Bugs, vermin, cockroaches, mosquitos, ants, mice, moths, maggots etc. How to deal with them.
Living in Valencia 5+ years and longer than that in other warm countries, I have had -or heard of- my share of bug/vermin problems.
If you don't like reading long posts or guides, skip this one! I did a bunch of research online, so you don't have to. I quote some professional exterminators.
I'm not a dirty person that leaves food lying around and I am not talking shit about Valencia either. In my experience, almost any city anywhere, with 300 days of sun a year and quite some humidity has the same issues. It is a common problem, which is why on many street corners of Valencia you will see flyers of professional exterminators, which may be a good option if you have a real infestation or don't want to deal with the issue yourself.
I will very gladly deal with the bugs for all the great things Valencia offers. Love it here. :)
I would certainly be interested in hearing about your experiences, solutions and additions.
If you have pets, of any sort, you are at increased risk. Essentially leaving out constant food source, in bird seed or kibble etc., or at least some remains in the food bowls, is extremely attractive to bugs.
Ants.
They seem to start a spring offensive most years, there is ant powder/poison at any household corner store, effective and cheap. Be very careful using that stuff -or anything poisonous- around pets, kids or in kitchen. We got them twice for some few weeks on our fourth floor, they will come up through any hole, baseboard gap, through or up brickwork, they are like a little army. Fortunately they seem to retreat by themselves eventually, but do take action as soon as you see them or better, before!
This will be my mantra for this entire post: prevention is always better. I have 2 or 3 times a year of when I do certain things around the house to prevent issues with bugs. And I am a little careful with food stuff and garbage, daily.
Drain flies.
Delta-winged, fuzzy, short but thick and slow small flies. Read their wiki, insanely durable critters, they will laugh off boiling water and many other methods. I only ever had lots of these in an old place with terrible drains, a place which I used briefly in the Netherlands. I do see them around in VLC, in public toilets etc. sometimes. They fly slow and are easy to kill, however, it is hard indeed to eradicate the source.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychodidae
For any other flying insects, it is always a great idea to have a few of those fly strip (glue) traps hanging in likely places. Sure, they don't look lovely but can be fairly out of sight, are cheap as chips at any household corner store and they work passively 24/7, anything getting stuck to them won't bother you anymore, nor breed. I have had a "Bug-A-Salt" gun, it works and is pretty fun. Those electrified rackets are cheap and effective as well.
If you will ever have new windows installed, absolutely make sure they have a "mosquitera" = fly screen, the additional cost is small.
Moths.
These will fly or come in from the outside, 100%.
The pantry moth seems way more common in Valencia than than cloth/wool moths, for the latter lavender, essential oils, peppermint oil and eucalyptus oil are said to repel these moths, put on or near your wool and silk clothes.
For the Pantry moth, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianmeal_moth, the sticky cardboard traps with pheromones are way cheaper at household corner stores than most supermarkets and should be replaced every 1 to 4 months as a passive way to make sure few -or ideally zero- of them breed once they find their way into your home.
You can also pantry moths from eggs in food you buy from supermarket, this is not even rare at all. If you ever see tiny, thin maggots crawling along a wall or ceiling, or you spot very thin spider-silk like threads in stored food, you know you have these moths and need to check all your food and likely throw out plenty.
Pantry moths will nest and breed on almost any food, including spices. Get "Weck" airtight jars from Ikea or anywhere. Never, ever, leave flour like products or sugar or any food stuff just in its paper packaging.
They will absolutely get in and infest it! You may have to throw out a lot of food.. Buy the jars. Your food will stay fresher too and you can see how much you have left too, better in every way. Even plastic packaging, be careful once open. At very least roll up it 3x with three creases and clamp securely and put in cabinet. Better still, transfer these foods to an airtight container the second you first open them as well.
If you have them, you must absolutely find and remove the source of the infestation. If not you can spend the rest of your life squashing twenty a day between your hands and more will continue to appear. Once, in Berlin, I had checked all my food and killed so many, I could not figure out where the hell they were still coming from, for weeks. Turned out that had bred inside my vacuum cleaner! Replace your bag and filters often, and before you put new ones in, spray the plastic parts on the inside of your machine with cleaning alcohol and clean it.
Bed bugs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bug Only time I experienced this was 2 nights in Cambodia in a hippie hostel, horrific. The itchiness and seeing them bloated on your own blood, nightmare. I got the hell out of there the second I figured it out. Be extremely careful bringing in any stuff you find on street, especially mattresses, couches and other upholstered items. If you must take these items home, at very least dump them on balcony or other place in burning sun for a week and spray plenty of cleaning alcohol on them before you bring them in.
Mice and other rodents.
Same advice as pantry moths in terms of food. Except mice can easily chew through almost any still sealed plastic packaging! Crisps, bread etc. are a real favourites but they will eat almost anything, especially if it easy to get to.
Glue traps / classic spring loaded traps are pretty messy, grisly and cruel. Catch and release traps work rather well, although online sources say you need to release them at least 3 km from your place for them to not find their way back. We have put them out about 1km from our place into a big park which is very different to our street and neighbourhood. I don't think they returned.
Mosquitos.
Around dusk and at night they can be relentless, especially your lower leg area may itch like crazy. The VLC mozzies seem to be smaller and harder to see than in most places i've been and I also don't get big raised bites like in some other countries, but you still hear them buzzing around your ears at night.
The plug-in repellents work quite well, but using two really helps my gf. The sprays you put on your body are also really not bad. Anything with chemicals that repels creatures, of course likely not the healthiest.
