What Can You Do With Pests Inside Your Duct Work

The colder seasons are finally through, and we all know what that means – the pests are back in town. From cockroaches and spiders to oversized rats and rodents, the catalog of potential threats to your home and office space is virtually endless, so it’s best to be prepared than sorry.

You can easily squat a roach or two if they’re gathering in your toilet; you can (relatively) easily spray a spider that’s made a nest on your ceiling. However, the scenario is a bit more complicated if a mouse finds its way into your ductwork.

Today we’ll be discussing a handful of options at your disposal when this happens, and of course, present a course of action that needs to be taken. Without any further ado, let’s dig in:

Don’t panic

Even though this is probably obvious to most, it’s imperative that you don’t panic when you hear a squeaky sound in your ductwork. Both insects and rodents are easy to scare, and that’s the last thing you want to do if you want to retain your upper hand over them.

As long as you know where the pests are, you’ll be able to deal with them. A scared pest will instinctively bounce in the opposite direction of your panicked noise, but they in most cases won’t actually leave.

Rats, in particular, are cunning to the extent where they will mask their presence until they start hearing normal chatter; cockroaches are more comfortable with darkness, so they’re more likely to run away if the lights of the room are on (or if you point a flashlight down the ductwork). Just remain calm and prepare your strategy.

Hire an exterminator

The most efficient way to get rid of any pests in your ductwork is to hire a professional exterminator to do the job. Veteran pest control agents are capable of making a quick judgment in terms of what you’re dealing with and how to get rid of the pests for good.

Normally, there are quite a few people who think that this is not the best way to do it, and there are a handful of pretty solid arguments heading their way – the exterminators need a while to gear up and come to your location, they’re strangers who will enter your house, and finally, they can be quite pricey.

However, these are people who are handling pests on a daily basis, who will unequivocally address the issue rapidly and with surgical precision. Given the vast array of things that can go wrong if you try to do it yourself without the know-how, this is the sure-fire way to kick the intruders from your ductwork.

Determine what type of pest has invaded your ductwork

If you’re opting for the DIY approach, the first and most important thing you should do is quickly (and as quietly as possible) determine what insect or animal resides in your ductwork. Multiple types of pesticides exist, and you will ultimately need a batch to eradicate the threat, be it furry or otherwise.

Now, the main problem is that most, if not all pests are generally scared, or at least remarkably responsive to lights, and that’s precisely what you will need to visually confirm the exact type of pest.

Using the flashlight is generally what most people would instinctively do, but it’s definitely not the best course of action for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, if you’re dealing with a rabid rodent, it may become aggressive and attack you if it’s close enough to the entry point of the ductwork.

Secondly, if there’s a handful of roaches, they may skitter away faster than you would be able to identify what sort of insect they are, especially if they’re considerably far away.

Ideally, you should resort to sound cues, but sadly not all pests are easy to give themselves away sonically. Mice and rats are quiet when they’re moving on floor tiles, but they’re fairly loud when they’re moving on sheet metal. Roaches and larger multi-legged insects aren’t terribly loud, but they’re easy to spot.

If you can’t determine the type of pest through sound cues, make sure that the ductwork’s hatch is closed and use a flashlight with the least number of lumens.

Use the appropriate pesticide

Now that you know the type of pest that is inhabiting your ductwork, it’s time to lure them closer to the hatch and essentially poison them. Even though this may not seem overly humane, people who’ve tried waiting for the storm to pass have only made the problem worse – pests breed rapidly.

There are a couple of ways you can resolve this issue – contact pesticides, ingested pesticides, and gas-type pesticides. Each of these types has its own set of benefits and drawbacks, so let’s have a quick look:

Contact pesticides

Pests absorb them by walking over them. They’re generally slower than other forms of poisons, and they’re the least effective way of clearing rodents. Your options as far as positioning the poison are limited to the hatch’s proximity, which even further reduces its effectiveness.

Chucking the contact poison through the hatch may be a viable option, although most pests would run away as you do. Fortunately, there’s barely anything edible inside the ductwork that pests could use as sustenance, so they’ll inevitably inspect the poison at some point.

Ingested pesticides  

Pests consume the poison by eating it. The main disadvantage of this pesticide is expensiveness, as only high-quality batches boast pest-luring qualities.

Essentially, if the pest isn’t attracted enough to eat the poison, it’s virtually useless. Even still, they’re considered more effective than contact pesticides when used in dark, narrow spaces such as ductwork.

Most ingested pesticides can be mixed with actual food, which is an excellent way of attracting pests that would otherwise ignore it.

Inhaled pesticides

Otherwise referred to as gas-type pesticides. They’re generally expensive and not recommended for areas where people live or work, as most are at least minorly hazardous to health. Better-quality gas pesticides are harmless but they leave a nasty odor behind.

This is arguably the most effective type of pesticide that can quickly eliminate even the largest nests of insects and rodents alongside any harmful herbs and fungi as collateral. However, most professionals argue that they should only be used as the last resort. We hope that this guide was useful to you and that you’ve learned something new on how to deal with pests inside your duct work. Stay safe and have a good one, guys!

Guest Contributor: Sue Harper