How to Pest Proof Your Office in Port St. Lucie | Native Pest Management
Whether you’ve just started your business or you’ve been running it for years, commercial pest control is probably not the first thing on your mind until you have an actual issue.
Ants, cockroaches, millipedes, rodents and other pests in Port St. Lucie are just as common in businesses as they are in homes. Especially when your business involves clients coming directly to the office.
All kinds of things can go wrong, between finding a roach infestation in the office kitchen or flies zipping around your employees’ heads while they’re trying to work.
It’s good to prepare or at least have a plan in case you start to see a pest issue. Here are the best ways to pest proof your business in Port St. Lucie, and when to call a commercial pest control company for ants, cockroaches, and more.
Understand Pests in Port St. Lucie
By knowing the most common pests in Port St. Lucie and their behaviors, you can figure out the best pest control routine for your location.
Common pests in Port St. Lucie:
- Ants
- Cockroaches
- Rodents
- Spiders
- Termites
- Mosquitoes
- Fleas
- Ticks
- Silverfish
- Pantry pests
- Lawn pests
Knowing the seasonality of these pests can be especially helpful. For example, rodents are more active in the fall and winter months while mosquitoes come out at the height of Port St. Lucie’s humidity.
The Most Active Seasons of Each Pest:
- Ants: spring, summer, fall
- Cockroaches: summer
- Rodents: fall, winter
- Spiders: fall
- Termites: spring (swarming season)
- Mosquitoes: summer
- Fleas: spring, summer, fall
- Ticks: spring, fall
- Silverfish: summer
- Pantry pests: winter
- Lawn pests: summer
BTW: These pests are still active year-round in Port St. Lucie. Most of them are attracted to humidity, rain, and warmth, which is commonplace here throughout the year.
The most costly pest on this list can be termites, which cause about $5B in damage each year. Even if you haven’t seen any evidence of termites, we recommend that you get a termite inspection. We provide free inspections to anyone who calls in.
Usually, when you notice termite damage, it means they’ve been in your building for a while, so the best thing to do is to catch them early.
Keep Your Building Clean to Prevent Pests
Yes, we know that’s a given. No one wants their office to be a dumpster, especially if you take clients.
Cleaning is one of the most important ways to prevent pests including ants, cockroaches, rodents, silverfish and more. These pests are drawn to food and also decomposed matter such as mold.
So, if you regularly forget to mop, sweep, wipe down surfaces or properly store food, you’ll start to see pests begin to populate. Sending reminders to employees to keep their spaces clean and keeping tabs on the kitchen and bathrooms can help prevent the issue from getting out of hand.
Know the Popular Pest Spots for Offices
Understanding where pests like to migrate to can help you know what areas to especially target and keep an eye out for.
This can be a number of spots, depending on the size of the space.
Most Common Areas for Pests in Offices:
- Dumpsters
- Trash cans
- Breakroom/kitchens
- Storage rooms
- Crawl spaces
- Near indoor lights
- Baseboards
- Electrical outlets
- Gutters
- Vents
Eliminate Entry Points
Entry points for pests are exactly what they sound like–they’re spots where pests are able to enter your office building.
Scary fact: insects and spiders are able to fit through 1 1/16 inch gaps, and rodents can fit through ¼ to ½ inch gaps. This means that areas like cracks in doors and windows are prime entry points for pests.
So to prevent them from getting inside, make sure these spots are sealed. Caulk is a product commonly used by pest control technicians to seal these openings and can be easily purchased at a regular home improvement store.
It’s also important to pay attention to your landscaping. Pests like spiders and ants love to use trees and shrubs as a way into your building if they’re connected.
For example, ants can use branches touching your office as a bridge by climbing up the building and inside through open or unsealed windows. Keep trees and shrubs trimmed back at least 12 inches from the building to eliminate them as entry points.
Common Materials You Can Use for Pest Exclusions:
- Caulk or a similar sealant
- Copper mesh to fill holes on pipes
- Door sweeps to close gaps up doors
- Backer rods to fill large openings
- Refrigerator door gasket so the pests can’t grab a snack
- Landscape cloth to keep weeds from growing and rodents from hiding
There are so many spots pests can get inside your office from, so we don’t blame you if you don’t want to go through the trial and error yourself. Leave it to one of our expert technicians who can provide the best pest exclusions for your office.
How to Pest Proof Your Office For Ants
Ants are some of the tiniest pests, so there are what seem like endless ways they can get into your building. Along with excluding ants from your office, which you can do using the tips above, you can also have specific ant control products at hand if you begin to actually see ants.
The products you use can vary, depending on the type of ant you’re trying to control.
