Do it yourself pest control
 

Just moved in a couple weeks ago and am looking over pest control estimates. I was wondering if anyone does their own spraying around and inside the house. Thanks in advance for any info.

I do not see why you should not do it yourself. You can ask your neighbors how their services do the job, use the internet to figure out what to do and then do it. You can always change to a service if you think it is too much work latter on. I would say the same for grass cutting etc. Try and do the tasks you can do until you can no longer do them.

I do my own. Get yourself a decent pressure pump sprayer and Ortho Home Defense. Home Defense has a built-in sprayer but it will cripple your hands in no time. When I was in the Florida Panhandle, I had to spray the outside perimeter every two months. I also sprayed inside under the sinks where the pipes come in. I had tried 3 different services but was always calling them back for re-treatments. After I started doing it myself, no more problems plus it saved me about $300 per year.

Here in TV, bugs aren't nearly as bad. I do the perimeter about once every 6 months. Periodically, we get tiny ants in the kitchen area and bathrooms. I just spot spray them with ant killer.

now about
 

termites....what would you do then? I mean if you do pest control yourself would that void any guarantees against termites? I think I read it was covered the first year...right?

My husband uses "spectracide" for termites and carpenter ants from Walmart.

I use Ortho Home Defence around the outside and in the garage. One and a half years no inside problems yet. I do not see the need to do around the pipes as they are coming through the concrete and are well sealed.

I've done my own for 3 years now, using the Ortho product above.
Hadn't had any kind of problem at all. It's inexpensive, takes little time, and I trust my work a lot more than the services.

When we move in 8 months ago we had lots of ants in the house. I spayed along all the baseboards and they disappeared and haven't seen them since.