 99% of them out and the Geckos will help too. Spiders can get in pretty very easily, but then, I don’t mind them too much as long as they keep out of my way, as they consume other insects too. They are on our side really. However, for those who can not bear to catch them and throw them outside, the handheld indoor bug zapper works a treat on spiders too.
Sometimes, Fleas can be a problem, if you keep cats or dogs, but then if you wash or dust the animal once a month, you should be able to keep these common indoor bugs under control fairly easily. However, there are two final methods that we employ. Once a week, before we go out for the day, we spray every room with fly killer and every six-months we spray any rugs or carpets with an insect killer containing permethrin, which will survive washing and vacuuming for that long without losing its ability to kill common indoor bugs on contact. If you follow these measures, you will be able to keep your home or office quite free of the most common indoor bugs and the less common indoor bug as well.
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