Our home is not only a comfortable space for us, but it is also an extension of our personalities, likes and dislikes. While our living room has a bohemian touch to it, my son has pictures of his favourite Avengers characters put up on the walls of his room.

We spent a lot of time and effort on the aesthetics of our home hygiene, but a recent cockroach infestation made us realize the importance of another crucial aspect that we often ignored owing to busy work schedules. This aspect was maintaining hygiene at home on an everyday basis.

Home hygiene is crucial to prevent the spread of germs, infections, illnesses and diseases, inspite of vaccines and antibiotics. This term ‘hygiene’, when applied to homes refers to the various activities and procedures which need to be carried out to prevent or minimize the spread of disease at home.

Home hygiene and pest control are two activities that cannot be practiced independent of each other. They have to go hand in hand to achieve an effective outcome.

Whenever one thinks of the word ‘hygiene’, the first thought that crosses one’s mind is cleanliness. Practicing good home hygiene means maintaining a clean environment which would translate into effective pest control. Your home is a place where you do not want any pests lurking around.

If you want to keep your house pest free then one of the most important things to pay attention to would be food. Most of the pests, like humans, need food and shelter to survive. Any source of food which is easily accessible is like an open invitation to pests. Even the slightest laxity in cleanliness and home hygiene can have your house milling with unpleasant pesky creature like mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches and rodents.

 Here are some interesting facts regarding home hygiene that you probably were not aware of:

1. Food Poisoning

If food has been lying around and there are cockroaches in your house, it is best to not risk eating that food. You wouldn’t know whether a cockroach has paid a visit to it because one basically can’t taste, smell or see the bacteria and viruses that can cause food poisoning. Even a small amount is enough to cause serious illness. Cockroaches are known to contaminate food and cause food poisoning. While cockroaches thrive in areas with poor sanitation, they are also found to invade the cleanest of houses. This is because cockroaches come into your home on food, packages, boxes, used furniture, appliances and can even come from adjacent buildings. Pest control for cockroaches becomes essential if you feel your house has them. Do it yourself pest control products like an anti-roach gel is a great way to kill cockroaches in home effectively.

2. Sponge

Your kitchen sponge can be the house to thousands of bacteria per square inch including E.coli and salmonella.  The moisture laden crevices act as a trap for all types of germs. Ensure they are replaced often. Also while using them, after each use, wash and dry them thoroughly.

3. Carpets

Carpets are like a large repository of dust in the house. They also contain hair and skin cells, food debris and insects in them. A house without carpets is considered to have 1/10th of the dust than in a house with wall to wall carpeting.

4. Kitchen Sink

While most people think that the toilet is the most contaminated part of the house, the fact is that the kitchen sink probably contains 100,000 times more germs than a bathroom or toilet. A sink full of dirty dishes is like an open buffet for cockroaches. Stagnant water in the sink can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Keeping your sink clean and washing dishes before retiring every night can help keep these pests away. Pest control for cockroaches can be done by using the HIT anti-roach gel below your kitchen sink. This will kill cockroaches nest and prevent an infestation from occurring.

5. Bedroom Feast

The bedroom can also act as a breeding ground for dust mites, which actually survive by feeding off dead skin. Did you know an average person sheds about 10 g of dead skin in a week?

6. Dirty Laundry

Dirty clothes including towels and linen can be a hotbed of germs. Washing heavily soiled linen at a high temperature reduces the risk of infection to a huge extent. Also, ensure that you wash your hands thoroughly after handling dirty laundry.

7. Chopping boards

The average chopping board in a kitchen has around 200% more fecal matter on it, in comparison to a toilet seat. Hygiene experts advise you to have separate chopping boards for meat, fish and vegetables. They must be cleaned thoroughly after every use as even small fragments or traces of food left on it could attract pests like cockroaches, rats etc.

8. Toilet Care

The greatest areas of infection in the bathroom comes from the frequently touched surfaces like the toilet flush handle, toilet seat, taps, faucet and door knobs. Also studies have shown that a significant quantity of microbes float around the bathroom for a period of two hours after each flush. Thus, putting down the toilet lid after each flush would be a good home hygiene habit to practice.

Personal use items like toothbrushes and nailbrushes can also become contaminated with germs as well as creepy insects like cockroaches. Storing these items in areas where germs can’t affect them is essential and to kill cockroaches, you can do pest control on your own with products like HIT anti-roach gel.

Since pests typically gravitate towards food, one may be tempted to clean only the areas where food is involved, like the kitchen and dining areas of the house. One may conveniently forego intensively cleaning areas like the toilets and bedrooms. However, one must remember that pests don’t necessarily choose the area which they will infest. They are attracted to any area where their needs will be met, that is food and a place where they can breed safely, therefore making pest control a challenging process.

