Serious question: as someone who really, really hates bugs, are there any lizards I can just let roam my apartment? I feel like it’d be really chill to have a big scaly friend who could snack on the occasional spider or fly in my apt between meals.
I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but the real trick to managing pests in your home, is to allow the right predator pests to exist. The best ones are spiders and centipedes. Centipedes are especially the best because they won’t ever hurt you, they mostly stay out of sight, and they don’t leave webs hanging around. But when you do see one you will probably freak the fuck out. You just have to remember that they eat earwigs and mites and such and try not to kill them. Spiders are also great to keep around, but there should be a big asterisk about how I live in Illinois and most spiders are harmless here.
The real trick to managing pests in your home is to use caulking to seal the entry points between the interior and the walls, and ideally also between the walls and the exterior.
Lol you can’t lose your security deposit for improving your residence by painting and sealing it properly. Caulking is literally sold in bulk boxes for painters because it’s also how you make a paint job look professional.
That reduces entry points but you will never ever perfectly seal every nook and cranny. All it takes is one insect to get in to be able to replicate if tmthe stuff that draws insects in is present.
People regularly live in homes without.insect infestations despite leaving windows wide open without screens. They keep the house tidy so they aren’t feeding anything that gets in, they close the windows when it is dark out to avoid light drawing things in, and they make sure to get rid of waste. If there is nothing for scavaging bugs to eat there won’t be anything for the predators to eat and so on.
Yeah I know about the centipedes, I’ve had roommates that used some in the past.
The big issue is that I have really bad arachnophobia, so the bug I care the most about getting rid of is spiders. just seeing one causes me to freeze and start panicking. The spiders here are harmless, but try telling that to my dumb brain. It’s not even like I see them that frequently, but seeing just one ruins my week because I get paranoid that there are more I’m not seeing.
Serious question: as someone who really, really hates bugs, are there any lizards I can just let roam my apartment? I feel like it’d be really chill to have a big scaly friend who could snack on the occasional spider or fly in my apt between meals.
I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but the real trick to managing pests in your home, is to allow the right predator pests to exist. The best ones are spiders and centipedes. Centipedes are especially the best because they won’t ever hurt you, they mostly stay out of sight, and they don’t leave webs hanging around. But when you do see one you will probably freak the fuck out. You just have to remember that they eat earwigs and mites and such and try not to kill them. Spiders are also great to keep around, but there should be a big asterisk about how I live in Illinois and most spiders are harmless here.
The real trick to managing pests in your home is to use caulking to seal the entry points between the interior and the walls, and ideally also between the walls and the exterior.
hah, imagine owning a home
You don’t have to own a home to use caulking, you just need to own caulking and a caulking gun.
And not be attached to your security deposit.
Lol you can’t lose your security deposit for improving your residence by painting and sealing it properly. Caulking is literally sold in bulk boxes for painters because it’s also how you make a paint job look professional.
Yeah, all landlords are completely sane and never nefarious at all. Complete mistake on my part, I apologize.
Well maybe you live in a hellscape dystopia, but in most places landlords are beholden to laws and are not just each individually Judge Dredd.
That reduces entry points but you will never ever perfectly seal every nook and cranny. All it takes is one insect to get in to be able to replicate if tmthe stuff that draws insects in is present.
People regularly live in homes without.insect infestations despite leaving windows wide open without screens. They keep the house tidy so they aren’t feeding anything that gets in, they close the windows when it is dark out to avoid light drawing things in, and they make sure to get rid of waste. If there is nothing for scavaging bugs to eat there won’t be anything for the predators to eat and so on.
Yeah I know about the centipedes, I’ve had roommates that used some in the past.
The big issue is that I have really bad arachnophobia, so the bug I care the most about getting rid of is spiders. just seeing one causes me to freeze and start panicking. The spiders here are harmless, but try telling that to my dumb brain. It’s not even like I see them that frequently, but seeing just one ruins my week because I get paranoid that there are more I’m not seeing.
I saw one guy on youtube that has a monitor lizard. ¯_(ツ)_/¯