Common Ants That Can Infest Your Building:
- Sugar ants
- Ghost ants
- Pavement ants
- Big headed ants
- White footed ants
- Acrobat ants
- Pharaoh ants
- Argentine ants
- Fire ants
Fire ants nest in mounds outside, which are pretty easy to spot. Because of the number of nests they can form in a process called budding where the ants split and create new nests with new queens. We use broadcast baits to get rid of fire ants in Port St. Lucie.
For white footed ants and big headed ants, we use a granular bait; however, these ants spread so rapidly that it can be difficult to control these invasive species without professional ant control.
Pharaoh ants are some of the most difficult ants to control in Port St. Lucie because they nest in areas that can be tricky to spot. Most products don’t work on fire ants, so we recommend that you call a local ant exterminator.
For sugar ants, pavement ants, ghost ants, acrobat ants and Argentine ants, we use non repellent sprays & advanced baiting kits, and target their food sources.
The difference between repellent and non repellent ant control products is that repellent products kill ants on contact. This triggers budding- Budding can make things even more chaotic, so we recommend that you avoid using these products.
Non-repellent products are much slower acting. They begin working when they’ve reached every ant, including the queen and wipe out every ant in the colony.
We also go after the food source of these ants by targeting sap-sucking insects including whiteflies, mealybugs, aphids and scale. These insects live on your trees, shrubs and plants, and produce honeydew, a substance that attracts ants.
Combined with exclusion keeping up with cleaning, you should notice that your building is much less appealing to ants.
How to Pest Proof Your Office For Cockroaches
Cockroaches are one of the last pests you, your employees, and clients want to see, so it’s a good idea to get a good start so you never have to.
Just like with ant control, one of the best ways to prevent cockroaches is through cleaning. American cockroaches, German cockroaches and Australian cockroaches are all attracted to dirt, mold, grease and grime so any garbage, uncleaned messes or unmaintained rooms can lead to unwanted visitors.
Some common spots for cockroaches are bathrooms, kitchens, and any nooks and crannies such as baseboards and wall voids.
To get rid of German cockroaches in your office building, we use a combination of gel baits and Insect Growth Regulators (IGR’s), so those products might be good to have on hand.
German cockroaches are indoor pests and usually an infestation is triggered by a leaky pipe or excess moisture since they’re drawn to water.
American cockroaches come from outside, so the best way to prevent them will be exclusion practices and keeping your building clean.
Also making sure you’re regularly taking out the garbage but when you do take it outside, don’t leave it too close to your building. American cockroaches will often smell the garbage and if it’s too close to an entrance, they’re more likely to wander inside.
How to Pest Proof Your Office For Rodents
Rodents are another common house & business pest that most people aren’t too happy to see by their feet or across the room.
We provide rodent exclusions for a reason, and it’s because while they’re not very smart, rats and mice can be tricky to keep out.
Some of the most common ways rodents get into office buildings are through electrical wiring, faulty pipes, gas lines, and cracks in your foundation or around windows.
Once again, cleaning can make a huge difference when it comes to keeping rodents out. Some other ways are to keep bird feeders far away from your building, keep trash bins at a distance, seal off starchy foods or spread around repellents like peppermint leaves.
If you’re seeing evidence of rodents like gnaw marks, grease stains, or pellets, repelling methods aren’t going to be as beneficial. You’ll want to set traps while making exclusion efforts to properly get rid of the rodents and prevent them from coming back.
If you’re nervous about confronting a rodent yourself, call a pest control company in Port St. Lucie that can do professional rodent control.
Commercial Pest Control Near Me
Trying to keep pests out in the place you work can be difficult. You may find yourself worrying more and having trouble focusing on your jobs because you’re trying to keep up with your pest control efforts.
Pest control for your office in Port St. Lucie shouldn’t be on you and that’s why local pest control companies like Native Pest Management exist. Bringing top rated commercial pest control to Port St. Lucie, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Tallahassee, we can help pest proof your office so you can relax and focus on your job.
We offer quarterly pest control plans that target ants, cockroaches, spiders, silverfish, millipedes, pantry pests and earwigs where our goal is effective and preventative pest control.
For rodents, we offer complimentary inspections, trapping and exclusion, and rodent bait box services so your building can be rodent free.
Our Other Commercial Pests Services in Port St. Lucie:
- Termites
- Mosquitoes
- Lawn pests
- Fleas
- Ticks
- Bed bugs
If your business isn’t an office but you still want commercial pest control, we service all kinds of Florida businesses including:
- Hotels and motels
- Restaurants
- Medical facilities
- Showrooms
- Warehouses
Are you worried about pests infesting your office in Port St. Lucie? Give those worries to us and we’ll get rid of anything crawling or flying so you have your peace of mind back.
You shouldn’t have to take on pest control as a volunteer part time job with your full time job. Call Native Pest Management today so we can make your office pest free!