This means that each and every room in your house can be at risk to any kind of pest activity. Thus an effective method of pest control is necessary. Make sure that each and every room in your house is as clean as possible.

Here is a short checklist of some hygiene tips that you can follow for effective pest control.

In the kitchen

Practicing good kitchen hygiene is essential to keep away pests from the house. Some areas to pay extra attention would be.

• Kitchen sink and taps- Wash all the dishes, utensils, glasses, pots and pans after you have finished cooking and eating.
• Hand contact surfaces (kitchen, cupboard and fridge door handles, knobs and switches) to be cleaned.
• Food and waste bin- Take out your garbage every single day. Ensure all your garbage bins have covers and replace their liners on a daily basis.
• Fridge interiors- Pests like cockroaches can invade the interior of the refrigerator as well. Cleaning your fridge thoroughly by removing all the food items and wiping all the surfaces off every trace of food residue is the first step. Underneath the fridge is another place where you can find these roaches hiding. Pest control in lockdown can be challenging as professional pest control companies may not be easily available. You can do pest control on your own with products like the HIT anti-roach gel which can be used to kill cockroaches. It is simple to use, safe, odourless and an effective ‘home pest control solution’.
• Store all your food in air tight containers and ensure no food is left uncovered.
• Clean all surfaces like work top and cutting boards. Make sure that you get rid of all the crumbs, peels, debris, food scraps that may be lying around. Also, don’t leave out the hard to reach areas like corners, skirting and surfaces behind or under large kitchen appliances. Wash all the clean cloths and sponges after every use.
• Mopping the entire kitchen twice a day especially areas under the gas cylinder, dustbins etc. needs to be practiced for effective pest control. Using a cockroach killer gel under these areas will also kill cockroaches in case of an infestation.
• Use necessary cleaning agents like surface cleaners, disinfectants, fresheners and soap. This not only helps in keeping the surfaces clean but also helps get rid of bad and unpleasant odours.

In the bathroom

Pests like cockroaches love hiding in bathrooms. They not only survive, but can also thrive there as bathrooms are a great source of water. Their favourite spots are under the sink. They can also be found in drains, pipes, gaps in walls and around pipes. Another place where they can be found is around tubs and toilets, not for the water but for the soap residue, toilet paper lint and dead skin and hair that accumulate there.

Bathroom cabinets where they can snack on soap and even gaps between tiles are some favourite hiding spots. Sealing any cracks and crevices in the walls and gaps between the tiles will be helpful in pest control.

Once you identify all these areas, cleaning them regularly would definitely aid in pest control and kill cockroaches in the toilet. Cleaning all the damp corners where mould and mildew can grow is another way of ensuring a hygienic bathroom. In case you do observe an infestation, using chemical control measures would become imperative. The HIT anti roach gel is a cockroach nest killer making it an ideal ‘home pest control solution’. The gel has special ingredients which attract cockroaches who then go back to their nest and die. Other cockroaches who come in contact with the cockroaches who have consumed the anti-roach gel also die, resulting in the elimination of the entire nest.

In the living room and bedroom

It is important to keep the bedroom clean and hygienic to ensure you get a good night’s sleep. Ensure your bed linen is changed and washed at least once and if possible twice a week. Mattresses should be sun dried at least every month to keep away bed bugs and mites. Don’t let anyone eat food in the bedroom to avoid any unwanted spills or chances of any stray food crumbs falling on the floor. This can make an unwelcome guest want to make a visit to your bedroom.

In order to keep your living room clean, ensure that no magazines and newspapers are left out in the open as these act even as sources of food for cockroaches. Keep them neatly stacked in a cupboard or closed space. Also Using HIT anti-roach gel, a do it yourself pest control solution inside cupboards and door hinges will help kill cockroaches. Vacuuming the sofa and other furnishings will keep them free from debris and other small particles and fragments. Ensure all your carpets and rugs are deep cleaned often.

Dust clad walls and ceilings are breeding grounds for spiders. Make sure to clean the walls, corners, chandeliers and ceiling fans, if any, at least once a week, as a pest control measure.

Maintain your lawn/garden

A well mowed lawn with trimmed hedges is necessary to not only maintain the hygiene aspect of a house but also as a pest control measure. Often dried leaves and other debris can act as hiding spots for various pests. Cleaning the lawn regularly also includes getting rid of any stagnant water present in the yard which can act as a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insects.

Sealing any cracks, holes or crevices present along the exteriors of the house is another important part of pest control.

By doing all the above mentioned things, the chances of finding pests in your house come down drastically. If you and your surroundings are clean and free from dirt, grime, food debris and crumbs then pests will not find a suitable environment to dwell and thrive in. If you follow a schedule of home maintenance, improvement and chemical control measures like do it yourself pest control solutions, pests would find it impossible to make way into your house.