As students, teachers, and administrators in schools across Alabama and the nation gear up for another school year, pests are gearing up for another 9 months of constant food, shelter, water, and transmission sources found in and around Auburn & Opelika schools.
As we have learned with the coronavirus pandemic, if health problems that are bent on transmission to the masses are not contained, they will multiply. Pests are no different.
So, here are some practical steps that administrators, teachers, and parents in Auburn & Opelika can take in order to prevent a pest infestation in your school:
Limit Pest Entry Points
If pests are not able to come into your school building, then your school’s pest problem will be nonexistent. Though this is realistically impossible, the principle stands that if pests have fewer points of entry, then your school will have fewer pests.
Restrict Where Food Is Eaten
Pests like cockroaches, flies, and mice are always looking for a good source of food. So, if your school’s students and teachers are bringing out their food and drinks in the hallways, classrooms, cafeteria, offices, bathrooms, and auditorium, then the school will be practically inviting these pests to make their homes anywhere within the school walls.
Prevent Water Stagnation
Not only are pests looking for a steady source of food in your school building, but they are also looking for a hospitable environment in which to live and breed.
Standing water provides the ideal breeding ground for several pests. So, eliminating standing water in, on, and around your building is essential to controlling harmful
insects like mosquitoes at your school.
Water can also deteriorate the integrity of your building’s construction in two ways.
First it shortens the lifespan of the materials that make up your building.
Secondly, because water is erosive it deteriorates the surfaces of materials it comes in contact with. This deterioration gives pests like termites easier access to wooden materials making up your building.
A school termite infestation can be extremely costly financially and, depending on its severity and how long extermination takes, it can impede regular school function.
Educate Students How They Can Help
No pest control strategy for schools is going to be effective unless you are able to get significant buy-in from students as to how they can help protect the school and themselves from harmful pests.
Educating students on pest control methods necessarily entails educating teachers on these methods and equipping them with simple, reproducible methods of teaching pest control to students.
Another way that schools can educate their students on good pest control practices is posting infographics throughout the hallways that offer easy pest control tips.
Check out some shareable pest control infographics here!
Hire an Auburn/Opelika Pest Control Company
Sometimes a school can take as many preventative measures for pest control as possible and still end up with a problematic pest infestation.
When this happens, calling a qualified Auburn/Opelika pest control company will be the most sure way to get rid of the infestation.
If you are a school administrator, maintenance manager, or janitorial supervisor serving an Auburn or Opelika school system in need of pest control services, contact S&S Termite and Pest Control today!