I learned few things in South East Asia: mozzies have evolved to sit on dark fabrics or corners. If you have something that creates a big gust of wind and (stiff big piece of cardboard?) and target those areas and shake shakes fabrics or curtains for a minute or two, every corner, gap or likely hiding place. They are then likely to fly up and you can spot them and kill them. It really helps to have one or two spotlight type lamp shining up at ceiling and along walls, the shadows will help you a lot to perceive the mosquitos. The balled up t-shirt way of killing them, thrown at ceiling etc. has worked well for me.
If you are like my gf, a person that mosquitos love to bite, a big square mosquito net around your bed for at least 4 months a year is the way to go. Sleep is extremely important. I would really hang the net from the flat, white elastic band you can get at any sewing shop, otherwise you are likely to accidentally rip the net eventually.
Maggots or other larva in (organic) trash bin.
In hot months you simply need to have a smaller bin and bring out the bag often. You can even have a very small and fairly tight lid bin for anything organic and put it in the fridge, it really works and it won't smell and will ensure you have 0 issues with bugs, we use this 3 Liter Ikea one, works fine.
They have that line of bins in four sizes, they are called HÅLLBAR. I like them because: cheap, easy to clean, pretty durable and simple.
If you do have bugs in your bin bring out the bag at once. Spraying 1 Part vinegar, 3 Parts water on maggots will kill them fast, so I use that to clean bin thoroughly. Cleaning alcohol is also great. Of course can also spray a little of either preventatively into your bin during warm months!
Salt or diatomaceous earth, chuck it on maggots and it kills them instantly because they really need moisture and anything that dehydrates them fast is lethal.
Cockroaches.
Any supermarket here has the syringes with the gel-like poison, this stuff kills roaches plus they bring it back to their nests. Every spring, put some of that in in at least twenty places where they would be most likely to hide, back/under fridge etc. We have never had an infestation in our place, thank the stars!
But two roaches flew in, in those five years, through open windows on our fourth floor apartment on summer nights, they fly well. Take care of them at once,.. because get one single roach carrying eggs,.. and it is over. In other apartments I stayed at, 1 or 2 came up through the drain pipes, dying, almost sure these roaches came from neighbours, after the neighbours had poisoned them.
https://old.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/1bsino6/lpt_pay_7_to_exterminate_large_cockroach/ ->
Boric acid (which is not Borax) is veeeery good as well. Is called ácido bórico and sometimes also borato de hidrógeno, ácido borácico, ácido ortobórico y ácido trioxobórico in Spanish. These people might sell it:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/jpu1T6r6ZTJChysSA
Commercial pest control tech of 10 yrs writes online: "Go to a pest control supply stores and get what's called a ‘puffer' (about 15 dollars). Fill the puffer 3/4's full with boric acid and put a couple of marbles or anything else like rocks in the puffer to agitate the dust and allows it to disperse lightly out of the stem. Hold the puffer upright so you're not blasting out clumps of dust. The key to this type of application is dispensing the dust in a fine powder… Lightly. Think of it this way; if you're walking along and approach a deep pile of snow, are you going to walk through it or walk around? Be very thorough and work from top to bottom in each room concentrating on all cracks and crevasses you find, and trust me, you'll find a lot."
"Key areas are heat sources(refrigerator, dishwasher, etc.). Also, moisture is conducive to harbourage (under sinks around plumbing pipes). In an average kitchen, for example, you can expect to spend a loot of time to thoroughly treat. You're gonna be on your hands and knees and reaching deep in cabinet areas. Suffice to say it's tedious work. Don't waste your money on aerosol dispersants (bombs). All the foggers do is drive roaches into hiding. Very few will be affected. Boric acid is used almost exclusively by some exterminators because roaches will never develop immunity to it."
Online, most people say 50/50 sugar and baking soda usually works, fast, but Diatomaceous earth and boric acid likely better, especially for large infestations. All these options work only slightly slower than direct spraying Raid on roaches but are better because the roaches take these poisons back to their nest and almost certainly infect and kill other roaches/their offspring! So ideally a mix of Diatomaceous earth / baking soda / borax / sugar mix?. Perhaps powdered sugar...?
The key with the baking soda/sugar or other mixes is that you need to have it in lots of places. Use old milk jug lids, bottle caps, things of that nature to put the powder in where it is shallow enough they can easily climb into it- and really put them everywhere. Under the fridge, under the sink, on the floor of the pantry…it doesn’t take much to bait your little milk lid stations, so just make sure to spread a wiiiiide net with lots of stations- even in the bathrooms. The refrigerator is always a main breeding area due to compressor heat and condensation, behind, under etc
Roaches really adore kitchens and bathrooms (because they crave moisture), so if you use any bait or gel, you really want to focus on those areas and lots of small beads in many places, like a small pea size, but lots of them about 25 cm apart, can also put on a small piece of cardboard and slide under or behind fridge! On top or inside of cabinets could be really important, but I have no idea how to toxic this poisin is for humans, I still need to look into this.
Caulking cracks and crevices may or may not be beneficial for control as many will be inaccessible (and our windows open,..) Still, especially holes that lead to renters below us,... cats, cat food, and if we ever get gross renter again.
https://old.reddit.com/r/GermanRoaches/comments/1fd8aio/how_to_kill_german_roaches/
"Alpine WSG is the best professional spray on the market for roaches and contains 'dinotefuran', which has been granted Reduced Risk Status by the EPA for use in both public health and food handling establishment, diypestcontrol.com sells it. It is undetectable by insects, transfers from one insect to another, does not hinder bait acceptance." No idea if this is easily available in EU? But anything similar, great.
Be extremely careful of bringing any items from the trash/street or from a flea market into your home, especially in warm months = great way to import eggs and an instant roach infestation.